Ew, It's Been Four Months

Since I last blogged.

You thought I was going to say since I got married, didn't you?  And you were super confused as to why I would use the word 'ew' amiright?  No, no, it  has only been almost two months since that blessed occasion. 

Seriously, I can't believe I let it go this long without blogging.  I mean, I was a tad bit busy with wedding stuff and business.  But really, a lot of other people did wayyyy more than I did on that front so I guess I have no real reason of neglect besides enjoying life with my new husband (which finally isn't weird to say anymore, wooo!).

Anyhow, I will post wedding pics and such tomorrow but right now I would like to tell you about our little Saturday adventure.

It all started with getting married (doesn't it always?).  Once we got married and had our own house (apt), it finally gave me the opportunity to buy all the food I want start building up food storage.  Not having extra food has always stressed me out a little because, let's face it, I so super, way-mega one million love food.  But who here doesn't know that? 

So I've been stocking up on stuff like 20 lb bags of rice and flour and sugar and the like, as well as convincing Dillon that we should spend some of our gift card money on a freezer so that we could buy 40 lbs of chicken (at a great price) this fall.

All of this has also increased my desire to become more self sufficient and housewifey (or homely as my coworker thought, instead of homey--oops), to the point where I just learned how to can.  So far I've only attempted strawberry jam and peaches, but each has turned out super--it's way easier than I thought.

I found out that you aren't supposed to home can pesto because of the pH balance, but that's okay because I just tossed my double batch into the freezer, along with the pints of salsa Dillon made the other day and the container of cookie dough I whipped up.  I love that freezer.

This all culminates in the fact that ever since I learned to can, I have been wanting to go berry picking so I could can raspberry jam because it is my favorite.  And so that is what we did today on our Saturday adventure. 

Photos for proof that Dillon will spend his Saturday berry picking because he is nice like that:

On being an old lady

I would like to share with you all this new and exciting book I found and subsequently used in a practical manner the other weekend called "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Attending Concerts Old Lady Style."

I figured since my college history textbook is also under the "Complete Idiot's Guide" genre then this would be sure to be helpful on a college level. And that's what you're looking for, right?  The college level knowledge of how to go to concerts as an old lady.  Well come and get it, e'rybody!
 
Begin excerpt reading nowwwwwwwww:

"When going to a concert, one must remember their inner concert age (ICA).  If one forgets or is unsure of their inner concert age and acts contrary to it, the concert goer will not enjoy the concert to the fullest level. 

In order to determine your ICA, please ask yourself the following questions:

On a scale from 1 to 7 (with one being not at all and 7 being way mega one million much),

1.  How much do you like sitting down during concerts?
2.  How safe do you want to feel?
3.  How many cookies do you want to sneak in?
4.  How gross do you find it when sweaty people smash up against you?
5.  How  much do you value your hearing?

If you answered a five or over to each of the previous questions then you may have an inner concert age of approximately an old lady, or Old Lady Status.  There is nothing wrong with this and we commend you for your self preservation and safety skills. 

If your inner concert age is Old Lady Status, please ensure that you arrive to the concert early enough to get a good spot in the back against the wall and under the safety lights, but not too early that you have to hear any more that you need to of the opening bands before the actual show.  You won't like them as they are too "experimental" for your tastes.  'Stick to what you know' is the Old Lady Status ICA mantra!

Happy concert going and remember to wear your ear plugs!"

I sure hope you all found this as informative as I did.  I was so glad to be able to apply all this useful knowledge at the Imagine Dragons concert that Stacy and I went to last weekend.  

January, you've been beautiful, albeit COLD.

You've also been busy. 

With the new year brought a new school semester because, that's right!!!!, I'm in school again.  I'll finish someday, people.  I promise. It's been fun so far, but man did I forget how homework takes over your life.  Good thing I have a supportive boyfriend who sits by me (while watching basketball on a different device) and lets me do homework on a Saturday night.  So LAME (but good).

Also with the new year brought another calling.  I am still a stake institute teacher every other Thursday night but I was added to the service council in my ward and go to weekly meetings about service and fellowship.  I am looking forward to the opportunity to serve more. 

Also with the new year brought the formation of a new dinner group.  This is a unique dinner group, though.  In most groups each person takes a turn making dinner once every few weeks, depending on the size of the group.  In this group, everyone gives me $10 a week and then I plan a menu and cook every night Monday through Thursday.  It is the best kind of dinner group in my opinion :)

All this new and busy stuff also brought a little bit of crazy.  And when it gets cray cray around here, Danielle does stupid things like this:

She accidentally brings home the bank drive through canister.  Whoops!

