December 13, 2010

I LOVE FENG SHOOOO (in the words of Justin mimicking Kung Fu Panda)

This semester i took a History and Philosophy of Biology class at BYU... it was an interesting class to say the least, but looking back now, I think I enjoyed it... I'm sure I'll have fonder memories the farther in the past it gets! anyways! A big topic we covered was the differences between Science, and Pseudoscience. And to learn/proove our knowledge in this area our professors had us pick an iffy idea that people swear is science and then check it out to see if its a bunch of hooey or not. So my group chose feng shui! It was such a fun topic to study and I learned alot about it, but you guys probably don't care and/or want to be bored to death by me telling you ALL about an old Chinese custom... so instead I'll just say this... for the project I feng shui'd (feng shooeyed?) our bedroom and I think it looks a TON better!



BEFORE




AFTER
(Thanks to Kayla for Lending me the wall art!)


I wish I could show a virtual tour or something cause there are other things too that make it look good... and the light in that last picture isn't great but you get the idea!!

Oh, and if you are wondering my group decided that feng shui is definitely a pseudo science... for real!

November 14, 2010

Also..

I just posted 3 posts in one month... now make it 4!
That is a BIG deal!
That is all...

Happy Birthday to Justin! .

¡feliz cumpleaƱos! (spanish)
Boldog Szuletesnapot! (hungarian)
Happy Birthday! (english)

Justin recently turned the BIG 24!

This year is going to be an awesome year for Justin for a few reasons! First, he is graduating from BYU! Which is an amazing feat, seeing as how he has lived through both O-Chem's other crazy science classes! Second, he won't be 23 anymore... which for some reason he claims is the worst age ever (I think he just says that to scare me because I am going to be 23 in January). And third, he is one year away from getting cheaper car insurance!! Hurray!!

To celebrate we had parties all weekend long!

On Friday Jenae and her girls came over to watch the Heat game, and then our friends the Neff's and Kayla and Trent came over for some cheesecake and BANG!

Here are Justin & Rachel chilling on the Love Sac


And here is Ashlin who decided that everything tastes better with popcorn on it! Including cheesecake and water! :)


It was a fun night! Thanks to everyone for coming to help us celebrate!

That Sunday we went over to Brett and Jenae's to celebrate his birthday with them and Alyssa and her kids! Kate was so cute, she really wanted to have cake with Uncle Justin, so Alyssa made this amazing pumpkin cheesecake (by the way, cheesecake is Justin's favorite which is why we had so much of it over the weekend! haha)

Then we all celebrated by dancing to one of our favorite Youtube video's! We danced to this video last year on Justin's birthday, and of course we had to carry on the tradition! I didn't video our dancing but I thought I'd share the youtube video with everyone, it makes for a great DP (dance party)

November 13, 2010

Ode to Doc Holliday: my favorite outlaw relative!


On the way to Colorado Springs we were driving through this tiny town and I saw this sign for Doc Holliday's grave site... now to a normal person this would not have been a big deal, but I am distantly related to Doc Holliday, so of course we had to stop to check it out!

Doc Holliday was a famous gambler and gunfighter in the old American West! He was also a doctor, hence the "Doc" part. I have always been very proud of this relative even though we are very very distantly related... but hey, not everyone can say that they have a famous gambler and gunfighter of the American West in their family tree! :)

Here is me taking a picture next to his face on the sign!
Can you see the family resemblance?

Pikes Peak and Beyond!

So a couple months ago Justin and I took a road trip out to Colorado Springs to visit one of Justin's friends Kyle, and I am just now getting around to blogging about it! Colorado Springs is GORGEOUS! I would totally live there one day... it's a big city but it has a small town feeling, loved it!

While we were there we did a really hard hike called The Incline or as Kyle called it "natures stair-master". The trail is a mile straight up the mountain. A train or something used to go up the same path because there are just old wooden rail road railings all the way to the top! It was so hard, but definitely worth it for the view!

Here's are some pre-hike pictures...

Justin and Kyle


I took some pictures throughout the hike, and at the top, but they didn't really turn out... too bad!

