it was just like that...

Our Weekend

2012-02-13T11:46:00.000-07:00

You know when you get an idea in your head that is complete unfeasible, yet you just can't shake it? That was my weekend once the daydream of 5 day weekends and 2 day workweeks popped into my mind - and boy oh boy was this Monday a rough one to wake up to. Staying up until 2-3am every night this weekend didn't help much either :)

Monday dreads aside, it was a phenomenal weekend full of fun and friends.

+Friday night was our friend Tim's birthday celebration at Poplar. Super fun and filled with plenty of beer and a few too many wings on my part.

-Saturday morning Owen got a little trip to Tanner Park, but he acted like a total turd burglar and it was too muddy, so our fun was cut pretty short.

+Saturday night Jenn's brother's band, Samuel Smith Band, played at The Garage which we'd never been. It's always fun seeing SSB play and drinking with friends.

-Sunday morning we slept in waaaaay too late - 1pm wake up calls are not my favorite, but we made up for all that lost time with lots of house cleaning, grocery shopping, and cooking just in time for...

+Walking Dead night!!! Cardy and Jenn came over and I made --Veggie Pizza with extra veggies, --Mozzarella, Tomato, and Avocado Salad, and --Feta and Kalamata Olive Zucchini Roll Ups, with Honey Vanilla Chia Seed Pudding for a last-minute dessert. I love that show and our weekly TV get-togethers.

-But not before a late late breakfast at The Park Cafe. Park potatoes can have my heart any day.

+There was even a good bit of my new favorite iPad game, Kingdom Rush [which happens to be on sale for only $.99!] sprinkled in!

*Here are a few photos from Friday night at Poplar and a few cell photos mixed in. Maybe one of these days I'll buy a real scanner so these Instax shots won't be so hard on the eyes!

Photo Bombed!

I might have been a bit of a grump towards a certain someone ^^ for a fair share of Friday night.

What a goofy little gimlet

Gator grins!

just 20 days until my new tattoo!

++Hope you all had just as great of a weekend and are coping with the reality of Monday well!!

hey hey

2012-02-06T08:11:00.000-07:00

Hey hey hey internet, long time no post.

It's taken me about 5 weeks to figure it out, but I've finally solved the mystery of who my Human Diseases professor looks like.

Anyone remember this guy?

It's Rufus! From The Rescuers! Now that I've figured that little gem out I feel like I can finally focus on actually studying for my exam in 47 hours.

It's been clear from the start that my Modifying Health Behaviors [thought I'd love that class - total snorefest] looks exactly like a combination of Ralphie from A Christmas Story and Rapey McRapersons from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo... though my teacher much nicer and much more ramble-prone.

Mysteries of who-looks-like-who aside, it's been a great past few weeks since I've posted. There have been Superbowl parties and burlesque shows, Tim and Eric Billion Dollar Movie Sundance screenings and parties [complete with Tiny Tiger Shrimp + White Wine, Shrim Pudding, and Lemon Praise Meringue Pies!] great Mom-date lunches at Les Madeleines and dinners with friends [finally tried Plum Alley -very good, though a little over-hyped] and oodles more fun activities. I have this disposable camera I've been trying to finish off since September, so that in combination with my infatuation with my gigantic Instamax leads to not too many pictures for the blog, but that's okay - sometimes fun-having is more important than picture-taking.

:)

favorite soups for busting out that trusty immersion blender

2012-01-09T16:27:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned last week, I have a few very thoughtful people in my life who were sweet enough to give me an immersion blender for Christmas - a total game changer when it comes to making soups and smoothies, but especially soup!

Usually I'll just ladle my soup in small batches halfway across my kitchen to my food processor or blender, wait ages to let it cool, become impatient and try to blend while it's too hot, and risk a 50% shot of piping hot soup being blown all across my kitchen. Not anymore, suckers. I love it so much that I felt like a fool last night after I made one of my wacky -kale-avocado-berry-protein- smoothies and realized after the fact that dirtying my big old blender was completely unnecessary.

In case you have a new immersion blender yourself - or are just in the mood for soup! - here are a few of my favorite blended soup recipes. [You can definitely use a blender/food processor with any of these too.] I promise to cool it on the soup posts for awhile after this - I'm not even a soup person, I swear!

Martha Stewart's Sausage, Kale, and Potato Soup

Sausage, Kale, and Potato Soup Photo via marthastewart.com

This is my all-time favorite soup I've ever made: Ina Garten's Roasted Potato and Leek Soup

Roasted Potato Leek Soup -photo courtesy of: Ezra Pound Cake

This tomato soup from What to Cook and How to Cook It is so very simple and delicious! I made it awhile back for Walking Dead night - each week we take turns with our friend's Jenn and Cardy hosting dinner and watching one of our shows - usually True Blood or The Walking Dead. However, if you're lucky and your boyfriend is glued to his xbox, your friend's husband is stuck late at work, and you have the better part of a bottle of wine to kill, you might just get to have a girl's only Grey's Anatomy night instead!

Similar Recipe: Tomato and Thyme Soup

And of course, last week's Vegan Sweet Potato Soup with Buttered Cashew's from Home Made.

Sweet Potato and Buttered Cashew Soup

I've not yet tried the following soups, but they're next on my list:


Cannellini, leek, baby spinach, and quinoa soup from A Splash of Vanilla

Avocado Crab Chowder from Domestic Fits

And lastly, a trimmed down version of this lasagna soup from Paula Deen,

Paula Deen's Lasagna Soup

Do you have a favorite soup recipe?

10 Minute Chicken Noodle Soup for 1

2012-01-07T09:30:00.003-07:00

10 minute chicken noodle soup for 1
You will need:
.5 oz [~15] whole wheat spaghetti noodles, broken in half
1/2 carrot, sliced thinly into rounds
1" leek (white part,) sliced thinly into rounds
1 lg leaf kale, remove stem and chiffonade into thin ribbons
olive oil, nickel-sized amount
1c. good chicken stock, preferably home made
1/2c. cooked chicken, loosely shredded
salt and pepper to taste

Begin by boiling noodles according to package directions, typically 9-11 minutes. While noodles are boiling, heat a nickel-sized amount of olive oil in a small pot. Add the leek, carrot, and kale. Saute until kale becomes slightly wilted, approx 4 minutes. Add the chicken stock and chicken. Simmer until noodles are finished. Add noodles to pot. Season with salt and pepper as needed. Enjoy lunch!

This was honestly the best chicken noodle soup I have ever had and was perfect for using up a few leftover veggies and chicken from making home made stock on Tuesday. I don't know that I'd be able to say the same had I used store-bought stock - call me corny, but homemade chicken stock has changed my life - and it's so cheap and easy too! For the chicken stock I used a recipe similar to *this one from Martha Stewart's Cooking School.

What are your favorite ways to use leftover ingredients?

Home Made - Vegan Sweet Potato Soup with Buttered Cashews [a cookbook and recipe review]

2012-01-06T08:00:00.007-07:00

For Christmas, I received Home Made - The Ultimate DIY Cookbook by Yvette Van Boven from my mom and dad and couldn't wait to bust into it. It's a beautifully put together cookbook featuring some really interesting recipes I've had my eye on for some time.

While I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to everyone - I believe the original publication was Dutch and occasionally features hard-to-find ingredients or recipes that may be a little more adventuresome than many Cream-of-Whatever loving families might enjoy - I find that the book's French, Dutch, and Irish-influenced recipes add to it's charm... Plus I'm a sucker for any book that comes with a ribbon for bookmarking.

By far the greatest appeal of Home Made is the basis for the cookbook - learning to cook everyday items at home. Van Boven does an excellent job of teaching a basic technique or strategy and then following up with several ways to apply it. I am beyond excited to make homemade cheese - using just milk, buttermilk, lemon juice, and salt and no more equipment than a couple of cans, twine, and cheesecloth! She then teaches you how to spice and age your basic milk cheeses differently to make a completely homemade cheeseboard!

Other recipes I'm dying to try:
+Blood Orange - Earl Grey Tea and Mint - and Raspberry Sorbets
+Rosemary and Sea Salt Chocolates
+Blackberry, Raspberry, and Basil Jam
+Risotto with Red Beet and Taleggio
+Salad with Lamb Wraps Filled with Goat Cheese, Dates, and Sweet and Sour Cilantro Dressing
+Homemade ketchup and mustards
+Seasoned Labneh Balls in Olive Oil
and
+Gnocchi Alla Romana (polenta-based gnocchi)

In the effort of multitasking and using my new cookbook along with my new immersion blender [thanks mom! and Lynn! and especially Jenn! ;) ;) ] the first recipe I tried out was one for Sweet Potato Soup with Buttered Cashews. It was super simple - not at all time-consuming (It took me 40 minutes start to finish with about 30 of those as walk-away time.)

I always follow recipes to a T the first time I make them, so originally I made this in all it's buttery glory, but in the effort of not breaking copyright infringements here is a modified version of the recipe I plan to follow the next time I cook it:

vegan sweet potato soup with buttered cashews
1 lg. yellow onion, diced
2 leeks, washed thoroughly and sliced thinly
3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1" cubes
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 Tb. olive oil
1 glass white wine - with a few extra glugs for good measure
4 c. veggie broth
2 bay leaves
cayenne pepper (to taste) I used ~1/2 tsp, maybe more
*I have a feeling a pinch or two of nutmeg or cardamom would be fabulous in this as well
1 (15oz) can chickpeas
a few sprigs fresh oregano or a dash of dried.

garnish:

1/2 c. cashews
1-2 Tbs. Earth Balance or olive oil
sea salt to taste
and if you're feeling extra fancy add a little scoop of daiya or toffuti sour cream

Saute the onion, leeks, sweet potatoes, and garlic in the olive oil for minutes, until the leeks and onion begin to sweat. Add the white wine, braise 5 min. Stir in the broth, bay leaves, cayenne pepper, [and cardamom + nutmeg if using.] Simmer on low for 20 minutes, or until sweet potatoes are soft, but not mushy. Transfer half the soup to a bowl, then puree the other half. Reintroduce the transferred soup, chickpeas, and oregano.

For Garnish: Briefly saute the cashews in the Earth Balance or olive oil, sprkinle with salt.

Ladle into bowls and top with a dollop or sour cream and cashews just before serving.

Serves 4-6

I really enjoyed this - it's quite filling! Devon wasn't quite so fond, but I'm looking forward to making this again anyway and playing around with the nutmeg idea or tossing some curry spices in.

++You food bloggers or foodie friends out there: I would love to hear your perspective on sharing respectfully sharing cookbook/magazine recipes!

Resolutions

2012-01-05T12:10:00.000-07:00

For my first 20 years or so I was Very anti-resolutions. It seemed stupid to me to spend so much time hyping up a new year when odds are 80% of resolutions made will fall by the wayside or brushed under the rug once it becomes apparent that they'll require lifestyle changes that will need to last more than a mere 2 weeks.

But on new year's 2008 I made my first resolution: To honk more. It was wildly successful [my apologies if any of you are ever in front of me at a stop light and hesitate for 2 or more seconds as the light turns green. Now that I love honking, I can be a real a-hole.] Ever since that first fateful new year's I've been sold on making goals each year - though not always successfully.

This year I'm hoping to accomplish 10 house goals [1/month with a 2 "skip it" months doesn't seem so bad] and a handful of personal goals. I'm still looking forward to compiling a good 24 before 24 or 25 as well.

Here is a little list of a few personal resolutions I've come up with so far:

-Wake up and be out of bed [at least] 1 hour before I need to leave the house each morning.
             *I have the worst habit of snoozing right until the literal last moment I can - 8min to get ready is just not enough. Having a little bit of mellow time or get-pretty time would be so nice! This may be the toughest - So far I'm 0 for 3... 6am [soon to be waking up at 5am!] just comes too soon.

-Exercise vigorously at least 3 x /week and walk the dogs - my sweet Owen, and the dog of the family I nanny for, each day.

-get organized
       *I loooooooove organizing. It's sick. But have a difficult time setting aside time for it and maintaining it.

-maintain a clean house
       *we have the worst cycle going on of letting our house fall into disarray and going on excruciating manic cleaning sprees each time company comes over, just to let the house look rotten 2 days later.

[and most of all:]
-be healthy
       *cook more. real, whole foods. move more. eat less. be kind. One of my gifts from my parents was Michael Pollan's Food Rules and I read it cover to cover in one sitting. All common sense and not much different from his previous books- and I'm sure most of you have heard the "Eat Food. Mostly Plants. Not too much." mantra by now, but sometimes cupcakes and onion rings can sure have a way of displacing common sense.

So far, aside from our New Year's Eve dinner, I've yet to partake in any food I haven't cooked myself since we've been back from our littler Texas trip. Devon has this sweet way of offering to pick up food anytime I so much as grumble about being hungry or tired - and while it's thoughtful, my love handles, our grocery budget, and my inability to say no sure don't appreciate it.

Stewing over all my cookbooks and pinterest boards with a cup of coffee on Sunday mornings, making shopping lists and meal plans, and then cooking - is one of my very favorite rituals - so excited to bring this back!

and lastly - be a more active blogger. Blog more. Comment more. Trim down on the blogs I read that seem like a chore just to be ticked off google reader as "read"
---heh - learning to be less wordy while blogging would be a plus too!

Did you make New Year's Resolutions? If so: how are they working out 5 days in?

What up 2012?

2012-01-04T21:41:00.000-07:00

You guys - it's 2012? Can you believe it happened? I know, sooo 4 days ago, but it's still exciting news to me! 2012 is going to be the year of the awesome - I can feel it right down into my bones.

We're just back from a little trip to Texas to visit and celebrate Christmas with Devon's extended family after celebrating Christmas Eve with mine, Christmas Day with Devon's Mom + sister's family locally, and Christmas evening together. And by just back I mean we got back 5 days ago - just in time to carry on our fancy dinner tradition with Jenn and Cardy on New Year's Eve. Top that all that off with finals and the end of the term a few weeks ago and it has been an insane few weeks!

All our celebrating and time off work really was lovely. It was so great to be able to spend so much time with Devon and our family. I haven't been too great at taking photos this year - the few that I have taken in recent days are either with my Instax [yet to be scanned] or a disposable camera [yet to be developed.]

Highlights from the past little bit:

-Fall 2011 was my most successful semester yet! I took 7 classes/18 credits and earned 5 A's and came out with a 3.63! I could have done better in the other two classes, but I am still proud of what I accomplished and the 2 B-'s are way better than my usual record of a handful of Ds or Fs and one A or Cs across the board!]

-While in Texas I took my first ever ferry ride and saw real wild dolphins for the first time! Besides being ruined from boats by Grey's Anatomy and Titanic [nerd alert: I am totally stoked for the return of Titanic to theaters. Jack Dawson had my heart when I was 9 and has it to this day.] it was a total wtf moment to see dolphins just hanging out and swimming - having no idea how completely awesome they are!

