Nate & Lila

How I feel after work

2012-02-10T17:48:00.001-08:00

Not So Silent Night

2011-12-11T14:01:00.001-08:00

Obviously we love going to concerts so when we heard that

Young the Giant

Florence and the Machine (yes she moves like that onstage too)

and Mumford and Sons

were all playing on the same night, we got tickets. We are turning into concert junkies.

Jane's Addiction was supposed to be the headliner, but the drummer had family problems so they had to drop out. Guess who they got to replace them? GREEN DAY! Billy Joe got up and said "The people at Live 105 were thinking 'who could we get that lives 10 min. away?'"

Not a bad consolation prize.

Another surprise that night was Bush. 1998 me was kind of excited, but wondered if I would even know/remember many songs. They were great. I think there must be something to be said for a band that has been doing it as long as they have. They have really good showmanship. Gavin Rossdale (swoon) came out into the crowd and I immediately turned into one of those crazy girls. ("Omigosh, omigosh, he's coming over here!")

To be fair...look at him! He has rocker arms!

Google Holiday Party

2011-12-03T15:31:00.001-08:00

It was a 1940's themed party on the USS Hornet.

Our friends Matt and Shannon look the part!

We were greeted with a war band, Marines lining the steps up to the ship and camera's flashing everywhere. It felt like we were famous people attending some awesome premier! When we got in, there were cute old ladies singing "boogey woogey bugle boy..." in sailors uniforms. It was pretty hoppin'!

We grabbed some drinks and decided to tour the lower decks. They didn't tell us when the next tour was going, so we just headed down with a few friends. I saw how difficult it was going down the steps, so I stopped to change out of my heels into some flats. By then, we lost our group! So, Nathan and I just wandered around on our own. A few minutes later, an old man said "hey, where is your group? You aren't supposed to have drinks down here." BUSTED!

Here is Nate being an airplane on the Flight Deck.

Leslie and my attempt at putting victory rolls in our hair. The hair and red lipstick is pretty much the only things you need to look like you're from the 40's.

We had a great time. Google throws the best holiday parties!

Tucson

2011-11-19T21:09:00.001-08:00

My mom had to go to the VA in Tucson for a week and I met her there for a few days.

Spending time with my mom is never boring. She just wants to make everything an adventure and she loves to involve outsiders. She's definitely not shy, that's for sure.
Sometimes, it can be pretty beneficial like when she took me out to this really good Greek restaurant for my birthday. She made friends with the waiters and we all got some free Baklava!

Other times, there are some pretty hilarious misunderstandings, like the day we needed a ride to the airport. This black van, the Airport Shuttle had just arrived to pick us up.
I said, "It looks like they're here." My mom looks at the van and replies, "No, I don't think so".
A black man gets out of the van, walks over to us and announces, "Airport Shuttle".
My mom looks at him and says, "Oh, I didn't think you were going to be black".
...she meant the van.

My mom LOVES cowboys, so when we had some time on our hands so we went and checked out Old Tucson Studios where they have filmed pretty much every western film ever from McLintock to the Three Amigos.

Mi 'uelita fits right in!

I tricked her into standing in there... she's so funny!

I decided to find the stupidest looking hat in there.

We had so much! The best part is we are flying to Texas this year for Thanksgiving, so I will get to see them again in a few days. Nathan and I can't wait!

Check-ups

2011-11-15T16:50:00.001-08:00

Being newly responsible adults, we have doctor check-ups now. We're still trying to get the hang of which insurance to go with and how the hell to use it, so I wasn't really surprised when this happened. Here is Nathan's hilarious account of his annual check-up:

So there I am, filling out an extremely invasive medical history form. There can't be a medical reason this Dr. Kapoor needs to know the gender of the person I'm having sex with, and they definitely don't need to know how many guns I keep in the house. It seriously read, "Do you have a gun in the household? yes[] no[]". On one hand I want to raise these points to the secretary, but we both know she doesn't give a shit. Whatever, I'm just here for a physical -- let's get this over with.

I'm escorted into the examination room where I am greeted with about 10 signs hanging on the walls reminiscent of a cheap Chinese establishment. "No using your cellphone." "Every form Dr. Kapoor fills out is $35" "Payment required at time of service" "If Insurance doesn't cover this, your balls are still mine." "No free refills!" etc. Up until this point, I didn't recognize the caliber of doctor office I had stumbled in to. There was one doctor, one secretary, two examination rooms, and a coat closet. Well, still whatever, I'm just here for a physical, how bad could it be?

Dr. Kapoor enters; a short, stocky young Indian woman. The dialogue that ensued was probably one of the most awkward yet hilarious situations I've had in my entire life. She started with the easy questions, and I was a regular Ken Jennings. Then things started getting trickier as the language barrier and her lack of patience began to set in.

"Do your parents have the diabetes?"
"My grandfather di -"
"I said parents. Only your parents."
"Oh. No."
"Do you smoke?"
"No"
"Have you ever smoked?"
"Yes, once"
"One a day."
"Uh, no. Just once."
"One a day."
"No, it was a long time ago, and it was one cigarette"
"Like 20 years ago?"
"No. More recently"
"Today?"
"No .. I uh, it's probably not important. I think I misunderstood the question."
"So no. You have never smoked."
"I guess...Sorry, I should have just said no"
(She nods in agreement)
...
"You need blood work. It requires a fasting for 10 hours."
"Awww shucks, I like eating."
"You eat until the last minute?"
"Yes, no. Wait, what?"
"You eat until the last minute?"
"I... uh.. I don't know what that means. Last minute before what?"
"Before you are going to sleep. If you do not eat until the last minute you can get up early and go to the lab."
...
It goes on like this for some length of time. Her thick accent coupled with my inability to let anything inaccurate be said only served to get Dr. Kapoor visibly frustrated with me.

We finally get to the examination portion of the exam which had some new routines for me. I'm used to sitting there, getting hit with a hammer, standing on a scale, poked in the testes -- bada bing bada boom, done. But this Dr. Kapoor doesn't use a hammer, she uses a yoga positions and pinching. "Bend your knees". I slightly bend my knees. "Bend your knees". I bend them a little more. "BEND YOUR KNEES" I'm laughing audibly at this point because I honestly can't figure out what she wants from me. "Straighten your knee!" "Straighten!" "Relax" "I said RELAX".

After the prodding, she is now completely and utterly pissed off at me and I feel like the dumbest person in the world. Finally, things are wrapping up as she tries to milk my insurance for whatever it's worth -- I suspect this because she asks about my deductible while checking away at boxes on my requested labwork form.

"We can give you the flu shot today"
"I don't think I need one."
"Oh, you're one of those people that do not believe in the flu shot?" she says condescendingly.
"It's not that I don't believe in it, I just don't think I nee-"
"If you do not believe in the flu shot I will not force you to get one."
"I just don-"
"You do not believe in it. That is okay. When was your last DPT shot?"
...

Worst doctor in the history of the world. Well, worst in the Santa Clara area for sure

More Decor

2011-09-03T17:34:00.000-07:00

I am having the hardest time with my bedroom. I have stuff up on the walls, but I just keep taking them down and changing everything! I have so many ideas, but after I install them, they all clash. I like too many different styles I guess.

I think I have finally found something for our dresser that can be there to stay. It actually matches the leaves I put for our headboard art.

That "Paris" picture is actually from a calendar I bought from The Paper Source! The orange knit is a new scarf and the books are old embarrassing (nerdy) books we own. I just covered them with pretty paper!

Originally I was looking for a big round mirror for our bedroom. I found one, bought it, put it up and immediately took it down. It is a great mirror, but it just didn't fit in. So, today Nate put it up for me here:

I think it fits nicely.

Beach Time

2011-08-31T10:34:00.000-07:00

I told Katie that we would go to this "fancy" thrift store in Santa Cruz where they buy your clothes if they think they are hip enough (yeah, I used the word "hip" and was totally serious) So, she brought all the clothes she needed to get rid of to see if she could sell them. I asked her if I could try them on before we took them in, so she was nice enough to let me. She has the best taste ever! I accidentally kept ALL of them except 2 things, which she DID end up selling! I can't even tell you how excited I was. I pretty much got a new wardrobe! I feel so lucky that not only does she have great taste, but that she was nice enough to give them to me.

After we went shopping, we played on the beach for a while before heading over to a different beach for our bonfire. By "we played on the beach" I actually mean, they practiced their frisbee layout skills while I napped.

Beaches get cold at night! I was freezing until David got this roaring fire going.

We had a few friends meet us down there to roast some hot dogs and s'mores. Matt had this cool s'more contraption that makes 3 s'mores at once! I didn't even have to do any work, I just made Thomas do it. It actually worked surprisingly well.

That was it! The next day we slept till noon, ate brunch and they went home for school. Thanks for coming to visit us, we had a lot of fun getting to know Katie.

Tourist Time

2011-08-29T12:08:00.001-07:00

David has never been to SF, so I took them to the most touristy of places: the warf. The good thing about me being there before is that now, I know all the good places for pictures! I loved taking pictures of them all day. Especially since before this day, I had only seen like 1 picture of them together ever. Maybe that's why I went a little crazy...

We went to Pier 39 and got a huge bag of saltwater taffy! I have the biggest sweet tooth ever. I used to wonder if I would ever outgrow that. Nope, I think I could eat sugar for every meal.

Aren't carousels so pretty?

This guy was doing a free magic show for everyone, so we sat down to watch. There wasn't many people around yet, so he made us to sit in the front row. Since we were right up front, we were included in the show! David signed his initials on a card and the guy ended up spitting the card out of his mouth later! Kind of gross, but still way cool.

Then, we hit up Ghiradelli Square for the free chocolate! Oh, and we couldn't leave without our fancy cupcakes either.

Trampoline Time

2011-08-28T19:41:00.000-07:00

The next day I was still finishing up a few jobs so it was a bit relaxed again as well (as in, they were probably totally bored all day). We had lunch at the Googe and Nate gave them "the tour". We ended it by playing arcade games for a while. I feel like I was getting pretty good at Space Invaders before we had to leave.

David and Katie buying a t-shirt and chrome disk from the gift shop.

Finally the slide everyone has been talking about! Meh, I slid down it and it was really slow.

Then we went on a shopping spree! I found out that Katie and I have somewhat similar tastes in clothing! That is ALWAYS a good thing. We hit all my favorite stores before heading home to meet Nate for...TRAMPOLINES!

My favorite was the foam pit. You get a jumping start on 2 trampolines before diving into this kind of disgusting pit of foam. They pretty much don't ever change out the foam, so you can imagine what is in there. We just tried not to think about it. It was a blast though.

Kiara and I used to like to jump into water a lot. From rope swings to bridges and cliffs, we would cool off by canon-balling into water. Well, I think this trained my brain into tricking me when I jumped into the pit. I plugged my nose every time I jumped in! Like I was going to drown in foam or something.

The other thing about the foam pit is that once you are in, it is a challenge to get back out! Pretty much, if you land on your back, you are like a turtle trying to roll over.

Other than the foam pit, there was just a giant trampoline area, and doge ball. I couldn't get any good pictures of dodge ball so here is the giant trampoline area. Just jumping around get's old so we decided to race. We got in trouble... The girl came over and said:

"You can't race."

Nate responded, "But we can! and we DID!"

she gave a quick angry look before Nate hurried and said "but we'll stop."

Dang, because racing was the funnest part of being in there!

We got pretty tired after a while and wondered--how on earth did we used to do that for hours at a time?!

BBQ Time

2011-08-28T19:08:00.000-07:00

David and his new fiancee, Katie came out to see us! This was the first time we got to meet Katie and she didn't disappoint! She was so sweet and so much fun, we're definitely excited she's coming into the family.

When they got here, I was in the middle of doing 3 different kitchen jobs for a custom cabinet maker, so I made them hang out on their own for a while. I'm so sorry you guys! I hope the pool wasn't too boring.

When Nate got home from work, we BBQ'd at the park down the street. It's a good thing too, because man was it a hot day! Our apartment gets so hot and stuffy it would have been miserable.

In the end, I think it was a pretty good relaxing day.

Whale Watching

2011-08-21T16:18:00.001-07:00

With Matt, Leslie and Brynlee in Monterey! It's Matt and Leslie's last week in California :( so we went to hang out one last time.

Before we went on this little boat, Leslie gave us some Dramamine. I am SO glad she did because our fishing trip in Mexico came flooding back. We were on this small-ish boat (as in it wasn't a cruise boat or anything) going up and down on the water for over 3 hours. Last time I did that I got SO sick because I didn't take anything. I didn't think I ever got motion sick!

Well, this time was awesome! Way to plan ahead Leslie!

Once we got far enough out the captain slowed down to tell us we were above an underwater canyon that is deeper than the Grand Canyon! That is where all the whales like to hang out. We didn't see any whales but we did see these cool Dall's Porpoise swimming up out of the water! It was so fun to see them popping up together.

On the way back into the bay there was this wall of stench that just hits you. Like a million Baxters breathing into your face. Turns out, it's just these guys hanging out!

They were everywhere too, not just on those rocks. They were on almost anything that was sticking out of the water. We also saw a bunch of otters AND big yellow jelly fish! Way cool.

This guy is totally posing for me. He watched us float by.

It was deceptively bright outside. I wished I had my sunglasses the whole time. Also, Nate got a sunburn on his face! (I didn't because I have sunblock in my face lotion) It seemed like such a big day. I don't know if it was being on the boat, the sun, or the Dramamine, but I slept the entire way home. Nate even had to stop and buy a coffee!

Since we didn't see any whales they gave us a "rain check" so we could come back for free!

