He Said She Said

Being married is such an eye-opener.  I've come to realize that the things that I think are just plain common sense, are not the same things that are common sense to my wonderful husband.  In using my expert intellect, I have detected THIS very fact as the source of most all our misunderstandings. 
Allow me to welcome you to an inside peak at our marriage:

Kyle: I always dump out the contents of the cereal bowl.
Kourtney: Even traces of milk left in a cereal bowl are totally disgusting, so you must rinse and scrub before leaving the bowl to rest, completely and totally milk and cereal free.

Kyle: When I suggest we do something or go somewhere and you don't object, that doesn't mean anything. No decision is made until you say "yes" or "no." I can't know what you mean unless you tell me.  I am not a mind reader.
Kourtney: When you suggest we do something or go somewhere and I don't object, that means "ok." You will know if I don't want to go. Also, this protects me in the event I decide to object later because I never really said "yes" in the first place. Do you follow? I would make a great lawyer, I know.

Kyle: Why risk putting our precious mail in the measly apartment mailbox when the post office is simply faster and more reliable and it's on the way to work! Bonus!
Kourtney: You wouldn't really want to drive down the street to the post office when there's a perfectly good mailbox 10 feet from our door.

Kyle: The bathroom rug is where it is so I can dry my feet on it.
Kourtney: You dry your feet before you leave the shower/bathtub so as to avoid wet footprint marks all over the bathroom rug for someone to step in later only to get their socks soaking wet.

Kyle: You never know when someone will break into your house so it's best to be safe and lock the bedroom door at night.
Kourtney: No one is going to murder us in the night, so you don't need to lock the bedroom door.  Except, now that you've said that I'm kind of freaked out.  Will you lock the door please?

Kyle: Mouthwash is part of good hygiene.
Kourtney: Mouthwash makes me vomit.

Kyle: I shave my head, so all these long blonde hairs around the sink and counter are clearly yours.
Kourtney: Oh sure, blame all the hair on me.

Kyle: Turning the heat off when we aren't home saves money we can spend on other, more fun things.
Kourtney: I'm cold! If you turn the heat on before we leave, it will be warm inside when we come home!
Kyle: You are always cold.
Kourtney: That's because you didn't turn the heat on.
Kyle: What did you say?
Kourtney: I don't repeat myself.

Pumpkin Addendum

As previously mentioned, I love all things pumpkin.  At the time, however, I failed to mention 2 of my all-time pumpkin staples.  Allow me to introduce:

Einstein Bros Pumpkin Bagel AND Pumpkin Schmear! (aka cream cheese) Pretty much the best breakfast you could ever have.  In my opinion.

Cold Stone's Pumpkin Ice Cream!!  Most especially famous with graham crackers, caramel, and whipped cream.  It is, in fact, most delicious.  Too bad a "love it" size has an excess of 800 calories!! 

But... who's counting?

Pumpkin Squares

In an effort to be healthier, I have been limited to baking sweets only on Sundays.  (Just for the record, I hate using the word "sweets" it makes me feel old).  As such, I can't make these little pieces of delicousness until a Sunday which is at least 3 days away. 

So, I got this recipe from a coworker who made it for a department social and they were quite possibly, almost maybe, better than pumpkin pie.  At least that's what I remember.  You should make them and taste them and then tell me what you think. 

Crust:

1 yellow cake mix (leave out 1 cup and set aside for topping)

1 egg

1/3 c. soft margarine

*mix together and press into the bottom of a 9x13 pan

The Deliciousness:

1 large can pumpkin

4 eggs

1 1/4 c. milk

1 c. sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp cloves

1 tsp ginger

*mix together and pour over crust

Topping:

1 c. cake mix (that you remembered set aside earlier, right?)

1/4 c. sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp ginger

2 TBS soft margarine

*mix together and sprinkle over the delicousness (pumpkin mix).  Bake at 350 degrees for 60-70 minutes.  If using a glass pan, bake at 325 degrees for 50-60 minutes.

Yum!

The Surprise Weekend

A few weeks ago, Kyle and I were adding things to our handy whiteboard calendar when I noticed that he had written in "Surprise Weekend" over October 23-25.  True to it's name, the weekend was a total surprise because Kyle wouldn't tell me ANYTHING about it! 

Kyle pretty much packed my clothes for me the night before (I didn't know what to bring and I got tired of asking) and we piled in the car at 6:30am Friday morning.  When we finally got to Las Vegas and he told me we were staying there for the weekend, I didn't believe him at first, but I was so excited!! 

We checked into our hotel and then Kyle told me that we were going to the U2 concert that night!!  Kyle had bought tickets way back in March - even before we were engaged.  We had general admission tickets and arrived several hours early so we could get a good spot only to find that the line for general admission was a mile long.  It was pretty unbelievable.  People had been camped out there all day!

Much to our surprise, we still managed to get really close to the stage! 

