happy halloween!

happy halloween!

love, m

cabin weekend...

had a great time with hubby and some of our best friends at the cabin this weekend.

i love going up there, even if it's just for one night.

just to get away from it all.

oh, and don't worry...

pictures and stories to come!

the mad scientist...

Just in time for Halloween, I thought I'd share a creepy story I heard the other day.

Keith was an old man when he moved into Apartment 15, but he'd never been married or had a real job. He didn't have time for all that. He was far too busy taking the bus to the Marriott Library to do research for his latest "experiments." You see, Keith was a scientist. In fact, he was a mad scientist in every sense of the word. He was old, had crazy white hair, drank strange potions, and owned enough books to be considered for an episode of Hoarders. And all of these books were crammed floor-to-ceiling into Apartment 15.

Keith was a little paranoid, too. He had fastened 6 extra deadbolts onto his front door so nobody could get in. He also didn't own a car, but would never, ever, let anyone drive him anywhere. Not even to church. Yes, Keith did go to church. Although Keith was a mad scientist, he was also LDS, and he walked to his ward building every Sunday. But he would never, ever, ever, ever, accept a ride. Instead, Keith would leave about 2 hours before church started in order to make it there in time. With his age, you see, he moved quite slowly. He was still about a half hour late to church every Sunday. And then he walked home.

The building Keith went to wasn't too far away from Apartment 15 - maybe about a quarter-mile or so - but it's a long walk when you move as slowly as Keith did. Witnesses claim that Keith was so slow it took him an entire 5 minutes to board a UTA bus. This is evidenced by the fact that Keith routinely got "sideswiped" by cars while he was crossing Highland Drive. He just wasn't quite able to make it across the crosswalk while the light was still green. And, of course, he always wore dark clothing. It was thought that these repeated run-ins with cars could have contributed to how slowly Keith moved.

One of the most interesting things about Keith was that he was blue. I don't mean the "depressed" kind of blue, I mean Keith's skin was dyed blue. According to those who knew him, Keith had re-discovered a tonic that people drank in the 1950's to "stay healthy." He also discovered that, apparently, overuse of this tonic would cause one's skin to turn blue. He obviously didn't test his products on animals. Probably because there were no pets allowed in his apartment complex.

Perhaps you're wondering how I know that there were no pets allowed in Keith's apartment complex. Well, that's because I happen to live in that apartment complex. In fact, I happen to live in the very same, infamous Apartment 15 that was once home to a mad scientist.

Keith has since moved on. Somewhat against his will, he was eventually transferred to an "assisted living facility" (aka mental treatment center). After he had been moved out, the apartment managers had a lot of work to do. Apparently the entire apartment had to be stripped - from sheet rock to carpet. It was remodeled, re-painted, and received all-new appliances and fixtures. It was all nice and squeaky clean, ready for the next tenants to move in. However, it took about a year to finally rent Apartment 15 since the entire neighborhood was well aware of the legend of Keith.

Daniel and I moved into Apartment 15 without any knowledge of this legend. It was the members of our Bishopric that finally relayed the story to us when they stopped by to visit - mainly because they couldn't stop staring at everything in our apartment. They kept telling us how nice it looked, and asking us if we had painted the walls or added the new tile ourselves. They seemed absolutely amazed. They admitted to us that they had wondered why two nice-looking young people would move into an apartment that was in such an awful state. After hearing the story, I wasn't surprised. The last time they had seen the apartment, it was pretty much condemned.

And that's the true story of the mad scientist who used to live in the apartment that Daniel and I call home. =)

my marvelous mom...

I've been thinking a lot lately about how grateful I am for my mom.

I've had the opportunity to spend some quality time with her recently. She is, honestly, one of my best friends. I know how lucky I am that I can say that. There are a lot of people who aren't close with their moms at all. I feel blessed to have such a good relationship with her.

We laugh together, cry together, and have way too much fun on our crazy adventures.

I look up to her in so many ways.

No one ever says that my mom and I look alike, but I get lots of comments on our mannerisms. Sometimes I'll say something, or even stand in a certain way, and someone will tell me that it reminds them of my mom. I take every similarity as a compliment.

Now that I'm on my own, I notice the similarities more and more.

For example, my mom has a love-hate relationship with ironing. She irons everything, from high-school gym shirts to jeans. I used to make fun of her for that, but now that I'm doing all my ironing, I notice that it really does look better that way. The "hate" part of my mom's relationship with ironing also leads her to let the ironing pile up in the laundry room. She gets completely caught up on it twice a year: during semi-annual General Conference.

Well, guess what I did during October Conference?

You better believe it.

I guess the bottom line is, I love my mom. I'm so proud to be her daughter. I'm grateful for the random little things she does to make my life easier, like "accidentally" buying too much broccoli at the grocery store and dropping it off just in time for dinner. She's a wonderful person, and I hope to grow up to be just like her.

the halloween spirit...

Quite possibly my favorite holiday.

gone fishing...

Last week, I was on the phone with Daniel and we were trying to think of what we should do on Saturday. You see, Saturday is our day. Neither of us work or go to school on Saturday, so it's the one day during the week that we can spend together. I don't know why, but I suddenly blurted out "Hey Daniel, we could go fishing!"