Thanks, Matt and Leslie! We had so much fun.

Outside Lands Music Festival

2011-08-17T10:55:00.000-07:00

Friday:

My favorite part of the day was Foster the People. They said that they had just found out that Weezer covered their song Pumped Up Kicks and so as a tribute to them they covered Weezer's "Say it Aint so". It was awesome!

This is the day I forgot that San Francisco is cold as hell. Luckily, there were so many people around that I think it actually raised the temperature a degree or two.

I think this was actually the most packed venue/stage area. I think they underestimated how many people were going to want to come see Foster the People.

Saturday:

I was so excited to see OK GO and The Black Keys. They were pretty good, but I only know like 3 songs each... Then the last show, Muse, I thought "Meh, we could go now and I don't think I would care. I probably only know like 2 of their songs and they most likely won't sing them until the end anyway." Nope. Turns out I only DIDN'T know like 3 songs! I knew most of them! I just didn't realize those were Muse songs I had been listening to. AND they had the most exciting show to watch. There was smoke and lasers and robots and craziness!

For some reason, I wanted to be really close to The Black Keys. Kind of a mistake. We were pretty dang close, but I also couldn't move. It is not the kind of thing you want to do if you are claustrophobic for sure. We got so tired of standing, we sometimes would just sit down, right in the middle of all the standing people. We weren't the only ones, so it wasn't weird.

Sunday:

Liz came to the festival this day! It was hands down the funnest day ever! This is definitely going to go down as one of my favorite memories. We were all just so happy and excited that everything was just better.

The Decemberists. I just love them. We all got excited for their song The Mariner's Revenge. Nate LOVES a good revenge story. We yell/sang/danced the entire song! I was still a little hoarse 2 days later from that. (it really is a good revenge song)

The guy told us that when he made this motion with his hands, we were supposed to scream as loud as we could like we were being swallowed by a whale. (hm...maybe THAT is why I was so hoarse!)

At the end Arcade Fire came on. That was the band that everyone was there to see so it was packed. A few songs in, Nate had to go to the bathroom, so he left. We didn't think we were going to find each other so we set up a meeting place. Then, I had to go! We decided to just spit up and meet at the end. Somehow, I actually ran into Nate! We danced to Arcade Fire harder and crazier than ever! My legs were like noodles by the end!

Definitely a good weekend.

Three Year Anniversary!

2011-08-15T11:44:00.001-07:00

Our first date: After we had been hanging out for a few months, Nathan finally decided to ask me out. He walked me out to my car and said, "Do you want to go out with me sometime?" I was so shocked and excited that he was asking me out. I just liked him SO much, so I said "YOU'RE asking ME out?" I didn't realize what it sounded like! He got all nervous and shifty and said "um...yeah?" I jumped up and down and said "yes! I would love to!"

He planned the date with his roommate and they gave it a code name: Operation Darkwing Duck.

We went to first dam and ate sandwiches before going back to my apartment and watching The Wedding Singer. It was the best first date I've ever been on. I liked him so much I was just so giddy the whole time.

That was over 6 years ago and I still just love him so much!

Our first picture together

Our most recent picture!

I think we are infinitely cooler now. Aw! Nate is the best.

Nate's Canoe Trip!

2011-08-10T18:56:00.000-07:00

Nathan took our new camera on his canoe trip and he took some really badass pictures!

Oneida Day!

2011-08-08T12:48:00.001-07:00

Cody knows how to throw a party day.

I didn't know that people were dying on the rivers every other week when I agreed to float down Oneida with Cody, Spanks and Devin. As soon as I found out, I was terrified! I'm pretty sure that made the float even better. In fact, floating Oneida was one of the best decisions of my whole trip. We had a blast! It has been far too long since I've floated on an inner tube!

I was trying to help out

It was futile since Devin was already using this:

The only scary part was at the end when I got stuck in a hole that pinned me to the rock. It took me what felt like an hour (probably only 5 min) to pull myself out of it. I was about a second away from just standing up, curling in a ball and letting the water recycle me a couple times before spitting me out. I didn't do that though, thank goodness. My arms were pretty sore byt the end from the effort though.

Afterward, we were so starving that we decided to ride bikes to The Factory. This was actually my first time there! Can you believe it? I have lived in Logan my whole life and have never been to The Factory. They have some pretty good nachos I must say. While we were there, we met up with Brett and Emily! You can't tell from this picture (maybe the peanut Brett is displaying throws you off), but we were having some pretty interesting conversation! At least I rememberfeeling intellectual. We had just finished off a pitcher...

Brett and Em left to climb rocks and we talked Spanks into blowing off Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros (I know, we're evil) to ride bikes with us. We stopped off at Casper's before catching Horrible Bosses. Worth it! (right Spanks?)

I do not know how you bike riders do it! Especially everyday (Nate). My butt felt so bruised from that seat by the end of the day I had to stand-ride. You all must be developing some sort of butt callous or something...

Weekend in Salt Lake

2011-08-07T12:10:00.001-07:00

Jessica and Leard bought their first house in Salt Lake, so I took it upon myself to totally impose. Luckily, I picked the same time that Sharele would be arriving to town from Chicago so they just put on a bbq!

Aw! I miss my beautiful blond girly girls. I forget that there are others out there that like to talk about interior design as much as I do. We spent a day walking around these small local showrooms in SLC. It gave me a lot of really great ideas! I wish Santa Clara was full of more local design shops like Salt Lake. I don't actually even know where I would have to go to find something like that here. Maybe Berkely?

It had been far too long since we'd all gotten together. I'm making it my mission now to completely spam them with texts and facebook posts.

Don't forget about me!

I Guess I Just Like to Eat

2011-08-06T10:52:00.001-07:00

Whenever I come home I just want to see everybody and hang out all the time. I know that this isn't really a reasonable request for most so I usually just force people into having a meal with me. That way, I'm only bogarting an hour of their time before they have to go back to their busy lives.

I played with Phippen for a while before Em, Michelle, Oliver and I got some Pita Pit. Look at how cute this iddy biddy guys is! I just love him!

Caleb, Chantel, Grayson, Gid and Josh all ate with me at the Firehouse.

I drove down to Salt Lake and caught up with Jamie at the Cheescake Factory.

Sunday dinner with Sarah, Meems, Destiny, Ben, Gid and Josh at The Factory.

I finally got to see Jency girl at the Great Harvest...

Dang, we should have made someone else take this picture! Sarah was here too!

Last but not least, breakfast in Salt Lake with Trevor and Ben right before my flight out.

Aaaaaaand that is why I've gained 80 lbs!

I also met with Christina and Karly at Merlin Olsen for Karly's lunch break. I got to meet Christina's little girl Molly who, turns out, looks just like her papa! I can't believe we didn't even take one picture. Especially since we hassled Karly about taking more pictures of her newly married life!

We also had Penny over to play our semi-annual game of It Came To Pass. It wasn't exactly a meal, but we did eat a lot of goldfish and squeaky cheese.

Thanks everyone for making time for me!

First Item of Business: Harry Potter

2011-08-05T11:04:00.000-07:00

Yup, we're Harry Potter geeks. This was pretty much their best movie, so if you haven't seen it yet, get out there and see it!

We were going to dress up, but I forgot my Hermione clothes. Instead, we made this cool Harry Potter glasses. Admit how jealous you are. Sarah's are obviously better, except she thinks they look like Where's Waldo glasses. I guess now they can be used for that too!

Sarah LOVES popcorn.

I look like an oldster.

I seriously spent like 90% of my time with Sarah and these are literally the only pictures I have with her! How did that happen? Sarah is the best, BTW.

She was such a great hostess and we did everything together and had a TON of fun doing it. I hope I didn't get her too sick of me!

Sarah! I miss you!

Lauren Got Married!

2011-08-04T15:55:00.001-07:00

Lauren got married! To a great guy named Nathan (confusing, I know(his name! not that she would get married!)). That called for a trip up to Idaho Falls.

Lauren had the funnest bachelorette party ever! I don't actually remember the last time I had THAT much fun. We hung out at her new cute house, gave her presents and played games before heading off to go dancing. Lauren has so much good energy it just gets you all excited! I'm so glad she's my sister!

Lauren wore this funny "bride to bling" necklace and she gave us all pins to wear.

Lauren is one of the best party dancers I know.

The next morning, they got married. There was the traditional "meet outside the temple" congratulations before they had their ring ceremony and reception. It was a really fun wedding and it was really nice to see the family. I love being a part of the Folkner clan!

Pretty much immediately following the wedding, Nate headed off to Minnesota. He met a couple of his college buddies and they went on a week long canoeing/backpacking trip. More on that later. (you know, after Nate uploads some pics and gives me some good details)

Now me. I could either go home and sit around the apartment by myself for a week, or I could spend the week in Utah with a bunch of people I love! Obviously, I chose Utah. I wish I could be one of those "snowbirds" that come up from Arizona and rent apartments in the summertime. (Only, less crotchety of course)

I suppose I'll have to break this up into several blogs, so stay tuned and I'll eventually catch up.

Congratulations Lauren and Nathan! I hope you agree that married life is pretty great.

Head Board Art

2011-07-11T14:03:00.001-07:00

I finally decided to start decorating the bedroom. I have left it half decorated for far too long. We've lived here for over a year now, for goodness sake!

It still isn't decorated, but I have begun so I thought I would share my progress so far.

I have tried 10 different things to put behind the headboard of our bed. Nothing really made me feel good until I saw something in one of my t.v. shows. (it was Gossip Girl, don't make fun)

In the show, they made this really stunning effect with 3d butterflies. I thought butterflies were too girly for a bedroom shared with a man, and I seem to have become obsessed with bird/tree kind of things so I started looking for leaves.

(here is another cool butterfly one)

I found these simple plastic ones that were pretty easily attached to the wall from Urban Outfitters. The effect isn't quite as stunning as the butterflies, but I think it worked out ok!

As a side note, I also just got this beautiful rusched duvet cover from Potterybarn. It is perfect. I can use the quilt Sarah made for me on top and we are still using the cal-king sized quilt that Auntie Cheri made for our wedding underneath!

Next, I'm trying to get our apartment management to come in and paint the rest of our walls that same tan color as in the picture. Then, I can start putting nails in the wall. I'm also looking for a rug to go in the only open space of our bedroom. I'm not really loving any rugs I've come across though, so if you have any ideas I'm open!

We Won!

2011-06-26T12:09:00.000-07:00

I have never won anything before! Me and Nate were on our way home from the farmer's market listening to Live 105, when they said "text "sexy" to win 3 day passes". Nate said "Do it! Do it!" I texted like 10 times in a row and they replied, "someone will contact you if you won." and another said "someone already won, try again." Meh, it was a long shot.

10 min. later my phone rings. I pretty much don't answer my phone if I don't recognize the number. We thought it might be our friend calling, so I answered it anyway. It was the radio station telling me that I won! We are so excited. They kept asking me tons of questions though and I'm really bad on the phone. Meh, excitement over-rules awkward!

Great America!

2011-06-16T16:00:00.001-07:00

It has been YEARS since I've been on a roller coaster. Lucky for us there is a Great America amusement park just a hop, skip and a jump away. While Nate and Thomas slaved away at their nerd jobs, Derek, Leslie and I partied at Great America.

By far the best ride at the park is the Flight Deck. The wait was SUPER short and the ride lasted long enough to justify the 4 times we rode it.

After waiting in line while the sun beat down on us for an hour we decided it was time to find some water. Finding water was way more difficult than it should have been. We walked around forever until finally getting some. Just looking at this picture makes me thirsty...

Don't feel bad for Nate and Thomas for missing out. They get to do all sorts of fun group outings with Google. Great America included in them. In fact, I think next Thursday they are going on some cruise around the bay. The good thing about them doing cool "outings" is that if it was fun enough, Nate will do it again with me later! I'm expecting a cruise around the bay real soon, Nate... :)

Dispatch

2011-06-12T10:21:00.000-07:00

A friend of ours couldn't make it to the concert to we inherited some Dispatch tickets! It was at the same amphitheater in Berkeley where we saw the Flight of the Concords and it was awesome!

We got great seats and ended up next to a bunch of hooligans who included us in their shenanigans. They were a lot of fun and the Dispatch were great to watch.

I'll be honest here, I only knew 3 of their songs and they didn't even sing them until the encore. It didn't matter though, because everyone around us had so much energy that it was just exciting to be there anyway. I was talking to Liz the other day about how I thought BFD would have been more fun if people would have danced with us. Apparently, people in this area don't like to move? Well, after going to the Dispatch, I've decided that at least East Bayers like to move! There was a girl our age in front of us that didn't stop moving the whole time! She danced like a 6 year old, and it was actually pretty cute.

Next up? The Outside Lands in Golden Gate Park August 12-14!!!!!

The lineup: Arcade Fire, the Black Keys, the Shins, MGMT, the Decemberists, Ok Go, Foster the People and a TON MORE awesome bands.

Hey friends--road trip it up here and come with us!

BFD

2011-06-06T08:55:00.000-07:00

What a day.

We got to listen to some of my favorite songs live! I was a little disappointed that I felt like I had more energy and excitement than most of the other people watching. Honestly, it was a little confusing. Were we watching the same thing?!

Here are my favorite bands from the first lineup: (Click on the name to hear the band's most popular song from the show.)

Young the Giant: They were fun to watch. There wasn't many people watching them, but they still had a lot of showmanship. I loved it!

Middle Class Rut: These guys are pretty cool because it is only 2 of them making all that noise!

Biffy Clyro: eh, I'm pretty sure this is their only song I know.

