Christmas

Our Christmas was fantabulous this year. We were able to spend time with both of our families and got really spoiled. Ridiculously, ridiculously spoiled. (Thanks, parents.) We spent Christmas Eve delivering neighbor gifts in the morning, watching A Christmas Story (LOVE that movie) in the afternoon, and going to dinner with my parents, Jason and my Aunt Lorraine that night. We had our own little Christmas the next morning, then headed over to my parent's for more food and presents, then headed on up to Logan to see John's family. It was a good day and it was so fun to spend time with everyone.

Some holiday highlights:

• Me getting sentimental while opening a gift from John, only to see what it really was and say (out loud, of all things!), "Oh, I thought this was something else!" Ha. How's that for a buzz kill? But I still love it anyway, promise.

• Stuffed cream cheese French toast and bacon for breakfast Christmas morning. Even better? John made it while I sat on the couch with my feet up. Happy Christmas to me!

• Finding the perfect gift for my mom and making her cry. (Just to clarify, tears of joy. Because of the perfectness of the gift. I am quite good at giving good presents, if I do say so myself.)
  

• The rousing game of Quibbler we played with John's family Christmas night. I lost (which I am NOT happy about) but John tied for first, so either way I count it as a win for us.
  

• The best nap of ALL TIME that we took on Sunday afternoon. There is literally nothing better than snuggling up under the covers with my Johnny and sleeping for hours on end.
  

• Pretty sure John was most excited about getting this set up:
  

This was our main gift to each other this year, and because I am a mean old witch I wouldn't let John take it out of the box until Christmas. Also, we are heathens because this is for our bedroom. We just so happen to thoroughly enjoy a good dose of 30 Rock or Arrested Development before drifting off to sleep. So sue us.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, from our little family to yours.

Basketball John

John called me about a week ago and said this: "So, I got an interesting call from the credit union today..." My immediate reaction was to think the worst, that someone had stolen all of the money out of our accounts and we wouldn't be able to get it back and then we'd be left penniless and would lose our house and then both somehow lose our jobs and it would just be AWFUL.

What they ACTUALLY were calling about was to inform John that his name had been drawn to "Shoot for Loot" at the next Utah basketball game (last Friday night). A little backstory. We have season tickets to Utah basketball, and they do the Shoot for Loot thing at every game. Whoever is Shooting for Loot (I'm just going to keep saying that because it's fun) has 30 seconds to make a layup, free-throw and three-pointer for $300 and then a chance to make $300 more if they make a half-court shot. Not a bad deal, eh?

John was pretty nervous because he's never played basketball in front of that many people before (the Huntsman Center had more than its usual 2,000 fans, oh miracle of miracles), but he came through like a champ. Good thing, too, because my brothers would never have let him live it down if he would have missed everything. Ha. All except for the elusive half-court shot. But that's OK, we'll take the $300. And he just looked so darn cute down there. Hooray for free money!

Things I've learned this week

1. DVRs can overheat. And do so at the most inopportune times, like right when they’re about to announce the winner of The Biggest Loser.

2. DVRs do not, in fact, continue to magically record all of your precious shows when they are UNPLUGGED FROM THE WALL on account of their annoying tendency to overheat.*

3. I could never live in L.A. Driving home from work on the freeway yesterday, something I normally avoid like the Plague, made me all kinds of angry. (And as a side note, people that do not know how to properly merge should have their licenses revoked. Or never receive them at all.) Speaking of bad drivers…four words. The mall parking lot. Wow. Also, I need to remind myself to never, ever, EVER attempt to go the mall a week before Christmas again. Or maybe ever again for the rest of eternity, lest my rage boil over and I make the evening news.

4. If I am ever to in actuality have a baby, I need to refrain from reading blog posts from new mothers about the wonders of labor/delivery and breastfeeding. The horror.

5. The escalator scene from Elf is never not funny.

*Yes, friends, this sadly enough had to be brought to my attention. I am not blonde, I swear…although technically my hair color is ‘strawberry blonde,’ so do with that what you will. Lucky that John married me for my looks rather than my brain, huh?

Christmas, Christmas time is near

As hard as it is for me to believe, Christmas is less than 2 weeks away. Holy cannoli. It has totally sneaked up on me this year. But at least I have a cute, festive house to come home to after a long day sitting in front of a computer with a right hand that’s permanently frozen because my space heater was on the fritz back in August and I had to throw it away. Curse me and my bad circulation.

But now, back to our cute festive house. Neither of us are fans of house fires, so we invested in a nice pre-lit artificial tree this year and love it (now that John, being the superhero he is, found the one light bulb that was only halfway in and therefore causing an entire section to turn itself off and on randomly). I also got all crazy and bought a new tree skirt that matches our Christmas stockings, even though there was NOTHING WRONG with the one we already had. Eesh. Spending money so frivolously these days, I tell you what.

And to add to the festiveness and excitement of the countdown to Christmas, my cute mom gave us these puppies in time for December 1st, continuing a Christmas tradition that has been ongoing since I was a wee little girl.

