so

I saw Nieman today.  That was great.  I finally got to give her the present I bought in September, a robot onesie from Soel.  She'll need it someday.  

Today we went to Sundance with Celia and Katy.  We saw the gay friend on Mean Girls.  Katy saw someone from BSG.  Celia saw Mariah Carey.  It was cool.  I mean, COLD--freezing cold.   I'm glad we went though.  The best part was probably driving to/from Park City--lots of belting songs to Katy's new video camera.  Yikes.

I've been to the Pennyroyal twice in two days--because I am in love with a turkey sandwich there.   I think I self-actualized while eating it.  That bread.  That turkey.  That dijon.  Dang.

I have a Photoshop problem.  It's driving me crazy.  My edited pictures won't load.  Or send.  The pictures I loaded of Lucy on my last post--those aren't the edited ones.  I edited them, saved them as jpegs, and loaded them--but they showed up non-edited.  It's a problem.  (Mom, I hope you didn't order 50 copies of the unedited picture.  I'm having a panic attack just thinking about it.)  Do all of you Photoshoppers know anything about this?  

These are things that I am obsessed with:

Yes, they are all Anthropologie shoes, and therefore unattainable.  We all dream.

beautiful child

I love these Lucy pictures. 

This is my favorite.

(maybe from the whole wedding)

She's just so beautiful.

this is it.

I've been thinking that I should blog (it's been a while), but nothing could quite make me do it.  Something would make me think "I should blog that...eh."  But now, something major enough has happened.  I now NEED to blog it.

24 WAS INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I couldn't believe it.  Tonight's two hours was even better than last night's.  All of my favorite people from all the seasons...working together...outside the government.  Tony's return was, at first, emotionally upsetting.  WHAT THE HECK.  My love for him burned so brightly, only to be doused at his death several years ago.  And now, to see him again--it was like those movies where the kidnapped child is returned 10 years later, and it's just...weird and not as happy as it should be.  But NOW it's all good and I'm so excited.  He and Jack are so cute.  And don't even get me started on Bill Buchanan!  Bill's definitely still got it--and I LOVE his new hair.  Wow.  24's back and better than ever.

Also, after 24 ended last night we watch the end of the Golden Globes.  I was looking it up online, to see what channel it was on, and my Google search came up with a story about Shah Rukh Khan introducing the little Slumdog Millionaire dealio.  FYI, Slumdog Millionaire is incredible and we loved it.  LOVED it.  Anyways, I was totally bemoaning the fact that I missed SHAH RUKH KHAN.  Seriously.  What is that.  But THEN we flipped on the show and IT WAS SRK WALKING ONSTAGE.  It was a little Golden Globes miracle.  I'm so glad Slumdog won.  Totally deserved it.  It was so cute to see Dev crying onstage when they were accepting the award.  I love him.

Um, what else.  I finally (FINALLY) got my wedding pictures!  They're cute.  With some help from Kayla and Pioneer Woman, I am totally going to edit them up to perfectionish.  ADORABLE Lucy pictures!  

Oh!  Today is the one year anniversary of Kyle proposing and me saying yes.  Kyle's been calling me his ex-fiancee all day.  We went to Gloria's Little Italy to celebrate, because they have amazing bread.

This semester is HORRIBLE so far, homework wise.  Like, I am about three times busier than in the fall.  Plus work.  Plus, my family's doing a weight loss competition so I actually work out every day (ish).  This all means that my house is a mess and Kyle is taking care of me!

In between classes, working out, paper-writing, reading tons, and going to work every day, we've been:

--finishing Prison Break season 2

--hanging out with Celia

--saw two movies IN THEATERS

--spent an evening in Salt Lake with Celia and Katy

--actually played Werewolves at Council Bluffs/Emily's house!

--checking out resort options in Jamaica (hopefully this will be confirmed soon)

--freaking out over Caitlin being pregnant 

--shoveling ice instead of snow

--eating an amazing dinner with Scott and Nancy and the kids

--looking at wedding pictures over and over and over again

I need to blog more so I don't have to catch up so much.  I guess I'll never blog about Christmas.  (It was fun.)