Foster the People: Pretty good for being a band for only a year. They sang the shit out of this song.

Manchester Orchestra: This was about when the crowd really started to gain people.

Airborne Toxic Event I didn't even realize I liked these guys, but I recognized this song and remembered how much I like it. The (bass?) player reminded us of Mac from It's Always Sunny, so we danced like him while they played this song. Plus, their girl plays the violin in some their songs and it sounds awesome.

Neon Trees: The lead singer looked like Puckerman from Glee from far away.

That was it for the bands playing before the headliners.

There were 4 headliners. 2 of which we actually wanted to see.

The concert security guys were AWESOME. We bought tickets to watch the headliners from the seats (other choice was the lawn). We got to the ticket checkers and Nate went right in. I did not. I was showing them the ticket stub instead of the actual ticket!

I couldn't get in. :( I moved over to the side and searched frantically through my giant purse for the real ticket. Nate came back and asked what the problem was. The security guard told him "just give her your ticket so she can get in". Then, so I wouldn't look suspicious to the ticket checkers the security guard walked me over and "taught me" how to hold my ticket out with my drink "so you can have your hands free". I did it, and got right in. What a good guy!

Cage the Elephant went on first. I don't think the song I linked is their most popular, but it is my favorite. They were great! They had a ton of energy. Unfortunately, we were around people who were only there to see Linkin Park (really?) so me and Nate were the only ones rocking out.

The Strokes Same thing happened when these guys came one.

The Strokes' lead singer is pretty cool. This was not at the show, but he once did a spoof song with the Lonely Island about how playing a boombox can be dangerous. (warning: the song gets kind of gross at the end there.)

After these two were done, the next headliner came one. Um, this headliner confused the hell out of me. Snoop Dog? How on earth did he fit in with these bands?

Well, we actually stayed and I got to say, it was pretty fun. You don't even have to know his songs...AT ALL. He just includes the audience regardless. Pretty cool. I didn't realize I even knew any Snoop Dog songs until he played Gin and Juice which I somehow remember belting out while swinging on the playground at recess when I was 10. 10! Why did 10 year old me know this song?!

Linkin Park came out next, but we were tired and hungry. We gave our tickets to some guy walking by and headed home before the bad post concert traffic happened.

PHEW! What a good time. I can't wait until next year!

Rafting

2011-06-03T12:10:00.000-07:00

Nathan asked me weeks ago if I wanted to go white water rafting at the end of May. It seemed like so far away and I figured "it'll be warm by then" so I said "sure!" As the day got closer and closer I began to realized it wasn't really warming up and I really hate being cold. I tried to get out it for like a week before we had to go. No dice.

We rented some wetsuits and hit the river! Those wetsuits really do a lot for keeping you warm! It was still pretty chilly, in fact it even rained a little, but SO much fun. Totally worth it! I forgot how much fun white water rafting can be.

Shopping in Berkely

2011-06-03T12:02:00.000-07:00

Apparently Berkely has some pretty awesome thrift stores! I had no idea you could bring in your clothes and get money for them. I had a bag of pants that I brought in. Well, they weren't the right type so I didn't get anything, but I think it's a cool idea. There were a lot of people with huge bags of clothes to sell.

We were on our way to get some gourmet (delicious) icecream when we happened upon a Great Harvest! I was so excited I bought 2 loaves!

It was sunny and warm and a perfect girls day!

Cupcakes!

2011-05-07T11:04:00.001-07:00

What my cupcakes SHOULD have looked like.

I brought cupcakes to the bar for Nathan's birthday last night. As we were leaving I picked up the tray of leftover cupcakes and some guy said: "Hey, are those cupcakes?!"

"Yeah! Do you want one?"

He did, and so did a bunch of other guys hanging around. I started offering them to everyone and quickly found out that apparently bitchy girls do NOT like cupcakes.

I offered some to a couple that was walking by. The guy turned to his girlfriend-- "Look! cupcakes for your birthday, Honey". He took one and said, "have one!" She looked at them like they were poop, then pushed him to get away from the poop tray.

NO girls would take a cupcake.

I was ashamed for my gender.

Anwyay, Happy Birthday Nathan!

Here are the recipes I used:

Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

Devil's Food Cupcakes

Chantel and Caleb's Wedding

2011-04-04T18:06:00.000-07:00

My oldest brother Caleb got married!

I got to fly to Utah for a couple of days for the big day. It turned out so great! Chantel looked AMAZING. She made such a beautiful bride.

I'm so happy to finally have another great girl to call my SISTER! All these years of having JUST stinky older brothers is finally coming to an end!

Congrats, you guys!

My New Gelaskins Came Today!

2011-03-22T17:47:00.000-07:00

VH1's Top 40 Fails

2011-03-19T11:48:00.000-07:00

Nathan is going to be on t.v!

I got an email from MTV asking me if they could use our video on their VH1 show.

It airs this Sunday (Mar. 20) at 9:00 pm. It is part of their 40 Greatest series.

I can't wait to see where he is in the line-up.

Here is a link to the "fail" in case you wanna see it--> Rope Swing.

Matt and Leslie

2011-03-14T20:44:00.000-07:00

Matt and Leslie moved to Monterey! The best part is that they will actually be there for a while! Woot! They came up last weekend and we had a blast! They are going to have a baby girl here pretty soon, and I'm excited because I'll actually get to go see her! It is crazy how we know more and more people our age starting their families. I feel like we're still just kids ourselves.

We went to SF and unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, San Francisco is full of weirdos. We got a show. As we were driving, we saw a big group of bikers. Matt said, "hey are those bikers naked?" I looked over and only saw the top of them. "haha, no they just don't have their shirts on!" Then, they rounded the corner and a big group of naked people zipped past us.

There were a few stragglers who needed to get undressed, I guess.

Valentine's Day Weekend

2011-02-20T11:50:00.000-08:00

Nathan surprised me with a mini vacation into SF for the weekend! We got a hotel on the wharf and just hung out all day!

We pretty much only had one snag all weekend. Nathan had booked us a king room through priceline. When we got there, they had given us 2 queens. Not unheard of, since apparently just because you book it one way on priceline, that doesn't mean that is exactly what you will get. So, Nathan went back to the counter and asked if we could upgrade to a king room. They wouldn't let us, so he said, "I am willing to pay the difference, if we could just upgrade to a king room."

"Nope."

"What about tomorrow night?"

"Same situation."

What. A. Douche.

Thanks to technology, Nathan got on his phone and looked up the hotel's site. He was able to book a king room online immediately. So, he told the guy.

He holds up his phone and says, "I'm on your site right now and I am able to book a king room."

"Would you like to speak to the manager?"

ugh.

"Sure."

The guys leaves, and comes back shortly.

"He is busy, but here is the key to your new king room."

Hells yeah! Go, Nate!

We really did have a great time. We walked along the wharf, and ended up walking through a free mechanics museum and we toured a boat that went to Normandy in the war. Nate loves big boats. He tells me every time he sees one. :)

Later, we were on our way to see a wave organ when we walked by a park. There were tons of people our age just hanging out, so we skipped the organ and joined them! It was perfect.

Sarah's Giveaway

2011-02-13T12:39:00.001-08:00

My sister is doing a GIVEAWAY on her blog! Go to Mrs.Maughan.blogspot.com (or just follow the "giveaway" link) and sign up!

Goodbye 2010

2011-01-01T13:12:00.000-08:00

January:

-Apparently nothing exciting happened. We had just graduated and had nothing to do! Nathan began his job search and started interviewing EVERYWHERE.

-I met this big dog. That was the highlight of January.

February:

-We were so bored we went to Las Vegas! This was our last hurrah before we settled down with real jobs.

March:

-Nate got a job at GOOGLE so we moved to Santa Clara!

-We had visitors right away to help us feel at home.

April:

-I didn't have a job yet so I had lots of time to plan and throw Sarah a baby shower for Amelia (who showed up in May)!

May:

-We went to Portland, Oregon for the first time and spent Nathan's (24th) birthday there!

-Charlie and Marian came to visit. We hung out at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and ate lots of seafood.

-We got to see the Flight of the Concords LIVE in Berkely!

-I got my first real job working as a Jr. Designer at K.C. Customs & Remodeling, Inc. in Campbell.

June:

-We got to meet and chat up Dave Bazaan when our friends came into town for his concert.

-I found out my cousin Devin died unexpectedly, so I caught a ride home to spend time with family and attend his life celebration.

July:

-We spent our 4th of July in San Diego, watching baseball and eating hotdogs.

-We went camping for the first time here in California and Baxter got sprayed by a skunk. We doused him with vinegar and tomato sauce then let him roll around in the dead grass and dirt before dunking him in the lake. It worked.

-I found out that my Uncle Nolan got in a motorcycle accident and later died from related complications. Nathan and I got to go to his funeral in Utah.

-We went to Alaska for the first time where we backpacked, saw bears close up and I got charged by a momma moose.

August:

-Apparently we needed some down time, because the only thing I have documented was Liz's superhero party. (which was a blast)

-Oh yeah, Nate and I had our 2 year Anniversary!

September:

-I don't know why but homesickness started to really set in. I'm such a baby.

October:

-More visits from family!

November:

-I turned 25 (I feel like a real oldster).

-Nate grew a butt-ugly mustache for movember (mustache november) then didn't even shave it off when December began.

-Sarah hosted Thanksgiving and I got to meet my new nephew Grayson!

December:

-We went to Google's holiday party.

-We learned how to play craps at the K.C. Customs holiday party.

-Our Christmas tree had a tree frog in it that would pipe up every once in a while. He still hadn't "croaked" when we got home from our holiday visits

-Cody was in town for a few days, so we went and lost few bucks at the last day of the horse races in Berkely.

-We spent Christmas in Boise!

-I found out my Grandmother (Maughan) passed away, so we spent a few days with our family in Utah again.

-I wanted a change, so I colored my hair lighter. It's been orange for about a week so I think I'm going to have to find some hats before I get the chance to change it back! ("You're changing it back? That was an expensive experiment"--Nathan) oops.

2010 flew by! I can't wait to see what happens in 2011.

Google Holiday Party

2010-12-04T19:15:00.000-08:00

We got to dress up and party till 1:00am!

The party was (appropriately) held ant the Computer History Museum. Nate dropped me off out front and went to park the car. While I waited under a "snow" machine (it wasn't snow, it was soap bubbles that looked like snowflakes) a guy gave me some very rich hot chocolate and I watched people taking carriage rides. They definitely made an impression before you even got to go inside!

I checked my coat and we walked around to see what there was so see. Immediately you could either gamble, or hang around the dessert area. I just love dessert, so I spent my fair share of time in front of THOSE tables.

That ice sculpture melted all over the floor! I was walking over to it when I realized my feet were getting wet. Luckily (or not) it was on carpet, so there was no risk of slipping. I do feel bad for the museum people though.

We went upstairs where they had photo booths and an area with a green screen. "What are those green screens for?" Turns out, they were so you could make a Flip Book! There was nobody in line so we grabbed some of the props and were just about to do it when I chickened out. I just didn't know what to do! When we finally went to do it, I still had no idea so we flopped around for the 7 seconds it takes and then stepped aside. Next, Thomas and Leslie were up. Those S.O.B's planned something! It was so good for a flip book too. They started apart and walked over to each other and kissed. It was so cute, why didn't I think of that!

Here is our photo booth pictures.

Eventually, I wanted to try the "ice rink". It wasn't really ice, it was wax! By the end, some guy fell on it pretty hard and the paramedics had to come take him away. I guess drinking and wax skating just don't mix.

At the end of the night, we wandered over to the live band and danced till I just couldn't dance anymore! Best company party I've ever been to. (Well, it is the ONLY company party I've ever been to, but still awesome!)

Thanksgiving

2010-12-04T18:52:00.001-08:00

I forgot how cold Utah can get and how depressing it can be. Here I am homesick for Logan when I forgot how scary the roads can be and how much you have to bundle up. I saw 3 overturned cars on our first day!

I WAS really excited to go home though! Sarah did such a great job on Thanksgiving. Her invitations were ADORABLE (it is still on my fridge because I love it so much), and the place settings couldn't have been better. Once again, she conquered the turkey! I don't know how she does it perfect every time. Thanks to Sarah, I have vowed to never host a Thanksgiving dinner. I just wouldn't be able to live up to that!

I finally got to meet my new baby nephew, Grayson. He was just so smiley and cute, I fell in love! I never wanted to put him down. Mimi is getting so big too. When we got there, Mimi was taking a nap but I reallllly wanted to see her. I went into her room to steal a peek when, of course, I woke her up. I thought, "Oh no, oh no she's going to cry any second!" I waited for it when she looked up at me and laughed! She is the sweetest little girl.

We went to a matinée of Tangled on Saturday. There was a large group of kids sitting in front of us. There were so many of them that their grandma (or whoever she was) couldn't sit with them. Before the movie started she leaned down and told them all they'd better stay quiet and to not make any trouble. She left to find her seat when the older man sitting next to me (who was obviously not affiliated with them) leaned forward and said to the kids, "I heard that, and if you don't do what she says I'll thump ya." Only in Logan...

It was such a great trip, I even managed to bring home some Creamies!

25!

2010-11-13T14:16:00.000-08:00

I wasn't really expecting this birthday to be so great.

Nate busily wrapped my presents for me the night before, until he ran out of wrapping paper.

"Is it ok if one of your presents is just displayed?"

"YES!" So, I got to "open" a present early! He knows I have been missing Logan, so he got me a bunch of stuff to remind me of home! Strawberry milk from Gossners, a box of Bluebird chocolates, and Ibis coffee! I was so happy I cried.

