Team Buchanan

Update.

2011-04-11T23:58:00.002-06:00

Blogging is harrrrrrrrrd.

Do you want to be a stay at home Mom or a working Mom?

2010-07-15T23:32:00.001-06:00

You mean - I can't be both? Dang. I feel a real blogpost coming on about this one... on another day.

Ultimately, I find too much joy in work to ever give it up completely. But then again - I have no children of my own to love quite yet.

This is probably one of the hardest things that I have/will have to deal with in my life. I won't rule out either one at this point in my life. We will see where my life leads me.

Ask me anything

whats your favorite thing about your job? and your least favorite?

2010-07-15T23:29:00.001-06:00

Sorry - I forget about formspring. Here is your answer two months later! :)

My favorite thingS about my job are in this order:

1) The people I work with.

2) The challenge it presents me with.

3) The flexibility and trust my boss has given me.

Least favorite...

My own inadequacies as a human being. I tend to get too frustrated, too easily lately. But I am working on it!

Ask me anything

Ah, Summer!

2010-07-12T21:52:00.004-06:00

It has been almost 4 months since Lina’s last post. It’s time for some serious updates.

First, this is a slideshow of our recent vacation to St. George. Read on to hear about the rest of our adventures.

I love summertime. Late nights, beautiful sunsets every day, and fun vacations. Our big trip so far this year has been to St. George. Lina wanted to do something special for my birthday/graduation celebration. It was so much fun. We went horseback riding through Snow Canyon, saw the Beach Boys (well, most of them) and went to the St. George temple. It really stands out among the red rocks of St. George. It was seriously the whitest building I have ever seen.

I haven’t been on a horse since I was a scout, and even then it wasn’t that much of a ride. Not really sure of where we were going or what to expect, I was a little nervous. As soon as we started on the trail, our horses walked slowly in line with each other. I think they could have probably walked it alone without us on it. Because of this, Lina and I could take some pictures of the surroundings. This was a great experience.

On our way down to St. George our tire had a slow leak causing us to fill it with air every time we filled up. I bought a kit to fix it that seemed to work well, but on our way to the Beach Boys concert we hit a nail and had to change the tire in the parking lot at Tuacahn. Nice.

The Beach Boys were great, and Lina and I had fun there. We danced for a lot of their songs, but for the most part, the rest of the audience stayed in their seats even when prompted to stand and dance by singer Mike Love.

Our plans for the rest of summer: Lagoon, camping and hopefully relaxing some.

-Bryce

Summer Pictures

Rearranging Things

2010-03-28T20:29:00.003-06:00

Alright everyone - judge me if you will, but we have decided to do some rearranging around here!

I am a weirdo and I like to have everything make sense, have a purpose, fit neatly into it's assigned cubby hole in my mind. We had originally intended for this blog to be a sort of "travel log" of our journeys together as a couple. It has since turned into the Lina's thoughts show.

So - this blog will be more of a light-hearted, this is what we're up to, where we're moving, etc type of deal. We will probably move it to be private so that people can't come stalk us. We will probably be famous some day and I don't want my children waking up to some creepster in their bedroom (I've heard that this happens!). We do want to keep this up for when we actually start taking pictures of our goings on as a couple/family. Although, Lina is not so good at that stuff, so it might get neglected. Unless Bryce wants to take on that role... EH?

For all things Buchanan related stay tuned HERE at

http://bandlbuchanan.blogspot.com

For all of LINA's RANTS and thoughts - she's moving back to

http://hellomynameislina.blogspot.com

THAT blog will be her thoughts on politics, life, religion, business, school, anything and everything. That will remain open to anyone and everyone. That way if you REALLY don't want to hear it, you don't have to. :) I have deleted all those types of posts and moved them over to Hello, My Name is Lina.

Thanks for being patient with me as I move things to their appropriate places in my mind.

People Got a Lotta Nerve

2010-03-09T18:59:00.006-07:00

Alright Lina - let's try not to be so serious all of the time.

I LOVE Neko Case. If polygamy was legal, I might ask Bryce if he would consider it. Of course, I'd have to get her to convert to the LDS church... better start working on that.

“Can you play today?”

2010-02-21T17:50:00.004-07:00

Today I was at my cousin’s house for a mission farewell. For some reason it made me feel really nostalgic. I remembered all of the fun things that I used to do when I was a kid over there. They had this really cool club house that we would play in. I think we used to bring our Hot Wheels up there and play with them. After that we would go inside and play some computer games. They had a network in their house so we would play all sorts of games together.

Here are some other fun things from my childhood:

Playing Mario and Duck Hunt for hours at my friend’s house.
Going to 7-11 for Slurpees and candy for sleepovers.
Playing games forever at sleepovers.
Riding bikes around the neighborhood with friends.
Junior Jazz.
Playing Mortal Kombat during recess.
Getting up at 4:30 on Saturday to watch cartoons that didn’t start until 6

Somedays I wish I could be a kid again and just spend all day playing. Lina? Can you come over to play?

