Harry and Sarah

Tonight while watching the State of the Union Address

2012-01-24T20:45:00.000-08:00

(Sound of President Obama speaking as the speech streams onto Harry's MacBook)

Me: Hey... this speech is so recycled. He's said all of this stuff before.

Harry: ...No, I don't think so.

Me: Really? Because this sounds so familiar for some reason.

Harry: Maybe because we've just heard this kind of thing lately.

Me: Hmmm.

(five minutes pass)

Me: This is so weird. I know he's given a speech just like this before.

Harry: No, I don't think so.

(five more minutes pass, and the President says something about two brothers from Michigan who own a roofing company, who volunteered their time and resources to help out in New York City right after September 11th happened)

Harry: Waaaaaait...

Me: I know, right? This sounds so familiar!

(Harry takes the video out of full-screen and looks at the video title)

Harry: Uh....

Me: What?

Harry: Uh, yeah, this is last year's speech.

Me: HA!

Don't worry, we're watching the real one now.

Come Uppance Rears It's Ugly Head

2012-01-15T17:38:00.000-08:00

A few days ago, Harry asked me if I wouldn't mind making some chocolate chip cookies this weekend for him to take to the families he home teaches.

I take enormous pride in the fact that he loves my chocolate chip cookies, and requests them regularly, especially when I spend way too much on Guittard chocolate chips that are made locally and sold at the farmer's market, which I do on a weekly basis.

I said sure.

I didn't get a chance to do it on Saturday, but "Not to worry," I assured him, "Church starts at 11 now, so I'll just do it before church on Sunday."

"Are you sure?" he asked, squinting in a way that suggested I was being highly unrealistic.

"Honey, it takes less than an hour. I can totally do this."

So this morning at 9 am I arose and whipped up the cookies (a double batch, mind you, and without the help of an electric mixer, because the only mixer we own is called my arm).

In my groggy state, as I stood over my bowl of melted butter and brown and white sugar, I thought to myself, "You know, there's nothing really noble about baking. I mean, no one needs this. It's butter and sugar. Anyone who eats these cookies is pretty much shortening their lifespan. It tastes good but it technically reduces anyone's quality of life."

I shrugged and threw the cookies in the oven.

We left the cookies to cool on paper towels on the counter and went to Church.

When we came home, they were waiting for us, perched atop their little round grease stains on the paper towels. I started to put them in bags for Harry to take home teaching when I said, "Oh-- where are my baking sheets?"

Harry shrugged. My immediate conclusion: he cleaned them and put them away for me.

"Oh, honey, thank you, that was so nice." I say.

"No. I didn't do anything." he says.

Then I realize-- hey, didn't I double this recipe? Shouldn't there be way more cookies than this?

I peaked in the oven and the roar of a furious lion along with flames of hellfire emerged from my mouth.

I had turned off the oven this morning but had left the last two sheets of cookies in the oven. We tested one-- it was like biting into a dark brown lava rock.

In my state of complete composure and maturity, I snapped, "Oh my gosh! I'm never making cookies for you again!"

To which Harry responded, "What?"

To which I so eloquently responded, "It was just so much to do this morning! I couldn't do it all!"

To which he responded in a smaller voice, "Remember when I thought you should do it on Saturday so that you wouldn't have too much to do this morning?"

To which I responded, the picture of feminine grace and loveliness, mind you, "Whatever!"

I started chucking the two dozen rock-cookies into the garbage can one by one. And as I did, a little voice in the back of my mind started chanting in sing-song tones, "Well, at least you insist that there's nothing noble about baking anyway, and these cookies won't be shortening your life span by taking up residence on your ample caboose!" This was followed by a Bellatrix LeStrange style cackle.

To which I responded, "Shut up, brain."

Note to self: Stay away from baking for a while.

Epilogue: We've since hugged it out and I said I'm sorry for being so irritated/ing and am going to try to eliminate my baking hubris for the new year.

Christmas and all it's diversions

2012-01-07T22:59:00.000-08:00

Christmas was wonderful this year.

We giddily packed up Harry's car and mentally prepared for the 22+ hours of driving that awaited us over two weeks.

We had some book tapes on hand, but sadly, I hated all of them. It’s amazing how much a narrator can make or break a book tape. One narrator made Jason Bourne (of the Bourne Identity series) read like a slovenly, grouchy Santa Clause.

Thank Heavens my husband is so much fun to talk to. After 2.5 years of marriage he still makes me laugh so hard that I am silently convulsing and slapping my hands together like a baby seal. That's love.

For the first time in three years, my entire family was together (for about 48 hours total) at Christmas. Every sibling, spouse, and child. When we were eating Christmas Eve dinner, my mom looked across the table at my dad, wide eyed, and said, “Hey. Everyone is here.” I'd been waiting a long time for that.

We took the kiddies to the park and launched water balloons into a wide, open field. Harry ran out to see if nephew Sam could aim and hit him. Not only was Sam’s aim dead on, but when the water balloon hit Harry, it didn’t break. A nice shoulder bruise appeared shortly thereafter, and in Christmas colors! Festive.

We ate like kings, mostly because my parents are a dynamic kitchen duo. Their garden (I call it their “victory garden”) has been sprouting fresh oranges, lemons, Italian dandelions, basil, cilantro, thyme, rosemary, sage, and lavender. When winter wears off, there will be raspberries, blackberries, and a plethora of varied lettuce and (HOT) peppers. I brought some oranges home and am salivating just thinking of them in our little fruit bowl.

Christmas Sunday was exactly how I wanted it to be. We visited my parents’ ward and saw what seemed like millions of familiar faces. My in-laws also drove in from Vegas to be there for the blessing of my newest niece Juniper. It was perfect—so perfect, I felt like I was getting away with something.

We had a little Eaton family talent show (yes, this song is real, and yes, we really performed it with the help of my tuxedo-wearing father), we walked around Newport Beach to see the lights, another day Cam and I rode our bikes down to Balboa, we saw the “toppest” tree at Fashion Island, we ate Mom’s caramels, we had a glorious time.

Christmas dinner with a cross-eyed Harry

We also managed to snap a family picture. I love these peeps.

In a flash it was time to be in Vegas, and we had a blast hanging out and playing games, my new favorite of which is the iPod game, in which someone lies on the floor with their eyes covered, and they are plugged into headphones. Then someone else selects a song for them at high volume, and the person has to sing it without being able to hear themselves at all. I laughed so hard I cried. Prince and Cat Stevens will never be the same for me ever again. *The Circle of Trust still exists. Anyone who ever posts any of those videos will be cursed with eternal Spattergroit.*

A major highlight was going to the temple. It’s always a sweet experience to go with family and friends, and I'm so thankful that Aja is eternally woven into the family tapestry. We love her so much!

It blows my mind that this time next year, people won’t be flying in anymore for Christmas—mostly everyone will just live there. I know that’s been a long time coming, and it is exciting stuff!

We had a talent show, the kids wrote/filmed/starred in their own Christmas movie, we ate Thai food and hot wings, we opened presents, we had a wonderful time. I'm embarrassed to say though that the only snapshot I have is of the group at Mac and Julie's watching the big UFC fight. I have this app that stitches pictures together to create a panorama. I don't know how the quality will be on a blog post. Only one way to find out!

New Years was spent at home, snuggled up to Harry on the sofa with a fever and some congestion, watching a movie and pausing to watch the crazy fireworks on the strip from the family room window. We made a solemn promise to go to a party next year, but to be honest, there are few things I love more than snuggling with Harry on a sofa.

Now we’re back. Christmas always seems like a dream afterwards.

This will sound strange (it even does to me), but I’m always sort of mad at myself after a vacation is over. And it’s for no real reason, other than the fact that I utterly failed to make it somehow last forever. Like, I had one job to do, and that was to make it so that Christmas would never end, and I blew it. Does anyone else ever feel that way?

This was the last time we drove up the grapevine to return for another Stanford semester. Next time we drive away, Harry will have a law degree. Weird.

Happy 2012!

Impending January highlights:

Downton Abbey
Probably a few other things that I can't remember now because I'm thinking about Downton Abbey now
Downton Abbey

On Pinterest

2011-12-20T21:44:00.000-08:00

A lot of people [my wife] are into a newish site called pinterest.

This is *NOT* a hate post. But I'm thinking about starting a new site called pothered.

Name:

2011-12-15T14:35:00.000-08:00

I love my maiden name.

