true confessions (6-11)

After this weekend I feel as if I am a complete and total failure when it comes to "The Story of Stuff." Have I mentioned how a couple of months ago I did something somewhat wasteful (I can't remember exactly what it was - I think it was I turned on the shower to warm it up before getting in or something) and Greg said, "Oh Kitty, it's like you never even read 'The Story of Stuff'"? Well he did - and it almost made me cry.

But this weekend I just failed. Completely. For example:

1) I went to Target and didn't even bother to bring in my recyclable bags (FAIL!)
2) I was at Target because our air pop popcorn maker had died and I HAD to replace it. That. Night. Forced obsolescence. So look at us just replacing electronics without repairing them. (FAIL!)
3) Our compost container for the kitchen got gross. Really gross. So we tossed it. Thus, without a compost container I've been throwing out food left and right. (FAIL!)
4) It's hot and we've been running the air conditioner like it's going out of style. As I sit and type this post I have a fan blowing a delightful breeze into my face - we are just using electricity in our non-solar house like it was free. (FAIL!)
5) Finally, Greg came back from his conference with this plastic piece of crap. I seriously must be old school but I cannot believe that there is a need for these things. I just can't believe it (even though my April's tell me that they are normal and handy - they aren't - they are just being made at what cost? At what cost?!? ) Really, it's gross to have your phone on the carpet? Or on the nightstand? Dumb.

Excuse me while I get back to my decadent and extravagant air-conditioner free wheeling lifestyle. Oy vey.

just running our face off (6-6)

So we ran a race this past weekend - the AF Half and let me tell you - this is a race that I would do again and again and again. It was BEA-U-TIFUL. My goal for this race was to run it in under 2 hours, my goal for Greg in this race was to have him have so much fun that at the finish line he would say, "Oh yeah, I would do that again." So . . . drumroll please . . . success on both. YAY!

I've learned that I really can enjoy a half marathon when you train for it. (I haven't trained for a half in a long, long time but I've run several half's untrained and those just plain bite).

Anyway - here we are just enjoying our medals:

And really - I don't think we would have run this as fast as we did without my coach (who told us what to do every week) and to this lady:

She sacrificed, what I'm sure would have been a PR course for her, to run with us - and really it was pretty much fantastic. She also talked me through the last mile when I was ready to just give up. But whatever - I'll take that 1:54:55 finishing time, thank you very much. YAY! One of my next goals is to (eventually) become fast enough that I can help pace Amy (kind of a pipe dream right now - but it could happen!)

Henry was kind of amazed that we were just that fast. (I was too).

More Teacher's Dirty Looks (5-13)

So this month - was it really this month? Everything is jumbling together - after a lot of hand wringing, praying, and A LOT of hard work (seriously, that GMAT test after not taking any standardized tests for *cough* a few years is ROOOOOOUGH) Greg got word that he was accepted to BYU's MBA program. HOLLA! Since that was the only program he applied to (we were going for broke) we were really more than thrilled. Over the moon might be a better description.

After a lot of thought - he's going to do their eMBA program. And Henry and I are going to live up all our opportunities to spend time together without Greg. Actually, I might go a little crazy and be a lot jealous of all of this. You know, I love me some learnin'.  But really - we couldn't be happier about it. Another perk - our BY employment means that tuition is free. Free. FREE. We feel pretty blessed.

Blogger's Block (5-9)

I've got a bad case of the blogger block. You know, not really writer's block (because really, I wouldn't consider all this posting "writing") but instead blogging block. Blogging block where I just don't know what to say and it seems like my excuse is always - "we're just busy but the second __fill in the blank__ is over I'll have plenty of time to document all the awesomeness and not awesomeness that is happening around here." Crap.

BUT - the good news is - there was a 15% off coupon so I just printed off the 2011 and 2012 editions of Carlklef Chronicles (for sale on amazon soon!) and I was reminded of how important this little family history stuff is. I loved looking through the posts and seeing even a lot of the mundane stuff  - because, although Shelby clearly states, "I'd rather have 30 minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special" I think that is bunk - and let's all agree that her short haircut was NOT attractive. Anyway. I think the Carlklef's life is a lot of "nothing special" that adds up to a lot of wonderful. Kind of sappy - but definitely true.

So I thought I'd post a picture of a nothing special - but really sweet thing.

Here is me and my boyfriend just stuffing our faces with popcorn. He is, obviously, my child. He loves popcorn and raisins which are two of my four food groups. He's not allowed any diet dr. pepper but I'm sure he'd love that too.