Ode to Hugsby

2010-01-17T00:44:00.005-07:00

Bryce has fallen asleep on the couch. He is so tall that his legs are dangling over the edge. :) It's pretty cute.

I don't think people understand just how awesome of a husband I have. He has been working all week to find the best deal for internet and got the installation set up for this morning. They were coming anytime between 8 and 12. So, Bryce diligently woke up at 7:30am on a Saturday morning to take a shower and be ready for them. While I... slept, until 9. Oh it was wonderful to sleep in.

I then hurriedly got ready to go to two baby showers. I left at 10 and didn't get home until 4:00pm. While other husbands might just lounge about the house while their wife is away, mine cleans, and launders clothes, and takes care of fishies. Laundry is the bane of my existence and I didn't even have to think about it today!

Bryce is always constantly putting my needs ahead of his own. I only worry that I will end up taking advantage of this and further perpetuate my laziness. He always helps me get ready in the morning, pouring my cereal in perfectly measured servings. He always takes Trax and often the bus to and from work and school because it is more convenient for him to do so. He puts shows on my iPod without being asked so when I go to the gym I have something to watch! He watches the Biggest Loser with me and supports me on my journey to a healthier lifestyle. He eats my leftover popcorn, because I can only eat 4 cups of it, and he eats it almost every night!

He went grocery shopping this evening so I could stay home and get some work done. He thought to buy me different flavored snacks because he worried that I would get sick of one specific kind. He always ALWAYS opens the door for me and always ALWAYS is a gentleman. He drops me off at the temple doors so I don't have to walk in the cold with my exposed legs! He is always there to comfort me when I am crying or stressed.

A lot of people say we are still in the honeymoon phase, but I don't agree. I think I just got pretty lucky and scored a totally rad husband. He is the sweetest guy on Earth and ever so patient with my craziness. I don't know what I ever did to deserve this kind of person in my life, but I sure am glad it worked out this way.

Hugbsy, I love you.

The Only Thing

2009-12-30T17:54:00.003-07:00

I'm feeling like it's time to write a blogpost about what life has been like over this past year. I just read my friend Nicole's blog about what goals she has accomplished this year and thus... here I am.

It's amazing how much marriage speeds up your maturity rate. I always thought I had a pretty good grasp on life, that maybe I was smarter than your average bear. However, I have come to realize that I will never get it figured out and just when I do, something else will get thrown in and throw off my entire theory of everything... YES, everything.

Except one.

I try not to be self-righteous or preachy. I could try and be politically correct, but this is my blog dang it, and it is me, and the most important part of me is being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I always knew that, but marriage has helped me to realize just how much I need Heavenly Father every single day.

Heavenly Father loves us so much. As frustrated as I get with almost everything else in my life, my Heavenly Father never gives up on me. Life's meaning is so much more clear with that lense. I often tend to want to curl up in a ball and forget all of my problems. WHY do I have to be an adult! Why do I have to figure out how to balance life! Money! Who knew money would really ever stress me out! Callings! Family! Self-Esteem! Work! Friends! GAH! Politics! Ignorance! I tend to stress myself out all too often. How could there ever be a remedy to calmn my so easly troubled soul?!

When am I most happiest? When I am doing the things I know are right. When I have my mind fixed on what is most important and THAT is pleasing my Heavenly Father. Oh! If I pray more, I find that I have a listening ear of someone who is perfect and will send the help I need just when I need it? OH! If I read my scriptures every day I will feel the courage and strength to do everything that is required of me? OH! If I keep paying my tithing, unannounced, unexpected blessings will come when we really could use them?

When our priorities are right - our lives will be too. Does that mean they are going to be perfect? No. Even when I am doing those things, I have still spent many a night crying my eyes out.

But after all of those months, I can feel the difference in myself. I feel happier. I feel wiser. I feel confident. I feel vastly more mature. I feel peace. I know I am not the same person I was a year ago and I know that the reason I feel infinitely more optimistic about well... pretty much... everything is because my testimony has taken hold of my soul and pointed me in the right direction.

Life is awesome. THANK YOU Heavenly Father, for that gift.

My Favorite Animal is Puppies...

2009-08-24T14:06:00.005-06:00

We found a stray dog yesterday morning. He was picking through garbage in the gutter on 54th and 27th by my parents house. We drove by and Lina pointed at him. I guess he caught us looking at him and started following us in the car.

We picked him up so he didn't wander into the road. He didn't have any tags or anything, so we are thinking that he was abandoned.

Doesn't he look cute?

The Story So Far

2009-04-25T17:35:00.005-06:00

Hello friends!