A daily dose of chocolate does a body good, right? Or, if you’re my nephew Jake, sometimes it’s more fun to eat all 24 pieces in one sitting. I like the way he thinks.

Last week was the Week of Parties. We had John's work party on Tuesday, my work party on Thursday and a family party with my mom's side on Saturday. Whew. (We didn't have anything on Friday night, and I was more than content to just stay at home. I may even have put my pajamas on at 6 p.m. Don't judge me.) This year, we bucked tradition by actually winning prizes at our work parties! It was a thing of miracles, I tell you. Although technically, we didn't in actuality win anything at John's party...it was given to us by default after a guy at our table's raffle ticket was drawn twice for the same gift and he didn't want it. So we came home with a cute apron, a mixing bowl, some cookie sheets and a cake and brownie mix...and I had flashbacks to my bridal showers. But hooray for coming home with something. The win at my work party, however, was too legit to quit. I've worked at my company for a little over five years and have never won anything...so hip hip hooray when they read my name and handed me a $50 gift certificate to Market Street. Aww yeah. Free date night for us!

This year for the Austin Family Christmas Party, besides the mainstay White Elephant gift exchange, we had ourselves a pinewood derby, Christmas-style. Sounds a bit weird, eh? Good thing everybody on the Austin side is RIDICULOUSLY competitive so we all got really into it. There were some great cars...the infamous leg lamp from A Christmas Story, the Grinch's sleigh and the Griswold family Christmas tree strapped to the top of the car were a few of my favorites.

John and I stretched the theme a little bit and decorated our car in honor of my very favorite Jazz player (and pretend boyfriend) Paul Millsap. Because sometimes all a girl wants is Paul Millsap wrapped up under her Christmas tree. Unfortunately, we learned that Paul does better on the basketball court than he does in a derby race, but he still gave a valiant effort and for that he has my eternal devotion. Love you, Millie.

Thankful

This year, I'm thankful for...

• Spending my first Thanksgiving with the Morrey family. It was such a nice, long, relaxing weekend. We slept in every day, ate good food (oh, the turkey! And the mashed potatoes! And the cocoa-flavored roasted almonds!), went to see Tangled as a family (which made me tear up three times...definitely the sign of a good Disney movie), watched two Harry Potter movies in an effort to get me caught up to see the new one while it's still in theaters (because I am oh so blasphemous and until a couple of weeks ago had not seen any of the movies), and just generally had good times. Also, John and Michael (John's youngest brother) had a dance-off. Without any music. I sincerely wish I had taken a video, because words cannot describe the joy it brought to all who were lucky enough to witness it.

• John's car passing its safety inspection. Old Greenie rides again...at least for another year.

• Going to the Spectrum to watch the Utah State/Utah basketball game, accompanied by my mom, brother Jason, bestest friend Jessica and John's dad. Games between these two teams always pose a bit of a problem for me, as I grew up a die-hard Ute fan but graduated from USU. My solution was to cheer for both teams. And even though I was glad to see Utah State win, my little heart was sad for my Utes. Such dilemmas I face in life. Although I do have to say that there is no comparison to the atmosphere in the Spectrum. The Aggie student section was truly amazing, as always.
  

• The heroic and miraculous efforts of Brandon Burton to block BYU's field goal with 4 seconds left and win the game for the Utes on Saturday afternoon. John and I were at the game, along with my mom and brother Jason. This was my first time seeing a BYU/Utah football game in person, and what a classic it turned out to be. Sitting for four hours in below freezing temperatures was worth it once the game was over. Final score: 17-16. Aww yeah.

• The purchase of my new winter coat and boots. Logan was FRIGIDLY cold, as was the aforementioned football game, so they definitely came in handy. What also would have come in handy is if somehow the crew at Rice-Eccles Stadium could have removed the BLOCKS OF ICE from underneath the seats before the game started. Even with wool socks and boots, my feet were pretty much frozen solid by the time the game ended. Oh, the things I do for sports.

Things I'm NOT thankful for at the moment? Living on a huge corner lot, with mountains and mountains of snow piled on top of the sidewalks and driveway. With a layer of ice underneath. BOO.

Snowmageddon. Or Snowpocalypse. Whichever you prefer.

John and I have had to change our Thanksgiving travel plans due to The Great Blizzard of 2010 (dun dun DUNNNNNN), so what better way to while away the hours than by updating our fantabulous blog. I figured I better be quick since who knows how long it will be until the power goes out...or the world ends...

We had our first big snowstorm over the weekend and got a foot of snow. (Here is Johnny digging us out so we could drive to church.)

I THOUGHT that storm was bad enough considering what a mild November we were having, but apparently Mother Nature had other ideas and wanted to one-up herself by providing us with this fun blizzard gift tonight (pictures to come. It hasn't quite reached us yet). If Mother Nature would have just been humble and content with the storm she gave us on Saturday night rather than being greedy and prideful, John and I would at this point in time be in Logan. Wonderful, wonderful Logan. Hanging out with our wonderful, wonderful family and maybe even eating some Aggie ice cream. Thanks a lot, Mother Nature. And I tell you what, you will rue the day if you decide to extend the storm into tomorrow and put the playing of the Utah State versus Utah basketball game in jeopardy. I have not been to an Aggie game in TWO YEARS and so help me, I am going to this one.

