St. Geezy

I'm so incredibly behind on this post, I don't even know where to begin! Micah and I took a quick St. George trip with our little fam to get away. We basically just playing around on a small hike and at the sand dunes and ate out lots. Omm nom nom!

xoxo

Mandi 

Fun-Rut: Comedian Night Out

Tonight was Micah's turn for our anti-fun-rut date night. He switched things up on me a little and told me before-hand a few options of the date. I won't say them just yet because he said he wants to use one for a future date.

Side note: I use these planned & specific date nights as real new date nights and so I try to do a new thing with my hair or wear something new/something other than a hoodie & hat. Part of dating your husband is also really trying to be your best and look your best, don't you think? ;)  so wash that baby spit up out of your hair, find some clothes that don't look like grubby sweet potato-covered hands have been mauling you, & go wow your hubs!!

I tried a fun new braid on my hair. Nothing too fancy, just a French braid pulled around behind my head & gathered for a half up hairdo. :)

Black & white makes everything look better. ;)

We ended up going to Wise Guys stand up comedy show in West Valley, Utah (2194 W 3500 S). Micah had never been but I had so it was a half-new date night. 

After dropping Livi off with my in-laws we grabbed a quick & delish burger & shake at In-N-Out... Quickly becoming a slight addiction for me... We then went to Wise Guys. 

It's $22 a person and fair warning, they make you buy something when you're seated. They say it's a minimum requirement to buy something from them. So lame! But I was thirsty so we got a water & a cheesecake.. Because shakes just weren't enough! Our tab was less than $10 so it wasn't horrible, but just know that going into it you're going to drop around $50-$60 on the night. 

The first comedian was really funny.. No idea who he was but he had a very dry sense of humor.. A little depressing haha but still had Micah and I laughing way hard. 

The headliner was Pauly Shore whom I'd never heard of.. Apparently I'm a terrorist haha. He was in Encino Man..? I may have spelled that wrong. Anyway, he got up on stage and immediately started dropping the F word all over the place. Literally every two words he would say some variation of that word. After a few minutes waiting to see if he would suddenly change the style of comedy or have any redeeming aspect of his show, I couldn't take it anymore. I turned to Micah just as he turned to me and we both said to each other if we wanted to leave. We stood up, paid our ticket, and left. 

I love that Micah and I are so on the same page that we don't even have to talk about some things. Of course we have our miscommunications and frustrations like any other married couple, but on the major important things in life, we are completely in tune with each other. Love it. 

It totally sucked that the date ended early and on that note, but I'm genuinely happy that we left when we did and stood up for ourselves and didn't just sit there hating life but afraid to say anything to each other. Like I said, I've gone to Wise Guys a few times in the past and it's never been like that. Yes, the guy before Pauly Shore came on swore a few times, and the comedians I've seen there had sworn some too... but it wasn't anything as bombarding or obscene as Pauly's. Even his humor was just beyond my scope of acceptance, language aside. 

On our way home we snapped a picture in the car:

Another black and white.. Deal with it. 

I love that despite having a negative vibe from that last performer, we can still jump right back into our goofy & crazy selves. 

I lucked out with a good one. 

We chatted with my mother in law Dianne for a little while, watched Liv do some crazy weird chomps on her carseat & headed home. 

Love this silly babe. 

xoxo 

Mandi

Project: DIY candles made easy

Alright I've been sucking at doing projects for a while so I decided to undertake a fun different one. 

I've seen a bunch of how-to's on Pinterest of ways people make candles. I'm throwing a bridal shower this weekend and wanted to make a candle for a prize for the games. :)

This is the finished product!

My way is a bit of a cheat since I didn't actually make my candle wax. 

What you'll need:

Candle ($3 from Target)

Tea cup (0.75 cents from the D.I.)

Pot to boil water in

Empty soup can

Two straws

Wax paper

Knife 

Oven mitt

The process is actually pretty simple: boil water in the pot, put the can full of candle chunks in the water, & hold it steady til it liquifies. 

First things first, pull the sticker off the bottom of your candle and dig the metal tab that holds the wick out. You may have to poke around for a bit but try not to break it. 

