Red Rum. Except Not Really. Just Red.

Kyle prides himself on being able to pick out "my music" in TV shows, movies, commercials, department stores...  you name it.  And, I have to say, he pretty much has my number. 

Upon further reflection, I have decided that if you are a red-headed female singer/songwriter then I love you.  And your music, too.  Enter some redheaded favorites:

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Hayley Williams of Paramore

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Allison Sudol of A Fine Frenzy

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Ingrid Michaelson

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Emily Jaye of Frentik

It's almost enough to make me want to dye my hair red.  Again.

Now if only I could sing...

A Brilliant Idea & Quite a Bit of Randomness

photo by me

While sleeping on the bus, I awoke to a startling thought: snow cones!  I must bring the snow cone maker to the family reunion this weekend.  But isn't that a brilliant idea?  I do have some of my best ideas in my sleep.

This is all really for nothing except to say that my second most brilliant ideas usually come to me at the gym.  Except I've only been to the gym once in many months and so I've been having a lack of brilliancy lately.  (Note to self: spend more time at the gym)

You know when people talk about writing they say, "Write what you know"?  That is all very good you see, but what does that say about me, I wonder?

And do you ever think about what you might've blogged about had we had such things as blogs and the internet for Pete's sake when you were ten and fifteen years younger?  (Assuming you are also at least twenty-five years of age or thereabouts).  This is the thought that I've been thinking most about today.

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Age Ten

I would have blogged about horses.  I would have told you all their parts and pieces and may have even posted a video of me pretending to be a horse.  (It's a family classic is what it is)

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Age Thirteen

I would have blogged about my love for nail polish and how I hated the very sight of my bare nails.  (Only now I can't hardly stand polish on my fingers).

Age Sixteen

I would have blogged about something terribly dramatic like perhaps how I let my mom plan my sixteenth birthday party and was so stupidly afraid it would be lame but then it ended up being the coolest party ever.  Because, you see, I have the coolest mom ever.  True story.

Age Eighteen

I would have blogged about surviving my first year of college and the dreaded freshman fifteen and how studying fashion design involved a whole lot more sewing than I had ever before predicted and how I may have spent the night in the sewing lab on more than a dozen occasions.

Age Twenty-one

I would have blogged about beginning my full-time mission at the beautiful Temple Square and all the crazy wonderful people I fell in love with every day.  Also, the nylons.  I would have told you the awfulness of wearing nylons every single day for eighteen months.

k2 imaging

Age Twenty-Four

Well now that was just last year you see and it is all really a great and terrible blur because I was busy planning the wedding of my dreams.  Probably I would have been just as ridiculously full of nonsense as I am today.  But with more tulle and taffeta for your reading pleasure.

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Age Twenty-Seven

(Just predicting the future here, don't mind me) I anticipate blogging about baby bits and baby drool and heaven help me there better be babies in my future!  But I do think age twenty-seven will be grand.  Kyle was twenty-seven when I met him.  If that is to say anything about what can happen to a person at age twenty-seven.

Seriously Cool

This here is a very special moment:

my very first cave visit.

Why I had never before ventured hundreds of feet into the depths of a mountain before is beyond me.

Because this was seriously cool.

Also, cold.

Forty degrees cold, to be exact.

Weekend at the Lake

For the life of me, I cannot get Kyle to smile for a picture.

Oh well.

I love him anyway.

I'd Rather Be Wearing...

Happy Pioneer Day to my fellow Utahns!

Today I am at the lake thinking these would be perfect for lounging on the beach in style:

A Lesson in Childishness

Do you ever feel so stressed out that you laugh hysterically and/or sob pathetically all within the same half hour period of time?  Or is it just me? 
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So maybe I was a little dramatic emotional.  It is a defect of the female race.  Also, weak arms. 

There are a few such things that cause me undue stress:  being short on time and the pressures of cooking.  Also, when I leave work early to not be stressed and I get three phone calls from work.

So, we're spending the weekend at Bear Lake with the wonderful Abby and Jason and I waited until the last minute to get our food ready (and pack all my junks).  In the meantime, I was determined to make a delicious veggie pizza for the Young Women activity.  I had two hours to do it all.  Including a trip to WalMart.  Do you see what is happening here?  Let me give you a hint: laugh hysterically, sob pathetically, rinse and repeat.

The good news is, my veggie pizza was a freakin' hit.  But I still loved Kim's cheesecake bites the best.  They were like unto tiny cheesecake bites of perfection.  Kim? Kim? Are you listening?  You are a baking genius.  Also, I love your whippy cream cheese frosting.