The next day we helped Kyle propose to his girlfriend Keri Lyn. So we drove to the tope of Pike's Peak which is the highest peak in Colorado, or America, or something like that! haha

It was an amazing view from the top, and the park rangers had to check the temperature of our brakes on the way down to make sure they didn't give out on us... I guess it's a really steep drive and brakes are a common issue!

Oh ya I almost forgot, we set up a blanket with flowers on it for Kyle and Keri to have a picnic on and then he proposed to her, and she said YES! so happy!


Also at the top of Pike's Peak there was this funny mountain man statue that I thought was cool... so here's a picture!
I wanted Justin to pose like him, but he didn't feel good... so instead just look at this mountain man and pretend that Justin is posing next to him
... I'm sure it would have been a really funny picture!



October 29, 2010

Kid's Say the Darndest Things!

Justin and I are primary teachers in our ward and we LOVE it! Kids just say the darndest things sometimes! So I thought I'd take the time to write down some of the hilarious things we've heard in the past 6 months.

1. The primary kids sang a song in sacrament meeting for mothers day, and they sounded really good! Later in primary the primary president Sister Smith said "Wow! You guys did such a great job singing today! You sounded really good!" and this little kid whos probably 5 years old yelled out "That's cause I wasn't up there!" haha sad thing is it was probably true cause this particular kid likes to sing random words at the top of his lungs during songs which makes the other kids laugh but drives poor sister smith crazy!

2. Justin and I specifically teach the 8 9 and 10 year olds which is awesome cause we actually get to talk about spiritual things sometimes when they are calm enough! But one day in class justin was teaching and I was sitting in between the girls to keep them from talking too much. I thought this one girl had been paying attention the whole time but then she turned, looked straight at me, and exclaimed "I've never had a piece of pie! Isn't that weird?!" then she turned around and didn't say another word for the rest of the class... yes it was weird...

3. A couple months ago I was incharge of the lesson on David and Bethsheba. This was a hard lesson to teach cause for the previous three lessons we had taught the kids about how David was this awesome Stud of a guy! they loved him in David and Goliath, and now I had to explain to them that he messed up, BIG TIME!
So I'm reading the lesson manuel and it says "don't explain the fullness of David's sin" and I thought well how can I do that? So i decided to just wing it and let the chips fall where they may.
During class I start to explain that David sinned and the kids ask "What did he do?" So I tell them that there was this beautiful lady named Bathsheba and that David liked her alot. But then I told that both David and Bathsheba were married. And right after I said that this boy in the back yells out "Oh! so he Cheated!!! And after he said that all the other kids go "Oh, he cheated! Oh I see!" Justin and I looked at eachother and didn't know wether to laugh or be sad that all these kids understood the concept of cheating... I still don't know!

4. Last story! We were singing a song during singing time last week and the chorister said "we'll sing it without any help (in reference to posters she puts up with words on them) and if you can make it all the way through we won't have to redue it. But if you forget the words to any of the verses we'll have to sing it again with help." Of course all the kids are excited to prove their singing and memory skills, because using the words is just so "uncool"! So we start singing and in the end she makes us sing the second and third verses over again. One of the boys asked her why we had to sing them again and she said "Because you guys were struggling with these verses." the kid then yells back "We weren't struggling, Brother Martin was struggling!" haha he totally called Justin out! I laughed so hard!
Justin and I struggle through the songs sometimes, but we are working on it.

If you're looking for a good time in a couple Sundays we're having our primary program which will feature Justin basically singing a solo (a song with the one senior primary boy and all 3 of the male teachers). And me doing sign language while singing a song with my 5 activity day's girls... it's gonna be a seriously hilarious sacrament meeting!

Anyways, these were just a few of the funny things that happen in our primary! The kids are so fun, and we love working with them!

September 26, 2010

Wow! Where have we been all summer???

Wow! It has been a loooong time since i've posted! As you can probably see, since my last post was in June... but its just cause life has been busy and awesome! So I'm gonna try to give a little recap on our summer... I'll for sure leave some things out but that's just how it goes!
So, between school, work, and fun we had a pretty full summer! So i'm going to go through these 3 categories one by one!


