Ketchup

So maybe I haven't posted for over a month. I've just been sooo busy. Well I mean I guess I was teaching 6th grade everyday, but really I wasn't that busy. I have no excuses. Well I could create some...like some of the 6th graders whose homework seemed to "disappear". But instead, I will just show you pictures of things we have been doing since the last post.


Okay that's not true. These two pictures are actually from September when Adam's Mom, his sister Melissa and her kids came to visit. I thought they were cute though. Here are more recent pics now.

Don't the kids look thrilled?

Adam and I babysat Ollie and Ava. To ensure that we would be known as "The Best Aunt and Uncle Ever", we took them to Chuck-E-Cheese followed by ice cream. Ollie was content to just run around and watch the games. Ava wanted to ride each ride. Not once. But many times. Also, she tried to steal people's tickets. I'm not sure who told her at the young age of 2 that tickets lead to prizes...but maybe it's just a child's instinct.

Moving along to Halloween. Obviously Adam and I were Hannah Montana and one of the Jonas Brothers. Obviously. We went to a cute little Halloween party at one of Adam's mission companions apartment. Adam and I won the pumpkin carving contest. Also, obviously. We used a drill for part of it. (See Dad, installing cabinets with you has come in handy! I can use a drill for a pumpkin!)

Well, I'll have to a Thanksgiving post next month. Just kidding. Maybe.

Save the Bananas

This picture has nothing to do with this post, except that it's funny.

So I know Adam pretty well. I would say really well. But he has been hiding something from me until very recently...

While talking about the bananas we recently purchased from the store, he mentioned the big scare a few years back about bananas becoming extinct. See here for a refresher. Well, I don't know what I was doing during this time, but apparently I didn't hear about this so-called epidemic. Am I the only one? Does PA just not care about bananas? What was I doing during all of this?

Anyway, back to the story. So Adam tells me about being pretty passionate about making sure the bananas would still be around. AND THEN, he casually mentions that he won "Most Likely To Save the Bananas" for his school. Most Likely to Save the Bananas? I didn't really know what to say. I mostly just laughed for awhile.

But then I started thinking about it. I guess it's a pretty big deal. I mean, I bet he's probably the only person EVER to win Most Likely to Save the Bananas...




Which also reminds me...Anyone remember when Ian MacGregor spelled banana "b-a-n-n-a" in the middle school spelling bee? hahahaha. Boy he never lived that one down.

Cutting It Short

So update: Adam and I are back, together, in Provo...sleeping on a twin air mattress. And we love it! Things I have failed to mention recently.

1. Kristina and I went to the So You Think You Can Dance tour in SLC. I'm going to be completely honest when I say it was one of the best shows I've ever been to. It was so much fun and even better in person than on the show. I have never even watched the show until this year...but the girls from St. Louis got me hooked on it...among other things. Kristina and I randomly decided to look for tickets on eBay and managed to score 14th row for $15 each, while everyone one else was paying upwards of $80 each! Wahoo!


Here we are before the show. Unfortunately we were under the impression we couldn't bring in a camera, or else we would have a picture of us with the huge Snuggle bear.


In case you haven't seen this...




I don't know if I love this dance more or the song!?

2. I had a really great birthday! Adam flew in and I got to see him for the whole weekend. He did an excellent job with birthday presents. I was very impressed...he knows me well! We also got to spend time with his family in Spring City. Yay for family nearby! Here is a picture of one of my presents.

This is a Diana F+. It is actually a toy camera but takes really cool photos (like the one in our header that Jonathan took). I love it!

3. I chopped my hair. After having the SAME hair forever, I decided to do something different. My cute preggo friend Jess cut it and she did a most excellent job! My hair was so dang long, I think I may have chopped off half of my hair. But I like it a lot. It's a fun change!



Listen, I don't have any real pictures yet. Only these lame PhotoBooth pictures that I sent to Adam so he could see.



And a classic Bri face in case you've missed it:

Aubergine/Brown Inspiration Board

Morgan emailed me because her cousin is getting married very quickly (one month!) and is trying to figure out her wedding. Her cousin was thinking of purple and Mo asked if I could make an inspiration board for her. Since it will be fall when she gets married, I thought the purples should be different shades of a deep purples with some elements of brown. I learned that the dark purple I was thinking of was called Aubergine (an eggplant color). Now I'll sound reallllly cool in the color world when I use it. (The color world? Is that even real?) I've tried convincing Morgan to have purples and browns for her own wedding someday because I LOVE them together, but she's pretty set on her colors. So this gave me a chance to play around with them!

