Tuesday, January 20, 2009
It's free!
and I got free stuff! I guess there is some law suit out there where
these department stores have to give away $175 million in certain
products and since I normally buy my perfume and face lotion there, I
figured I should take part. Yeah!
Sunday, January 18, 2009
From 0 degrees to 87 degrees all in one day.
This morning we left our Utah hotel room at 5:40 am to drive 9 hours back to sunny California. The temperature at 5:40 was 0 degrees…. And in 9 hours we were back to the sunny 87 degree weather that California can usually boast for January—but man did we have a fun trip! A lot of it was centered around meeting different people for meals, which was a lot of fun as we got to catch up with everyone as well as eat some of our favorites!
Me and Peanut
On Friday I arrived in Salt Lake and Russ picked me up to take me to go and meet GJ and Amelia’s new little girl… “Peanut” (Peanut is her blog name) Stowell. She was so adorable cooing and looking around while we held her and chatted away with Amelia. Amelia always has the best stories and it was so fun to hear all about her latest news!!! I loved watching “Peanut” wrinkle her forehead…. It was so cute!
We then headed down to Provo to meet newly expecting parents—Tyler and Desiree. We did a “BEST OF PROVO” night and went crazy on our meals. We started out with sharing an appetizer—amazing Sweet Potato Fries at Guru’s on Center Street. We then headed over to Smokehouse BBQ & Pizza around the corner on University Avenue and ordered a pizza and wings to share. We decided that they had changed their dough recipe since that last time we had gone, but man was it good. We then hung out with them in the lounge in our old Schooled Magazine building as we let the main course settle. Of course the Tyler & Russ had their own comedy hour while Desiree and I laughed and caught up ourselves. To end the special night we headed over to Coney’s where Russ got his infamous Cyclone—I think he adds like 5 or 6 toppings into it to make it the “Russ Madness” version of the dessert—while the rest of us had regular Cyclones and sundaes.
Me and Kaia
Saturday was just as full of friends and family. We headed out in the morning to meet Chris and Lynsey at Magleby’s Fresh for their special all you can eat pancakes and French toast. Russ and I were so full from the previous nights excursion we could only eat half of our plates, but man was their breakfast yummy! We got to meet Kaia Williamson, born one day after “Peanut.” I held her for a long time and was enchanted by all of her cute facial expressions! I love how good babies smell and how soft their skin is! Chris was so proud of Kaia’s chunky legs that he made a special effort to show us how big they were—which were so cute!
We then ran over to Circuit City (where we briefly saw Jeff Barlow), and University Mall where I went crazy with buying SHADE t-shirts and tank tops (I love how modest and comfort fitting they are—if you are looking for some awesome undershirts, you totally have to check them out www.shadeclothing.com, my favorite are the cap sleeve basic layering shirts) who was having a sidewalk sale and had shirts at $8.99 each! I also went to Express’ 70% off sale and used the gift card Scott gave me for Christmas and got some amazing deals—thanks again Scott!
Next we rushed over to meet Kristen and Riley, and Jeff and Becca for lunch at Café Rio where we chatted the lunch hour away. Kristen and Riley had just come from snowboarding at Sundance and Jeff and Becca from running errands so it was fun to catch up on all of their news.
Then we headed over to Gold Smith Jewelers where we had some trade from the magazine to use. I went crazy--- I was like a kid in a candy shop. I don’t know what I’m going to do when we don’t have the magazine any more and I don’t get my yearly jewelry fix…. Hum, Russ better start budgeting! :) Anyway, I picked out this amazing ring—it’s a Hearts On Fire Adoration Five-Stone Band (http://www.heartsonfire.com/us/en-us/diamond-collection/view-details.php?type=1&style_name=DrmSc5B&item_id=3170&item_name=Adoration+Five-Stone+Band&type_id=1&type_name=Rings&subtype_id=2&subtype_name=Wedding%20Bands) that is absolutely beautiful. All Hearts On Fire diamonds are perfectly cut where they go through this really long preparation…. The website has a ton of information on it. Russ and I celebrated our five-year anniversary this year, so the I wanted to get something sentimental to go along with the celebration and this was the perfect find. I had to order it in my size so I should get it in the next few weeks! I’m so excited!
Jeff and Becca’s was next on our list and we were dying to see their new home, so we headed over and got the tour. It’s huge and so gorgeous! Congratulations guys!!! We then headed over to Costco for the boys to look at TV’s while Becca and I chatted away on the Costco couches. Some people finally had to come up to us to ask us if we wouldn’t mind moving because they wanted to try out the couch! I guess we were there for a little too long! ☺
The traditional meet up at Macaroni Grill was next on the days’ itinerary and GJ, Amelia, Peanut, Tyler, Desiree, Chris, Lynsey and Kaia all came for some good food and fun conversation. It was the first time in years that Russ didn’t order his normal Penne Rustica, and tried a Chicken Parmesan Salad… so it was a dinner of new records and proportions for us! It was also a first time for the other couples to meet each others new editions….which was fun!
