Summertime Socializing

It feels like I've been up to a lot lately!

On Thursday I went to a delicious Rice King lunch with Caitlin and Kayla! Kayla was in town for a week, so I saw her for the first time since my freshman year of college. Her baby Wes is ADORABLE, as you can tell from her blog. I was so happy to meet him! As the 3 of us are pretty into blogging, and have a strong blogging relationship with each other, you'd think that one of us would think to take a picture for our blogs. Unfortunately, we didn't.

That night I went to the bridal shower for Hillary. She is Celia's roommate, and is marrying Caitlin's brother. We had a great time eating pie and drinking limeade. It's the first bridal shower I've been to since mine! It was super fun--Caitlin did a good job putting it together. Isn't Hillary adorable? I swear she is just the prettiest girl!

Friday was exciting as well. After meeting Kyle for dinner and going shopping (I got cute Gap jeans for $6!) Celia and I got dressed up and went to Coreyann's wedding reception! I can't believe Coreyann is married! She was a gorgeous bride, of course. Celia and I had a great time in Lehi with the friends we saw there. I also fell in love with a tractor. We visited Katy P. at Ikea (I have gone to Ikea every single week since I got back to Utah--is that 6 times now?) and had fun chatting with her. And buying exciting treats from the As Is section--MY FAVORITE.Saturday was AWESOME. Celia and Kyle and I made a trip to Costco, and Smiths, and then had a fantastic barbecue with just the three of us! Well, four, if you count Toby, which we do. We sat in the shade at Kiwanis Park while Kyle fired up our cute new grill that we got for our wedding. Kyle is truly a man now that he's made the womenfolk some hot dogs and hamburgers. We ate ourselves sick and lounged in the park--it was incredible. Then we visited some awesome antique shops on Center Street, which is one of my new favorite things to do. The owner wants us to get the word out about his shop. Cat's Cradle on Center Street. You should go there. It's beautiful. Celia got a gorgeous necklace that I'm in love with, and we almost got Kyle some awesome Czech cuff links.
After a two hour nap, Kyle and I went to a pizza party at Carrie's! It was fun to go to Park Place again, and reunite with some old friends there. We made an awesome pepperoni pizza and continued to eat ourselves sick. We love doing that.

After the party, Kyle and I went home and watched a scary movie, 1408 with John Cusack. Neither of us are very good at watching scary movies--but Kyle won it on his last day of work at Platinum (YAY!) and so we had to watch it. And it was STUPID but of course we were scared silly!

I love it

This is my apartment currently. I'm in love with it. Kyle did such an amazing job!

Our Swanky Summer Housewarming Party was really fun! All the pictures are up on facebook--there's some good ones. It was cool to have a bunch of friends over, many of whom didn't know each other. The raffle was exciting--Amanda was the Grand Prize Winner, and Council Bluffs and Alan won the 2nd and 3rd place prizes. The rest of us got to keep our lucky rocks, whereas CB/Alan/Amanda are probably going to die soon because they kept UNlucky rocks. I hope they're okay.

It's Late!!!!!!!

Guys! Do you see what time it is?? It's past midnight and I'm still awake! We just got home from fun times! I feel young again. I only feel married when it's like 9:15 and I'm worried about going to bed late. That's how lame we've been since we put new rings on our fingers. So tonight, for the first time in a long time, I feel cool.

We're up late because Celia and I spent hours deep-cleaning her carpet to get rid of years of cat urine. Then Kyle came over and we put up curtains and the wackiest lamp ever. THEN we met Nieman and Christian and we all went to Sammy's for milkshakes. There, I had a REALLY fantastic milkshake and discovered that an enemy is actually a friend. Both events were quite shocking.

Anyways, I just want everyone to know that we're still hip and young. We still got it!

Bright Spot

Something you may not know about me is that I love Vera Bradley. Her bags just kill me. You may not know that because I could never, in a million years, afford to satisfy that craving. I'm only acquainted with Vera because Celia and Ashley have a multiplicity of her products--it's an East Coast thing.

Well, my friends, my life has just been changed. Thanks to Celia and her adorable mom Homa, I am now the proud owner of the Betsy bag in the Peacock print. My favorite style and favorite pattern. I've only had it for two days and already I'm cooler, classier, and prettier. My outlook on life has changed, and my perspective is more positive. I am a happier individual because of that amazing, generous, beautiful gift.
I am now a totally legitimate lover of Vera Bradley!

Big Green Hunk

Over the years we've come up with lots of nicknames for our dad--and my favorite has always been The Big Green Hunk. I think we called him that because he had some great black/green pants with lizards on them. He was "the hunk" because we thought (and think) he was so handsome--a mix between Harrison Ford and Charlton Heston (which is totally true, by the way--Indiana Jones meets Ben Hur!)
I'm trying to avoid being all cheesy and gushy, but it's true that I love my dad and think he's the best. Mostly everyone who reads my blog knows my dad, so you know how awesome he is. He is so fun--today in Sacrament meeting I was missing sitting by him because he likes to keep us entertained by making up funny actions/motions for the words of the hymns. When he's in a funny mood, we're pretty much all dying with laughter. Ask him to do some good accents for you--or recite some good pre-battle speeches, like in Braveheart and Lord of the Rings. He's really great to watch zombie movies with, and waking him up for Sunday dinner is always a good time. I have some great memories of him being totally dorky just to cheer me up--which included prancing around like Legolas and doing the chicken dance. My dad has taught me a lot--I remember him talking to me when I was really young about always having a smile inside, and I've never forgotten it. He's taught his girls how to responsible and self-reliant, but we always know that he'll help us out if we need anything.