It's a really good one. I got some teasing growing up here and there for it, but that never really got to me. I was always the only Eaton I ever met (that I wasn't related to by blood).

The nicknames that come with a name like this are GOLDEN. I've been called:

Eaton-cheese-n-crackers
Eaton-Eaton
E-tone
Eat-a-ton (not actually a favorite but still gets a spot on this list)
Etonian
Eat-o

Bonus round of meaningless trivia:

One of my favorite shows from BBC of all time, "Upstairs Downstairs," takes place at 165 Eaton Place in London.
I've visited the actual Eaton Square in London. Vivienne Leigh and Sean Connery have lived there.
According to this website, there was a Sarah Eaton who came to Plymouth on the actual Mayflower.
Princes William and Harry attended Eton College (perfect if not for that missing "a").

When I went on my London Study Abroad program, there were three other Sarahs in our class. I was pretty much known by my last name that entire semester to avoid confusion (except for the occasional "Sarizzle"), which I absolutely loved.

Recently at work, I started being called Eaton-Eaton out of the blue by a coworker.

When I married my favorite person of all time, and took his last name, there arose a bit of confusion because his sister shares my first name. There are now two Sarah Reynoldses. So from time to time, I go by Eaton in the Reynolds family to differentiate. I never mind it a bit.

I love my new last name. It's treated me right. Every once in a while though I get something in the mail with "Eaton" on it, or the people at Safeway call me "Mrs. Eaton" because I still use my mom's Safeway card. And it gives me a little burst of nostalgic happiness, and I wind up doing something frivolous about it, like, you know, writing a blog post.

I've been bitten by the bug.

2011-12-10T13:35:00.001-08:00

The ombre-melted-hair-color bug.

I'm too lazy and cheap to deal with the upkeep that highlights require. Thus the last time I had my hair professionally (or unprofessionally, for that matter) colored was when I was 18 and a freshman in college. It wasn't my best look.

But this kind of coloring... I'm crazy about.

That was it. All I wanted to say.

Merry Christmas, all you ladies who, like me, are considering changing up the old mane up top.

Things I Hate

2011-12-07T21:21:00.001-08:00

Concept cars.

They usually look awesome [*I'm not saying all of these ones are--but at least some of them] but no one ever intends to actually make them. Why are we spending all this time designing cars and getting my hopes up for nothing. What the heck, David Blaine?

NaNoWriMo Victory!

2011-11-30T20:24:00.001-08:00

NaNoWriMo= Done!

30 days
50,239 words
10 tired fingers
1 drained brain

Time to celebrate with a fistful of chocolate chips!

Thanksgiving: Vegas Remix

2011-11-26T12:11:00.001-08:00

We had a Las Vegas Thanksgiving this year. It's so crazy to me that this is the last time we'll have Thanksgiving while still doing the student-thing (ie while Harry is still doing the student-thing).

We found dirt cheap airfare by coming early and leaving 24 hours after Thanksgiving dinner. Over the course of the week we got in some R&R and hung out with family and friends.

Oh wait, except for the part where Harry was stuck writing a 30 page research paper that will revolutionize the movie industry.

I felt so bad for him. He had to spend the better part of his waking hours chained to his laptop, tippity typing away. He even pulled an all-nighter. On vacation.

I can't really complain because he's working so hard for our family/future, and I appreciate that more than I can express, and he never complains, but I do wish he could've had more time to just hang out. I can happily say I don't think there are many more (if any) papers like that in his future.

The things we did manage to do together in his few off hours were:

Tapas and walking around at the Bellagio with the in-laws (800 pound pumpkins! Horses made of twigs! Babbling brooks! Sculpted glass! It was like Disneyland).

Two nights of volleyball

and can I just toot my own horn for a moment? I no longer break out in a nervous sweat when everyone says, "Volleyball tonight? Volleyball? After dinner?" because I've now played so much with these people that

a) I am totally accepting of how lousy I am at it
2) I actually am not afraid of the ball anymore
d) I've gotten to the point where I score points about as often as I lose them

"Muppet Movie"

Recommending this to people

Thanksgiving dinner! 45 family members/friends and amazing food!
The most adrenaline-fueled game of Taboo I've ever been a part of (things got crazy when two brothers who will not be named Bob and Harry developed a secret language that enabled cheating that everyone caught on to immediately)

Since Harry was stuck with his paper, I cooked our portion of Thanksgiving dinner solo. I wanted to make my grandmother's recipe for orange rolls. We have them at every Thanksgiving in my family and they are always my favorite part.

After calling every single grocery store and bakery within a 30 mile radius of the house, I still couldn't find the fresh yeast cakes that the recipe calls for. So I found another recipe for crescent rolls on the interwebs and combined that with some homemade Garlock orange butter and some orange zest/juice that SIL Sally zested/juiced herself.

Orange Roll Triumph

And if I may say so, the rolls were like crack... on crack (having never actually tried crack I'm unable to say firsthand if they were or not, but that's my assumption and I'm sticking to it).

What made it so difficult to come home was saying goodbye to all the amazing together-time. I love getting to just sit and talk with family and friends. I feel really blessed to be part of two families I cannot get enough of.

Now, bring on the Christmas times (I will be decking our 500 sq. ft. halls today with a mini tree, garlands, ribbon, and the two Christmas ornaments that we own! And you know our balcony bannister is getting some white lights. Even the blog gets a Yule Log).

Wishing everyone a Harry Christmas (they really are the best kind).

Happy Thanksgiving Eve Eve

2011-11-22T16:42:00.001-08:00

From our turkey alter egos.

An email

2011-11-16T19:03:00.001-08:00

My cousin Bec wrote me an email today right when I needed something nice to read. I wrote her back and realized this email is the perfect update of life lately, and saves me the mental energy of putting it into a post. And yes, those are British pound signs. We like to communicate with European symbols whenever possible. So here it is.

£ I loved your email so much I can't even express it. It was exactly what I needed. New jobs are stressful. I feel all topsy turvy until I know what I'm doing which I am sure is still a few weeks away at least.

£ my fingernails are painted a charcoal color now. The name of the color is "power clutch." they are really running out of good material in the "name picking" department over there at the nail polish company. What makes a clutch powerful?

£ DOWNTON ABBEY!

£ Yesterday at the gym I was on the stairmaster when an older gentleman wandered by, stood in front of me with his back facing me, and cleaned out his ear with the plug-in-to-the-iPod end of his headphones cord. When he turned around and looked at me I pretended to be very preoccupied with some part of the floor off to my left.

£ I came home yesterday and Harry was at a lecture, but all the laundry was clean, folded, and put away, and every single dish we own was clean and dry. I audibly squealed and then did absolutely nothing productive until he got home.

£ Christmas is in the air! I wish there was a Messiah sing along I could go to with you.

£ I'm not crazy about my blog header either right now. I'm not even sure why I fiddled with it. The whole experience was kind of frustrating. Some days I just want to put up that photo of those squirrels fighting with light sabers and call it done.

£ Bridge mix. Gllllllllll.

11:11:11 on 11/11/11

2011-11-11T11:13:00.001-08:00

Thoughts

2011-11-08T20:57:00.000-08:00

So, I checked out Pinterest.

It took me a while because at first, they made me request an invite, and I was like, "Psh, cha right." I do not request invites to internet websites. It felt weird. But then my sister Merzy kept saying, "No. Seriously. Try it." And she sent me an invite. I was still skeptical.

And then Merzy MADE me a recipe for lunch from a recipe she found on Pinterest. And it was AMAZING (I think this was it). And still I pooh-poohed the whole thing.

And then I finally gave in one day because it seems like the best ideas all trace back to Pinterest.

So, now I have another ~~addiction~~ habit. To yet another internet based network of people/ideas/things. It is mostly under control, though.

I do have a few thoughts about it.

1) I think Pinterest should be renamed "Things Rich People Do With Their Houses."

2) Or it could be renamed "The Clothing Rich and Trim Girls Wear On City Streets."

Those were actually my only thoughts about Pinterest. My other current unrelated thoughts include (but are not limited to) the following:

1) I've started painting my nails. Yes. Fingers and toes. I've come a long way, baby. I actually went to a local CVS and picked out nail polish. I'm up to 6 colors now. And I think it's going very well. Currently I have a peachy nude color on my finger nails and a deep plum on my toes. I'm so happy I finally arrived to the "pail nolish" party.