-Took a little stroll into BHLDN [Anthro's sister company/wedding line] during our trip to Houston per Devon's suggestion. Stuff like that used to drive me crazy - When he'd kindly ask if I wanted to drop in I'd always snap back "Yes. If you give me a reason to go!!" and then sulk for a few moments. But it was really nice to see the dresses and shoes I've been lusting over for 10 months in person - sort of like celebrity sightings, only with $6,000 gowns instead of Gwyneth Paltrow. It was rad.

-Had another excellent New Year's with the Godina's at Ruth's Chris. In 5 years we've only missed this tradition once due to being in Texas. I love wrapping up the last week of December with a late late dinner with great company and making our way out moments before the fireworks begin. Pretty perfect if you ask me!

Hope you all had a great holiday season and are enjoying 2012! It's been really fun reading everyone's 2011 Recaps and new year's resolutions - mine are soon to follow!

I don't want to be a crappy housewife.

2011-12-22T12:56:00.000-07:00

But sometimes I do. Minus the "crappy." Because there is nothing crappy about getting to stay at home and do all the things you want to do - and a lot of things you don't want to do... but at least they'd be done by you [ie: perfectly] because no one else in the world can fold t-shirts and underoos into just the right perfectly square shape like you. [I have laundry issues. don't judge.]

Sometimes I like to play: "If I were a stay-at-home Caroline, what would I do today?"

Only the most important things of course!

First, I would catch up with my Real Housebitches of Beverly Hills


And I would maybe throw back a cocktail or three with Lisa.

Then, I'd spoon my hound for a little while and we would make iPad music videos together

Then, after all that hard work, I would treat myself to a london fog from the Rose Estb. and wrap up my Christmas shopping. [by wrap up I obviously mean DO ALMOST ALL OF IT because I'm so far behind and zomg I only have today and tomorrow left!]

And I'm not a total A-hole so, if I were a stay-at-home Caroline, I'd probably even wash some laundry [clean clothes > bjs] and cook some stuff [you know, in between Teen Mom 2 + Tori and Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood.] I hear guys like that sort of thing.

...But instead, I'm hanging out with littledude all day - which is perfectly fine be me. He can be a cool little dude most of the time :)

Merry Christmas Eve-eve-eve you guys! :)

Can you believe it's almost here???

Hay!

2011-12-06T16:39:00.000-07:00

Hey hey hey internet.

How are things? I feel like I need to invite each and every person whose blog I miss so much on a nice girl date to the Beehive Tea Room or for brunch and mimosas to catch up on our sad neglected friendships.

If only the interwebs worked like that - would that just be a dream?

With finals wrapping up the semester next week school has really kicked into high gear. I've realized recently that I have such a bipolar relationship with school.

Some days I feel like the younger daughter from Modern Family - begging that daily quizes don't get canceled so I have another opportunity to trollop them and score extra points.

And other times I realize I've forgotten some bs just-for-points essay or feel so crippled by anxiety thinking my writing won't be good enough that I can barely make it through the assignment.

This term I've gone a much better job than ever before of staying on top of things and trying not to let myself get overwhelmed, but it's still a constant struggle. It got me thinking about the past 5 years I've been in and out of college, and really the 5 years prior of junior high and high school. Sometimes I feel so robbed and beaten down when I think about how my stupid anxiety issues have gotten the best of me in the past and how hard I've been on myself. It makes me so angry that out of all the classes I've taken, I can't think of a single one that I didn't fully comprehend or at least get an "A's" worth of information and experience out of, yet barely passed [let's be honest: or failed.] I've come to accept that that's just the way school is going to be; that there's no magical way to just test out of every class or have my grades solely reflect what I've gotten out of them and that I just need to do what I have to do to get to my last couple of years as best as I can.

Long wordy rant for what everyone feels at some point or another: I am my own worst enemy.

[Que stinky Lit song circa 1999]

Yay for getting that annual pre-finals melt down is out of the way!!

When I've had a few minutes here or there to peruse through blogs it sure has been fun seeing everyone start to put up their Christmas trees + decor! I'm so excited to put mine up soon! I think this is the first year since we've been together that Devon's work won't be in super-overdrive mode and we'll be able to put up the tree together!

There's a fresh tree lot across the street from our home that is oh so tempting each night I pass it. It's so pretty to look over at dozens if not a few hundred Christmas trees all lined up and surrounded by strung lights.

Hope you're all having a lovely December! Can't wait to catch up my last month or so and read through all the fun wintery things everyone's been up to while I've been trudging through this last bit of school!

**Also - if you have any great music recommendations or songs you've been loving lately please leave me a comment and let me know! Spotify + headphones keeps me sane on these long days down south!

Things that have been making my day[s]

2011-11-18T17:28:00.001-07:00

Hey ladies [and dudes] in the place I'm calling out to ya! [I promise I'm not secretly obsessed with the Beasty Boys... Pinky Promise even!] Here's a little handful of pictures/things that have been making me smile lately :]
*Edit See - I can't be a real Beastie Boys fan - I didn't even spell it correctly.

new gold nail polish

Banana Bread Everyday. Going through two loaves in one week is a life I could get used to. Though my expanding waistline would argue otherwise. And you guys - measuring with a scale will totally change your lives. Forrealreal.

I feel like I've already shared this, but Littledude's Homework Monster just kills me. Sometimes that kid, he just gets me.

Monthly Spotify Playlists

and minty green headphones that help me make it through 10 hour school days

Diet Rockstars help too. Liver be damned.

Month long anniversary celebrations and caviar pillows from Pago. My life will never be the same after these.

and of course this goofy dog. Have you ever seen such a silly beast?

I wish I had a slew of fun beauty or clothing items to pimp out to you guys - or you know, just put on a polyvore board or something - but alas I am poor and manage what little free time I have poorly so there are no recent shopping trips to account for. I'm always on the hunt for great Christmas gift recommendations so if you've discovered something recently you just can't live without please do share! <3

and I hope you are having the happiest pre-thanksgiving Friday :) I'm going to try to convince Devon to pick up some take-out sushi on his way home so I don't have to cook/clean up - hah - I say that as if our house could become any more disastrous. ;)

Fill in the Blank Friday

2011-11-18T06:00:00.002-07:00

From - The Little Things We Do

1. A nervous habit I have is - checking things in multiples of three. I will lock my car, be aware that I locked it, walk away, know that it's a waste of time to go back and check, but go back, check and re-lock it anyway. and then do that again. Or I'll reset my alarm in multiples of three. For awhile I had three alarms I'd set and reset in multiples of 3. When it got to where I'd reset my alarms 27 times a night I decided it's time to mellow the eff out and stop being such a neurotic freak.

2. Something that makes me sad is- thinking about sad pets that need homes or get picked on or are just plain unloved. Breaks my hearteries.

3. Today I am thankful for- kicking so much ass. Got an A on my test this morning and finished a paper that was hanging over on my head start to finish in an hour and a half... among other awesome things. It was a great day.

4. My favorite room in my house is- my bedroom. Aesthetically, my kitchen is my favorite, and it's a very close second overall, but my bedroom is my favorite place in the whole world. Cuddles from my boys, sleeping, and lounging around - I don't think life gets any better.

5. I can't stand- being honked at. Though I've taken quite the liking to honking at others after making it my new year's resolution a few years ago.

6. If I had an extra $100 to spend on whatever I wanted today I would- buy a rad gift for my friend Victoria. She painted the most bitchin picture of Owen recently and watches him while I'm away at school twice a week. She is such a doll.

7. The last person I hung out with was- Devon of course. He is my most favorite and super sweet- Even when I am a grumbledore when I'm woken! I have a feeling I was very mean to him when I fell asleep on our couch and had to be moved downstairs last night so I will have to find a way to make it up to him later.

*As always, feel free to head over to Lauren's blog - The Little Things We Do - and Fill in the Blanks for yourself!

Happy Friday you guys! I hope you all do lots of fun things! I have a big presentation for my humanities class tomorrow [it's my favorite] and an even bigger paper to do but I'm actually [kind of barely] looking forward to them!

Have any of you heard of John Cage or his piece 4'33" ? If you haven't, you should google him/it - it's my presentation topic and I'm quite looking forward to seeing my classmates' reactions!

It's true: You can't hug every cat.

2011-11-16T16:26:00.000-07:00

This one goes out to a special cat-loving friend, Amy Morby. [And all my other crazy cat lady friends - give Devon 50 more years and maybe a sex change and he would totally be one too.]

*See Amy take her cat loving to a new - and adorable - extreme with her little pal Royal *here*

So - fess up y'all: a) How many cats do you have? and b) How many cats would you have if not for your fear of ending up the star of your own episode of Animal Hoarders.

Four years of happies

2011-11-12T22:54:00.001-07:00

Today Devon and I are celebrating 4 years of being awesome / our four year anniversary.

We had one of the most delicious meals I've had in my life at Pago followed by the surprise of the day- a slumber party to Hotel Monaco with Mr. Hairypants Owen!! (Devon even procured Owen his own special bed- not just a doggie bed, though the room came with one of those too- but Owen's very own queen size bed. Ain't he the sweetest :))

I sure am a lucky lady :)

Fill in the Blank Friday

2011-11-11T18:57:00.000-07:00

1. My favorite new blog of the moment is ...and so it goes

2. Something I am thankful for is My dad and all of our countries veterans.

and caffeine. Lord knows I'm going to need it in the next few days.

3. Something that made me laugh this week was Littledude's homework drawings - his homework monster is awesome.

Ain't it the truth.

4. An item that is currently on my wish list is A big fat diamond. Just kidding. Mostly. The appropriate answer would be new tires - boring as that sounds ever since I checked out my tire tread for like, the first time in the 2 1/2 years I've had this car I have this all-consuming image of shredding my tires on i-15 and being rammed into a bloody demise by a semi running through my mind. Cue Maria Bamford's Anxiety Song.

5. I am excited about Devon and I celebrating our 4 year smashiversary this weekend and maybe a little bit next weekend. Vurrry excited!

6. If I were a color I would be oooh I don't know. All I can think of are colors that go with foods - spicy brown mustard, dijonaise, pickle juice green. And I can't even use being hungry as an excuse - Chik-fil-a just opened up a mile down the road and I scarfed down the most delicious sandwich.

7. My favorite way to spend a chilly fall day is by spooning my dog and watching trashy reality tv all day or meeting up with a friend for a tea date. And maybe a little trip to Target and Rubysnap.

Also: where the hell did this week go??? Hope you all have a great weekend and do awesome and interesting things!

Fill in the Blank Friday

2011-11-04T09:35:00.001-06:00

via *The Little Things We Do*

1. My favorite thing about this week was/is I started the week off feeling really overwhelmed and frankly really behind in school and my home life, but as of yesterday I learned that I'm much more on top of things than I realized! Plus some support from my mom in a major way - moms are the best, go hug yours today :)

2. Colder weather makes me excited for scarves and tights and snowfall for about a week until I realize I'm in for 6 months of frozen doom. But srsly, Fall/Winter in Utah is super pretty, even if it is a slush zone for half a year. And gorge myself on coffee, but what doesn't make me want to do that.

3. Three things that make me terribly happy as of late are french press coffee, my thoughtful boyfriend and sweet hound, amazing friends, and long drives with new music -Sarah's Autumn Mixtape - here - has been on repeat around here the past week or so with Kathleen Edwards being stuck in my head for days - in the best way.

4. If I could only wear one kind of shoe for the rest of my life, I'd choose flats, definitely. I love the idea of wearing mary janes with a little heel for all time, but take one look at my shoe collection and it's all flats all the time.

5. My personality type is Myers Briggs: INFJ [Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Judging] In general though I feel pretty polarized - either really mellow or really anxious, really orderly or a total mess with little in between.

6. I have a serious problem resisting snoozing and extra cuddle time in the morning. I usually set my alarm a full two hours before I need to get up just so I can enjoy all that extra snooze time. Devon probably plots my future murder during these 9 minute increments.

7. My favorite color to wear is Oooh, any Earthy Fall-like color - Browns, orange, olive green, and deep purple.

Link up for Fill in the Blank Friday over at Lauren's Blog - The Little Things We Do

Howloween

2011-11-02T00:23:00.001-06:00

Our Halloween was pretty low-key this year.

See, I like to do this thing where I know I have a lot of homework to do, so I don't allow myself to have any fun... But then I spend all night moping and don't get any homework taken care of. It's a vicious vicious cycle of unproductivity.

So last night we stayed in, I half watched a stinky Halloween movie (Trick 'r Treat) with Devon, we ordered in a pizza, and I finished absolutely no homework.

I did put on a tiny little witch's hat - the one I picked up for witches' night out a few weeks ago - and grabbed a fancypants broom bought at the Art's Festival a few years ago. We had one lone trick or treater. Who was in his late twenties. Childless. And admired our home. I totes thought he was going to slaughter us in our sleep last night.

But he didn't [/hasn't yet] and because there was no Harghel house masacre, I get to share our Halloween pictures!

Whole Foods has the prettiest pumpkins!

Hanging out with Sarah, Littledude's hound.

Jumped in the leaves with my little buddy.

My favorite [and only] Halloween earrings. I've had them since the second grade!

Big Kahuna Pizza and Big Kahuna Balls. It sounded better than it was. But that's often the case when you order pizza after 9:30


Yesterday marked 4 years of knowing each other! I forgot to type up the story of how we met, my bad, I'll try to save it for our real smashaversary. But look - we love each other despite/because of our crazy faces! We so cray cray. [While we're on the subject of cray-cray... I really secretly like the show Whitney. Judge away.]

Hope you all had the happiest of Halloween's and raided the candy bags of all the kidlets in your lives!!

Chchchchchchcheck it out!!

2011-10-30T22:52:00.001-06:00

You're welcome for getting the Beastie Boys stuck in your head for the next 82minutes. And if you don't have Licensed to Ill on repeat in your mind then... then I don't even know you.

[Or if you want to call me out on the fact that Ch-Check It Out wasn't even on that album, major bonus points to you!]

Annnyhorse - all rambling aside - check out my pretty new design that Amy-awesomepants-Morby from A is for Ampersand did for my blog!!!

I love it so very much! I even want to take it to movie so we can sit in the back and make out. [A boy told me he wanted to do that once in the 8th grade and I was all... I have leprosy and don't want to talk to you or hold your clammy hand anymore. And you carry too many pens around. It's weird. Let's never see each other again. [[minus the leprosy]] And to think, I didn't have a boyfriend until ...I'm not even telling when, but it was quite awhile after that.]

Back to how much I want to make out with my new blog design - I'll give you a clue - it's even more than I want to make out with this broad.

*source

and Mrs. VanderPump is quite the fox! [#rhbh4life]

So trillions and trillions and kajillions of thanks to Amy - she's the best!!

And happy all hollows eve eve!! Halloween is totes the best day ever. Tomorrow I will even tell you the story of how Devon and I met.

Teaser: It involved a gorilla costume and raw fish.

