Octo-Lacto, Lacto-Ovo, Ovo-Lacto

So in case this didn't get channeled down through facebook, I have officially begun my quest to be a vegetarian. Apparently this notice is so fascinating that everyone feels the need to comment on it and that completely baffles me.

It all started on Friday when I happened upon a talk show discussing the pros and cons of meat. I was supposed to be getting ready to go to job numero dos, but I couldn't move myself from the floor. In short, while I learned that protein is essential for muscle building and important for a fast metabolism, I realized (with help of the talk show) that it doesn't have to come from meat. The segment they did on tapeworms in meat might have also swayed my decision. It was pretty gross.

Anyway, it might be a faze. It might be for real. But for now at least, I'm testing the waters of octo-lacto (or ovo-lacto or lacto-ovo) vegetarianism. Basically, these people don't eat red meat, poultry, and fish. However, they do eat dairy and eggs. I figure it couldn't hurt to try it out. If I hate it and if I soon forget the image of 30 foot tape worms being pulled from a cow, then I'll resume with the meat eating.

For now, I can't lose anything by trying something new. So please, keep the criticism to yourselves until you've tried it.

New Haircut

Yes.

I chopped it off.

And I love it.

Still adjusting to the new look

Perseverance is the key

So I had the opportunity to interview at Delta yesterday. I couldn't resist the allure it had on me and went for it (can we say flight benefits?). The people I met were wonderful and though I felt like a complete tool by the time I went home (those pesky interview questions...I'll never know why they think having me sell them a stapler will tell them anything about my skills of persuasion), I got the job!

Can we say "yay"?

After accepting the job offer, I was told to mozy on down to a run-down brick building that quite possibly housed questionable activities and pee in a cup. We all know that clean urine can determine if you're fit for employment.

With the background check, the interview and the drug screening, yesterday was completely busy. Anyway, now that I have the job, I'm faced with a few questions:

1. Do I really want to drive all the way past the airport everyday?

2. And if so, can I trust myself (and my car) to be safe enough when the sunshine turns to snow?

3. Is that a risk I'm willing to take?

4. Does time away from Andy and the safety risks of the drive (not to mention all that gas money) outweigh the opportunities of going places and seeing the world?

All in all, I'm just horribly confused. I want us to travel so badly! But I can't quite get over this uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. Realistically, I don't even think we'd be able to use the awesome flight benefits. Andy is in school until June and after that....we're outta here!

So, for the few readers of our little blog, any opinions? Any insight would be so helpful.

P.S. Today I was offered a job as a crossing guard at an elementary school. How weird and random is that? It sounds like fun though, so I guess I do have other options.

Disney Continued

If you thought that was the last of my insignificant ramblings about our week-long vacation then you were sorely mistaken. But I promise I will try to condense my thoughts. Ha! We'll see if that actually pans out though.

The famous icon: Disney's giant golf ball

Epcot was probably our greatest adventure. There was so much to do and way too much to see. It was nice to visit 10 countries in 12 hours :) There were so many ideal places for pictures, but here are a few that we loved...

Our ode to China

France was next on our destination list of Epcot countries and I think we embodied the French perfectly as naive Americans.

I think we probably failed to capture the beauty that is France, but as ignorant young people who have spent too many hours watching movies with stereotyped french people, we did quite well..haha. Wearing the beret was fun. We also discovered we have a fondness for hats.

The girls indulged me with a picture on a scenic Italian bridge.

Now I know these next few pics aren't essentially "Disney" in essence, but this was what happened to us when we had to stand in line (which claimed to have a 20 min. waiting period) for an hour. Luckily for us, the building was air conditioned or we would have gone crazy. Unluckily for those around us, we still did go crazy.

It started out nicely enough...slightly silly with nothing but exaggerated smiles and bunny ears, but that didn't last long.

We were easily entertained at the 50 minute mark. We found ourselves, especially hilarious. In hindsight though...not so much--mostly just plain ridiculous.

At 60 minutes, we discovered we weren't really that funny and gave being serious a try. It turned out a little too severe for Disney World though.

By the time we got on the ride, we were tired of taking pictures, thus leading to our lack of photographic evidence of this "Viking ride." It was shame that these slightly crazy pictures were all we took with us from Epcot's Norway.

At Disney's Hollywood Studios, Andy got pictured with every one's favorite Star Wars villains.

Darth Maul is a frightening foe...

But everyone knows it's Darth Vader that is the quintessential Star Wars nemesis and Andy seems to agree by the smile on his face.

He also stepped into the role of Indian Jones and it made me swoon. It was then that I thought it was quite coincidental that Andy is Indy with an "a."

How dashing, right?

On August 22, we celebrated our 3rd anniversary and celebrated in style. We ate with Pooh (no, not that kind...you know, the other one). It was our first day and after nearly 12 hours of walking all over the Magic Kingdom and waiting in lines for half the day, I wish we could say that we looked stellar...but, we didn't.

As it turns out, humidity makes us pretty disgusting.

See, I told you it was this Pooh. I mean, I don't think they'd be that happy if it was the other kind..haha.

Disney World: Not for the faint of heart

Our most recent adventure took us to the hot, sticky, and mildly smelly state of Florida. After spending 8 days in nearly unbearable humidity, I have come to appreciate the "mild" summers of Utah and I have gained deep respect for native Floridians--I don't know how you do it! Besides the fact that we were drenched with sweat the minute we step foot outside of our freakin' awesome Port Orleans themed hotel, Disney World was...well, it was a learning experience.

