let it snow

October is gone and where was I?

I didn't even post anything on my favorite month of the year!

Well, here's a little lookie at our FIRST costumes together.

We were scout leaders?

I'm  not really sure what we were going for, but hey, this is all we could find at DI.

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snow snow snow

It has arrived.

I'll admit that this year we had the best Fall weather I have ever seen. 

It has been perfect.

Unfortunately, it is time for a new season. 

Let it SNOW!!!

Today we went on a lunch date to...

my favorite

Denny's!!!!!

Here are some before and after pics of the hubby

With my classic breakfast.

Double hash browns.

After lunch we went to a park in Provo. 

It was magical.

love birds 

There was an estimate of 11 inches of snow today.

hehe

Provo is beautiful covered in snow. 

I love my husband.

honeymoon

 The weekend of our wedding we stayed in Salt Lake City. 

We checked into the Little America on our honeymoon night,

 only to find out that we got upgraded to the 

Grand America!

Woah, and let me tell you- it was the fanciest hotel I have ever stayed at!

I have never seen anything like it, it was pretty AMAZING.

We don't really have pictures of our hotel...why would I think about taking pictures when I just got married??

I know. weird.

This is the hallway...sweet huh? 

Check out the chandeliers.

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Then we stayed a week in Park City

Yummy

We went out to eat every night :)

Park City Main Street

Jeremy was sick on our wedding day, and then, of course, it was my turn.  So by the time we were on  our honeymoon,  both of us were pretty sick.  I'm not sure what we had but it was a combination of a cold/flu. Oh, and I also had an allergic reaction to one of the medicines. Funnn.

So don't judge our pics-we were sick and tired.

Delicious!

Park City was fun! It was difficult trying to get out of bed everyday because we were so exhausted from being sick.  But we made an honest effort to explore the town and visit as many museums as our bodies would allow.

Mountains & Trees

Our annual hike up to Y mountain.

This red tree was the only thing giving me hope during this hike. 

Let me tell you, except for maybe Jeremy, everybody was strugglin'...everybody means Liz & Natalia.

Provo view from the mountain

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Yesterday we had a mini girl's road trip to Park City! :)

We went to the Visitor's Center and just happened to run into Hermana Walker!

Love this girl to DEATH. She gets full credit for "Jeremy & Natalia."
She knew what was good for me!

The drive up to Park City.
GORGEOUS
Love FALL

It was soo good to see an old friend! Andrea was my roommate on two separate occasions so we became really good friends. She is such an amazing missionary & I'm so proud to call her a friend. I can see how much she was grown in the past year and I know the Lord is mindful of her and her service.  She is such a sweet girl helping God's children and teaching them. I LOVE ANDREA!!! :)

• After Park City, Jeremy did our weekly clean the house after a week of busy-ness.
• We walked around Provo and looked at this cute boutique shop down the street.  I love Provo in the Fall. 
• We then had a spontaneous dinner at Banana Leaf (food from Sri Lanka & Singapore) on University Ave.  I had some sort of curry-dunno the name of the dish...BUT, the the presentation was AMAZING.  I have never seen anything like it before-bad night to forget my camera. I highly recommend this restaurant..it's kinda on the pricier side for what us cheapos in Provo would like to spend but if you are feeling splurgy-definitely go there. And I failed to mention that the food was DELICIOUS/YUMMY.
• I realized that whenever I cook food, I don't like the taste of it. But if somebody else cooks me food, I think it is sooo gooood. For dinner tonight, Mrs. Castagno cooked up some rice with steamed broccoli and fish (healthy right?).  Unfortunately, I wasn't too crazy about this meal. I'm pretty sure if Jeremy would have cooked dinner tonight-I would have been all over it.  I need to get over my weird psychological idea that whatever I cook tastes bad. Jeremy tells me I'm a good cook, but then again, he is my husband so I guess it's a husband duty to tell his wife that her cooking is good. Maybe? Regardless, I appreciate his compliment. And maybe my cooking isn't so bad? Ehhhh.
• The Castagno's decorated for HALLOWEEN...and it's not even OCTOBER yet. That shows how excited I am. Today we had a creepy red head come over with a creepy mask over her face and she brought cookies, zucchini bread, spider webs, spiders, and leaves (yes, leaves)--just in time for October tomorrow :)

Well guys, it is time for me to return back to my husband. 