Adam's Journal Entry

Adam had a very eventful night last night. This is an excerpt from his journal.



21 September 2008 9:01 PM St. Charles, MO

Ok. You are not going to believe what happened. So I go over to this family's house for dinner. They are this super nice family in the ward. They’ve had all of us summer sales kids over before. She makes this delicious roast. Mine is covered in gravy. I cut off a huge chunk and put in my mouth. I chew. It turns out I had cut off a big piece of fat and hard meat. (I didn’t know…it was covered in gravy.) I think, “Shoot, there is no way I can spit this out on my plate. That would be so sick.” So I just swallow it down. I chase it with a little water. My throat then starts making this very loud grumbling noise as air escapes back up and out. Of course the cup is still to my mouth and so my strange quasi-burp gets amplified and echoed. I keep making the noise…uncontrollably. The kids are looking at me; the parents are pretending not to hear me. Then I start choking a little. I lean over my plate. The mom yells, “Are you ok? Can you breathe!?” I shake my head. The dad stands up, comes behind me, and starts doing the Heimlich maneuver! I lean over and throw up water all over my plate and the table! Family dinner…done. I finish exuding fluid, look up and say, “That was really disgusting, I’m really sorry.” Of course they are so nice and tell me not to worry about it. The children, not knowing how to properly respond to someone throwing up all over their dinner table, just stare in disbelief. I stand up again and feel like I’m going to gag. I ask to use their bathroom. To my dismay I discover the pesky portion of roast still lodged in my pipe! Knowing that they had prepared dessert, I figured it best to try and dislodge the fiendish beef piece, so as to avoid further awkwardness in having to explain that their meat, still blocking my esophagus, would prevent the further consumption of any food for the evening. “But you guys go on ahead.” So after about 25-30 minutes of making awful heaving noises in their bathroom, I walked back into their kitchen, ready and cleared for cake! Wow.


I think my favorite part of the story is when Adam went home later and researched the Heimlich, and realized that he wasn't even given the Heimlich properly. I'll have a bunch of posts coming up this week, since I have been M.I.A. lately!

In the Land of Blogs

Image: Jonathan Canlas



So we recently found out that our wedding has made it to the wedding blog world! Woo hoo! I think I would have stumbled upon it myself, even without Jonathan Canlas letting us know about it, as I love The Brides Cafe! You can check it out here.

You should also check out what Jonathan is doing to help out the Nielson family(see post below). You can find out how awesome he is here.

Nie Nie Day

NOTE: Make sure to scroll over these paragraphs because there are plenty of links to click!

I don't know how many of you have heard this story/opportunity, but I thought I would share with you. There is a very popular blog called NieNieDialogues written by Stephanie Nielson. She literally has hundreds of readers. She is a mother, a wife to four, and an extraordinary person. I've never met her, but when I read her blog I either want to be friends with her or just be her. She has impeccable personal style, great design taste, she is a great mom and a genuine person. Stephanie and her husband Christian, who she so obviously adores, were in a small plane crash in Arizona. The pilot lost his life. Stephanie's body was burned over 80% and Christian sustained burns over 30% of his body. Both are in chemically induced comas and will probably remain that way for months. Their recovery is likely to cost into the millions. Their children are staying in Utah with Stephanie's sister, CJane, who also writes brilliantly on her own blog. For some reason, I can't get them off my mind. Everyday I tell Adam an update or something I learned about them and their situation. I'm pretty sure CJane's words have made me cry at least a few times.

This story has affected so many people besides me, that over 275 people are holding auctions on what has been declared "NieNie Day" today. Most of the auctions will go until Sunday and all proceeds will be donated to the Stephanie and Christian Nielson Recovery Fund, dedicated to help with medical expenses as well as keeping their household running. Let me tell you, the stuff being auctioned is fabulous. Art, jewelry, photography sessions, concert tickets, clothing, baby stuff, home decor and so much more. To see what you can bid on by category go here. I'm currently sitting at the airport on my way back to Provo deciding what I want to bid on (thank you Albuquerque airport for the free internet!). There is something for everyone! Even if you aren't planning on bidding, I promise you will be touched and spiritually uplifted by the love and support of the Nielson's family as well as by the hundreds of bloggers out there.

