December in Review

December! if it weren't for the cold temperatures and short days, December might be my favorite month.

Highlights included -

- having a pie night with some friends. we were stuck with three pies when second thanksgiving got re-scheduled and they were nice enough to help us get rid of some of it.

- decorating our apartment for christmas time.

- discovering how much stuff is just crammed into midvale. we just realized last night that there's a walmart and a whole mess of other things just a couple blocks away from target. my brain cannot comprehend how many restaurants and stores are crammed into that amount of space.

- watching almost all the harry potter movies. (we still have both parts of 7 to watch). i've never seen the movies before and i'm torn about how much i like them. i did ugly cry when dumbledore died though. ugh. my heart.

- after over a year of owning our duvet, realizing there are freaking ties in the corners to keep it all situated! the injustice of this is overwhelming.

- the weekend we inexplicably stayed up till 3 am every night.

- the day i didn't notice i had a fairly visible hickey showing till i was leaving work. yeeeah. i've never been accused of being too classy.

- my work christmas party. the party was fun, and we got to stay in the downtown marriott. the best part was probably sitting in the hot tub and watching the snow fall outside. the second best part was brian having to sew me into my dress because the zipper broke.

- a delicious birthday dinner for jamilyn at the dodo.

- killing it with christmas shopping this year. one giant amazon order and a mall trip pretty much did it for us. christmas shopping kind of stresses me out, so this was greatly appreciated.

 - having solstice christmas in malad. we got to spend a lot of time with my family, have daily snack breaks, and open a ridiculous amount of presents.

- being serenaded to sleep by brian singing "baby got back."

- continuing our tradition of christmas tacos, and a hot chocolate drive to see lights.

- we got to babysit cute baby clementine! it was so much fun, and i got to try out phrases like "brian, go check on the baby." also, our cats got super jealous.

 - having our first christmas eve and morning just the two of us. we slept in, gave the cats their presents, opened gifts, and made a delicious breakfast. it was pretty perfect.

the best thing that happened this month was having four christmases.

the worst thing that happened this month was when we were trying to buy our last presents at target and realized we were starving. things got real emotional in the rug aisle.

jobs. part one.

my very first job was at Malad Drive-In, a burger and shakes place. at the time, the night crew was entirely staffed by high school girls. and mostly popular high school girls. i'm not quite sure how i broke in...  this job kept my car full of gas, my purple cell phone stocked with 50 texts a month, and me outfitted in volcom t-shirts and american eagle jeans.

- we ate a lot...a LOT of the food. mini grilled cheeses, extra fries and english chips, sundaes made in frysauce cups, cookie dough, the crushed up reeses, and a never ending supply of slushes. thinking back, i don't really understand how none of us were morbidly obese. teenage metabolism, guys. it's a marvel.

- working with all girls can lead to a bit of drama. especially in a small town where everyone is sharing boyfriends and people find out you made out with someone before you actually do it. (i will say that the two singular make-outs i participated in during high school were kept under wraps. i'm not sure what that says about me.) there was a period of time where one girl was doing that sort-of dating thing with another girl's recent ex-boyfriend. it was...tense. all the ice cream in the world cannot make that situation better. especially when you're all crammed into about 200 square feet.

- people get mean when they're hungry. also, some people will pull into a completely full lot and then act surprised when their food takes longer than 5 minutes.

- the most embarrassing thing that i can remember happening occurred my first summer. i was trying to hook the window tray onto someone's car and one of the drinks tipped over, ruining the food, and splashing a little inside the car. i was, obviously, mortified. the worst part was taking the soda-soaked tray back inside and having everyone silently judge me as i sat it down and requested a duplicate order. the victims of this incident were so incredibly nice though, and even left me a tip. i always hope i can be half that gracious to people serving me food.

- we sold penny candy. an overwhelming sense of dread would fill my soul when a kid would come in and pour his summer's worth of change on the counter. after meticulously counting out the hundreds of pennies, i would wait for the detailed order of how they wanted the candy split. after i had been there a while i wised up and approximated the candy. (and don't worry. it was always way more than they were paying for)

- a boy i had a crush on for yeeears in high school (and maybe turned out to be the participator in the two secret make-outs...) would come to the drive-in randomly with his friends. (which is normal. it's the "main hang" and i probably saw the majority of people from my high school show up in the time that i worked there) anyway. i just remember being outside carhopping and glimpsing his car pull into the other parking lot, or seeing him walk in through the front door and it felt like my stomach dropped into my shoes. teenage romance, guys. it's a marvel.