New Year's Eve

Welp, this post is not going to be reflective.  2012 was a great year, but to be honest, I tend to dominate the even years.  Hopefully this odd year of 2013 will be kind to me.

I know you're dying to compare NYE activities so I will share mine with you.

My day was spent in snow gear slowly freezing to death in Rock Canyon Park sledding with Dillon and some of his friends.  E'rybody, I haven't been sledding in years.  I found out that I actually do like sledding (though I still think it's dangerous...), it's the cold I hate.  So the best way to stay warm was to keep sledding and walk back up the hill to get the blood pumping to my feet. 

In the evening, I stopped by the store to grab some sparkling cider when I saw that shrimp was on sale!! I love that stuff, you guys!  In my 'favorites' order of seafood, it's a three way tie between crab, scallops, and shrimp.  Also smoked salmon, though I guess I include fish in another group entirely, but you didn't need to know that, so on with my story!

The whole point is, I made this awesome shrimp with mushrooms in a garlic cream sauce for dinner, woooo!

(leftovers the next day so it doesn't look as good--but it was)

And then my night was spent sewing pillow covers for the pillows I got at Ikea in the "as is" section for only $1.50 each.  Major steal!  That's where I got my glass jars that I filled with candy :) Allison was a gem and let me borrow her sewing machine! I'll get one someday, but until then I have a great friend who let me use hers. 

Dillon had to film at a party so he came over to Allison's and finished ringing in the New Year with us.

Happy New Year!!

Photo bombing!

We went as a ward up to Temple Square to see all the Christmas lights (and to try to spot our friend Megan who is serving a mission there--okay, only I was doing that). 

We gathered around at a certain point and took a group picture but it wasn't until later that we found this little photo bombing gem:

 

Kills me!!

Wedding Weekend

So, 2012 is the year of marriages.  NO, this is not an announcement.  It's just that I have been to more weddings this year than any other year combined, not a joke.  I think part of it was because of Dillon knowing people getting married, too.  

But still, I went to NINE weddings this year, either by myself or with Dillon. At least those are the ones I can remember, so I'm sure there are a few I forgot about. 

The whole point of this is to introduce you to my weekend.  It was wedding number nine. 

One of my cousins got married and so everyone was in town.  Wooohoooo!  I love seeing family.  I have awesome aunts and they have great spouses.  We got some really cool people who married into our fam. 

I was able to attend all the temple festivities, chauffeur my grandma around, and help at the reception.  I sometimes forget how good it makes you feel to help people.  I sure wasn't in charge so it wasn't a stressful thing, I just ran around and did what people told me to do or what I saw needed to be done. 

And it felt great.  I know it would have been accomplished regardless of what I did, but why not help and make it easier (hopefully) on people?

So here's to family getting together, weddings, and helping people! Cheers!

BTW, this is what it looked like.  You could hardly see the temple from all the snow. 

All the glory of D.I. is now in my living room

D.I. means Deseret Industries which means Goodwill or the Salvation Army which means cheap clothes and a lot of old stuff that people just shipped in from their garage. 

INCLUDING FURNITURE, you guys. 

So there I was, just minding my own bidness, wondering how hard it would be to re-upholster a weird old chair that I happened to be crouched down and looking at on my way to the old frame section (for a pinterest project, what else? The winter months are long), when all of a sudden there was a man standing by me.

I looked up and realized it was a creepy man (with bobby pins holding his hair back) standing OVER me, grossly invading my personal space.

He introduced himself as a salesman and wanted to know if I had any questions about the furniture or prices.  I was a little discombobulated as to how close he was standing and at what angle. Also, might I mention that it was over the back of the chair, because it was and it looked awkward.

I wish you all could have been flies on the wall or that someone had been recording it because, honest to goodness, it felt like I was on Candid Camera. 

I said thank you and that I didn't have any questions because the prices were all written on the price tags.  Guy didn't give up and let me know, super weird style, that prices could always be negotiated wink, wink, smile.

If I wanted that chair I was looking at to be $10, it could be $10 dollars.  I still said no thanks, I was just looking but then he started telling me about the furniture in his living room at his parents house and how the ugliest, oldest pieces were the most comfortable and how when he has a house of his own someday and on and on and on. 

