tonight

tonight b took me on a super romantic dinner-date -- to a gas station. i told him it was one of my most memorable outings. [in all fairness, i had been craving subway, and the one by our house had a line out the door. so he said "i know another one!" and drove me to the subway inside the gas station at the mouth of provo canyon. it was sooo romantic...but actually kind of fun. and it wasn't THAT bad...it had its own seating area and everything.]

then we went grocery shopping, which was much needed because we had returned to a kitchen that contained only tortillas and frozen edamame. mundane date nights with my husband are actually one of my favorite kinds; i love hanging out with him.

then we came home and i finally unpacked from our trip. i felt productive.

and then i caught up on email while my saintly husband put the dishes away. in the process, one of the studs popped off our shoddy cupboard shelf and two of my olive green ceramic bowls went crashing to the floor in a million pieces. this is SAD. i always feel an empty loss when a dish dies... like it was part of the family. is that weird? anyway, these bowls are from target [wedding gifts] and they are deep and the PERFECT size for cereal or ice cream [two things we eat a lot of in this house]. so RIP green bowls. i miss you already.

and here we are. i'm going to bed. too much excitement for one night.

guess i should blog...

wow, it's been 12 days since my last post. i have become a horrible blogger. there is so much to tell...just so little time.

but we are home. nine days in california were just what i needed! i loved seeing my palm trees, my family, my friends, and of course stuffing my face with my momma's delicious cooking. and we got zero tickets on the drive.

now we're back in utah and there's no snow on the ground. yesss. b hates BYU football more than ever. work is kindly easing me back in slowly. nine days till finals. i had a hard time sleeping in my own bed last night. we have two bags of trader joe's groceries in our kitchen [including three boxes of peppermint joe joes -- regular AND dark-chocolate-covered]. and december starts tomorrow! YAY.

that's all. i promise to be better. soon :)

just lately

turns out i don't have that many pictures of our trip to idaho. just imagine a lot of cows, farmland and co eds and you get the gist.

however, there were two highlights [in addition to hanging out with my fabulous sibs] which of course involved food. first up my sister took me to rexburg's only cupcakery -- it was delightful! i liked the frosting even more than the stuff from sweet tooth fairy...don't tell anyone.



then we went to dinner at a place called "big judd's." when we arrived, i almost refused to go in because we were in the middle of nowhere and it looked like some whisky tango truck stop and i was scared. but i travailed, and we went in and ordered a 4 lb. burger. SICK. look, it's bigger than rachel's head [i shared it with three others]:


seesta + brother-in-law j-dawg

granty pants didn't make it into ANY of my pictures, what the heck. so here's one off his fb page that shows his true personality, just for fun:



we DID visit him in all his freshman glory...his boy apartment smelled like dude. he loves college. i can't wait to hang out w/ these people all next week. sibs are the best.

of course it was however nice to get home and sleep in my own bed...despite the multiple tickets. thanks for the fun time, kids!

a couple weeks ago we went to a jazz game with the mba's...our seats were not really the best. that place is so steep, it makes me dizzy. but hey, we got free tickets, so who am i to complain? b also won a gift card to some swanky steakhouse, so we went there for dessert after with alex & tj and went all out. the place had name plaques on every booth, so you know it was legit. my goal is to one day get my name on a booth.



annnnd it's almost thanksgiving break! YAY. i can't wait to get home. i'll be dining at the south pas in n out at noon on tuesday with a few friends -- if you're around, COME! i've missed you all.

my mom is awesome

oh you know, just my mom hanging out with one of the most famous bloggers ever. [if you don't know who that is, you have some serious oprah / today show /ny times / KSL watching to do.]

my mom was in AZ for the ASU/USC game, and this lady was in town for a craft fair. i told mom to go. she went, met them, and gave them my blogger business card. LOL. love it.

and someday i will post about that freaking trip to idaho. but today is not that day.

joe joes anonymous

just remembering these little guys and how much i love them:



i'm sure they're already on shelves. anyone bought them yet?

a week from tomorrow i'll be driving to california! YAY.
first stop: in n out.
second stop: trader joe's.