- did i mention that the night crew was entirely made up of high school girls? if it was slow the boss man would leave and things got...interesting. we got the work done, but also sometimes we would chase each other out front around the tables, or see what a deep fried swedish fish was like. someone would keep an eye on the parking lot, and the second that green jeep pulled in we were the best behaved employees in all the world.

- i have incredible skills at cooking things in a deep fryer, making a chocolate dipped ice cream cone, not over-blending a cookie dough shake, slicing limes and strawberries, and measuring the perfect amount of frozen potato sticks to fry.

- the best part of working there was probably getting to know girls i probably wouldn't have through high school alone. (mostly because of my introvert tendencies and the fact that most of them were more popular than i was/ran in different social circles) we would get our after work shakes and drinks and pile into someone's car and do a couple laps on the cruise route. we didn't care that we all smelled like fries or that we had a line of ice cream spray across our chest from mixing shakes. even though it was a crap job sometimes, (i suffered some of the worst grease burns of my life) and some of the girls working there had their moments...i'm still glad it was my first job. and to date, it's the longest i've ever worked in one place. (three years!)

also if you're wondering why i have a picture of myself posing by the bread cart, i'm wondering the same thing. it's good to see i've always been skilled at posing for photos. and that for once my shirt was long enough to hit the waistband on my pants.

november in review.

well it's somehow december. it kind of angers me that november and december go by in a second and then january seems to last three years. sigh.

some highlights from november...

halloween! (that was obviously in october. but it didn't get mentioned in my october post) we had a halloween murder mystery dinner party. it was super fun and reinforced my decision to stop pursuing acting after the two plays i was in my youth. (annie and krazy kamp. if you were wondering)

my birthday weekend. we had the best indian food ever, ashley made a crazy good nutella cherry chocolate cake, and i was serenaded with everyone singing row your boat. in a round.

the night we couldn't fall asleep so we listened to hootie and the blowfish and blurred lines on youtube and sang cat stevens and james taylor songs to each other.

waking up one morning with wallace sleeping on top of my head. my hair was a disaster.

having an 80's themed girls night with a few co-workers. we had ring pops and played girl talk.

brian and i singing 'everybody dance now' in our apartment and then hearing it play 10 minutes later at smiths. freaky.

making our chocolate chip cookies into an ice cream sandwich.

going on a long walk and finding a new park

having success with three new recipes! (chicken pot pie, carrot coconut soup, and parmesan crusted pork chops)

finding Chopped episodes online and reliving the glory days of having cable.

finally catching up on How I Met Your Mother

trying out a new Thai place.

sushi + indiana jones+ village inn pie night with the fall friends club. a lot of good conversation happened that night, a majority of which centered on which celebrity we would sleep with.

getting my wisdom teeth out. i had heard it was way worse as an adult, but my experience was really....easy. i think my mouth owed me one after all the torture i went through with braces.

friendsgiving! all the food was sooooo good, and i made my first pumpkin pie.

being almost done with harry potter. i'm getting real sad about it.

a monday date night with chinese food and an ikea trip. we bought curtains like real adults.

the night brian was making a 90's playlist and it turned into a sing-along. during which i cross stitched because i like to keep things interesting.

thanksgiving! we spent it in idaho, and got to spend a lot of time with my parents, and catch up with my best malad friends.

saturday morning was spent making pies for thanksgiving with brian's parents. due to a scheduling mis-communication we ended up having pizza-giving instead. and it was great.

the best thing that happened this month was realizing we had pizza for dinner four times in one week.

the worst thing that happened this month was realizing we had pizza for dinner four times in one week.

happy beginning of december!

