Thanksgiving 2012

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving this year. It was really laid back and relaxing, since it was the off year and my sisters went to their in-laws, we had a kid free Thanksgiving. It was kind of eerily quiet.

We stuffed ourselves as is tradition. But we stuffed ourselves with family, and that's what matters. :)

After dinner and an appropriate amount of lying on the floor trying to keep the moaning to a minimum all thanks to my food baby. I was ready for something sweet and delicious in my belly, you know, to keep that lunch food baby company.

We started a tradition a few years ago with Hal's family where all of the boys make a pie, and then we have a pie contest, where you try every pie and rate them in different categories. Because we really do need an excuse to try all of the pies. We decided to do it with my family this year since Hal's parents joined us for Thanksfeasting.

After tasting them all and going back for seconds (hey, it's legit, there's a category you have to rate them on, saying if you'd like seconds) we voted....and the winner was...

ERIC! With his yummy ice cream pie with fudge and caramel sauce to go on top. I'm usually not an ice cream cake/pie kind of eater, but this was dang good. He shall thus be known as pie man 2012.

And then Thanksgiving commenced in true family fashion.

Yes, you can see my brothers insides, that's how family rolls.

Then I gave thanks for my life when I went Black Friday shopping at Walmart. 8:00 means there are SO many people there. People who won't go at midnight or 4 a.m. went this year. It was bananas people. Straight up crazy. Like a grown man knocked my sister to the ground for a $15 MP3 player kind of crazy. That's not worth my dignity. It was ok, because she got better pick of the MP3 players anyway. That's karma for you.

I'm very thankful I was able to spend the holiday at home this year, and spend it with fabulous people whom I love, and love spending time with.

Space Heater

It's cooled down as we head into winter, and our apartment has really felt the difference. Since our apartment is a half basement it definitely holds in the cold.

Since we're poor returned volunteers we don't want to spend the money to heat our entire apartment if we're only spending time in one room. So we bought ourselves a small portable heater that we can move to where we are. Smart money saving, eh?

Well, since we've bought it we've started to realize something.

Our cat is obsessed with the heater. This is the cat, when she sees someone covered in a blanket always tries to climb under the covers with you. You would think she wasn't covered in fur or something.

She will literally sit in between you and the heater so that you are getting none of the heat.

Trixy little kitty.

Giving Thanks

Today is THANKSGIVING.

I can't tell you how excited I am to be home for the holidays this year. We had a version of the holidays in Cambodia, but nothing can beat that homemade pumpkin pie, and hanging out with family. Nothing.

This year our families are combining Thanksgiving. This year I get to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family ON Thanksgiving and that's enough for me.

I'm going Black Friday shopping with my sister.

I'm going to start Christmas music on Friday.

I'm feeling this holiday spirit even stronger because I missed it last year. I may have sneaked a few songs a bit early this year, just because it makes me feel the spirit. shh, don't tell.

I'm giving thanks that I'm home for the holidays.

Sick Talk

How do I put this nicely....when Hal is sick, he's kind of the biggest baby I've ever met. But really, who doesn't want to be taken care of when they're sick?

When he's sick he wants to be taken care of like he's a 5 year old. He whines a bit and wants chicken noodle soup all the time.

He called me as I was leaving work to tell me he was sick and to ask me to get him some chicken noodle soup, and here's how the conversation went down.

Hal: "I'm sick, I have a sore throat, will you go to Costco and get me some chicken noodle soup?"

Me: "I'm sorry you're sick. I'll go to target and get you the best soup I can find. We don't have a Costco card, so I can't go there. Do you want me to get you some cold medicine?"

Hal: "Yes."

Hal: "You're not talking to me all mushy."

Me: "I'm sorry you're sick, baby pie."

Hal: "You're talking to me professionally, talk to me like I'm a 3 year old."

Me: "Professionally? I just called you baby pie."

Hal: "Talk to me like you would talk to your nephew if he was sick."

Me: String of random baby talk

Hal: "It's hard line to talk to me like a 3 year old and not sound partonizing, huh?"


And then I came home to find him with a fever and curled up like this:

A Weekend of Birthdays

So I'm a week late in posting about or Birthday filled weekend, but you'll forgive me, right?

On his birthday I surprised him with tickets to see The Killers at the end of the month. They're his favorite band and he's never seen them, and he had no idea they were coming to town. Points for me! Then we fulfilled his shopoholic needs and went to IKEA and found him a desk he's in love with.

We started the weekend by celebrating Hal's 26th Birthday with friends and family at the delicious Thai restaurant Sawadee. My favorite is the Pineapple Curry. mmm. I felt super fancy because I knew how to bow correctly and say thankyou in Thai. I'm pretty much the shiz, right?

All that food was gone so quickly. Dang Thai food is yummy! We mentioned it was Hal's birthday and they came out singing and brought us yummy fried bananas.