And it came to pass that once I got the food dealt with I was so hysterically giddy the rest of the night that I kept Kyle awake for hours by poking him and telling stupid jokes.  I giggled myself to sleep well after 11 PM.  Kyle was totally annoyed, but I was so funny he couldn't help but enjoy himself.

I know what you're wondering to yourself right this very minute: "What is your secret to giddy childishness??"  My friends, I'll not keep you waiting.  THIS is what I'm so freakin' happy about:

1.  My freakin' awesome veggie pizza, the recipe for which I took from someone else but will henceforth and forever claim it as my own just for the bragging rights.

2.  We live in Utah.  In Utah, we celebrate the day the pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley.  We call this day Pioneer Day.  We celebrate Pioneer Day by not working on Friday.

3.  No work on Friday.

4.  Did I mention we're going to Bear Lake?  Where it will not, in fact, be 100 degrees hot?

5.  My sister is getting married.  In Texas.  And we are totally flying there.

6.  In addition to Bear Lake and Texas, we have three more trips coming up: two to Colorado and one to Crouch, Idaho.  (Yes, it totally sounds like Crotch).  And then we'll be really poor and I'll not be quite so happy but that is, at this point, relatively irrelevant.

7.  We totally went to see Inception at the IMAX.  And I loved it.  It was just crazy enough to make sense and we even got popcorn.  Popcorn at the movies is such a treat, don't you think?

8.  Just because I like you so much, I'm going to give you "My" freakin' awesome veggie pizza recipe so you too can be a star at the next Young Women activity or what have you.

Ingredients:
2 Cans of crescent rolls (can? really? what are those called, anyway?)
2 8 oz. Packages cream cheese
1 Ranch dressing envelope packet
1/2 C. Sour cream
Shredded cheese
Chop up veggies to your heart's content (I used celery, red onion, carrots, and broccoli and just put them in the food processor until they were tiny bits)

Smash the crescent rolls really thin onto a cookie sheet. It should fill the whole sheet.  Poke it all over with a fork and bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes (or until goldeny brown).  Mix the cream cheese, ranch packet and sour cream together and spread over the crescent rolls when they have cooled. (I did not wait until they were cooled because, as previously mentioned, I was in a hurry.  This proved to be rather difficult because the mixture just melted as I tried to spread it and was, in effect, less effective).  Sprinkle all your veggies on top and lastly top with cheese.  Cool in the fridge for 2 hours or however long you can stand it before you have to serve it/eat it all yourself.

Enjoy!

Over and out.

"His Capa Was Detated!"

Kyle reminds me on a near-daily basis that I've been demoted to a 3 out of 10 driver because I got two speeding tickets in 9 months.

Whatever.

So I opted to "attend" online traffic school where I log in my 3 hours by reading attempting-to-be-entertaining traffic material and answer a follow-up quiz question.  When I'm done, the ticket will be off my record. 

Never been to online traffic school?  Well, allow me to share with you one of my favorite lessons:

"Rear-ending a large vehicle...can be a fatal mistake...When the vehicle passes under the trailer, the upper torso of the driver and passengers hit the bumper at close to full speed while the rest of their bodies travel with the vehicle under the trailer.  The result: decapitation.  This isn't the Middle Ages, so avoid a gruesome death and allow plenty of space between you and the semi-truck in front of you."

Who said traffic school couldn't be fun?

 "Wham! His capa is detated from his head!"

~the great Michael Scott

(please tell me you also love The Office)

(and that I'm not the only one who's had to suffer through traffic school)

(more than once)

Latest Project

So there's this quote that I really like and I wanted to display it on a large scale.  I used some JoAnn's coupons to get an 18 x 24 canvas, picked up some black acrylic paint and used leftover white paint from a previous project

First I typed this up on the computer.

And used it as a guide to paint it on canvas!

It's definitely not perfect and will probably undergo a little tweaking, but for now it's hanging in our kitchen to remind us to make the most of what we've got.

At one point during my hours of painting, Kyle so cleverly suggested that perhaps I could have just used the one I made on the computer and printed it poster size and framed it...

But I reminded him that I insist on doing everything the hard way.

Marital Wisdom from "Those People"

Today we have been married 10 months.

We are not "those people" who celebrate monthly anniversaries.  Not typically anyway.

Not tyically as in maybe sometimes I use a monthly anniversary as an excuse to do/get what I want.

There's no harm in that really, is there?

But I do feel so very wise, having been married for a whole 5/6th of one year.