Wifey Wounds

No, I did not brand myself, and no, I am not part of a tribal society. And NO, I am not into self-inflicting wounds. However, I did happen to burn myself with a cookie sheet while taking rolls out of the oven. How did I get 2 burn marks on the crease of my elbow (yes, that picture is of my elbow)? I have no idea. Something about turning my wrist in towards my arm...I really don't know. All I know is it's pretty much the grossest thing. It has puffed up and scabbed over and peeled and gotten red. All the stages of "healing". (Don't worry parents and grandparents, I have been applying Neosporin. Well actually the Target brand because I'm cheap.) Adam kinda likes it...He thinks it is an ode to the St. Louis Arch. But he's probably hoping that my arm will fall off so I can get a cool prosthetic, like a lobster claw. Oh wait, that's his wish for himself. Let's just hope this thing goes away soon so the weird looks can cease...

NorCal

This post title is dedicated to Adam. He hates the terms "NorCal" and "SoCal". I dunno...must be a Californian thing. Anyway, long time no blog. I decided last minute to meet up with my family in Santa Cruz, CA, as a surprise to my siblings and to my Great-Grandma MeMe. Sadly, Adam had to stay in St. Louis and work. This trip was the first time we'd been apart in a LONG time. Before I left St. Louis, we had a goodbye dinner since several people from our office out here were leaving soon. Here we all are, as cute as ever.



My flight got in just a little before my family's flight. Surprising the kids was pretty funny. I casually bumped into Jess, and pulled Tali and Shane from behind. I think they were all pretty excited. We stayed in the infamous Jay's Timberlane Lodge, Cabin 10. It's pretty much the only place to stay around where MeMe and my Grandpa Robb live. Jess's boyfriend Matt came along, which means there were 7 of us in a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom log cabin. I have no idea why the picture turned out with a creepy haze...




We decided to take a day trip to San Francisco. I haven't been to San Fran since I was a little kid! We did a lot of the touristy things. First we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge. At least we think we did...It was so foggy, you literally couldn't seen past 15 ft. up the bridge.





We went to Pier 39 and walked in and out of some of the shops. We also stopped by Ghirardelli Square. I took Jess's boyfriend Matt to his first In and Out experience. Cyle was disappointed because he hadn't had the In and Out experience either and he missed out! After struggling to find places to shop, I called my expert San Franner, Stina. She directed us to Union Square where we spent the rest of our day. We were deciding on how we wanted to get to Union Square when we were told that there was a limo just down the road that would gladly take us there. We hopped in and for a very low cost, got exactly where we needed to go!



I had a blast seeing MeMe, Grandpa Robb and Charlene (and Biscuit), Auntie JoEllen, Sandy, Jeff, baby Macie plus little baby on the way and of course "The Gang".



I did however miss my hubster while I was gone. I came home to a spotless house and these 2 things. Adam just loves to pretend that I LOVE Hannah Montana and buys me pretty much anything he sees with her on it. It reminds me of another family joke...Hello!Kitty anyone?!?

Ode to Atom!

This is a post all about my husband. Reason #456 on why I love Atom: He is still a kid. This makes sense since I love kids and anything to do with kids, so obviously I would marry a guy who still is a kid. Here a few stories to illustrate:

We desperately needed to go grocery shopping, so one morning we headed to the store. Atom was hungry and when he spotted a huge bag of popcorn (like the one below) he grabbed it, opened it and started to eat it, to my dismay. Who seriously can eat THAT much popcorn??! Right as we were going to check out, Atom declares that he "doesn't think he actually wants the popcorn...it just looked good at the time". I wish I could have documented how large this bag really was but...it was stolen with the car.



Adam also picked up a water rocket in the toy aisle. This is what he looked like later that evening.




The next story starts when Adam's office wins a trip to Dave and Buster's, which if you haven't been, is basically a grown up Chuck E Cheese. After winning a bunch of tickets (thanks to me hitting the jackpot TWICE on this one game), Atom went to redeem our tickets. (Now mind you, the rest of the guys donated their tickets to get baby Bria a huge Care Bear.) Adam decided to get a giant pen and a kazoo. He was highly disappointed when he didn't have enough to get me a kazoo too, so we could hum songs together. Luckily, Kristeen was nice enough to donate the rest of her tickets to him so we could get me a kazoo as well.



