A very unwelcome homecoming.

Why hello there,

I hope everyone had a splendid weekend. Brandon and I sure did. We took a little adventure down to Provo and spent some quality time with family and friends. We also escaped the two inches of snow that surrounded our apartment. But unfortunately we had to return. And we returned to something very, very terrible. Downstairs neighbors.

They have been moving in for a while but they finally made an appearance yesterday. Now, I don't want to make any prior judgements before I actually get to meet the three teenage looking occupants, but I do have one complaint. The dog. First of all, dogs and apartments don't mix. They just don't. Dogs need a backyard and a doggy door. They need to be able to run free. This particular dog needs one of those barking shock collars. Early this morning (around one or so) one of those shocking collars would have been very helpful. But, these things I can live with...mostly. It's what happened this morning that constitutes removal of this particular canine.

I was happily prancing down the stairs ready to jump in my car and make the little trek to Rexburg when this furry fireball came charging at me. See, they obviously realize that dogs and apartments don't mix well either. So, they decided to tie up their dog to a pole outside of their apartment. Well, the rope is pretty long, so this dog has free access to a great deal of the parking lot and complete access to my Honda. Did I say it came charging at me? Yes, barking, sprinting, and showing it's very pointy teeth. I had to climb in the back seat of my Honda (were thankfully the little bugger couldn't get to) and then climb into the drivers seat. Then as I backed out it chased my car until it's rope yanked it back.

Us having a stare down. Being the smart person I am, I took this from my patio. Also, it may look small but small things can be quite the terror as well..I mean just think of that two-year-old you saw at Wal-mart today...

So, the conclusion to this story is the dog has to go. Like, very soon. Any suggestions? I might accidentally run it over as it chases my car out into the parking lot..just kidding..but maybe. Or, maybe some really good pepper spray would work? Who knows. But for now I will continue the climb over the seat routine to save myself from being a chew toy.

Fall love.

Fall is here! And I love it. It felt very official today considering 61 was the high in Idaho Falls and it rained on and off throughout the day. To commemorate this cold weather we ate beef stew and homemade rolls. Ahh, fall does have its perks. Like this:

Island Park on Sunday. Aren't the leaves fabulous?

But really, fall you're wonderful. How have I never noticed you before? Wait, it's because I lived in Arizona and there is no such thing as leaves changing colors there. But seriously I think that fall might be my second favorite season (summer is obviously my favorite). I think part of this comes from the fall colors, decorations, crisp mornings, pumpkins, sweaters; I could go on and on. But, right now it's the decorations. I have been dying to put up my fall decorations (all three of them) for a while, but Brandon wouldn't let me. I mean, technically the first day of fall was just a week or so ago...

Their debut was just yesterday and it is oh so fantastic. With the pumpkin candle burning it feels very legitimate. I wish I could decorate my apartment like this, but since I have like 1/16 the space and budget, I had to improvise. Below are my sad attempts at decorating:

It's just about the effort, right?

If you are looking for some fall-ish like crafting ideas this website as some good ones. I am tempted to make that fall table runner mat for my coffee table, or even one of those grapevine pumpkins. 

But as for now, this is how my apartment is going to be. If you were wondering what was inside of those frames (because I know you are dying to know..) I got together with Google and Photoshop and crafted a few nice little fall messages. Google provided the text while Photoshop fostered the design. Below are the actual documents:

Feel free to snag them, I don't know how like downloading and what not works so you can always let me know if you'd like them and I'll send them your way. The best part is they're only a few cents to print at our your local Wal-mart, and if you don't have one of those around you need to move into a bigger city.

Geeze, this was longer than I anticipated. But I hope this somehow fueled your desire to get hose nice cozy fall decorations up. Because before you know it you'll be taking them down for Christmas, which is fun too.

Happy fall!

Poetry, or something like it.

Every now and then, when I can't sleep, I peruse the old "creative" things that I used to write. Really, they aren't that creative. But I can't classify them as school files, and since my computer is very organized, the creative section is where they will remain. These are especially hilarious because I wrote most of this stuff years ago. Like still in high school years ago. It's fun to see how I've changed. I laugh about the things that used to be important back then, like dating and high school football games.

This particular gem was crafted during my engagement. This time was absolute torture. See, when my semester ended in April, I had to go home to Arizona. Brandon had to stay in Idaho. We weren't getting married until the end of May. Yes, that equals six weeks of pure suffering. Yes, suffering. And, it wouldn't have been so bad if I had a job or something but instead my days went kind of like this: wake up, read book, homework, run, lay out, sleep, read again, talk to Brandon, go to bed. So, obviously I was bored. (I am just trying to make a good excuse of writing really lame poetry..if you can even call it that..) Ha, but anyways, I hope you get a nice little chuckle out of this. Here it goes:

I am in love.
Did you know that?
I am actually getting married.
I have found the person that I want to spend the rest of forever with.
I get excited thinking about it.
He makes me happy.
I smile when I think about him.
I look at pictures of him when he's gone.
He's cute.
I love his smile.
I love his laugh.
I love the way he looks at me.
It shows me that he loves me back.
I want to be with him forever.
Because when I get a glimpse of life with him
I can't contain my happiness.
I love my Brandon.


