Braustin Nation

This was my first Christmas Morning! My family always celebrated Christmas Eve because of our German heritage, and Grandma Shirley never wanting to get up early. Austin and his family had so much fun sharing all of their traditions with me! On Christmas Eve we ate the traditional scones they make from scratch. Susan even grinds the wheat flour! Then we went Christmas light viewing all around Casper, Wyoming. I was surprised how many people participate. They even have a contest for several light awards! All of the Carmen siblings were telling me about the super music house, and that all the others were weak sauce in comparison. I was waiting, waiting, waiting, and then the house didn't do it that year! Hillary said, "well maybe the moved..." and Susan said, "They probably died!" We all thought we'd take the "moved out" option :) We then came home and read the bible Christmas story, and then the Book of Mormon's version in the Americas. We also g

We are spending Christmas with Austin's parents in Casper, Wyoming this year! Basically, we were snow scooping so we could go to lunch, and I was having way too much fun!

We got our pumpkins late. Lame! Well... we got them the day before Halloween, and now they are Thanksgiving pumpkins! We spent Halloween with my great grandma. It was my first experience handing out candy, because I've always lived in a place where not a single soul comes! We also got a parakeet named Quincey quite a while ago. When ever we are discussing something and having a bit of debate, Quincey will chime in after Austin or I and we'll say, "See, the bird agrees with you!" Or if someone has a stupid idea, he has perfect timing of chewing us out. It's hilarious. It's like our baby! My mom sent us pumpkins in the mail! That was such a great surprise! We are headed out to Utah for Thanksgiving and we'll see her! Michelle is having a reception over the Thanksgiving Break as well, so there are so many things to look forward to. Not to mention we can stop being so boring because school and work eats our lives. Hopefully we will have a safe trip considering

I was craving egg rolls like a pregnant she-wolf on steroids, and had to get some through the Jack in the Box drive thru. That did not satiate. Austin is an amazing cook, and I love anything he makes, but all I wanted was egg rolls. And egg rolls I got: Homemade by Austin! I can say my friends were jealous of my lunch all week long ;)

Austin and I decided to go to a University of Wyoming Cowboys game because Austin is an avid fan, and I have never gotten to sit down and just watch a football game live. (I worked BYU Concessions but only got to catch snip-its.) The Cowboys were going to play USU which is in Logan, Utah --only 2.5 hours away. So we dressed up in our brown and yellow, and went for it! I burned a CD full of music, and we had a fun roadtrip. 2.5 hours isn't too bad when you're used to driving everywhere in Idaho! The Cowboys immediately scored a touch down, and then kicked a ball which was still live. They scored another touch down right then. We were going nuts.... until as Austin describes it on FB: wyoming you officially had some huge problems. And by the way trying to run the same play over and over is not a good way at trying to score points. They figured out that you were going to throw to number 6 after the second time. And yet you tried it all night long. And that is what Austin look

So I work in the gallery and we have to get rid of painting prints sometimes. This one got it's replacement, and was about to head to the trash when I said, "I'll take it!" I had to walk home that day, and I'm sure I looked like a dork. But man does it work, and Austin and I have an even brighter living room!

We definitely are in over our heads, hopefully we don't go down with the semester! Although blessings have come, it is hard work! Austin and I both got job upgrades which was huge. Austin can work up to 40 hours a week with sometimes reaching $9.67 or something or other an hour, and I got a job working in the Spori Art Gallery on campus. Austin is continuing his studies by knocking out some GEs online, and taking a few English classes on campus. I also am doing the same, but I had to take a ton of art classes in order to get my BFA. Online classes were just a way of being able to do a ton of credits so my classes didn't collide. I'll only work 20 hours (the school allows no more) so I am grateful for Austin and also his job opportunity. Let's just say the both of us will be so happy when the semester is over. If we beat this one, we're golden. Hopefully we still like each other too :D Grumpy + Grumpy = ....well you can only imagine ;) (not really but still.)

