Finals=Lame

I haven't been to work in 5 days.
And I'm DYING.
I thought I'd take a few days off to get some real actual studying done, plus our car was getting fixed so I couldn't really get there (thank you, water pump leak)
Plus I had three scheduled finals yesterday and today.

But I HATE being cooped up in my house or the library all day.
So Riley took me to get out of the house.
To the South End Market, to get a RedBox.
We walked. It was cold, but so nice to get out of here.

Now we're making homemade french fries and we'll be in bed by ten.
Such is life of newlyweds (Actually, we're almost to six months!)

Riley

I love my husband.

Parent Trap

 

One time in Jerusalem Tessa Witt and I learned the
handshake in The Parent Trap.
For some reason (probably because it was so cool) we
filmed it. In Jerusalem. At the Jerusalem Center.


When we see each other on campus, we do it.
When we see each other at
reunions, we do it.
When we saw each other at
my wedding...yes, we did.

Dreams

Riley keeps having this dream that some guy just hands us $100,000.
We thought about what we would do with that much money.
I would buy a house. And go to Disneyland.
Riley would pay off our bills. And then buy us another car. He's practical.
Maybe someone will take pity on us knowing that we're still students and we have to pay for tuition and rent and food (which is a lot when you live with a Riley) and everything else.
But then again, I don't think it would be as much fun that way.
We love being newlyweds and saving our pennies and paying our tithing (when we don't have enough pennies) and watching monetary miracles happen.
We love working so hard at work and school that we only see each other for a few hours every night because those few hours are the greatest hours of the day.
We love each other too.
It's so great to be married. It's the best thing ever.

Art of Antiquilty

Last night I was in an Art History class from 4 to 6:30 pm.

Yuck.

About two hours into it (when my hand was cramping from writing and my brain hurt from thinking about so much for so long), I was writing a lot of important notes about the Baroque period in my notebook really fast.

But as I looked back at them, I realized that instead of writing "antiquity"
I had written, "antiquilty"

I knew my mom would be proud. And probably all of the Family Piecers

And for the rest of the class instead of taking notes about Baroque, I just drew quilts in my notebook.

Meet Ralph

This is Ralph.

He's the person I become when I don't want to be myself anymore.
Like when I have 4 tests and I wish I wasn't Talia Lyman so I didn't have to take them.
He's so awkward.
But he always gives me a good laugh.
So thanks Ralph.
At least you're good for something.
I know Maggie, Devon, Ali and Gantry will be horrified that I let other people in the world see this photograph, but it had to be done. Ralph could make anyone smile. PS Maggie isn't Asian usually.

Rabbi

Zane sent me this picture he took of a Rabbi we met in Jerusalem. We were lost south of the Old City and this young Jewish man led us into this room in a synagogue and told us to wait for the Rabbi, but we didn't know why. When the Rabbi came in, he spoke with us for a while. We didn't know how to politely get out of there and we almost missed curfew.
(It was kind of scary at the time, but really cool to have that experience)

Washington (The state)

Remember when we skipped two days of school and work and went to Seattle for the weekend?

I do.
And I wish we were still there.

Jerusalem, If I Forget You

A year ago me and my new 79 best friends we were seeing our new home in Jerusalem for the first time.

Sometimes I miss Israel SO much.

I miss knowing 79 other people so well its like they're family.
I miss REAL falafel.
I miss how everything tasted just a little bit Israeli, even when they had it in America too (namely, M&Ms and salad dressing)
I miss having pomegranates already prepared so you didn't have to open them and get all the seeds out yourself.
I miss the dance parties. (Oh so many dance parties)
I miss playing volleyball WAY more than we should have
I miss walking down that huge hill while the little kids followed you around.
I miss sitting on the balcony of the center during the call to prayer and watching all of the Jerusalem lights come on as the sun set.
I miss crossing the Kidron valley everyday.
I miss having inside jokes with 79 other people.
I miss Brother Chadwick singing songs about Solomonic Gates and David and Goliath
I miss getting drinking straight from a liter bottle of water every day.
I miss knowing the clothes in EVERYONE'S wardrobe. (Literally, we could tell whose laundry was in the laundry room/Lub Shelte because we had them memorized)
I miss the sabbath being on a Saturday.

The view of the Center and Dome of the Rock from the Old CitySinging American music with some Jews in West Jerusalem.

My Heart

Dinner August 10, 2011

Because we're Newlyweds.

Mr. and Mrs. Lyman

Mr. and Mrs. Lyman.

We did it.
We got married.
June 30, 2011
It was the best day of our lives. Serious.
(Everyone says that, but really, it is.)
And being married is just the greatest thing ever.

DJ MAT on our wedding day.

We had our luncheon at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake.

We don't have any REAL pictures from the photographer yet...but hopefully we'll get those soon and then you'll get to see them.

And we went on our Honeymoon to Hawaii!!! I didn't know until we got to the airport that day, so it was a pretty good surprise.

"The Grand Canyon" on Kauai.