Fill in the blank Friday

2011-10-28T11:52:00.000-06:00

*Fill in the Blank Friday*

1. When I was a kid I wanted to be a veterinarian when I grew up.

2. As an adult, my dream job would be ... a 1950's housewife minus the oppression and cone bras. I refuse to give this question a serious answer for fear of changing my major for the kajillionth time.

3. When I was younger I wanted to be just like Ginger Spice? or Princess Sally Acorn [major nerd props if you're familiar with Sally the Chipmunk.]

4. The childhood Halloween costume that I remember most was Oooh that's a toughie. Probably being a mean witch in the second grade. I busted my lip falling on my teacher's chin during recess and my first words when my mom picked me up were "can I still go trick or treating?" Similiar to when I had my wisdom teeth out and first grumble-drooled "maaah, cah I still goh AFI?"

5. My favorite childhood toy was my remote controlled Megazord!

6. The time I got into the biggest amount of trouble when I was a kid was when I... Oh man, I don't think the trouble really started until 8th grade over not doing my schoolwork. I'm pretty sure I was in trouble over that for about 5 years straight, but I was a pretty tame little kid. I used to scare my mom all the time- Once when I was like 7 I woke my mom up holding a knife after squirting fake blood all over my hand, that didn't go over super well.

7. I get daily inspiration from bloggers, my hound, my relationships - you know, just walking around and keeping your eyes and ears open :)

Fill in the Blank Friday via Lauren's Blog - The Little Things We Do

Lunch date with moms

2011-10-25T09:30:00.005-06:00

*source

Did anyone see The Kids Are Alright? I loooooved that movie. Many lols. and Mark Ruffalo and Julianna Moore are both foxes.
Whenever I have a date with "moms" -my mom and Devon's mom- I always think back to that movie ^

Last Wednesday Devon and I and our moms met up for lunch at P.F. Changs. I'd never been there before and was really pleasantly surprised. So.Much.Food! The honey walnut something-or-other shrimp my mom ordered were insane!

Lunch was really fun, I love whenever my parents and Devon's mom can get together. I'm excited for them to meet the rest of his family someday.

Somehow I always manage to take 500 pictures of food, or leaves, or my dog, but never any of the people I'm with. My bad. :)

Devon's mom, me, my mom - from my birfday dinner at Meditrina

The two chicken dishes Devon and I shared were just good - nothing super fancy, but these cute little mini desserts that came with our special were delicious! I ordered the red velvet shot - so good!

Three bites of awesome.

I <3 fortune cookies

After lunch I snuck Devon off for a caffeine fix before he had to head back to work. Some days I wish we could all just stay home and snuggle our pets and never do anything we don't want to do :) I guess that'll have to wait for retirement!


Coffee from The Rose Tea Estb. So delicious.

Do you ever go on dates with your moms or have a special favorite lunch spot?

The squeakin weekend

2011-10-24T10:59:00.001-06:00

Owen always get's extra playtime with his squeaks over the weekends, so for quite awhile we've fondly referred to those 2 magical days [when hopefully no one has to work!] as the sqeakin weekend.
... Plus it works well with that creepy R. Kelly song.

Here's a little bit of what our weekend looked like:

My annual hurrcut. Byebye hair. It was fun until you kept getting caught in my seatbelts.


Followed by a super tasty sandwich from the 9th South Delicatessen. Way cute and way bigger on the inside than	expected.

We stacked a lot of things on this guy.

Sushi date with Cardy and Jenn!

Crazy fried Oreo and Nutter Butter dessert.

Pink Nails

Oodles of cinnamon rolls! Thanks Pioneer Woman!

Payment for Dexter contraband.


Martha's Sausage, Kale, and Potato Soup Source: marthastewart.com via Caroline on Pinterest

Chicken and Chorizo Casserole

There was even time made for shopping [yay new digs from Anthro!] a trip to the dog park, and of course tons of football! and don't tell anyone, but I did ~~waste~~ spend the better part of four hours watching Kimmy K get married. I will pretty much watch any show where a girl tries on a wedding dress ever.

So that was my weekend - How was yours? :)

***Also - if for any reason you aren't able to comment, please send me an email - itwasjustlikethat@gmail.com - I've read that clearing your cookies/cache/?? can help, but if you still aren't able to let me know and I'll try to take care of it. Thanks!

Photos from last weekend's antique browsing trip

2011-10-21T11:27:00.000-06:00

Here are just a few of the pictures I took while out antique browsing last weekend. I could have taken dozens and dozens, or more likely hundreds and hundreds more! There was so much to see - this was by far the biggest antique shop I've been in. Excited to check out some other stores Salt Lake has to offer the next time I get a minute of free time.

I would love a mountain of these pretty canning jars

Coleco Pinball Champ. I would Loooove to have an in-house pinball machine someday.

The great wall of Pyrex and other old pretty baking and serving ware.

Is this not the cutest sewing machine you've ever seen?

More pretty Pyrex.

loved this minty milkshake spinner.

This Instamatic was a total blast from the past - I'd completely forgotten about this camera, my first, that my parents gave me for Christmas when I was five.

photo via Dusty Shutter

I love finding old mail and handwritten notes. That handwriting looks just like my Grandma Mary's

Happy weekend everyone!

Fill in the Blank Friday

2011-10-21T09:55:00.000-06:00

Fill in the Blank Friday is from Lauren's Blog - The Little Things We Do

1. Nothing says fall like - canyon drives, coffee all day, pumpkin cinnamon rolls, and corn cops! And of course driving with the cool air rushing in through cracked windows and the heat turned on in the floor vents just a touch.

2. My favorite autumnal tradition is - carving out time to sit in coffee shops, visiting a pumpkin patch, and watching scary movies... aaaand I loved when I was 5. Hocus Pocus and Scooby Doo and the Ghoul School are classics.

3. My favorite fall treat is - pumpkin bread with raw sugar sprinkled on top

4. Fall makes me think of - Falling in love and the happiest times. I swear a disproportionate percentage of my favorite memories happened in Fall.

5. Autumn free form word association, go! -Halloween, gorilla costumes, sushi, coffee, crunch leaves, Emigration Canyon, deer.

6. My go-to outfit in the fall is - a knee length-ish dress with a denim jacket and either flats or boots... maybe with some tights if things look chilly.

7. My favorite fall holiday is - HALLOWEEN! It's my favorite of all holidays! It's always been my very favorite Holiday, and it's the day I met Devon 4 years ago!

If you fill in the blank too be sure to link up at Lauren's blog - I haven't done this in quite awhile, but the few times I did I met some neat ladies!

*Side note - I accidentally typed "ladles" up above which reminded me of this soup shop down the road called "Lettuce and Ladles" and I just can't tell how I feel about it. Sometimes it grosses me out and makes me angry, like all I can imagine is a room full of rusty ladles just covered with wilted lettuce, but they probably have perfectly fine sandwiches so maybe it's time to stop being a creeper and just go there for lunch.

Melty cheese could fix the world

2011-10-18T22:18:00.000-06:00

Sometimes, when I've had an especially rough day, [or sometimes just because it's delicious] I sprinkle a little cheese on a plate and microwave it until it's nice and bubbly.

Don't judge.

This was my dinner.

And guess what kind of day it was.

[I'll give you a clue - the first word out of my mouth this morning [[after waking up 2 hours later than planned + being late to work]] was four letters and started with "s"]

But that's okay. Because tomorrow is Wednesday, and hopefully I'll have a minute to breath. But at the very least I have a lunch date with my mama- and maybe my psuedo-mother-in-law and boyfriend too :)

Plus, sweet little Zo from yesterday's post came over for a visit so I've got twice the hounds to snuggle for the next little bit. Today might be looking up after all :]

-Caroline

This Weekend: Short amazing weekend, long wordy post :)

2011-10-17T11:16:00.000-06:00

This weekend was just about the greatest I've had in the longest time - and in this house we have a pretty great streak of some pretty great weekends.

Friday night I met some new friends and joined them for dinner and a stroll through Witch's Night Out - which is totally weird and awesome. Hundreds and hundreds of ladies all dressed up in pointy hats dancing to Justin Beiber is a sight that's not to be missed. Every girl in the group I was with were so friendly - one even risked her kneecaps to help me squeeze out of a parking spot I'd been blocked into. It's been said a million times, but really, there's so much girl-against-girl rhetoric out there and I've spent so little time with groups of girls over the course of my life that whenever I meet a bunch of genuine supportive ladies I am blown away- Love it!

The only pictures I took were on my disposable, so we'll have to wait and see in a week or two if any turned out :) It was super fun though - even though I rarely blog I love getting to meet so many new and interesting people!

Saturday morning I had a midterm for my humanities class so I wasn't able to stay as long as I would have liked with the girls the night prior, but fortunately I think I totally nailed my exam! I love not sucking at school.

Since I was out of class so much earlier than usual I took advantage of the day by taking myself out for coffee and jewelry and antique shopping. There were so many treasures around I didn't know what to do with myself. I managed to escape without doing too much damage to my budget. I found an antique jeweler that I just fell in love with - seriously, I haven't been able to take most of the pieces I saw off my mind for more than a few minutes since then!

RubySnap might be the greatest way to kick off a weekend.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Martha Stewart > Xanax

I found the cutest children's books on record- It was so hard not to buy 100 of them! I hope my future babies love them, scratch them up and they're dead to me. Just kidding, future babies. Kind of.

Awhile back Sarah sparked a new Jadeite obsession with -this post- Someday I am going to have my cabinets just exploding with the stuff - I hope! I'd never seen it in person before I snagged my first bowl Saturday and think I might have to make finding a new piece a weekly or monthly treat.

After shopping I met up with Devon + Owen and Cardy + Zoe at Tanner Park. Owen and Zoe are the best of friends.

Zozo's a good egg, I love her a lot :)

After the park we went out for fried chicken and found this really neat game shop. Sonic and I go way way back.

Saturday evening Devon and I + Cardy and Jenn met up for dinner and a movie. We saw 50/50 and I'm still not sure how I felt about it. I guess I expected it to be funnier and always forget how big of a crier I can be at movies. It was good, but I think having seen two amazing movies so recently ruined it a little [Midnight in Paris and Drive - cannot recommend either movie enough! And if you've seen Drive and didn't have the soundtrack stuck in your head for weeks, then you're just plain crazy.]

Sunday = football all day and I made it another week in our survivor pool! It's an elimination pool where each week you pick one team to win and as long as they win you make it through to the next week. You can only pick each team once and as soon you pick a team that loses you're out. Last year I won ~$350 from it and I'm hoping that streak continues - it's down to the final 9 so cross your fingers for me!

After football Jenn and Cardy came over for dinner and The Walking Dead. Best zombie show ever. Seriously, it's so good. And zombies in 3D? Doesn't get better :)

I don't know that I could've asked for a better way to spend the weekend- Here's to hoping this week follows suit!

Can't wait to show you all the other treasures I found later! I'd love to hear about the fun things you did this weekend!

-Caroline

I miss you, San Francisco

2011-10-03T10:11:00.000-06:00

This time last year I was in my favorite city

with my favorite person

on my favorite vacation

celebrating our 3rd anniversary

and seeing these guys

It was only, like, the best 3 days ever :D

Our real anniversary date isn't for another month and a half... but that won't keep me from wishing we were celebrating in San Francisco again right now :)

I love love.
<3

Talking about weeds: And I don't mean the saucy Nancy Botwin kind.

2011-09-30T10:28:00.000-06:00

We should all give our green-thumbed grandmothers a round of high fives because gardening is tough and will kick your bee-hind.... Though, I wish it kicked beehives too. Who would have thought that when you plant flowers it's like an open invite for every bee and wasp in the neighborhood to come by and say howdy/harass you at your front door at 6:45am forcing you to leave through your back door and out the fence like a common criminal.

But I digress.

Gardening is like this:

We go through spells of weeding it. Waiting months to do anything. Allowing the weeds to grow back. Weeding it again. And being surprised by tulips and daffodils twice a year. Weird. Gardening is weird. and home-owning is weird. And for being a moderately granola-ish person, I sure don't care for caring for plants no one will eat.

Our flower bed was a mess. It pretty much rotated between this:

[Surely it looked nicer - or even pretty - when we first moved in... Entropy can shove it.]

And this:

And at some point we had a giantass bush that I trimmed [it broke my hedgeclippers,] and then hacked at [my hatchet just bounced off,] and then tried to uproot with a big ol' man truck [in the rally of giantass bush vs. F250, the bush won,] and then I hacked at it more with a hatchet [still bounced off,] then I tried digging it up by hand [it's roots are thicker than my wrists,] and then I poured boiling salt water and acid on it and the thing still survives. It may have one the past 9 battles... but I will win the war.

Behold: It's final days before stumpdom -

The bush was no more, but our garden still looked atrocious.

Then one day, we worked really hard together and made it look like this:

* = The cute doormat at Target that I deem a need and Devon deems a want. Also, note that the only requirements when choosing our plants were that they were perennials, didn't smell like pee, and were deer proof/resistant. You can never be too safe. Deer are wily and likely have a vendetta against my father's venison blood lust.

And then we had the gardening happies:

And vowed to never let it get that bad again. We hope.

[And I only broke into panic-stricken sobs due to our spider infestation twice! If that's not victory then I'm not sure what is]

Fall Semester

2011-09-08T11:23:00.000-06:00

A few friends already know, but early this Summer I decided to leave the U and switch to Utah Valley University for a fresh start and new perspective. Financially it was one of the easiest decisions I've ever had to make, and from the first phone call I ever had to make to campus and every subsequent advising appointment and class since it's been so clear and assuring that I made the best decision for myself.

Over the Summer I took one class - sort of like a trial run - Philosophy: Ethics and Values. I enjoyed it so so much! I love philosophy, but it can easily be soured with the wrong type of professor. My employer has a distaste for philosophy courses and refers to philosophy "a keen grasp of the obvious." It always makes me smile - I agree to an extent, but like nearly every class, it really is luck of the draw with your teacher and what you choose to get out of it. We did so many great activities and exercises that I'd always intended to share on my blog, but Summer life was just so busy it never happened. Each day we were encouraged to practice "Character Exercises." For example, a few I choose included to focus on the positive 3 x a day, tackle tasks as they arise, replace gossip/negative thoughts with twice as many positive thoughts. It was really enjoyable, probably one of my favorite parts of Summer despite the ~45min drive each way.

It's just been so very nice feeling truly welcomed and appreciated and valued for more than my financial contributions each semester. Honestly, this semester and last have been the first times I've really truly enjoyed school since maybe the 7th grade.

Plus, as the cherry on top, I have a cumulative 4.0gpa for the first time in my life! [and my second 4.0 semester ever!]

It might be a little harder to pull that off taking 18 credit hours this Fall as opposed the 3 I took over the Summer, but I'm looking forward to the challenge!

