Honestly Lauren

My sister Lauren has a super cute blog you need to follow. Check it out! She's a talented, witty, and eloquent writer. Oh, and I promise she has some stories in there that will make you laugh out loud!! Enjoy :)

Summer Living

I've decided it is possible to keep up both of my blogs...and I need to update this one because pinned by dani hardly ever highlights the "going ons" of my life.

So. Here's what has been going on :)

I left my job at My Social Practice back at the end of April because Colby and I were headed to Washington for the summer so Colby could sell alarms. Yes. We choose to "sell."

Team lunch at Rubios on my last day at MSP:

So, we packed up our very first home together, put our big stuff in storage, and loaded my car with the things we wanted to bring with us. On April 28 we picked up my brother (who was also coming with us to sell) and drove 13 hours to Washington for a summer of hard work, late nights, and very little fun.

For the first three weeks we were lucky enough to live in an apartment with carpets that reeked like cigarette smoke. I tried leaving the windows open, dousing the floors with febreeze, buying air fresheners, and filling the apartment with scented candles. The smell was SO bad though, that none of those things helped. The smell of smoky carpets will forever haunt my memory...and I will never buy a house or apartment until I've made sure the carpets smell nice and clean!! Luckily, another apartment in the complex opened up after three weeks so we packed up all our stuff once again and moved. That's twice in a month I had to both pack and unpack an apartment. Not fun. Fortunately, we didn't bring very much with us to Washington so the second move wasn't nearly as tiring as the first.

Saturday trip to Seattle with the girls while the boys sold:

The life of selling consisted of the boys leaving for work at noon everyday and finally coming home for dinner at 10:00 p.m. Needless to say, I was very lonely A LOT. And the poor boys were always tired and hating life. After about one week in our second apartment, both Colby and Adam started to rethink things. They were surprised at how dishonest the art of selling alarms is. Though Colby has sold before, this was his first time selling alarm systems and he wasn't a fan. He actually believed in the product, but he didn't agree with the way he was asked to sell it. Therefore, Adam and Colby decided to keep their integrity and come home after being out there a month.

Once we decided to come home we could hardly wait. So, we packed up one day and left the next. That's right...my third time packing up an apartment in one month's time. However, being able to come back to Utah where we have friends, family, lives, and regular schedules made it all worth it.

Colby joined two softball teams within two days of coming home and quickly started his own window washing company.

I was hired as an Editor at an internet marketing agency called OrangeSoda within a week.

Things worked out quite nicely and we couldn't be happier with our decision to change our summer plans on such a whim, though I do miss being able to see my brother everyday (he headed out to NYC for an internship at my Dad's company).

Such is the life of the newlyweds. We are coming up on 10 months next week...that means our one year mark will be here in no time. Hard to believe how fast time flies, yet its even harder to remember my life before I had Colby in it. Things are amazing, and we couldn't be happier!

pinned by dani

Just in case any of you missed the announcement on my other blog last month, pinned by dani has moved to a new URL, and it is much improved :) Check it out if you haven't yet!! http://pinnedbydani.com :)

The Most Wonderful Time Of Year

sparkling lights. winter coats. hot chocolate. homemade candies. family. candy canes. boots. christmas music. mistletoe. decorations. balsam scented candles. sugar cookies. parties. presents. snow.

Yup. This is absolutely, 100%, the BEST time of the year. I love everything about it.

But first, let's back up a little....

Colby and I had our siblings sleep over the night before Thanksgiving, and it was perfect. We made apple pie, bought some ugly DI sweaters, watched a movie, and just hung out. The next morning we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade while Lauren and I made a yummy fresh green bean casserole.

Then we headed off to Thanksgiving Dinner at Colby's grandparents' house, fully decked out in our nasty sweaters.

Naturally, as soon as we got home from dinner, I recruited my sister to help me put up the Christmas tree...and I've been enjoying it's warmth ever since!

