10 things you should know...

1. plasticjungle.com switches your gift cards for cash. 

Why did I not know about this before?

2. From now on, when you buy a gift card, make it a Visa. 

Am I right?

3. KSL rocks! We sold one of our Christmas gifts and made $40. Talk about a win-win.

4. Jake and I booked our flight to Scotland. STOKED.

5. Christmas this year was great!

6. My iPod needs a makeover... suggestions?

7. Paninis rock my world.

8. It was 13 degrees at 10:30 this morning... 

no comment.

9. Les Mis is worth seeing, but not my favorite of all time. 

What ever happened to intermissions 

for productions that are 3 hours long?!

10. I love snow.

San Diego

I have a problem.

It's something along the lines of,

"I feel guilty 

every  

single 

time 

my husband leaves for work and I don't."

The second he leaves, the self-depricating thoughts begin:

Lazy.

Worthless.

Boring.

etc. etc. etc.

BUT. Despite all of this, I have to remind myself 

that this is a time that will never come again 

and although it would be nice to have a job that is more stable,

it is also nice to have time all to myself 

to improve my cooking and baking skills, 

to find and make the perfect gifts for family and friends 

and to sometimes have a clean house. (sometimes.)

It's also nice to have time to do other things like documenting our life together through journaling and blogging. Just like I'm about to do when I tell you that we went to San Diego this last week with my family and had an awesome time 

soaking up the warm rays of the California sun. 

 

(Okay, it was only 60 degrees, but when the high in your home town is like, I dunno, fourteen, 

then 60 degrees feels pretty close to 80.)

We went to the beach

 Hit up Knot's Berry Farm 

(A close cousin to 'Lagoon' 

if any of you are familiar with that guy...)

  Obsessed over one of the cutest babies on planet earth

 And succeeded in going to Vegas no less than 2 times... 

one in which delivered a small lotto prize. (Win.)

 

And the other, a minor heart-attack

 and a quick trip to a pawn shop.

 

All in all, we had a blast.

And now that we've got most of our gifts wrapped...

Let the Christmas traditions begin!

Death by doughnut

Once upon a time, my mother-in-law gave me a cookbook.

(Thanks. You rock.)

But this is no ordinary cookbook, 

it's Pioneer Woman's cookbook,

which means 283 pages of finger-lickin', lip-smackin' goodness.

Especially the first page, which involves glaze and doughnuts.

Glaze and doughnuts people... We had to try them.

And try them we did. 

Even before reading the recipe!

The "WHY??" face...

  Seriously though.

We really could have done ourselves a favor had we

read the recipe before throwing together the dough,

seeing as it told us that

 the dough should rise for 8 hours in the fridge.

and 4 hours not in the fridge.

and should be rolled.

and cut.

 and raised.

and deep-fryed.

 and cooled.

and glazed.

 and... 

okay. I'm done now.

Let's just say I probably won't make doughnuts again for a while.

 Unless you say please.

Then maybe we could work something out...

24 years young

My 24th year of life is coming up.

And despite everything that tells me that this should be a time of rejoicing since I still haven't had to face the year where I'm a quarter of a century old, 

I am still having all kinds of anxieties over this.

You see... all the days of my pre-pubescent bliss

Cute.

were spent dreaming about THE time of my life, which consisted of being 21 with a sexy boyfriend and big boobs (it's impossible that I was the only young girl who thought about this!), and driving around in my convertible (my favorite "car" as a child... I blame Barbie.) doing things that 21-year-olds do. I was convinced that 21 would be the crowning moment of my human existence and was unsure of anything else past that, except for the fact that I was going to be married and have a kid of my own by 23.

Well 23 has come and gone, and still... no kid. 

(Though 21 was pretty crowning, 

as it was the year that I sealed the deal 

with the man of my dreams.)

And I want to be a mom, don't get me wrong.