Lastly, my favorite story! One morning, I woke up at 7am and Adam wasn't in bed. I thought maybe he was in the bathroom, so I rolled back over until I woke up again at 7:20. When Adam still wasn't there, I began to wonder. He's not much of a morning person, so this was unusual. I go out into the living room, expecting to find him out there, thinking maybe he just couldn't sleep. But alas, no Atom! Next I looked in our spare bathroom. The door is closed and there aren't any lights on. I find this:




Adam has pulled the mattress in from the extra room and is asleep on the bathroom floor. Now at first I feel bad, thinking he was sick all night long and didn't want to wake me up. I ask him if he's okay and he tells me in a groggy voice "it's too bright in our room". He woke up extra early in the morning, and couldn't fall back asleep because it was apparently too bright for him. So in his delusional state, he grabbed the mattress and went into the darkest place he could find...the bathroom! I spent the next hour with my face against the bathroom cabinets! At least it wasn't the toilet...

I'm definitely looking forward to many many years with lots and lots of laughs!

Aspiring to Inspire

I created these two inspiration boards with a certain someone in mind (who shall remain nameless for the time being). The event will probably be in November. These were two color options she had thought of and what better way to decide between the two than viewing the ever so awesome inspiration boards. The top left dress in each of the boards will most likely be the bridesmaid dresses. I applaud all brides who give their friends a dress they can actually WEAR again! I love both of the boards but I am definitely drawn to one (and so is Adam) but we'll see which one she prefers!!

The first board would be the dark turquoise color and varying shades of deeper blue, a very deep red and cream. No white, to avoid the patriotic look. I think the bottom middle picture displays exactly what I envision the mood and feel to be. Very romantic.

The second board is the same dark turquoise, gray and a little bit of orange, inspired by my previous posting. I am loving gray these days, although it is nearly impossible to find any pictures, especially of weddings in gray.

This brings me to my next thought. I switch between spellings for the color grey/gray.

Updates and Side Notes

***UPDATED UPDATE*** We got fingerprinted this morning so they could compare prints. I don't think the officer had actually ever done this before, since this process took ONE hour to complete. We also had to pay $15 to "release the vehicle", which even the officer couldn't understand and then a whopping $305 to the tow company. I can't wait to turn in those receipts to the insurance agents. When our car was turned on for the first time, we heard the sweet sweet sounds of hard core gangster rap...VERY loud gangster rap, mind you. The criminal left us another gift...a CD. We proceeded to take the CD back to the police station for further finger print evidence.

*ON A SIDE NOTE* This is completely unrelated BUT in all the random wedding picture searching I've been doing lately online, I have discovered something. I refuse to look at any wedding photos if I think the bride's dress is ugly. Shallow maybe, but really, you can tell a lot about how the wedding will turn out just by her dress. And believe me when I say, I have seen some UGLY dresses.

Grand Theft Auto

Being a first hand observer, Brye felt I should describe the details that transpired on Friday. As I walked out of a home, the joy one usually feels as he leaves a sale was overcome by the shock one feels as he realizes his car just got stolen, (actually his wife’s car.) Yep, stolen. Glass all over the road, rock layin in the glass, stolen. Two of the neighbors saw it happen, but of course, no one called the cops or even yelled at the guy. One neighbor was nice enough to inform me of the exact time the break-in happened because she, “saw the guy smash my car window in just as her stories were ending.” Thanks grandma. This picture was taken by my tech right before another silent observer casually walked over, grabbed his rock, and lovingly placed it back in its designated spot in his yard. So I spent the rest of the day bumming rides from customers, haha. I actually was able to capitalize on my misfortune by sharing my sad story with customers and having them take me to their family members in the area. That got me 4 more sales, which is probably more money than the insurances companies would pay us anyway, (not that the Malibu/Classic isn’t an exquisite vehicle of luxury.) So there you have it, some brotha is pimpin' the hoods of St. Louis in his brand new previously owned Malibu with a missing drivers side window. Treat her wit love.



**UPDATE** We received a phone call late in the evening on Saturday, just as we were about to leave for dinner. Officer Buckley located the car 5 blocks west of where it was stolen. We are not exactly sure about the condition of the car, but it had been abandoned and the GPS and iPod were missing. However, the thief did leave his calling card, a plastic toy snake. We are going on Monday morning to be fingerprinted so they can run the perps prints and see how my darling Classic is doing.

The Need To Create...