See how handsome he is?

we went to the zoo

Yes, we went to the zoo.

WHY?

We needed to escape Provo for a day.

 Instead, we went to "Africa."

I'll admit: I haven't been to the zoo since like 7th grade. 

I most definitely had fun on our GETAWAY.

Jeremy and his friend

love, books, & home

Jeremy and I have been married for 4 weeks already! 

We have adjusted to married life & I'm so grateful that I finally can spend every waking moment with him. 

Our wedding was beautiful and we felt the love from all of our friends and family members that came out of town for it.  I will definitely do some more posting on the wedding on a later day, but we are very thankful for everybody that helped make our day special.

Jeremy making our desk.

We have settled into our little home, which is very typical BYU married housing.  Our house in still in the works for decorating, but once I get to making it cute I will most def post some pictures. Jeremy is working as a research assistant doing "process control."  And I'm also a research assistant for the Counseling and Career Center on campus and a writing adviser for the FHSS Writing Lab.  Life has been pretty sweet since I've been married.  Jeremy and I have been so blessed with how things have worked out for us. We are pretty dang lucky :) However, school has been keeping me quite busy this semester.  I'm not sure how I'm going to handle all of it, but somehow I will manage. But one of my favorite parts of being married is that I can come home to my husband after a long and stressful day.

Remember how I used to run 6 miles? Welp, that doesn't happen anymore. In fact, I don't even do ONE mile anymore.  I haven't had the chance to hit the gym, but I need to start.  I always forget how much I love the gym once I stop going.

birfffday

My 22nd Birfffday.

I hate celebrating my birthday. And so this year I didn't plan anything, but I knew for sure I was gonna do two things: pick up my wedding gown from alterations & eat my annual grand slam at Denny's.

I woke up & skyped with Jeremy before work.  Oh...and I actually got READY for the day...as in, I did my make-up and my hair...and actually put some thought into my outfit.  I figured since it was my birthday that I should probably look cute..or something.

After work, Kori picked me up and we headed to Orem to get my dress! It actually fits now & makes me even more excited!!! Afterwards Kori was driving through some neighborhoods and I was so confused as to where we were going! I kept asking her where she was taking me and the response I got was: it's a surprise. WHAT?

She pulls up to a house. Umm..who are we visiting? We walked in..and it was a massage therapist! haha. The funny this is that I HATE getting massages. I think they are so uncomfortable and I hate the idea of people touching me. Gross. But I figured-hey, it's my birthday. Whatever. Just do it and don't stress.

My massage experience was so gooooood. Oh my goodness, I felt like a little baby. My upper back was really tight and I'm really feeling the after effects of my massage. Overall, I really liked it other than the fact that I was butt naked while some random woman was rubbing on me.

Then...Kori had another suprise for me! We went home to drop off my dress and Emily joined us. We were finally going to DENNY'S! As we were driving up, I saw my co-worker/best friend/partner in crime Laura!!! She surprised me there :) So sweet. For my birthday dinner I ordered my favorites: hashbrowns, sausage links, bacon, & pancakes.  Our food took forever to get there and I was starving! I literally swallowed my food so fast that I didn't even get a chance to taste it.

Kori had another surprise! They prepared a spa night for me. I did my nails, soaked my feet in warm water, watched Mean Girls, and had some brownies & ice cream.  My 22nd birthday was not a dissapointment at all. I had so much fun with the surprises & spending time with my girls :) Thanks y'all! & thanks Kori!!!

epic end to my epic win

Guess what??????

I did it!! I FINALLY ran my 6 miles!!

It's been tough work but I finally did it. Luckily, this was just a prep run for the real thing.

I had a pretty good pace the entire time.  I was running a lot faster than usual for a long distance run. My running style is pretty good. For the first half of the run I increase the speed, during the middle of the run I try to stay a constant speed, and by the end I usually start increasing it again to FINISH STRONG. The truth is, I run it faster at the end just so I can it over with.

When I reached mile 5, I about wanted to die.

My legs were aching.

I couldn't handle my breathing.

All the negative thoughts were creeping into my head.

I wanted to quit.

