Us...thus far

So today I realized that I have made posted on the blog in FOREVER. Our lives have been ridiculously busy. I am in my final year at BYU and for some reason decided it would be smart to take 18 CREDITS! Holy cow. Brad is also working full time at a sale company while I am finishing up school. We are waiting to hear from several dental schools to find out what we will be doing next year. Pray for us! It is definitely a difficult thing to go through, the dental application process. We are hoping to get a spot somewhere for the Fall 2011 school year. AHH.The first football game! Brad is definitely the bearded stud!

Anywho, our lives have been just that--moving to the new apartment, going to school and work and trying to enjoy some BYU Football. We have been able to have a little bit of fun though! A lot of my freshman year and high school friends just got home from their missions, so we have had a few reunions and just a few fun times hanging out with old friends. I guess I have had more fun than Brad, but he has been a good sport about meeting my old friends and what not. What a guy :)

The girls from our freshman ward.

BYU 95th Ward Reunion! Missed those kids for sure.

Two of my high school best friends, Sarah and Pete. Now we just need Kenton to get home and our little family will be reunited!

I will get up some pics of the new apartment as soon as we have finished putting up our decor. Hopefully you have all been well!!

Love,

Marianne and Brad

Backpacking Through the High Uinta's

This past weekend Brad and I went hiking in the Uinta's with our friends Stephen, Chase and Cami. We were originally going to do about a 5 1/2 mile loop on a trail, and hike in the middle of the loop at Lake Clyde. However, when we got to the highest point in our hike (the notch), we decided to hike down to the other side, turning it into about an 8 mile hike overall. It was tough, but it was really fun! We saw some great views and had a fun workout hiking through the mountains. Next time, I will be taking extra padding to sleep on though! Enjoy some pics from our trip :)

This was the start of our hike. Brad was such a gentleman and insisted on carrying most of our baggage. I picked a good one!!

This is Lake Woll where we stopped to go cliff jumping! We had a really great time.



The middle of the hike was the top of a notch, and the view was amazing! There were so many lakes along the trail of our hike, and we were able to see a lot of them from the very top. This is from the first day.
We even saw some mountain goats along the way! We tried to get a picture with them in the background, but you can see them a lot better in the next picture.


This was the place where we finally stopped to camp. It was such a beautiful lake! Our campsite was next to this babbling brook, and it was so scenic, it was from like a picture book!
Check out the view at sunset! The lake was such an awesome mirror. The picture doesn't even do it justice.

Just spending time cooking grub around the fire.


All in all, it was a really great hike. Getting to the top of the notch on the second day was challenging, but it was really fun! We had a great time seeing the beauty of nature and just hanging out with friends. We can't wait to do it again soon!

Life in Provo

Well guys, life around here has been pretty ho-hum lately. I have been in a crazy amount of school for the past six weeks, but it is all coming to an end. However, there is some good news in the Jurgensmeier Household. Read on for me...

#1- I was given a piece of the REAL Marriott Center floor! I guess they are re-doing the floor this year, so they took out all of the old wood and decided to give a piece to every basketball player that played on the floor. My name is engraved on it along with the years I played with the team. It actually turned out pretty cool. Coolest part, my mom got a piece too. :) Like mother like daughter!!






The latter two pictures are of the box my piece of the floor came in. Pretty cool huh?

#2 I GOT A JOB!!! yes, this is very exciting. I have been looking for a job for quite some time, and it has been REALLY HARD. However, I finally had a breakthrough this week. I applied for a job as a student editor in the David O. McKay School of Education. I had my interview THIS MORNING, and it went AWESOME. I truly left the interview feeling like they loved me, and I have never been that confident in an interview before. Anywho, they told me they would let me know within the next few days. However, they called me THIS AFTERNOON AT 4:30. Yea, my interview was at 10:30 this morning!! How cool is that?? So I will be an assistant editor, and I will be helping them edit dissertations and theses from graduate students in the school of education. WOW!! It is not a very heavy hour job, but I can keep it throughout the school year and it will definitely help give me experience in the field I want to join! I am so excited!!




#3- Brad and I have a new apartment!!....almost. We are still waiting on the 100% ok, but we are ready to move from our first nest and get to a place with a WASHER AND DRYER!! OH THE LUXURY!!! haha.

So that is what's going on with us! Almost one year of marriage down, and things are looking up. Brad is getting ready to take the DAT on July 13, and we are both looking forward to the reunion coming up. Yay!

Jeff and Kathy: Happily Ever After

Well, the family had a great time at Jeff and Kathy's wedding! Although it was too short of a trip, we definitely had some fun just hanging out with the family and enjoying the California sun. Kathy looked gorgeous in her dress, and Jeff couldn't help but smile all day. It was really amazing to be able to be in the temple when they got married. Grandpa Bell did an amazing job with the sealing! Who knew I would be able to see my older brother get married?? Lucky me! We all had a great time. I miss everyone already.

Me and Grandpa Bell waiting outside of the San Diego Temple

The Newlyweds! They both looked amazing :)

Me and my big brother Jeffy :) Now four Bell kids are married! Four down, two to go, haha.

