Happy Anniversary! 2 year's runnin'

What an amazing 2 years! It's unbelievable how fast life goes, and it's especially true "when you're having fun". Brandon, you are my life and I couldn't have made a better choice than to marry you. Thank you for your patience, love, faith, and support. You truly are my best friend, and I look forward to Eternity with you.

Birthday and, wait for it....MORE weddings!

Whoolihoo! I finally turned 21! Brandon helped me put together a luau/outdoor movie in my parent's back yard! (You'll never believe how many things you can put together with $15 at the dollar store). We had a blast with tons of friends that I haven't seen in a few years, and I got to taste the glories of "Concrete Pie" at Wingers...Heaven be thanked for that dessert! Thanks to everybody for all the good wishes and my family for all their love and support.

Dani and Austin...precious!

Josh and Lexi, they made it! Lexi's trying to blow out the tiki torch :)

My sista from another motha, Lester

Josh and D gave us an awesome time, as always! We were happy they were able to stay with us in our little 2-bedroom apt. It actually wasn't as cramped as we thought, so anybody is welcome to stay with us, especially you guys, Josh and D!

I love these ladies. And that random dude in the back. STOP GETTING IN MY PICTURES! ;) Love ya Riley.

OK this woman on the left gave me the BEST gift I got for my birthday. She drew me a 26"x18" picture of the Laie Temple! I have been wanting this thing forever and she made my dream come true in under 3 hours. True story.

"Take your shirt off, twist it 'round your head spin it like a helicopter!"

It's hard being so attractive.

Sniff, I LOVE THIS BOY!

This is the wrapped drawing right after Pamela gave it to me.

Still together!
Brandon's Magic Trick; Now you see it...

...Now you don't (B and Ash stole my camera and thought this was pretty funny)

Gus Gus!

Mm'hmm

Still my favorites!

Happy Birthday!!!

This is my cake, 5 hours from start to finish. Courtesy of Ashley and Brandon.

Here's Madie's Wedding Day. I haven't cried so quickly in a long time. Bryan loves that little Miss Madie so much and I'm so happy they made it to this point! Special thanks to the Glissmeyer's for their including me in this special day.

Kimmie and Jodan.

Me and Jodan

Bunch a good lookin' guys.

Bryan and Brandon will be great friends...practically all their pictures were like this.

NEXT! This is my cousin's nephew's wedding. Follow? We only recently met, but were able to grow fond of each other very quickly! Ben was the groom (cousin's nephew) and he married Leanne, the most beautiful blonde bride! Unfortunately my family couldn't attend, but we enjoyed teriyaki chicken, pulled pork, rice and noodles. Of course, there were some great drinks and dancing! We brought Ash along as a graduation present, and we're pretty sure she's going to marry a Polynesian kid when the time comes. We won't complain.

The fathers and Ben's lil' bro, Junior.

The best dancers I've ever seen. They get better every year.

Stunning.

Poor Laga and Thele never really hold their own child. Malachi is just TOOO cute!

Cute

Wonder what our kids will look like?

Ben and Leanne in married bliss! Best wishes!

HOLY WEDDINGS

There have been quite a few weddings for us in May. We had a reception to go to Thursday, Friday and Saturday of one weekend, and then this last week we had 2 full-day weddings including my cousin Elise and friend Caitlin, and then we have another good friend getting married the day after my birthday. Sufficeth to say; May is Wedding Crazy!!!

Elise's wedding was fantastic! I have to admit that driving to Manti just for a wedding ceremony and luncheon did NOT sound appealing. I have had to spend at least 1 night a week away from Brandon the last 3 weeks since we only have 1 car and our schedules have been less than predictable. But since we are evening people, my mom, Danielle and I ended up driving down to Manti at about 10:30pm the night before the wedding to avoid a total of 4 hours of driving the next day. That temple is BEAUTIFUL! It reminded us of a European Castle inside and out. The ceremony went beautifully (short, as we like it), and we bailed from pictures to enjoy the local "Fred's". BEST french fries I think I have ever had. The whole day went beautifully, save for a bit of traffic on the way home. We enjoyed our day thoroughly and were so so happy to have our families come to visit. Congrats Elise and Greg!

"Chirley!"