The next day, Nate got up super early and made me breakfast!

Unfortunately, my birthday landed on a weekday this year so I had to go to work. I was fully expecting to just have a regular unspecial day. Nobody at work knew it was my birthday, and it seemed awkward for me to say "oh, hey, by-the-way today is my birthday." Everything was pretty normal until lunch.

"Hey, Lila, can you come in her for a minute?" So, I went into the conference room where everyone was waiting for me with a cake!! They sang, I made a wish and blew out the candles. I was SO surprised and happy my face almost broke from smiling so much.

Since we didn't really get to celebrate Thursday night, Nathan suggested that we just go out for a birthday drink on Friday.

I had assumed we would get together with our friends over the weekend, but nobody ever said anything when Friday rolled around. When I got home from work Nathan said, "Why don't we go out, just the two of us and celebrate. I heard about this really cool dive bar in Campbell."

"okkaaaay..." I was skeptical. "Why don't we just go to dinner and get drinks there? Or, what is Thomas and Leslie doing?"

"Oh, I don't know. I guess I could call and see if they want to hang out."

He didn't really sound like he wanted to, and I felt like a dork, so I said "no, lets just get something to eat."

We went to dinner and then headed over to this dive bar. On our way over Nate got a text and immediately looked at it (which was kind of weird. He doesn't usually text people) So, I asked who it was.

"Thomas"

"Thomas? What did he say?"

"He said they are busy."

"Busy, what does that mean? Why is he telling you they are busy? That seems like a weird thing to just reply to someone."

"Oh, I just asked him and Leslie what they were doing tonight and he said they were busy."

That made me feel like a loser. Like, he called them so see if they wanted to hang out for my birthday and they replied "We're busy"? :(

We kept driving and the streets started looking more and more empty, until we were in a part of town that didn't really seem like a place for a bar. He pulls into this parking lot for the American Legion and says "This is it". It did not look like a bar at all. I was scared.

"Uh...are you sure? This doesn't look like a bar."

"Look there are cars back there. I'm sure this is it."

I did not think we were at the right place at all and I wanted to go home.

"Come on, we'll just go in and get one drink. If we don't like it we can leave."

I got out of the car and we walked up a ramp leading to the back of the building.

As we were walking to the door I looked in the window and saw one for our friends.

"Hey, David is here!" Then, we walked in the door and pretty much everyone we know was there for my birthday! Surprise! It was a karaoke bar, and everyone sang something. I even did it! I was terrible and didn't quite stay on tune, but it was such a blast! The whole bar sang happy birthday too!

Thank you Nate and everyone for making me feel so loved on my birthday! It turned out so great and I had SO much fun!

October Fun!

2010-11-02T18:47:00.001-07:00

First, Nathan's parents came to visit!

"These chairs aren't very white anymore, are they?"

"Thank you for noticing!"

Classic in-law! We loved having them here, and I always get so sad when our guests have to go home.

A few days after they left, we went to a Sufjan Stevens concert. I knew he was coming to the area, but tickets were sort of expensive so I didn't think much of it. Then, DAY OF, Nate calls and tells me we're going! The ONLY bad part was that it was in scary old Oakland. While we were walking to the theater, some lady told Thomas he was "dead meat" because he wouldn't let her talk to us. Aside from the gruff locals, the area was a sea of Hipsters coming to worship Sufjan. The concert was awesome. He has an amazing voice and an interesting band to back him up.

Next, we got ready for Halloween by carving pumpkins at the Norrie's!

This isn't mine, but it was the most clever:

Then, there was Halloween. I was too lazy to come up with anything amazing, so I was Carla from Scrubs. The best thing that happened that night was that I didn't have to tell anyone who I was! In fact there was even a J.D.!

Nate made a pretty awesome Quailman (from the show Doug)

Last excitement of the month: Ben and his adorable girlfriend Megan came to visit! We did so much that by the time we got home everyday we were all so exhausted that we napped until it was time to get up and go again.

It was a totally busy month. I can't wait for what is coming in November though! Aside from it being my birthday (I just love presents), we are going to LOGAN for Thanksgiving!

Girls Day!

2010-09-05T13:39:00.001-07:00

Liz and I went to a clothing optional beach. It was too windy and cold so we walked around trying to find a place that would block the wind. As far as nudies went there were only a few old people who were so tan they looked purple.

It was way too cold, so we left after about 15 minutes. On our way out there was some guy who was coming in and was trying to balance on a rail tie thing. We looked down to see where we were stepping and when we looked back up, he was straddling the tie and looked like he was in pain. He slowly grabbed himself and tried to un-straddle the thing.

"Just lay down" I told him, and we kept walking. Awkward!

We ended up at another beach that was nicer, got hungry and ate at Pizza My Heart which was delicious and reminded me of Guido's in Boise. Then, we ended up at this ice cream shop called Marianne's. There were SO many flavors and I had no idea what I wanted so I asked the girl if I could sample "Pumpkin". She looked annoyed and huffed over to get it. I turned to Liz for confirmation of the weirdness, and she nodded.

"You don't have to get it if you don't want to." I said. The customer next to me laughed in agreement after noticing the weird situation. I felt so bad about making her get a sample, I didn't ask for any more and just said I would have that flavor in a sugar cone. MAN!

The night ended with an awful chick flick and chocolate crackle cookies.

It was a good day!

2010-08-16T20:53:00.002-07:00

Happy Anniversary to US!

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

Seward

2010-08-03T20:05:00.000-07:00

We went on a whale watching cruise!

We didn't see any whales, but we did see otters, puffin and bald eagles. The cruise took us to a cabin where we ate dinner and spend some time on their rock skipping beach. I have never been able to skip a rock as many times as I did there. It made me feel awesome!

Afterward, we were walking to the car where there was an eagles nest. We watched it for a while and saw one bald eagle fly into it where 2 eagletts were waiting for them. We were about to walk away, when another eagle swooped in with a dead seagull in it's beak. Whoa! The babies didn't even appreciate it.

We car camped a the base of a glacier and then day hiked it the next morning.

There were signs EVERYWHERE warning about bears. What to do to avoid them, what to do if you see one, what to do if it attacks you, what to do if it starts to EAT you. Seriously. So, I did NOT want to hike this stupid glacier. I will look at it from below, thank you very much.

Nate talked me into just taking the hike really slow. It was unlikely we would see anymore bears or anything. Right.

We were just catching up to some people ahead of us when I saw them all looking at something. I learned from the moose experience this was not a good sign for me.
They were all excited, "You just missed the brown bear!"

"Good." I replied.

So, we're walking along, trying to make noise so we don't startle any and wouldn't you know it, there is a black bear and her baby. They were above us on a steep open hill this time. I was scared because I thought being above us would make it easier for her to attack. Not so. They have a hard time going down hill I guess. It was ok though, they were already eating. The baby trotted right behind her and it was SO dang cute!

On our way back down, I was looking off into the trees when I saw something black moving around in one. 2 baby black bears got scared and climbed up the tree. The mom was sitting at the bottom of them just off the path. I hurried by that one. I was getting pretty tired of having so many bears around...

Fun trip. Overall I'm glad to be home where you know at least what the general TIME is because the sun actually goes down!

Denali

2010-08-01T19:13:00.000-07:00

I have never been backpacking before. In fact, I'm not really much of an outdoor person. Nathan makes me do outdoor things that seem pretty awesome--to other people. People who like nature. The last time Nate made me be THIS outdoorsy, I ended up being a riverguide and camping for a month in Riggins Idaho.

Backpacking ended up being pretty fun. I definitely appreciate my warm bed in the city more though.

Our first day backpacking in Denali State Park was straight UP. Oh, and it RAINED the entire time. We were so wet, cold and tired, we stopped hiking a bit earlier than planned to set up camp. It was supposed to be a 20 something mile backpacking trip and we had only gone 4.

While you are actually hiking, it gets pretty hot... Once you stop moving for any reason, you are freezing in a matter of minutes. I cracked open some hand warmers, but they were taking a while to get hot, so me and Trevor used our Mountain House meals to warm up our hands.

Alaska is full of tundra, I learned. Tundra, and ROCKS. I don't know how many of these rock slide places we had to cross. I slipped at one of them and have a nasty lump on my arm as a result. It definitely makes it slow going.

The next day, we decided to cut the trip short and hiked out early. We pushed it to get to the road so hard I swear my legs were paralyzed. Nate and Trevor had to actually take my pack for a little while. There was a pretty steep downhill that was all mud. It was so muddy, we pretty much just slid down the whole way. If anyone was trying to keep their feet from slipping in the water before, there was really no more point after that. Luckily, some genius made SmartWool socks.

When we finally got to the road we decided to hitchhike. Trevor said that if I stood out there, we would get a car to take us really fast. One car saw me, slowed waaay down and started to pull off a bit, then I have no idea why, but they quickly pulled back on the road and never stopped.

"I'm done. I don't think I can stand anymore..."

Trevor decided to walk. Problem was, our car was still 10 miles away and we had already hiked 16 miles that day. He started going and we all got settled in to wait for a few hours. Not too long later, he pulled up in the suburban! He told us he had just walked out of view, when someone picked him up. What a hero...

Amazingly, there was pretty much NO wildlife that whole trip. We joked about how we had to get to the city to see any animals. Still, as you are walking you are supposed to make a lot of noise so you don't startle any bears. Mulan's "Let's get down to business..." will forever be stuck in my head.

Moosen?

2010-07-28T09:40:00.001-07:00

We were out for a leisurely 22 mile bike ride when terror ensued for Lila.

We were riding along an Anchorage bike path that ended in a disc golf course. We were on our way back down when it all happened. Nate was stopped at a bridge pointing to something on the right just off the path.
"Is Trevor trying to scare us?" Ben asked.
Nope. It was a bear. Less than 10 feet from us. I took one look at it and said, "AH! It's a baby, we gotta get out of here!" But Ben and Nathan stopped to look. It was old enough that it wasn't with it's mom anymore. I was still a little nervous...

This is the little guy walking away. (We were too surprised to think to take a picture of it when it was right next to us.)

Off we go again, speeding down the trail all amped up from seeing a bear so close. Suddenly, I hear Nate and Ben's tire's screeching. Nate runs into Ben and I catch up. TWO bull moose were just hanging out on the trail.
"What do we do, guys? what do we do?"
We wait. We waited until they started walking toward us and we had to back up. After a while, they were off the trail just enough that we could squeeze by. I was SHAKING. Nate, Ben and Trevor were eating it all up.

Here they are once we finally got passed them.

The rest of the bike ride was full of more moose. I could tell a story for each, but you would get sick of reading. I was terrified every time. I just don't understand wild animals! In all we ran into: 3 bull moose, 3 cows and 4 babies.

The last moose we saw were a little too close for comfort. It was a momma and her baby. Nate says, "Lila stay close to me." We were all going to form a tight line and just go as fast as we could.
Nate crept up a bit and the baby moved over a little so he decided to go. I was too scared, and was trying to inch by with only one foot on the peddle.
"Both feet on, Lila!" Trevor's words probably saved my life.
Nate had startled the baby and I wasn't close enough to him to get passed them together. The baby moved with me. This made it look like I was chasing it. The mom was not amused. She got between us, snorted and charged! I pumped my legs as hard as I could. She was so close I could feel her breath. She was pushing me off the path! Finally, I passed her baby she backed off and I kept going! I caught up to Nate and cried a little.

Scariest moment of my life.

New Chair

2010-06-27T15:21:00.000-07:00

We finally got our chair today!

Nathan has dying to get another chair in the living room. I actually ordered one right after we moved in, but they kept delaying it. Every month I would get an email telling me it was going to take another month. I got fed up and cancelled it. That meant finding another one though and it took me long enough to find the first one! So, I put if off. Nate kept threatening to buy one himself. Yes, THREATENING. He wanted a recliner SO bad, but could only find the ugliest ones. So, I got on it and found this baby!

Which, as it turns out, is actually a recliner too!

We both win! Thanks Crate & Barrel.

Devin

2010-06-19T19:25:00.001-07:00

I was recently in Utah for a very unfortunate reason. My cousin Devin died. I would like to share my favorite story about him.

Three young brothers went hunting one afternoon. Armed with Red Ryders they hiked up Blacksmith fork canyon to see what they could shoot. As they were walking near the river the youngest brother, Ryan, lost his flipflop in the water. He hurried after it before it was lost and got caught in the rivers current. The undertow took him. It pinned him under the bank, tangled in a fallen tree.

The oldest, Sean, was too far ahead. He looked back in time to see Devin dive in after Ryan. Devin swam with the current and found the drowning brother. Sean looked on from the side of the river. Suddenly, Devin's arm burst from the water and grabbed onto the dry land. He threw Ryan out before struggling to come up himself. He had saved his little brother's life.

As Ryan recalls this story he ends it by saying, "He was my hero ever since."

Devin really was a hero. I am very proud he was my cousin. Josiah puts it best when he said: "I'm glad you loved life so much, I'm sorry it killed you to take another."

Critters!

2010-06-18T13:42:00.000-07:00

I am now in a small nook of the airport where you have to board by climbing stairs. I sat down and something ran passed my foot. I quickly picked up my feet and gave the girl next to me a horrified look. We both looked around to see where it went. I caught glimpses of it under our seats. It was so fast! My heart was pumping and the adrenaline kicked in. I hate when adrenaline kicks in, it gives you a surreal, disoriented, fuzzy mind.

I was completely freaked out and acting like an annoying girly girl. What seemed like minutes of trying to figure out what was happening was only a few seconds.