Next place your candle on the wax paper and chop it into bits. I bought my candle from Target (why go anywhere else?!) and started into it before I realized I forgot to take a picture. 

I found a weird layer on my candle that didn't have a ton of the scent (lavendar of course). So I cut the outer layer off first & set it aside. Make your candle chunks relatively small, like a quarter ish size so they melt faster. I put in a few chunks of the waxy outer layer in with the scented candle chunks to give it a more waxy finished look. 

I took a soup can (after a delicious meal of spaghetti-o's... Yes I'm a child) and left the lid attached on a portion so I could have a handle. You can also take the top off and grab some pliers and hold the can that way but I was lazy. 

Set your stove to high and watch your wax melt. 

After about 5-10 minutes, depending on how much wax you have, you should see this:

Liquid gold!  ;)

I slid my pot off the burner & pulled the can out of the water, placing it on a hot pad. 

Carefully pour the wax into whatever mold you have chosen. In this case, a tea cup. 

Let the liquidy wax sit for a minute or two before you put the wick inside. 

Place the wick as close to the center as you can. I used two straws to help stabilize the wick. I have seen tutorials where they tied the wick to a pencil and let it dangle to dry but I didn't want to curve my wick. 

After a few minutes the wax is thick enough you can remove the straws. If you're afraid of it falling you can leave the straws there for the whole time. 

Sit back and watch your candle form!

It will take a few hours to fully dry and will no longer be translucent at all. 

And you're done! Go grab some matches and light this bad girl up!!

Side note:

The candle I bought was large enough to make two candles from.. Probably even three (I bought a 3x6 threshold candle for the record).  

On my first candle I used the wick from the candle.. I just set it in the liquidy wax and once that candle had hardened I cut the excess wick off. 

For my second I hot glued a penny to the wick and it worked like a champ!

Total this project only cost $4.50 (and 1 penny) and is soooo cute! Can't wait to give them away for the shower prizes!

xoxo

Mandi

Fun Rut - Themed Date

My turn for the anti fun-rut date... and I tricked Micah the same as he did for me too. I left him a clue though...

Fun huh?? ;)

I have been super busy working and prepping for our upcoming cruise, so I used Pinterest for a little inspiration for my date.

One fun idea that we have never done before is a themed date night. I saw the idea online and just loved the spontaneity of it!

The example I found used the movie "Serendipity" for their theme. I had never seen it but after hunting it down on YouTube & reading up a little I knew just what I was going to do. 

The movie shows the couple bumping into each other while Christmas shopping, then they again kinda bump into each other eating ice cream, and then go ice skating together. 

So I embellished the date a little and drove us over to the ever-glamorous Walmart. Micah (who still had no idea what we were doing) asked if we were playing "people of Walmart" hahaha!

I parked the car & played the movie's trailer for him on my iPhone & explained that we were going to be copying the basic idea of the movie.. With a little added fun. So at Walmart, our goal was to buy ingredients to make dinner. I gave him a little list of what to buy and told him to pretend to bump into each other while shopping, & to sneak a little gift for the other person. It could range from socks, to magazines, to gum, or really anything. Just as a fun little mini splurge item that was under $5. 

We walked into Walmart & split! I'm not gonna lie, that was such a fun random thing to be walking through Walmart & be on the hunt for Micah.  The cute thing about the movie theme date was the person on Pinterest made such a good point.. Saying in movies you see the couple meet and you know they are meant to be together, you know when the husband meets his wife. But in our lives, the real love stories, when we are single and out on dates or at a party, how strange is it to think back to the time you first laid eyes on your husband? Or the first time you two spoke? How intense was your conversation, how quickly was your sense of humor and good rapport established? 

The whole point to this New Year, New Dates "anti-fun-ruts" is to reconnect, to make sure we don't forget or lose those inside jokes, the closeness, & the love and friendship we knew before we became parents. 

So after a few minutes of running around Walmart, we "bumped" into each other and checked out. 

Since it was so cold outside, I wasn't worried about the food getting gross. Be sure if you do this date in the summer you don't buy food that's time & temp sensitive. 

From classy Walmart, we went over to grab some ice cream at Marble Creamery in the District -- highly recommend, by the way. It was pretty affordable (surprising being at the District) and dashed back to our car to drive to the ice skating rink. 