Two of my favorite people of all time
The Badal's

My beautiful mom and sister! MWAHGreg and Elise showing off their Eternal Happiness :)

NEXT IN LINE = Caitlin and Luke. Now, let me be the first to say we all knew these two would end up together! Luke was a gentleman all those years since Caitlin was off-limits - being his best friend's little sis. BUT, I was kind of surprised since Caitlin getting married was supposed to be this, "like WHAT"? type deal. It was most definitely natural and awesome! It was a long day, but it didn't seem it, especially as the second day-long wedding in the week.

We MUST talk about the Bridezilla we ran into at the temple. Turns out this girl shows up to get married to a friend of ours at about the same time, fully expecting to wear her wedding dress to the sealing. This dress was absolutely stunning, but a little "worldly" for the temple. So she and her mom talk to 3 temple workers, YELLING at them about how she needs to wear this dress to the sealing. They had to call the temple Matron up, who was along the straight and narrow because they made her cover up with all kinds of stuff so you couldn't see the dress.

We passed this other girl's sealing after Caitlin and Luke's, and heard some noise. Turns out that this bride was jumping up and down and screaming in the sealing room! WHAT?!?! Honey, you're gorgeous and all, but good luck in your marriage.

All that aside, the whole day was gorgeous. I got some awesome live footage, since I was honored to be the family videographer and a Bridesmaid. Caitlin had a delicious buffet at the Provo Marriott with family and friends, then the reception at the North Hampton House. I usually think that place can be a little "old fashioned", but the way Caitlin dressed it up made it so....Caitlin! This marriage is totally blessed, and you shoulda seen Luke all day holding his new bride. WE LOVE YOU MR. & MRS. PRICE!

Caitlin's Bridals
The Few and Faithful that actually showed up for Caitlin' Bachelorette Party
Luncheon at the Marriott
We were stuck together all day ;) It wasn't a bad thing!
Gorgeous Bride!
The Dolla Representation!


We'll have another update this next week. We have Josh and D and the girls coming to stay, then we have my birthday and a baby blessing. Stay tuned!

Beginner's Luck

This is a different kind of luck. We've been really fortunate to support ourselves the last little while with only Brandon's income (which is measly compared to what he was making this time last year). We've had lots of opportunities to grow, and are praying that Brandon can find an appropriate job to get him through school starting in August. Life is really amazing for both of us and we are learning the truth behind "happiness".

Since I wasn't working, Brandon and I were able to spend 9 days with my Aunt Seira who was in town from Kathmandu. This was a very short visit, compared to the usual 2-3 week ones she usually takes. We ate, laughed, shopped, and had loads of movie nights and ping pong tournaments. Brandon has now defeated me 3 times! My record is depleting slowly. We miss her already, and hope that her promise to only return when Danielle is married or I have a baby was a very half-hearted promise. (If we can help it, it 'aint happenin' soon).

I am working on the weekends for the popcorn store, manning a popcorn booth at the West Valley Costco with Kirin. It's an incredibly easy gig and fun to chill all day with Kirin while being paid. Although, last weekend I got a surprisingly... not surprising phone call from our Apartment manager, saying that our driver's side window in our Civic was shattered. Not just busted, the whole thing was knocked in and there was glass everywhere. I had to call Brandon to leave work so he could check out the damage. Turns out somebody saw our partly-installed CD-player and decided to take advantage of the opportunity. This left Brandon kicking himself because we hadn't sold it earlier. Poor guy. We're probably going to have to tow it to his brother's house and leave it there until we get the money to fix and sell it (probably won't be until late next month). Yes, we do seem to have some less-than-desirable luck with cars, but this is a heck of a lot better than a totaled, stolen car or me on the side of the freeway.

Our other car, the Maxima ended up having troubles too, since we filled up with some crappy gas and we needed to replace one of the Spark Plug coils. With Brandon's handy work, $150 and a spurt of good luck, our baby's running well. Hopefully we can rid it of all the crap that's in the gas tank and we will have no further problems from the Chevron on 800 N.

Sorry, no pictures again :)

We just love weekends!

While Brandon was recovering from his burn, we decided to stay up in Alpine since we had quite a few things going on. Brandon had familiy coming to visit from Nevada, my sister had her 16th birthday, I had a girl's day out up in Salt Lake and General Conference! Plenty to do.