I don't know what it is, if it's being school-less and job-less for the first time in years and years, or being married, or being in St. Louis, or what it is, but I feel the need to create things all the time. Now I left my sewing machine and my surger back in Provo and am really regretting it. I also don't have a car during the day so I can't go out and get stuff to create as often as I want. Which brings me to my new ridiculous hobby.

Inspiration boards. Now if you've never looked around at some of the big wedding blogs you have no idea what I'm talking about. I personally love some of the boards at StyleMePretty's site. Basically, the idea of the boards is for brides to gain inspiration not only for colors and ideas but also for the general feel of their wedding. This has become my morning fun. While Adam reads his book, I scour through pictures trying to find just what I'm looking for.

StyleMePretty recently had a contest to find a picture, any picture, and then use it for your inspiration for either the colors, the style or the overall feel. Then you were to gather images for a wedding that would help create what you were going for. Well unfortunately the contest was already in the voting process by the time I read about it, but I decided I really wanted to create one for fun anyway. As much stress as planning my wedding was, I loved it! And I guess this is me reliving that time and feeling like I'm creating something in my mind. To see more professional ones, you can click the link above. The picture I chose to inspire me is the picture of the oranges in the basket next to the gray cement. I thought these colors were pretty unique together and I wanted to add a little cream to them to soften them up a bit. Yep, this is my life these days...

Music Friends

So this video is mainly for my music friends, which basically in the blogging world means Stina, Morgan and Angie & Mark. Adam and I have been loving this song...and it won't get out of our heads. I thought I would post the video. If I were going to MusikFest, this would be my choice.

Artist: Neon Neon
Title: I Lust You

The Wives Club

While Adam is out selling, I am left here at the apartment car-less and husbandless for the rest of the day. So how do I occupy myself so I do not go completely insane? The Wives Club! Luckily, there are 6 other awesome wives (and 1 way cute baby)! We have started several traditions over the past month which we love. Every Friday we all go to lunch. Last Friday we went to a little Mexican restaurant, which sadly wasn't very good. When Rachel asked for some ranch for her taco salad, they gave her this Costco size bottle of Hidden Valley. We swore they just ran to the grocery store next door to get it for her!
I have also really gotten into crafting. One Friday after lunch, we went walking around St. Charles and walked into a store with lots of fun stuff in it. We all saw this calendar/organizer center and decided we could all use one of those, but not for the price! So I went to the craft store and decided to make my own. Since then, the wives have been calendar center making machines and we have all made a few for gifts. Here are a few I've made:
After perusing Martha Stewart's website, I stumbled upon this really cute idea for a baby gift. Since I'm only around one baby out here, and she is the cutest baby around anyway, I gave the blocks to Bria! I'm sure I will be making more in the future!

In addition to the above mentioned activities, the most popular and most frequent Wives Club activity includes sitting at the pool and being the weird chicks who play cards or dice EVERY DAY! We love Nertz, Rummy, Hearts and Dice! I have so much fun with these girls and I'm so thankful that they are out here! Really, I don't know what I'd do without them. And I think Adam appreciates them keeping me company as well. Yay for Wives Club!

Okay...Last One

This is the glass in the floor of our bungalow. We saw all kinds of fish swimming below us...
And Adam!

Ahhh so beautiful. Sooo expensive. And so worth it.

To Make You More Jealous...

Getting ready to eat the most yummy dinner! I was honestly worried about the quality of the food that we were going to be eating before we got there. However, I had NOTHING to worry about. Each dinner was a 3 course meal and was so delicious. I had the best dessert of my whole life...and anyone who knows me understands how much I LOVE dessert!
Adam and I were guest stars of the show. We got to go up and dance at the restaraunt.
Yes, these are real flowers.


This is actually a pineapple field. They go on for miles on Moorea. Our guide picked a pineapple right out of the field and fed it to us. It was one of the best pineapples I've ever had!

Honeymoon!

Well we flew out of LA straight to Tahiti. It was an 8 1/2 hour flight, but luckily we all had our own TV's where we could watch movies and play games so we were entertained! We stayed the first night in Tahiti. The first picture above is a view from our room in Tahiti and the next is the inside. We then hopped on a little puddlejumper over to Moorea! Our bungalow was so perfect. We had a big porch off the back, and then some stairs down to a tanning deck where you could jump off into the water. The island was beautiful! It was so lush and green and it totally reminded us of Lost. Enough that we decided we couldn't go any longer without watching Lost. So we purchased internet (for a very hefty price), and tried to download Lost on their s l o w internet!