Brad and I enjoyed a fun swing at the reception

Cutting the cake! I think that Jen said it best when she said that the reception was very "quaint". I loved all of the little decor and the coloring. You did a great job Kathy and the West family!


The rest of the time was spent hanging out with the funniest and cutest guys I have ever met: Ashton and Weston. We had a great time playing with them in the hotel room after the reception. Thanks Tommy and Shayna for partying with us all night! It was a blast!

Weston was showing off his skills of fitting into the mini fridge.
He had us laughing all night!

Weston also makes the best CHEESE faces. I think that these two pictures can attest to that!
Oh Westie Bear, what a hoot!

Ashton and Weston just having fun with their favorite Aunt! (Me of course!)
I was also lucky enough to get to sit by Ashton at In-N-Out. We had so much fun this weekend! We can't wait to come visit you guys again soon. And congrats again to Kathy and Jeff!

Bryce's Birthday, Conference and Easter

Well, it has been a long time since I have taken the time to make a post. A lot of things have been going on around here lately! School is definitely coming down to the wire, and after I write this post I have to go to campus to work on a project for four hours, bleh. But anywho, let us talk about the fun stuff!!

March 30 was my brother-in-law Bryce's 22 birthday. We all had a busy day, but Brad and I and Karee and Josh took the time to make Bryce some brownies, get some ice cream and sing happy birthday. It was nice to just hang out with the Jurgensmeier's for the evening. :) (and yes Karee, I just got the squiggly red line under Jurgensmeier, but surprisingly, not under Karee. Interesting!)

Bryce Blowing out his "candles". It's ok, because the brownies and ice cream still look delish!! I also took sole responsibility in singing Happy Birthday in Indonesian to Bryce, a Bell Family tradition. :) Sadly, Brad says he still doesn't "know the words", but one day I will have taught it all to him.

A good thing to do while at birthday parties is help each other with homework. Well, at least that is what Karee and Brad like to do. I guess that is what takes the place of dancing in their lives??? ;) Don't worry, one day we will turn them into dancing machines.

And then came Easter! We woke up to a delicious Easter Basket, and Brad got me some beautiful spring flowers and some of my favorite chocolates! It was a nice treat to have while watching conference together!



























Somehow, we got lucky enough to get tickets to the Sunday Afternoon session of Conference in Salt Lake! I had never been before, so I was really excited to finally have the experience. Brad and I got there early, so we got some pretty nice seats!

All in all, it was a really nice weekend. Now back to the grind of finishing school, and off to campus to work all day in the Mac Lab! Ahh!! I am excited to see a lot of family in a few weeks at Jeff and Kathy's Wedding, it's gonna be so fun!

The Twins are Celebrities!

The twins were interviewed on camera for their school newspaper, and I just had to post it! I am very proud of all of their accomplishments and their Celeb status at Briar Woods High School :) Its crazy to think that the twins will be in college next year! What are mom and dad going to do?? haha. The Bell girls will forever be cool! Check out their interview with the link below...

http://my.hsj.org/Schools/Newspaper/tabid/100/view/frontpage/schoolid/2524/articleid/341183/newspaperid/2529/Its_a_Twin_Thing.aspx

So Offended!!

Yesterday in my Elang class, someone was trying their VERY HARDEST to make me upset. So here is the story...

Everyday in class, we have a presentation on a word or phrase that is commonly misused in the English language. Yesterday, the controversy was between the two phrases "reason is beacause" and "reason is that". According to the rule, "reason is because" is redundant, as the word because means "for the reason that". ANYWHO, we still use this term all the time in everyday speech, and the guy who was giving the presentation decided to give an example of how we would use it today

"For example, the reason that people don't go to Women's basketball games at BYU is because it is extremely boring. And, I know this first hand because my roommate went and said it was boring."

WHAT THE HECK??? I could not believe this garbage came out of this child's mouth. Number 1, you do NOT have first hand knowledge because your roommate went. First hand knowledge comes from your experience. Secondly, why would you openly disgrace a part of the athletic institution at your own dang school? I mean, I might not be on the best terms with the whole coaching staff, but I don't going around dissing the team right and left! i mean, come on, they are second in the conference. It just irks me. Womens basketball is a different sport than mens. Yea, it might not be extremely fast paced with people dunking right and left, but it still takes extreme technique, athleticism and hard work. And I bet you I could take that loser kid in a game of basketball any day.

I was just fuming that he chose to be rude in an in class presentation. Fine, you can have your own ideas about what sports you like, but don't just diss it in front of a huge class. Grrr. He is probably just a pansy boy anyway. I bet that a lot of the girls on the basketball team could hang with the guys on the mens team. But what do I know, I have just been playing basketball for 14 years of my life...

And especially during the Olympics! Just because womens sports are a little different does NOT make them less important or less intense. You are just choosing to be offensive and sexist. We should support all the female atheletes, especially those who can compete at such high levels of athleticism. Go ballers!