Oahu

Locals.

Laie, Hawaii Temple

Maui
Snorkeling in Molokini off Maui.

Yep, that is us. Floating high above our cruise ship off the Big Island Hawaii.

We got back from our Hawaiian cruise (AWESOME) to reality (not awesome), but we're finally getting adjusted.

We have a little house in Provo that we've been decorating for the past few weeks. So fun.
I make dinner or dessert out of my "Best Bites" cookbook almost every day.
We both hate to go to work and be away from each other (newly-wed style).
I haven't slept very well at all since we got married. I think its probably that there's someone in my bed.

Mostly being married isn't that different than being single except that we live together.
Its the greatest and we're so so happy.

We're getting married

in 45 days!

Maybe

Maybe I sometimes fall asleep when I'm studying.
So maybe I need candy to study for finals.
And maybe I spent $9.69 on over 3 pounds of candy today.

Maybe I'll get an A.

Shoes

Today I bought shoes for my wedding.
I couldn't help myself.
It was kind of an accident.
They were really expensive.
But I LOVE them so much!

I was scared to tell Riley how much they cost, but he just told me that every girl should have at least one pair of expensive shoes.

I love him.

Anxiously Engaged

We're engaged! Finally!

Riley is the greatest. He has so many qualities that I want in a husband--and its a good thing too, because he IS going to be my husband. When we started dating again after I got home from Jerusalem and didn't know if I should marry him, my mom told me to make a list of all the things I want in a husband (It was a long list).

Riley had all of them.

And ever since then we've known we were going to get married. He ordered the ring in February so I have just been waiting patiently for it to come and for Riley to actually propose, even though everyone knew we were engaged. (I was kidding about the patient part. I wasn't patient at all, but lucky for me Riley still loves me.)

I didn't know my Grandpa Spencer because he died before I was born, but by the things people say about him and the stories they tell, I think I know what kind of a person he was. I think Riley is a lot like him, and that makes me so happy.

Grandpa rode on his horse standing up. Riley LOVES horses, and he can do anything with them. Grandpa was very patient. Riley is the most patient person I know. Grandpa was a spiritual giant in the gospel. Riley always keeps me in line in the gospel. Grandpa was kind. I've never heard Riley raise his voice at anyone. Grandpa was a water meter reader when he and grandma first got married. Guess where Riley works....

Riley is a hard worker. The hardest worker I know. He never complains about ANYTHING (I do enough for both of us). He makes me laugh. He's a sweetheart. He always puts me first. He carries me to the car when I'm not wearing shoes. He makes me dinner and he always takes out the trash in our apartment. Some of his friends joke and say that I'm marrying down, but really, I'm marrying up. Riley makes me better because he is better than me. I'm going to be with him forever.

He loves me, and I love him. And that is wonderful.

86 Days until June 30th! I can hardly wait.

PS The first time I mentioned Riley was back in June after our memorable first date when he took me horseback riding. Did I ever think we would be here now? About to get married?

No, but I sure hoped we would.

Vegas. Vegas. Vegas.

Last weekend Riley and I went to Vegas to visit his cousins, Miranda and Justin. Abby had flown in to Vegas from Virginia for the weekend, so we got to spend time with her too.
We left after school on Thursday and ditched our classes and work on Friday to go to the Hoover Dam, shopping at the Outlets, have a picnic on the Vegas temple grounds (which is not allowed, by the way), seeing the Bellagio fountains, the M&M factory, and my favorite: we went to The Lion King. It was amazing! And it reminded Riley of his mission to South Africa. He knew some of the Zulu and Xhosa words they were speaking. The costumes were fantastic and my jaw was literally dropped during some scenes. It was awesome and I highly recommend it to anyone.

SKI SEEson HIGHLIGHTS

From the moment I saw it, I knew I had to have it.
I tried it on, and it fit.
It was destiny.


The price tag said: $6.
I asked Andrea, "Can you spot me $6?"
Being the awesome cousin that she is, she gave me a short term loan.


And my life has never been the same.

Breaker Breaker

For the past month, I haven't been able to bring myself to post about something that's not Jerusalem.
Basically, my life is boring when I'm not traveling abroad.
But I have done a few cool things in the last month since I've been home:

We went snowmobiling and guess what Uncle David? I didn't even crash!Riley and I built the Jerusalem Center: Gingerbread Style. And we got a picture of the original to compare them. I think we did a pretty good job.I got a sliver the size of Rhode Island at the cabin I went to with the Lymans. Riley pulled it out for me. Ouch.
I went snowshoeing for the first time. NOT A LEISURELY SPORT in case you were wondering. But still fun.We enjoyed the Michael Jackson Experience on the Wii and some of us improved our dancing skillsDJ MAT was reunited. Dev came home for the holidays and we had the best time. We always have to stand in the DJ MAT order: Devon, Jentry, Maggie, Ali, Talia.

I love these girls.We had New Years at the Lyman's for the second year in a row.And we started school again. Oh well.

2011 is going to be a good year.