That is all.

Reason #96 in which we discover that it doesn't take much to make my day.

This morning I was fortunate enough to hear the two most glorious words in the English language:

"No cavities."

Best. Day. Ever.

With a hip hip and a clippity-clop...

Well, I guess I’ll start off by saying happy November. I am extremely proud of myself in the fact that I have already taken down my Halloween decorations and replaced them with my Thanksgiving ones. Granted, the amount of Halloween/Thanksgiving decorations I own in no way rivals the boxes and boxes of Christmas decorations I possess that are not so easily put up or taken down, but still…an accomplishment is an accomplishment.

Now, for the re-telling of our Halloween fun (up until I got food poisoning late Saturday night…but I will spare you the details other than to say that the times I truly know my husband loves me are when I’m sick). I am nothing if not a fan of traditions, so my celebrations throughout the year are largely tradition-based. Hence the following.

My friends and I watch The Watcher in the Woods every year. I don’t even remember for sure how, when or why this tradition started, but suffice it to say that it has been going on for almost 10 years. If you have not seen this movie, wow. FOR SHAME. Early-80s Disney horror at its finest. We’ve gotten to the point where we can quote our favorite parts word-for-word and are even able to bring them up in non-Halloween settings. (Also, the alternate endings for this movie are CLASSIC. Seriously. Look them up on YouTube.) We have progressed over the years to include potluck meals to go along with such fine cinema, because grownups have potlucks, dang it! And usually we treat ourselves to dessert in the form of pumpkin empanadas from the very classy Taco Time. We did not grow up on the West side for nothing, people.

We spent Friday night with Darth Vader, Spiderman and Yoda (AKA my cute, cute nephews) at the annual Stapley/Shegrud Halloween party with my dad’s side of the family, at which we went through a “scary” spook alley, watched the animated version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and had a rollicking eat-the-donut-off-of-the-string competition. We have been enjoying all of these activities every year since I was a little girl, courtesy of my Grandma and Grandpa Stapley (who have both passed away). This was the third viewing of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow this October for me and John, but oh how I love it. We all sing along with Bing Crosby as he tells the tale of Ichabod Crane (kind of odd, but nice just the same). It's kind of funny listening to how upbeat and lighthearted the title song is...and then you hear the line "With a hip-hip and a clippity-clop, he's out lookin' for a top to chop." Yeah. Little morbid. But SO fun. That is the magic of Disney, I guess.

Truthfully, I spent most of the night trying to convince myself that it would not be OK to steal this little one and take him home with me...

Bragging Rights

Remember that one time when one of John’s logos was going to be published in a big-time art magazine?

Allow me to brag about my husband for a moment. Yesterday I was busily working when an e-mail showed up in my inbox from John that went something like this:

“I just found out that one of my logos got accepted to Communication Arts, which is a HUGE resume builder. My company has tried many times to get something accepted, but this is the first time in company history that we have got in. We are going to lunch to celebrate. Looks like my job is secure.”

For those of you that didn’t already know, John is a very talented graphic designer. Getting published in Communication Arts magazine is a BIG DEAL in the graphic design/art/photography industry, so he is understandably excited. Zillions of artists try to get their stuff published and very few get in, so yeah, I’m pretty much married to a rockstar. (Literally. Have I mentioned that John is also in an awesome band? Swoon.) His logo will be appearing in the January 2011 issue of the magazine, but here’s a sneak peek for all of you lucky people.

I am so, so proud of John. He works hard at his job and it is definitely paying off. Plus, he’s just super cute, so bonus for me.

Snow

Well, friends, it had to end sometime…the above average temperatures we have been enjoying have officially come to an end. It snowed today. Our heater is on. I had to bust out the long sleeves. John has finally manually switched the temperature gauge in my ghetto car (with the broken temperature gauge on the dashboard) over to “Heat.” But it’s not all bad. Because the first thing I think of when I think “snow” is Bing Crosby and Danny Kay. If this doesn’t bring a smile to your frozen, snowy face, then you have no soul. Merry 60 days till Christmas!

Happy fall! (And various other ramblings that you may or may not find entertaining.)

First of all, don’t you just love Fall? I have thoroughly been enjoying the MLB Playoffs (go Giants!) and college football games, the Creamy Pumpkin Wallflowers enveloping our house with a yummy, cozy smell, gazing at my cute fall/Halloween decorations in adoration and making all sorts of Halloween plans with friends and family. LOVE this time of year. But without further ado, here are some of my daily musings for your reading enjoyment.

It may be time to cut my hair. Or start wearing it in a ponytail every day. This may sound weird, but I totally get distracted by my split-ends every day at work and waste a good amount of time picking them. (And yet, my hairdresser assures me every time I see her that my hair is very healthy.) Too bad John’s not a fan of the butch-cut, or I’d go all Halle Berry on my hair. (I jest. In truth, I love my long hair and would probably cry every day for a month were I to cut it off. I’m so vain.)