...Fishing? Had I ever been fishing?

Well, if you count my two trips to the Trout Farm when I was in Elementary School, then yes I had been fishing. But Daniel said that didn't count.

Daniel proceeded to tell me that he would love to take me fishing. He has his own tackle box and fishing pole, and said I could borrow one from his family. He knew of this great fishing lake called Smith and Morehouse that's just above his family's cabin. And just like that, it was settled. We drove up there on Saturday and set up camp.

We figured it was going to be pretty cold up at the lake since it's above Oakley, so we dressed in our very-legitimate fishing gear:

Under Armor Pants

Ugg Boots

Waterproof Jacket

"Fishing" Hat

Complete with thermals underneath.

Awesome Beanie

Cargo Pants

Waterproof Jacket

"Fishing Boots" [not pictured].

We were right about the weather - we just about froze up at the lake. But I have never had so much fun! When we got there, Daniel set up a pole and showed me how to cast the line out onto the lake.

He did it a few times before handing me the pole so he could set up another one. As I was holding the fishing pole in my hands like he told me to, a thought suddenly came to me.

"Daniel...what do I do if I catch a fish?"

"Just reel it in."

"Oh, okay."

Not 5 seconds later, I felt a tug on my line.

A fish. A FISH!! I had actually caught a fish!!!! Wait...what did Daniel tell me to do?

In my rush of excitement over my first-ever fish, I completely forgot what Daniel had told me to do when I caught it. So, of course, I started screaming. I knew that I needed to get the fish on shore, so I started backing up the bank. I held the pole out in front of me, while the fish is dangled there in almost as much of a panic as I was. Poor Daniel came running across the shore trying to tell me to reel it in so he could get it off the hook. Finally, Daniel unhooked the fish. It was a little over a foot long, and I swear on my life it was leopard print. It was a pretty awesome fish. However, it was also a slippery guy. My leopard-print fish wiggled away from us before we could get a decent picture of him. Luckily, I ended up catching another fish!

Here is fish number two!!

Me holding my fish. Just a little excited about it.

He's called a Brown Trout, I think.

This guy was a bit smaller than my first fish, so we decided to let him go. He wasn't looking very edible. Unfortunately, those were the only two fish we caught that day. I think we probably would have caught a few more if we had gotten there a little earlier (we slept in...oops). We were hoping to have at least one fish that we could take home and eat for dinner, but don't worry, we went to the Cowboy Grub instead.

I can't wait for our next fishing trip!!

the case of the missing pizza pan....

No joke, this just happened.

Sometimes Daniel and I like to make those pizzas in the oven that you buy in the freezer section (don't judge me). So tonight, I was tutoring and Daniel wanted to make one for us. I get a text asking me where the pizza pan is. Thinking my husband was too lazy to try and find it, I replied with a few places that he could look. He texted back shortly after telling me that the pan wasn't there. "Hmmm..." I thought. But I was still absolutely certain that he had missed something and that I would find it when I got home. After all, it's not like our kitchen is big enough to even echo, let alone actually lose something in.

So I walk in the door to find the pizza cooking on the oven rack with no pan - he still hadn't found it! (But he had gotten so desperate that he cooked the pizza anyway...which I thought was funny...). But he bottom line was, we still had a missing pizza pan. I proceeded to check the usual places, and I was kind of surprised when I didn't see it. I expanded my search as Daniel stood there with his arms folded and a smug look on his face. After I had scanned the entire kitchen to no avail, I started taking everything out of the cabinets. It HAD to be there! Who on earth loses a pizza pan?!

But no. There was no pizza pan. It was gone. Absolutely gone. So I did what any other normal person would do after 20 minutes of searching an itty bitty room - I sat on the kitchen floor with all of the cabinets open and sulked. However, as I was sulking, I noticed something. You know that drawer that's under some ovens? Well, we have one of those. The drawer was wide open because of my search, and I could kind of see the area under the oven and behind the drawer. And guess what I saw? That's right, the PIZZA PAN! It had somehow slipped behind the drawer and under the oven. How on earth I saw that, I do not know. But I'm so glad we were able to solve the case of the missing pizza pan. I don't think Daniel and I had even been so confused in our lives.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, you can totally cook pizzas on the rack of the oven. They turn out just fine! I guess you don't even need a pizza pan after all.

Conference Breakfast...

Remember how I mentioned how much I love breakfast on Conference Sunday? Well, Daniel and I made a fabulous breakfast this morning.

There are several things going on in this picture. Let me elaborate.

As you can see, we made the works! We had bacon, eggs, hash browns, and even cinnamon rolls. And everything turned out great, despite the fact that we had never, ever made bacon or hash browns before! I also made banana bread today, but I didn't quite get a picture of it. Yum yum yum.

If you look closely, you can see our brand-new kitchen table! We just got it yesterday off KSL. Kimi, Daniel's sister, was kind enough to accompany me to pick it up with her truck. Let's just say was a pretty epic adventure. If you know Kimi and I, everything we do together ends up being an adventure.

Finding this table was kind of a miracle since we've been searching for one for ages. We've been really picky about it the whole time, but it's everything we wanted: small, square, counter-height, dark finish, and cheap! Yipee! Days like today make me so grateful for everything I have.