halloween recap

halloween is always an interesting holiday for me. i'm not super creative, i wish i knew characters of movies better, and i married someone who isn't too crazy about the dressing up holiday either. although i hear he used to be?

our friends put together a murder mystery party, and jared and i planned to go and hang out for the night. i had been sweating thinking about our costumes all week.

so here's how our halloween went:

12:00 log online to the murder mystery website to discover characters. jared is a dracula and i am a devil. not too hard - definitely could be worse.

12:05 lose focus on costumes. jared's back to football and i'm studying for the cpa.

4:00 make witches brew to share at party.
note: this is a new recipe.

5:00 back to costumes. jared needs a black cape, face paint & teeth. i need horns and a tail. we hope wal-mart isn't sold out, and we remember texas roadhouse is next to wal-mart. witches brew is still not at a boil.

5:15 jared cranks temperature on stove to 10 and witches brew starts to boil.

5:30 we're off to dinner and wal-mart.

6:30 bumping into a million people in the costume aisle at wal-mart. i find a kid's devil costume kit and the mr. finds his cape and white face paint.

7:00 get home. whiff witches brew as i open the door. smells fantastic. taste witches brew. NASTY! bitterness overtakes my mouth. jared starts dumping sugar and other objects into witches brew.

7:15 party time in 15 minutes. CRAP! we throw on costumes. i paint jared's face while he "fixes" witches brew. we think, do we take the witches brew at this point?

7:30 we walk to party with witches brew finger's crossed nobody asks questions.


i drank water at the party.

till next year,
happy halloween!

yours are the sweetest eyes i've ever seen

monday marked two years with the mr. i've been sick for a few days, and he's been hitting the books for a cpa test he took this week. we celebrated yesterday with dinner at chili's followed by the first jazz game of the season.

it's crazy to think two years have passed since we officially tied the not. despite still not having a wedding photo album and the few remaining unused wedding gifts that linger around the house, we've come so far--we finished school together, we moved to a new city, we found things like skiing & pasta that we both love, we each have our tv shows we watch with each other, and we enjoyed the journey to figure all of this out.

the mr. makes it a point to surprise me with a little something on our anniversary. his surprise this year has a nice sound.

can you guess?

you may be wrong for all i know, but you may be right.

one month

the house is coming together nicely, but man we are on the slow track. we’re having a good time finding just the right size furniture in our style that fits the budge. it just takes a little time--one month so far.

the mr. and i spend a lot of our nights after work and most saturdays shopping around and working on mini projects. we get so excited to do an ikea run, hang pictures, install blinds, and (me) decorate. home depot and wal-mart are other frequent stops.

we are nowhere near done, but here are a few projects we’ve started:

{bookshelf}
i adore the color. we’re going to need to incorporate this blue throughout the house. i think we’ll paint a room a very, very light version of this color.

{shutters}
biggest pain/expense of my life, but hopefully worth it. goodbye fishbowl and creepy neighbors who watched our every move at night.

{kitchen table}
$99 at ikea. oh, i love you ikea. we have 4 more of the green chairs coming to replace the brown folding chairs.

{desk}
hopefully very functional in the family room and near the kitchen. we clearly spend a lot of time on the computer.

{wreath}
dear rebecca, you put leaves, berries & pine cones together so beautifully. thanks for making this with me and cheering me up after a crappy day. the neighbors love it.

{blinds}
very functional, very affordable & hopefully discrete.

i’m also busy selling everything that we no longer have a use for. goodbye bathroom vanity, farewell big brown, and sayonara laptop. we will see you on the flip side.

lovebirds

zach + haley
01.16.10

my brother proposed to haley last weekend, and i'm pretty happy for both of them! they make the perfect pair! they are totally in love and oblivious to everyone around them, and they talk and look at each other and smile just like 2 lovebirds. oh, and this puts another girl in the family. YEA!

congrats!

"the best season of the year"

have i mentioned the mr.'s passion for fall sports? how he watches relentless hours of games, plays in a few fantasy leagues, tracks stats on his phone, computer and tv 24/7, and gets a phone call or two to talk about the huge game? it's a bit overwhelming, but i'm in for the long haul and i'm adapting quite nicely by learning a few rules and getting into the teams and competition.

i surprised jared with tickets to usa v. el salvador for his birthday. so cool to see a team like usa play in salt lake city. rio tinto was plastered with red, white & blue and rightly so.



byu cougs v. colorado state saturday. my first game in a while outside the student section. very. very. odd.




i couldn't help but notice some leaves here and there changing on the mountains. whoa! i can't wait to go picnic in the canyon.

so you see i'm learning why the mr. says it's "best season of the year."

come visit me please

last week we packed our belongings and made the long awaited move to salt lake. between the budget truck, lots of family, and our new neighbors, our move was relatively pain free and all over within a day. WOO! and now we have a new place to call home and work together to feel like our perfect little house.


we're still a bit buried in boxes, but we're getting settled in. on our first night sleeping at our new place, we finished watching a boise state game late and then started looking for a box with our bathroom goods--toothpaste, contact solution, face wash, etc. after a long failed search, we decided to forget the bathroom box and just put our tired feet to rest. jared turned the lights out, and we had about 15 street lights and building lights glaring through our uncovered windows right into our eyes. luckily we were both tired enough that it didn't matter, but you forget about the little things like window coverings and living in the city with lights.

and since our first night i've counted our windows--27 large see-through glass windows for the whole world to creepily watch my every move. not cool! i get really weirded out at night. we've taped some blankets and sheets to some windows for now, but something a little more long term is in the making.


we totally survived a really long day. a huge thank you to everyone who helped! and now... we just need some visitors. mHm.

you + me baby

image from here.

you know that feeling? where life seems a little too good to be true and you wish you could use your dvr to hit pause cause you know it can't last?

i just wrapped up "busy" season at work. it proved to be a little more stressful and brutal than i planned. my deserted blog could have led you to these conclusions. but i'm alive and i'm proud to say i made it.

we move this week,
i have a concert with the ladies,
fall is in the air,
and the holidays are nearing.

so much time with the mr.! (although he's happiest smack in front of the tv with football.)

what's not to love? happy september 15 to my fellow nerds!

plucking blackberries

today we picked a pot full of blackberries, took them home and made a delicious cobbler. the location: the fence line along my dad's car wash in salt lake. the interesting fact: at one point he also found mary jane growing on the property. the blackberries were delicious, but i haven't tried the mary jane.

our new abode

it's been a really exciting week on the home front, literally. as you know, jared was out of town for 10 days over the past couple of weeks. i worked a lot while he was gone and then spent my evenings driving the neighborhoods of salt lake from bountiful to lehi. yea, not fun but i got a great feel for all of the communities and checked out the real estate. i was open to pretty much anything since we've been "looking" for about a lifetime now.

last weekend we found a new, modern townhouse in salt lake proper where we will be moving in mid-september. it makes me want to jump and shout for two reasons: 1 - a new place means new decorating and new space to fill, and 2 - i will be 8 miles from my office and won't be driving 2 hours a day. hooray!

it has 3 beds, 3 baths, windows galore, a 2-car garage, and a trax station 100 yards from the front door. bring on the painted walls and bbqs!

*colors are a little off and there are a few slight differences, but i had to give you the idea.

TGIF... tomorrow

the mr. started work last week and has been training out of town. the day i got married most everything "independent" about me was lost. i now dread spending an hour alone at home, and i find it a wretched experience to go days at a time.

i've almost survived. he returns in 24 hours.

for now, here's a picture from the days when we dated as non-marrieds. makes me smile.