Have any of you seen that Sister Wives show on TLC? I have to admit that it is oddly fascinating. I have polygamy in my family history (hi, great-great-grandpa who had a secret room in your house in which to hide from police), so it’s not really that far removed…but it is still such an odd concept to me. Especially weird to see the husband kissing his “fiancée” as one of his wives is in the hospital getting ready to give birth to his 13th child. As a woman, I do not know how you would be OK with that. Either of those situations. Ick. Yeah, I think I’ll just stick to a monogamous relationship, thank you very much. Oh, and equally as intriguing as the show itself is the fact that the husband (Kody, I believe) walks just like Ted/Keanu Reeves in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. And has equally as awesome hair.

Call me crazy, but I am in desperate need for Daylight Saving Time to end. I’m not a morning person as it is, but forcing me to get out of my warm, comfy bed when there is not even a single trace of light from the sun visible yet is borderline torture.

We had a late-night/early-morning intruder destroy (as in, EAT) the lovely knock-out roses that were blooming in our just-planted garden up until a few days ago. The very roses that I just hadn’t quite gotten around to photographing yet for an upcoming blog entry. The culprit? Deer. The very same deer that I still get so excited to see roaming around our neighborhood. What can I say, I grew up in the city and led a sheltered, wildlife-free childhood. (Minus the dead duck that we once found in our gutter…and that one time when my brothers accidentally shot a bird with a BB gun. Whoops.)

This particular deer wasn’t wise enough to wipe away his/her hoofprints and left a tell-tale sign of its presence all around the garden. Not the brightest bulb in the light socket, eh? (Ha. I love me a good metaphor.) Good thing we’re getting our fence finished up to keep those pesky deer away so hopefully everything else we’ve planted will survive.

Friday, Oct. 15, 2010 shall from hereafter be referred to as the Great Spider Massacre of 2010. A new record was set for the number of spiders killed in our entry way in one fell swoop: 14. Oh, spiders. You should know better by now than to come inside my house and think you can get away with it. For I have the gift of spider-spotting, and John has the gift of spider-killing. You can’t win. GIVE IT UP ALREADY.

We didn't start the fire. But a machine gun sure did.

Wow, what a night we had last night...for a professional journalistic look at the events of yesterday, go here or here. For my personal, time-lined experience, read on.

2:10 p.m. Leave church. Smell something that smells sort of like a campfire, but don't really think much of it. We live in kind of a rural town, so lots of people have their own fire pits and such.

2:30 p.m. I head over to a Young Women's meeting and notice a plume of smoke coming from the mountains south of our house. Figure it's a distant wildfire or controlled burn and nothing to be worried about.

3:30 p.m. Head home from meeting. Plume of smoke is getting bigger and looks closer, plus the air is getting a lot smokier. Get a little concerned.

5 p.m. John and I leave for Sunday dinner at my parent's house. I jokingly grab our CD of wedding pictures and bring it to the car, you know, in case we have to evacuate. Are greeted by this sight:

Am suddenly really grateful I decided to grab the pictures. John and I debate back and forth whether we should turn back and grab more of our irreplaceables/valuables in case the fire comes over the ridge and somehow makes its way to our house. Decide to go to my parent's and see what the news is saying. Discuss on the way what items we will take with us should we return home and find out that we do, in fact, need to evacuate. Mine are mostly sentimental ... pictures, scrapbooks, journals. High on John's priority list: his keyboard, guitars and computer. Ha. Therein lies the difference between women and men. (But in John's defense, his computer has most of our digital pictures and a lot of his logos and artwork on it. And he makes extra money with his musical instruments. So I suppose he gets points for practicality.) We see lots of police cars and fire trucks racing past us heading south. Even see a Blackhawk helicopter take off and head in that direction. Start to wonder if this thing is more serious than we thought.

5:42 p.m. Arrive at my parent's house. Greeted by the news that half of our ward has been evacuated and that my friend's brother's house a few miles away from ours is in danger. Find out that we are not in the evacuation zone, so decide to stay and eat dinner. Somehow put my fears aside and relax a little bit.

7:40 p.m. My parents return home from taking a spin in my brother's new car. My dad says we should go to our house; the fire looks like it's getting bigger.

7:45 p.m. Leave for our house. John and I are in separate cars (we left his car at my parent's house over the weekend) and my parents and brother are in a third car. I am in the lead and call John when I spot the massive flames on the mountains to the south. Start to panic a little bit. It takes me about an hour and a half to finally get to my house, a drive that normally takes less than a half hour. Yell at all of the gawkers on the side of the road who have their video cameras and tripods out and are congesting traffic. Get frustrated by people shooting up the middle lane and trying to butt in front of me and the other cars in front of me. Freak out a little when I see news cameras everywhere, flashing red and blue lights all over the place and a raging fire right in front of me. Get stuck in gridlocked traffic less than a block away from where we turn to get to our street, finally decide to bail and go the other way, only to be rerouted by policemen. Also, my phone dies, so I have no way to get a hold of anyone and am not sure where everyone is. Break down in hysterical tears when I finally get home. John hugs me for a good five minutes, despite my ugly hysterical crying face. Our house is fine, but we can see the fire from our front and back yards. We take a walk up the street and can see a house on fire about a half-mile away from us. Get lots of smoke and ash in our eyes. Cannot comprehend what it would be like to lose your house.