Sorry there will be no pictures associated with this post. Only because I don't have any readily accessible.

Here's the run down of our life together so far:

Living in a two bedroom apartment behind the Old Spaghetti Factory in Taylorsville, UT.

Using one car to get everywhere, luckily Bryce can ride Trax.

We just rechristened our car, his name is now Ender.

We found out that we love Car Talk last Saturday. Who knew talking about cars could be funny! It's on NPR or 90.1 fm every saturday at 10am.

We leave at 8:00 - 8:30am every morning for the Trax station on 5300 South.

I pick Bryce up every evening at 6:00pm from the Trax station on 5300 South.

We go grocery shopping every Saturday for a week's worth of meals.

We go to church every Sunday starting at 10:20 am at the Hewwood Ward in the Bennion East Utah Stake.

We currently have no callings, but we are speaking in church tomorrow!

Bryce is folding laundry right now, while I am writing this blog... that pretty much sums up our attitudes at home. I'm lazy and he does everything else. :)

We have no internet because we are poor, but we somehow decided that we can afford Wii Fit.

We are saving up money to buy a new Mac in September, and I'm kind of excited to learn something new.

We currently are still sucking at keeping up with friends and family, but we have a commitment to get better.

Bryce sleeps on the right side of the bed, and me on the left.

We watch Lost, 30 Rock, and the Office every week. Priorities straight? CHECK!

I'm still working at Mountain Land Rehabilitation and have finally decided that I would like to become a Speech and Language Pathologist.

Bryce is almost done with school, he is taking off the summer and will have one more full semester and one more class after that. Yay!

We like to cook and clean and build and do everything together, we don't really have assigned tasks... we just help each other, and I like that.

We love the temple and just can't get enough of it.

Marriage so far has been wonderful. It's such an overwhelming feeling knowing that you are sealed to your best friend for time AND all eternity. Bryce is the sweetest guy you will ever meet and he makes me laugh everyday. We learn new things about each other to love all of the time... for instance today when we got out our clean socks from the dryer Bryce said, "I love hot socks! It's like a hug on my feet!"

You see THAT phrase accomplished two things... I learned that Bryce likes hot socks AND it made me laugh... a lot.

So far, so good.

Love,

Lina

33 Days Left

2009-02-08T02:07:00.003-07:00

Alright,
Well I'm having a hard time falling asleep. I think it's 'cause I fell asleep while watching my little brother play street fighter. I'm not tired in the least bit. So I figured I'd write a blog.

So wedding plans ARE coming along splendidly as Bryce mentioned.

Wedding invites will be sent out THIS very week! Yay! So if you haven't given us you address. Do it NOW. :)

That photo to the right is one of many engagement photos taken by Kayleen Taulanga. There are many marriages happening this year and Kayleen is great and oh so talented. Visit her website and book her for your weddings! And all other events really. www.kayleent.com

Only 33 days left! I honestly can't believe how fast time has gone by. We have already been engaged 3 months, and dated for a whole year before that. I honestly can't remember what my life was like before Bryce came along. It really is an amazing feeling, to know that you have someone that loves everything about you... and even the things they don't love... they never mention, or overlook. I was writing my friend Caitlin (who is ALSO getting married this year to another friend of mine, yay!) about how Valentine's feels different this year.

Life feels different.

Sure Bryce and I were dating last year around Valentine's, but this year we're engaged and almost married. It's a different kind of love, a more deep and meaningful kind of love. Something I really never thought I'd feel for someone and then entered Bryce Eric Buchanan. I couldn't live without him and I am so excited to spend an eternity of increasingly awesome Valentine's Days WITH him.

Only 33 more days and we've got a little more work to do, but it's going to be pretty rad.

So COME celebrate with us, March 13. We love you!

Love,
Lina

How’s Wedding Plans?

2009-01-15T16:57:00.003-07:00

Everybody asks us how our wedding planning is going and for the most part it’s this: ‘Good, but busy.’ We have a lot done. Last night we (and by ‘we’ I mean Lina) picked out flowers. We really have a lot of the bigger things done. The smaller things for the most part are still unfinished.
We are having a lot of fun doing all this, of course.

Less than two months!!! YAHOO!

-Bryce

P.S. This is not wedding related at all, but I love January for all of the Best Album/Song/Artist lists that are popping up. Who’s the best of 2008? These guys. Listen and love them. Also, I have been listening to Girl Talk - Feed The Animals today(also one of the top albums of the year) and it is awesome.

Families are Fantastically Fun

2008-11-30T18:07:00.000-07:00

Family is my most favorite thing ever. Well, next to Bryce, but he counts as family.

What is a family? Here are a few definitions taken from www.dictionary.com

fam⋅i⋅ly

[fam-uh-lee, fam-lee] Show IPA Pronunciation
noun, plural -lies, adjective –noun

1.	parents and their children, considered as a group, whether dwelling together or not.