School

I took the summer off of school so I have nothing to add to this category!
Justin on the other hand was very busy with classes at BYU, and with applying to medical schools. All I have to say is that people who apply to med school or any other type of post bachelor schooling are CRAZY!! It's such a long process, but we're almost done! (hopefully... fingers crossed!) Justin has done amazing through it all though! I am so proud of him and appreciate all that he is doing for our future!


Justin took the MCAT in May, then did the first round of applications, then he did secondary applications throughout June and July, and he's been busy with the inte
rview process since August. So far he has interviewed at 3 schools throughout Texas. He has two more interviews scheduled in Texas this next week, and another at the Un
iversity of Utah later in October. We are thrilled with how the
process is going so far and are hoping to get results back by February. It's a long wait, but I know it will be worth it in the end!

The picture on the right is Justin looking totally handsome for a interview he had in Lubbock, Texas.



Work

this summer Justin got promoted in his research lab from being an unpaid student to a paid researchee! He loves his job and finds the research they are doing fascinating!


I worked part time at both Outdoors Unlimited and at CLAS Ropes course. Working at the ropes course was a great experience and a TON of fun!
The best part was getting to take family and friends to the course to climb and canoe.We got to go canoeing with our Utah family, and it was so fun watching our nieces and nephew canoe down the Provo River and I wish I had pictures to post of them, they are so funny!
I was also able to bring my family to the course and put them on a couple high adventure activities. The pictures below are on a activity we call the Leap of Faith, where you have to climb up a tree pole and then jump off the top to try and grab a trapese. It's really scary, but Justin, all of my siblings, and even my mom made the leap of faith!

This is a picture of the pole and the family standing around it waiting in horror for their turn to climb! haha just kidding... kind of.

Well, I started this post too late, and I'm getting tired! So... I'll save the update on the rest of our summer for another post, hopefully i'll get to it soon!

June 13, 2010

Summer Bucket List



I am a huge fan of Bucket Lists! I've made a couple lists in my time, and it is so fun to make goals and get them checked off. So Justin and I have made a bucket list for this summer! We made the list in April, so some of these things we have already checked off the list...




1. Go to Moab to visit family and Arches!


Justin has a lot of family in Moab Utah, that combined with the fact that I've never been there and its an amazing place for outdoor adventures made going to Moab one of the top goals on our Bucket List!
We visited with Justin's sister Alyssa and her kids! It was so much fun. We went to Arches and hiked Delicate Arch which was an adventure in itself. The day we were there was sooo windy! We were almost blown away, but managed to make it to the Delicate Arch and back with out any major injuries!
We camped in Justin's Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's
backyard, because all the Moab campgrounds were totally full, which we learned after we accidentally set up camp on a site that was already reserved... that was fun! haha And we learned a new game called "Pooping Potatoes", if you're interested in how to play this great game, just ask us some time! Justin would be happy to show you!
I loved Moab, and I want to go back again, but maybe not this summer just cause it would be really hot. So maybe this fall! I want to bring mountain bikes this next trip and do Slickrock! We'll see if that happens!
Anyways for this particular bucket list we can check visiting Moab off the list.
Status: CHECK!


2. Visit Justin's family in California


Justin's family lives in California where his parents are mission presidents for the San Fernando spanish speaking mission. His brother Adam is with them, and his Sister Camie and her family also live out there.
After Justin finished taking the MCAT we got out of Utah and made a bee line for Cali! We loved visiting Justin's family! We went to an aquarium with his mom, sister, and our two nephews. And then we went to the Santa Monica beach pier!


Santa Monica Beach Pier

Justin and I ridding on the Ferris Wheel on the Pier

We loved the trip and hope to get back again soon!!
Status: CHECK


3. Hike Mt. Timpanogos.
For as long as I have been going to BYU I have yet to summit Timp. So this summer we will do just that! That is of course if Utah weather decides to get warmer... it snowed like 3 weeks ago, and its been in the 50's for the past few days! But I have hope that winter will eventually end! haha
Status: DEFINITELY HAPPENING!