The view from our backyard

Gather up some of our belongings to take with us just in case...take a little more than we would have if it would have been a mandatory, rushed evacuation (hi, clock from Gardner Village and Willow Tree statues). Watch the news, check Twitter and Facebook to see if our neighborhood is going to be evacuated.

11:20 p.m. Decide to play it safe (and get away from the smoke) and spend the night at my parent's house after seeing that a lot of our neighbors have been told by police to have bags ready to go just in case something happens. Look back as I'm almost to Bangerter Highway and try not to drive off the road as I see that the whole mountain appears to be on fire and is dangerously close to houses. One of the craziest things I've ever seen in person.

11:45 p.m. Spend another awesome night sleeping on the air mattress. Goes along wonderfully with our smoke-filled hair and clothes, so it's pretty much like camping. Watch the news until the coverage stops around 12:30 to see if there are any new developments. Try to sleep. John tells me in the morning he's had some pretty wacky dreams, as is to be expected.

So there you have it. To put it simply, we are safe and our house is safe, so it's all good in the hood for the most part. Our house surprisingly doesn't smell as strongly of smoke as I thought it would, but our cars still smell pretty bad. We are so grateful that there wasn't more damage done to homes and that, as far as we know, all of our friends and neighbors are safe and their homes are OK. Those firefighters sure are amazing. I looked at pictures of the fire pretty much all day and it's unbelievable that more houses didn't get touched. Thanks to everyone for all of your texts, phone calls, emails and offers of help and concern! We have sure had enough excitement over here, at least for a little while.

The view from our backyard earlier tonight

A Surprise Visitor

A couple of days ago, this beauty started blooming in the marigold-infested flowerbed in our front yard:

I have no memory of planting this, nor do I remember it blooming last year, so it was a welcome surprise at the end of summer. I've utilized my self-proclaimed title of "Google Queen" and done a little research in an attempt to confirm its identity, and I think it's an iris. However, I readily admit that I could be wrong, so if any of you expert gardeners out there know for sure what it is, do tell! It is just pretty enough that I think it needs a row of little friends next year to keep it from being lonely.

P.S. Please note that we also didn't plant the glorious little marigolds that have taken over the flowerbed...and the occasional random crack in the sidewalk. They just magically appear each summer to give our house the appearance of gardening. Not my favorite flowers, but they sure do come in handy when you're too busy (or lazy?) to plant annuals. Thanks for the good work, marigolds.

He Loves Me, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah

Every once in a while, John surprises me with little treasures that, while seemingly insignificant, let me know that he loves me. A few recent examples?

Ah, Dr. Pepper...my No. 1 guilty pleasure (besides The Bachelor. And The Bachelor Pad. Heaven help me.) Note that it is of the Caffeine Free variety. See how my husband is concerned about my health? I feel much better drinking empty calories and loads of sugar when there is no caffeine involved.

Why is milk special, you ask? Only because I like to enjoy a nice, cold glass of Ovaltine every night, for which milk is a necessity. (My brothers and I used to make fun of my dad for drinking Ovaltine all the time...looks like the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree, eh?) Keeps my bones strong and full of density. Also allows me to keep my nerdiness running rampant. We ran out of milk a couple of days ago and John, being fully aware of my Ovaltine needs, went out to the store and bought some so I wouldn't have to go more than a day without partaking.

As we've been mapping out the landscape for our backyard, I've become obsessed with lilies. Any and every kind of lily. We bought some Asiatic and oriental lilies a while ago, but they are not blooming at the moment, which makes me so very sad. Last weekend we were at our second home, even The Home Depot, and they had the most GORGEOUS lilies there that I immediately fell in love with, but we decided not to buy any. So imagine my giddiness when I got home from work a couple of days later and saw these:

Nicely done, Johnny, nicely done.

Further Proof That We're Turning Redneck

Exhibit A: The Electric Fly Swatter

John and I, oddly enough, received this as a wedding present:

I thought for sure it would just sit somewhere in a closet, never to be opened or used, until we would eventually bust it out for a White Elephant party or give it to the D.I. Boy, was I wrong. John LOVES this thing. You should see him, chasing flies around like a crazy man, wielding a fly swatter shaped like a tennis racket that administers electric shocks when you push the button on the front. I’m pretty sure he gets a strange sense of satisfaction when he hears the loud BANG that comes from direct contact between the fly and the electric wires. I just think it’s funny to watch. And it is pretty effective for getting rid of flying pests. I wonder if it could also act as a taser, should I ever decide to take up running again and don't want to spend money on Mace?