oh TJs whyyyyy can't you come to utah?? :(

the tale of the idaho cops

wow. i havent blogged in a week! not that any of you care, i'm sure, but i feel guilty.

maybe i'll catch up soon. or maybe i won't. but here's a little summary of recent life:
- went to a blogging workshop and met rachel from black*eiffel...definitely a highlight of the week
- been getting the NICEST cards to use for the card drive...for real, people are so sweet. i cant wait to send them off.
- went to idaho for the weekend to visit the sibs [and sib-in-law]. it involved lots of wind, giant hamburgers and many cows. more on that to come.

anyway, i do have an entertaining story, hence the title of this post. so on sunday we were getting ready to leave idaho, and b left to fill up the gas tank while i finished packing. on the way back to my sister's apartment he got pulled over by the rexburg PD for going 45 in a 25 mph zone -- this was a main road, mind you. they drive reeeeal slow in the country.

so he was upset, but not a big deal. we loaded the car, dropped my brother off and got on the highway. no joke -- less than 10 minutes later we saw a cop driving down the freeway in the opposite direction. he slowed down, put his lights on and turned around just as b started to slow down. and PULLED US OVER. 80 in a 65. second ticket in less than an hour.

b was pissed. actually, that's probably an understatement. he was really, really, really mad. and lucky me had to sit in the car with him while he cooled off. all i could do was laugh...what are the odds? honestly, if i had been driving, it probably would have happened to me too -- my average speeds are 50 mph city, 80 mph highway. i don't think my car operates at any other speeds, and those just aren't kosher in idaho.

anyway, one of the things i love most about b is that he rights himself pretty quickly, so an hour later he was back to his happy self and making plans to do online traffic school and avoid eating out for the next month to help contain some of the damage. still, gotta admit it was pretty hilarious. i guess my good cop luck ran out.

oh, and i don't think we'll be going to idaho ever again.

thats a dealbreaker ladies

tonight i had the golden touch.

first we went to tj maxx to return a coat i bought two weeks ago but decided against. [this whole buying-clothes-for-winter thing is much harder than it looks.] naturally i'd lost the receipt, and when i tried to explain this to the moronic teenage boy behind the counter he refused to do a store credit. also his voice sounded like minnie mouse on helium.

so i asked for the manager, who approved my store credit on the spot thank you very much.

then on the way to sunflower market, b made an impulse decision that he needed a hot-fresh-now krispy kreme, so we hit the drive thru. instead of giving us two glazed and one pumpkin spice we got TWO pumpkin spice & one regular, so i ran back in to ask to switch a donut out. [for him, not for me. i'm not into sweets right now for reasons i will explain in a future post.]

not only did i get my second glazed -- the lady filled the box and i exited with a complimentary half-dozen. WOOT.

and THEN i saw this -- in n out, just about to open, less than a mile from our apartment. almost feels like home!:



yeah. basically i'm in a phase to get HOOKED UP. guess i'm a deal-maker these days.

this is halloween

[barfing pumpkin...my hands-down favorite pumpkin sighting this year.]

turns out halloween kind of sucks if a.) you don't dress up for any big parties and b.) you don't have any little kids to dress up and take trick or treating. we don't qualify for either of those this year, so halloween was kind of lame.

friday night we went to our ward's chili cookoff / trunk or treat. we are both on the activities committee so really we HAD to go [and set up and take down and all the fun stuff], but it turned out great. we ate dinner at a table full of kid-less, costume-less new friends and had a really fun time. best part was that we were cleaned up and home by 8 p.m.! most successful ward activity ever, in my opinion.

on the actual all hallow's eve, b went to the utah football game in salt lake and i stayed home to sew. i also took an ill-advised trip to the mall to get a last-minute birthday gift and saw a whoooole lot of freaky costumed people. it made me want to retreat to my apartment and stay there.

i did venture out once more to go to my new friend nichole's house [yes, i AM making friends in utah!] and we ate soup and watched my-favorite-halloween-movie-of-all-time, hocus pocus. it was fun.

maybe next year b and i will actually dress up and get more into the halloween spirit. i'm taking costume suggestions now :)