Happy Third of July! (7-2)

Greg decided that it was a good idea to go patriotic at work today.

Talk about a good use of a kick ascot!

happy birthday america!

Nothing says "Happy Birthday America" better than Greg dressed up as Uncle Sam.

We celebrated our 4th by living large and in-charge. And for the record - Greg scored some chicken from my Uncle that he cannot stop talking about. For reals. Talk about finger-lickin' good. Scott - if you still have some in your cooler - Greg will eat it - cold. Last night he made mac'n'cheese and ate the cold chicken (disgusting) but whatever. For the most part he is so supportive of my no flour no sugar thing that if he wants to binge himself on some chicken . .  be my guest. What did I have for dinner last night? Popcorn. And it was delicious.

Also on the 4th - Henry enjoyed himself some park time -

and experienced his dad shoulders for the first time - and it was a hit -

(alright so maybe these two things didn't happen on the 4th - but close enough - as the family historian - I get to re-write history as I see fit and convenient with my blog postings).

And we didn't see any fireworks - we decided to not introduce that element of awesome-ness to Henry yet - simply because he freaks out at the popcorn popper - we're taking things slow.

nothing says Valentine's Day like . . .

some violence, vegan food, and a kitchen aid attachment part (I ran out of V words).

Do we know how to celebrate Valentine's day or what? Rosscat also bought me these - which are quite pretty and smell delicious-o (the flowers that is, the plastic hearts don't smell and aren't that pretty):

El Pops also made a surprise guest appearance on Valentine's day by delivering some cupcakes. It was a little random to see my dad at my work - but also a pretty fantastic-o surprise. 

After work we celebrated by going to our new gym and then heading on over to Springville for a healthy meal at Ginger's Cafe. This was then followed up by watching "The Bachelor" (don't judge). Greg and I agree - we feel like we got kicked in the gut when Brad sent home you know who (I don't want to spoil it). Awesome.

But . . . lest this post give you the wrong impression, in a moment of full disclosure I will tell you this - Rosscat and I did have our special occasion argument over the weekend - which was actually quite nice. We were able to celebrate Valentine's day drama free.

alooooooooohhhhhaaaa!

So we went to Hawaii. It was fun. Actually that is an understatement - it was fabulous. I say that everyone should do that for Thanksgiving - just go to Hawaii. You won't regret it. You won't. So here is a brief rundown of it all:

1) The beaches were fabulous - we happened upon this beach that was totally deserted (maybe because it was in a sketchy area of town)- nevertheless it was bea-u-tiful.
2) I protected my money maker pretty much everyday by wearing this $10 hat from wal-mart. Sure, maybe I looked like some sort of bee-keeper. . .  but no wrinkles.
3)Greg - looking ridiculous at the Dole Plantation
4) Just pretty stuff.
5) Speaking of the Dole Plantation - Shave Ice nothing - the Dole Pineapple Whip is where it is at - so maybe we ate it three times. Don't judge. We were on vacation.
6) The Luau at the PCC. I took this picture simply to document that there was a total white guy amongst a bunch of Polynesians in the show.
7) This was our hotel. Just kidding. But close.
8) Shrimp from one of the famous shrimp trucks. I tasted it for like 3 days after - gross.
9) and 10) - the Laie Hawaii temple was dedicated while we were there - thus we got to do a session - it was pretty freaking fabulous
11) Greg wanted to wear his aloha lei to church but I made him take them off - it just didn't go with the Mr. Rogers sweater.
12) And a shout out to Emily and Dan  for a delicious Thanksgiving feast. Emily made 9 pies for 6 adults - NINE! And homemade rolls - we'll be coming back next year.

you're my only hope!

Today, for work, I am professional Princess Leia. Very professional.

Thanks to youtube - I learned how to do her hair in no time flat. Sure, I feel stupid walking around campus - but it's the spirit of the thing. Isn't it?

2 steps back and 1 step forward

I swear it is taking us FOREVER to put up any sort of Halloween decorations. Forever. I think it is because I almost always bite off more than I can chew. I have these grand visions of some Martha Stewart-esque type of situation and really it's not happening . . . it's going to be Christmas and I'll still be working on Halloween. But I'm trying.

My goal is to have this hanging up in the front window by the end of tonight. It's going to freak little kids out . . . here's hoping.