My classes this term are

Tues/Thurs:
-First Aid 10:00-10:50

-Concepts of Stress Management 11:30-12:45
-Foundations of Health Education 1:00-2:15
-Exceptional Students 3:00-3:50
-Drugs, Behavior, and Society 6:00-7:15

Saturday:
Humanities Through the Arts 10:45-1:15

Online:
Personal Health and Wellness

And I'll be watching Littledude for 17-25ish hours a week as opposed to 50-60!


Combine all the schools I've been to since 2006 and I'm a Bruteverine! Roar! But srsly, go wolverines. See <- student pride - I'm doing it right! I think... :]

Hope you're all enjoying your days! It's finally starting to feel Fall-ish here in Utah and I couldn't be more enamored with the season!

Vacation Gems from our disposable camera.

2011-08-22T12:17:00.000-06:00

This is my last barrage of photos from our vacation I'll for upon you all - swearsies!

Pictures from disposable cameras are almost always my favorites. Except when something goes wrong and you lose every single photo from your first anniversary, birthday, and vacation, all in a year's time. I gave up on them for a little while, but now my love is back with a fire. Or at least a little spark.

My cute parents. I especially love the deer in the headlights pose my dad has perfected recently. Love you mom and dad!

2 of my 3 favorite boys in the world. Owen + My Dad... + 2/3 of Lucy's dumb head. just kidding, Lucy.

SPRINKLES!!! zomgs.

I think Devon made me really mad... mid curtsey?

It's Times Square y'all!

Our vacation family and friends :)

Loooove all the shark-themed games at the busted arcade.

We ate well! What good is a vacation if you don't gain 11lbs. Srsly.

I triple <3 him.

That's all!

Vacation Photo Dump Pt. 3: Washington D.C.

2011-08-22T10:28:00.000-06:00

2nd to last vacation post, I promise. I can't believe vacations are so fun but blogging about them 2 months after the fact is such a chore.

Washington DC was super fun. We stayed with Devon's brother, Jason, who's condo overlooks the Capitol Building. DC is such a neat city. Thanks to our amazing hosts I feel like we really saw a lot, given what little time we had there [if I remember correctly it was just 3 nights and 2 days.] It was hotter than the devil's behind, but I really wished we had more time to explore. The Georgetown neighborhood was definitely my favorite part - it house Sprinkles Cupcakes which was just a few doors down from a Betsy Johnson store!

We didn't do too much traditional sightseeing - we drove by many of the monuments, but never ventured inside any or any of DC's kajillion museums, but I would take just browsing around a city and trying out all the great restaurants and coffee shops over sightseeing any day.

I really wish I'd have written this sooner, so many of the little details of the trip have already slipped away, but maybe that's just a better excuse to venture back and live it all again :)

Sprinkles Cupcakes!

This city had the cutest little houses.

I nearly killed this little guy right near some big monument I should know the name of. Last time I chase squirrels near busy roads.

Jeff pointed us to the neatest bowling alley I've ever been to! I can't say that I've been bowling out of Utah in my adult life, but they bring all sorts of drinks and foods right out to you while you bowl! It was in a really neat district too! Definitely a fun way to end the trip.

We caught a few blacked out SUVs heading to the Bad Teacher premier when we were in New York and clearly I was feeling saucey enough to make a slight fool of myself in front of Cardboard Cameron Diaz.

Devon is a copycat. :)

TGI Fridays whuuuuut

Creme Brulee 3 ways!! When I die I want to be buried in a bed of creme brulee or cremated and caramelized atop the most decadent bourbon creme brulee ever served.

It's Bianca! She is my fury friend away from home.

It's hard to believe those are all the pictures we took. I think we were a little vacation burnt out or just exhausted from the heat by the time we made it out there. Our last night there Jeff took us to the most delicious Mexican restaurant with tableside guacamole and a Chicken Mole that was unbelievable.

Thanks for reading along / putting up with my oodles of phone-quality photos! I'm excited to share my favorites from our disposable camera and get back to blogging about real life!

Vacation Photo Dump Pt. 2: New York City

2011-08-03T09:02:00.000-06:00

My oh my how time flies and girl's fall behind. In the blog anyway. As for IRL - still working 9-11 hour days with Littledude and just wrapping up my Tues/Thurs Philosophy class. I've been really enjoying it. The class - not long ass days. Starting this Monday off with the 1st of the month was just what I needed.

You know when you feel so busy doing things you don't necessarily care to be doing that you barely have time to think - let alone fold your mountain of laundry and vacuum the tufts of dog hair off of every little thing you own? That's been the story of my Summer - not that I'm alone in this, we're all busy people at some point or another - but man oh man I sure let it put me in a funk for awhile.

Nothing like a new week, new month, and end of a busy season for some perspective :)

Moving right along - remember that vacation a month and a half ago that feels like a year and a half ago? Yeah? Great. Here are the rest of the pictures!

1st stop: The Happiest Place on Earth!

Rockefeller Plaza Anthropologie was so huge and fantastic that it had me shaking in my mary janes!

Can you guess the highlight of my trip?

presents for gfs!

And likely the highlight of Devon's trip! jk Nintendo Store, jk.

I made pigeon friends.

And Poke-friends. I'd be lying if I said I took this picture for any reason other than tormenting Littledude when I got home.

Yay happy bf!

New York is the place you go to live out dreams. Like fulfilling my lifelong Bowser fantasies.

Yay - more Nintendo World Store bf happies!

Have you been able to tell we kind of wanted each other dead on this leg of the trip?

We drank good drinks really high up on this outdoor patio at this bar - The Library? Library Room? Idk - maybe too many good drinks.

The best little pizza place in New York City.

All the way!

Times Square - named for all the good times you have when you're in it.

I maybe ran a few blocks through Times Square by myself after 1am. And it may have been after a round or 5 of drinks with strippers. or maybe it was after a rousing game of scrabble and mexican train dominoes. We vacation big. New York City - where dreams come true.

Lessons from NYC:
-Always Always Always track down the Halal Brothers for Falafel and Korilla for pretty much anything.
-Learn to read a real paper map. Because your awesome little smartphone might just deceive you. time and time again.
-When your bf wants to spend an hour in the Nintendo World Store, walk half a mile away, and then go back for another half hour because he bought one shot glass or gummy tin too few for his friends - let him. Because he just put up with your ass trying on the same dress 3 separate times and oogling doornobs for 45min. And he's pretty cute.
-Do not under any circumstances attempt to keep up with the free-flowing wine and spirits that always seem to accompany trips with Devon's family. They carry it well. You do not. And you will likely wake up with your first real hangover since 2006, wanting to die, and upchucking in the bathroom of one of Bobby Flay's award-winning restaurants.
-When eaves dropping in the bathroom of said restaurants you will realize everything Carrie Bradshaw ever told you about New York women was true. And then some.
-Make plans to go back as soon as possible. You'll miss it before you've even left.

Supah Sriracha Print from Monocled Lop + Monday Happenings

2011-07-18T13:20:00.000-06:00

I just secured a brand new print to go beside our brand new fridge from a brand new etsy shop: Monocled Lop.

It's run by one of the cutest bloggin girls I've come across this side of the Salt Lake Valley or otherwise - Amy Morby @ A is for Ampersand! One of these days I will kidnap her for mint limeade and sewing/thrifting lessons :)

and I kind of really love it -

Sriracha Love Print - photo c/o Monocled Lop

I hope it will become best friends with my So Very Happy print and they can spend their days in harmony together. Otherwise that bird with a french fry print just might get banished to Owen's food corner.

So Very Happy Print - photo c/o Studio Mela

Currently^

I'm thinking matching stainless frames and white mats + moving the bird print higher and hanging the new sriracha print beneath it. Any opinions? Too Busy?

In the meantime I have today and tomorrow off work and nothing to do except organize the new fridge, clean out the old, conquer the mountain of clean laundry that accumulated after breaking in our new washer and dryer, make cereal milk pops for Devon, maybe a little gardening, and meeting my parents for Devon's birthday! Birthdays go on for about 10-14 days in this house. I love it :) I hope if I ever get knocked up... or you know, get married and plan for a child, or get a cat - anyway, I hope it's birthday is in June that way we'll have a 4 month streak of birthdays - Owen's, future spawn/cat's?, Devon's, and mine!

I feel a moral obligation to share - I found the Cereal Milk Pops recipe over on one of my favorites - Design Crush - love it, Kelly does THE best recipe round ups I have ever come across, including this behemoth of a Popsicle List I'm so excited to make 80% of those that I'm seriously contemplating buying another set of popsicle molds, or maybe even shelling out $50 for the Zoku [or $40 for the knock off version I saw at *gasp* Wal-Mart] Blood Orange Creamsicles anyone?

A quick round of: For Real Real? Or Pretend Real?

2011-07-12T08:47:00.000-06:00

I saw this little snippet at the bottom of an Us Weekly article about Zooey D not being a snobby cow. [She's not okay, she said so! -Insert Chris Crocker-style Leave Zooey Alooooone rant here-

And no judging about the perusing Us Weekly bit - I may not have time to checkout every little thing on HelloGiggles, but I can certainly find time to follow a twitter link here or there.

Snobby Cow or not is Not the subject of this week's For Real Real? Or Pretend Real?

This is:

If you're not familiar with the lovely Miss Bree Olsen, look her up. But maybe not at work.
And if you're not familiar with Mr. Winning himself, I don't even know why were friends.

But what really gets me is that it was posted the healthy lifestyles column. Maybe they crush vitamins in with their mounds of cocaine [I don't judge] to cover up that nasty hamster cage smell? Or maybe cardiovascular activity of any sort is smiled upon these days. [I don't judge]

So, Us Weekly, thanks for tricking me every.single.week. about Kimmy K having already gotten married, or all the teen mom moms being moms again, or even that time you had me believing every single Kardashian- even little Kendle, Kylie, and Kris [whether she castrates Bruce with a name change or not, she'll always be a Kardashian to me] were all pregnant at once. [What else could "WE'RE HAVING BABIES!" possibly mean?] But as for today's healthy lifestyle advice? I think I'll stick to my kombucha-drinking faux-vegetarian ways for now. [there's Soyrizo in my fridge, so that counts for at least 20 veg points, right? Not really? Whatever.]

Have a sweet Tuesday you guys! It's Devon's Pre Birthday Eve today, so that means it's dessert week in the Harghel House!

1st Position: Missionary

2011-07-08T15:56:00.000-06:00

Some eccentric goof said that and snickered when will and I went to a music theory get together at his/our guitar teacher's house.

Littledude has been pestering me about it ever since.

At first he was fine with the response "it's an adult joke" or "it's just a silly thing he said that's inappropriate for kids"

Now it's "but you said I wasn't really a kid anymore!" "What did he mean?" "What's missionary mean?" "Why is that funny to adults"

And the worst thing about all of it is that as soon as I start telling him not to worry his blonde little nugget head about it I start giggling. Giggling juuuuust enough for him to notice... and make him even more inquisitive.

Oh kids!
I didn't think it was possible, but my face hurts just from laughing on the inside so hard!

Vacation Photo Dump Pt. 1: Nantasket Beach

2011-07-07T11:31:00.000-06:00

Dump is a gross word.

D'ump is a little less gross. And likely the best [only good?] thing Tim and Eric have come up with over the past few years. [Definitely a love to hate v. hate to love situation, but it brings Devon so much amusement that it'd be wrong of me to wish it were never created... right?]

Anyhorse -here are a few pictures and memos I took down on my phone while on our trip 2 weeks ago. We spent 3 nights at Nantasket Beach - about 20 mi from Boston, 1 night in the heart of Manhattan, and 2 nights right near the capitol in Washington D.C.

It was an amazing trip. We went to meet up with Devon's family - they have friends from Germany who love vacationing near Boston every handful of years or so and whenever they make the trip to Boston, Devon's family visits them from Houston. After Massachusetts we all then traveled to New York together, and then headed to DC to stay with his brother. His family are all such gracious hosts - between Linda setting up nearly all the arrangements and Jason letting us stay at his home we owe them big thanks.

I'm still waiting to get our film developed, but in the meantime here our phone photos! And remember, coastal humidity can do wicked, wicked things to a persons hair. and face. and can make you gain 9lbs in 6 days. -Just go with that last one, okay? Some people gain water weight... I gain wine weight. So judge not lest ye be judged.

3am is too early to wake up and pack. 5am flights are for suckers.

1st Dunkin' Donuts experience!

view from our balcony

pretty ocean rain

Plymouth Rock! [More like Plymouth Pebble... but whatev.]

Pretty boats in the harbor at Cap Cod. All I could think of was the Bay Harbor Butcher.

Mildly offensive 4 decade old children's toy?

It's a pilgrim bear! I want it's tiny buckled shoes.

Lobster mitts! I love kitschy gift shop goodness.

2 hours ferry ride to Provincetown. My first ferry ride! We learned that while I do get sick traveling by ground or sky, I do not get sick and can even play Words With Friends on long boat rides! [wwf me: Carolionnn]

Pokeballs! I abhor Pokemon, but Littledude loves them!

Shark everything! And everyone speaks just like Sherriff Brody from jaws! And I love Jaws!!!

More shark fun!

From our balcony

They keep Plymouth Rock in that fancy cage ^. It's a rock kennel!

^ Not the Mayflower

^still not the Mayflower.

Pretty view from the ferry ride

Some lighthouse or another

We made it! And no great whites tried to bite chunks out of our boat!

Provincetown

I broke the racing game. [With my awesome driving skills. It happens IRL too. Only then it requires my bumper to be replaced.]

We played a Lot of pinball too. Pinball is awesome. So are pinball wizards. We are definitely those.

Fun Fun!

4th of July Weekend: Farmers Market, New Tattoo, True Blood Sunday, and Maximum Slothliness

2011-07-06T10:25:00.000-06:00

Don't mind my cramped pose and cuddly thighs - it's the cupcakes and they're totally worth it.

I know it goes against everything in the unwritten bloggers handbook to complain/blog about being behind in one's blogging... but I yam.

I am really looking forward to writing up our recent Boston/New York City/ Washington D.C. trip - sadly I didn't bring any of our 3 chargers to our camera [along with about 18 other mostly necessary travel items.] Also, I brought film for the Polaroid, but no camera. [Never packing at 3am again ever I hope!] Thank goodness for disposables! I still have a few shots left before I can get it developed, and need to collaborate with the mang to steal some photos from his camera, and then we'll be good to go!

In the meantime - here's what I've been up to lately:

-Last Monday I headed up to Layton to visit my folks

Owen loves love. Especially from his Grandma.

Oh Padre!

Friday night I talked this guy ^ into accompanying his daughter to the Farmers Market on Saturday. Boy oh boy do I love the Farmers Market. Especially when it isn't 8 million degrees and super crowded. It was very fun and sweet of my dad to join me, especially since he isn't much for crowds [or overpriced arugala... wait - that's me]

I forgot to take pictures when I was with my dad, but we shared the most delicious ham and gruyere croissant from Tulie's booth, had iced coffee from Uinta, and I brought back a little fruit pie and some Brazillian cheese breads for Devon.