I turned to the girl and said "What the heck was that?"

She laughed and said "It's a bird."

Sure enough, it walked out and flew through the door.
PHEW! I was so THIS close to getting my toes chewed off by some unknown creature...

FOTC

2010-05-29T23:09:00.000-07:00

Flight of the Concords!

Nate got us tickets to see them live at the Berkeley amphitheater. It was SOLD OUT. Luckily, we actually got a decent seat. Some people were doomed to standing for the entire show.

They started it off with the guy that is the apartment manager from the show. I forget his name... Anyway, he was followed by Arj Barker, who is Dave from the show. I love him. He did a "meet and greet" after his stand up and Nate and I decided to meet him! Apparently, "meet and greet" just means sign autographs. I wanted to get my picture with him, but he said he couldn't. He only had 15 minutes to sign a bajillion people's things. Anyway, he seemed really nice.

It is amazing how comics can do the exact same show thousands of times and still have the same inflections, mannerisms and enthusiasm for the joke. It is still like it is being told for the first time. We knew all the songs and jokes, but there were a few that they added different lyrics.

I feel like we really needed a few laughs. I was really grumpy and down before the show, but as soon as it started, I couldn't help but laugh. It is exciting being so close to famous hilarious people!

K.C. Customs Inc.

2010-05-29T15:27:00.000-07:00

6 months after graduating, I got a job! A real job!

After sending out a million coverletter/resume combo's, someone finally emailed me back a positive response. Several email's later, he decided to hire a contractor instead. BOO! Not that I really mind not having a job. In fact, despite what everyone thinks, I wasn't just sitting on the couch eating bonbons all day.

Then, I got a call asking when I could come in for an interview. Finally, I got past the email stage. I interviewed on Monday and started work on Tuesday! I will be training for two months as an intern before a review to be employed! It seems to be the perfect fit!

Week one: dominated.

aw man...

2010-05-16T20:44:00.000-07:00

I turned on the wrong burner.

The water had plenty of time before it started to boil, so I waited in the living room. BAM! cling, ting ting ting... WHAT JUST HAPPENED? I hurried to the kitchen and there was broken glass everywhere. I mean EVERYwhere. Once I started to clean it all up, I found shards in the brownies, the stove, under the toaster, IN the toaster, under the microwave, under the fridge and in every crevice there is.

I had accidentally left a glass cake pan sitting on a burner that I THOUGHT was off.

Moral of the story: pay attention to which knob you're twisting! oh, and clean up after you bake.

Portland

2010-05-02T17:05:00.000-07:00

"Marched in a weed legalization rally until I smelled quesadillas in a Cinco de Mayo carnival."

-Nate

Yup. That pretty much sums up our trip.

With the help of our good friend Leslie, we got to fly to Portland for the weekend as a part of Nathan's birthday celebration. We wanted to check out what there was to see downtown.

"Look Nathan, a farmer's market!" Or so I thought. I just saw tents and people. It turned out to be this:

A Weed rally. We thought it was pretty funny so we did what any freedom loving American would do...we marched! They paraded around downtown singing "Marajuana. Marajuana. Hey, hey. Legalize".

We got bored and stopped walking once we got to the river. After hanging out there for a few, we noticed some Cinco de Mayo banners and mosey'd on over there. We got some horchata and quesadillas before sitting down to watch a show. The dancers from Guadalajara were so fun to watch! At one point they were all dancing and clogging with glasses of water on their heads!

We thought that was pretty mind blowing until later that evening when we saw some real amazing feats of skill. We went to the Circus! Well, we went to Cirque du Soleil. It was scary watching them do crazy things. One guy almost fell off the tight rope!

I LOVED Portland. Everyone was really friendly and the city seemed so safe and clean. Well, during the day at least. When we arrived it was about midnight and the Hooligans milling about looked kinda sketch. Keep in mind this is coming from a sheltered kid who gets scared riding public transportation. (It's not safe I tell you!)

Happy Birthday weekend Nathan!

En Garde!

2010-04-26T22:38:00.000-07:00

Nathan defended my honor at the Giants vs. Cardinals game that we attended last friday.

We were sitting in front of some young riff-raff who had something to say about everything. I wanted a picture with my churro, so I told Nate to take it for me. They said something that sounded like they MAY have been making fun of me.

"ohh, I wish I was taking a picture with a churro" (or something to that effect)

Nate was ALL OVER IT. I didn't even hear or realize what was going on. He turned around and called them out on it.

AW! He was protecting me!

In the end he told me the story, and to be honest, I don't think they were making fun of anyone. I think they just wanted a churro.

Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens...

2010-04-18T19:45:00.001-07:00

I feel grumpy.

What a better time than now to make this list that Mindy tagged me in her blog for.

I'm going to try to think of stuff that is besides just the obvious answers that I'm sure you can guess (like "Nathan").

These are a few of my favorite things:

Blankets and cookies. This goes for both: I love getting them, making them, giving them... There is just something about them that makes you feel all cozy and loved.

When Baxter accidentally pees a little when he sees you after you've been gone a while. Haha! It means he missed you and is SO excited that he can't even hold it! I guess really, I like it when I am shown when I'm missed.

Hugs. Give me a good, breath losing, bear hug that you MEAN...and I'll be loyal to you probably forever.

Finishing something. Anything really. More than just finishing it, being proud of it and having others tell me how good I did. Sometimes you just need to hear that. For example, I really like it when Nate tells me I made a good meal. Honestly, that's why I keep cooking for him.

Getting compliments from strangers or people I don't really even know very well. For some reason, it seems like it means more because-- why would they lie to you? They don't even know you. That's not to say that I don't appreciate compliments from anyone and everyone.

Hearing a song or smelling something that completely transports you to a specific memory. Well, only if it's a good memory.

When someone backs me up even if we both know I'm wrong.

Having a good, REAL laugh. There are only a few people in this world that can make me truly laugh so hard I cry.

Snuggling up with a book while it is raining outside.

Well, I don't want this to get too long... so I think this is a good stopping point. I'll tag: Sarah, Becky, Michelle, Liz and anyone else who is bored enough to do this.

Amelia

2010-04-10T20:34:00.001-07:00

Baby Shower!

The day has finally come. As soon as I knew Sarah was having a girl (amelia) I decided I wanted to be the one to throw her a shower. I've never thrown a party for anyone before. I was SUPER nervous.

I wanted her cute little tummy to be good and round by the time I threw the shower so I waited until she had 6 weeks left. That meant I would have to fly back to cache valley to throw it. I'll take any excuse to come back to hang out here.

Sarah likes birds so I decided to make it the party's motif. I made one and put it on the invitations, favor stickers, well wishing papers...pretty much everything.

I designed the invites too. I even put something on the back of them. This is how the invites turned out. The front, the back (pink with white vines) and the envelopes.

I saw these floating poms on another website and thought they were perfect for the shower. They seem feathery but also almost nest-like. After a few attempts, I got it and they turned out pretty good.

For the favors, I bought all this candy when I was in California. Mistake. I should've waited to get it when I got here. My luggage was so heavy they had to slap special stickers on it and have it specially searched. It's just candy you guys...

While the guests ate, I had them fill out these games. Before the party started I realized--I didn't bring the answers! I had to quickly google all the answers before people showed up!

As I've said before in previous blogs, I'm pretty into cupcakes these days. I had them make these birds nest cupcakes complete with the baby chicks on top. They were probably my favorite part of the whole shower.

They went right next to the diaper cake Liz and I made. No, not a real cake. It is made up of 3 tiers of rolled up diapers and receiving blankets.

I decoupaged this "a" to be the topper.

The guests gave Sarah their best 'raising a girl' advice on these slips of paper and tied them to these branches. I took all the advice and made them into a little booklet for her when it was all over.

Our last game was pretty silly. It was a real good "make a fool of yourself" type game. I normally HATE these games, but thought this one was kind of cute. We circle up and each person has a pen. You take a pacifier and try to pass it from person to person using only the pen you have in your mouth. When you drop it, you're out. I was out before the game even began!

Sarah is an amazing seamstress. She has been making all sorts of little girl clothes. They were so cute, I decided to use them in the decor of the party.

Success! I don't know why I was so nervous before. The only regret I have is not taking better pictures when I had the chance. Happy Baby Shower Sarah!!!

More Tourism

2010-04-02T19:29:00.000-07:00

Day two of being tourists.

We went to Golden Gate Park and took a free tour of the Botanical Gardens. We like doing things for free!

It's a good thing we didn't bring Baxter with us this time because this park was anti-fun. NO, no no!

On our way back from the park, I wanted to show Lauren Lombard Street. We found the street and started driving on it.

"Wait, what is so great about this street?" Lauren asked.

"It is named 'America's windiest road' "

No. We drove on it forever and didn't see anything special about it. Shoot. Well maybe it's the steepest road? No, it was the flattest straightest road ever.

"Call Nate."

It turns out the wind-y part is only about a block where Hays intersects Lombard. When we finally found it we drove passed it. 5 times. Well, we pin ponted it down and drove down that stupid street! Worth it? I'm not really so sure.

This guy startled me.

"I'm Oscar the Grouch. Give me money!"

Despite what everybody thinks about California, San Francisco is pretty much always chilly. Or, at least colder than you would expect. Most tourists I see look pretty miserable in their short shorts and tank tops. That's not to say that it isn't sometimes pretty warm there, but since it is so close to that water the breeze cools everything off.

Anyway, after we walked around and I found these AWESOME "ray bans" from a street vendor, we got some hot chocolate from Ghirardelli square. I'm going to be honest, it was some of the best hot chocolate I've ever had.

Touristy Things

2010-04-02T19:15:00.000-07:00

Day one of being tourists.

Lauren told us that she had already been to San Francisco, so I kept trying to take her to do other non tourist things. Turns out, it was so long ago she didn't even remember it!

We saw the bridge.

Acted like ninja's in Chinatown.

...and explored the coast.

This place scared us because we kept seeing signs like this everywhere.

We wanted to go explore this cave that was near the edge, but didn't want to die!!!

"Lets just go in and look around for like 10 seconds"

"Right. Famous last words"

Oh, and P.S. Lauren didn't have to pee, she is just holding Baxter's leash. haha.

We almost didn't go because we were being such wusses about it. Then, some guys were coming out of the cave and told us it is worth it to see in there. We sucked it up and went in. It was pretty cool I guess. I'm glad we didn't die though.

Laurey-Loo!

2010-04-02T18:24:00.000-07:00

Lauren came to visit us for her spring break. We had SO much fun! And, she felt good about being here since it is snowing like crazy back home.

Our first NO SNOW day was the beach! I'm glad we went when Nate could come with us. They both get restless on the beach, so they were off playing the whole time while I got to just lay out.

They had a sand sculpture contest with eachother. Nate did his "trademark" fetus in the sand.

I think they look the most alike out of all the kids in their family. Anyway, I just loved this picture. Their hands are all sandy from their sculptures.

We also went bowling with Uncle Mike. Lauren turns out, was the best out of all of us. She was even bowling with her wrong hand. I don't know if that means she is really good, or if we all really sucked.

Lauren just really likes to dance...

Oh, and just an update from the last blog post: we got new carpet. I emailed the apartments and told them everything and an hour later they called me asking when would be a good time for them to come in. It only took the carpet guys less than an hour to save my life. woot!

Madder Than a Wet Hen

2010-03-24T11:44:00.000-07:00

I think I may just be the first person in history to actually explode with anger.

Sorry, if you are reading this hoping for some juicy gossip. It's not. So you can stop reading now if that's what you're waiting for. This is going to be more of just the ramblings of an obsessed girl.

If you know me, you know that I'm pretty sensitive to smells. If anything smells off AT ALL, I will smell it and I will go CRAZY about it. Like right now.

When we moved in, before we even brought any of our things in, I could smell it. DOG PEE.

"No, that's not dog pee. It probably just smells because they just cleaned the carpets." Nathan assured me.

Maybe. Or maybe after a MONTH of trying to get rid of it, we can BOTH finally admit that it IS dog pee.

I first tried Fabreeze. I went through 2 1/2 bottles. At first it covered up the smell so well, I thought it may have actually worked. But, realized it really was just covering it up.

Next, I used carpet powder for pets. Nope, it also just made an extreme flowery cover-up smell.

Pure Baking Soda, maybe? I used 2 boxes. It seemed to KIND of work. I thought maybe it was working, before I realized, I need to get at the source. I had to get deep into the carpet if this smell is every going to go away.

So, I bought Nature's Miracle Advanced. It is a liquid you pour on the urine and leave it. When it dries, it's supposed to take the smell with it. Much like Fabreeze, only I found this at petsmart and they said it was the highest rated. I've used something similar that worked when Baxter was being potty trained. I poured it all over every spot I thought MIGHT smell even a little. This is it! No smell. I did it! I did it!

It dried and turned the carpet YELLOW. It wasn't yellow everywhere though, just in certain spots.

"what the..."

So, I took a sniff and it was EVEN MORE POTENT smelling pee! NOOOO! I guess that Nature's Miracle stuff dried and brought it up to the surface with it.

It was so bad that by the next day, Nate could no longer deny that it was definitely dog pee. We had to open all the windows and doors.

So, I rented a RugDoctor today. I bought special carpet cleaner and refilled the tank 3 times. The yellow spots were gone. I bent down and smelled just to make sure...

I'm going to KILL something.

It STILL SMELLS!

*update: after nate got home and i cried to him about it, he looked up some home remedies online. We have now just tried a weird mixture of vinegar, baking soda, hydrogen peroxide and detergent. cross your fingers.