Kirin had her birthday party the Friday before her birthday since it was on Sunday. The agenda; Dinosaur Museum and Pinata's!!! I have to admit I'd never been, but it was definitely awesome! We were going to have it be just the ladies but Alex was a fun addition, since the poor guys always get left out. The Tamang Sister Trio tends to get a little out of hand sometimes. Not that it's a bad thing!






My Salt Lake adventure was fabulous. I have two best friends, Caitlin and Ashley. We met in Junior High, then Ashley moved to Logan. We have all stayed closely connect somehow, and since Ashley got her mission call to New Zealand and Caitlin is getting married, it was definitely an occasion to get together! We met up at the Gateway and walked around looking for a store that had free shirts and enjoyed Temple Square. We got to listen to the second half of the afternoon conference session in the Joseph Smith Memorial building, which was cool. I actually ended up running into my Father-in-Law and my sister's room mate. Strange.

Caitlin, Kelsey, me, and Ashley!





Conference was great, of course. We had our traditional Grandpa Dollar breakfast in the morning, then had a birthday dinner for Kirin that night! The good 'ol Adams Family (duh nuh nuh nuh...snap snap) came over, and we inhaled Kathy's unbeatable rolls and my mom's twiced baked potatoes. All in all, a very successful and eventful weekend!

Typical Us

Up the nose shot
Kirin's future Husband; Mr. Caspian Tamang :)

Grandma and Camryn sportin' the shades!
The Birthday girl and her beautiful, self-made cake!

Danielle and Michael!

This picture was supposed to be silly...And this was supposed to be cute...
And of course, what did Brandon do?

Burn Baby Burn!

Things have been pretty nuts, but not unpleasant! Well, maybe just a little, but only because of passport issues and burning woks!

I last told everyone about our Canada expedition....it never happened. I had applied for my passport on February 20th, where the woman told me NOT to pay the expedite fee, because it was sure to be there within 8 days. This was over 2 weeks before my flight, so we figured all was well. The day before our flight came, and my OLD passport came in the mail. We decided to try again, and poor Bibhau had to pay $900 to change the day and time of the flight. We postponed it for about 4 days, to Friday, since they told us it had been shipped the Thursday before. I called on Wednesday, since we still had no sign of the passport, to expedite it. They told me it would cost about $75 to ship it. We made all the necessary arrangements, and I was "rhet to go"! You'll never guess what happened. Since it never showed up, we lost our opportunity to visit and help out our poor Auntie for a while, and frugal Bibhau soon received his credit card bill...would have paid good money to have that on tape.

For now, no Canada. We don't have any ideas as to when that trip will happen, but the tickets are currently frozen in our names for another date, not without a $130 re-instatement fee, of course. (Heads up Bibhau).

The "financial toll" this "trip" took was surprising. I can't imagine how Bibhau feels spending all the money he did, but I guess I can say we weren't as prepared as we could have been? We planned for Brandon to live off of a couple week's worth of money/food for ONE person. Well, if you've met either of us (since we usually eat while we give first impressions) you'll know that having the two of us eat off of 1 person's rations is less than enough. PLUS, we had spent X-amount of money on food that Brandon particularly likes (aka- food I don't like). But I have to say, we really couldn't complain. We didn't get to do anything except grocery shop, but the spare dollars we did get our hands on provided a bit more entertainment than normal. The game started out actually looking at the weekly grocery papers and their sales (gasp!) and forming an attack plan. Then, we'd see how far $10 could stretch us. We are now professionals compared to the inexperienced shoppers we were before! And now, our budget has taken a great leap toward the positive.

Amongst this chaos, we found a new love; homemade shoestring french fries! I don't know how many of you have been to Ruth's Chris Steak House, but we were very generously treated to their goodness by Brandon's boss just before we were married, and we weren't disappointed by the food - or the bill for that matter, since it was over $900!!! They had these "shoe string" french fries that were literally the size of a spaghetti noodle. Of course, since then, we've done our research and been working to make the perfect fries. We finally figured out how to make them to our liking: cut fresh potatoes into the smallest pieces you can (we had 20lbs that we got for $2), let them soak for a minute, then deep fry in my dad's old WOK, not our new deep frying pot.