We're back . . . and we're not wearing fedora's (4-5)

I think we can all agree that this is a perfect example of when someone just can't pull off a fedora. Sorry BYU quarterback Riley Nelson - but it doesn't work.

The good news is that after seeing this picture Greg has agreed that his fedora (which he purchased after watching several episodes of Mad Men) now belongs in Henry's dress-up bin. Finally!

A couple of notable things have happened the past few weeks:

1) My big conference is over (hallelujah! holla! sweet praises of joy!)
2) Henry finally popped a couple of huge molars in the back of his mouth which means we have a "happier" baby on our hands.
3) We've started a running program (we even have a running Coach! It's pretty awesome)
4) We signed up for a CSA
5) We are dying for spring (really this just means - our lawn needs a good solid haircut)

It's finals and my conference got over just in time to now grade my face off. But I'll take it.

pinterest challenge (2-10)

A blog I follow is doing a pinterest challenge and since I switched from a droid to an iphone I find myself on pinterest - a lot. I'm great (well, decent) about actually trying a lot of the recipes that I pin but I'm not that great at doing most of the other boards. So although I'm a little late to the party - I thought I would challenge myself to do 6 things in the next 6 weeks picked from my pinterest boards. Here's my plan:

1. Clean Mud - Henry loves to put his hands in stuff - at least this is one time I actually will want him to put his hand in something.

2. Broccoli recipe - because - hey - I need to eat more greens.

3. We need some caulking around the tub - why not use a tip about how to do it right?

4. I'm making Henry a cute onesie with a freezer stencil - because everyone is doing it.

5. Some flat ab exercise of some sort. I won't hold my breath - but I'm going to test it out.

6. It's going to be spring (I hope - I pray) - so why not clean the blinds? It's going to happen (because it has to happen).

I'm sure the excitement is palpable. Even better - I'll post about how it goes - each week. After all - I have to come up with blog material. This 13 posts a month is hard. Especially when it is a short month - I'm looking at you February.

this is how you know . . . .

that your maxi skirt is too long.

what blog?

I kind of don't know where August went or is going but I do know this - we are out of money on our grocery budget for the month and we still have 4 or 5 days. We need to either re-evaluate how much we budget for the month or we need to stop eating as much. Who wants to invite us over for dinner?

In the meantime . . .

Toddcat captured this sweet image in the airport:

Yes, that is a person with a Jerry Springer t-shirt on and a foxtail. At the airport. I think it is Sugar Bear's brother. (Yes, I'm watching Honey Boo Boo and I'm not ashamed to admit it - I can't believe they got rid of Glitzy!)

In honor of school starting - I decided to buy myself some new shoes. I don't want to spoil it . . . which ones should I have purchased? I'm kind of thinking I made the wrong choice.

(Please ignore the cankles)

And finally -what's a blog post without a picture of Henry? (the answer . . . a crappy blog post). So here he is . . .  Henry LOVES to go on walks. LOVES it.

I like to think that the caption for this picture is - "Hey, Macy - check out my sweet wheels."

Fall semester started yesterday. Heaven help me - but most importantly heaven help all the students who showed up to class with One-Eff Haircuts.

July faves and un-faves

July faves:
1) The Olympics - how I love them. I love watching people push themselves and push their bodies to beyond "normal." I love them so much that I am even letting Henry watch them on television. It's motivating, inspiring, and heartbreaking. So fun.
2) Greg's birthday week. I pulled out all the stops. Intense stuff. But it turned out great. His favorite gifts? Going to go see Batman and me buying him some garlic bread so that he could make himself a Greg-wich. Apparently, it really is the little things.
3) The 24th of July. It's ridiculous and fun at the same time.
4) The July Book of Mormon challenge. Greg and I read the Book of Mormon - from start to finish during the month of July. It turned out awesome. Maybe we'll do this every July.
5) Having Henry "cry it out." Oh goodness - sleep has been awesome ever since. Best advice ever. (But let's face it, we kind of won the sleep lottery with him).