Anytime Devon and I go we make it a point to hit up the Sudanese vendor:

Seriously - best spinach and couscous ever. It would be my ultimate dream to have my wedding catered by the Sudanese booth from the farmers market [somehow I never remember to write down it's name,] = Spinach and Couscous, Eva = Pizza and Fries [and just about everything else on their menu,] Tandoor = [just about everything on their menu,] and the Chow Truck. aaand Myung Ga. Bar X for their wtfamazing Pimm's Cups. Because food is the most important part of one of the most sacred days of one's life, yes?

Mint Limeade. Yes. also Yes to Boiled Peanuts from next door. Best snack ever.

After the farmers market we went for a stroll around Liberty Park - it was super pretty - and then my dad dropped me off at home in time for Devon to whisk me away to Gamestop and Cakewalk for some "I really hope I like your sketch and please don't hurt me too much" Dillos before my tattoo appointment. Dillos are some of the best things to have come upon this green earth. Vegan or otherwise.

Then it was off to Yellow Rose Tattoo for the big day!

After getting my little bow at Cathedral I fell in love with some of the sketches and flash I'd seen around their shop. CJ Fishburn, Jake Miller, and just about everyone at Cathedral + Yellow Rose really does incredible stuff. I'd loved to be tattooed by all of them someday, but I really really loved the girls that Troy Trujillo tattoos/paints.

3 hours of a little pain and a lot of worrying that my ass was hanging out for half the shop to see and I had this! I super love it.

I'll be going back later this month or next for the color. Very excited! One of these days I'll have to remember to take a better picture with a real camera before I get it all greased up/after it's out of the flaky peeley stage.

Other than that there was a lot of sleeping [I feel like I slept my whole weekend away!] not much to-do-list-crossing-off, and plenty of dog park visits. Of course we went to Cardy and Jenn's for True Blood night - they're kind enough to have us over and to watch the episodes together and we trade off cooking dinners. Last weekend we cheated and picked up taco fixins from Rancho Market - awesomely delicious - so next week it's my turn. I'm thinking Potato Leek Pizza and Green Pizza maybe grilled? We'll see!

We bailed on fireworks in hopes of tackling this mighty to-do list - didn't happen - but it was nice not to fight with the crowds.

But I did paint my nails! Shatter polish, I still love you, even if your lid does get too goopy too fast.

And that was my squeakin weekend! Hope you all had a blast! I love that it takes my until Wednesday to spit these things out because that means the new weekend is only 2ish days out again!

One more post about stuff I want but don't necessarily need from Anthro. Drool.

2011-06-27T11:37:00.000-06:00

As tweeted earlier today, these days my best motivator for following through with school and completing my degree is a quick little stroll through Anthropologie. [*fingers crossed for Spring 2013!] [**I've been saying "2 years to go for about 4 years now. Doh.]

I was totally crushed the day I realized that the store that would make for the cuuuutest teacher's wardrobe is quite likely far far out of my future teaching salary/budget. #ohwell #dreambig. [***and for all you clowns who think hashtags only belong on social networking sites that support them, or no place at all, to you I say - It's my blog and I'll do what I want.]

I've taken a liking to misplacing my camera cables/ not charging it/ not transferring pictures at all, so I hate to say it - but this blog is pretty much turning into the "Stuff I want from the internet because I'm too lazy to blog about my own life" blog.

and sometimes that's okay :)

Today I bring you "Totally incredible shoes on clearance at Anthro" also known as "Hey Mom my birthday is less than two months away and I really love you, shoes plz?"

Folded Petal Clogs *

Hedgegrow Slingbacks * [oh. my. bazoombas. <3<3<3]

Pirouette Flats * [sadly these beauties are no longer available, but to my small-footed friends there might just be a pair left at the gateway in a 7 1/2.]

Puckered Petals Sandals *

Rising Mercury Sandals * [<3]

Shoelace Espardilles * [yes yes yes!]

Textured Bowtie Sandals *

Winding Smoke Clogs *

Twist and Tie Clogs *

Ooooh I love them. And I don't even browse through the non-sale sections these days!
All photos from Anthropologie. Bless their souls.

forget me knot ring

2011-06-10T08:35:00.000-06:00

Even though I already have my little bow/forget me knot tattooed onto my finger, I still really want this ring.

*modcloth

i luff it.

The One

2011-06-09T08:29:00.000-06:00

They say when meet the right one, and you're ready to settle down, you just know. Time stands still, maybe your heart flutters here or there, and instinctively you just stop noticing all the other options out there.

If all that's true, then I might need to book a flight to Vegas tonight and take this little number to the alter.

Because this here Sagebrush Skirt and I, well, we might just be soul mates.

Sagebrush Skirt

Anthropologie
pleaseohplease go on sale this Tuesday. That $50 giftcard is totally burning a hole in my pockets... and that's just not okay.

Well call me Moody Judy and slap my biscuits

2011-06-08T19:23:00.000-06:00

Littledude finished the 4th grade today. Not sure exactly how that happened.

Other people's kids grow up so fast ;]

The end of another school year means the beginning of Summer vacation 2011. 6 hours in and we've already hit up Nickelmania, made plans for a party with bounce houses, reptiles, and ice cream pizza galore, and have even hit up the surf shack a time or two.

... it also means the end of my cushy 4hr/day work average and the beginning of 10-12 hours a day. [Dudes... that's like, half of them. Half of the hours in a whole day!] Or in tomorrow's case, possibly 15 hours of... for the sake of being nice and keeping things positive, let's call it "fun." Yes indeed, starting at 6:30 tomorrow morning, I have 15 hours of ...fun ahead of me. [#killme?] Juuuust kidding, I really do love my job, but the only living creature I care to be around for more than 4 hours at a time is Owen. And usually Devon.

Wish me luck kids.

Best 3 1/2 Anniversary Surprise ever - and it wasn't even from my boyfriend!!

2011-05-17T21:39:00.001-06:00

While I was busy moping around for who knows what and being whiny about all the good restaurants closing at 9pm on Tuesdays I check my Twitter feed and what did I find??

I was so hoping to win this treat - it's not like it's a gift card to THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH[!1!!!] or anything :) [I lied - it so is!]

Sometimes, it seems like the more you want to win something, the greater the odds are against you [slot machines anyone?]
So, I followed the link fully prepared to read news that someone else won - and to be disappointed I wasn't the lucky duck... or extremely happy for the lucky duck who did win - how's that for a positive spin? :)

Lo and behold my eyes jumped straight to this

I started squealing and doing my happy dance and shouting "IwonIwonIwonIwonIwon!!" all over our living room - Owen even grabbed a squeaky toy to squeak and celebrate with me - then I thought it would be a good idea to check and make sure the right Caroline was the one doing the happy dance - and it was true! Once I was sure I was the right Caroline [you can never be too careful when preemptively celebrating] the happy dance resumed and I even picked up one of my Anthro tree stump vases as a dancing trophy.
Some might think it a little dramatic - I prefer to think of myself as easily pleased.

Best Tuesday ever! Anthropologie even alerted me on Facebook - because we're like ultra super sparkly BFFs and all - that they sent 450+ items to clearance this morning!

This lovely surprise was from Elisabeth from Thimbles & Things! She's a Salt Lake blog friend too! I always love stumbling upon great new blogs - when I slowly started recognizing places from her pictures I was even more surprised and happy to see we shared the same city! Salt Lake Bloggers unite!

The giftcard I won was part of a dual giveaway Elisabeth and Sarah from Anonymous Was a Woman put on. Sarah is another fellow Salt Laker who also has an amazing blog - beautiful photography and delicious vegan recipes to boot! The two of them are quickly becoming my favorites - and I'm not just saying that because one of them is now sponsoring my Anthropologie addiction.

The moral of this story is, Dreams really do come true - especially when they're sponsored by people as lovely as Elisabeth :) I snagged an old button - she has the cutest blonde Summery hair now :) Please do check our her blog Thimbles & Things - it's quite a treat!

And thank you Elisabeth! This rambling post and the panic-driven excitement my dog endured during my celebration couldn't have been possible without you!!

Here is a happy list to make up for my broken cup sadness

2011-05-16T17:17:00.001-06:00

Littledude tripped me on our way in from school this afternoon sending myself and my porcelain "I am not a paper cup." cup plummeting to the ground. 1 skinned elbow, 1 bruised knee, 10 oz of spilled coffee, and 1 shattered cup later and I was a very sad and irritated young lady. [and it was the last of the milk too!!]

Ah well. Frankly I'm still pretty pissed about it - it was my very favorite cup and the only travel mug I own - but it can be replaced and no harm was intended.

Whenever I'm in a funk like this I try not to dwell on it - unless it's really truly horribly awful, in those cases I've found wallowing in self-pity for a day or two is the only cure. So rather than let my caffeine deprivation get the best of me and sit here mourning the loss of my mug all night, and in honor of spending the past 42 months with this guy [tomorrow is our 3 1/2 year anniversary]

here's a little list of 17 of my favorite memories of us together.

And I'm telling you all right now - half anniversaries are almost as good as actual anniversaries! I'll take any excuse to go out together or indulge in a dessert or two. Shameless.

1- Closing on and moving into our very first home together after nearly a year and a half of looking.
2- When he surprised me on a little trip to Lagoon, Hotel Monaco, and The Melting Pot even though he doesn't care at all for two of those three activities.
3- Going to Las Vegas for the first time together where I met his dad, step mom, and step brother.
4- Going to the geek symphony together.
5- Whooping his bee-hind at Yoshi's Cookie when I invited him over to my house after lunch on our 2nd date. If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that Super Nintendos make geek boys weak in the knees...
6- Going to a fancy pants steakhouse every New Year's Eve with our friends Jenn and Cardy and how the first time I accidentally ordered the lobster because I wasn't big on eating meat at the time and I thought it surely couldn't have been more expensive than their crazy $70 steaks. I thought wrong. [and I didn't even like it very much - and I love food!]
7- When he took me out for our first fancy date [I will forever love practically raw seared tuna and wasabi whipped mashed potatoes because of that night] and we went back to his condo to watch Knocked Up. My feet were cold and without saying a word he left the room and came back with thick winter socks that he put on mitosis. That's when I knew I wanted him to be my puppy daddy.
8- When we brought baby Owen home. He didn't even want a dog, but he somehow let me talk him into it. The first night we had Owen that dog paced up and down my futon for a full 7 hours and never settled down. Worst sleep ever. The next night he poo-ed all over himself and his kennel. Poor kid. Guess who woke up with me at 4am to help clean it up. Best bf ever.
9- How we survived our less-than-ideal living situations our first 1 1/2 years together. Oy vey if we'd have only known!
10- Going to Denver with Jenn and Cardy for our first NFL game together.
11- The food truck chase down a few weekends ago had to be pretty high on our list.
12- Going to his mom's work's Christmas party at Snowbird a few weeks after we started dating. I was a nervous wreck, ran out of time to head to Koi to have my septum ring removed, and the roads were just awful but we still had a great time at the party and skiing/snowboarding together and his family was as nice as could be.
13- All of our trips to Texas together. I always love getting to spend time with his family and see the places where he grew up. Words can't express how thankful I am that I was able to get to know Devon's dad and share some really great experiences with him.
14- Couples' reading/gaming/tv watching time. Because sometimes you just can't beat quality time at home together.
15- House hunting. Even though it was a bigger pain in the behind and more time consuming than I'd ever imagined, the excitement and anticipation were more fun than I'd have guessed too.
16- Whenever we talk about our future together - because what's more fun than dreaming, right?
17- Our trip to San Francisco last Fall for our 3 year anniversary. I never got around to blogging about it, but it was one of the best times of my life. For real real.

There are oodles of awesome times we've had that for whatever reason I left out. A list of 17 memories is not an awful lot to fill, plus it's hard to come up with a really subjective list while helping with homework, guitar practice, laundry, and dinner.

Life's good. If a broken [all time favorite] cup and dinged up arm is the worst of my troubles then I've got it pretty good :)

*Sorry if this ends up being published twice - I wrote it from Devon's iPad and it's autocorrect, and my poor grammar were hell-bent on ruining my life.

I think my boyfriend grew a pair of ovaries...

2011-05-05T20:18:00.000-06:00

For the past 4 days Devon has been on comp time from work. He's a video game designer, and after working insane shoot-yourself-in-the-face hours for months on end as any given project comes to a close, most companies reward their minions with a nice little chunk of paid time off.

The first few days it was normal sleep in until noon or until your attention-starved girlfriend gets the best of you and play Mortal Kombat until your eyes bleed -type activities.
Yesterday, everything changed.

Dev and two of his friends decided to fully capitalize on their time off with some male bonding that involved the kind of human interaction a headset just can't provide.

They call it "What Would Our Women Do? Day"

I call it ghey.
[Frankly, I should have offered up a Costco-sized box of tampons to the three of them when they headed off for their 3 man pedicure.]

Check out our pal Kelly's blog - Rocket Octopus - to see just what I mean.

Of course I kid. Actually it sounds like an incredibly bitchin' afternoon. [And I hope I didn't offend any of my readers. Urban Dictionary said I might, but I've learned my lesson more than once about trusting that site!]

It really does sound like the perfect day, doesn't it? But there's one thing Mr. Murphy got wrong - If there's no bitching, it's not a true WWOWD day ;)

Ahhh, I love those guys.

*Edit: Upon asking for Devon's approval before I clicked "publish" he said it was perfect aside from one thing. My unabashed denial of jealousy. I maybe had the teeny tiniest tinge of jealous. [Actually, I took a 2 hour salt bath out of spite. And it was amazing. So there.]

The great food truck race part 2

2011-05-01T15:22:00.001-06:00

Having the best time hunting down all the trucks today. follow me @_justlikethat_ on twitter or @yelputah for truck locations. They're moving every 1-2 hours today!

23 Before 23: 4 months to go!

2011-04-30T23:24:00.000-06:00

I've been really enjoying checking off my list -albeit quite slowly! I can't believe how quickly time has passed since last Summer! Somehow waiting for Spring and Summer to get hear has made me look forward to my next birthday even more.

I may be heading in a new direction with school [again!] and am only taking one gen ed course online over the Summer and am picking things back up in full speed this Fall. I am so looking forward to having a little reprieve! Over the Summer last year I watch Littledude on avg 50-60 hours/week - easily double the hours I currently work. Not only did my GPA take a huge hit thanks to not managing my time well between wanting to enjoy Summer, working overtime, and taking a full courseload online, but I feel like I spent so much time worrying about what I was neglecting that Summer was gone before I got to fully enjoy it. I'm so ready for a little break and time for my noodle and wallet to recover from school for a few months!

A fairly large portion of my 23 before 23 goals require waiting for warmer weather and for Devon to be finished and out of crunch with his most recent project. Minus the snow this weekend, the warmer weather is almost upon us and aside from wrapping up a few loose ends and a business trip coming up Dev's all finished! I am so unbelievably excited to have my boyfriend back!