4. Go horseback riding
I have a lot of family in Idaho and one of my cousins Melissa and her Husband Steve offered to take us Horseback riding sometime! So we have got to get up there for that!
Status: NOT PLANNED


5. Do some wake boarding and wake surfing at Lake Powell!
Going to Lake Powell is a Robison family tradition, and we are actually hoping to go twice this summer! Lake Powell is basically the best place ever! yep... pretty much!
Status: PLANNED


6. Run a 10K
I have never been a runner, and I still don't consider my self a runner... but I think I could do a 10k! so its on the bucket list. I don't have a race picked out yet, so I should probably get on that! or maybe I'll just run the 6 point whatever miles it is sometime and count that! haha
Status: NEEDING TO BE PLANNED


7. Justin wants to Golf everyday...
this is not a realistic goal but he would love to go golfing as often as he can! He signed up for 2 different golf classes for summer term, so he'll get to go 4 hours a day two times a week! Hopefully that will satisfy his new obsession! haha
Status: JUST DREAMING

8. Go Fishing
I really want to catch a fish this summer! I don't know how I'll get that done, but I have a few uncles and cousins who are into fishing so maybe I can talk one of them into helping out with this one!
Status: WE'll SEE...


Ok, so I think that I have forgotten a few but, this is the general gist of the list!

Anyways, I'll keep you all posted on how the bucket list is doing throughout the summer!


May 23, 2010

Ode to mothers... a couple weeks late!

Now that life has kind of slowed down a bit for us I thought I would take the time to do a late mothers day post! I have been blest in my life to have the best examples of amazing mothers and grandmothers! Anyone who knows my mother, mother-in-law, grandmothers, sister in-laws, and aunts would have to agree with me!

My mom came up to Provo for Women's conference a few weeks ago and I absolutely loved spending time with her! My mom is amazing! I thank the Lord every night for sending me to her! She is the kindest, most caring, and loving person I know! She is also my best friend, I will never be able to repay her for all she has done for me. I only hope to one day be half the woman she is. I honestly don't know who I would be with out her loving example and friendship! I love you mom!
While she was in Provo we went shopping, attended women's conference and made delicious chocolate covered strawberries!
this is my mom and I eating our chocolate covered strawberries!

I am now extremely blessed to also have Justin's mom as my mother! I absolutely love her and I am so grateful to her for the wonderful example that she is to me and all of her family! We get to go to California soon to visit Justin's parents and brother Adam, and that will be a lot of fun!
This is us at our wedding luncheon with Justin's parents

Here are just a few of the other amazing women in my life!

My Grandma McDaniel has always taken the time to show her love for us. She is constantly serving her family, and the Lord. She is such an amazing example, and I owe her so much gratitude and thanks for all that she has done for me in my life! I feel as if I still have so much to learn from my grandma McDaniel, good thing I get to have her with me for eternity! :)


My Grandma Robison is trully an amazing person! She is the such an amazing woman! She is constantly uplifting others through her amazing spirit and kind and loving heart! She is a daredevil too which she proved by going on every ride at Disney Land a few months ago. And we used to joke that if women were ever allowed to be prophets she would be the first woman prophet! :) Also, we always joke that if you ever want a prayer to come true you should have her pray for it, cause her prayers always come true!
This is one of my favorite pictures from our reception!

Grandma Martin is the spunkiest lady! I hope to have the energy that she has when I am her age! She is so funny and loving and I love that she loves to do puzzles! She has led an amazing life full of adventures! Justin and I love to see her, and feel blessed to have her in our life!

Grandma Martin at our wedding.

Justin and I traveled to Moab this weekend and got to spend some time with his Grandma Johnson! Wow she is the coolest! Her father was a member of the group of pioneers who came down through Hole in the Rock at Lake Powell! Hiking hole in the Rock is a tradition for my family, we hike it at least every other year at Lake Powell and I was amazed when I found out her father was one of the people who came through there! What amazing pioneer heritage!
This is Grandma Johnson pushing her great grandchildren on the tire swing in their back yard in Moab!

Anyways, I know that this post is a little late, but I figure its better late than never!