The Black Eyed Peas opened up for U2 - I loved it!!

We both agreed that this was the best concert we'd ever been to.  Good job U2. 

Saturday was another adventure.  We were approached Friday by sneaky salesmen at one of the casinos and subsequently signed up for a 2-3 hours timeshare presentation in order to get some Las Vegas freebies.  Kyle had been to one of these "presentations" before, so at least he knew what to expect.  I could go on forever about the cheap sales tactics they used to try and get us to invest $42,000 for two weeks a year of a timeshare in Las Vegas... but I won't.  It was actually a really interesting experience, I think.  I was surprised to find that I felt really proud of us because we had to constantly defend our marriage, values, goals, and finances to a couple of strangers.  It made me really grateful to be married to Kyle and to know that I can trust him with any kind of decision that may affect our family. 

We were united! We stood strong!  We made it out in four hours! 

Here's what we got for enduring intense sales pressure for that long:

1.  Jason's Deli sandwiches, cookies, fruit, and lemonade during the presentaton (I'm always a sucker for free food).

2. 2 tickets to Lance Burton - we had wanted to see a show anyway and even though the seats were in the balcony, we had a good view and it was a fun show.

3. $50 vouchers to eat at the MGM Grand Buffet - SOOO good!  Crab legs, sushi, prime rib, creme brulee...  I need not say more.

4. $25 in vouchers for playing slot machines at the Excalibur.  I'd never gambled before, and probably never will again so it was really fun to use someone else's money to play.  I will say, however, that we were both seriously disappointed that the slot machines don't take change anymore.  When did this happen?!?! I so wanted to pull the lever and hear coins tinkling into the metal tray, signifying to everyone around that I won something!  Instead, I got to push a couple of light up buttons until I got a ticket redeemable for cash. (By the way, I won $26 on those machines - woohoo!) 

5. $50 in vouchers for playing the tables.  Kyle won us $40 at roulette!!  I think we were probably the only people in the casino that were psyched to leave with just $66.  But hey, if we had spent our own $75 to play, we would have lost $9.  I'm pretty sure we could never make a living from professional gambling.  Thank you "free" vouchers!

6. 2 tickets to the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay - this was really cool!  I don't think I would've ever paid $16.75 a person to see it, but it was an awesome exhibit for free.  I especially loved the little pool of rays that you could reach in and touch!

Here is the trophy for Kyle Post, winner of coolest husband of the week.  Thanks for the surprise weekend sugar muffin!!

The Great Pumpkin

 I'm not really a Charlie Brown fan (admitting that probably makes me un-American) and I've never seen "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown." However, I have heard of it and the idea sounds great because I LOVE pumpkin!  Carving pumpkins are nice, and they make for cute decorations, but mostly I love to eat them.  Kyle loves to eat pumpkin too, he just doesn't know it yet!  So I'm sharing with you today my most favorite pumpkin eatables.  And yes, eatables is a word. I looked it up.

 

IHOP definitely knows pancakes, and this is where I first had pumpkin in this breakfast form.  Actually, it's the only place I had them and it was only once 5 years ago but they were so good I'm still drooling over the thought of them.

I learned how to make these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies as a missionary on Temple Square.  They're not only delicious and addicting, but they're really easy too! I can't remember how to make them.. but I have the recipe somewhere.

Similar to the aforementioned cookie is the pumpkin chocolate chip muffin.  The cafeteria at work used to serve breakfast and they had these tasty muffins with an orange glaze on top!  It's probably good they discontinued serving breakfast because I'd be broke and overweight from daily muffin consumption. 

(Despite what I want to believe, muffins aren't usually all that healthy.  Just check out those chocolate chocolate chips ones from Sams - they have 692 calories!  That's probably why they're so tasty...)

The Cheesecake Factory's pumpkin cheesecake needs no introduction.  Just eat it.

While akin to banana and zucchini, pumpkin bread is especially perfect for fall.  It is also more delicious with chocolate chips.  Actually, what ISN'T more delicious with chocolate?!?!

Pumpkin spice egg nog wins my vote for most creative.  I mean, as if egg nog wasn't sensational enough on it's own!  Pumpkin and egg nog; a perfect marriage.  I dare you to try it.

Ok, so I've never had Pumpkin Spice Hershey's Kisses before, but as previously mentioned, what isn't better with chocolate?!?!  I'm sure these are great.  Anyone know if Hershey's still makes them? 

I will find them.  I will eat them.  I will blog about it.

Best Week Ever

Oct. 16

 

We had a great time bowling with some awesome friends and bailed out around 11pm because we couldn't hack it.  I even drank a coke!  For the record, I out-bowled Kyle. 

Oct. 17

Saturdays mean football.

 

This particular Saturday also meant celebrating Cody's first birthday!  Cody loves The Office so we found him this ridiculously awesome t-shirt.  Luckily, it came in the mail just minutes before we left for the party -whew!  Happy birthday Cody!