My two little sisters came with us and the whole vacation was so much better with them there. There's something magical (Disney's not lying when they say it the most magical place on earth) about being there with kids. They were excited about everything and it was contagious! Our first mission in the wonderful world of Mickey Mouse was to navigate our way through the hordes of sticky children and cranky parents and buy Andy a Mickey Mouse hat with ears.

We failed...horribly.

But we made up for it with lots of pictures and character greetings.



Andy, as it turns out, has some unnatural fascination with Donald Duck. We hunted him down at every park and waited in line to get them pictured together. It was quite refreshing to discover that the famous duck does have different outfits.

We found him in "Africa" at the Animal Kingdom


Then, we spotted him again in "Mexico" at Epcot!


Due to my unnatural and probably unhealthy fear of mascots, this was the only was I was able to be in...yikes. I mean you never really know who's under there...creepy. Anywho, Frontier Donald was at the Magic Kingdom.

Andy and BFF (Aka Andy's dream come true)

We trekked all over the Magic Kingdom going on Splash Mountain (numerous times), Pirates of the Caribbean (Arrr!), and desperately trying to break into Cinderella's castle. After I accepted the fact that my feet would never be the same after this trip due to my need to be fashionable at all costs--after all, beauty is pain-- and the constant walking, the day we spent there was AMAZING.

Our second day at the happiest place on earth led us to the Animal Kingdom. I was particularly thrilled to see real lions, tigers and giraffes--Oh my! The Safari ride took up through various environments that were created for these animals. We also saw huge hippos, Nile crocodiles, rhinos, gazelles and a whole myriad of unusual and unfamiliar African animals I can neither spell nor pronounce.

Yeah, they were that weird.

We rode Expedition Everest about a bazillion times because we loved the adrenaline rush and Andy and Celeste were drenched on the Kali River Rapids ride (see below). I was the first to get soaked and they laughed, but fate stepped in to teach them a lesson. The raft turned right as we went down a timed waterfall, Andy and Celeste getting every last drop, leaving Olivia and myself, relatively dry.

It was my turn to laugh. I also took numerous pictures to remind myself how awesome it is to have fate on your side. Sweet, sweet revenge.

The day was overcast too, so they never dried off :)

Our third day was filled at Disney's Hollywood Studios. It was Andy's favorite. We got to see an Indiana Jones stunt show and a back lot tour of special effects, which I think, were the best things of the day. We also went on the Tower of Terror at least 5 times because, as we found out, every time is different from the last. It never drops the same way! There was a new roller coaster that went from 0-60mph in 2.68 seconds. It was intense.

And we went twice :)

Day 4 brought us to Typhoon Lagoon (a Disney waterpark that housed the world's largest wave pool) and Epcot. But before all that crazy fun happened, we surprised my sisters with a freakin' awesome, totally exclusive breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table. Getting reservations there is no small feat and involved Andy and I calling exactly 90 days before our trip at 4am.

We were barely able to get in. Ridiculous.

We ate in the top tower of the castle and it was one of the coolest experiences ever! (Note our surprised faces above). Of course, there is a chance that they may be slightly exaggerated. Anyway, the castle is as wonderful on the inside as it is on the outside and meeting all the Disney princesses was a fairy tale.Our Royal Invitation to prove the validity of our story. Olivia was actually name the Honorary Princess for the day and Jasmine, Bella, Aurora and Snow White saw our table first.

Andy wanted to make sure everyone knew this was not just a "girl thing." In fact, while Celeste and Olivia got sparkly blue fairy godmother wands, he got a sword.

Cinderella was a gracious hostess.


Sleeping Beauty, of course.


Snow White missing five of her seven dwarfs. She is photographed with Sticky and Sweaty


From the left: Olivia, Jasmine, Celeste (in case you were wondering who's who)

Hello, my name is...

Let me preface this by saying, we are so excited to start sharing our most precious parts of life with all of you. I hope this will provide a way to keep in touch with family and friends, as well as a way for everyone to get to know us better! So...with that in mind, I welcome you to the world of Andy and Alianna!

To start off, we met while Andy was serving a Spanish-speaking mission in Tacoma, WA. For three months he was subsequently transferred to the only english ward he served- Mine! That fall I started my schooling at BYU Provo and when he finished his mission, he went back home to Taylorsville, UT. We started to hang out and then dated, and the rest, as they say, is history. We were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple on August 22, 2006. Sometimes, I can't believe just how fast time goes by!

In October 2007, we got a brand new baby! His name is Toby and he has a striking resemblance of a Star Wars ewok. He is absolutely adorable and we have love having him in our home. His training is going well, as he is now able to come, sit and stay on command. We starting to work on the cool stuff now!

In April 2009, I officially graduated from BYU with a degree in Communications/Advertising. It was a long road, but it's good to be done. Right now, I'm trying to navigate my way through "real" life and find a job. We have a little less than year left in Utah--much to my excitement! Andy was accepted in the Marriott Business School (which is no small feat!) and has exactly 10 months left.

By next June we'll be moving on to bigger and better things. I'm so excited that I'm desperately trying to resist the urge to make one of those ridiculous long paper chains just to count down the days until we embark on a new part of life.

We are sifting through countless job and internship applications for Paramount, Sony Pictures, New Line Cinema, Dreamworks, and Warner Brothers--and it's exhausting! Andy is looking to do marketing with these companies and the outlook is good.

We have high hopes.