Exhibit B: The Demolition Derby

We trucked it on down to Nephi a couple of weekends ago with a group of friends for the Juab County Fair Demolition Derby. And I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. There is something about watching old, beat-up vehicles play a real life version of bumper cars that brings joy to my soul. I’m wondering if we can turn John’s Civic into a derby car when (hopefully a long time in the future) it finally bites the dust. I think our friend Andy would be the perfect person to drive it. Check out his hair. He is not, in fact, bald, but shaved it like this for the Derby.

You ain’t hardcore unless you live hardcore.

Exhibit C: The Crisp Bean Burrito Craving

I had a wicked craving for crisp bean burritos a couple of weekends ago while we were out running errands (but no, I regret to inform you that I am NOT pregnant…girls can have weird cravings and not be pregnant, I promise), so John, being the cute husband that he most certainly is, drove around and around trying to find a Taco Time for me. We couldn’t find one and finally resorted to going to Carl’s Jr. for lunch. Lo and behold, there was some random Mexican fast food place attached to the Carl’s Jr. whose name escapes me at the moment. And what to my wondering eyes should appear on the menu…but crisp meat burritos. Not quite the same as a crisp bean burrito, but good enough. Oh, the white-trashness of it all…

A Brief Synopsis

Yowsers. We have apparently been busy little bees with no time for blogging, so please accept this meager offering of what we've been up to in the form of a bulleted list. Come on, bulleted lists are fun! And so are we, I promise. Read on.

• Our fence is mostly done (sadly, none of which I can take credit for. John might very well be mistaken for a Latin man with how tan he's gotten over the summer from all of the time he's spent outside. I shall for here on out call him Juan...), and all I can say is yay for privacy! We no longer have to silently fume about those crazy teenagers thinking our side lawn is their own personal hang-out spot or the random neighborhood children who leave their shoes/bikes/rollerblades/candy wrappers in our backyard. Has made us really want patio furniture...we resorted to bringing our card table and chairs outside a couple of weeks ago and eating dinner on our little patio just so we could enjoy it. And then we parked our cars on the lawn, John started wearing wife-beaters and we both grew mullets.
• We painted and have partially decorated the half bathroom on our main floor. And I have to say I love it. As much as you can love a room whose main function is...well, you know...
• We celebrated Arbor Day a little early and planted ourselves an ash tree in the backyard that will be ginormous in about 30 years. (As will I, most likely. Ha.) We also bought a darling little Charlie Brown-ish apricot tree whose fruit, when it is mature enough to bear fruit, will hopefully not be devoured by the hordes of grasshoppers currently setting up shop in our yard. (Am now thinking there could be a metaphor somewhere in there amongst the "mature enough to bear fruit" and "hordes of devouring grasshoppers" for the lesson I have to give to the combined Young Women in October about chastity...hmm...)
• John went to Scout Camp for a day. Got a little lost. Almost ran out of gas. Took a nap. Pretty much a normal day for him.
  
• I was supposed to go to Girl's Camp for a day but due to torrential rain and crazy mud, was forbidden from going up. Still took the day off and spent it doing fun and exciting things, like laundry and dishes. And perhaps watching copious amounts of TLC and HGTV. So sue me for liking shows about extravagant, ridiculously-priced wedding dresses and house hunting.
• We've started going to this great farmer's market in Draper at least once a week for corn-on-the-cob, strawberries, green beans, avocados and pineapple. Oh, the pineapple...I am somewhat addicted. In the which case, I might just be forced to move to Hawaii. I need my pineapple. And think how fun for all of you to be able to come and visit me on my island paradise! With all of my pineapple trees! Because yes, on my island, the pineapples will grow on trees. Along with money.
  
• I have been getting my fill of community plays. Oh, how I love them. An outdoor production of Bye Bye Birdie a couple of weeks ago and a surprisingly good rendition of Hairspray last Friday night. Still on the docket: Footloose sometime in September or October. I love me some Ren McCormick. Punch-dancing one's rage out never gets old.
  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  

A Beatle and a Birthday Boy

We've had such a fun couple of days. John's birthday was on Wednesday and as part of what I have dubbed his "Birthday Week of Fun," we celebrated by going to Happy Sumo, home to perhaps his favorite thing in the whole world (besides me, of course), the infamous Vegas Roll. My favorite part of going to Happy Sumo is seeing John's "sushi face." This is an old picture, but you get the gist of it. And actually, by the looks of things maybe I am not, in fact, his favorite thing in the world...

John's parents and my parents joined us, and we learned that my mom and John's dad also have a special place in their hearts for the Vegas Roll. Good times.

Another highlight of the Week of Fun was seeing Sir Paul McCartney perform on Tuesday night, which I think I can adequately sum up in three words: Best. Concert. Ever. It seriously was SO much fun, and I have now seen in person why Paul has always been referred to as "the cute one." He has aged quite well, I have to say. And he's British! And a knight! Who doesn't love a cute knight with a lovely British accent who also happens to be a ridiculously talented singer/songwriter/guitarist/pianist and was part of the biggest band of all time? Yeah.

We had the best time. We had floor seats (or should I say, field seats, since the concert was at a soccer stadium), but they were clear at the back, which doesn't bode well for a girl of my height. This was my view of the stage.