I pushed through it and finished!! :)

This run did not make me excited about my 10K. I can't believe I signed up for this. haha

It's gonna be terrible running up that hill. And I'm dreading it. But I WILL do it!

true story

After my run, I headed over to Kori's apt to watch PLL. This is our weekly event.

During the show I kept complaining about  my stomach hurting.

I felt like I wanted to barf, but then I figured that if I had ice cream then it would make it better. Everybody knows that ice cream makes everything better.

I couldn't even enjoy the last 10 mins of PLL. All I could think about was running home to lay down and talk to Jeremy. As soon as the show was over I ran out of the apartment. I walked two steps outside... and then I felt it...it was coming. I tried to run as fast as I could up to my apartment right above Kori's. When I reached the turning at the stairs... I exploded. Everything I had eaten in the past week came out.  I ran inside my apartment and left a trail of nastyness leading to the sink. Let's just say, it was terrible. I then called Jeremy crying, I felt so weak, and I was annoyed that I still had to clean up all my mess. Even my running shoes couldn't escape it, they were covered. UGH. Lucky for me, none of my roommates were home to be witnesses.

So, I painfully ran those 6 miles and then suffered the consequences of not staying hydrated. 

I hate water.

first date

July 8, 2011
I went to the gym, you know, the usual-no big deal. While I was working out my awesome calves, Jeremy went to talk to me.  He asked what I was doing later that night and then he invited me to watch the movie Up on campus. Jeremy was my home teacher and so this is the only real interaction we ever had.

Many people don't know this, but I was filling out my mission papers last summer.  I was about to turn 21 and had all the paper work filled out.  I was so excited about missionary work and was preparing like crazy. It was all I could talk about. The only problem: I wasn't sure when I should go. Either it was August or December. After meeting with my Bishop, I decided to put my papers on hold for a month until I figured some things out.

So in BYU culture, when a girl fills out her mission papers "boys start coming out of the woodwork"-Nancy. haha. I really didn't believe this but it is so true! My roommates always were teasing me about all the dates I was going on, but I kept telling them that this really never happened to me!

After the gym, I went home and told my roommate, Andrea, that Jeremy had invited me to go see a movie on campus! She was SO EXCITED! She really liked Jeremy and kept telling me all summer that I should date him. BLAH BLAH BLAH. But I wasn't interested in Jeremy, I was waiting for another guy.

I wasn't sure if Jeremy had invited me on a "date" or if he was inviting me to hang out with a group of friends. His wording was vague and so it left me in confusion.

Andrea and I made a plan: When Jeremy came over to pick me up, she would just so happen to be sitting in the living room. If it wasn't a date then Jeremy would invite her to join us. But if it was a date, then he wouldn't say anything. 

Jeremy came over in the evening and talked to Andrea for a little bit. I came out to say hi and then we left to campus! It turned out to be a DATE. bahaha. The movie was showing outside on campus on a HUGE screen. Jeremy brought some blankets and candy for us.  We chatted, ate candy, and laughed during the movie. Since this was a first date, the classic questions had to be asked. What is your favorite movie? Phantom of the Opera! Heck yeah. Then Jeremy mentioned that he was heading down to Cali in two weeks and was going to stop in Vegas to watch Phantom! I was so jealous! I kept telling him that it has always been my dream to watch Phantom!!!

Then we went to his apartment and he made me a smoothie with crazy stuff mixed in. Sidenote: I am a germaphobe. I think it is gross when people share drinks, don't wash their hands, etc. The smoothie that Jeremy made was in ONE CUP. Umm..did he expect me to share with him? Or was this only for me? Nope.

We were s h a r i n g.

I decided to swallow up my fear and not mention to him my germ issues. haha except I did make sure to drink on the opposite side of the cup as him. HAH! Then his roommate, Sam, walked in. Jeremy says,"Hey, TRY THIS!" I'm in pure terror as I see another person drink out of that cup! Ugh. I guess Jeremy couldn't get enough of our date because we ended up watching Stardust. I LOVE THAT MOVIE. And of course, this date had to conclude with the awkward side hug at the end. CLASSIC.

The date was super fun. I was just grateful that I didn't act all awkward. Yes, I am awkward.  After the date people would randomly drop comments like, "You should date Jeremy, he is a great guy."

"You went on a date with Jeremy? How did it go?"

"Natalia, I think you and Jeremy should date."

Hmmm...oh really?