2) NaNoWriMo is going smoothly. Somewhat.

3) I have a new job that has me pretty excited. The very promise of paychecks makes me want to sing the following:

4) We have started watching "The West Wing." Meaning, we've been getting the DVDs on Netflix. When this show was on TV and I was in high school, I used to watch every episode with my Dad. This was when Tivo was a new fangled thing, and my Dad would pause it periodically to explain the show's finer points. And while Martin Sheen/the dialogue can be irritating, I love watching this show all over again. My favorite episode is still "In Excelsis Deo," season 10, episode 1. And now that it's almost Christmas time (is it yet?), I can watch it with even more enjoyment.

5) For reasons I cannot explain, I now want this haircut.

After I finally got my hair as long as I want it. This I cannot explain.

6) I cooked with rosemary tonight and my apartment still smells like it. So many random smells find their way through our vents, it's nice to have a smell that we chose lingering in the air.

7) I have a most excellent husband. And that makes me one seriously lucky duck.

And on that note, peace out.

It is so on.

2011-11-01T21:31:00.000-07:00

This year, Harry and I are both doing NaNoWriMo. Today is day 1. My word count so far: 1736. Harry's word count so far: 3,000. I'm remembering the tingly feeling of mental pressure and finger exhaustion that accompanied the entire month of November last year. And the crazy moments of "Ah-HA!" and "Oh shoot." and "What about...?" and "I'm so stuck right now." And loving it.

And so the insanity begins.

Dialogue: "The Princess Bride" reunion

2011-10-10T15:40:00.000-07:00

video platform video management video solutions video player

Harry played this video for both of us. About halfway through, this was our conversation.

Me: Oh man, I love this movie. I used to watch this on every birthday when I was a kid.
Harry: (shocked expression) I used to watch this movie every birthday when I was a kid.
Me: ...What? Really?
Harry: Yeah.
Me: Huh. I thought it was kind of a girl movie. I mean, I had princess party sleepovers. This is what we watched. Every year.
Harry: What? No way, it's a guy movie. There's one girl in it. The rest of it is sword fighting and swash buckling and stuff.
Me: The title is "The Princess.... Bride."
Harry: Yeah, but it's a boy movie.
Me: (expression says, "boy, you trippin'") Ehhh...
Harry: Boy movie.
Me: Agree to disagree.

Either way, watch the clip. It'll remind you of why you loved being alive in the late 80's/early 90's, and make you wonder why Robin Wright did that to her pretty hair, and make you sad that Andre the Giant is no longer alive.

Apple Bacon Pizza

2011-10-07T14:42:00.000-07:00

Check it--a picture of our apple bacon homemade pizza is on Martha Stewart's website today (courtesy of our good friend Jane Maynard).

Too bad we don't have any leftovers. 'Cause now I really want some.

Because it was a rainy day, and I'm becoming my mother

2011-10-06T13:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning I went for a run.

It's been rainy the past few days, and on my way out of our apartment complex I spotted the brightest double rainbow I've ever seen (what does it mean?!).

At one point it looked as though the end of the rainbow was at the Cheese House, down the street. Which would make perfect sense, seeing as their sandwiches make me drool golden saliva.

I came home and knew today was the day. As rain started noisily pouring down and creating puddles in the uneven concrete divots on our balcony I says to myself, "Self, it's time to get over your fear of active dry yeast." And I made my very first loaf of homemade wheat bread.

I don't make bread, ever. I'm honestly consistently afraid that I'll really mess it up and wind up with a dense brick of a loaf that will turn to glue in my insides, and it will all have been a waste of time. Yeast seems like such a weird and fickle thing. I looked through www.allrecipes.com to find a highly rated recipe and found this one.I halved it as follows (I didn't want to commit to 2-3 loaves without making sure 1 loaf came out right):

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons (or ⅙ cup) honey
2-1/2 cups bread flour
1.5 tablespoon butter, melted
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons (or ⅙ cup) honey
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1 cup whole wheat flour (plus an additional 1-2 cups as needed)
1 tablespoon butter, melted

1. In a large bowl, mix warm water, yeast, and 2TB and 2tsp honey. Add 2.5 cups white bread flour, and stir to combine. Let set for 30 minutes, or until big and bubbly.
2. Mix in 1 ½ tablespoons melted butter, 2 TB and 2 tsp honey, and salt. Stir in 1 cup whole wheat flour.
3. Flour a flat surface and knead with whole wheat flour until not real sticky - just pulling away from the counter, but still sticky to touch (about 5-8 minutes). This may take an additional 1 to 2 cups of whole wheat flour. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to coat the surface of the dough. Cover with a dishtowel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled.
4. Punch down, and form 1 loaf. Place in greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pans, and allow to rise until dough has topped the pan by one inch.
5. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 25 to 30 minutes; do not over-bake. Lightly brush the tops of loaf with 1 tablespoon melted butter when done to prevent crust from getting hard. Cool completely.

There's nothing like the smell or taste of freshly baked bread. I'm hooked. Oh, yeah, you can forget about it, Orowheat. We're through.

Doing this made me think of my Mom. I can feel myself becoming more and more like her. Maybe it's more like I'm beginning to think her way is the ONLY way to do something. I'm sure it's her genetics that require me to be watching something British (and having to do with women worrying about which gentleman will accept their meager dowry and provide them with a snazzy lifestyle in their Victorian England context) whenever I sew anything. And I'm pretty sure that she's the reason I went to TOWN on some coupons that got mailed to our apartment for some other previous tenant, and that I now have my very own "coupon wallet" (aka the J. Crew coin purse Becca got me for my birthday in 2007). And it's also because of her that I can't really be comfortable on the couch without a blanket draped over me.But there's really no woman I rather share neuroses with.

My best friend's wedding, and "Oh no, I've become one of those people."

2011-10-05T15:29:00.000-07:00

She did it!

Meet Arturo and Rebecca, married couple extraordinaire!

I love this girl. We are two weeks apart, cousins, former roommates, and partners in crime. Harry and I flew up to Salt Lake for her wedding this past weekend, and it was sublime. Family everywhere, babies everywhere, and the euphoria of a newly minted married couple in all kinds of love. And I realized, as I wiped tears away at the ceremony, after the ceremony, at the beginning of the reception, and at the end of the reception, I have turned into one of those people-- the type of person who, you know, cries uncontrollably at weddings.

Being in Utah reminds me of all of our hijinks, and all the fun we had doing them, and reminded me that we're both now bonafide adults, and now there are officially bigger responsibilities in both of our lives that must come before weekends of silliness with bridge mix and BBC.

Maybe that explains why I felt so compelled to hold her hand.

She married one of the coolest guys I've ever met (seriously), and they make a super snazzy duo.

Throw into the mix a wild dance party in Sundance, including the stylings of Justin Bieber and Bruce Springstein, and cutting a rug with all the McOmber clan, and it made for an unforgettable party. My bro played the bag pipes and my even Dad jumped in when someone awesome randomly started the Electric Slide.

The next morning, bright and early, Harry and I groggily made our way to our gate at the SLC airport. We were settling in to wait to board our flight, when I heard a loud, "WHAT?" I look up, and there stood Rebecca! They were flying out ten minutes after us.

Harry, almost on cue, started snapping pictures of the random reunion with my phone.

Cheesy alert: This was such a nice tender mercy for me. I really really love this gal. Getting to see her one last time before we flew home made my day. For five minutes we got to visit, revel in how wonderful the wedding day was, and just laugh like old times. Thank goodness families are forever, or I would have a serious bone to pick in the afterlife.

Loved this weekend. LOVED it.

P.S. And also, cousin Margaret, just knowing that you read this blog, and that you're probably one of the 4 people who actually do, makes me so happy. And also, thank you for all those times you invited me and Merzy over to watch LOST and eat sugar cookies when I was 18. I really loved that.

Mountains, ocean, and a serious plethora of pictures

2011-10-03T12:37:00.000-07:00

We were lucky enough to steal some time at the end of the summer and go to Duck Creek, UT to the cabin with my cousin Becca and her fiancee (now-husband... more on that coming) for a few days.

We cooked, baked, hiked, ran, read, speed-scrabbled, and watched movies. We also did the Cascade Falls hike together. And we fiddled with the Canon camera that Harry got me for my birthday. I think it's time I learned how to take real photographs, and though this camera has all the knobs and buttons of a spaceship, I'm learning about all of them a little bit at a time.