8 Things I love About Kyle

As the New Year gets closer (like, massively closer) I've been thinking about how awesome 2008 has been and all the cool things that have happened to me and the people I care about. Luckily, it won't stop at midnight tonight, because The Year of a Million Dreams doesn't end until the end of April (phew!). (I'm so glad that Amanda and I got/are getting married in that time frame, because it means that the magic of Disneyland is real.) Anyways, the best thing that happened to me this year (and every year from now on) was, obviously, Kyle--so I want my last post of 2008 to be about him.

These are 8 things that I discovered in 2008 that I love about Kyle (I could think of a million):

1. Kyle is an awesome singer. I love his funny renditions of songs--my favorites are The Littlest Birds by The Be Good Tanyas, The Way I am by Ingrid Michaelson, and He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother by Rufus Wainwright.

2. Kyle has a gift with handling money. That, plus his killer work ethic, got him through school with no help from anyone and debt-free (and early!). Now it's making my life super easy--I always assumed that once I got married, money would become The Most Stressful Thing. But Kyle handles it all beautifully. We have no debt, we're building up a hefty savings account, AND I feel like we're living luxuriously.

3. Kyle is into things. I have a pretty obsessive personality, but it doesn't bother Kyle any--because I think that he's secretly the same way. When we love a show, we LOVE that show and watch it for hours everyday on DVD until we're out of episodes. Examples: Heroes, Lost, Prison Break. And those are just the ones since we've gotten married. During our engagement I caught him up on 3 seasons of 30 Rock and Arrested Development. He doesn't get bored with one thing before I do, which is pretty much a miracle.

4. Kyle is an amazing gift-giver. He takes my advice and still manages to surprise me. With our Christmas present budget this year, he totally made all my dreams come true. 3 of the perfect sweater vests from Forever 21 in the best colors (I'm obsessed with them), a webcam so I don't have to cry everyday because I miss Lucy (wasn't that a great idea?), and a trip to The Nutcracker in Salt Lake City to help me feel the Christmas spirit AND make us sound fancy. He's proven himself to be a thoughtful and fun gift-giver with every gift-giving holiday since we've started dating.

5. Kyle's sense of style is basically beyond description, but I have to try anyways: It.Is.Awesome. He is adventurous, fun, classy, fashionable, and wacky. And some days he's downright conservative. And he looks so good.

6. Kyle loves to learn. I'm into some pretty a-typical stuff, and I love to share it with Kyle. Instead of thinking that I'm weird or boring, Kyle does his darnedest to love it--and usually does (I just can't get him to see the merit of Twilight--but I can't blame him for that). Whether it's Bollywood, wacky music, old movies, plays, books, opera, etc.--Kyle doesn't mind me bugging him with it. Kyle just considers himself better-educated when I'm done showing him something.

7. Kyle has several distinct sound effects that he always makes in certain situations. Unfortunately, I can't share them with you because they are untype-able. I think my favorite is when he makes a turn in the car--it's so fun. And for a while he quacked every time he approved of something--Katy and I are trying really hard to make that stick. I would really miss those sounds if he stopped making them.

8. Kyle has genuinely, easily, and quickly become a comfortable member of my family. This Christmas holiday proved it. I was so happy to see all the people that I loved the most together, having a blast and not being awkward. I was especially pleased that Lucy seems to LOVE Kyle (more than she likes me, but I'm not hurt--Kyle is really rad). She always had a smile for him, and he read her about a million books last week, at her request. They were so cute.

I'm excited for 2009. A LOT is going to happen. I feel pretty safe though, even with all the changes that are coming. Having Kyle at my side makes everything a whole lot more comfortable, and I know we can handle it.