I found an ice skating rink that was free... It only cost $2 a person for the shoe rental in West Jordan (the specific address is: 1600 West Towne Center Drive). To be honest it was a little crappy but still really fun to skate around with Micah. We hadn't been ice skating since the first month or two we were dating.. About 5 years ago! Crazy how much time can pass.. So it was really fun to get to play around just the two of us. Micah is ridiculously good at just about every sport and ice skating is not an exception. He did an amazing cartwheel on the ice & landed it. Kinda legit. 

We unlaced our boots and climbed back in the car to head home for dinner. 

While the oven was heating up we did our gift exchange.. I got Micah the movie Serendipity! It just happened to be on the $5 bin at Walmart. Coincidence? I think not! And Micah got me a Nerf gun! He cheated and went above $5 but it was kinda necessary.. Our friends Maegan & Austin bought Micah a Nerf gun for Christmas and it is frequently used for wartime merriment... But now.. It's war!!!

For dinner we created some lovely Mexican dishes. These are raw tortillas that we cooked in the oven & added lettuce, tomatoes, chicken, cheese, & crunchy tortilla bits with some dressing....

In case you're wondering, these are amazing. 

Once dinner was cooking I popped the DVD into our xbox and watched movie magic! ;) 

And there you have it! A themed date night!

xoxo

Mandi

Life changes

Lots of changes.. some good, some not so good in the Russell household. 

First update:

I quit my job! I was working very briefly with Nebo, selling flashlights from my house. Totally random but I did really like the company. They were very professional, very enthusiastic, & the product was really good too. I just couldn't work the hours that they wanted. They were willing to be flexible and help me out, but truthfully I missed my lazy afternoons with Olive. I missed having totally unproductive days where all I did was feed & play with Livi.. Days where I didn't work off someone else's schedule... Other than my own little bird. ;)

Another semi update: 

Micah and I are still on the car hunt. :/ we sold my Mini Countryman in January and have been soooo back & forth on what we want.. That and we were on our cruise & just kinda put it off... But now I'd like my own car again haha. 

And for the saddest update:

As some of you may know I've been serving in my church with the youth (12-13 year old girls), in charge of teaching on Sundays and mutual activities on Tuesdays.. I was released today. 

My young women's president is moving to Singapore so they are switching a ton up... It was a small potential but truthfully I was shocked that I was released. I had only been in young women's for 6 months, just starting to really fall into the groove and have the girls genuinely open up with me. So my new calling is in the relief society, on the activities committee... And honestly I have really mixed feelings about the change. I'm beyond sad about leaving young women's... Have cried a stupid amount over it... And yet on the other hand I'm also excited to get to know the women in my church, make new friends & get to know my neighborhood more. 

I know that there are no coincidences in life, so I am just going into this whole heartedly, trying my best to stay positive & trust the Lord. 

Tonight Micah and I watched the walking dead & cuddled up with my little bird. I think she knew I needed some extra loves today. 

xoxo 

Mandi

Fun Rut - Ice Castles

This post is super late.. no judging!

So to start the year of rut kicking off, Micah took the first date (here's what rut I'm talking about). He kept it a secret and planned out the whole thing without telling me anything. Even kept me guessing on our way to the date! Little stinker.

Up Parley's Canyon we went to Park City, to eat on Main Street at Wasatch Brew Pub. It has a fun ambiance, definitely like a sports bar. We got the chips and salsa appetizer.. super yum by the way.

After dinner we headed up to Midway for the Ice Castles. It was $10 for each of us and totally worth it! We obviously went at night and got to enjoy the cool neon lights they had throughout the sculptures. I wore boots but not grippy enough... the ice was melting and made the ground super slick! I just about ate crap a few times and passed Liv off to Micah so if I went down I didn't take her with me.

It was so great to walk around the ice with my two favorite people and to check out the amazing art that water can do. Seriously impressive. It makes me think about the hotels that are sculpted out of complete ice that you can stay in and kinda freaks me out. Crazy cool.

Next month is my month to kick our ruts to the curb.  ;)

xoxo

mandi