So, I said I'd take the chair. Best salesman EVER.

I guess I'm going to have to learn to re-upholster stuff now because my "pladdish" chair (totes what he wrote on the slip even though I told him I was pretty sure it was floral) is hangin out in between our two new, classier couches that we got from the neighbor girls who were getting new couches for real.

The Lockout Couple

Some of you sports-minded friends out there might be thinking that this is in reference to the NBA lockout of last year.  You are mistaken.

This is in reference to an experience that happened to me last spring, though around the same time as the lockout.

Deducing by the name, you can see that a couple was involved.  This couple happened to be my downstairs neighbor and her boyfriend (he totes didn't live there but was over for the afternoon).

It was a good day.  I had gotten out of work relatively early and thought to myself that it would be nice to take a nap.  I was talking with my mom on the phone and penciled it in for after our convo was over.

There was just one problem.  All throughout my little chat with my mom I could hear "knock, knock, knock, pound, pound, pound, ding dong, ding dong!" EVERY. 2.3. SECONDS. 

I figured that it would stop by the time that I got off the phone, BUT IT DIDN'T.  You guys, it was a good 15 minutes straight of this knocking/pounding combo. 

So I thought to myself, "Well this has to stop if Imma get some sleep."

I did what any normal apartment tenant would do and I marched downstairs to let this knocker know that the person they were trying to reach CLEARLY wasn't home and that it was totes annoying so could he please stop if at all possible? 

When I got downstairs, sure enough, there was a kid standing outside the apartment. Doing what?  You got it:  Knocking.

I politely tell him that I can hear all the knocking and pounding and that I was wanting to take a nap sooooooooooooooooooo...

And that's when I noticed that he wasn't wearing any shoes.  Say what?

He looked at me all awkward style and said,"Oh, I'm so sorry!  Yeah, she got mad and locked me out.  So I'm just trying to get my shoes and computer back."

Ohmygosh, I felt soooooo bad.  So I wished him well in his endeavors and ran upstairs.

The next few weeks until the end of the semester when they moved out were PRETTY awkward.  And they are still together, folks.   

B-day love

So, what were you doing last Thursday evening? 

Were you listening to the musical stylings of Andy Grammer or Mat Kearney?  No? How about Train?  That's a no, too?  

Hmm, so what you're saying is, you didn't happen to be up in SLC at a concert that your super cool bf got you tickets for for your birthday? 

That's too bad because that's where I was. 

We managed to get the best place to stand, too, right in the path of the musicians when they jumped off stage and walked through the crowd.  So, I pretty much rubbed shoulders with semi-famous people, nbd. We also managed to rub shoulders with a lot of weirdies :/

Alas, I have zero pictures.  My brick of a phone doesn't work that quickly.  Maybe I'll be able to take better pics in a couple weeks when I get an upgrade...

I only have one picture from my bday and it is a doozy.  My wunderbar bf also planned a BBQ b/c he knows how much I LOVE grilled meat (and he's so good at grilling it, too).

Here is that picture, enjoy:

 

Sorry, August

I guess I dropped the ball on that one.  I didn't blog during the whole month of August.  But if it makes you feel any better, I didn't go swimming either. 

Except that's not true.  I went at least twice. 

I feel like I have so much to tell, but really, it's nothing at all.

Guess what my calling is this semester.  Oh, what's that?  You guessed that I was called to be an Institute Teacher again? Nailed it.  I get to wear the mic again!!

In other news, we moved.  Now, some of you might already know to where and are rolling your eyes at my usage of the word 'moved' but I'll have you know, dragging all your stuff across the hall is harder that in sounds, thank you very much. 

However, Stacy and I accomplished it.  We also deep cleaned our entire apartment.  Those blinds have never looked so good. 

And now, a memory slide of all the good times in the apt:

 My first pic

We made a whole lotta food.

And crafts.

That floor saw a lot of our hair (and not just the stuff we intentionally cut off :/)

 We had Christmas parties,

and Birthday celebrations.

We rearranged the furniture a tad bit.

 We added useful household items,

and priceless art.

 We mostly just hung around,

and were classy.

It was a wonderful almost two years, apt 305.  Thanks for the super fun memories and the beautiful view.

Summer Intramurals

In case you missed the memo, it's SUMMER!  And that means snocones and BBQ's and swimming and drive-in movies and INTRAMURAL SPORTS.