**I posted so many pictures previously that I have almost used up my allotted free google space. So a lot of the pictures are now gone, and are available on request, although I would be really surprised if you did, because this post is now old.**

Then Harry and I got in our little college cars and hauled it back up to Palo Alto. And then 48 hours later, we had our last hurrah of the summer by spending a few days in Monterey Bay and Carmel, a short 2 hour drive from our home, and a dreamy dreamy dreamland of dreams.

On the way we stopped by Marianne's Ice Cream parlor at the recommendation of some good friends. We ate Cardamom and Pistachio flavored ice cream, and our taste buds will never be the same.

We stopped in Santa Cruz and wandered down the boardwalk. And saw a bunch of seals who were being rather noisy, and doing what me and my London friends call "The Manheim Steamroller," ie climbing over your fellow beings instead of walking around them.

Planking seals- it's an epidemic

We got to Monterey, explored the town a little bit, found a sushi place, and enjoyed the view from our room.

The next day we drove the 17-mile drive down the coast, and hiked around Point Lobos.

Then we high tailed it home and settled back into our 1960's-era apartment. Bring it on, autumn.

Boom! Done.

2011-09-21T17:09:00.000-07:00

We took liberties with the pattern (and I mean LIBERTIES). But I like this more than the original pattern. All in all I'm in love with it.

A special thanks goes out to Mama Eaton who made this skirt possible.

Since my parents have been doing the whole "empty nester" thing since 2008, my Mom turned an empty bedroom into her "sewing room." There's still a bed in there. So I told my Mom to stretch out on the bed while I sat at her sewing machine. And I set up season 1 of Downton Abbey on my laptop on the ironing board. She would then direct me from her post and I (to quote Ms. O'Brien from Downton Abbey) "sewed like a cursed princess in a fairytale." We finished this baby in about 4 hours total, spread out over 3 days.

Today I finished up the last few things on my own now that we're back in Palo Alto. I made sure something British ("Emma") was playing though while I finished it up. This is partially because I got a migraine last night. I've been getting migraines since kindergarten, and missed school (on average) about once a month because of it. In high school the nurse's office basically had my emergency contact card memorized. While I waited out my migraines at home, my usual routine was to have Gwenyth Paltrow's "Emma" playing in the background (on VHS! Doesn't that sound weird?) while I curled up on the couch with my eyes squeezed shut, munching an occasional saltine cracker to tame the nausea until the pain slowly petered away hours later.

Well, last night during scripture study, just before lights out, my vision blurred in a distinct way-- the tip off that a migraine is coming. When this happens, alarms go off in my brain and it's almost like I can hear someone shouting "ABORT! ABORT!" I immediately said, "Harry! Migraine! I need Aleve and water STAT!" I may not have said that verbatim but I may as well have. He jumped out of bed lightning fast. He knows the migraine drill pretty well. I downed the pill (normally I take 2 Excedrine but I knew I wouldn't sleep at all if I took that at night), we turned off the light, and I feverishly prayed that I'd fall asleep for the migraine got too terrible to ignore.

Thank Heavens (no, seriously though-- I feel like this was an early Christmas present from Heaven) this morning I woke up, having slept right through the migraine.

Sorry, Universe. You lose.

I guess since I still HAD a migraine last night I felt compelled to watch "Emma" today while I hemmed my skirt and attached the hook and eye to the back. It somehow felt right.

Coming up next: our end of the summer trips to Duck Creek and Monterey Bay. Here's a preview:

So long, summer

2011-09-17T10:11:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know what you're thinking. The Dashboard Confessional song is called "So Long Sweet Summer." But I'm not 14 anymore, and it's not 2001, and I don't listen to that song anymore because it still really does make me feel like the fact that summer is over will make me completely depressed for decades to come. And I don't actually feel that way at all.

Speaking of something else, which we weren't, I thrive on routine. I know most people do, so I don't consider that an earth shattering revelation. As much as I've been completely smitten with summer and having nothing to do except be around people I love, my brain is sort of free-floating around in my skull, while it likes to be tightly tethered to its post with a to-do list, a plan, something stable that I can have maximum control over.

So, summer, since you're on your way out the proverbial door, it's been great. I really enjoyed what we had. But… it's not you. It's me. I've realized I have needs. These needs must be met. Or my thighs and waistline will expand faster than you can say "helium balloon." Don't take this too personally. I think you're great. You have so much to offer. Hey, in another year, our paths will cross, and we'll spend time together again, with swimming suits, watermelon chunks, linen skirts, Target sandals, and sunscreen. Until then… I'm going to be spending more time with my good friend, Autumn. We'll be running in the crisp morning air around Palo Alto, meandering around pumpkin patches, making family-recipe Butternut Squash Soup, and not sitting in a swimming pool all day munching homemade cookies. Instead I'll indulge in wooly socks and anything cooked with cinnamon. There may even be a basket-weave hand-knitted scarf or two involved.

Don't take it too hard. We had some great times. I will always remember the tan you gave me and that time I burned my hands on my steering wheel after my car sat in the Las Vegas sun for an hour in an asphalt parking lot.

But you and I both knew this day was coming.

Not-really-so-much yours,
S.A.R.

PS Would you please apologize to Harry for giving him that scalp sunburn? It's not right to treat him that way just because we buzzed all of his hair off.

Sushi and French Raw Silk

2011-08-29T10:10:00.000-07:00

My parents have been serving in the local Single's Ward for a little while now. Recently my Dad organized a Sushi Night. A member of the ward is a world renowned Master Sushi Chef, and he agreed to teach a little class on Sushi Basics.

We set about chopping cucumbers and avocados, using our bare hands to work with the rice and seaweed, and using bamboo rollers to shape the final rolls unto squares and rectangles. The chef and my Dad spent hours preparing spicy tuna and crab filling, as well as perfect tangy sweet sushi rice. I felt like I belonged on Food Network.

When the Master Sushi Chef walked by and I asked how I did, he paused, shrugged, and said, "Yeah, it's okay."

He told me and Harry about a restaurant he's opened in San Francisco. That's at the top of our priority list for when we get back.

In other news, my Mom and I finally got up the guts and courage to do something we've been talking about for ages. We spent a Saturday morning in the LA Fabric District this past weekend.

I've read on lots of blogs about the incredible amount of fabric available for wholesale prices in Los Angeles. I did some research the night before on the must-see places (namely, Tex Carmel, Michael Levine, and the Michael Levine Loft) and on where to park. I checked traffic projections and determined the best way to get there, and the best way to get home (two different routes. LA traffic is a cruel and unpredictable beast).

On Saturday morning at 8:00 am, we gritted our teeth and set off for the district. My Mom is a very accomplished seamstress, and I think this trip for her was a bit like taking a person who is obsessed with fish to the biggest aquarium on earth. I think the wheels in her brain began turning so fast they may have left skid marks on her cerebellum.

I did find exactly what I wanted- a dark orangey-copper-ish french raw silk. I love this material. Both my sisters had wedding dresses made of raw silk-- and so did Princess Diana. It's delicate but stiff, and rough to the touch, and looks as though it's got a lot of runs going through it, but in the light, it has a beautiful glow. I did some haggling, and got it for $10/yard. This fabric usually runs somewhere around $45/yard. In a store nearby I found a perfect crocheted lacy trim.

We ran up the street to the Michael Levine Loft. I'd read about this place-- it's a sweltering room that looks like an old attic that's full of boxes of discarded knits. Everything in the room is $2.50 per POUND. So you can load up on endless amounts of fabric and if it's lightweight, you can walk away with tons of it. We got about 10 yards of different colored knit fabrics and it cost under $10. Sha-blam!

The last stop was Michael Levine. I read it's a good place to go to last, because while they have incredible deals, they do run a tiny bit more expensive. Their selection is mind-boggling.

There was another skirt I wanted to make that is comprised of rows and rows of lace.

I found beautiful lace in both black and white and $1.00/yard. I pounced and bought 7 yards of each, and spent about $5 more on white poly-cotton for lining.

All together, I think I spent about $35. For what will become a raw silk skirt, 2 lace skirts, and a cardigan. Assuming I don't mess them all up!