I watch football all day with Kyle so I can convince him to come to female singer-songwriter concerts like this one!  Ingrid Michaelson is one of my absolute favorites and we'd been looking forward to this concert for months!  Kyle was a good sport - I think he even enjoyed it : )

The concert was even more fun because our friends Jamie and Justin decided to come too!  We had an awesome view from the balcony of the venue.  Just before the show started a girl below found a cell phone that someone had dropped and I thought "what idiot dropped their cell phone down there?!? That is ridiculous."  Turns out I'm the idiot.  The phone survived.

Oct. 18

Sunday was my sister Kari's 30-something birthday.  Happy birthday Kari! (she's the one on the left... probably 15 years ago? Hehehe... she will hate me for putting this up)

It was also Kati and Jason's 1 year anniversary!

Oct. 19

Monday also means football, so we had friends over for food and football.  This is the boys at their football-watching best.  Kyle was so into it, he didn't even know I had taken pictures.  Thankfully the Denver Broncos won so everyone could go home happy.

Here's Cody modeling his witty t-shirt and Lexi's Denver Broncos bow.  Lookin' good Cody!

For the Love of Strangers

I am a self-proclaimed people-watcher.  I'm totally that creepy girl at the gym that stares at people.  I need to stop that...  I just find people so interesting and I wonder where they've come from, what they're going to eat for dinner, where they work, and most importantly, what were they thinking???  Every now and then I find a really interesting one and I try to sneak a picture with my cell phone so I can look back on their individual strangeness when I feel a little bored.  Here are a few of my favorites:

I caught this guy trying to get on the Front Runner.  It's hard to tell from my poor-quality cell phone picture, but he is, in fact, wearing rollerblades.  He is also carrying a medium-sized cage in both hands.  I could understand the rollerblades - perhaps a nod to the early nineties?  too busy to get in a proper workout?  or maybe he's a good samaritan who gave away his commuter bike to an underprivelaged child.  But what of the cages?!?  Amateur trapper?  Maybe he has a problem with feral cats?  The world may never know...

This guy has abnormally long legs.  He should meet Svetlana Pankratova, the woman with the world's longest legs.  I bet they'd play a crazy game of Twister.

Working on Temple Square, I see brides almost every day.  This one was pretty different.  It's hard to tell in the picture, but she's wearing hunter green leggings under her gold dress ???  Maybe she's from a foreign land where this is culturally symbolic of something really cool.  I give her points for being unique.

Today's Ratings

Its a little anticlimatic to change your name.  I think I half expected there to be some kind of ceremonious passing on of the old name at the social security office.  Hardly the case.  It was, however, less traumatic and time-consuming than I had dreaded.  Here are the ratings (1 to 5 scale):


Salt Lake County Social Security Office
Cleanliness: 4  They even have hand sanitizer stations!  Woohoo!

Friendliness: 2  The token police officer by the front door was less than impressive.  The guy who took my information hardly said a word to me, but at least he was efficient.

Aesthetics: 4 Its a newer office with pretty tile floors and walls!  I mark off points for no still life paintings.  Every office deserves a still life painting. I think this one of a dead pigeon would be good for any government office.

Wait Time: 4 Higher marks because I didn't run out of time on my meter.  I arrived 10 minutes before they opened and I was out 40 minutes later.  I had anticipated much worse!


Salt Lake County Driver License Office
 **First of all, since when is it not a driver's license?  Wouldn't that make more sense??  Apparently the official term is driver license.  Non-possesive.  Go figure.

Cleanliness: 2 - I seriously fear I may have contracted a foreign microbe in that office.  Ew.

Friendliness: 4 - My lifelong image of cranky DMV ladies is somewhat abated.  3 out of the 4 women who helped me through the process seemed genuinely non-irritated at their jobs.  Way to go!

Aesthetics: 3 - No aesthetic appeal there.  However, I did like the nice shade of sky blue they used for the license photo background.  Also, the computers used for the written test were a nice touch - just don't touch them for fear of disease (I used my knuckle to make selections).

Wait Time: 5! I didn't have to wait for anything!  This was a real shocker.  The last time I was at the DMV (4 years ago, in Colorado) I spent hours and hours waiting.  I'm pretty sure they closed the office and we were still waiting to be helped.  That, however, does not dimish my love for colorful Colorado. 


Eye Doctor

Also on the list today was a visit to the eye doctor.  It really has nothing to do with changing my name, but I did have to sign a new form with my married name - so fun...  Dr. Christianson is really the sweetest old man eye doctor and loves to talk about everything.  Today I got to hear about how he proposed to his wife, who apparently didn't even know they were dating.  Its a good story.
He was so kind to give me these sweet shades before I left. 
Just in case you're wondering, his office rates a 5 for everything.  They are the best!