2.	the children of one person or one couple collectively: We want a large family.

3.	the spouse and children of one person: We're taking the family on vacation next week.

4.	any group of persons closely related by blood, as parents, children, uncles, aunts, and cousins: to marry into a socially prominent family.

5.	all those persons considered as descendants of a common progenitor.

Oh. Okay. So parents, children, grand children, etc etc. LAME definition.

What is a family REALLY?

The definition I like best is this one: The Family - A Proclamation to the World

What I love most about my family or about families in general is that they teach us how to love a person unconditionally without having to like them all of the time. I know that there have been countless times in my life when I feel like a jerk for being annoyed or frustrated by a friend, coworker, ward-mate.

But guess what, as annoyed or frustrated that I get with those people, I have had knock-down-drag-out fights with my parents, calling each other the most ruthless of names with my sister, biting my siblings (not recently this was when I was a little kid ok?).

We have very different opinions on politics, how a specific gospel principle should be applied, how high the temperature in our house should be. We don't like the same movies, same books, same music. I would rather spend a lot of my free time surfing the internet. My sister likes spending her time watching TV, my brother plays the Wii, my mom reads, my dad eats Oreos.

We yell and scream and tell each other that they suck.

And yet, I love these people more than I love anyone else on Earth.

Why? Because they are my family. And what I love even more is that I will be with this family forever.

I love my mother for her faith in the Lord, for her strength and courage to bring us to church every single Sunday without the help of her husband. And because of that, we are happy.

To quote that inspired proclamation: "Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities."

What makes it even better is that now that Bryce and I will be married, I have TWO families to disagree and yell and despise for an hour or two at a time. BUT I love them a gazillion times more than any of those silly little fights.

Today we went to Steve and Laura's baby blessing. It was great to see Steve being a righteous Dad and praising his righteous wife. I love them both. I love Heather and Jeff. I love Lynn and Janice. I love little Emily, Allie, and now Natalie.

They are a new addition to my all-time favorite thing: family.

To quote Elder M. Russell Ballard, "What matters most lasts longest."

I am grateful for eternal families and for the family I have now and for the Buchanan family that I can soon count as my own. Eventhough NO ONE in either of those families will ever read this, I love you.

Most Sincerely,
Lina

One Ring to Rule Them All

2008-11-25T20:23:00.000-07:00

Um, hello! I’m not usually a blogger so we shall see how this goes. I do like what Mike Birbiglia has to say about blogs though:

I’m sort of embarrassed to tell people that I have a blog. Because everyone has a blog, about anything like they’ll say ‘Today I went to JC Penney’ [in blogging tone]. And then there’s always that one comment that’s like ‘JC Penney, eh?’ That’s not a blog, that’s text message!

OK, I’m also excited about the wedding too. I figure I should give my side of the story? For the whole week I was pretty anxious. The whole time I was planning on proposing on our anniversary, but there was one day where I almost did it just so I wouldn't have to wait. Real cool, Bryce.

The day finally came and I was getting things all ready. I was still unsure of how I was going to propose. A crucial piece that was missing. I was thinking of what place would be nice and I thought of Temple Square. That worked, but I was still not sure how well it would all come off.

We had a nice dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. Afterwards we walked around Trolley Square for a bit. Apparently it was their 100th anniversary and they were celebrating with fireworks at 8. Had I known this, I might have suggested that we just stay there. Fireworks=Romance, right?

We left and headed towards Temple Square. We parked just north of the Conference Center and started walking towards the Temple. We walked about 10 feet when I got down on my knee and asked her to marry me. She of course said yes.

Remember those fireworks that I didn’t know about? They went off almost immediately after I did it. Perfect timing.

For not really having any solid plan, everything went perfectly. I am happy.

-Bryce

TO: Lina FROM: The Salt Lake Temple

2008-11-19T01:10:00.000-07:00

Bryce and I got engaged on Nov 8, 2008.

We decided to start our blog early... maybe a little overzealous, but get over it. I wanted to track our experiences as we are preparing to be married on March 13, 2009.

Get excited! 'Cause I am!

Today we both got our letters from the Salt Lake Temple, letting us know that we did indeed have a time reserved and what all we needed to bring, blah blah blah. The important thing is that we have a room reserved in the temple!

I have already said this to Bryce, but I think it's worth repeating. As happy as I have been while dating Bryce, that happiness has already been overshadowed by this new engagement happiness. It feels far more reverent and calming. And while engagement happiness is great, I can only imagine how happy I will be once we are sealed together for time and all eternity.

I have felt so grateful for Bryce over this year. As we prepare to go to the temple, and getting the letter from the temple today, my gratitude for not only him, but for the plan of salvation has only grown. I love Bryce. I love the temple. I love my Heavenly Father.

Life is great, we're getting married!