This is where we live, and what our apartment looks like! This is because Michelle asked to see :)

Last Sunday, August 21st, we celebrated our first anniversary! Because Sunday was the Sabbath, I guess I lied we celebrated it a day earlier :) I tried to make a dinner reservation to surprise Austin, but no one in Idaho Falls (where the sit-downs are) makes reservations and they said we probably wouldn't get in due to the weekend crowds that occur in I.F. Lame! So when he came home from work we were stuck.... And we decided to do what we love most. Our favorite Chinese Buffet. It sounds nasty but omgsh this is definitely not your average buffet. (It even made the top 100 Asian restaurants in America 2010!) Fine dining! Why not go to our favorite place? We then rented movies, and we recommend Soul Surfer to anyone who wants a feel-good movie. We have our favorite gas station (Maverick) where we fill pops for entertainment. Our friends are the cashiers, and our favorite lady was there that night. We always talk and told her it was our anniversary, and she said "Oh my Gosh,

Pick berries out of the forest and eat them :) Yes, this is exactly what we did. We researched huckleberries, and asked my great-grandma about them when we visited her just yesterday, and thought we were all set. We headed up to Kelley Canyon where she said she used to pick them. It was beautiful and a really thick forest. We looked down and up, and found these berries everywhere! They fit the description... So, we picked away! It's kind of hard to find them, they mostly concentrate in the creek-moist dirt. We also had to climb trees and look under bushes (because they grow on both types.) We got a scratch or two! We ended up trying three different places, and filling about three jars. Needless to say, I was so excited because I love huckleberry everything! I think we picked for four hours, and we brought a dinner picnic up with us so we could fill our jars. We originally wanted to make a syrup, but seeing as how we eat so much PBJ, we ma de a jelly. They were super nasty

Finals stink. End of that story. In fact, Austin is going mad due to his intense Spanish studies. We also needed the peace and quiet. Some stupid kids for the second day in a row came pounding on people's doors asking to take the trash out for money. That is our laundry money, and no kid. I am not that lazy. We had to make a "No Soliciting" sign because we get so many! Plus they were making the same rounds again today. I made it as nice as I could... there's sparkles. So after all this eventfullness, we did the only thing that was going to calm us down. FRIES AND FROSTIES! Oh, and it was with the money we saved NOT paying trash kids.

Braustin's been feeling like the odd kids out these days... married and trying our best to make it. We are doing quite well, and we are so blessed! But sometimes you wonder if you're gonna make it and that you don't quite measure up. But today Austin signed up for his LSAT Feb. 11 because we are out of here in a bit over a year! Plans have been changing a bit lately because slowly we're getting a little more confident. I just applied for the BFA and got in, so I will have about a semester more of school, thus graduating with Austin and a sweet major! And Austin has been doing amazingly well in the English department, so he's more motivated to try challenging things. He even s ent in two poems for literary journals. Law school and MFA/teaching credentials are sneaking up on us! And we might feel like finals are kicking our trash, but we have to remember that Austin will be a richy-pants lawyer, and I'll get to watercolor in society groups and my work will be show

The Fourth of July was a fun one for Austin and I, it was our first experience with it happening in Idaho. Last summer, we were celebrating Chris and Hay ley's wedding! It's strange to be in school, and as Austin and I found out today, it doesn't result in attentive behavior in students the next day. Especially if the city's fireworks go off at 11:30pm at night! It was a mega-fail. Our fourth, however, was awesome. Austin had a crap-load of homework so I spent the day working on the illustrations for shakespeare. We did happen to get some kite fly ing in, and the people around us laughed at us. We almost saw a car crash as the driver and passenger shouted something weird to us out the window about our kite. Boo on them we were kick-@$$ with our kite. It's one of those $1 walmart plastic bag-like kind. In fact, we saw someone join in with their cheapy walmart kite too! Trendsetters. We also went to our favorite place ever, Kiwi Loco. I heart frozen yogurt with all my

Eagle Scouts are sexy, just so you all know. My man took me out to camp at Cave Falls, Wyoming. It's about 45 min. away, and so gorgeous! There were sunflowers and blue bonnets galore! We kind of got lost and stopped in Ashton, Idaho to ask for directions (it's pretty remote). When we arrived, I got out of the car and I was swarmed. Yes, swarmed by hundreds of mosquitos. They especially liked Austin's red car. Immediately (being allergic to mosquitos) Austin and I sprayed ourselves down with 98% deet. (say what yo u want, we know we're gonna die of cancer.) The mosquitos didn't bite us, but followed us everywhere! Both of us had a mosquito candle and immediately lit them. We were able to find a spot right by the river, and Austin set up our tent in no time. And guess who started the fire? That's right! Austin's seriously mad camper wife. I made S'mores with g iant marshmallows, because I'm a crap-food addict and can't help myself. I made these wh