Precious, yah? Even though I wrote this May 19th, 2010 at 1:05 am, I still feel the same October 3rd, at12:35 am. The crazy things I do late at night.

A nice weekend.

I wish I could think of some witty way to start this post, but I've got nothing. Instead I just sit in my lonely apartment and wish my mom, sister and nephew didn't have to go back to Arizona. Everything reminds me of that little guy, it's pathetic. Like really, even the power outlet made me think of him.

See what I mean, I know it's not a spitting image, but it's close enough to make me miss him that much more. 

 

 

See the resemblance? But, don't worry Kash, I don't think you look like a power outlet, your much cuter.  

Anyhow, instead of explaining every detail, I'll just share some of my favorite photos from the weekend:

Kashden experiencing his first real breath of fresh air.

This one is just hilarious. Look how little he is on that huge lovesac. He was quite enjoying himself.

Affection..

So cute.

I think this one might be my favorite, it is just too cute!

Or this one..

maybe this one..

Let's face it, Kash makes every picture practically perfect.

Aww, I love those smiles!

Anyways, we had such a nice time. I am thinking that Christmas is way to long to wait until I get to see them again. Yes, definitely way too long.

The parking lot is not a playground.

Well it's not. But the kids in our apartment complex thing it is. There's about ten of them, they just ride their bikes around like they own the place. Well guess what, my car is bigger than your bike. I find myself waiting patiently as all ten of them shuffle from one side of the street to the other, and then sometimes back again. Really, I don't mind that they play, I encourage being outside instead of glued to a video game. It's just the fact that my front bumper has gotten awful close a couple of times, which makes me nervous.

It gets worse when they decide to play a game of tag. Really, it becomes a real-life version of Frogger. They dart and dodge around my moving vehicle to avoid being tagged. I hope I valued my life a little more than that when I was younger. The irony of it all is that there's a perfectly good grassy area across the street that looks way more inviting than the black asphalt, even if it is the landscaping around the AmeriTel.

I might just anonymously post this sign around our complex: 

I think the "thanks" really helps. Don't you?

But, it is things like this that make me crave my own home. In a real neighborhood. Without awkward neighbors who smoke all day long. One that has a garage and a backyard, maybe even a pool..I should probably stop. But for now, I will be patient and wait for the little munchkins to cross the street, while I day dream about my future home.

Have a good weekend!

Crafting and happy.

You might have noticed that I am slightly obsessed with the color combination of yellow and gray. I am not sure where this obsession developed but I think it's fabulous. They were even my wedding colors, which I know was a long time ago (unless you don't count a little over a year that long ago...) but I still like to use them often. 

This last craft combined my wedding pictures and my favorite color combination, so it's one of those win-win situations. We has some frames hanging my the wedding pictures in our hallway that said: "May 22nd, Friends, Fun, and Family. It was cute, but I needed a change. So, Photoshop and I got together and created these little guys. They say: "May twenty-second two-thousand and ten the day we became truly happy."

The view from walking into the hallway.

The view from the other side of the hallway...and some of our lovely wedding photos.

This one is my favorite.

It's true really. I think about my life before that day and most of it seems so flat. I have always been happy, but not like this. That's why the word "truly" is so important. Happiness is easily achieved, but it's that true real feeling of complete joy that I am talking about here. Not the momentary kind. Do you get what I am saying? I mean, I am not out in left field here, right? There's just something different about the day that you know you will be with your best friend forever. Maybe when we start having kids that day will change, but I know that from here on out, I get the pleasure of experiencing true happiness.

I am so lucky.

September should be warmer.

I feel lame wanting to turn my heat on since it's only the 4th of September, but our apartment hasn't gotten over seventy degrees all day and that is way too cold for my warm-blooded self. So instead of succumbing to temptation I pull on some of my most comfy socks, my Plymouth crew neck sweatshirt, and only leave the confines of my blanket if absolutely necessary. One of those times came around lunch.

I wasn't kidding about the socks. Please excuse the fact that the right one seems to be dirty, I really have no explanation.

So, reluctantly I leave my room, and my book (which is probably the hardest feat), and make my way for the kitchen, remembering the delicious stew my father-in-law gave us a couple days ago. As he would say, "you can just taste the vitamins". Almost the whole stew is made up of veggies from his garden. Seriously, so wonderful. So, to complete the "it's cold and feels like fall so I need to eat warm comfort food" idea I make some of my favorite bread sticks, which unlike the stew contains nothing healthy, which I justify as being okay. (I figure we all find ways to make healthy things completely unhealthy so it doesn't really matter. . . kind of the like the carrots that we had last night that were drenched in butter and brown sugar, mmmhmm, anyways. . .)

My lunch, be jealous.

So, I guess that I am trying to say is that I really don't mind getting all bundled up if the result is warm stew and homemade bread sticks. Sometimes good things come with the bad. Which is obviously lame, but I guess you just have to learn how to get by. Ahh, the beauty of it all.

Have a splendid week.