(no subject)

2011-08-25T10:18:00.000-07:00

Why do I feel anxiety when I think about updating this thing? This is not how it was supposed to be! I was supposed to just regurgitate thoughts and the occasional picture when I felt like it. Now it's become a sort of travelogue, which is fine, but it makes me feel an immense sense of inadequacy if I don't consistently have something to say. Which is pretty silly. So here are some things I've been thinking about that need to be said/typed/posted, without regard to chronological order or... any kind of order.

- I can't stop watching these "I'm A Mormon" videos. Especially Brian Kershisnik's video. I remember the first time I saw his paintings was with Harry our favorite restaurant in Provo (Pizzeria 712). They had a few of his paintings on the walls and we used to talk about owning one someday. And by talk I mean dream.

- I'm guilty of watching this season of "Bachelor Pad." I'm currently halfway through this past week's episode. I don't know if I can get through it. And as much as I'd like to think it's because I'm such a righteous person… it's really because I feel like there are germs crawling all over me after every episode. Everyone in that mansion is perpetually wet and in a swim suit. And then they're either crying or throwing paint at each other or making out and… I feel like I need a piping hot shower just thinking about it. Put some dry clothes on, people, and read a good book and just calm the heck down for a minute.

- My sister E was randomly in town! And by "in town" I mean "in Vegas," which is where we were up until yesterday. She brought little baby I in town for a quick little doctor's visit, even though she and her cute fam moved to Utah a few months ago. As luck would have it, we realized our paths would cross in Vegas and she stayed here with us and I got to spend hours and hours catching up with her and laughing. It was really hard for me when she moved out of Vegas-- not getting to see her whenever we're in town is pretty sad. So we made the most of our time together and it's heavenly.

- I love when Harry gets really into a good book. He usually starts fiddling with his hair while he reads, twirling it, patting it, all while he can't look away and is deaf to everything else in the room. Someday his ability to tune everything out may bug me, but for now, I really love it, and wish I wasn't so easily distracted while I read.

- I'm itching to sew again. I happened upon a little sewing blog that I really like! There are a few projects I'm really interested in, the main one being this one:

Since my most glorious cousin Rebecca is getting herself hitched next month, there's no better time to create a good skirt to wear in the exact color and trim that I want!

- I'm getting homesick for Palo Alto. This is bad. Very bad. Because it will only be home for one more year. I know it's a dumb thing to grieve way in advance, but I can't help it. My heart already hurts.

- Fall is coming. Cameron is going back to school. Pencils and spiral notebooks are on sale. I know when we get back to Palo Alto the marching band will be practicing near our house (this is a major blessing/curse) and I'll start concocting a plan for the best Halloween costumes possible. Especially one that can stand up to the glorious ones of the past:

2007: Christmas Elf and Eminem

2008: Road Kill and Camoflauge Man

2010: Reynolds Wrap

Suggestions are most welcome.

- Series 2 Premiere is September 18 (according to Wikipedia). Set your DVRs, ladies. It's going to be epic.

Los Angeles: Nutshell style

2011-08-03T10:58:00.000-07:00

My sister E joked with me a few months ago that I should create a separate blog for all the celebrity sightings I hoped to have while in LA. And to make it extra funny, there should only ever be one post, and the one sighting I would have would have been an extra from some obscure episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

Luckily, our experience wasn't as lame as that. Here are the celebrities we've seen while in LA:

LA (Santa Monica, specifically) has been a whirlwind. One thing we didn't expect is that we wouldn't have the time to do everything we wanted to do. I've been working from home from 8-3 everyday. With that and Harry working full time, it actually doesn't leave much time to do much else.

That's not to say we didn't do fun things. We still got to hang out with Dan + Aja, and we traveled to see family every weekend, explored by going to new restaurants and theaters, and went for evening walks and jogs along the beach. I went down to visit my sister/bro-in-law/nephew/brother/parents about once a week when Harry had an after-work event that I wasn't invited to. And we've been adventurous in the food department as well.

On 4th of July weekend, our friends the Dyers crashed with us for the night, and we all met up the next day with our good friends, the Santistevans. It was fun to see some familiar Palo Alto faces!

Then we partied Irvine Style with barbeque, food, and togetherness.

Also, Jeff and Merzy had us (me, Harry, Cam) over for a sleepover, Junior High style, complete with pizza, candy, movie, staying up late... and we almost went to get Krispie Kreme donuts at midnight, but being the wimps that we are, we were konked out on the couch by then.

For our 2 year anniversary, Harry did his research and surprised me by taking me to Lucque. It was (cue: far off look in eyes, tear of nostalgia, trickling of drool down chin) so good.

I'm not a big beef person. But at Lucque, the braised beef short ribs were calling my name. The restaurant owner was making the rounds, asking everyone how they liked their food. He got to our table and told me I was eating a dish that was featured on the Food Network show "The Best Thing I Ever Ate." Not that it mattered, I barely heard him over the sound of fireworks of joy shooting off in my brain. I will never be satisfied with short ribs ever again after this experience, I'm afraid.

They wrote "Happy Anniversary" on our dessert plate. Which you can't even really see... at all.

Last Friday, my Mom drove out to spend the day with me. It was so much fun! We ate at the 3rd Street Promenade at The Market, and took our time wandering around afterward, choosing gelato and a few chocolates to share, and walking around the mall.

All in all, this was a really wonderful summer. And it's not exactly over either.

Next summer if we come back, we'll wise up by living in an area that is cheaper, more central, and not so traffic-ridden. But living in Santa Monica has been such a blast and I'm sure I'll miss our summer by the ocean when it's over.

Two.

2011-07-25T15:54:00.000-07:00

It blows my mind that it's been two years since this happened.

He's my favorite thing.

If you had told me four years ago I would soon date, then marry, a man who

will get on a horse and feel comfortable taking off at top speed within two minutes,

understands the necessity of beating "Beatles: Rockband" in one evening,

can (almost) make faces as dumb as I can,

can read my very thoughts when I'm craving a dark chocolate bordeaux,

and can look like Eminem simply by putting on some camo and a hoodie,

I simply wouldn't have believed you, would have slapped you right across the face, and said, "Don't tell me things that are too good to be true!"

But you would have been right, and I would have had to apologize for the slap, and hope that you didn't want to press charges.

Happy two years to us.

Might maybe may

2011-07-22T09:16:00.000-07:00

We might have gone to the famous Backstage Grill & Karaoke Bar in Culver City last night.
Harry and another intern may have been encouraged (forced?) by their superiors to sing a song together.
That song may have been originally recorded by Miley Cyrus.
I might have taken video.

It might be here.

(Disclaimer: whatever video might be hyperlinked might also be a tiny bit shaky.)

The best thing that never happened to me

2011-07-18T10:27:00.000-07:00

Carmageddon.

It's been all over the news for a little while, and it took place this past weekend. The city was closing the 405 for construction for two days, which was going to make traffic in LA into something like a natural disaster mixed with the apocalypse, and every resident of LA was encouraged by city officials to stay off the roads at all costs.

Harry and I took this very seriously.

For weeks ahead of time, we planned everything around Carmageddon. We planned to hole up in our apartment with our favorite foods and movies, and limit ourselves to walking to the 3rd Street Promenade and the beach, and that would be it. Which I was totally fine with. We've been traveling almost every weekend so some down time at the apartment sounded really nice.

Saturday morning we walked down to the 3rd Street Promenade to a breakfast place we found that we really love called Monsieur Marcel.

Harry was certain we were sitting next to a movie star whose name he couldn't quite remember. We split french toast and crepes, and then meandered down to the Santa Monica Farmer's Market to get some berries Harry kept hearing about at work. I kid you not-- the farmstand that sells them is called Harry's Berries. They grow these fantastic strawberries right by the ocean so they are exploding with tart juiciness. We bought a basket, and would have bought more, but were limited on the cash.

We also managed to find Harry some running shoes at the Puma store at 40% off! I was thrilled about these shoes because NOW I can finally coerce him into going running with me! Win win!

We walked home, and I was all prepared to break out a bathing suit and the boogie boards we stole from my in-laws and hit the beach, when we got a text from Dan and Aja, who live in Hollywood, and who we were sure were at least 2 hours away by car in the supposed "traffic jam of all time."

They wanted to go see Harry Potter, a movie that I've been looking forward to since I finished the final book in the series back in 2008. Not only that, but they wanted to DRESS UP-- not optional. Wands and capes mandatory. I knew it the moment Harry read the text to me… Carmageddon or not, this sounded way to awesome to pass up.