Ha. Good thing there were ginormous screens on both sides of the stage so I could at least look at those and see what was going on. And even better that the three people originally sitting by me apparently decided to look for seats elsewhere so that my weird claustrophia/agoraphobia didn't set in and I could enjoy the concert in peace.

The Birthday Week of Fun continues on Saturday when we will be venturing up to Deer Valley to see Ben Folds perform with the Utah Symphony Orchestra, which is the birthday gift I surprised John with a couple of months ago. Thank you, dear husband, for having a birthday in the summertime when we are able to go to fun outdoor concerts and do other fun things outside. As opposed to my birthday, which is in the dead of winter a month after Christmas when nobody wants to spend any money or do anything but stay inside with a mug of hot chocolate and pajamas on. Ha. Summer birthdays trump all.

Viva la Birthday Week of Fun!

Yay for running water...

So, for those of you who actually care, the water main is fixed! We were finally able to fix it last Thursday, which meant we spent five days camping out at my parent's house. It was kind of like a mini-vacation...Kearns, after all, is a destination hot spot. :) But seriously, my parents are awesome and my dad even went out and bought one of those big, fancy, comfy air mattresses for us to sleep on. And my mom has reintroduced me to the joy of watching Perry Mason and I Love Lucy. Thank you, PBS, for your old school late-night programming.

Fortunately for us, we have connections in our ward, so fixing everything only ended up costing us about $30. Just for fun, John called someone to get an estimate if they were to fix everything...$600. Yep. Thank heavens Johnny is such a go-getter and doesn't mind learning how to fix things himself.

And now, on to more exciting news: in a little more than two hours, we get to see this guy perform:

Yippee!!!

The Joys of Being a Homeowner

You know you have a problem if your front lawn has turned into a water bed...

On Saturday, our water main either broke or sprung a leak somewhere. John had turned on the sprinklers and came out front a few minutes later to find a big portion of our front lawn mounded up. When you stepped on it, it felt like a water bed, and we punctured the sides of it with shovels and water came gushing out.

Not. Good.

We immediately called the City to have them come turn off our water so that our water bill hopefully won't be astronomically high this month. So now we have to figure out a way to dig down five or six feet (yeah, 'cause that's an easy thing to do in our yard full of boulders), find out if we have a leak or a break, and repair it. Yay. I just love owning a home when things like this happen...we haven't been able to stay at our house the past couple of nights since we have no water, so we've been staying with family. It's kind of like being on vacation, only with the awful dread of having to fix a major problem always in the back of your mind.

In other, happier news, our fence is getting closer and closer to being finished. My dad and brother Jason came over basically all day Saturday and got about half of the fence posts in. It's fun to envision what our backyard will look like with the fence up and trees and shrubs planted. I can't wait.

Fathers and Fences

First of all, happy Father's Day to my amazing dad and father-in-law!

To my dad, thank you for:

• teaching me to love sports but also letting me be a girly-girl
• always letting me know that you love me
• being such a great example of service and sacrifice
• working so hard to provide for our family
• always supporting me, even if it meant sitting through three-hour long dance recitals just to see me on stage for five minutes
• taking the time to get to know and bond with John
• letting me stand on your toes when I was little so we could "dance"
• being willing to help me whenever I need it

To my father-in-law, thank you for teaching John how to be a good man. And for always making me feel so welcome and loved as part of the Morrey family. :)

Alright, sorry for the brief amount of cheesiness ... it's bound to happen every now and then. We started the (what we are learning will be) looooooooooooong process of putting in a fence yesterday with the help of John's dad, my dad and my brother Jason (and a smattering of help from me and John's mom--we left the heavy labor to the men). After a very long and tiring 10-hour day, we have nearly all of the 40 or so fence post holes dug. That might not sound like much, but you haven't seen our soil. Parts of it are FULL of rocks--and we're not talking pebbles. Let's just say they made digging the holes a pain and very time-consuming, so we're pretty happy with what we were able to accomplish yesterday. The next step will be finishing digging the post holes by hand (oh joy), then setting the posts in concrete. I'm just looking forward to having it all in so we can move on to the fun stuff--buying trees and shrubs and making our backyard pretty. :)

John (apparently announcing his pregnancy), my dad and my brother Jason

Viva Las Vegas!

John and I celebrated our first anniversary on Sunday. In some ways I can't believe that we've been married for a whole year, but on the other hand it also feels like we've been married forever (in a good way). To celebrate, we took a road trip to Vegas. We spent Wednesday night in St. George in a motel room that smelled and looked like it belonged in a retirement home -- I have never in my life seen a motel/hotel shower that did not have a tub but instead had a bench attached to the wall that you had to fold down in order to sit on and bathe yourself (check out the picture above...maybe we should burn those shorts of John's, now that I think about it). SICK. The room also had an equally shudder-inducing recliner and the type of bedspread that is immediately taken off of the bed and thrown onto the floor as quickly as possible in order to avoid any of the nasty germs that have congregated on it. Thankfully we only had to spend one night there.