Here's the list!

1- save $1000
    [22% Damn you tuition and wacky car issues... and Target.]
2- lose weight: 20lbs
    [-8.8lbs from starting weight - 44% there! I bought a dress in a size 8 for the first time in years the other weekend. Awesomesauce!]
3- retexture downstairs walls
    [so far most of one bedroom wall done.. baby steps!]
4- paint downstairs
5- landscape front patch
    [weeds pulled, bulbs bought/sprouting, bush cut down]
6- see 8 movies by myself
    [1: The Kids Are Alright 10/16/2010 2: Easy A - 10/16/2010]
7- read 6 books for pleasure
    [1: Something Borrowed - Emily Giffen 09/10, Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank - Randi Epstein 3/10, Confessions of a Counterfit Farm Girl - Susan McCorkindale 3/10, Zen Guitar - Philip Toshio 4/10, The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath 4/10, In Progress- Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers - Mary Roach]
8- organize all photos, including digital files
9- ~~take an art class, preferably printmaking, or a cooking class~~
   [Done! First guitar lesson was last Tuesday - Loved it!]
10- organize spare bedroom
      [getting there!]
11- upload all vinyl albums
12- install cabinets above washer/dryer
13- go to 6 concerts
     [1: She and Him 8/26/10, 2: Little Miss Corey Benefit - King Neko 12/16/10 3: The Samuel Smith Band + Erin Barra 1/20/11, 4: The Get Up Kids 2/4/11, 5: Pinback 4/21/11]
~~14- travel out of state at least 3 times~~
[done! 10/10 - San Francisco trip, 12/10 - Texas, 2/11 - Texas]
15- meet with an academic and departmental advisor
16- ~~meet with a financial advisor~~
    [Took a Family Economic Issues/Financial Advising class + made personal finance plan]
17- volunteer with children and/or in a hospital
18- go horseback riding
19- go river rafting
20- go skydiving
21- visit Timpanogos cave
22- sod backyard
23- take Owen to Dog Lake

I'm hoping to check off a large chunk of these in May while Devon is on comp time and I have 6ish hours of free time in the day before Littledude is off for the Summer. Eek so excited!

SLC Great Food Truck Feast!! 7, no -10 Trucks 1 Cup... I mean, city!!!

2011-04-30T00:46:00.000-06:00

This will likely be the first and only important/relevant entry I post - So stop drooling over Kate Middleton's uhmazing gown and pay attention for two minutes! [Or don't - Alexander McQueen vs. Lobster Grilled Cheese is a close call in my book]

For several days there have been mysterious food truck spottings around town and grumblings about the Food Network's program, The Great Food Truck Race, coming through Salt Lake this Saturday and the locations and truck names have finally officially been released via Twitter/Blogs/newspapers/your mom.

Seabirds will be at 9th and 9th in front of Coffee Garden from 11:30am-8:00pm organic, vegan, aaand serving beer-battered avocado tacos? Yes please!

Chow Truck

Hodge Podge

Korilla BBQ

+
Roxy's Gourmet Grilled Cheese

Will be at the Canyon Rim Center at 3150 E 3300 S [just west of REI] from 11:00am-all day

And
Devilicious [lobster grilled cheese! lobster grilled cheese!]

Torta Truck

+

So Cupcake

Will be at RC Willey at 2301 S 300 W from 11:00am-2:00pm

Cafe Con Leche
will be at Rico's Market - 779 S 500 E - from 11:00-2:30 and at Frida Bistro - 545 W 700 S from 3:00-5:00

Lime Truck
will be at Petsmart at 389 W 1830 S from 12:00-7:00

So excited!!
Definitely planning of making a day of it and stuffing myself sick!

*Info compiled from facebook, twitter, word of mouth, + Salt Lake Tribune.
**I hope I get to run into Tyler Florence - he is my Food Network husband after all!!

*** Big thanks to Kelly @ SLCtacos.com and on twitter @Burgersmoke for first tweeting/telling Devon about these shenanigans!

For Kathleen - Re: The Easter Bunny Gives Me the Creeps

2011-04-26T13:09:00.000-06:00

I'm still a twitter n00b and couldn't figure out how to tweet a picture to just one person in a hurry, so the second best option was to share this creepy gem with everyone.

Yesterday Kathleen of Jeremy & Kathleen posted this pleasant picture of a slightly creepy bunny going about its Easter duties

*photo by Kathleen @ andkathleen on Instagram.

Flashback to 2006 and I think maybe, just made, the dudes on Dexter got it wrong pinning You-know-who as the You-know-what...

Mhmmm.

Life as of late [warning: superduper long and pic heavy]

2011-04-25T22:56:00.000-06:00

Now that April [and thus Spring semester] is coming to an end, it's time for me to resign from the bad bloggers committee. Holy bejeepers between all the fun new toys Devon and I share to stay connected I sure haven't been doing a very good job of it!

Saturday night I was goofing around dropped Dev's iPad2 right on my face and drew blood - I think it was the universe's way of saying stop freaking playing Tiny Wings for two minutes and get back to your blog. [Don't worry, Tiny Wings, you'll always be my #1...ish]

I'm going to take the easy road with this updating business and dump a whole bunch of photos on here and call it good. Then hopefully thing will be a little more regular around here :]

Last weekend we went to our very first drive in movie together [and my first time ever] to see Scream 4 - loved it! Drive ins are such fun! Can't wait to make a Summer tradition out of it!

We went to sushi with our friends Jenn, Cardy, and Ashley at Red Ginger Bistro

Then we stole Cardy and headed down to one of the happiest places on Earth - or at least in the Salt Lake Valley - Nickelmania!

Last week Littledude was on Spring break, which meant I was on work break and had the best time sleeping in and hanging out with my hound. Unfortunately I didn't tackle nearly enough of my to-do list, but it was still one of the best weeks I've had in a long time!

Cardy and Jenn have a sweet dog named Zoe that I checked on from time to time, Monday I got to spend extra cuddle time with her and brought Owen over the next day to play. On Tuesday we were lucky enough to be joined by Alex and Mr. Bentley for some hound fun before she and I headed out to Foothill Village for some Sweet Tooth Fairy Cupcakes [so good!] and a little shopping.

That night was also Alex's husband, Steve's, birthday! We met up at the Wing Coop for dinner and then went to Cardy and Jenn's for strawberry shortcakes. Honey Habenero wings, PBR, onion rings, aaand cake? Yes Please!

Wednesday I went to the gym and worked out for 3 hours to make up for the wings, onion ring, beer, and cake that I gorged myself on and made the wackiest spinach-banana-peanut-butter-chocolate smoothie for my post-workout snack. I liked it...

Thursday I picked Devon up for lunch and we headed to the Evergreen House Cafe for lunch [everything's vegan and delicious!] and then Ruby Snap for Dessert #1

Later that night we had a quick dinner at the Training Table before I picked my friend Sarah up to see Pinback at The Depot.

Aaaand that brings us up to last Thursday. If I add anything more I'm afraid my eyes will go forever fuzzy and you all will start sending death threats... or at the very least never come back to this page ever again. ever.

Can you believe it's already almost May? Seriously, 2011? Srsly??

Do you tweet?

2011-04-11T14:34:00.000-06:00

I do!

How's that for an anticlimactic 100th post? And it only too 2 1/2 years! :)

I Can't Find My Phone ... .com

2011-04-07T10:36:00.000-06:00

icantfindmyphone.com - Possibly the greatest thing to come out of the internet since lolcats.

and better yet - it's totally free!

I cannot tell you how many times this website has saved my tail when I'm running late, home alone, and my phone is no where to be found.

Speaking of phones - I finally strapped on some big-girl panties and decided it's time to get with 2011 and get a fancy phone! [Thx Madre!!]

As of this Saturday I will be the proud owner of a Samsung Galaxy S 4g! I wish I could geek out over it and tell you all the neat stuff it does, but it'll likely take me until I'm eligible for retirement to fully figure it out. I do know that T-mobile told me it could do all this stuff...

...but as you can see by the array of little red question marks... I don't really know what most of that stuff is. [That's okay - secretly I just wanted something I could take slightly douchey hipster photos with to put on Instagram - don't judge.] You know, and something that didn't dial 911 every time I sat down [true story - the 911 people who call to make sure I'm not being raped/murdered/pillaged are surprisingly more cool with pocket dialing than you'd expect.]

And I got Devon to admit that it's even a little fancier than his little pocket baby! Bwahaha - take that tech-savvy boyfriend! I may not know what a SUPER AMOLED screen is... but I know that it's good... and good things are good! He's probably just excited that it'll help me keep my filthy [literally, filthy] paws off of his fancy phone and iPad2. Everyone wins!

I might need to go buy some depends... because I am definitely pee-your-pants excited!!

Twinners!

2011-04-06T11:30:00.000-06:00

Today when I took Owen to the dog park we had our first Berner-on-Berner encounter at Herman Franks! We've run into 2 or 3 since we've had Owen, but never in a situation where the dogs could play. It was total cute overload!

It was so funny - I always just thought I had a goofy guy of a dog, but Owen and his new friend Capone shared so many of the exact same mannerisms! It was mind-boggling to watch them play and to see Capone doing Owen's crazy spin dash, and watching them both be cautious observers and then leaping into play at the last minute. I wish I'd have caught it on tape!

Total bffs :) Makes me really want to rethink my one dog/Owen only policy and turn it into a bernese mountain dog only policy.

notes from littledude

2011-04-06T08:17:00.000-06:00

Last night I asked littledude [the boy I nanny] if he could be responsible enough to let his mom know about the stain their dog left on their jute rug. When I got to work this morning this is what I found on their counter -

"Mom that blue rug on the rug is becaus sarah tossed The cookies"

Kids are so freaking weird and awesome. I love it.
[and I love his flagrant misuse of capitalization and that he referred to the damp wash cloth on the spot as a rug on a rug.]
He's the best, even though he can be a bit of a pest from time to time I still love him :)

Tuesday so far

2011-04-05T16:06:00.000-06:00

This morning I had my Development in Infancy and Early Childhood course [which I've already taken and honestly, will likely need to take again.] Man oh man to I abhor it!

To start with, I live only 7 miles from campus and between traffic and finding parking, transportation there and back takes up far more time than the class itself - laaame.
2 - No matter where I sit, people seem to think it's acceptable to bring lunch and chow down in class. Maybe I just have a stick up my ass, or my mild to moderate ADD symptoms that hardly allow me to focus if I hear so much as a pencil moving across paper, or maybe it's my personal space issues - but it totally makes me batty to hear cellophane crinkling all over the place and to be able to smell someones chicken lo mein from across the room.
3 - I am paying an awful lot of money and feel like other than the potential piece of paper documenting my thousands of dollhairs and years spent on campus I'm not getting too much return on my investment as far as an actual education is concerned. Not to say I haven't had some great professors, but srsly, the complete ineptitude of some have just blown my mind.
Ex: Today we were having a discussion on gender differences in very young children. It totally turned into a 30 minute conversation about who's painted their sister's best friend's cousins' newphew's toenails and who's been cool with it and who hasn't. It's a daily occurrence that the lectures and discussions in that class turn into silly little anecdotes of the student's own parenting experience - which would be great if it were relevant or applicable in any way to the material, but 9 times out of 10 - totally not.
Don't even get me started on that time she spent an entire class misinforming everyone about the definitions of phenotype and genotype. Apparently, since her mom likes to read and she enjoys reading, then my professor's enjoyment of reading is an expression of her phenotype. Call me cynical, but I haven't read anything about scientists mapping out an "I enjoy board books gene" during the human genome project. Mrs. "Let's spend an entire semester discussing the nature v. nurture debate" [if you can even call it a debate] seemed totally oblivious to the idea that maybe, just maybe, her mom reading to her regularly and instilling a sense of the importance of reading at an early age had something to do with it.

This is my "I hate college and need more coffee" face.

Oy vey.

On the bright side, at least class is canceled this Thursday! Yippee! And I got a surprise call from my padre. I love my dad :)

It was supposed to be really lovely today - 60s and sunny - so I got really excited after class to go and change out of my frumpy morning clothes into something a bit more Summery. By the time I had my outfit picked out and on I was running late and had to jet out the door.
Do you ever feel like your outfit is doing everything in it's power to make you look bigger than you are?
I am definitely having one of those days. I should have known better with capris and I being natural born enemies and all.

Littledude is being a hoot today and I can't wait to go home and make dinner and take Owen out to the dog park! I'm either making Pioneer Woman's breakfast bowls or enchiladas - gotta get my money's worth out of that cookbook!

What's on my plate - Not Dogs!

2011-04-04T22:23:00.000-06:00

I love hot dogs. Love them. Maybe that's why Costco runs are so darn enjoyable. Wednesdays are even my favorite day of the week all because that used to be hot dog day at lunch in elementary school in Tennessee!

For the past two months or so I've been abstaining from meat [not including fish/seafood] for a slew of reason. Namely because I feel my best when I eliminate or greatly reduce the amount of meat, processed foods, and fatty dairy in my diet.
I was vegetarian for 3 years, vegan for 6 months, and pescetarian for a year or so before I started eating meat again once Devon and I were together for a few months. Totally not blaming him for pulling me off the wagon! It's just when you want to please someone's palate it's a lot easier to serve up chicken-friend-steak and other meaty awful for you comfort foods than to cook two meals or convert someone to your own lifestyle.
Also, I've found it's a lot easier to lose weight when I follow a mostly vegetarian diet. With minimal effort, and with a little time, the number's on the scale start to look a little more friendly. Plus choosing not to eat meat until I reach my goal weight seemed like a good incentive should I choose to reincorporate it into my diet.

While those are all valid reasons for the switch, they don't even touch the BIG ethical/environmental/health/etc reasons people should opt to cut down /eliminate meat and other animal products from their diet.

Here are a few of the resources I'm most familiar with - there are plenty out there to choose from!
Of course there's PETA - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals [I was shocked by how many people in my research methods class didn't know what PETA stood for!] I know a lot of people strongly disagree with... well, many things PETA stands for, and while they are a bit extreme even by my standards, the scope of this post isn't broad enough to fully delve into the rights and wrongs of the organization, let's just say that I think they do far more good than bad and are by far the most well-recognized and accessible source for information regarding animal rights/welfare and exposing the atrocities that go on every.single.day. And call it propaganda, but it's hard to argue against their marketing ability to spread their agenda! [end.tangent.]

Compassion Over Killing has some amazing resources that aren't quite as biased/extremist as PETAs, as does Farm Sanctuary. Michael Pollen and Peter Singer have also written amazing contributions to the issues thinking about one's diet can raise.