We got onto google maps to survey the traffic damage. Only, according to google, every freeway was completely and blissfully traffic-free! My best guess is that the majority of LA people really had the fear in them and were honestly staying off the roads. We felt like this was a dirty trick and that as soon as we started off for Hollywood, we'd get caught in a jam that would keep us on the road for hours. You can imagine our glee when we got to their house in RECORD TIME-- 20 minutes. We'd never made it that quickly before.

We dressed up as best we could and snapped a picture for posterity. No, Dan didn't dye his hair just for this movie so he could look identical to Draco Malfoy. But he did get that question about 45 times throughout the evening, especially from a girl who asked if he would take a picture with her.

We went to the movie. One thing I realized that I love about LA is you dress up like a Hogwarts student and people not only love it, they completely EMBRACE you for it. I was walking around Universal City Walk in Harry's white button up shirt, gold and red tie, gray skirt, and an enormous hooded black cloak, frizzy hair a-flying, holding a twelve inch stick in my right hand, and the reactions I got were, "AWESOME!" and a plentiful amount of high fives and pats on the back.

Harry was wearing my graduation robe from two years ago over a shirt and tie in the Ravenclaw colors. I have had that graduation robe in the trunk of my car since graduation day in 2009. It has moved with me from Provo to Irvine to Palo Alto to Vegas to Palo Alto to LA, and has NEVER left my trunk. Somewhere deep inside I knew I couldn't get rid of that billowing sheath of navy blue polyester, and I'm proud to say today that my tendency to be a pack rat paid off in spades.

The movie did not disappoint. In the last few years, I have started crying in movies at the drop of a hat. I have no explanation for this. I've cried in like five episodes of "Friday Night Lights" (it's all your fault, Tim Riggins) and I cried three times during Harry Potter.

The next day was Dan's birthday celebration. We made our infamous Apple Pie (Mac and Julie once won a bake-off with this recipe. It's fool proof and amazing every time).

It's just not right to bake on Sunday without something British playing in the background. Which is why you can see "Downton Abbey" on my laptop. Being in an apartment that doesn't have a lot of baking equipment can be an interesting experience. I used a pot as a mixing bowl, a bottle of wine (a gift from the apartment owner) as a rolling pin, and a potato masher for a pastry cutter. Harry helped me by peeling apples.

We then fearlessly hopped on the freeway, arriving lickity split to Dan and Aja's apartment. Aja made the most amazing pizza for everyone and we had such a great time hanging out with friends and family. We feel really lucky to be surrounded by such great people out here.

On the way home, Harry and I decided Carmageddon should really happen more often. We've never experienced such convenient traffic conditions in our entire lives.

How about it, Los Angeles? Doesn't the I-5 need some repaving?

Besties, Barbeque, Blues, and Blockbusters

2011-06-27T15:04:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago, the stars aligned and three of my best girlfriends in the known universe and I met up in Irvine for a girl's day!

I'm so thankful that for the time being, we're all within driving distance, and that we had the chance to get together. We all met up and then were off to the Irvine Spectrum for lunch (which I was treated to because of my birthday! Thanks ladies!), shopping, Rocky Mountain chocolate, See's, and of course, a few solid hours of lounging and doing what we do best-- talking.

So much has happened in the last year. There is one more baby now among us since we last got together, and two more are on the way, making grand appearances before the end of the year!

The only downside to days like this is how lightning-fast it all goes by. Since everyone's so busy in the summer it's a miracle when our schedules line up, but we're definitely going to do this again before the summer is over.

Afterwards, I scampered home to help my parents throw a barbeque. My Dad is one of the leaders for the Single's Ward in our Stake, and he and my Mom had been prepping all day for the party. My Dad made his famous pork ribs and his INFAMOUS Chicago-style "Mumbo sauce." He and my brother also offered some delta-style blues entertainment. I've been hearing my Dad play this music since I was little and it's one of my all-time favorite sounds.

After the party, Harry and I grabbed my brother Cam and raced to the movie theater where we made it just in time for

I'm not a Sci-Fi fan, but this movie was incredible. We laughed, I cried (and I mean cried), and our minds were sufficiently blown. I would wish this movie on anyone.

This is probably the last real "summer" we'll ever have. Even though we're both working and it's not really a vacation, this summer is really the last of it's kind. It's a really bittersweet thing. I'm trying to live it up as much as I can, considering this time next year school will officially be a thing of the past, and we're not exactly sure where we'll wind up. Therefore, my goals for this summer:

1) Get a tan-- wait, no. A golden tint.
2) Eat my weight in frozen yogurt and my Dad's Mumbo sauce.
3) Swim in the ocean and/or a swimming pool at least twice a week.
4) Make watermelon lime slushies as often as I can get my hands on watermelon.
5) Spend oodles of time with Eaton and Reynolds family.
6) Hang out with friends I rarely get to see.
7) Get sick of summer so that I won't be all blue when it ends.

Eaton Park

2011-06-23T11:21:00.000-07:00

I just remembered this and thought I should share. In the name of being an Eaton, and all.

On Memorial Day, I got a hankering to go on a hike. There are so many beautiful hikes around Palo Alto, and I happened upon one on the internet that was about 10 miles away from our apartment called "Eaton Park." Seriously. I took it as a sign.

It was about 3.4 miles round trip, and it took us through a dense, lush, hilly forest on a deserted path. It was the perfect way to spend Memorial Day morning/afternoon (and left us enough time to get home so Harry could work on some finals).

The view.

Smiles all around.

Trying to get a cool action shot of me blowing on the huge dandelion. Failing miserably.

Halfway point (which took us into the suburbs, and then back into the wilderness again).

The path was riddled with banana slugs. And I mean RIDDLED. At least they're a pretty color.

All finished.

A lot.

2011-06-20T10:20:00.000-07:00

The other day, my friend K from Palo Alto called me just to say hi. It made my day. She also mentioned that if we're going to be away in La La Land all summer, would I mind getting off my lazy duff and updating this silly little internet blurb so that it was obvious I was still alive and kicking?

I told her I would gladly oblige.

Many many things have happened lately, and when I think about uploading all the pictures it makes me dizzy and faint and call out for some smelling salts. But I shall do my best.

We have moved to Santa Monica for the summer. Leaving Palo Alto and all our buddies (just for two months) was really hard. I can only imagine what that will be like in a year when Hal's graduated and we'll be leaving the bay area for good. I can't even talk about that anymore. I'm welling right up like a nincompoop.

In the name of chronological order, I will start from the beginning. And when I come to the end, I will stop.

I ran the Spring Fling 5K at Stanford. Harry met me at 3 different spots on the course (around campus) to cheer me on. It was so sweet of him! He got a few shots of me, and these are the only ones I will post on the internet ("mid-stride" isn't really my proudest camera pose). Harry and I attended a BBQ after and got to catch up with our Law School pals.

At the end of May, we drove up to Marin County to visit the MartinandSuzi chapter of the McOmber fam. We ate delicious barbequed delights, swam in the pool with the kiddies, and topped everything off with ice cream. Plus we got to drive on the Golden Gate bridge and through a long winding highway of vineyards for 2 hours each way. One of my favorite things.

Uncle M had a putting green installed in the backyard. I got a hole in one, and so did Hal! I never knew golf could give my sense of well being/confidence such an outrageous boost.

My beautiful and witty cousin Erin sang in "Don Giovanni," one of Mozart's operas, at the Presidio in SF (used to be a military base, but now all the beautiful old brick buildings have been converted into homes and offices and a concert hall that are right on the peninsula). If I could, I would make sure everyone could hear her amazing (and POWERFUL) soprano voice before dying. Oh, wait, maybe I can.

I love my cousins.

Before leaving Palo Alto, I got together with some girl friends (one of whom I would see for the last time!) and we ate Mexican food and gathered at the Redwood City Center for a giant outdoor broadcast of "Hitch." We all brought blankets and G brought milk duds and red vines. It was so much fun! Leave it to me to blink in a photo where THERE WAS NO FLASH (eye roll).

Also, we went to dinner at Il Fornaio with some friends to celebrate my birthday early, since we would be in LA when it actually happened. G even made me my own lemon birthday cake. True story: this cake is so tasty I couldn't bear to get rid of it when we moved. It's sitting in my freezer in Palo Alto. When I get back, I'm thawing it out and eating it.