Of course, one fine day we decided to make a few changes. We used our smaller, new wok (conserving oil in this economic climate ;) ) and put a new burner cover on to help keep the trays clean when I boiled something over or spilled our dinner. Well, whilst we were cutting potatoes, we checked on the hot oil to make sure all was well. Not even a simmer. Two seconds later we heard a "FWOOO", and turned to see a 3ft flame bursting from the wok!!! WHAT?!!? Brandon tried the Baking Soda defence, but it just made it bigger! Poor guy had to grab it while I opened the door to get the flame out of our poor old apartment. He didn't get an oil burn, but that then 2 foot flame was over his hand for the 30 seconds it took to get it outside. We finally got some good Baking Soda all over it, only to have the flames burst through again within minutes (stupid fire did not want to be put out). After all is said and done, only minimal carpet damage was done outside our apartment and poor Brandon's hand got a good 2nd degree burn. We were a lucky, inexperienced, young married people, I know. But it's all good!

Brandon's burn the next day. If you'll notice the blister, that bad boy was still alive and well for 5 days after! He also had 1st degree all along his thumb to his pointer finger.

This is the burn a week later, after some assistance from BurnFree!!!

Basketball and Canada

The latest for we two Dollars includes Basketball and Canada. We recently re-discovered our long lost love for that beautiful game, and I am headed to Canada for an 8-day relief trip with my sister, Kirin.

Basketball came up when our friend Gary and Pamela thought, "Hey, let's play some basketball!" I've played since I was 8, but after I made the High School Team and was being coached by a woman I couldn't stand, things got a little too serious and I wasn't about to waste my life with the game. I love sports, but there's a line I don't cross, and she wanted me to jump right over it. I played in the Jr. Jazz Leagues almost religiously since 1996, and was able to help coach after I graduated. Brandon and I have only shot around a few times, but he's never really wanted to get into a game because he's so non-contentious. He's competitive, too. This I understand, but I never thought about how I would react playing seriously with Brandon. We've been playing at parks we could find along with Gary & Pamela, but some mornings we've gone to shoot around, it being just the two of us. Our main focus is usually "21", which feels more like an actually basketball game than H-O-R-S-E or something to that effect. My dad used to make fun of me when I played badly during games, only because he knew that some sort of competitive monster surfaces whenever I get angry during a game. I didn't take this Tazmanian Devil into account when it would be me, Sabina - 145lbs, versus Brandon - 270 lbs. We were into a game of 21 and Brandon bumped me out of his way, which did not fly over well with my competitive side. I immediately grabbed the ball, and flung it at him!!! I know, terrible. He wasn't permanently injured, but he learned very quickly that when I'm mad, or somebody makes me angry during a game, LOOK OUT! I ended up winning 21 to everyone's high of 7, but not without learning that playing with Brandon is an awesome challenge on the court that I needed to learn and grow from :)

CANADA: The land of Red Leaves....This trip has been coming for about a month, and very much looked forward to. My uncle Bibhau (my dad's older brother) lives in Kuwait. His wife and two kids are living in Canada. Why? Because his family is trying to gain citizenship in Canada, and the money he makes in Kuwait could support them for a very long time. He's a very wealthy, very frugal, and very generous man, making him extremely wealthy. He offered to fly myself and my sisters out to Canada during his kid's Spring Break, so that Manju, his wife, could enjoy some fresh air! The original plan was that I was going alone. Brandon can't miss work due to our planned trip to Georgia (CAN'T WAIT!), and we need the income while I'm gone, as well.

About two and a half weeks ago, I went to the post office to apply for a passport. It's been years since I had a current one, which has bothered me a little considering my family's origins and the many opportunities we have to leave the country. They promised me that my passport would arrive in 8 days, which mirrored the experience my parent's had getting the rest of the family's books. So, we carried on without much thought, figuring I left in over 2 weeks, so there's no need to fret. We were wrong. Kirin and I were supposed to be on our way to Canada right now! But, 17 days later, the day before our flight, my OLD passport showed up in the mail, which is very strange since the NEW one is supposed to come first. We ended up having to reschedule our flights to this Friday ($1200 later out of my poor uncle's pockets). Now we leave the 13th and come back the 21st. These will be the first nights Brandon and I have spent apart since we've been married, aside from the 1 night I spent at YW camp last year. I only worry because I see a difference between me being in Alaska for 2 months while we were dating, to me leaving the country for 8 days while we're married. I'm sure all will be well, and we will have a blast! I am just not looking forward to being away from Brandon for that long.

That's the update for now. I will post pictures and day-to-day recollections while I'm up there to give me a little more to do. Until then!