You know, wise like how now we can tell all our friends who are just getting married "how it is" to be married.  Yeah, we're "those people."  Or something.

So for you, my friends, who are preparing to be married, I offer you my best 5/6th of a year advice:

1.  It is important to grab the husband's attention first before trying to say anything important. If you do not first grab his attention, you will have to repeat everything you just said.  I usually like to begin the conversation by saying something like, "Oh by the way I'm pregnant."  And then he will look away from the T.V. and say, "What?"  And then I can tell him what I really wanted to say because he never heard the first thing anyway. (And besides that, it isn't true so don't get your hopes up).

2.  If you try to make an excess of food for dinner so you have leftovers for lunch the next day, he will eat it all for dinner anyway.  Save yourself the trouble and just make your own lunch when he isn't watching.

3.  He will never load the dishwasher properly.  Just accept it now.

4.  There is an invisible line down the center of the bed.  If you cross it and enter into his territory at any time during the night, he will forever hold it against you and may actually draw a line on your bed just to prove a point.

5.  He may get a little freaked out when you fill a spare room full of yard sale "junk" and announce you are going to paint everything white.

6.  Just be prepared to explain the difference between hand towels, dish rags, and washcloths.  Many times over.

7.  Memorize what he says about his favorite sports team and then repeat it at a later date.  You will impress him beyond belief.

8.  When your new jeans dye your underwear blue, he will laugh at you.  It is best that you laugh too.

9.  Serve every meat with barbecue sauce.

10.  Against your better judgment, the surround sound is now the most important piece of "furniture" you own.  Be sure to decorate accordingly.

The End.

July 4th & the Baby-Snatchers

I know, July 4th was forever ago, but I am still drooling over the spectacular shish kabobs we made.  Aren't they lovely?

*drool*

Speaking of, I totally drooled on myself in the kitchen the other day.

Kevin and Suzi and Cody-the-toddler came over to celebrate with us, putting our hammock to good use.

Cody is giving his baby brother some love.  Sweet, huh?  I know, I want to keep him too.  And yes, Suzi's shirt is wet, and yes it's because of the kiddie pool.

Isn't he dreamy??  Seriously, I want to keep him.  Here he is telling me how he loves me so.  Can't you see it in his eyes?

It was, of course, windy like always, but we enjoyed the fireworks nonetheless.

I mean, it was seriously windy.  Check out this hair.

 

Hello, we are the Post's and when you turn around we'll steal your baby and pretend he is ours.

On the real July 4th day, Kyle and his wife (me) set up camp in our backyard and listened to fireworks all night long.

 

And played UNO. (Yes, I definitely kicked his trash).

And watched Dan In Real Life.

Which reminded me again of how much Kyle reminds me of Steve Carell and how much I am so glad I married him.

The End.

As if Riding the Bus Was Ever Glamorous or Something

one time i rode in the front seat.

I have nothing of particular interest to share today because commuting via public transportation has sucked the very life and cleverness from my full-time employee bones.  You may wonder to yourself, "How could a bus do such a thing to a promising young life?"  And my answer is as follows:

this photo was not staged. the persons involved are not actors.  i am genuinely displeased.

1.  Complete disregard for personal space. The bus has been especially crowded lately and as a result I no longer get a pair of seats all to myself. This displeases me greatly. Especially when my seat partner falls asleep and hovers dangerously close to my shoulder.

2.  Perfumes & colognes of a strong-smelling variety.  A forty-minute bus ride sitting within inches of a person who is wearing way too much of something smelly is absolutely nauseating.

actual photo from my bus ride

3.  Lack of personal hygeine.  Again, a forty-minute bus ride sitting within inches of a person.... well, you get the idea.

4.  Greasy face marks on bus windows. Need I say more? It is a miracle I don't dry-heave the whole way to and from work every day.

don't the vents look angry?

5.  And last, but not least, the loud cell phone talker.  My bus is usually very quiet and conducive to an early morning nap.  Except when an obnoxious female in the front of the bus has a very personal conversation so loudly that everyone on the bus can hear every detail.  She apparently did not realize she had aquired a very captive audience and her loudness rudely interrupted my morning nap.

So perhaps tomorrow I will regain my thoughtfulness and charming demeanor, but as for now I'm tired and cranky.  Anyone have some chocolate to spare?

How Google Improved My Quality of Life:

1. That time the garbage disposal was broken, I googled how to fix it. And I fixed it.

2. When Kyle wanted a blue and orange wedding to honor his beloved Boise State Broncos, I googled “blue and orange weddings” and realized it could be done tastefully. Without Bronco heads.