July un-faves
1) I don't really care about the whole Twilight "cheat" scandal. I don't. So stop acting like its news.
2) It's summer and I'm tired of cooking. Is anyone looking for a job to come and be my personal chef so that I can continue with my no flour and no sugar goal? Anyone?
3) Mosquitoes and flies. (I don't think I need to explain this)
4) EFY - I explain EFY to Toddcat as "Christian youth summer camp" and oh goodness - I'm bombarded with it everyday at work. And let me tell you - a lot of those teenagers don't smell so great - especially in the afternoon when they are traipsing past my office.
5) Olympic spoilers - thanks time delay, thanks.

the good, the bad, and the ugly

Really, after last weekend, this post just kind of focuses on the bad and the ugly. As much as I don't want to admit that any of these things happened - they did - and as the family historian I have to remember that everything isn't always gumdrops and rainbows. So here goes:

We came home on Friday to discover that someone (who shall remain nameless - but it was me) failed to shut the freezer door tight when we left for work on Friday morning. FAIL. This may not sound like a big deal to you but for me . . . there is gold in that freezer. GOLD.

Pumped milk gold.

After closer investigation we think that all the milk survived with very little damage. But oh - not good. Not good at all. I've worked too hard to lose all that milk.

That same night, Henry was helping me cook some butternut squash . . . and well one thing led to another and his chubby little leg got burned on the cooking tray. This is a serious mother FAIL.

But don't worry he is recovering in fine form. In fact, to him, it's like it never even happened.

And the final FAIL for the weekend? Last night I was chopping up some lettuce and decided that it would be convenient and appropriate to also chop up some of my finger.

After about 1.5 hours of it bleeding and not stopping I finally decided that maybe I should go to instacare. Awesome.

I am positive that this week is going to get better. I'm sure of it.

where did June go?

What the what? This month is over. Over. OVER. Kaput. And I have one measly post. Greg is going to fire me as the family historian. He probably should.

So here is the June "cliff notes" version of the goings on.

We went to DC (I had a conference and Greg and Henry came along for the ride). We saw some sights:

Henry loved being hauled around in the Becco Carrier (a shout out to Catherine for letting us borrow it). And let's face it, I loved hauling him around in it - I now have a testimony of baby carriers. I love them.

But Beyonce is smoking something if she thinks the Baby Bjorn is a good baby carrier - it's totally inferior. Totally.

While in DC, Greg and Henry checked out a lego exhibit:

You can't tell from this picture - but trust me - Henry was uber impressed with it. (Greg thinks his arms serve the same function as baby carriers - fool!).

We also got to hang out with this pretty lady/ former roommate. For the record - Henry loved her (even if his face says otherwise):

Lauren came to stay with us so that she could attend BYU French camp. It was awesome. We hope she will come again. This is a picture of her final night with us. We busted out all the stops and played Beatles Rock Band.

We  are still watching the Bachelorette (don't judge us unless you have watched it yourself). I really am rooting for one-eff Jef. I like him so much I tried to do Henry's hair like his (see Chris is in the background explaining how the "final rose" things go down - Thanks, Chris, thanks).

My reading has slowed down because I am so tired lately (this teething thing really makes uninterrupted sleep difficult). But don't worry I will still muster up my book review tomorrow.

What else? Oh I'm obsessed with eating popcorn lately. Obsessed. What can I say? I'm obviously, my father's daughter (and the whole no sugar no flour thing means that I have to find some sort of "snack-y" food - and looks like popcorn is my crack of choice.)

Coming next month? Greg's birthday! And the Olympics! Oh yeah, things are going to pick up on the Carlklef Chronicle. Fo'Schizzle. And maybe, just maybe, I'll post a picture NOT taken by my phone. Whoa.

*my mother LOVES spark notes (rather than cliff notes) ask her why she loves spark notes so much - because trust me it's an AWESOME story (and if she would let me tell the story on my blog I would) - but just ask her.

two truths and a lie

1) I attended a conference yesterday where I ended up "pumping" in the car. I was concerned about being cited for indecent exposure.

2) Due to my horrible cough/cold I drank eight (8! Ocho! VIII!) liters of water yesterday

3) Henry has two teeth . . . but continues to be pretty good at night.

Alright - these are all true - and just for good measure - here is Henry at his own personal Disneyland.

the"haps"

Taken from Penny on Happy Endings. . . Everyone totally loves my abbrev's.

Here is this week (so far) abbrev-ed:

one drumstick....courtesy of kfc

This one is choose your own caption . . . 

Henry goes to scouts or . . . it's manpris weather!

The ceiling fan rocks!

What can I say? I love my boys. But I don't love that messy garage - you hear me Danklef? You hear me?

the chronic

Someone (who shall remain nameless) posted on my facebook wall last night saying, "It's sad that the Carlklef Chronicles are no longer Chronicling." And to that I say - AMEN! It is sad. But doesn't it seem like a lot of people are no longer chronicling? Maybe that's just me - but really - I need to kick it up a notch. This is the only family history thing we've got going right now - and I need to capture the ridiculous and the mundane. I must.