And yes - I had one of my April's cut out the witch (cutting is not my forte) - but I did sew it on to the muslin. Kind of.

Any Staker's reading this - how about a Halloween party on Thursday, October 28th - would that be too crazy? I haven't given up . . . yet.

Where's the Soob when we need her?

After attending the Fairview demolition derby, KT and I wished we had kept the Subaru a little longer to see how she could do. That car was the best. Just imagine it with welded doors, no muffler or glass and some paint. These American cars wouldn't be able to stand up to that superior Japanese steel. It leaked a little oil, but from what I saw of these cars, leaking fluids is a bonus. It just shows you are tough - and you are making your territory. This was one of the funnest things we did all summer.




The soob would have totally beat out XXX which went on to win the derby and almost won the wipe out at the end where they just keep going until only one car is still running. One word: Awesome.

So who's down for next year's derby? July 24th weekend 2011 - 5K run, parade, and derby. Who knows, we may even make it into a Carlklef Tri.

More pics to come . . .

derby or bust

In honor of Pioneer Day we did something very pioneer-esque . . . we attended the demolition derby. Let me just say there is fantastic people watching and car crashing watching at the exact same time. It was a major success. Greg was overwhelmed with demolition derby awesome-ness (this was his first time ever) - he was so overwhelmed with it he took approximately 400 pictures of the event. Unfortunately, I will not be able to post even one of those 400 pictures . . . yet. In the meantime - here we are enjoying it all courtesy of a picture taken by my pop's iphone.

Pay no attention to how tired I look - after all this past weekend we also did the Carlklef Triathlon - Olympic distance baby (sprint for greg - woose pants). Sure, my time was less than Olympian - but I finished . . . and managed to make it to my hair cut appointment too.

thanksgiving wrap-up

1) We had a great Thanksgiving eating out at Magleby's. No big preparation - no big clean-up and no leftovers (which is good because otherwise you just eat all that stuff over and over and over and over).

2) We went and saw "The Blind Side" - a movie that I thought was quite good. I didn't have high hopes and yet I walked out loving it.


3) Probably the highlight of the weekend was the first annual Carlklef Turkey Triathlon. Sure it was just me and Greg but we hope to have more recruits for next year. Maybe if we make t-shirts. For good measure, however, Greg and I both plastered "numbers" on our arms - to make us look official - 001 and 002.


4) Our biggest success, however, is the fact that our Christmas cards are in. the. mail. Score one for us. Sure, our timeline probably resulted in us slacking on the quality of the awesomeness but cest la vie.

shocktober

It seems like it was just barely Shocktober 08. Oh man - time is a flying. I thought you should know what movies we have watched (or plan to) during the Halloween season.

First off : "The Haunting of Hill House" old school version. This movie took us approximately two weeks to watch. We kept falling asleep during it . . . but it was scary. So scary that last night when we finally finished it I went to go read in the bedroom and the light flickered on and off. It freaked me out.

Here's a picture from the "classic":

Next up: Frankenstein. Well probably not - but we are trying to be traditional this year so we're thinking about it. But in all likelihood Shocktober is so blasted busy I'll be happy if we keep up with "glee."

Our Nation's Birthday

Here is a pictorial recap of this past weekend. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of painting for hours on end or stuffing our faces with awesome food - or even watching one of the fireworks shows we attended, but this will have to do.
First off, we went to see Real Salt Lake play on Friday night. The game turned out to be pretty exciting, only without all that scoring stuff. KT brought a bar book to study, but didn't end up cracking it. Good thing her husband was willing to carry it to and from the stadium for her. I don't think I've ever seen so many yellow cards - but that's what the holidays and soccer are all about.
Luckily, San Jose scored on themselves in stoppage time to give RSL a tie.


After the game was a fireworks extravaganza, and opening that up was none ofter than American Idol's David Osmond, with his JHS back-up dancers. The picture doesn't really do it justice. These ladies were selling it with their dancing and ribbons. It was just a one song set until the "main" act got on what passes for a stage in the middle of the field (seriously, is that the smallest stage ever? When I saw Tiffany at Fashion Place mall circa 1987 she had a bigger stage). A local artist named Macario came on and did a few song that sounded horrible. It would have been better had he lip-synced the set. They played a clip of his recorded music after he finished which left me wondering why the actual show didn't sound like that. The backup dancers were luckily still there for him too. I think the ribbon twirling was KT's favorite part of the entire night.