Cupcakes

2010-03-23T18:47:00.000-07:00

Kara's VS. Sprinkles

Both are delicious. Or, maybe i just really like cupcakes.

Kara's Cupcakes:

-Easily found. I have stumbled upon 2 shops without looking for them. There is a shop 3 miles from where I live.

-Cute packaging. Even if you are only ordering 1 cupcake they give you a cute little box.

-GREEN:

sustainable ingredients
environmentally friendly packaging
green build out

green cleaning

landfill reduction
delivery fleet

Sprinkles:

- I have had the hardest time finding them. Always. Always being the 2 times I've ever searched for a shop. They are all the way out in Palo Alto too...so you have to go out and hang around a bunch of Stanford snobs.

- I don't like the bag. I would rather have a box.

- You can buy the mix! And, there is a recipe for the frosting on the mix package.

Verdict

SPRINKLES for the win. It just tasted better!

Girly?

2010-03-19T21:15:00.001-07:00

Sarah is right. I have been waiting to show pictures of our new place because I wanted it to be done. I am not sure it will ever be done! So, I'll show what I have so far.

Nathan and my taste in decoration couldn't be more opposite. I found this out when we were searching for a bedroom set when we got married. He wanted a giant 4 poster bed with tufted leather on the back. The posts would be thick with lions heads on top and paws on the bottom. He calls it, and I quote, "kingly". HAHA! He is very traditional in everything we look at. In fact I can tell he is going to suggest something as soon as I spot it and realize how ugly I think it is. ME on the other hand... I love barcelona chairs and the way Corbusier or Mies Van Der Rohe designed. Very simple. No clutter. I tried to pick things that were more transitional, so we could both be happy. Looking at it, I wonder if I've made it too girly? He hasn't complained yet, so I'm going to stick with it.

So, here is where we SHOULD eat, but instead take most of our food to the living room. I am thinking of adding something more to the dining area. Maybe a rug. I am just having such a hard time finding a rug! I actually DID buy one, but took it back the next day.

I have also thought of putting some sconces on either side of that mirror. I found some pretty cool wireless ones but, I can't remember where I saw them!

Orchids. They are the best. I hear they are hard to take care of, but this one just says to water it every 10 days... that seems doable. Also, this shows the color I put on the wall. It is pretty mellow, and I really like it so far!

I really wanted to get a new couch, but SOMEONE is being a real baby about getting rid of this one... Luckily it isn't too ugly and it really is pretty comfortable. I did buy an accent chair to go next to it, but it is taking forever to get here.

Annnd, the bookcase. I think it looks cluttered, so I'll probably be working more on that as well as finding a rug for this room. I guess I just don't know where to find really good rugs. I thought I found one at Crate & Barrel but got too scared to buy it. I just found out you can rent a sample of it (duh, I should've known that working at Donghia...) so I'll probably do that.

Don't worry, I'm not done. More to come later!

Sea Lions

2010-03-16T09:40:00.000-07:00

I love them.

They just look so cool! I had never seen a real one before. Once, we went to this pseudo museum and I saw one that they had stuffed. It was all cracked and scary looking. This time I got to see LOTS of them for real!

First things first. I love cupcakes, so we mad our way to this little cupcake shop at Ghirardelli Square. To be honest, they aren't the best cupcakes I've ever had. I think Sprinkles cupcakes are the best so far, or what I remember of them. I suppose I could've just built them up. ANYWAY, Kara's Cupcakes is one of those shops that is ridiculously priced. How expensive the cupcake is is directly related to how delicious you make it out to be when you are eating it. So, they were PRETTY delicious. My favorite is vanilla with chocolate frosting.

*Side note: after reminiscing about Sprinkles cupcakes I looked to see if there was a shop near here. There totally is. There is also a Kara's cupcakes shop 2 miles from where we live, so I'm going to have to do an official taste test. More on that later!

We decided to walk along the piers after eating at Ghirardelli Square. Every time I've done that, it isn't the right time of year for the sea lions I guess. Not THIS time! I was so excited.

Once we walked up to the docks where they are, there was a smell. It was quite familiar since it smelled exactly like Baxter breathing in your face. (Yes, for some reason Baxter ends up breathing in your face a lot. Especially if you are driving.)

Nate started getting bored of the regular "stand and pose" pictures, so they decided to mix it up a bit. They saw 2 preteen girls doing this one and decided it was cool enough I guess.

It was a lot of fun...until the bus ride back to the train station where we met sketchy-mcgee.

Public Transportation

2010-03-15T22:27:00.000-07:00

Since we don't have our car we've had to rely heavily on public transit.

What should have been a 45 min. drive turned into a 3 hour ordeal. I would think the worst part about it all, is how long you have to wait in between vehicles. Half hour at the bus stop. Twenty minutes at the train station....

Don't get me wrong, we had a blast once we got to where we were going. This blog is about...the other side.

It begins with me convinced I'm sitting in urine and ends with a death threat.

Since the first part pretty much speaks for itself, I'll tell you about the death threat.

It was getting late, and we had to get to the train station before the last train leaves for the night. We ran from bus stop to bus stop looking for the right one. Along the way there were people, directing us every which way claiming that they knew which bus we should take. We passed several scary figures lurking in the shadows with their garbage bags full of their possessions. They sometimes seemed like they were coming out of nowhere, suddenly appearing from the corner of your eye. I'm not even being dramatic, one little goblin made Ben jump because he didn't see him. When we finally got the mess of "which bus" sorted out, we found our stop and waited.

Coming from behind us, a man announces "Black man sitting down back here. White folks, I'm just letting you know that there is a black man gonna be sitting down. Sometimes you don't see me, I didn't want to alarm anyone. You turn around and say 'Ah, black man! i didn't see you!' So, I'm just letting you know...." on and on, this One.

It was obvious he was drunk and the guy he was with was on...something. All this time, I'm trying not to look at them. I didn't want him to talk to me! They scared me a little. For some reason, Nathan decides to get involved with them. They wanted Nate to lend them the money to get on the bus.

Nate says "I only have enough money for my ride."

"No problem, could you just open the back door so we can sneak on?"

"Sure."

Sure, Nathan?! SURE? Ok, well maybe that was the right answer because they left us alone (for the most part) after that...until the bus came.

We piled onto the bus. I noticed that they just got on when the back door opened for some people to get off anyway. Dang. I was hoping they wouldn't make it on.

The first few stops were uneventful until a bunch of the people got off. There was now a seat open next to the loud transient and he wanted everyone to know it. I think the moment I realized he was becoming belligerent was when one man refused to go sit next to him. Wrong move guy. They hassled him pretty much until he got off.

Now, he had moved onto talking to the people around him. I was TRYING not to pay too much attention to them (mostly HIM, since he was the more vocal of the two) but, he WAS sitting right behind us. I didn't want to draw attention to myself and have them start hassling me too! Apparently, not looking at them didn't matter as it turns out. I was only half listening to them at this point but, they were getting mad at some guy that was on the bus. This guy was obviously ignoring them because I never heard a rebuttal. Eventually they started talking about shooting him. "...two in the chest, one in the brain. Dead man walking." AH!

Just then, Melissa leans over and says "He's talking to Ben." BEN didn't even know he was talking to him. This Crazy was jabbing his finger at Ben's shoulder not quite touching him, so Ben was never any the wiser until they finally got off the bus.

They were on their way off and realized that Ben was with us. He said "OHHH, you're with these guys? You are all friends?"

"Yeah."

"Well you are the luckiest man in the world." Then, the bus stopped and they got off.

Yup. Public transportation. At least we did our part to save the environment.

Bad Luck

2010-03-13T17:38:00.000-08:00

I think I'm cursed.

I have had more car troubles in my short driving career than I care to count. I have taken my car to the same mechanic since I was in highschool. They are the best. Anyway, even they agree that I have terrible car luck.

We were on our way to the Monterey Bay Aquarium with Ben and Melissa when Nate just BLEW through a stop sign.

"Nate, that was a stop sign."

"I know! There is something wrong with the brakes!"

We pulled over and checked it out. When you press on the brakes a bunch of fluid spills out.

We all squished into the tow truck and ended up in downtown Mountain View. Don't worry, we went to a place thats BETTER than the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We went to a fish store!

After that, we spent the rest of the day trying to get home.

I think we were actually pretty lucky today. At least we didn't figure out our brakes no longer worked when we're on the freeway!

IKEA

2010-03-09T17:11:00.000-08:00

Never go there on a weekend.

Apparently, that is when everybody decides it's a nice place to take their family. Why you would take all 10 of your kids with you to a place that is already pretty crowded on a regular day is beyond me. Don't worry mommies, in a few years I'll be eating my words, you watch. Either way, this experience was enough to make Nate decide to never step foot in that place again. On an unrelated note we've decided to get Nate neutered.

This store is seriously a mess. We picked out all the stuff we wanted. Wrote down all the numbers and began our trek down to the warehouse to pick it up. I'm pretty sure it will be a grand day indeed when they actually have what you want in the place they say they have it. We couldn't find it. The employees weren't exactly helpful either.

"We can't find this bookcase. Here is the number for it"

clack clack clack..."It has been discontinued."

silence

"okaaay..."-nate.

"DAMN IT"-me

"You can go back upstairs and see if they'll sell you the floor model." Leaves.

Great. Knowing something is difficult to get just makes me want it all the more. We went upstairs and before you know it we're getting another sort of runaround. Yes, they'll sell it to us. BUT, we have to go back downstairs to get a cart for it. Really? Yes.

In the end of this frustrating saga, Nate had to take the whole thing apart to get it in our car. We were there for a few hours. Worth it! Since it was a little beat up we got it for 1/2 off! Once we got home we filled in the bad spots with marker and VOILA! Like new.

Here is our new bookcase. I love it. Now I get to go out and buy all sorts of little things to put in there. Everyone knows you don't really fill a bookcase with books.

Decor

2010-03-04T14:34:00.000-08:00

We're "nesting", Nate says...

I think he just wants me to do something to keep me occupied and happy.

To be honest, I don't really have anything to blog about, but I would like to give Sarah something to look at when she gets to go to the library.

Our trip out here was PRETTY uneventful. There was one thing, however. We saw a car accident and for some reason there was a plane sitting on the side of the road. A really small plane. I have no idea how it got there or why it was there. We think it was somehow connected to the accident, but can't know for sure.

We moved in pretty quickly. Within a day actually, which I think is pretty good. For some reason, it seemed...empty. We have vaulted ceilings, so I'm pretty sure that just added to the amount of space it looks like we have. Anyway, I was on the case. The case of the empty looking apartment, that is.

I majored in Interior Design, but I'm pretty sure my skills were more in the textile design, commercial space and document specs. than in the actual designing of residential space. They say that decorating you OWN space is much harder and I agree. I don't know how many things I've bought, only to take back the very next day...

Right now, we have painters over. I've never painted a wall before and I have that anxious tugging at the pit of my stomach that I get right before I buy something expensive or nonreturnable. Was it the right choice? So far, they've done one wall and yeah, it looks great!

I'll post pictures when it is more complete, until then, you can just wonder.

I blogged...

2010-03-02T11:37:00.000-08:00

Twice. I felt dumb about them, and erased them. Now, I feel like that was a mistake because if I ever want to blog about that same thing again, it will just seem silly to me.

Anyhow, if you are bored like me go to this girl's blog and help her out with a questionnaire for her thesis about blogging.

http://www.thekingandiblog.com/2010/02/king-and-i-need-you.html

You might get a bribe prize! :)

That is all.

New Diggs

2010-02-14T17:47:00.000-08:00

The search is over.

It came down to 2 places. Each with its own pros and cons.

"Lets just take one more look at both places and then decide."

SO, we drove out to the first one. We brought Baxter so he could explore the place instead of sitting in the car. We looked all around the apartment making sure there wouldn't be any major surprises when we move in. That's when it happened...

Baxter pooped, stepped in his own browns and then tracked it around the apartment.

"Well, I guess we'll just take this one then..."

VIVA

2010-02-02T14:35:00.000-08:00

We got so bored we went to Las Vegas for the weekend.

I like each visit more than the last.

We spent most of our time playing Keno. We left our hotel for a few hours one day, only to go play more keno at another casino!

When we weren't playing Keno, we tried our hand at Roulette. The first dealer we had scared the crap out of me. He wouldn't let me do anything, and had an accent so I could never figure out why.

After a few hours, we were professionals though. The last night we were there we had the BEST dealers. Fanya and Sherry. They were so nice they let me take pictures at the table, even though you're not really allowed to. There was also this crazy Cajun at our table too. He's the guy with the white hair, mustache and glasses. You can't see it, but he was missing his bottom teeth. (I suppose I should add that Nate doesn't think he was cajun. He thought the guy was Italian or something) Anyway, I won almost every time. Nate and the Cajun started putting their chips wherever I put mine. I ruined it though... I got too excited. I leaned over to put some chips on the far end and knocked over a drink. Party Foul. I'm pretty sure this was probably one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. They were so nice about it though. I said "oh, please tell me this has happened before". They teased me saying "Nope, never. Not even in the history of the whole casino." Anyway, I took that as my cue and got out while we were up.

We went to a couple shows while we were there. The first night, Penn & Teller. Best. Show. Ever. I LOVED them. Before the show started, you could go up and check out this big crate they had. Nate hit it, moved it, tipped it...everything. Nothing seemed too special about it. Pretty soon, the show started. Penn ran out from the side stage and then, BAM! Teller pops out of the crate!

Nathan's mind was blown.

They were all about the audience too. When it was all over they came out to the hallway to sign autographs and take pictures with whoever wanted them. Pen is HUGE. Out of all the times to not have my camera, this moment was the worst. Especially since Nate loves them so much. I thought about at least having them sign out tickets, but there were so many people...