26 before 27

this year's birthday list! i'm feeling less than wordy today, so i'll just get to it. 

attend the temple every month.

get better at reading the scriptures daily. and by get better i mean...start reading them daily again.

read 20 more books. at least 3 church books.

paint something.

learn to crochet.

knit a hat.

make some christmas decorations.

learn to play my ukulele.

organize my recipes.

decorate our bedroom.

make good use of the treadmill.

organize all the pictures on my computer.

keep photos organized by month for next year's photo book.

send packages to people.

go to austin.

make a cheesecake.

make bread/pizza crust.

get over my fear of making curry.

make another pie.

have people over for dinner.

hang up all the cool stuff we've been accumulating.

get my favorite print framed.

finish a cross stitch project.

go to a fitness class.

buy a noodle and goggles to use in the pool this summer.


i cannot come up with a 26th goal. isn't that ridiculous? so i'm keeping a spot open for when i finally think of the perfect end to this list. i think this could be the year i accomplish my WHOLE list.

fingers crossed.

birthday list revisited.

so i thought once october hit i'd be really gung-ho about finishing up my birthday list. but instead i just stopped caring about it all together. life's funny, right? anyway, here's where i landed on this goal list i made a whole year ago.

1. decorate our apartment. this means things on the walls. and maybe a rug. curtains if i'm feeling reeeeally ambitious. i'm going to say yes. our old apartment got sort of decorated, and we definitely got some rugs. new apartment still needs some work, so that will go on this years list. 

2. make a wedding photo album. i bought an album and got the pictures printed, they just haven't been introduced yet. so...some progress. i also just ordered a photo book of our first year of marriage. photo documentation is happening!

3. create a dinner board of some kind. ideally a chalkboard, with a place to store favorite recipes. like unto this. (but probably a lot less fancy). nope. we did get a chalkboard but not one that hangs on the wall, so i rarely remember it exists. i still have ambitions for meal planning. maybe this will be my year!

4. make our own wall art. - i'm pretty sure when i made this, i meant painting something? but we did create some wall displays for super cheap/free, so i'm calling this one good.

5. make an oversized cross stitch. - nope. i still want to do this, but it's currently a bigger money investment than i want to embark on.

6. learn to crochet. - i'm sad this one didn't happen. especially since my grandma can basically crochet a blanket in the same amount of time it takes me to paint my nails. it's going on the list for this year.

7. visit portland. - yes! and it was so great.

8. change my last name. (something i maybe haven't done yet) - this only happened last week, but yes! i'm officially official.

9. make homemade poptarts. - again, something so easy, and yet it didn't happen. and i love poptarts!

10. write thank you cards to people. (this doesn't include our wedding thank you cards...which are still waiting to be done...) - i started doing this and i love it. and even though our wedding thank you's weren't on the list, i still felt so accomplished when those were finally done. 

11. read 20 books. and i'm counting the snl book i just finished. 19 to go! - this was probably my most successful birthday list item. i got to 20 books in june and then stopped counting. i finally got back into the reading habit i lost during college.




12. throw a party. - between brian's birthday, and a couple friend parties that i contributed to, i'm counting this one done. maybe this year i'll try a holiday party? 

13. learn to (somewhat) use brian's grown up camera. - nope. 

14. go on a waterpark tour. this is HAPPENING this year, you guys. seeing as everyone i wanted to do this with was engaged last summer, i think it might be a little easier to coordinate this time around. - here's the thing. saturdays fill up really fast in the summer. so this still didn't happen. we went to the waterpark at lagoon, but that really doesn't qualify as a tour.

15. establish some kind of regular exercise plan. - this only started in the last month. but i finally have a method that keeps me motivated (sticky tabs on the wall. for serious) and we just got our treadmill. so i'm thinking this one might stick.

16. get over my fear of bread and make some. pizza dough too. - nope. still terrified of baking things that involve yeast.

17. take pictures with my actual camera instead of just my phone. poor neglected camera. - this didn't happen super frequently, but it's definitely becoming more of a habit.

18. visit boise many many times. - i don't know if twice counts as many times. but between school and starting a new job this summer, i think it was a good effort.

19. find a different job. (if anyone has any leads with this...i'm listening) - accomplishing this goal was definitely the most life-changing thing on the list. i could go on for days about why this job is a better fit for me but that's probably boring.