Next up was the Murray 4th parade. We watched a little of it from the street before heading into the Village Inn for breakfast. I have been looking for an excuse to wear this hat for quite a while. Good thing there was a parade. Next year, I'm pulling out the full Uncle Sam costume.

Now it is back to painting . . . .

weekend update

So with a three-day weekend we decided to get some work done (combined with bar studying). Well we grossly underestimated how long and how much paint our small project would take. For example, we bought this five-gallon bucket of paint planning on using it for a bunch of rooms. Well, this weekend we painted the bathroom and the closet and used about four of the five gallons from this paint bucket for the two minuscule rooms. Sure, I'd like to say that our bathroom and closet is 800 square feet - but um it's not. By the end of it all (nine hours later) - we were both covered in paint - hair, elbows, forearms, legs, and face. I'm still washing it off and I'm positive we're going to look at our work today and find that it needs significant touch ups. On the bright side - at least we don't have any paint regrets -it's just white.

Christmas Letter - Just In Case You Missed It

With economists proclaiming that we haven’t seen these numbers since 1985, we thought this Christmas season would be an appropriate time to recall what we were doing in 1985. (Of course, I was only two years old at the time – but for the sake of the Christmas card – I’ll age myself to be as old as Greg).

In 1985, we both lived with our parents. We are currently reveling in those simpler times by recreating them. With job changes has come a change of location – back to the land of milk and honey. We have sold our Chicago loft that we loved and look forward to finding a new place to love – but for right now – we’ll continue to eat home-cooked meals made by mom and complain about our curfew.

In 1985, we loved school. Our biggest concerns were who we would play hopscotch with on the playground and whether seven really did eat nine. Keeping with the theme . . . we find ourselves back in school but instead of being the students we’re the ones doing the teaching. Because we both work at BYU are biggest concerns now are where to sit for our romantic lunch dates at the Cougareat and what happened to the once promising football season.

In 1985, the Nintendo was first introduced. In an attempt to win friends and influence people – we purchased a Wii. We are consistently disappointed when we go bowling for real (once a year) and find that our Wii scores of 200 translate into bowling a game of about 96. Maybe the only real difference between then and now is that now, when Greg wants a new Wii game, I give in; after all he is living with his in-laws.

In 1985, whenever we would forget our lunch money or the field trip permission slip our Moms would save the day. Unfortunately, things have changed. With all these recent changes we have found ourselves leaving our lunch on the counter too many times to count and even forgetting to put our names on the Christmas card. See exhibit.

With all these changes we have been quietly and consistently reminded that it is not the money in our bank account nor the trips or toys purchased – what matters is the love we have for each other, our families, and you.

Merry Christmas!

Kris Tina and Greg

from our house to yours . . .

Ross had to dress festively for work the other day. In a panic we borrowed this sweater from el pops. I thought I would share the result. If this doesn't warm your heart I don't know what will.

On a sidenote this weekend we did all Christmas all the time - including getting our Christmas cards mailed, baked some stuff, watched the ladies in their Christmas dance concert, and met up with friends. Awesome.

P.S. Take our slumdog millionaire recommendation with a grain of salt - we had no idea it was given the "r" blacklist - when we found out we were shocked. I guess that just tells you we are jaded - or else the ratings people are ridiculous.

the turkey made the turkey

We had a great Thanksgiving (but honestly, who is really going to post and say, "Our Thanksgiving was horrible"?). We went to St. George and partied it up at Club Carlston. Finally a real vacation - we slept in and chillaxed to the limit - watched some movies, went hiking, rode our bikes around town, and broke down and purchased Guitar Hero - or Rock Band. Whatever - they are the same to me. As part of our payment to stay at Club Carlston we agreed to make the Turkey - and by we, I mean Ross (although I really was the sous chef - I chopped some onions and poured on the spices). It turned out splendidly. Ross was very, very proud of his creation and found an excuse to put the leftover turkey on just about everything . . . until Saturday when he broke down and admitted that he needed to eat something different. I think it must have been the turkey on cereal that made him realize he had gone too far.