My birthday rolled around. We had just made the move to Santa Monica the night before. So we went to the store, stocked up on essentials (milk and cereal), and then later wandered around Santa Monica. We hit the pier, the 3rd street Promenade, and the beach on foot- everything is within a mile of our home. Harry bought me some fun b-day clothes at H&M and we had a blast checking out shops and restaurants. I am one lucky duck.

That night Hal took me to get some sushi and frozen yogurt, and we came home and watched "The Company Men." True to form, I fell asleep for the last 15 minutes. But it was still an excellent movie. And an excellent way to celebrate turning a quarter century. My quarter-life crisis has yet to hit. Pictures of an Irvine family party are yet to come!

A fun part of living in LA is that we have family close by! We got to see Harry's cousins for dinner one night and play the Michael Jackson dancing game on Kinect. Everyone's inner-MJ came out. It was awesome. Harry and Chris delighted us with "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun."

We also got to hang out with Dan (sadly, the stunning Aja was out of town). We ate amazing food and got to catch up (I didn't get any photos, like a dufus)... right across the street from the Scientology Celebrity Center. Oh, LA. I think I might love you.

I've been working from home this summer (for the company I was working for in the bay area). Four hours a day I am sitting at a desk on my laptop, in my "uniform" (read: pajamas). It's been awesome.

Now for some BITTERsweet news. My sister E and her adorable family are moving to UT. It's going to be awesome for them in so many ways, but for me, it's like "The Wonder Years" aired it's last episode all over again. The melancholy will haunt me for months.

All the Eaton siblings gathered at her house last week to help pack up and move (Mom and Dad couldn't make it this weekend). That was actually a lot of fun. I remember once when I was 12, my parents took off to visit my grandparents, and it was just us kids at home. Elizabeth was 18, Mer was 16, and Cam was 10, and we had a blast hanging out together. I remember thinking, "Wow, we've got a good thing going here." This was kind of like that. Only even more fun.

We even spent some time with photo booth to commemorate the late nights laughing at our own stupid jokes.

Merzy called this one "Families are Forever:"

Weird thing about this one... it wasn't planned....

Babies J and I got to spend some QT together. They are just about the cutest and happiest babies I've ever laid eyes on.

If you've read to the end of this, you must be my mother. If you're not, hey, thanks for reading. You're a peach. I will leave you with a little diddy I can't stop listening to.

Imagine Dragons "It's Time" from The Occidental Saloon on Vimeo.

25.

2011-06-07T09:12:00.001-07:00

So far, so good.

Goodbyes

2011-05-22T15:38:00.000-07:00

I do believe Blogger hates me. It ate my last blog post and hasn't given it up yet, so I think it's gone for good. And I don't have the energy to post all those pictures again. Suffice it to say that life has been good and we are eating lots of chocolate chips and watching lots of Friday Night Lights and Downton Abbey, and enjoying the springtime weather (except for the allergies that unceasingly plague Harry's nasal passages).

Speaking of goodbyes, which we weren't, let it be known that I can't stand them.

Another school year is ending for our family ward here in Stanford/Palo Alto/Menlo Park, and it's all shades of depressing.

I was visit taught for the very last time today by these two fantastic ladies.

We all moved into this ward at the same time two years ago. We're all the same age and all graduated from BYU, but never knew each other while we were there. And they have been my visiting teachers since we moved into this ward. They've brought me cookies and always made me feel so loved and made it clear they were looking out for me. They helped us move, mourned with me while I looked for work, prayed for me when I kept getting sick over and over again. And in the next 2-3 weeks, we're all moving away. While Harry and I will be back for one more school year after this summer ends, these two will be on to bigger and better things, like the Bar exam, doctoral degrees, and this elusive "setting up roots in a permanent place" thing that people do when they aren't students anymore.

This is happening all over our ward right now. Women I have become good friends with and have looked up to over the last two years are kissing student housing goodbye and moving with their adorable families to other parts of the country, into actual homes (with actual dishwashers, laundry machines, driveways, garages, and multiple bedrooms). And while I'm so happy that everyone has a bright and cheery future, it's completely crumbling my heart into tiny grainy pieces.

And I'm really bad at saying goodbye to people in these situations. I can't stand it. It's probably not a good quality but it's easier for me to just let all this moving away happen without any big hurrahs. But let it be known that I will continue to blog stalk all my wonderful women and watch their kids get even more adorable and plentiful, and I'll be even more thrilled I got to spend a chunk of my life in their company.

If there's a Menlo Park Ward Alumni Association in Heaven, I hope there's a big party planned for when we're all there someday. I will bring chocolate chip cookies or a bundt cake or lemon bars.

The Sarrison download.

2011-05-08T17:51:00.001-07:00

The last few weeks have been busy!

I've been really blessed to be able to find work-- since the company I worked for since we moved here dissolved, I've only had about 2 total weeks of unemployment. I'm currently working nearby in Mountain View and I'm really enjoying it! I'm on a recruiting team for a technology start-up company, something I'd never done before. It's so funny to look across the room at the Assistant/Receptionist's desk and identify so much more with what she's doing, and yet I have my own completely different projects that I work on. It's been a nice change.

Other notables: We saw. The. Paul. Simon. In. San. Francisco.

Memborable songs: "The Sound of Silence," "The Only Living Boy In New York," "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover," "Still Crazy After All These Years," and the song that I haven't been able to get out of my head since the concert, "Dazzling Blue."

We went kayaking at Shoreline Park with some Law School friends. It reminded me how weak I am, mainly because of the sheer amount of sweat I produced while rowing.

We were also able to skip down to Irvine at the last second for Merzy's delicious little baby's blessing. I was so thrilled I got to spend a few days with Jude. He's such a dreamy and loving baby. Bonus: Because Harry's brother married my sister's husband's sister (it's aaaaall very confusing), we got to see some extra Reynolds and Hayes people, which is always a magical delight.

The weekend included copious amounts of snuggling, giggling, biking, morning walks, South Coast Plaza (we always-- ALWAYS-- meet up by See's Candy in my family, as evidenced in the pictures), and a flatbread pizza concoction made by my Dad that involved grilled fennel, eggplant, pork, dill, celery seed, and heaven.

Also, we made another blueberry pie for the Ward Bake-Off! It's the recipe that we swear by- so good you almost have to repent for it. And no, it didn't place (probably just as well. My inordinate amount of baking pride needed a good leveling)-- not even 4th or 5th place. More pie for us, sucka!

That is it. In a nutshell. Things here are winding down, and we're getting ready for our summer of love in LA where we'll get to be neighbors/party with these kids! Woooooooot!

I'm ready to stop blogging now. XO.

Thanks, Dad.

2011-04-25T09:41:00.000-07:00

Now that Easter is over, I feel like this is bloggable. Something about the Sabbath and Easter made this feel every shade of wrong. The Monday after Easter, I feel like it really only covers half of that spectrum. And that, friends, is grounds for blogging.

I call this collection "Freaky Easter Bunny: Childhood trauma."

(Credit goes to Huffington Post and The Daily Caller, and my Dad for filling my inbox with these photos Sunday morning.)

I don't have children but I like to make mental notes sometimes about what I will and won't do when I have them. Taking advantage of photo ops with demonic bunnies is my most recent addition to that list. It's right up there with saving them from the horrors of velveeta.

If only

2011-04-18T19:44:00.000-07:00

Fortune cookie

2011-04-16T11:35:00.002-07:00

Every once in a while, both of us are too far past exhaustion to cook anything for dinner. Sometimes, we pick up orange chicken from a local Chinese place called Hunan Garden. It's sinfully good.

This happened a few weeks ago, and I headed out to pick it up while Harry stayed back and wrote his three (yes, three) papers.

I think the girl at the register thought all the orange chicken and rice was just for me, because there was but one solitary fortune cookie in our bag (which I discovered when I got home). Fortune cookies hold a special place in my heart. I have very fond memories of making them from scratch with my brother Cam, and they also played a role in how Harry popped the question.

We were only slightly peeved at the one fortune cookie, so we decided to share it.

The fortune we found inside too fitting.

Jude and Ian Waffles

2011-04-08T11:32:00.000-07:00

I meant to post this around Valentine's Day. It's not as relevant now as it was then, but I still want to put it out there.

The morning of Valentine's day I woke up extra early and made my husband a Valentine's Day breakfast of magical delight.