But then I think about how I still have so many things to do, like more learning, and more growing and more spontaneous trips to who knows where and... (you get the picture)...

and then that logical voice of mine steps in, practically scolding me about the fact that, "You're almost 24, which means you would be almost 25 by the time you became a mother, if you conceived the child, like, yesterday, and since that ain't the case, you'd better get a move on it!" and then I think about how many insecurities and uncertainties I have about being a parent and want to run and hide from the idea and then I remember how much I love my nephew who I've only known for 6 days and try to imagine how much love I'll feel for a baby who knows me as "Mom" and then remember that I am only 23 and don't need to rush into anything, but then remember that I might not get pregnant and might be nearing 30 by the time I finally know my husband as the father of my child and as you can see...

*sigh*

it's all just one vicious cycle.

And all this, because my 24th year of life is just around the bend.

Getting old bites, doesn't it?

On a happier note, being an aunt brings me non-explainable joy.

Especially when I receive pictures like this

I love that little Henry.

Giving thanks

Thanksgiving this year was BOMB.

For one,

the food was to die for.

For two,

we did these types of things.

And for three,

I became an AUNT!

Henry Judd Woolsey was born on Friday night around 5:30pm,

weighing in at 9 lbs and stretching to a long 21 & 1/2 inches.

He's our little line-backer and we love him so much already!!

And he may or may not have already chosen a favorite... 

When we weren't eating, 

we were living up to other Thanksgiving traditions 

like chopping down a tree

and failing to pass up the weekend sales...

It was worth it.

Hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving, too!!

Parenthood

I know I'm a little late jumping on the

bandwagon, but let's talk.

About PARENTHOOD.

No, I mean like the TV show.

I love it.

I think I heard my husband saying 

something about "obsessed..."

 

I dunno.

 whatever. 

 

It's hilarious and heart-warming and at times,

way too much like my real-life 

to be believable.

And it makes me want to be a parent.

Orrr that could have happened when 

I snapped this pic 

 while babysitting for a friend the other night.

Sleeping babies...

They getcha every time!

The day his dreams came true...

For months the husband has been begging me to make turkey legs.

Something along the lines of... 

"C'mon...it would be so cool. 

We'd be like kids at Disneyland all over again!"

 Well...you can imagine the excitement that was plastered across his face when he learned that I had finally found the legs.

  

 

Basically....

He was in Heaven.

 

And I was too...

 

I guess.

A brother and a baby

Since I have lots of homework to do tonight, 

I'm going to write a blog post instead.

Obviously.

Even though this is long overdue, I wanted to point out the fact that my brotha from anotha motha made it home from the Milwaukee Wisconsin mission, safe and sound! 

(Okay, he's really my brotha from the same motha... 

I just wanted to make things complicated.)

We made some really cool signs  

(props to the husband)

to welcome him back to reality,

Me and my cute mom!

 

 

 

 

  and then he came off the plane and blew our signs out of the water with his CHEESE TIE! 

As he put it, "it was either the cheese hat, or the cheese tie... I thought the tie might be a little more appropriate for the pulpit..." 

ha. Love this kid! 

So glad to call him my bro. :)

Also, just wanted to mention that my sister-in-law is doing well and that BW (Baby Woolsey) should be here before the month is up.

 

Love these pretty ladies

Such a cute soon-to-be mom.

SO.

Stoked.

Halloween

Halloween has always been a favorite of mine.

As a kid, it was a self-proclaimed tradition for me to stay home from school every year and watch scary classics (Halloween 1-12, Alfred Hithcock, you know...) all by myself. Weird, I know.

Well one thing I've realized over the years is that unfortunately, life doesn't just stop on holidays. This was a hard, cold fact for me to face, and something I'm still a little broken-up about, so although we did the usual dailies such as work and school, we still managed to make the holiday something to look forward to.

 

Halloween night at our house consisted of Clue the movie, 

(personal fave)

fast-food burgers 

(after an epic fail of trying to create my own from scratch), 

and homemade pumpkin pie milkshakes. 

(So. Good.)

Photo c/o Our Best Bites

I don't necessarily love pumpkin pie.

Or really pie in general, for that matter.

But EVERYTHING tastes better in ice cream form!

Oh yeah... and I forgot to mention 

that we also took pictures of ourselves...

stache-ifyed!

Hope you all had yourselves a happy Halloween!