Now, i think it was probably best to not meet them because I once stayed after to meet the cast of Wicked and they were all kind of douche-y. It ruined my idea of them.

The next night, we saw Cirque du Soleil. It was the Beetle's LOVE show. Weird, weird stuff. We got a drink from the concession and were pretty excited because it was basically a souvenir. Unfortunately, it was left in the cab on the way back to our hotel.

Nate ran into some real characters on this trip. He walked into the bathroom only to see this large man with a GIANT sized Big Gulp full of alcohol strapped onto his chest with a baby harness. He looked at the man, trying to take it all in when the guy says, "don't judge me!"

I can't wait to do it again.

GROWNUPS

2010-01-22T15:23:00.000-08:00

Nate was offered a job from his old mistress...Google.

Before we came home from the internships this summer, they interviewed him. Unfortunately, at the time, they weren't in a hiring position. It was a very sad time for us. So, Nate applied to anywhere and everywhere. Amazingly, he got several offers from other companies. I feel like we were very fortunate to have options in this economy. We were thinking "phew, this is it. We'll pick one and get going with our lives." Then, out of nowhere, Google calls!

CURVE BALL!

We waited 2 agonizing weeks to hear if the team and executives signed off on him. Today he officially accepts.

To be honest, I would have been ecstatic to hear that he was offered any crappy ole job as long as it was in California! Goodbye snow! Goodbye cold!

Congratulations, Nathan!

Boing, boing!

2010-01-20T13:07:00.000-08:00

The Game that ruins friendships...Super Mario Brothers Wii.

You can play with 4 players at a time and that can be VERY frustrating. You know we're playing it when you hear "GET OFF my head!", "Get out of the *(!@#-ing way!", "You pushed me off the edge, you idiot" and my favorite thing to say, "Oh...I thought I was you".

Despite a lot of hard feelings (mostly on my part, I don't like to be yelled at) it is pretty addicting. We had it for 3 days before conquering it. It's not over though. Apparently those giant coins we didn't care about before allow you to access secret world levels. Now we basically have to replay all the worlds (oh no). We've been playing it so much I actually dream in Mario Bro's... sad, but true. In fact, the other night when Nate came to bed he kissed me on the cheek and I started saying, "boing. boing. I'll get it."

I'm full blown addicted. Maybe I'll try to cut back a bit.

Admitting it is the first step.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-26T11:44:00.000-08:00

Dec. 25

I don't hate Christmas anymore! For some reason the last couple years I have been a real Christmas scrooge, hating people and all. This year, I got excited!

I went out to get stocking stuff and found out that Smith's Marketplace was giving away FREE Christmas Trees! I just had to do it. Our apartments smells like Christmas now. This began my excitement. I guess it just doesn't feel like Christmas without that tree!

Nate bought himself a present and passed it off as Santa giving Nate and Lila a gift. Really, he (apparently) knew that I hadn't bought him Killer Bunnies, so he went out and got it. I thought that was pretty funny.

I made a breakfast for everyone. It was delicious, but the house still smells like bacon. I forgot to shut all the doors that I didn't want the smell to go into.

I got an ipod touch. I opened the box and said "wait, is this real?" I felt really bad that he bought me that, since we're not exactly swimming in dough. As it turns out Nate was super thrifty. He cached in all his reward points from his credit card and got a bunch of Best Buy gift certificates. With those, he bought me the ipod! Turns out, I love it even more now that I know it was basically FREE!

I broke down and got Nate a Wii. I love using it to bribe people into coming over.

Sarah was AMAZING and made Christmas dinner. Her turkey was pretty much the best I've ever had. She was so cute and made our place cards sugar cookies with our names on them. She did great!

We also gave Charlie a few presents. He was so tired and done with opening presents that it took him a while to open them. We kept trying to make him open one and he got to mad that he picked it up and threw it at Nate. HA! That kid makes me laugh.

College Grads!

2009-12-08T13:10:00.000-08:00

Yeah, college!

Lila's college Highlights:

Meeting Nathan (duh)

Living with Kiara at Tabernacle Sq. Apts. and all the crazy stuff we did together.

Road trips

Themed Parties: Cocktail Party, Cowboys and Indians...

Going to the homecoming dance with Nate.

Ultimate tournaments

Ultimate parties

Getting Baxter

Study Abroad: London, Paris, Venice, and Florence.

Meeting Sharele at study abroad!

Living with Liz, Jency, Kiara, and Emily all at once. It was like finally having sisters.

Being a roomate with a cute preggo Liz.

Finally finding a major I fit into! Yay for Interior Design! Also, meeting Jessica because of it.

My internship

GETTING MARRIED!

...AND about a billion other things!

Nate's college highlights:

Meeting and marrying Lila

Playing Ultimate Frisbee

Gaining 30 lbs.

Internships at Google

(what a boy. Apparently he has a bad memory and can't really recall all the great stuff we've done the last few years)

These senior pictures (and more) are compliments of Sarah! She did such a great job. Here are the announcements I made to send out.

Turkey Day

2009-11-27T16:53:00.000-08:00

Thanks! (giving)

Games:

The Folkners LOVE 'em. The Maughan family, well...

The way Maughan children play games can be very frustrating to outsiders. Especially Folkners.

Most Maughan games end in the messing up of the board or cards (whatever is the main focus). There are several things that lead up to this outcome. The 2 main reasons are this: lack of interest, or extreme feelings (anger being the main one) We also cheat. Why? We just don't care about the game. OR, some may argue, we care TOO much about the game.

Most trips to Boise are about 75% game playing. Being a Maughan, I sometimes opt out of games. Especially if the main focus of the game is to screw other people over. I am just too sensitive for this type of game. Nate, being a Folkner, THRIVES on that sort.

Each Folkner has a different way they deal with games. Once the game is "in session", if someone is losing, there is a variety of phrases they will utter. "Well, this is a stupid game anyway", "This game is just all luck"or "You cheated".

There is also a variety of victory motions that range from arm air pumping, to rubbing their hands together fast enough to start a fire. Each motion specific to a certain person.

Baxter:

He spends most of his days trying to get OUTside. Not here. He spends most of his days waiting to get back in!

Cat:

The turkey incident of 2009.

Turkey sandwiches all around! Nathan was nice enough to make a few turkey sandwiches for us. He left the turkey on the counter for a few minutes thinking more sandwiches were likely to be made.

Enter: Cat.

She was all over it! The nasty part is that she only has one tooth in the back of her mouth, so the wasn't EATING the turkey, she was licking it. No more leftovers.

FAIL BLOG!

2009-11-16T14:21:00.000-08:00

Rope Swing Fail.

For those of you who actually have lives and are NOT nerds, this is what FAIL blog is:

"Fail and Epic Fail Pictures and Videos in one blog. For all those precious fail moments, whip out your camera and see your epic fail picture and videos here."

An example of this would be:

Billboard Fail.

Lets back up. The story begins with another time-waster website called Reddit. People can submit anything they find interesting, pictures, videos, news, articles... Then, other users can either up vote, or down vote your posts.

Nathan posted something that he particularly thought should be up voted and commented on, but nothing was happening. He had me create an account to help the popularity of it.

It made me want to submit something too just to see if anyone would care.

"It's kind of hard to get up votes, lila..."

That's it, with my brand new account, I will post ONE thing and get more up votes than all of his posts put together. So, I submitted a video. You've all seen it in an earlier blog post of mine. The rope swing.

After linking it to YouTube, I posted it. It pretty much bombed. Not only did it get NO up votes, I actually got one DOWN vote for my video! jerks.

It may have sucked on reddit, but maybe a lot of people are looking at it on YouTube, at least. So, I checked. 20 views, huh? Those were probably all me.

I checked it the next day. 1,500? I definitely didn't check it THAT many times! Wow, maybe I'll show Nate. By the time he looked at it, it doubled. 3,000 views.

Pretty soon, I got an email from FAIL blog requesting to use the video!

And, there it is. Front page of FAIL blog. <--link (go there, give it 5 thumbs down)

I guess in the beginning I was just trying to appeal to the wrong crowd!

Thanks Nate, for trying to impress me.

24!

2009-11-15T18:00:00.000-08:00

November 11. My birthday. If I wasn't already married, I would officially be considered an "old maid" according to Utah standards.

I got that sleek new camera I've been hinting at for the last few months. I guess sometimes he really does listen to me! I love love love it. It's red-- "so you won't lose it at parties". Perfect. The whole thing is just what I wanted.

I LOVE Italian food. Nate made us reservations to my favorite gnocchi provider.Le Nonne. They not only gave us some much needed delicious leftovers, but also my birthday "cake" which turned out to actually be creme brulee.

Since the 11th fell on a weekday, I forced everyone to drop everything this weekend and pay attention to me. We ate breakfast an Angies and then played Settlers at our house. David takes this game very seriously.

I really had a great birthday. It's nice to know that at least once day out of the year, people will shower you with gifts, attention and a willingness to do whatever you want!

Happy

2009-11-07T18:06:00.000-08:00

Today was just a bad mood day. I went around just being angry. Hating everyone and everything.

Can't find my blue cardigan? Throw a tantrum.

Internet isn't going fast enough? Slam the computer shut and yell at technology.

Dog barks at an invisible intruder? kick him. (no, i would never kick my dog. But, you get the point)

Finally, I thought to myself: "what could make me feel better?" I got it! A sugar cookie from Old Gristmill. So, off we went only to find out that no, it is not sugar cookie day.

Einstein Bagel has some pretty delicious sugar cookies, and they are right across the street! We walk up to the display...what?! No sugar cookie? So, I ask, "are you out?" Yes. Yes they were. How? It was barely even lunchtime. Did they only make ONE cookie to last the whole day? Anger. RAGE!

It's just a cookie, lila. Move on. Ugh, so I tried. Maybe later, some other place will have something I want. At the end of the day, I remembered, Lion House has Crackle Cookies!

Problem is, unless you get there before 2, they are always gone. I made up my mind. I will go in and decide to get something else. Then, if they HAPPEN to have a crackle cookie, it'll be even better.

*side note: I used to go into the Lion House every once in a while just for a cookie. (what can I say, cookies are my comfort food) Kristi (the cutest girl ever) was always working when I went in. Now, that she is back from her mission, she is working there again.

Moment of truth. We walk in. I see the display. No crackle cookies. Well, thats alright since I'd set my mind on something else (it worked, I wasn't even mad). So, we bought 2 snickerdoodles. I paid, and as I was putting my change away, Kristi said, "oh, wait here just 2 seconds." So, I waited.
She came back with a little bag of CRACKLE COOKIES!!
"I remembered how much you like these and these are day old ones that we were just going to get rid of anyway."

Completely turned me around. I can't even describe how much this made my whole weekend.

In fact...I think I'll blog about it.

*ps. Liz had to put up with me all day also. She deserves a medal. Thanks girls!

Animals, Candy, and Douche Bags...

2009-11-04T11:10:00.000-08:00

*disclaimer: This blog contains some "immature adult" content. Read on...if you dare!

Unwilling to spend the night explaining to people what I was, I went with the very cliche, "cat". Last year I was a part of an inadvertent "peter pan" theme (i was tiger lily) so the idea of a theme was also very appealing. The "island house" roommates (liz, sharele, jency and daniella) were all doing an animal theme (jency was not an animal. she was Jessica Rabbit). It was a good idea so I jumped on THAT band wagon REAL quick.

ME: cat, Sharele: peacock, Liz: baby bird, Jency: Jessica Rabbit

I realllly wanted Nate to be a dog. Unless I was the one to put the costume together, we all know that wasn't going to happen. Not to worry, he DID dress up...

Ben, came into town to grace us with his presence for the weekend. With Nate and Ben's powers combined they came up with the costume to beat all other douche bag costumes. They were the guys from Saturday Night Live's "Dick in a box" skit.<---link

(You will also see reference to this skit on the lastest episode of the Office where Michael inappropriately dresses up as one of them for a children's halloween carnival.)

I was busy trying to get ready for the party, so I put Nate on Doorbell Patrol. This is the first year we've ever even HAD trick-or-treaters! Everytime the bell rang, (despite the fact that our guard dog, Baxter would start barking) I had to tell Nate to answer the door. Eventually we just stuck the bowl outside so we wouldn't have to answer it anymore! It didn't work. About 10 min. later, someone rang the doorbell to tell us that the bowl was empty. I'm not going to lie I was pretty pissed off, since I'm convinced that the teenagers who rang to tell us it was empty were probably the ones who stole it all!

While we waited for the party, Josiah, Sarah and Charlie came by to show us Charlie's first Trick-or Treating costume. He was a puppy! Unfortunately, I wasn't ready yet, so we didn't get a good Cat/Dog picture. OH, I found out that Seth was also a puppy! CUTE!

The "island house" had a party where you had to be invited by one of the roommates SPECIFICALLY or you couldn't get in. At least that was how it was supposed to be, in theory. We got there and recognized everyone. Everyone, except this one weirdo who was drinking some kind of nasty smelling alcohol out of a Big Gulp cup. (tacky) He started talking to me and I was immediately put off by his whole demeanor. I'm pretty sure he was trying to impress me by telling me he doesn't usually go to "this kind of party" as he is part of a frat. Rule of Thumb: being a part of a frat is only cool to people who are A) IN a frat, or B) WISH to be a part of a frat. So, I was rude. I told him to go away, and ignored him by turning to someone else and starting up a conversation. He didn't go away until Nate walked up and I introduced him as my husband. (yay for being married!) Don't worry, I'm pretty sure he deserved it since at the end of the night we discussed it and figured out that NOBODY knew who this guy was! (p.s. guy if you're reading this, we're pretty sure you were the one who ate food from the fridge even though there were hors d'oeuvres on the table. Party Foul, man...)