Thursday we drove to Vegas. We stayed at the Las Vegas Hilton, which totally reminded us of a cruise ship (minus the sea sickness and free food). It definitely is the nicest hotel I've ever stayed at in Vegas, with a full casino inside, 16 restaurants and the gaudiest diamond light fixtures on the ceilings that I've ever had the pleasure of viewing. I know I talked about being excited about having warmer weather in Vegas, but it was a bit extreme. It was BEASTLY hot while we were there (we're talking 106 degrees, people! Record-high temperatures!), so we spent most of our time indoors relaxing and people-watching. And for some reason watching lots and lots of coverage of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The highlight of the trip? Definitely seeing the Circque de Soleil Beatles Love show at the Mirage on Saturday night. It was amazing! (And a little bit unnerving, what with the performers dangling from the ceiling unharnassed, using only ribbons to keep themselves from plummeting to the floor. Good thing they're professionals.) I think we were both just in awe as it was going on -- and you really can't go wrong when you've got the Beatles as your soundtrack. It was awesome. I highly recommend it if you're ever in town.

The low point of the trip? Finding out the day that we left that my favorite pizza place ever is no longer in Vegas. Sadly, it was one of the things I was most looking forward to. It was bad enough when they took Peter Piper Pizza out of Utah, but at least I could take heart in the fact that I could eat some after only a six-hour drive to Las Vegas. Curse you and your pessimistic views of the economy, Peter Piper Pizza franchise owners.

We celebrated our actual anniversary by spending six hours together in the car driving home, spending some time at a family party, watching an awesome lightning storm, getting rained and hailed on as we drove to our house, and eating a gourmet dinner of toast and scrambled eggs at 10 at night and watching our wedding video. We are nothing if not romantic. :)

So, one year into our marriage I have to say that I am happier now than I have ever been. John is just maybe the best husband ever (I can provide proof if needed) and I am so grateful that I get to spend my life with him. I love you Johnny!

Photos by Lindsey Briggs Photography

Oh, how I love when it snows in May...

Waking up to snow this morning had me wistfully thinking about summer. The things I'm most looking forward to?

• Our first-anniversary-trip to Vegas in a week and a half, which will include warm weather, sleeping in, Peter Piper Pizza, Beatles Love, cheap yummy buffets and four uninterrupted days with my Johnny.
• A week of birthday fun for John in July--we have tickets to see Paul McCartney the day before his birthday and Ben Folds with the Utah Symphony three days after his birthday. Lucky boy. (And I suppose lucky me, since by default I get to go, too.)
• FINALLY having it be warm. But don't judge me when I start complaining about how hot it is come August...
• Putting in our fence and getting our backyard landscaped.
• Fireworks!
• Going golfing. Probably more so that I get to drive the golf cart.
• African Ice. If you don't know what I'm talking about...wow, you're missing out. Three key ingredients: shaved ice, ice cream and cream on the top of it all. Full of calories and goodness.
• Going to summer plays and baseball games.

I can hardly wait. What are you all most looking forward to this summer?

A Belated Happy Mother's Day

Sorry that this post is a day late, but better late than never. :) I just wanted to wish all of you moms out there a happy Mother's Day!

To my mom, thank you for:

• letting me get my ears pierced when I was five
• teaching me to be a rabid sports fan
• being so amazingly selfless and teaching me what it means to be giving
• ALWAYS supporting me
• introducing me to the joy of cheesy Elvis movies, Footloose, Grease and Some Like It Hot
• teaching me to be ridiculously competitive no matter what game I'm playing
• spending so much time helping me plan my wedding, which turned out better than I ever imagined
• loving me unconditionally
• showing me what it really means to make a house a home
• helping me to develop a love of reading and learning
• being such a great example of how to be a wife and mother
• being my best friend

And to my mother-in-law, thank you for raising the boy that I love more than anything else in the world. You done good. :)

Shrubs and flowers and trees...oh my!

John and I have become totally obsessed lately with looking at shrubs, ground cover, flowers and trees, trying to decide what we want to put in our yard. We were downtown yesterday celebrating my brother and sister-in-law's graduation from the U. (congrats, Ty and Sharol!), so afterward we drove around the fancy rich neighborhoods up by the Capitol looking for landscaping ideas. Then we moved on to Temple Square--it is so gorgeous there right now! I have decided it would be best just to hire the Church's gardener(s). And have their budget for plants and flowers.

I LOVE these colors together. And those spiky plant/shrub things. Anybody know what those are?

I have decided I need to have some type of flowering tree in my yard, and I love pansies and petunias, so I'm sure we'll plant some of those. How about you guys--any suggestions? What are your favorite flowers, shrubs and trees?

Secret Admirer

Last Saturday morning I pulled out of the driveway and discovered this on John's car:

Awww...someone in our neighborhood thinks my Johnny is hot! (He knew right off the bat it wasn't me that had written it because of the improper use of "your/you're." I'm a bit of a grammar freak.) But really, how could you not think this is hot?

My little manly princess. I am one lucky girl. :)