20. continue to pare down my wardrobe. no one needs 14 cardigans. - i don't have a current cardigan count, but i definitely got rid of a lot of stuff i wasn't wearing anymore. (having a less strict work dress code helped with that immensely)

21. try out 5 new restaurants. - i meant to keep a list of what restaurants these were, but between salt lake, san francisco, and portland this definitely happened.

22. make a fancy cheesecake. - nope. partly because it seems like so much work, and partly because i'm too cheap to buy a spring-form pan. 

23. buy a sleeping bag. go camping. - done and done!

24. find a photobooth. nothing in salt lake yet, but we did find one in san francisco and portland.

25. pop-up dinner party. - nope. 

so all in all i'm pretty happy with that i accomplished in the last 12 months. 25 was a good year and i think 26 might be even better! 

costumes from 2006 and on...

happy halloween!! 

this is one of my favorite holidays. to celebrate....a recent history of costumes.

a sexy bee? for inexplicable reasons. (i think i just wanted to wear a tutu). also i'm just going to say right now that i won't be apologizing for any of my photo editing choices.

(this was also the year we heard a girl say "oh man! i should have been something funny instead of slutty")

this flapper costume is probably my most favorite ever. also, we got our hair done at an actual salon. hailey and i took halloween super seriously. 

tennis players. (with racquetball rackets...)

these were both from the same year. and there is a story about both. the top costume was actually pieced together a few years earlier because my boyfriend and i thought it would be so hilarious to dress as punks for an alkaline trio concert. we had fake tattoos and everything.

the nerd costume was what i wore to work, after everyone convinced me i should definitely dress up. i showed up the next day and NO ONE else was costumed. (one girl said she had dressed as a cowgirl but she was just wearing a plaid shirt. seriously?) the fed-ex guy didn't realize it was halloween and the next day he told me he had thought i was just having a really bad day.

 margot tenenbaum, a cat, and wednesday addams. all the same year. 

(look how tiny oskar was! he was dressed as a lion)

and last year! scott pilgrim and ramona flowers forever.

have a spooky scary day!

october in review

i do not understand where october went. we didn't carve pumpkins, or go to a corn maze, and we just got our costumes last night. i'm not sure exactly how i didn't realize the date... but here's what did go down this past month.

 - we went to portland! it was the perfect trip, and i'm going to post some pictures eventually.

 - we got to stay a couple nights in boise on our way to and from portland. the sweetens are my favorite and i wish i got to hang out with them every weekend.

 - i got to see janiece for the first time since a lunch-date in may. she spent a whole saturday here, and we ate, and shopped, and bought a lot of things from trader joes.

 - we had two breakfast double dates at finns. (so far i've only had the eggs benedict, and i don't know if i'll ever feel compelled to switch it up)

 - the fall fun group has had a conference breakfast, gone to a haunted forest/leatherbys (that place should just sponsor us at this point), 2/3 of us watched an 80's movie with root beer floats, and this week we're having a halloween dinner. (also 2  members have done all this with a newborn baby. impressive, yes?)

 - we met my parents in ogden this weekend for an early/late birthday celebration. (my brother's birthday is the week before mine, so we usually have some kind of family outing to celebrate them both). we played some glow in the dark mini golf, got dinner, and went to a 3D movie. it was a super lot of fun. i really like those people who raised me.

 - i got to help brian with a maternity shoot. it was really enjoyable and we got some insider information about living in portland. (as the subject of the maternity shoot was raised there)

 - through the gift of awesome friends having yard sales we scored a treadmill this weekend for crazy cheap and it now resides in our second bedroom. i've used it once and i'm already in love. i will be naming it soon. (because something you're planning on spending time with should really have a name)

the best thing that happened this month was all the time we got to spend with family and friends and definitely our boise/portland trip.

the worst thing that happened this month was realizing i didn't have any bbq sauce for our hot dog dinner.

happy end of october!

damn the man. save the empire!

i fell into a tumblr empire records rabbit hole today.

i just love that movie.

"shock me, shock me, shock me with that deviant behavior"

i think i'm going to have a rex manning day party on April 8th. if anyone wants to come.