Thank you to all you moms out there!

April 21, 2010

We Moved!!!

This past month has been crazy! Justin and I are both still in school, I'm working, and justin is getting ready for med school applications and the MCAT, so I haven't had time to blog until now! But in all the spare time we have we decided to move to a new apartment!
We loved our old apartment at Wymount but we found a place that is cheaper, has a bigger kitchen, more storage space, and we have some pretty cool neighbors as well! My cousin Kayla and her Husband Trent live right across the wall, and we are loving having them next door!



Our door and Kayla and Trent's door, Kayla's is the one with the cute spring time decoration on it... i'm still working on our door decoration!


So I thought I would post some pictures of our new place and also list a couple of the reasons why we love living here!

1. The Bathroom Door



Apparently the people who lived in our apartment before us were also cheap college students. The evidence for this is our bathroom toilet and door, as you can see there is a hole in the door to allow for it to pass by the toilet.
The following story is just our guess at how the hole in the bathroom door came to be.
At one point the people who lived here before us apparently needed a new toilet, and the toilet they bought was a little bigger than what the bathroom was originally intended for. So, once they installed this "too large" toilet they realized that the door would not fully open because the toilet was blocking its swinging path. As you can imagine, this would make it difficult to enter into the bathroom, which would be a problem. So, how did they fix this horrible problem you ask?! Instead of returning the "too large" toilet and trading it in for a smaller one they decided to alter the door so that it would fit around the toilet... Ingenious if you ask me!
its hard to explain but I think that the pictures explain it all! As you can see, when the door is shut you can see completely through the hole, to the other side! When we saw the hole we about died and I'm pretty sure its our favorite part of the apartment now!


2. The Neighborhood
Our apartment is kind of in a poorer area in Provo, so we have some pretty fun neighbors! A couple weekends ago one of them decided to smoke some weed for a couple hours, so whenever we walked outside there was a very strong smell in the air! at first I thought it was just cigar smoke, but Justin and Trent both agreed that it was marihuana haha ... great! you wouldn't find that at Wymount!



3. The Carpet
Our carpet is a beautiful shade of kelly green, or as I like to call it Palo Verde green (Palo Verde was my high school and our carpet is the same color as our school colors!) At first I was worried it would bug me, but its really not bad once there is furniture on it! And as our friend Blake Bickmore pointed out, our apartment will always be decorated for St. Patricks day and Christmas!














4. The Hostess Thrift Shop is right across the street!
I love clothing stores like Nordstrom Rack, where they send clothes that are still cute but are missing something like a button so they can't sell them in the normal store. Well who knew that companies did the same thing with food?! I did not, that is until we moved into this apartment!
Right across the street from where we live is the Hostess Thrift Shop, it is where Hostess sends any of its tasty treats that are messed up, do not look right, are going to expire very soon, or are unwanted by the general public.


I've Decided that the Hostess Thrift Shop is kind of like the Island of misfit toys from the Christmas movie Rudolf. For those of you who missed out on this blessed christmas classic, this is an Island where all unwanted broken toys are sent, and they are all very sad because they are unloved and forgotten by the children of the world.


So, like the Island of Misfit toys, this shop is filled with the delicious goodness of hostess. Tons of mini donuts, pies, and cupcakes are just waiting to bought and taken to a warm caring home where they can be eaten! I love it!

5. Our "Celestial" tile.
Our apartment is practically identical to Kayla and Trent's apartment in every way except for two things, the blessed hole in our bathroom door, and the kitchen tile.
Before Justin and I had a chance to look at the place Kayla and Trent did a little scouting for us and peaked in the windows to see how it looked. They were both jealous when they saw pretty nice looking tile in the kitchen. They proceeded to report to us that they thought we might have "real" tile instead of the fake tile that most apartments have. This got Justin and I pretty excited because we have never lived in an apartment with "real" tile before!
So a couple days later we were let into the apartment to look at it and the first thing we did was walk over to the Kitchen to feel the tile, and ... it's fake.... But it is still the nicest looking fake tile I have ever seen!
Anyways, when Kayla and Trent asked us how the tile was we just told them that it was like their tile, only it's in it's celestial state! :)


This was on Easter, you can kind of see the tile around the table!