Then we kicked on over to the Gateway to see the new James Bond. It was openning weekend and it was packed. The James Bond girl in Skyfall is like 1/3rd Cambodian. Pretty awesome, right? The movie was really good. I was the best James Bond I've seen in a while. I thought it was kind of a throw back to old school James Bonds. It was good.

The next day was our good friend Charles' Birthday. It had been snowing for over a day straight by that point and the snow had piled up over night. They went to play in the snow, but we missed that and went straight for the cake, literally, not figuratively. Charles' family is so sweet and hosted everyone for dinner and games and cake. I learned some new fun weird pig game. Ever played Pass the Pigs? It's silly, and easy, but I enjoyed it.

On Sunday we had a party for Hal at my dad's Almost everyone was sick and couldn't come, but Hal didn't mind once he got a load of the present my sister made him.

Hal and Organic homemade jello = Life complete.

Since We've Been Back

Since we've been back...

• We've indulged in Ikea a little too much. The downfall of living close, but our house is finally furnished.
• We finally have our own place.
• Hal started his grueling program and I became an "accounting program widow," as they call us.
• I started my new job
• We bought our first ever nice tv (Hal justified it as a school expense since he can use it as another computer monitor)
• We used a dishwasher for the first time in a year and a half
• We dried our clothes for the first time in a year and a half
• We celebrated 4 years of Marriage
• We had an amazing getaway for our anniversary
• We went on a beautiful fall hike
• I went to see our newest tiny baby niece in Colorado
• I went to Mesa Verde National Park and saw ancient cliff dwellings (More on that soon)
• We drove in snow for the first time in what seems like forever
• Oh, we drove a car for the first time in what seems like forever
• We oggled over clothes and furniture and gadgets and lots of expensive things we can't afford, but still love to oggle at since we haven't seen them to oggle over in a long time.
• We endlessly say "This costs how much? I Cambodia I could get that for $2!"
• Hal had to finally put on clothes and stop wearing his kroma around the house, because it got too cold.
• We use our kitty as a heater when our apartment gets cold.
• We've relished living in the land of plenty
• We've missed Cambodia
• I've started dreaming in Khmer

Things we've eaten:

• Acorn squash quesadillas
• Spaghetti squash as spaghetti with homemade sauce and turkey meatballs
• Tomato Basil Bisque
• Parson's (My favorite bakery) sugar cookies
• Kneader's raspberry bread pudding
• Homemade cinnamon rolls
• Yummy Pesto Chicken
• Homemade Tacos for days
• Lots of Halloween candy
• Pop that doesn't taste as good with all that nasty crap they only put in it, in America
• Homemade tortillas MMMMMMM

I think we're finally adjusted to living back in America. I think the final signal is when you stop caring about food as much. As a PCV food involves so much of your life. Making something yourself so you don't have to eat their icky icky food, gagging down some fishy fishness with plain rice while endlessly day dreaming of western food, and gorging yourself when you go into town. Food in town, and food received in packages is a big deal. When coming home you forget for a bit that you're kind of going to have an endless supply of anything you want, so you gorge yourself and you stock up, and you race to your favorite restaurants, or to make your favorite meals. Letting go of that food obsession is what finally signaled to me that we're real Americans again, and we're here to stay.

Laine Blogger Award

The beautiful blogger Selma was so sweet and awarded me with the Laine Blogger Award. Selma at Crazy Little World of Mine, is a fabulous blogger and was probably my first blogging friend I made.

This is a cool award for me to write about because I've been really into beauty stuff since I've been back. In Cambodia it was hard to feel pretty because you're sweating all the time. If you did do your hair and makeup about 20 minutes later it's like you didn't do anything at all. Since we've been back I've fallen in love with my old beauty supplies and I've collected a few new ones.

The Rules:

Tag the blogger who awarded you.

Answer the 5 questions below.

Award the Laine Blogger Award to 5 of your favorite bloggers.

1. What is your current beauty obsession?

This is always one of my beauty obsessions. I love this chapstick. I pretty much always have it on me. Some of my pants have a little wear spot on the pocket from this always being in my pocket.

I got this in my Vox Box and I'm obsessed with it. My hair was SO frizzy after coming back from Cambodia. This stuff works!

2. What is one beauty item you wished you owned?

- There's been quite a few that I've been dreaming over for the last year, but one that I'd really like to have is

It's Gucci's Flora line, and my favorite is the Gorgeous Gardenia one. Over the last year we were in airports a lot, and every time we'd stop and try on perfumes and colognes, and I just fell in love with this scent. It is spendy though, so that's why I'm still wishing I owned it.

3. What is your favorite post to read/write about?

- I like to read posts about people's every day life. So many people only blog when they have something to show off, so I really like to just read every day posts; about what you did this weekend. I feel like that's how you really get to know the blogger.

-I think I'm still trying to figure out what I like to write about.