Chris and Lynsey then graciously offered for all of us to come over and hang out at their house, where an insane game of Catch Phrase occurred. Some of the favorites of the night were when Amelia tried to explain rapper LL Cool Jay by saying “He’s a rapper…. And he’s black…. And he wears hats all of the time…” Unfortunately we didn’t get that one. And then I had a hard time explaining Chuck Norris… and I said “His first name rhymes with ‘puck.’” Yeah that one got people laughing hysterically. Another one I had was I was trying to explain the KGB, but Amelia thought the Russian Mafia/CIA was the KKK.... pretty funny stuff. We had so much fun with the game that we played it for almost three hours! It seemed like the night ended too quickly and we were off to the hotel again.
Russ drove the whole way home which was awesome because it meant that I could sleep a portion of it… and we chatted the rest of the time. The trip was so much fun and I’m so glad that I was able to go up and meet the new babes and hang out with such amazing people! On our way home Russ and I were talking about how our perfect world would be if everyone moved down and lived in California with us—because we miss everyone so much!!! We can’t wait for our next trip out there.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Off with his head.
them with some past high school friends. I accidentaly left them in
our "media room". Since russ has been gone for the past two weeks. I
hadn't gone in there. But tonight as I was vacuuming the house, I came
to find this. My senior yearbook torn to shreds. If it had been one
of the other years, I probably wouldn't have been as upset, but this
was my senior yearbook. And all of the back pages where everyone signs
have been completly eaten and shredded. Baxter spent an hour in a dark
bathroom as punishment. I don't know when he did it, but as soon as I
went into the room and started to cry, he knew he was in big trouble.
I don't have any more words, I'm devestated that the memories of my
high school days that were captured in that leather bound book are now
gone.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
My very first silk floral arrangement
It's almost finished! I still have to add three more flowers and I'll have accomplished my first silk floral arrangement! My mom and I have been looking for something to fill this spot in the great room/smoothie bar area and we were baffled at the $300-$400 price tags for silk floral arrangements.... So I said--hey I can do the same thing for a fraction of the cost. So my mom and I went to Michaels where she picked out the types of silk flowers she liked. We figured out a scheme, and tonight I designed the arrangement. All for around $100. It's a pretty big arrangement around 3 feet tall and about a foot wide. Not too shabby huh? I'm excited that I've had some fun projects lately to do to spark up my creative juices--not to mention the fun I've had with my mom shopping and deciding what flowers to use!
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Friday, January 2, 2009
Scott & Carly are ENGAGED!!!!!!
Russ' brother Scott popped the question to his girlfriend on New Years Eve at the Seattle Space Needle. Look at how cool these pictures turned out--they almost look like a fake background. We've heard the proposal was like a fairy tale!
Their plans are to wed in June of this year in Seattle.
I still have yet to meet Carly (Russ got to meet her right before Christmas), but I have spoken to her on the phone and she is fantastic! I'm so excited to have the final addition to our family (with the exception of all of those grandchildren to come!).
Congratulations Scott & Carly!
(*P.S. A special thanks to whomever grabbed these priceless pictures--thanks for letting us be able to share them!)
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Happy New Year!
So I have officially decided today that Russ and I have gotten boring over the last little bit... yep, that's right...
B - O - R - I - N - G.
I don't know if it's because we hit our 5 year mark together, or if it was the move to California moving away from certain friends, or from being part of the magazine and always knowing what was going on and the different options always available, or what -- but we're no longer the party animals we used to be.
Don't get me wrong, I am happy where we are at... but I do miss all of the late night Schooled parties, the Settlers game nights with GJ & Amelia, the Macaroni Grill dinners with Tyler & Desire, tennis with Chris & Lynsey, different crazy weekend activities, and something to do almost every night of the week.
I think that I have decided that this is going to be my New Years resolution this year... doing more fun and unique things. I'll be checking the community calendars, keeping my ears open for cool concerts, plays and such... and just being more spontaneous and fun what we do.
Russ has decided that his new year goal this year is going to be a race car driver. He is having so much fun with his car and doing a whole bunch enhancements and upgrades to it, that he's started to take it to the track. He's loved it so much that he's going to try to make it a "permanent" hobby--and start taking it to races....
So bring it on 2009..... here come the Taylors!
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