Honestly though, we love our apartment green carpet and all! And we've had a couple house warming parties so far, here is a picture of Alyssa and her kids over watching the Maveriks vs. Spurs game! And we celebrated Easter here as well, but I don't have any pictures of that.

Anyways, we'll be here for a year or so, so if you want to come by to see the hole in the door you are more than welcome to stop by and take a peek!

March 15, 2010

Viva Las Vegas!

Recently we traveled down to Las Vegas for my brother Nathan's birthday! Justin and I decided to surprise my family and show up right before Nate's own surprise party started! It was so fun to surprise my family and to see Nate with his friends!

For his party we went to sky zone which is a giant warehouse full of trampolines. Nate and Justin loved it! they were jumping all over, doing flips, running up onto the walls, and then played some dodgeball. Katie and I opted out of the dodgeball experience because the boys were throwing the balls at 1 million miles per hour (not an exaggeration)! But I did go in for one round, and I ended up with a giant welt on my legs! haha But, all in all Nates party was a lot of fun and I'll put up some pictures once I get them from my dad!



Here's a picture of Sky zone! It's so much fun!






The next day Justin and my siblings helped me make a movie for my Teaching With Technology class. The movie is supposed to replicate a movie that I might assign to my own students one day. Since I'm going to teach biology one day I chose to make a movie about Bacteria! We had so much fun making the movie, and I appreciate all their help!

Sooo, here is the movie! I hope you enjoy it! :)


February 25, 2010

I made a blog!

Ok, so I have been putting this blog off for a while, but after an inspirational conversation with my Grandma Robison, I decided I would start documenting our lives. I have been avoiding a blog simply because I don't think that our lives are very exciting right now! But one day it will be nice to be able to look back and remember some of the funny random things that have happened to us as poor college students.

So i'll give a short recap of our lives right now!

Justin and I got married in August of 09 in Los Angeles! It was so much fun and we have been LOVING married life ever since! Its so fun to be with my best friend all the time, and always have someone who is there to support and love me no matter what grade I get on a physics test, or how loud and off key I sing along with the radio in the car!

Here is a picture of us at the LA temple after we got married!

For our honeymoon we went to Cancun Mexico! It was so much fun and Mexico was beautiful!


After our honeymoon we headed back up to provo to move in to our apartment in Wymount, and start another semester at BYU!

Justin is in the Neuroscience major at BYU and is loving all his smart classes! He's really busy right now with med-school stuff like preparation for the MCAT, which he will be taking in May, volunteering at the hospital, and shadowing a physician who works with kids with ADHD. He is loving all of this, but it keeps him really busy! I am constantly amazed at how well he is able to keep up with it all, and get good grades, and still find time to spend with me!
Justin is also serving as the family history teacher, and the "stairwell captain" for our ward. What is a "stairwell captain" you might ask? Well, he is in charge of the 4 apartments that share our stairwell with us, in case of an emergency like a tornado, forest fire, nuclear attack, meteor shower, or alien invasion, justin is the man responsible for saving our stairwell and making sure we are all safe. Needless to say this is probably the coolest calling anyone could ever have, and he loves his stairwell captain title.

Here is Justin's domain, he is the best captain ever! :)

As for me, I am going into Biology Education, so hopefully one day when I graduate I will be able to teach middle school biology. I am enjoying my classes and for the first time I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! I will have one more semester of classes after this semester and then I'll be student teaching this time next year which is really scary to think about!! Besides school, I am working part time at Outdoors Unlimited, an outdoor sporting store on BYU campus. This is such a fun job, and we are enjoying the free rentals that come with the job as well! This summer besides working at OU I'll also be river guiding on the Green River for a few weekends, and working at a local ropes course in Provo!

So anyways, although our lives aren't super exciting right now, we are having so much fun just living life and living it together!
I hope that all who read enjoy our little blog! And please don't judge it too harshly! I have never written a blog before, and i'm sure it'll get better as I go along!