So cloooooose

We're leaving tomorrow night! I hope the crazy snow doesn't impede our journey--I KNOW it will though. Katy spent all night in the Salt Lake Airport, and I just pray that our delay isn't that long. I don't have time to spare! I am so excited for home, and Lucy, and the fireplace, and presents, and good food, and my parents, and no snow, and Christy and Danny, and Christmas movies, and Christmas music, and downtown Walnut Creek, and the temple, and Fentons, and my home ward, and LUCY. And CHRISTMAS.

We had a great weekend:

We celebrated Ludichristmas! We opened the presents under our tree before our night in Salt Lake City.

Before

After

We watched 4/5 of the first season of Prison Break--which is a VERY addicting show. Kyle was sick for half of the weekend, so we made a pallet out of blankets and pillows on our living room floor--and spent hours and hours there, watching Prison Break, surrounded by dishes and candy wrappers. Decadence in the extreme.

Before Kyle got sick, we were lucky enough to go see The Nutcracker! Man, I had forgotten how much I worship ballerinas. The Snow Queen and Sugar Plum Fairy were gorgeous. The music was awesome, the Russian dancers crazily fun, and the experience wonderful! Is it weird that Herr Drosselmeyer reminds me of Kyle?

Kyle had to look extra stern because this particular Nutcracker was purple.

Just 5ish more days...

Last night we dropped off Katy at the airport. She is now snug at home (actually I'm sure she's on her way to kindergarten by now) and I gotta say, I'm jealous. Kyle and I considered buying tickets while we were there last night, and just hopping on the plane (we don't need luggage, and my family doesn't need presents, right?) but decided to stick around Utah for a little while longer. It's not so bad though. We have some fun plans to occupy us until Tuesday:

• Tonight we're going to the temple with Emily and Council Bluffs, and then hanging out with Amanda on her last night in Provo. I can't believe she's moving already!
• Tomorrow is Friday--don't know what we'll do, but I'm sure that it will be spectacular. We'll probably watch the awful movies that Kyle rented--and by awful, you know I mean that they're going to be awesome.
• I'm really excited for Saturday--Kyle got us tickets to The Nutcracker! I have not seen that ballet since I was teeny, and Kyle has never seen it--so it's sure to be fun. I know that going to Salt Lake to see it is going to make me feel REALLY Christmas-y. Plus it's at the Capitol Theater, and I love the Capitol Theater.
• I don't have to work at all next week--that is going to be such a relief! I'll actually feel like I'm on a break.
• Maybe it's time Kyle and I played in the snow. We did run barefoot in the snow last week...but that was too painful to be considered playing. We have regrets.
• Mini-Christmas! We actually decided that it would be our own personal Ludichristmas. We have some mini (and a couple big) presents under our teeny (I mean HUGE) Christmas tree. Can't wait to open them and feel like we get Christmas twice.

So that's plenty to keep me occupied until we leave. And I just get tons of time to anticipate how much fun we'll have in California.

Um, Title.

Yesterday was one of those days where you can't believe how happy you are. I kept trying to think of something that was bothering me (something had to be wrong) but couldn't come up with anything. It was great. I don't think it was what we did so much as how happy we were to be together.

• We slept in, after staying up late with Katy the night before.
• We made a fun breakfast ("eggy toast"/"egg in the hole"/whatever you want to call it and bacon).
• We drove through the snow to Salt Lake City.
• We went shopping at the Gateway--bought me some much-needed shoes at Urban Outfitters, walked through Anthropologie drooling, and I finally spent my birthday gift certificate from Emily.
• We drove back to Provo and ate at India Palace--I needed to get some naan and tikka masala in me! It was delicious, of course.
  
• Katy came over and we made cookie dough and watched a terrible movie (Westworld). The hero looked exactly like my ex-boyfriend (the one we don't like). It didn't make us want him to survive the robot cowboy. (Plus, the robot cowboy was Yul Brynner, so he should obviously win)
  
• We started another movie (Westender) and turned it off after 4 minutes--that's how bad it was. I don't think we've ever done that. We LOVE stupid movies.
  
• Watched Pulp Fiction on tv. Bruce Willis continues to be the best. What is up with John Travolta's freakishly hideous hair?

Um, I love Kyle.