3. Thanks to Google, I taught myself to reupholster a chair.

4.  Install a light fixture.

5.  Refinish furniture.

6.  Paint our house.

7.  Plant dahlias.

8. Google helped me to identify the horrifyingly awful creatures known as “house centipedes” that were repeatedly invading our apartment.

9. Google Maps got us from here to there more times than I can remember.

10. Google Reader made it possible for me to subscribe to an embarrassing number of blogs, all of which have inspired me in some way or another.

i love you, Google.

Life & Meaning Through Tommy Lee Jones

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So we were watching US Marshals the other night and I got to thinking that if only everyone could put the guns down and Wesley Snipes could have some honest, open communication with Tommy Lee Jones, this whole chasing-the-wrong-bad-guy thing could be resolved. And then it got me to thinking that marriage is like a Tommy Lee Jones movie.

Allow me to explain.
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Like how at first Tommy blames Wesley for committing some heinous crime: “Wesley, you killed those two people and escaped from the grasp of the law only to run free and dangerous all over the place.”

See also in marriage:
“Husband, I can’t believe you didn’t fold my laundry. You folded all of your own laundry and left mine sitting in the basket all alone. I’m so offended. You don’t care about me. My laundry means nothing to you and therefore I mean nothing to you.”

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And then some things start to not add up the way you thought and suddenly: is Tommy chasing Wesley or protecting Wesley? Who’s really the bad guy here?

See also in marriage:
There was that one time that she told Husband not to fold her laundry because he didn’t fold it right and she’d just have to fold it again anyway and so maybe he is not so guilty after all?

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And in the end we find out that actually Wesley Snipes was innocent and totally working for the government as a good guy. He was just set up.

See also in marriage:
Husband confirms previous reports that she once told him not to fold her laundry and was actually trying to make her happy when she mistakenly interpreted his laundry-neglect as a personal attack on her very being. So he’s actually a really good guy, just maybe a little misunderstood.

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Do you see what I mean here?  There is some serious life lessons to be learned in the watching of a Tommy Lee Jones movie.

The Lesser of Two Evils?

So we are thinking of taking the "scenic" route to Colorado in August. 

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Which may include Trail Ridge Road. 

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Does this look terrifying to anyone else? 

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My palms are sweaty just thinking about it.

Here are the facts:

*Trail Ridge Road is the highest continuous highway in the U.S.

*It is 12,183 feet at its highest point.

*It may make you wet your pants.

This also makes me wonder who will be brave enough to drive us along this terrifying road?  You see, Kyle does not like heights, but he also considers me a "three out of ten driver."  So the question is, which does he fear more: driving at 12,000 feet on practically guardrail-and-shoulder-less roads or his wife's driving?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and go with the latter.

The End.

My Proudest Moment & More House Updates

This was our kitchen before we moved in.  See that little globe light above the sink?

I replaced it with this! 

I had never before done any kind of electrical work so when I flipped the switched and the light came on I may have almost shed tears of joy.  It was one of my proudest moments thus far.

And this you see was our bedroom prior to our moving in.  It's funny to me how vastly different our taste is from the previous owners'.

And here it is now!

The room still isn't quite done yet, but I'm so excited we finally finished painting it and got the bed assembled!  This is some serious progress, people.

Of Freckles and Frozen Yogurt

photo by me

I think I might be part sun-worshipper.

Do you suppose that could be considered a race?

I didn't see it on the census.

At any rate, I do love the sun.  I'm sad to say that I had forgotten how much I loved the sun until my afternoon walk in the park today.  It was here that I enjoyed my deliciously nonfat frozen yogurt and watched sweaty joggers and chubby babies and was startled by a curiously adorable three legged dog. 

It is here that I must mention that a good frozen yogurt and some time in the sun can cure just about any kind of mediocre Wednesday.  Especially when the yogurt is nonfat, the sun is not too hot and the breeze is not too breezy.  Today was one of those kinds of days. 

Furthermore, the sun brings me freckles and how I do love my freckles!

I probably should not love them, but I do.

I love my freckles because they only come around this time of year.

I love them because their presence means I've been spending time in the sun.

I love them because they are the closest I ever get to being tan.

My reacquainting with the sun reminded me that it is summer for Pete's sake and I have not yet done any of the following:

Basked in the sun poolside

Received any amount of sunburn

Ran through sprinklers

 Made good use of Hawaiian Tropic

Shaved above my knees

These things must be remedied post haste.