4. What inspired you to become a blogger?
- I started blogging to write down the plans for my wedding, for myself and for people who didn't live in town. Then I just kept blogging because I really like the blogging community and all of the lovely people out there blogging.

5. What nail polish are you wearing right now?

- Right now I'm wearing OPI Big Apple Red. My old co-worker gave it to me as a going away present and I never got to wear it. It makes for the perfect red nail, and since it's OPI it lasts for a long time.

I'm passing on the love and nominating the following ladies:

1) Savannah at Rolled Up Pretty

2) Jillian at Because She is a Mother

3) Kellie at Kelleidoscope

4) Torrie at Autodidactic Ambitions

5) Jennifer at Crazy Shenanigans 

Why is Working Out So Hard?

Does anyone actually enjoy working out? Those people, who claim they're addicted to working out, are they just big, non fat liars?

I've never been someone who loves to work out. I get all excited for a minute and then I think, wait that means I have to stop watching 30 Rock and get off the couch? That's a deal breaker ladies. I'll do it tomorrow.

I'm a big fan of accidentally working out. In Peace Corps I had to ride my bike or walk everywhere. We were too poor to pay for that transportation stuff all the time. I rode my bike pretty much every day. My legs were starting to look awesome thanks to that uphill ride to school. In my job before Peace Corps I had a lot of accidental exercise. I ran errands and carried heavy things and did a ton of walking.

Well now that I have a desk job I'm not getting much accidental exercise. And food here is fattening and delicious, unlike food in Cambodia. Since I've been back I've noticed a bit more junk in the trunk. But seriously, my butt has soaked up everything I've been eating. I looked up exercises for my derriere, but (pun not intended) I still butt(...ok, pun intended) up against my lack of motivation.

So my question...

How in the world do you get yourself motivated enough to work out, by yourself?

I'm too poor for a gym membership and I hate running (side question...how does one start to like running instead of finding it excruciatingly boring?)

I've always loved yoga and used it to it all the time, but then we went to a hot sweaty place where it would have been like doing bikram yoga all the time, so that just didn't happen.

How do you get back into the swing of things?

I need some advice. I need some motivation. I need my pants to fit normal again.

My Mr.

So as most of you know I have this husband. His name is Hal, and he's a study-holic.

The main reason we're here in Utah right now is because of school. He got accepted into BYU's Accounting Program. This is a top 10 program. Like they have 100% job placement after graduating. How the program works is you have 1 year in the "Jr. Core" and then reapply and spend 2 years in masters school. So you don't actually even get a bachelors degree.

Right now he's in the Jr. Core program, and he's loving it. I'm loving it a little bit because he's loving it, and also not loving it a lot bit because he's kind of married to BYU right now. His professors call the wives of Jr. Core students "Jr. Core Widows". You have no idea how many times I've heard this term over the last two months. If that term was a real life thing I would have strangled it by now, and not felt sorry about it.

So even though I hate that term, on those nights when Hal's pulling an all nighter for the second time in two weeks, it sucks. I don't call myself a Jr. Core Widow....at those times I like to think of it as you have this pretty awesome guy living with you, and who's pretty darn good looking, but has an evil controling master who lives in his textbooks and doesn't let you spend time with him. That sounds much more accurate, right?

In all honesty his program seems amazing. He comes home at least once a week telling me about some amazing presentation he had today and how now he he wants to do some new fangled area of accounting for the rest of his life.

Even though there are some nights where I'm lucky if I get a half an hour with him, or if he even comes to bed, I'm still so proud of him. He is giving this his all. He is working so hard for our future. He is so unbelieveably busy and stressed that he lost 15 pounds in a month, but he has an alarm on his phone called "Sam Time" to remind himself he needs to stop what he's doing and spend time with me. It may be small to some people, but that's just about the sweetest thing a busy man can do.

Oh, and lucky him, it's his 26th birthday today! Last year I was sick on his birthday and we weren't allowed to leave our province yet, so I'm making up for it this year. We'll be patroning our favorite Thai restaurant followed by a screening of the new James Bond movie!

Happy 26th to my Mr. Thanks for being so dedicated!

Park City Hike

Remember like a month and a half ago when I posted about how Hal and I celebrated our four year anniversary. Our tradition is to go to the swanky hotel in Park City where we went on our wedding night. It's super fancy and backs right up to the ski slopes. It's absolutely gorgeous in the fall for our anniversary. My sister came up the second day we were there and we went on a hike up the mountain.

Since Park City is in the mountains, thus it's colder than Salt Lake, thus fall hit Park City earlier than Salt Lake. It was great to go up there and get a hint of fall before fall had hit where we lived.

You know Park City? The little known swanky town that holds the little known Sundance Film Festival? Yeah, that's the place. Park City's the super fancy of all fancy in Utah. Now that I have you sufficiently impressed I'm about to knock your socks off with these amazing fall pictures.

Were you thoroughly impressed? Well, Park City's the place to have your anniversary if it's in the fall. All the hotels are basically half of their winter price too!