The Testing Center can't even handle me right now

Although my official Divine Comedy days are behind me, Alex and I got to do something awesome with them yesterday. For a music video they are working on, they needed a large crowd to come and turn the testing center into a club. That's right, we had a dance party. In the testing center. Where tests are taken. It was so, so fun, and an experience I will tell my kids about when they're at BYU.

In further news, here's a picture update of our December. Sorry it takes me so long to update this thing! I'll be better. I promise.

They had a nice little goodbye moment for me in the middle of the last show. Tears were inevitable.

Weirdos.



These lovely people cam into town for my last show. (Well, it was just Mom and Josh who came in to town.)



We had the chance to go to the Christmas Devotional. So awesome,

We took a stroll around temple square. It was gorgeous, as always.

The weekend before finals I hosted a DC girls sleepover. Tons of fun, and very little sleep. :)



Then, after finals, we headed to MN! We spent a lot of time with these awesome people.



Played in the snow. A lot.

The Jazz where playing Minnesota while we were there, so I got Alex tickets for his anniversary gift!
It was tons of fun!

We got to Skype wiht Ty on Christmas!

Did a lot of laying around and watching Thr Grinch. :)

Merry Christmas! :)

 

And lots of puzzling.

My camera died on Christmas, but we also celebrated Alex's birthday and had a really fun New Year's party.

 

It was a blast, and now we're back to reality. Darn. :)

Hope you're all doing well, and are enjoying your three day weekend :)

For those of you who missed it...

Hey friends! For those of you who read this and couldn't make it to my last show, here's a few fan-filmed videos from the show. A few relatives have asked when the DVD would be available, but here's something to watch in the meantime. :)


Here's some gems:


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Barbershop: I helped write this one, but it was so fun to perform!





A song from our headliner "Sound of Music and the Spoken Word".





 One of my favorite roles for Mallory (the shut up everyone I just got dumped girl).





This was my dying sketch -- it was my favorite song I've ever done! Thanks, Whit and Mal for writing it for me. :)





I'm barely in this one, but it's still one of my favorites.





So there ya have it. It's kind of like being at the show, right? :) Hope everyone is relaxing. Tomorrow is Alex's birthday, so make sure to call him! :)


Love you guys!
xo
Nat

Merry Christmas from Minnesota! :)

Hello all!


It's been forever since a post, and a lot has happened. My last Divine Comedy show, Mom and Josh came out for visit, finals, and now I am home. I promise a better update soon. In the meantime, we will be lounging around my parents house for two weeks doing whatever we please. Life is so, so, good.

We'vr got a lot of snow here -- in fact it's the most snow on record in December. Ever.


We will be having a white christmas. I think I'll work on our Christmas card today...(oops) and just e-mail them out to everyone. Leave your e-mail in the comments if you want one!


Love to you all! :) (And see some of you soon!)


xoxo


Nat

Monk Reunion 2010

We had the chance to go to a reunion for my Mom's family -- we do it every other summer. It's totally heaven!

We took a red-eye flight to get there -- here's the view as we were landing in the JFK airport. It was actually kind of fun!

The view from our room :)

Our first night there :)

My cute parents!

This is how Nora looked most of the time!

Thomas siblings :)

The whole family! :)

Thomas girls

Cute Neve

Tommy Boy :)

Our movie this year was Pirates!

Nice tan line, eh? :)

Then we got stuck in Chicago -- they put us up in a hotel, it was actually really fun! We had an extra day of vacation.

We can't wait to go back, and we miss all our Monk family members! :)

P.S.: Here's a picture of the Cilantro Lime Quesadillas I made a while ago

Yum! :)

June :)

Happy July everyone! Man, I can't wait for the prolonged 4th of July festivities. I have a feeling this whole weekend will be filled with fireworks, yummy food, and family. :)


Here's my favorite dessert recipe that I'm sure I'll make this weekend:

Strawberry pie


1 pie crust ( I either buy an already made chocolate one, or make it with chocolate graham crackers...yum!)
A bunch of strawberries ( enough to fill the pie crust generously) with stems cut off
1 pkt of Sugar-free raspberry Jell-O mix
1/2 cup of sugar ( you can play around with that amount, if you really want to just taste the berries you don't need it)
3 T cornstarch (sometime it needs 4)
1 3/4 cup of H20
Whipped cream ( if you want :) )


1. Mix cornstarch, Jell-O mix, and sugar together well and add to water. Gradually mix in cornstarch mixture. Reduce the heat and simmer until thickened. Stir pretty constantly


2. Place strawberries throughout the crust. Poor mixture over berries.


3. Stick it in the fridge for a few hours, and you're done! :) Put some whipped cream and blueberries on top if you want to be patriotic. :)


June has been a very busy but very fun month. Alex and I both are just working now, but we ended our Spring term each getting As in our classes (yipee!). We both are loving this time in our lives to just be with each other, and enjoy being married without a ton of stress!

We have a new beautiful, darling niece, Kira, and VERY recently a new nephew, Conner. They are absolutely perfect. It's so fun holding a newborn!:) Makes me excited for a little one someday.

Erica and Andrew moved back to the Midwest, waiting for Andrew's Master's program to start, and living with my parents. Jealous? Yes. I'm the only kid not at home right now. Oh well, it'll make everyone loves us that much more when we do see them ;)


The DAY OF Alex's final, like two hours after he finished, we drove down to AZ to visit Midwestern University. Keri, the coolest sister ever, came with us, and we drove her totally awesome car. (Insert picture here) It was really fun spending the 11 hr drive with Keri and Alex, hearing funny stories about when they were growing up. I really do love Keri a lot, she's become one of my really good friends. :)

The trip to AZ was fun. And hot. Alex took a simulation course at Midwestern University -- he got to learn more about the dental school, meet and talk with dental students and professors, etc. It made Alex VERY excited for dental school! It still seems like a while away, but I'm glad that it will be something Alex really enjoys.

Keri worked on her grad school paper while I finished up Catching Fire. I read Hunger Games and Catching Fire within a week, I couldn't put them down! I can't wait for the next one to come out August 24th! It will be just enough time to read it before school starts in the fall. :)

We went driving around Mesa, saw the temple, and got a REALLY yummy snow-cone-with-ice-cream thing. If you haven't tried one-- you need too. Drive up to Alpine and go to Snowasis and get it Glacier style- it's totally worth the trip. I actually had one last night after playing at the park with some nieces and nephews. I love summer time :)

Anyways, we also went out to each and met a bunch of Keri's friends from when she lived there. We had some really, really good BBQ, and then Alex and I walked down the street to get a Pizookie. A pizza- sized cookie with ice cream on top. (Pizza and cookies are probably my two favorite things. I promise I'm a healthy person, despite the food I talk about on this blog. Maybe I'll put up some healthy recipes to redeem myself... ) Anyways, it was incredible. I wish I had taken a picture of the street too -- it was very fun walking along all the little shops. Here's a pizookie picture I found online -- looks just like the one we got. Yum.


We drove back on Sunday, and to a new nephew Connor! Since the trip, things have began to settle down. We went and saw How to Train Your Dragon in the dollar theatre. It was really fun! 


I totally love movie popcorn, but I haven't gotten any in a long time because of how expensive it is. I had a few bucks in my wallet from a card I got from my generous Momma, but I couldn't bring myself to spend 4 dollars on a bag of popcorn. Alex, I'm sure, noticed how sad it made me I guess, because he "went to the bathroom" and brought me some popcorn. What a husband :)


We're looking forward to July - work, going to the pool, spending time with family, being outside, picnics, cook outs, and of course the BEACH for a whole week. 

Life is good. :)