Here is Liz and Cody (dressed as Tobias from Arrested Development) playing some candy poker.

When I got to the party, I saw Pete in that trench coat and asked "what are you supposed to be?" they told me, "he's a flasher." I didn't really get what that was, so I started asking him questions when all the sudden-- FLASH! He opened his trench coat! Don't worry, he's wearing underwear (of sorts).

He went around all night doing this everytime we wanted to take a picture

Liz saw the whole thing and just happened to be standing there and got my reaction once I realized that he was, in fact, wearing something under there.

Some of the other great couple costumes included: Brett and Emily who were French Aristocrats.

Jessica and Leard, they were 20's people.

Bonnie and Dylan who went as Velma and Shaggy from Scoobie Doo!

FUN! This was a good Halloween (finally). I usually think Halloween is just a waste of time and all the "parties" we end up going to are pretty lame. That is why Liz decided to actually HOST one this year. It turned out pretty eventful (and fun) I must say!

Fashion Remix

2009-10-26T10:51:00.000-07:00

We drove down to Salt Lake to see our professors' (Darrin Brooks and Susie Tibbits) entry in the Fashion Remix contest. It is an IIDA sponsored interior design challenge.

Designers team up with a vendor (tile, carpet, 3form...) and make high fashion haute couture. Sharele and I drove down early so we could make it to cocktail hour and try to mingle with some of the designers around the area. I've said it before and I'll say it again, our profession is full of some pretty self important people. It was intimidating to say the least. In the end, we just found all the people we already knew and mingled with them! It was fun to see some of our classmates who have graduated and moved on to work for design firms and stuff.

Chelsey was one of our friends who interned with Lisman Studio this summer and was offered a job! She took it, and is now working for LaMar Lisman, who is an interesting designer. Chelsey always looks so classy.

The actual fashion show was only about 20 min. and then we waited for about an hour for the results. We found our friends and took about a million pictures since it was much too loud to actually hold any sort of conversation. There were about a million camera flashes going off. All, ours! On ourselves. haha.

Most of our talk was about how they closed the highway down so some of us didn't make it. Apparently, a plane dropped something near Hill Air Force base. It was all cleared up by the time we had to go home though, thank goodness.

I'm pretty sure this picture of Sharele looks like a paparazzi shot. She could be found in OK! or Us Weekly or something!

Some of the materials seemed impossible to make clothing from, but somehow they did it! The dress that won "best in show" was actually made from wood veneers. Those big flowers were made by shaving the veneer so it was really thin. Pretty cool.

All of the members of the design team had to participate in the contest, so the models are actually designers. Our model is Nekku. She is a junior in our program. This is the dress that Darrin came up with. I thought it was so much better than some that got awards. If it was made from different material, it could totally be a wedding dress or something.

Here are all the models together. You can see the girl in the egyptian looking clothing. That is actually made out of tile and weighed over 100 lbs! She said it was cutting into her shoulders pretty bad.

Some of the clothing was versatile. The model would come out looking one way and then untie something, or let what they were holding drop, to change the look of the dress. Some of it was clever, but others were pretty funny. They would untie their thing and throw away whatever held it smacking whoever was sitting in the front row! This girl kept swinging her arms around and the people had to duck out of the way!

All around it was a lot of fun!

Fall Break

2009-10-19T13:07:00.001-07:00

Thomslie (a combination of Thomas and Leslie) came to visit us last weekend. They are our good friends from California. It was SO exciting to see them again! I love showing people all the great things that I love here.

Nate took them shooting Saturday morning in Clarkston with Josiah. They pulled up to a campground that Josiah's friends were staying at and pulled out the shotgun. As soon as they got the clay pigeons ready-- guys came from all over the camp site pulling guns out. They grabbed guns up from the ground, out of their pockets, and off of their trucks to do some shooting. As soon as they released the disc--Bam! Bam! BAm....and NOBODY hit it.

Baxter tagged along with them and HATED the loud shot the gun makes! It scared him so much he ran right over to Leslie and LEAPED into her arms! She tried to put him down, but he would have none of it.

Then, we hiked up to the windcaves. I forget how long that hike is. Pretty, and the end is worth it...but long. And steep.

You can barely see Leslie here... She looks so small on that cliff. SO scary. I hate getting near the edges like that because I feel like I'll just get dizzy and fall off.

The next morning we had our traditional Angie's breakfast, so they could eat like a local. (I'm gonna go ahead and try to put a plug in for Angies in all my blogs now apparently...) And we showed them around campus. They showed us around their campus once (Cal Poly) and at the time I used to think it was like Utah State...only tropical.

I swear none of those were photoshopped (other than to crop them). They had the best camera! I want a great new camera like that. (hint, hint nathan?)

ULTIMATE!

2009-10-10T19:37:00.000-07:00

Frisbee, that is.

Matt and Nate are in charge of the Ultimate Frisbee club's annual tournament. The University of Utah, BYU, Montana State, Colorado State along with a few others show up every year to our Big Sky Warm up tournament.

Nate didn't play, not only because he decided to take a break from being on the team, but also due to the (recently mentioned) rapid aging he has undergone. He is pretty much like a grandpa, physically. After taking him to the emergency room and then to an orthopedic surgeon, we learned that Nathan has herniated 3 discs in his lower back. One is pushing pretty heavily on the nerve that connects to his left leg, so he limps around and has a lot of pain. The doctor prescribed physical therapy, and for him to get up and walk around at least every 20 minutes. I feel so bad for the poor guy! He's dealing with it like a champ though.

Our team (USU) won 3 out of the 5 games they played today. Pretty good! They play again tomorrow. I can't even imagine exerting myself that hard for that long. All that sprinting...ugh.

Nathan's brother, Ben, designed the discs that they are using this year. They sold like hotcakes! It looks like this...except for navy blue instead of black.

After the tournament, we went out for dinner to celebrate how smooth today went. We wanted to go to the new place in town the Texas Roadhouse. After we pulled up, we started walking to the entrance and saw Matt walking in front of us. Nate started yelling "MATT!!! hey matt, we're over here!" I was so embarrassed so I tried to get him to stop, but it only egged all of them on more. Nate, Lauren and David all began to get Matt's (and everyone else sitting outside) attention. Aw geeze...

Well, it was going to be an hour wait, so walked around to the benches outside and sat next to the tinted windows, space heater and speakers they had blaring country music. It was a country song we all recognized, so to get back at Nate for embarrassing me, Lauren and I started singing with it loudly! Then, Lauren started dancing.

What she didn't realize was that those tinted windows had people sitting behind them eating. We just couldn't see them. Once Nate pointed out that fact, hilarity ensued. That girl is so crazy! I love having her as a sister.

Anyway, Sunday is the last day of the games. It's going to be cold and wet! I'll still go up for the moral support. Who am I kidding, I really just like to heckle the players.

Bridge Boarding

2009-09-27T15:07:00.000-07:00

We went down to the island and tried our hand at bridge boarding.

Cody made these great boards to use. You just tie a rope to the bridge and hold on to the handle like you do wakeboarding.

I had to watch a couple people at first, but Cody was good at teaching you how to get on. Its definitely a learning curve, but once I got used to it I started trying stuff out! After you learn how to get the board to go where you want other than just getting sucked to the side, you can pretty much do anything. I did a 360 (slowly) and then got cocky and tried to do it a little faster. I went down! I'm glad I did because you quickly learn that it doesn't hurt. It's just a little cold!

We all took a turn and Nate decided that he wanted to give it a go himself. He's completely dressed because he recently aged about 60 years and has back pain. He wasn't planning on trying it, but here he is! I'm glad he did, cause it was a lot of fun.

We had Baxter with us and he was running everywhere. I'm not sure how, but he ended up in the little canal and luckily Cody was behind all the white water (to catch the board). He said the current was just a LITTLE too strong for the little guy, so he plucked him out and put him on the shore. Well, since Baxter was already wet, I thought, "might as well have some fun with him". I had Nate stick him on the board with me. All I could think was, "I'd better keep the nose up or we're gonna lose Baxter!" I was worried, but it was fun. It inspired them to see if Baxter was good enough to bridge board himself. So, we took the board that they had already tied a rope onto directly (so they wouldn't have to worry about chasing it) and we stuck him on!

I was so scared for him at first but we placed people everywhere. He even fell off a couple times and Trevor just picked him right up!

WAY fun. If you've never done it, you have got to try at least once.

Paint the Street (and more!)

2009-09-22T21:17:00.000-07:00

It's homecoming week at Utah State! Every year all the clubs and organizations paint the main campus street. You are supposed to come up with something very Utah State-y while still showing who your organization is in a clever way. This year we had a brilliant plan.

It was Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe, only we used Big Blue! Genius. Interior Design--art for the wall. Anyway, it turned out really great. We used a stencil cut out of cardboard, so it was super easy too!

Here is sharele painting in the purple.

Seniors!! This was a good time to do paint the street. I'm proud of us.

Other interesting things:(aka: "and more!")

Nate went on a mini backpacking trip with Josiah, Ben and Trevor up the Wellsvilles. They wanted to get one in before it got too cold. Apparently, they hiked up where pretty much NOBODY ever goes so they all came back with some major scratches all over their legs. Nate's favorite camo shorts got torn to shreds. R.I.P. camo shorts. I'm sure Nate will miss you.

(also, plaid and camo shorts? come on nate...)

This weekend was kinda rough on the restaurant service. Us girls tried to go to Firehouse for dinner and we found out why there is so many people waiting outside. They never let you leave!

Here we are. So unsuspecting...

Also, Nate and I went to Chili's, sat there forever and nobody ever came out to take our order. Not even our drinks! So, we went where we KNOW we're gonna get good service...Angie's. It's where the locals eat.

Cabin

2009-09-13T12:43:00.000-07:00

Matt and Leslie invited us to spend the weekend at their cabin with them in Bear Lake.

When we got there we ate the BIGGEST pizza I've ever seen. They call it the Old Ephraim.

When we got home, they took out the 4 wheeler around the hillside. Baxter went chasing after them and got lost! It was ok because we found him before too long. I swear we've lost that dog more times than I care to mention.

More people showed up and we played games all night. I ended up laying on the couch with a cold damp rag over my eyes because my allergies were so bad. My eyes were bright red and swollen and it was just miserable for a while. Nate went and got me some Benedryl, which helped a little. Mostly it just made me real sleepy. I ended up taking a nap (happily) on the beach the next day while everyone played on wave runners. They are so crazy on those things! I was too scared to take one out!

We also played Mafia. What a fun game!

It was a good weekend! I love the beach.

Day Off

2009-09-07T15:22:00.001-07:00

I always feel like since I have a day off from school, I should be productive with it. Like right now I SHOULD be doing homework, but instead I'm blogging.

Anyway, we went to Wellsville Founder's Day! I miss my cute little town.

I spent all day doing laundry at Sarah and Josiah's yesterday. Nate came to get me and started playing with Charlie. Charlie wanted to look like Tio Nate. What a little nerd.

Memory Lane

2009-09-04T18:36:00.000-07:00

Nate got all my pictures from my old hard drive and put them on my laptop! I was so excited-- until I started looking at the pictures. Most were taken in 2005 when I met Nate. How on earth could he have ever been attracted to me? um...why didn't anyone take away my tweezers?

I also took a few movies around that time. This is HANDS DOWN my FAVORITE movie of all time.

Opening Social

2009-09-02T18:20:00.000-07:00

...for Interior Design! We ordered a bunch of pizza, had cookies and lots of drinks.

I always love the opening social. I finally got to meet all those cute little ones that you always SEE at Seminar, but never know who they are. Although, after the opening social I hardly ever see them again.... lol. maybe I scare them off. I dunno.

The Great Clothing Swap

2009-09-01T15:27:00.001-07:00

GIRLS NIGHT!

Can I just say how much I've missed girls nights? Despite what Nathan says about them, they are much needed by us girls. This summer I was at the beach and there was this group of girls sitting behind us just talking and looking at magazines and I got the biggest girlfriend withdrawals! I didn't even hate their mindless subjects and half spoken sentences.

Sooo, Liz (the genius) came up with the greatest idea for a girls night. We all get all the clothes we have been meaning to get rid of and see if anyone wants them! Anything not taken just goes to the D.I.! Or Somebody's Attic since they donate to CAPSA.

Sharele and Emily reacting to something being shown.

YAY! New clothes!

I didn't actually bring anything because I wasn't ready to part with all the ugly clothes I have quite yet. Buuuut, I did take home a couple of really great new pieces!

Thank you Becky!

...and Em

Bear Lake

2009-08-31T09:52:00.000-07:00

After planning out our whole semester, the IDSA presidency headed up to Bear Lake! It was so much fun. We are going to have a pretty awesome year in the Interior Design Department this year with these people running the show.

After our day was over, they all headed home and I waited... Nate was supposed to come up with Jessica and Leard but I couldn't get ahold of them! Luckily Sharele was already at Bear Lake with Pete and the boys so I met them at the free beach.

The next day Sarah, Josiah, Charlie and Josh all came up for a couple hours. As soon as they got there, everyone was ready to go! man! Well, I wasn't-- so we hung out for a couple more hours making sand castels in the middle of the water on a sandbar.

Here is Sarah and her volcano.

I'm so sad that summer is almost over. Good thing we'll most likely be leaving before the REAL cold hits!