Anyways, I love Dad. I've always known how lucky I am to be his daughter. I hope y'all are nice to your dads today, and have a good Father's Day!

Becca Vaughn Becca Vaughn Becca Vaughn

Well. Where to begin? It's been fully a week since I last posted. Let's start with our progress on the list I made last Friday:

-Go to Ikea (again) and finally buy that sweet fabric (Did it! We bought lotsa other stuff too)
--Sew said fabric into curtains (Kyle did it! They look awesome!)
--Finish re-upholstering the boring chairs from Ikea we just bought (One down, one to go)
--Spend the rest of our Bed Bath & Beyond money (!) (NOPE. Ran out of time and energy. Maybe we'll go today)
--FINALLY see Indiana Jones (!!!) (YES and it was awesome! I love Harrison Ford. I always will. The movie captured the spirit of a true Indiana Jones movie, so I was pleased. I can't wait to raise my children on those.)
--Finish putting away the mass of clothing that I didn't know I have (Bsssh no way)
--Potential art projects/home decor that I need to discuss with Kyle before I can blog it (Ahuh. We had fun)

Here are the unfinished chairs:
Here's one of the art projects--a painting! Yes I did that. Did I think I could do that? No. But it was super easy. I really like it. I wish you could get an accurate representation of the colors. That background color--Pear--is what i want my life to be about.

Also, Kyle and I are going on a trip! My favorite play is being done in Cedar City--and if there's one thing about my family, it's that we love seeing plays in Cedar City. So Kyle and I are going to drive down in July and see Cyrano de Bergerac! I'm very excited. Our tickets came in the mail yesterday.


Awesome. But the HUGE news I can finally talked about, now that Kyle blogged it already. Kyle is now finally going to be a microbiologist! Guys, this job is perfect. Kyle will be making BANK in a way we ever imagined possible at this stage of our lives. He's in charge of a whole person! He'll have a little assistant to torture. Plus the fact that he gets benefits boggles my mind--that seems way too adult. I'm very excited that out of all the people they interviewed, they wanted Kyle.

In celebration, we went to Rice King for lunch that day. And I made Baked Ziti for dinner. It was pretty good.

And then last night Amanda and I cooked a pretty dang good steak for him. Can you tell that I only know how to celebrate using food?

Last night was...an adventure. Something quirky about my apartment is that we have a very sensitive and LOUD smoke alarm. Also, the switch to turn it off doesn't work--we have to turn off more than just that to get it to shut off. Have you ever tried to cook in the dark? Like, REALLY dark? There's a definite sense of panic when you know your steak needs to be flipped but you are unable to really locate it. And it's splattering you with hot oil. We had to get creative--the biggest job was fanning the smoke alarm.
BUT the steak turned out really good and really interesting--I used Pioneer Woman's recipe, so of course it was. We made 3 so we each got our own (there's a good sale on rib-eye at Smiths! Go get some!)

Unfortunately, our little party was incomplete. Here's the place we set for Alan, who never came. In exchange, we told secrets about him throughout the meal.


Don't Amanda and I match our aprons freakishly well?

This week is going to be awesome because today Mom and Katy are coming!!! I'm really excited to hang out with them. Plus we get the rest of our wedding presents!

Also: we helped Scott and Nancy move in! They're finally here in Provo, and it was so fun to see them again. We're excited to have them so close by!

Also, Nieman got a blog. Do not tell her I told you. It's on my links list.

It's the Weekend!

And I'm happy about it. It's been a long week--9 hour days catching plagiarizers, getting really depressed about the state of America's youth, and feeling righteously indignant when kids are punks about books/parents/school/teachers/learning/morality (for me), or the same amount of time stuck at a desk with a phone and no one to call, all the while bemoaning your fate as a bill-collector who's real calling in life is to cure diseases (for Kyle). Hard days!

I haven't been feeding Kyle the way a good wife should. This week we've had bagel bites, taquitos, quesadillas, and wow I can't even remember what else. We did make our first meat sauce though--which was a success, considering our limited supplies. I can't wait to have a stocked pantry. Or any pantry at all, come to that.

And now, it's Friday! Unfortunately, Kyle works until NINE tonight. Pretty late for a family man, but it's required. Fortunately, Celia is going to pick me up from work for our date.

This weekend:
--Go to Ikea (again) and finally buy that sweet fabric
--Sew said fabric into curtains
--Finish re-upholstering the boring chairs from Ikea we just bought
--Spend the rest of our Bed Bath & Beyond money (!)
--FINALLY see Indiana Jones (!!!)
--Finish putting away the mass of clothing that I didn't know I have
--Potential art projects/home decor that I need to discuss with Kyle before I can blog it

By the way, all the interesting/impressive jobs are things that Kyle's in charge of. He makes sewing very manly. I can't sew (or cook, as we've discovered). So far, I'm failing as a wife. But it's been less than 3 weeks--cut me some slack.