December 1st marked the start of my 25 Days of Christmas. Basically all that means is that I've been trying to do at least one Christmasy thing every day to "savor the season." So far, I've been successful! I've made a cranberry + popcorn garland for my tree, had hot chocolate, listened to festive music, sat under the light of my christmas tree, made yummy treats, gone to a christmas party, watched christmas movies, and done some holiday shopping! It's been amazing. Oh, and we're going to the Salt Lake Temple tomorrow to see the lights, and I can't wait!

Colby and I head back to New York for the Holidays on the 18th, and Colby's family is coming out for a few days too! What better way to spend the holiday season than with our families in one of my favorite places on earth? I am blessed.

Birthday Boy.

Colby turned the big 2-4 on November 19th! It was fun having a whole day dedicated to spoiling the man I love.

He loves Reeses, so I made him a yummy chocolate cake with a peanut butter buttercream frosting. Delicious...and I don't even like cake! 

We went to dinner with some friends, and had a ton of people over to our place after. Turns out all of Colby's friends are boys! My sister was the only single girl there, and she didn't seem to hate it :)

I decorated in blue, since it's Colby's favorite color. (This was before the drinks and appetizers were laid out). 

Short post...just wanted to give you all an update and let you know that it was a successful day of celebration :)

Lately.

Where do I even begin? With the exception of my post on chocolate chip cookies, the last time I blogged I was a single woman. Now I am a Mrs...and that's super weird to say, no matter how many times I say it. What's even harder to get used to is "Mrs. Zimmerman." Every time I say it I feel like an old woman..."Mrs." makes me think of grandmothers and teachers. Not only that, it's just odd not having the word "Frogley" tacked on to my name. I mean, 75% of my nicknames involve Frogs. I guess these are things that will become more normal with time. I think I'll like it here at the end of the alphabet :)


Let's take a trip back to just under two months ago...to the best day of my life. Colby and I were married on Sept. 24th at noon in the Draper Temple, and it was perfect. As Colby and I walked into the sealing room we were both slightly shaky and nervous. My heart was pounding and I had butterflies like never before. Despite all that, we had never been happier and I couldn't help but have a perpetual grin plastered on my face...that is, until I started crying my eyes out the second my parents came up to give me a hug. 

All in all, everything that I feared might go wrong ended up falling into place perfectly, and I actually had FUN at my reception! Colby and I managed to completely avoid a receiving line and it was awesome. What is the point of those anyway? No one likes them...they should be banned. We still managed to say hi to everyone who came in, and we were able to chat with them for longer than a split second because they didn't have a trail of other eager guests waiting behind them. 

All in all, I love being a wife and homemaker. I work from 8-4:30 everyday, and my husband doesn't get home until 7:30 each day...Therefore I have 3 hours to tidy up, get dinner ready, and even catch up on the random TV shows that I like. It's really quite nice. Though I must say, coming up with a nice meal EVERY day is not the fun/easy task I thought it would be. I need to get in the habit of planning all my meals for the week on sunday so that I can go to the store just once, instead of everyday as I have been.


I have a lot to learn, but I couldn't be happier about it. Being a wife is the best! 


Oh, and just in case you're interested...we were rockstars for Halloween, and it was a little too convincing, if i do say so myself! 

the beginning of forever

I am officially engaged! At 6:15 a.m. on July 7th, 2011 Colby proposed in Central park overlooking a beautiful lake, and it couldn't have been more perfect. We thought it would be fun to take some engagement pictures in NYC so my dad agreed to take some even though Colby hadn't proposed yet...I had every intention of just hiding my hand from the camera lens. 

That morning we woke up bright and early and walked a few long avenues over to the park in the thick humidity so that we could get some pictures before the crowds took over. Once we were at the first location I turned to my dad quizzically and asked how he wanted us to pose. When I turned back around I found Mr. Zimmerman down on his knee. At first I thought he was trying to sit on the ground in the dirt and I was very confused...it wasn't until I saw him reach in his pocket for the ring that I realized what was going on and that he was about to propose! Fortunately my dad was there, camera ready, so we got the whole thing captured on film. 

It was perfect...and he is perfect. I can't believe how lucky I am :) Oh, and the ring is gorgeous! He designed it himself, and it is exactly what I wanted. The wedding will be September 24, so save the date!