Honestly it's hard to write out too much about the issue without feeling like a total hypocrite. I know full well I'll likely never go back to a vegan lifestyle, that the fish I've been consuming experience tremendous pain and suffering too, and that I'll likely incorporate some meat back into my diet on a small scale at some point... but this isn't exactly where I wanted my simple "look what I ate" post to head. It's a complicated, messy, sad issue.

Moooving on... Here are some of my favorite not-meat products!

I love how they try so hard to look like the real thing - it's very endearing. The soy bacon looks pretty ridiculous out of the package, but all the others make amazing substitutes! Morning Star actually makes the best crumbles - they're my favorite overall, Quorn makes stellar chik'n nuggets and strips [made of mycoproteins found in mushrooms! How cool is that?] Even in the past 5 years or so veggie substitutes have come along way in terms of taste, texture, options, and availability.

And finally, dinner - Not Dogs!!

Not the greatest photo of my smooshed-bunned overcooked little meal, but it was tasty nonetheless!

Over the years I've established the perfect algorithm for ketchup-ing and mustard-ing a basic dog.
Behold: Four dogs in one!!

Genius I tell you!

I shared the love and noms with my boy, baby Owen - Turns out Berners love Sun Chips too!

And there lie the sad little dinners we have when my puppy'daddy is too busy at work to come home much before midnight! We still manage to squeeze in some fun times and cuddles - Good times abound!

weekend recap + pioneer woman's potato leek pizza

2011-04-04T13:31:00.000-06:00

Last weekend went by so so so so quickly I can't even believe it happened! Saturday we were celebrating the very first bloom on the pretty tree behind our house and Sunday we woke up to inches[!!!] of snow! Oh Utah.
Saturday:

Sunday:

Last year when we went on our first trip of the year to Texas to visit Devon's family, it was the first time we'd left our house on a trip during Spring for any length of time - when we came back there were surprise tulips and daffodils in our little front patch! I was under the impression that once bulb plants die they're gone forever/until you replant them. It was the sweetest little surprise! Sure enough this year a few shoots of green sprouted up and I was sure I just needed to get back out there and do a better job of weeding, but then my laziness paid off and we have some super pretty flowers out front. Unfortunately I don't think they'll be able to take much more of this weather, after this weekend they're already pretty sad and droopy looking, but oh well! - I've got big schemin plans for that little patch anyway!

I just love this little smiley face.

I especially love this little lurpy face and am quite thankful I have a dog who hates to be in the kitchen.

Speaking of being in the kitchen... Since Devon's been working so much it's seemed pointless to keep the house stocked and to cook for essentially just myself. Yesterday I made my first serious grocery store run in ages - It feels so nice to have food in the house again! For dinner I made Pioneer Woman's Potato Leek Pizza - which has totally renewed my love for fresh mozzarella again btw! Recipe can be found here* It's actually the first recipe I've made from her book Pioneer Woman Cooks that I picked up when Jenn and I headed to Library Square to meet P-dub herself. She, Cardy, and their dog Zoe came over so the boys could play with their new toys - As "eh" as I am about most handheld systems, the novelty of the 3ds is pretty neat! [3D without glasses? The future is now!]

...Anyway, we all loved the pizza! I substituted soy bacon for the real stuff and was a little worried I cut the potatoes too think - in the future I'd definitely do a better job of draining the leeks before topping the pizza, but all in all I can't wait to try it again. I totally pigged out and had 3 pieces for breakfast/lunch today.

I have a pretty funny little 3DS story relating to Cardy's antics, but that's another story for another time.

Owen is in LOVE with his "Uncle" Cardy and "Aunt" Jenn and get's so sad whenever they leave! He's not much of a whiner, but whenever they leave he stares blankly at the door for a solid 5 minutes and lets out the most gentle, pitiful little whimper.

Oh Owenuh!

I love these guys!

Happy Monday!

Gyahh - on a side note - I have got to get this blog redesigned... It's layout drives me crazy, but I don't feel like I really devote enough time to it/have the spare funds to really justify spending dolla dolla bills on it. Guess it's time to become less interweb illiterate!

flashback friday: vol 3

2011-04-01T12:14:00.000-06:00

Today is going to be a different kind of Flashback Friday! While I was organizing our 2nd bedroom last night [#10 on my list!] I came across my little tin with all my old concert stubs. It was so fun looking through all of them and thinking back on all those really amazing times!!

The past few years I've hardly gone to any shows at all - it's something I really enjoy doing alone [same goes for watching my snobby "wheat" movies,] and I enjoy hanging out with Devon so much that breaking away and doing the things I enjoyed before we met doesn't even occur to me most of the time.

I do regret not getting/keeping tickets for the majority of the shows I've been to the past few years. It is a little more convenient to pay at the door, I don't think I have a single memento from any of my visits to Kilby Court! I tried to select a few of my favorites, but they're all pretty much favorites, so here's a little handful!

My first Big Ass Show - I had my wisdom teeth taken out a week before this and according to my mom I kept repeating "Maahh, ca I still go AFI?" while sedated. My first ever concert was the Goo Goo Dolls when I was 13 and they played during the Olympics, but since this was my first "unsupervised" it holds a special place in my hearteries.

My very first Warped Tour - Long-touted as the best day of my life. I would love to relive that day again. My best friend Randi was kind enough to go with me even though we haaated each other's music - I think she spent most of the day trying to seek out air conditioning and silence in the parent's tent and bathrooms. On the way down we listened to The Casualties and my mom blurted out in her sweet southern drawl that "That music is just aaawful!!" Randi just about died laughing so hard!

Amazing. I was such a nerd for Green Day and was so excited for this I could have barfed! I remember I found out about it the day of the show while I was on campus for Science Day at the U. Why they choose myself and a total stoner kid who were barely passing their classes to represent my high school was beyond me, but I'm SO glad they did, otherwise I would have totally missed this. My mom was even awesome enough to drive back up to Layton to pick up my BFF Bree so we could go together - Love her!

Soooo Goooood! Such a great night too! The weather was perfect. Karen O was a dream! More than a few not-fit-for-blog stories to go along with this one.

This was my second time seeing Bright Eyes. So amazing! My dear friend Chantel is seeing Bright Eyes in a few weeks in Minneapolis - I am beyond jealous and so wish I could go with her!

Quite possibly The best concert I've ever been to. Even though I'm sure I've said that almost every time.

For awhile I had an awful habit of buying tickets and changing my mind at the last minute... actually I still do this! I SO wish I would have gone to these three!

My one Kilby Court memento - My first speeding ticket while one my way to see The Appleseed Cast.

I tried to hunt down a photo from those days, this one is a bit after I went to most of those - Summer 2007. I loved my hair so much from this time period! I'm still so sad that I lost almost all of my photos from 2004-2009 when my laptop crashed! Major Sads.

I ms paint-ed this one awhile back - ah, to be a 10th grader again. [killmenow!]

This one was too funny/awkward not to share - I think this is the very first time I ever held a baby. Ur doin it wrong!!

Happy Friday everyone! And remember - Just because it's April Fool's doesn't give free license to be a jerk! I'm such a baby when it comes to this dumb holiday.

West Elm's... ovulation pillow?

2011-03-29T07:00:00.001-06:00

Ever since my friend Jenn introduced me to West Elm during our Denver trip awhile back I have been totally enamored. Really they're one of the only stores that seems to be a perfect merging of Devon's style and mine. Clean modern lines for Devon. Granola-ish throwback vibe for me.

I've only looked at their website a few times since their new spring additions and have already found so many amazing things that I/we "need."

Behold:

The cutest little owl butter dish

In love with these gorgeous hive vases!

Cute little owl measuring cups

More cute little measure cups in the perfect shade of blue!


This gorgeous table scape with canvas flowers and canvas bud vases.

and then there's this...

While I love watercolor-inspired furnishings as much as the next person, how can you look at this and Not see an ovum bursting forth from it's graafian follicle?

The longer I stare at it the more grotesque my imagination becomes - what was at first a big red ovary splotch doing it's thing has now turned into a Kill Bill-esque make out scene between a yellow happy dot and a red happy dot...

Just me? Maybe it's the fevuh talking...
Pshhh - like I needed more decorative pillows anyway.

Monday update: When impulsive girls decide to get tattoos.

2011-03-28T14:29:00.001-06:00

You know that camera cable I lost? It was hiding exactly where it should have been - packaged in it's own little clearly labeled manila envelope in a drawer full of other envelopes where all the cables should live. Ah well - it never hurts to have a back up!

As for that pesky little tattoo I mentioned... well, that thing is going no where. In fact, when I sprung it on Devon and he asked what I thought of it, my first response was, "Well, it's there now!" I like to joke that it looks a little like a prison tattoo - I'm sure I'll have all sorts of fun trying to convince my grandkids of that someday.

The real story is it popped into my head while browsing over Tattoo Tuesday on Sometimes Sweet [just like some goofy idea or another does every time I read that feature] then I explained my sappy little back story and asked Devon what he thought of it over dinner on Wednesday. On my drive home Wednesday I actually scouted out a few shops and probably would have done it there on the spot, but it was late and all of the less sketchy places on the way were closed. Thursday when I was out hunting for a place to grab dinner I decided to head downtown to Cathedral Tattoo underneath Stoneground and next to Caffe D'Bolla instead.
Aaaand this is what I came home with -

Back to the sappy little back story -

I thought a cute little reminder knot/bow would be a sweet way of reminding myself of several things, but namely that just because there isn't a ring on it doesn't mean I'm any less loved, and hopefully when I look down and see it it'll bring me a little smile and remind me not to be so self-critical all the time. Sometimes I catch myself being way too critical of others and I really feel that that sort of behavior directly stems from being critical of the self first.

But - if anyone asks, I'm probably just going to tell you it's so I don't forget the oatmeal. [Sesame Street reference anyone?]

Honestly, I don't feel like I have to explain myself to anyone, and I sort of expect a little flack from my peers - you know, something to the effect of "Oh man... did you see what Caroline did? She's so anxious to get engaged she just couldn't help herself... " But maybe I'm just being too defensive/projecting/self-critical again.

Plus it's something small that I can choose to leave visible or easily cover up. It's a little bigger than I'd planned, but I was really happy with the experience - I've wanted one since I was 13 or so, just making the first leap was the most challenging. I'll definitely be going back for something a little more sexy and badass in the future. If anyone is curious mine is from Dr. Tyler Densley DDS at Cathedral Tattoo [it was totally handy having a dentist as a tattooist for all the questions I had about my goofy granola bar predicament :)]and I will definitely be going back to him for my next.

In other news - I have totally jumped on the OPI Shatter bandwagon and am loving their whole Katy Perry line.
I've never been a big nail polish fan [and am horrible at applying it!] and at first thought it was insane that anyone would pay $8/bottle, but the difference between the results you get with cheap polish and the good stuff is amazing! Above is OPI Dandy Lion with OPI Shatter layered on top.

That time I caught the plague by getting a granola bar up my nose... Again

2011-03-27T22:02:00.000-06:00

Okay, so that title might not be entirely true - the first time I caught the black death via food up the nose it was with penne.

Black death... Because that is exactly what I feel like.

I so rarely get sick that when I do catch a little something it rocks my world.

It even puts me so on edge that the simplest gesture of kindness can and quite possibly will bring me to tears.

Devon had been kind of a stinker about my malady - he's been telling me since the Great Penne Incident of '09 that I need to get checked out and have whatever hole there is that's letting food sneak up into my soft palette speckled shut. BUT - this morning I awoke to the gentle hum of a humidifier on high, a cup of my special hippie juice blend, my sweet Bernese Mountain Dog by my side, and a text from my boyfriend asking if I'd like him to pick up lunch while he was out.
When bf returned with a feast from Rubios and told me Owen refuse to leave my side after he was let out to do his business my heart was so full of love [and my head was so full of snot] that I lost it. I love my boys.

All weekend I'd been looking forward to meeting the dog my pseudo-mother-in-law was thinking of adopting - she's been on the prowl for a big dog to rescue for well over a year now. Tomorrow is her birthday so we were going to get together for a dog date. I accidentally fell asleep in the afternoon and by the time it was time to head out I couldn't even will myself from bed. You know it's bad when I'm too down and out to meet a new puppy dog friend! Somehow I'd dreamt that Devon and I had a full on conversation about this dog and Owen and Devon's mom all having the best time.
It turned out none of that ever happened - apparently there was a small altercation between the dog and Dev's mom's 20 year so she'll likely not be keeping him, so they never even left. I feel so bad that we didn't get to visit and that she'll likely be giving back the dog from his trial run on her birthday - what a sad birthday un-present!

Speaking of birthdays - yesterday was my dear sweet dad's! He and my mom came down to Salt Lake so we could get breakfast together at the Original Pancake House and so my parents could attend to some undisclosed business. After a little badgering my mom revealed that my dad was thinking of getting his first tattoo for his birthday and they'd booked an appointment downtown. What better time to blurt out "OMG I just got a tattoo last night!" [It's true.] I'd been wondering how I would tell them about the tattoo I thought I wanted on a Tuesday and went out and got on a Thursday. After all, what's the big deal - it's only for the rest of your life, right?
So now my dad and I are both in the cool kids club.

Devon just got back from his second nom run of the day - have I mentioned how much I love the new Whole Foods yet? Sweet bf brought back sandwiches, chipotle tomato soup, and the best chocolate milk I've ever tasted!

Hears to quick recoveries, tasty noms, and awesome family members!

23 before 23 - 5 months to go!

2011-03-26T17:28:00.000-06:00

I've had no motivation to blog for the past week or two, having 2 missing camera cables didn't help [new one en route!] so I forgot to post this on Thursday. I plan to do an update of this list on the 24th of each month.

The last 6 items with a * require waiting for warmer weather because I am a cold weather wimp :)

1- save $1000 [22%]
2- lose weight ~20lbs [-6.5lbs from starting weight - 32.5% there!]
3- retexture downstairs walls [so far most of one bedroom wall done.. baby steps!]
4- paint downstairs
5- landscape front patch [weeds pulled, bulbs bought/sprouting, bush cut down]
6- see 8 movies by myself [1: The Kids Are Alright 10/16/2010 2: Easy A - 10/16/2010]
7- read 6 books for pleasure [1: Something Borrowed - Emily Giffen 09/10, in progress: Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank - Randi Epstein, Confessions of a Counterfit Farm Girl - Susan McCorkindale]
8- organize all photos, including digital files
9- take an art class, preferably printmaking, or a cooking class [scheduling guitar lessons on Monday!]
10- organize spare bedroom [getting there!]
11- upload all vinyl albums
12- install cabinets above washer/dryer
13- go to 6 concerts [1: She and Him 8/26/10, 2: Little Miss Corey Benefit - King Neko 12/16/10 3: The Samuel Smith Band + Erin Barra 1/20/11, 4: The Get Up Kids 2/4/11]
~~14- travel out of state at least 3 times~~ [done! 10/10 - San Francisco trip, 12/10 - Texas, 2/11 - Texas]
15- meet with an academic and departmental advisor
16- meet with a financial advisor
17- volunteer with children and/or in a hospital
18- go horseback riding*
19- go river rafting*
20- go skydiving*
21- visit Timpanogos cave*
22- sod backyard*
23- take Owen to Dog Lake*

I swear at one point "Build a Potty Patch for Owen" was on here [or one of the other 18 of these lists I made] and I checked that one off last week! Too bad it wasn't actually on the list... but at least Owen has a designated place to poo now!

did I just buy some stump vases on super clearance?