Let's start with the awesome:

Henry's legs. Oh my goodness. If this picture doesn't make you want to just squeeze them - then you are a heartless, cruel person. Henry's sweet chubby thighs are everything that is right in the world wrapped up in a cinnamon roll.

His hair? Well, we don't really know what we are doing with it - but he has a HUGE bald spot in the back of his head so I say . . . let's keep it growing - because the Donald Trump comb-over look really is in right now.

As more proof that Henry really is just a plain angel baby - here is he being quiet (not necessarily reverent but at least quiet - at church):

And now for some news.

I volunteered Greg to take my co-worker's son's prom pictures this weekend. I really can't tell you how excited I am about this. I was almost hyperventilating at even the possibility of this happening. Because really - I LOVE this sort of stuff. I mean, this past weekend we almost went out to Payson (that's right Payson!) just so we could go to their beauty pageant. (Because we do love ourselves the completely ridiculous movie "drop dead gorgeous"). So awkward and uncomfortable and awesome - all at the same time. But prom pictures - oh it is practically a dream come true. We are going out this week to go and scout out locations. We take this non-paying job very seriously.

More chronicling to commence!

some random awesomeness

1) I have an email address that seems to collect junk. As part of my "spring cleaning" I'm trying to unsubscribe from all sorts of mailing lists. My favorite email list I just unsubscribed from is "Celine Dion's official store." Why I am on this mailing list? Who know's. But I thought twice about unsubscribing when I received this photo:

There's Celine, just having a great time. Don't worry - I unsubscribed.

2) The Carlklef Family failed to deck ourselves out on Easter Sunday. I had dreams of wearing a grand Easter hat and Henry and Rosscat wearing matching sweater vests and seersucker pants. But nope. It didn't happen. Next year - I'm going to be bringing my A game. Watch out Lakeside 14th ward. It's going to be a Carlklef Easter parade.

3) It's finals which means I have stacks of papers to grade. Awesome. It also means that I am getting excuses left and right. My favorite for this semester? "I fell asleep during the in-class test so can I still get credit for it if I do it at home?" Nope.

4) Since my last post (I know, it's been awhile) - we went to St. George. I'm guessing that Greg thought that St. George was very exotic - that is why all three days we were there he insisted on dressing like Jeff Probst from Survivor. Here's a side by side so you can see what I mean:

5) Henry had some shots:

but don't worry - he recovered in fine form:

6) And finally, just know that "love is in the air" here on campus. If only Rosscat would do this for me.

an ode to machines/electricity

It is still the month of love so I thought I would post about a few things that I love:

1) my vitamix. Oh goodness - how I love thee. I am still on my no sugar/no flour eating kick. It's going well, thank you very much. And thanks to THIS website (I pay for recipe access) I have made a lot of good recipes that call for some vitamix interference to make delicious. Worth every penny. If any of you need something grinded / blended in the vitamix - let me know - I'm happy to put this girl to work.

2) my pump. Going back to work has been and is a bit painful. But at least I can still provide Henry with my milk - thanks medela and thanks for an office that allows me to lock my door.

3) the television? Oh wait - we actually made the plunge (thanks to our dvr dying) and cut the cable cord this month. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. But so far so good - although let's face it we have a subscription for netflix and hulu plus so it's not like we don't watch tv - we just have to work harder to do it.

4) the ipad. Oh that blessed machine. It allows me to play (and lose) at scrabble, check facebook, and watch a movie all with just a few swipes.

5) my kindle. I've been trying to read up a storm and this thing helps. I now always have a book with me. Henry making cute noises? Great . . . but I need to finish this chapter.

so maybe it has been a bit of a boring month. Greg and I need to revisit our goal of living like we are on a reality tv show. Coming up next - why are we not getting a tax refund? Seriously? SERIOUSLY?

President's Day Weekend Wrap-Up

So we had a pretty eventful President's Day weekend. Henry finally got to meet Uncle Coco . . .  I think they liked each other:

Henry also got to try out some ridiculous chair that makes him think he is standing up (so of course he loved it).

He also had some great sleep - thanks, of course, to the woombie.

And Greg managed to find himself a cranberry velvet jacket that was pretty much a custom fit:

So all in all - I'd consider this three-day weekend a success.

skin care tips from one who knows

With the incredibly dry. Dry. DRY. winter we are having (especially this month) - a lot of people have asked me, "Kitty, what do you do to make your skin look so youthful and amazing everyday?"