A "Religious" Day Off

I have to admit that with the 24th of July rapidly approaching (tomorrow, in fact) we are tempted to take a "religious holiday." Sure, there really is absolutely nothing religious in a good ol' fashioned "Pioneer Day" Celebration but if others get to take off Yom Kippur or Good Friday - why shouldn't we (as righteous Mormons) celebrate Brigham Young declaring that "This is the Place."

My 24th of July memories are filled with running in the Fairview Fun Run (my extended family takes it very seriously, watching the parade with a thousand beautiful crepe paper floats that are decorated with slogans such as "Faith in Every Footstep" or "Utah, A Pretty Great State" or "The Beehive State" (with hundreds of children sweating to death in bee costumes), the Fairview parade with a thousand queens (Miss Lamb's Day, Miss Dairy, Miss Turkey Farm), a bbq with my Grandma's potato salad (there isn't a better potato salad there just isn't), followed by a trip to Fairview's demolition derby with a firework display that is less than spectacular but something we can make fun of for the rest of the year. You know the more I think of it - it looks like tomorrow we'll be calling in sick . . . I wish.

Nixon Loved Mother Earth

Richard Nixon died 14 years ago today. Some might choke on their granola to hear this, but I believe it is appropriate that this year Earth Day coincides with Nixon RIP Day. Whatever you may think of Nixon, he did some surprisingly liberal things like create the Environmental Protection Agency. He was also responsible for lowering the speed limit to 55 to conserve gasoline (which then lead to a Sammy Hagar song which isn't a proud legacy). Hey, what about the Clean Air Act, you might ask? Signed by Nixon. Nixon' creation of the EPA helped back up the spirit of Earth Day.

So on this Earth Day in 2008, let us just take a small moment of our day and give thanks to the president that made it all happen. Rest in Peace President Nixon.

Click Here for more Nixon info

Also, for this post I changed from my normal Arial typeface to use Trebuchet. Just changing it up.

Happy St. Paddy's Day

In Chicago, everyone's Irish today, but I can lay claim to some actual Irish blood from the Ryan side of my mom's family. So in honor, I would like to share this wonderful Muppet video with everyone . . .



Also - a Happy Birthday shout-out to Victor Kade - aka Lucky the Georgia Peach today and to Charla who will celebrate tomorrow. Hope you have great b-days!

Happy V-day!

Ross came clean last night to tell me what exactly our Valentine's date would entail. Before I talk about it - keep in mind that really it wouldn't take much for Ross to overcome the V-day massacre of 07. I mean, let's face it, really all he had to do was something better than a footrub and I'd be happy. Anyway - tonight we are going to go to a taping of our favorite thing to listen to on the radio . . . not a concert - the npr news quiz "wait wait don't tell me." I mean, let's face it, this combines two of our favorite things news (for Ross) and trivia games (for me) - with a little bit of pop culture thrown in (also for me). Oh and he also got some tickets to a Mike Doughty concert to go to in March - his thoughts were the following: something to do on V-day, something to do later - and then he also said he has something else but that I am not to expect flowers (good, because flowers just die) but I wouldn't be sorry if that something else was a beautiful J.Lo diamond (you know the kind I am talking about) or a beautiful edible arrangment. Today I am giving him something awesome - it finally arrived in the mail - well actually, it isn't that awesome but it is totally practical and he totally needs them - even if he doesn't know it.

The Valentine's Day Massacre of 07

We (well, alright just me) refer to last year's Valentine's Day as the Valentine's Day Massacre of 07. Neither of us have ever been a huge fan of V-day so last year we decided to just do something very small. At least I thought that was the plan. Greg interpreted "something small" as meaning "nothing at all." Leading up to V-day he assured me that he did have some plans and that I wasn't too worry. I trusted him. Well, he did have something planned. That something? To give me a footrub. Whoa. Not awesome. He really is such a good husband but I have to admit . . . I was less than impressed. Because of this "massacre," leading up to this year's V-day I have been forced to have a lot of long talks with Ross to try and coach him about what makes a good V-day. It looks like these long talks are slowly sinking in. I came home from work tonight to find this "invitation" on the kitchen table. I don't know what he has planned for V-day but already this poster was much more effort than the "footrub."

*Don't worry I am not leaving it all up to Ross - I am doing Valentine's week or "the week of love" (I know that title kind of makes me throw up in my mouth a little but it is funny). So far - a new tie for Sunday and tonight - some "Aquaphor" for his dry lips. That's right - I am going all out.