Once again I am on the softball team, which my homegirl Racy Stacy named The Moose Is Loose.  It was a hard battle to win, but fight she did for that name change (it was the 69th ward before, come on, lame--that's just a number!) and she got it.  We made shirts. 

Also once again I am on the girl's football team, this time joined voluntarily.  I missed my calling in life as a professional rusher. 

Regular season ended last week and playoffs start this week.  Let me share with you our last softball game.

Imagine this:

Plus this:

 

It equals this:

 Which made for a lot of this:

But was a ton of fun.

And we still won!!!

Texts from my landlord

"I'm bringing new furniture."

Which means we get a bunch of 20-year-old stuff from our landlord's basement (because he is moving) and he pats himself on the back for being a good landlord by refurnishing our apartment (excuse me condo). 

Apparently his daughter didn't want to live here with brown carpet and green couches, go figure.

Though it did look like a jungle, I kind of liked it.  Except for the spring on the far right side of the big couch that sucked you in and then catapulted you back out when you sat down.  Or the wooden bar that ran the length of it and jabbed you straight in the lower back no matter how or where you sat.  Or the collection of hair trapped in them from decades of girl inhabitants.

Those couches have seen some better days. 

So we got some "new to you" couches that barely made it up the stairs (good thing Stacy and Lacey were there).  And got to rearrange the entire living room. 

 Before while reading the Ensign together

Sleeping...

 what is this? strong guys or something?

I was in charge of direction

 After

 lacking artwork--but not for long!

Awesome Antics

Last week was finals week for BYU.  That meant that the previous week was the last few days of classes and reading days.  All my roomies were a bit stressed, as was the general population here.  Many hours were logged in the library.  But not by me.  I spent only one evening in the library.

Stacy had texted me earlier that particular day, telling me of all the annoying people who surrounded her as she was trying to get her papers written.  Some of them included Clicky Girl who kept clicking her mouse for an hour in an attempt to win a game, maybe.  Also, there was Mister Cough Every Five Seconds.

As Stacy was heading back to the library that night, Dillon and I were heading to Walmart to snag all the on sale Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs that were left over before they were all gone. 

Someone asked where we were going, to which I responded, "The library!" as a joke.  But that gave me the idea that no one expected us to be at the library and that would give us the perfect opportunity to surprise Stacy and do to her all the annoying things she had told me about earlier!

So we went to Walmart and got a year's rations of those eggs, and then headed to the library.  Sometimes when I am up on campus I feel like an undercover cop because I don't go to BYU but people don't know that when they see me.

It was like a treasure hunt trying to find Stacy in the Asian section and while looking, we ran into my other roomie who we enlisted to help!

She got her friend to cough every five seconds while I clicked on a computer and Dillon threw jellybeans at Stacy.  It was short lived since we didn't want to annoy all the people actually studying.

But we weren't done yet!  We wanted to do the same thing to another friend.  Sadly, his answer to our inquiry of his whereabouts was that he was going on a run.

So, naturally, we tracked him down and blasted Eye of the Tiger out of Dillon's car as we drove behind him.

It was a very successful evening.  

A two'fer

That's right readers, you get two posts in one!!! And you only had to look once!!!

The first shall be exactly what Stacy posted about (which, I SWEAR we don't plan--we just do all the same things, together).  It shall be titled:

Chalk Up My Nose

Here's what happened:  we went to the Festival of Colors down in Spanish Fork (even though last year I said I didn't ever need to go again due to the amount of chalk I inhaled) because I'm a sucker for a good time.  We wore painters' suits to combat the extensive clean up involved afterward.  

 before

 got myself a 'stache

 not clean anymore

 yes, please, hit me in the face again

 llama llama ding dong

 don't mind my freakish oopa loompa legs or demon face

 completely covered and DONE

Post numba two is:

FHE Wild and Crazy Style

We combined with another group and competed against them in a series of RIDICULOUS games.  

Some of them include:  unwrapping a present with oven mitts on, pulling every tissue out of a box with only one hand, blowing a bubble and then blowing it across the room without popping it, moving an Oreo from your forehead to your mouth using only your facial muscles, a scooter relay, and my person fav, balloon musical chairs.  

The only way to explain is a video (okay, it's not, but the video is so much funnier than any explanation I could give). 

(maybe) needless to say, I got out on this round b/c I didn't pop the balloon in time.