Alright, so no one has asked me this. Not a single person. However, last week I was walking along on campus and a woman stopped me and said my name. I looked at her and had zero. zilch. nada recognition of her. Nothing. She told me her name and still - it's fuzzy - but apparently we were at USU together a bajillion years ago. From this occurrence I have come to the completely logical conclusion that the reason why she recognized me was simply because I look exactly like I did when I was 20. This can only be true due to my intense skin care regimen which is composed of the following:

I religiously wash my face morning and night.I bought this fancy power brush from Costco ($35 bucks). I love it. However, when I use it it sometimes freaks Greg out because it kind of looks like I'm shaving my face. Rest assured - I am not. I then use the homemade toner (found in the salad dressing bottle) composed of "Apple Cider Vinegar" (from the mother!) (apparently it's very important that it be "from the mother" I have no idea why but you can pick this up at Good Earth for about $2) and water (1:3). And at night - I moisturize by putting on some extra virgin olive oil. Sure, sometimes Greg gets confused and thinks that he is falling asleep next to a salad bar but that's a small price to pay for having a wife that looks so youthful. At least that is what I tell him.

And for good measure - here is a picture of my boyfriend. I love him. Even if he kind of looks like a prisoner in all these stripes:

ten things

I fear that it has happened. . . what I thought wouldn't happen . . . has happened. I don't really have anything else to talk about on this blog besides Henry. Crapola. Let me think. Alright - I think I have a few things:

1) We watched the movie, "The Debt" - with the exclusion of a few swears I must say - it was pretty good. Good enough that although I fell asleep while we were watching it - the next morning I finished it while on the treadmill.

2) I am continuing on my quest to read 52 books. This morning I just finished book #3.  And none of them have been golden books - so there you go. I found a couple of blogs that usually give pretty good book recommendations and then I always have voracious readers Lindy and Abby to help me out - so far so good.

3) I don't know if I will ever knit again. I blame Henry.

4) I am eating healthy. While Henry was in utero I used that as an excuse to pretty much eat anything and everything in sight - oreos anyone? Well, unfortunately, all of that eating didn't go just to the baby. Junk. So I've been cooking - which I think Greg loves - even if the meals aren't always his favorite. I'm taking the high road and I have cut out sugar and flour. It's only been 11 days - but um who is counting?

5) Trying to figure out permanent childcare in P-town is hard. hard. hard. Does anyone know of anyone that runs a day-care? Anyone? Anyone? It's not ideal but it will do - and any day I suspect that Ed McMahon will be walking up my sidewalk to tell me that I've won the Publisher's Clearing House sweepstakes. Any day. Oh wait - isn't Ed dead?

6) Lately, I've been losing all my scrabble games. I really need to focus.

7) You know how pregnancy/birth is supposed to thin your hair and stuff? At least someone told me that - well I have the exact opposite problem - I swear I am looking more and more like a chubby lion.

8) I ran (I use the term loosely) a 5k yesterday. The good news? My time can only get better.

9) I love watching reality tv lately. Oh goodness. Or in Rachel's words - white trash reality tv. Sure. I'll own up to it.

10) I have nothing more to say - but I wanted to end with ten things - so there you go.

And for good measure - here's a picture of my cute boyfriend. Sometimes I think he might love me - but then I realize that he is just using me for my milk.

This is Henry saying, "Hello Ladies"

a week recap . . .

Our world is still revolving around Henry - I'm sure that will change soon (yeah, right).
But a few other items to report:

1) I am going to read 52 books this year - book one finished - Ready Player One . . . and it was good.

2) I just finished organizing our spice cupboard. Organization - here I come. Or at least - this year I'm determined to not buy three things of vanilla extract (because I always think we are out) and two ginormous containers of garlic salt. Spices inventoried - so if anyone is looking for some random spice -feel free to give me a call - we probably have it and I can now finally find it. I'm hoping this organized cupboard will last longer than one week.

3) I'm drinking some diet dr. pepper right now - what are the odds that this is going to keep Henry up tonight? (Please say it will have no effect - please say no effect).

4) My nearest and dearest friends from forever ago came over to visit this week. Oh goodness - I don't know how I got so lucky to have them in my life. They are the kind of friends where you can talk about everything or nothing and always have a great time. They are the kind of friends where you can pick up right where you left off. They are the kind of friends that are just full of goodness.

4) Anna came over for a special Henry one on one visit. Oh goodness - it really doesn't get much cuter than this:

5) Oh - and Henry started to smile. Yay!