2011-03-15T11:46:00.000-06:00

Yes. Yes I did. [and all from the comfort of my classroom swivel chair!]

Bless you Anthropologie... you light up my life.

Now, if only Devon hadn't have banned me from purchasing that ceramic basset hound from Zgallerie last Saturday...

"Hey Dyyaad... it's a Chawrlie!"

last week

2011-03-14T12:54:00.001-06:00

I had a whole big ass post written up about how thoroughly insane and stressful last week was, but what fun is reading 5+ paragraphs about madly cleaning until the wee hours of the morning last Tuesday in preparation for a visit from family only to learn they're coming this Wednesday, not last... amongst the other five thousand things I had going on last week...

I really admire bloggers who can keep an air of positivity about their little nook of the internet, and while I have no desire to be all kittens and sunshine all the time, for today at least I think it's better to focus on the positive.

So... the good things about last week.

-Since we'd feverishly cleaned the house Tuesday, I was able to enjoy a much tidier home than usual and have much less work to do tonight and tomorrow.

-I was worried all week about being late or being able to make it at all to a bridal shower I'd planned to help a friend with, but the menu was changed so I was no longer needed. As much as I was looking forward to seeing my friend Cassie, it was a welcome relief because I hate being unable to fulfill obligations and being a flake in general!

-Since I was no longer needed at the bridal shower I was able to meet up with Devon for a last-minute dinner at Pipa. We ordered WAY too much food and it was SO delicious!

-Friday I was worried about not being able to meet up with my blog friend Sara - from Trying to Survive in Sin City - who was in town for a short visit - her super cute little boy wasn't feeling well - but it all worked out and I had a great time meeting a new friend and hanging out for a good chat. [The only picture I took on my way out turned out Horribly!!! So here's a little MS Paint mish mash to make up for it.]

We both love science and SEC football! ...Okay, I like Peyton Manning, who played for UT, more than I care about college football in general, but I don't care what anyone says... I stand by the belief that any team in the SEC could beat out the Mountain West Conference. Maybe I'm just bitter about blowing thousands of dollars here at the U, but beating out Bama in the 09 Sugar Bowl was surely a fluke. :psuedo/ex/semi? southern girl rant over:

-Also Friday, I had forgotten about a few homework assignments for my online class as I so-often do, and was actually able to finish them up instead of letting feelings of panic and inadequacy set in and get the best of me.

-Also also Friday, I was able to make a visit up to my folks' house and had a good time just hanging out. [Unfortunately I left my laptop charger up there so I fell super behind with the blogstuffs]

The plan for going up to my parents' house was to drop off Owen so Devon and I could spend his one weekend off for the past several months and until his game is done in early April up at Snowbird and Park City... but since we never made reservations and were both exhausted by the week's end, we called an audible and stayed home all weekend. It was without a doubt one of the best weekends I've had in the longest time.
We didn't do anything out of the ordinary - watched a Netflix movie, went to Whole Foods and Costco, took Owen to the dog park... Devon picked up the new iPad2 on Friday and I think I spent 30% of the weekend just playing Tiny Wings [I love it!]

Sometimes it's the most mundane things spent with someone you love that make life so great :)

flashback friday: Vol 2

2011-03-11T21:50:00.000-07:00

This one is coming in late from a visit to my parent's house and with poor photo quality thanks to taking pictures of pictures, but they sure make me smile :)

My dad and I, because I love him so much :) Circa '93?

I always watched TV like this, upside down, or with my butt straight up in the air when I was little. Why on Earth my parents gifted me with a TV at such a young age I'll never know, but this one is coming at you from 1992.

My cute mom and I - she was just a few months older then I am now in this picture! 1989

My cute mom's wedding announcement - for some reason the news font looks very serious to me and makes it seem like a couple pledging vows in ceremony May 1 was a tremendously big deal and rare occurrance!

I wrote this to my dad while he was away on TDY for 6 weeks. Clearly, I reallyed MAS-sed him a lot.

Happy Friday everyone - it's finally the squeakin weekend! Most of these pictures were taken when my parents and I lived in Misawa, AFB Japan - near the northern tip of Honshu and less than 200 miles from today's earthquake's epicenter. I hope you all and your loved ones are safe in the wake of such a devastating natural disaster. Sending warm and hopeful thoughts to those who were affected.

notes from messenger: ver 3.0: zomg!omg!omg! This is why we were made for each other...

2011-03-08T18:56:00.001-07:00

Check out what b-fri just messaged me:

Have you guessed yet that during crunch 90% of our conversations occur via msn messenger?

Also a fact of interest - no response to my 358th marriage proposal 9 minutes ago. Some boys never learn.

if I had a spare half-thousand to blow

2011-03-07T21:30:00.002-07:00

Then I would totally buy *this Betsy Johnson dress

and *this Anthropologie bag

and take my mang on for a night on the town.

...better round it up to an even $2k 3k and throw in some miu mius

or manolos.

I will clarify this by saying pretty much everything found at Neiman Marcus is simply obscene in price... but it sure makes for interesting browsing. Personally, I know my place and at least for now, will be sticking to the TJ Maxx-es and Payless-es of the shopping world.

Recap: The Get Up Kids 2/4/11

2011-03-07T15:15:00.001-07:00

Awhile ago back in early February I met up with my friend Sarah to go see one of our favorite bands from our high school era - The Get Up Kids. Granted, they were around far before we were worrying about hall passes and drivers ed, but they were a big part of those years nonetheless. Amazingly, neither of us had ever made it out to see them live so when they came to In the Venue on Feb 4 we both jumped on it.

We met up first at Eva for dinner - all our food was amazing that night! Most of their options are seasonal, organic, and locally sourced, so their menu switches up pretty regularly.
That night I ordered the Ratatouille Pizza - "zucchini, peppers, and eggplant braised with tomato, feta, and a baked egg." So good!

Sarah had the gnocchi - I think it was the spinach and potato, but I could be mistaken. It was also quite tasty.
And of course we shared the rosemary/garlic/parmesan fries - best I've ever had.

After that we headed over to In the Venue for the show. We were surprised that the show was being held in the much smaller Club Sound portion of the venue until I remember that on Friday nights In the Venue hosts Gossip [essentially gay night.] Clubs of any kind aren't my idea of a good time by any means, but I have a few fond memories of Friday nights at Gossip with my friends freshmen year of college.

We made it there with just enough time to catch the opening band's last song or two in their set and to grab a drink during set up. At the bar we ran into my friend Lauren who I hadn't seen in about a year and her beau Matt who I also see once in a blue moon, but have been friends with since high school - he was actually my boss when I worked down at the Training Table. Good times.

The Get Up Kids put on a good show... despite a tiny bit of heckling and a pretty despondent crowd. I had no idea they were releasing a new CD and thus none of us had any familiarity with the new songs. But they played almost every old song I'd hoped for [minus Central Standard Time.] Definitely glad I was able to see them before they stopped touring and/or broke up again :)

*was totally going to include some low-quality footage of Don't Hate Me I recorded, but Vimeo is punishing me for not being one of their super pro premium plus members and is making me wait in a 3hr queue. laaame. Later gators!

...*3 hours later:

The Get Up Kids - Don't Hate Me from Caroline Elise on Vimeo.

breakfast haunts: The Olympian

2011-03-06T16:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning we had a late start to our day and decided to use one of our restaurant.com certificated for breakfast for lunch at The Olympian.

I've always been wary of this place because their sign advertises the wackiest menu combinations.
Ex: "Come on in for Mom's meatloaf!" "35 Types of Pancakes" "Come Try Our Stuffed Bell Peppers - Just Like Mama Used to Make!"

...Keep in mind this place is supposed to be greek.

After we ran a few errands we called up Cardy and Jenn to help us reach the $40min we needed to use the certificate. On top of the great deal already offered by restaurant.com, Devon gets a sweet discount on the certificate themselves through his work, so what would have normally cost $45 plus tip ended up being something like $23 including the price of the certificate. Love it.

After reading some really mixed reviews, our hopes weren't too high about this place, but we were pleasantly surprised! As horrible as they are for you and as weird as it sounds, onion rings are one of my favorite things for breakfast. There was a huge [!] photo-insert in only my menu advertising the most glorious-looking onion rings... but they weren't anywhere to be found in the menu. I was So happy when I asked the waitress about them and not only did they serve them with breakfast, but they could substitute them for hash browns. Happy dance.

Unfortunately, Jenn wasn't able to make it, but the three of us had a nice time gorging ourselves on breakfast noms before Devon had to take off for work and Cardy had to jet to pick up Jenn before a U basketball game.
I'm always shocked by how unaware I am of things going on at the U when I'm up there 5 x a week for classes. Such is the life of a reluctant college student!

Afterwards, we stopped by Rubysnap - formerly My Dough Girl - to try the March cookie - Lucy, a "lime dough, cheesecake center, topped with lime curd" cookie. I loved it, the lime curd tasted ever so slightly off, not bad - but I couldn't quite pin it, everything else about it was great. I love a good gooey cakey cookie. Seeing as how I went to the gym for a full hour Friday, I like to undo all that hard work about as fast as I can ;)

Girls Night Out: Blue Valentine and Atlantic Cafe

2011-03-05T16:46:00.001-07:00

Last night I met up with my friends Jenn and Hollie for a fun little girls night out :)

We went to see Blue Valentine at the Broadway Theater downtown. It's my favorite theater - it's independently operated and they always have an amazing selection of movies. Right now most of the movies they're featuring were academy award winners or nominees from last week's ceremony. Plus they have the best diet coke around. and edamame. Seriously, edamame!

The whole movie was incredibly intense [I loved it!] and I was so thirsty I drank most of my trough of diet coke early on into the movie... of course, when you drink that much of something in a short period of time you have to go at the worst possible moment. The movie was so good and the storyline never paused, so I never found a good breaking point to step out. I kept telling myself 5 more minute... 5 more minutes... just wait until the next scene, until I held out as long as I could and at one of the most climactic points I had to run out. Oh well!

Ryan Gosling is seriously an amazingly good-looking guy... even when they do him up with a big old receding hairline, strange pedophile-esque glasses, and a bald eagle sweatshirt he's still pretty melt-worthy. I was super impressed with both he and Michelle Williams' performances.

Funfact: Did you know, Gosling and Williams lived together for a month in the prefab home they shared in the movie to prepare for their roles?

The scenes from the couple's past were shot on Super 16 film and the present scenes were super close up in high definition - Definitely made the past seem even dreamier and more romantic [I was so close to accidentally typing rominticer... for shame!] I love how uncomfortable extreme close ups can feel... definitely added to the tension. I would love to watch it again knowing what I've read since last night.

After the movie we walked down to Eva, I love their food, and it's a really cute and intimate space, but places that small sure fill up fast on a Friday night. It was totally packed and the wait was estimated to be 45min to an hour, so we walked a few doors down to Atlantic Cafe. I'd never been there before but it was really nice and so much quieter! I really do love Eva's, but it's hard to enjoy dinner with friends when you can't hear a word anyone is saying.

Everyone's lives are so busy it was SO nice to get out with friends I don't get to see nearly enough and leave the dudes at home to do whatever it is they do. Totally not shocked to come home at midnight and see Devon in his Dr. Mario pjs accessorized with his 360 headset. I <3 my gamermang, even if I do rag on him for it a little too often. Marvel v Capcom anyone? :)

fill in the blank friday: Vol 1

2011-03-04T11:45:00.004-07:00

1. The phrase or punctuation I overuse most is - does telling the littledude to chew with his mouth closed 8 times a day count?? If not, then likely... dashes. Hyphens have become my comma, ellipses, period, indent, and more. It's so hard to break the habit when writing papers for school!

2. Today I am thankful for - coffee and my favorite mug, waking up early enough to make said coffee and prepare mug, weekend plans, having a washer and dryer. After ~2 years of either not having an on-site washer with roommates, and having to share a washer with others, I'll never take laundry equipment for granted again! ...and also fluff and fold for those times in life when you just don't have a w/d or the will to fold another pair of jeans.

3. My best friend is - my boyfriend, Devon. He is the beast of the beast. He never fails to be an amazing listener and support, even when deep deep down, he'd probably rather be playing Suikoden.

4. A quirky thing about me is - I have some odd and irritating anxiety-related quirks. Tapping on airplanes... setting and resetting and resetting my alarm clocks. They ebb and flow... but lately, my textural aversions have gotten pretty bothersome.

The sensation of certain paper goods, especially thin or cheap ones, make me cringe and when people rub, shred, or crumple napkins for example, it makes me so much uncomfortable I want to throw up. Of course I'd never say anything - I have no right to tell you to stop wadding up your tissues, but I'm screaming on the inside! Also - I hatehatehate when dogs lick my pants. and when corduroy rubs together. and... you get the idea.

I know it isn't rational, I just need to figure out how to step away mentally long enough to get a little clarity and put some perspective on how minor an issue it is.

5. This weekend I - am looking forward to girl's night with my friends Jenn and Hollie - we're going to see Blue Valentine and [I think] have dinner at my very favorite restaurant - Eva

6. Something that worries me is - not spending enough time with my parents and something happening to one of us.

7. On my night stand you would find - My alarm clock/ iPod dock, a silver place setting I use as a scratch guard, gray coasters, my cute and dumpy orange lamp, and a little vase made of test tubes that I've had for months and have yet to fill.

I love lists to a compulsive degree and filling in the blanks are right on par! I first saw this at Mrs. Biscuit's site - Muffin Loves Biscuit. What is up with Arizona having an abundance of cute people with interesting blogs.

Fill in the Blank Friday link up and photo found at Lauren's blog - The Little Things We Do...

flashback friday - Vol 1

2011-03-04T09:50:00.000-07:00

My handsome boyfriend was a handsome little guy.

Taken moments before that goat stole my ice cream.

My favorite picture of my sweet parents - I think they were even younger than I am here!

My favorite picture of Devon's sweet parents. I love his mom's wedding dress!

My sweet little tadpole - age 10weeks.

I first saw Flashback Friday over on my blogfriend Jenny's blog - *here. She and her husband recently adopted two gorgeous pups and do a ton of volunteering with Rocky Mountain Great Dane Rescue helping with dog transports on the weekends! I so admire her big heart - you know those people who's blogs you read or you run into here and there and decide on the spot that you want to adopt them as bffs - Jenny is definitely one of those people :)

I can't wait to get a good scanner and go through all of the pictures at my parents house and feel safe that there are backups should anything happen to the originals.

Happy Friday!