(Necessary back story: Right before Christmas break in 2009 we went with a bunch of law school peeps to Stacks in Menlo Park-- a scrumptulescent breakfast place. The current special was bacon waffles. Harry got them and we were both immediately smitten with them. Ever since then I've been searching for a good duplicate recipe. I finally found one on epicurious.com!)

That rainy Valentine's Day morning I made them secretly, while he slept (meaning, I banged around the kitchen with my pots and pans and electric whisk with frequent noisy cabinet squeaks).

They turned out to be everything I wanted them to be and just a little bit more. This commonly happens when bacon is involved.

An extra exciting and (fitting for Valentine's Day) LOVEly factoid is that my sister M's first baby (a boy!) was born that morning at 4:00 am! I got the fateful text as I was setting the table of bacony delectations.

My other sister E gave birth only 10 days prior to a boy. And the two baby cousins will be happy, roly poly chub monsters together and I'm so excited!

Since my newest nephews were on the brain while I was making waffles that will clog your heart and simultaneously make it swoon with delight, I have renamed them. They are Jude and Ian Waffles. Recipe is below.

Jude and Ian Waffles

(also known as Crispy Cornmeal-Bacon Waffles, Bon Appétit | February 2004)
Yield: Makes 6 servings

8 bacon slices
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups buttermilk
2 large eggs, separated
3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted, cooled
Additional melted butter or nonstick vegetable oil spray
Additional pure maple syrup

1) Cook bacon in large skillet over medium heat until crisp, about 6 minutes. Transfer to paper towels. Crumble bacon.

2) Whisk flour and next 3 ingredients in large bowl to blend. Whisk buttermilk, egg yolks, and 3 tablespoons maple syrup in medium bowl to blend. Beat egg whites until they hold soft peaks.

3)Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients; stir just until blended. Fold in beaten egg whites. Fold in 1/4 cup melted butter and crumbled bacon.

4) Preheat waffle iron (medium heat). Lightly brush waffle iron with melted butter or spray with nonstick spray. Working in batches, spoon batter onto hot waffle iron, spreading evenly over grid. Close waffle iron and cook until waffle is brown, crisp, and set, about 6 minutes, depending on type of waffle iron. Transfer waffles to plates. Serve with maple syrup.

And, for those of you who like to know how many calories you're putting in your mouth:

Per serving:

370 calories
55 carbs
16 grams of fat
14 grams of protein

(this is including 1/4 cup of pure maple syrup drizzled on top of the finished waffles)

Happy Valentine's Day to all, and to all a good tummy full of Jude and Ian Waffles.

Harry in his birthday suit

2011-04-06T13:04:00.000-07:00

First of all, shame on you for reading this far past the title. You clearly think you're going to see pictures of my husband in the buff. Sicko.

He did, in fact, get a suit for his birthday. And I love him in it. I feel like he's Cary Grant from "North by Northwest" in this suit. I can just see him hanging on for dear life off of Mount Rushmore while well-to-do gangsters shoot at him because he's uncovered their evil plots.

The pose/picture above screams "70's" to me. We plan to edit it accordingly.

It's so versatile! It even allows him to do battle with our perpetually-breaking screen door.

I love me a good birthday suit.

Imagining Dragons

2011-04-05T10:18:00.000-07:00

The obsession continues.

It's the best when Imagine Dragons comes through town.

We saw Imagine Dragons with some friends last week when they came through San Francisco, at the Bottom of the Hill. Arcade Fire and the Strokes are some of the big names that have played there in the past.

They played such a great set- I love when I get to hear "America" live. They bring such a powerful energy with them. They're currently touring with the Parlotones- they make a fantastic line up.

The lead singer of the Parlotones jumped in for a bit. As you can see.

A clip from "Hear Me." At the end you can catch a glimpse of Harry workin it.

A fantastic time had by all.

Testimony.

2011-04-03T11:24:00.000-07:00

The Relief Society in my ward is doing something pretty cool. Everyone has been encouraged to handwrite or type up their testimony of the gospel, and submit it so that all the testimonies can be bound together into a book. Everyone will get a hard copy. That way, years down the road, when we're all in different places (we have a very transient ward- many people are only here for a few years for school, internships, etc.), we can look back at this snapshot of our ward, and the powerful testimonies of everyone in Relief Society.

I was typing mine up, and I realized something. I don't share my testimony publicly all that often, because it's something that's very sacred to me and close to my heart. It's hard for me to bring it up casually, or in an "everyday" setting. However, a testimony is made stronger in the bearing of it, so, I'm going to share it here. I have it linked below to the typed PDF that I'm sending in for my ward's Relief Society book.

I know the few people who read this blog are friends and family, who know that I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and many of the things written in this testimony aren't things you've never heard before. Even so, I have learned over and over in my life that it's often other people's testimonies that have strengthened mine, not because they were eloquent or wildly entertaining or remarkably strong, but because they exist, and they were shared.

Also, if you happen to be someone I don't know, or someone who doesn't know what I believe in, and you were curious, here it is.

Testimony.

The cutest thing I've seen all day.

2011-03-31T09:39:00.000-07:00

If you don't find this utterly adorable, you may not have a pulse.

Videos of niece J never fail.

I just hope someone tells me.

2011-03-24T13:14:00.000-07:00

Last night, cousin Bec, in true cousin Bec form, sent me an email with a link to a set of obscure pictures that made me laugh so hard I started convulsing. Harry agreed. These pictures are golden.

They're from an album entitled "Basset Hounds, Running."

It makes me a little worried. When I'm really REALLY old and wrinkly, with maximum face jowls, would someone dare take a picture of me, mid-run? And post it to the internet?

I just hope that if I develop jowls comparable to a basset hound, someone would tell me. So that I could make sure there were no cameras within a 6 mile radius of me if I ever decide to go on a jog. Leave me and my old lady jowls off the internet.

Twenty-six is:

2011-03-21T07:30:00.000-07:00

The number of miles in a marathon rounded down (26 miles and 385 yards)
The number of episodes in a television program each year
The age at which males can no longer be drafted in the United States
The number of red cards and black cards in a normal deck
The number of Cantons of Switzerland
The largest number of Oscars awarded to one person (Walt Disney)
The number of bones in the normal human foot and ankle

But even more tantalizing is the fact that today, friends, my man is 26 years old!

In honor of this momentous occasion in history, I'm assigning every of the 26 alphabet letters a very Harry quality.

A- Always is very manly
B- Blue eyed babe
C- Chef, specializing in all things tasty
D- Dances like Michael Jackson
E- Effortlessly manly
F- Foxy (read: fox-ay)
G- Genuine
H- Humble
I- Incredibly manly
J- Jazzy sense of style (J was hard for me, don't judge- hey! Judge! J!)
K- Keen wit
L- Loves reading for hours on end
M- Manly
N- Next in line to the British throne if something like a billion people in line before him were to abdicate
O- Often is manly
P- Pole-vaulter AND piano master (douple Ps! What what!)
Q- Quick learner- he even sews better than I do
R- Rock climber
S- Singer/songwriter
T- Totally manly
U- Understands women alarmingly well
V- Very manly
W- Wood-working carpentry expert
X- XXVI is 26 in Roman numerals, and he is 26.
Y- Yoga master
Z- Zebra-like sense of survival

Happy birthday to my favorite Harry. In the words of Bob Schneider, "I used up all my good luck the day I ran into you."

And now a lightning round of

2011-03-16T23:38:00.000-07:00

Name That Expression.

Found these on my computer. They were taken by Cam on Thanksgiving.

My best guesses are "numb lips from an invasive route canal" or "undercover genius fugitive."

This one... I'm still struggling to put a name on.

Weekend of love: Addendum I

2011-03-16T22:28:00.000-07:00

I went to Smash Burger with two of my sisters-in-law (is that the right way to say it? Grammar police? Help me. I know there are English majors reading this) to try the burgers and fries that everyone has been raving about (including my parents, who are NOT burger people). As we were standing in line, wouldn't you know? Being in star-studded Las Vegas I shouldn't have been surprised. Tim Allen was standing behind us in line with a buddy. He was wearing sunglasses inside and trying to keep a low profile, so our group of Reynoldsies didn't bother him.

However, a myriad of the most annoying things I could do just came shooting through my brain. Things like walking up to Tim Allen and saying:

1) (after placing a closed fist over my heart) "Commandah, nevah give up, nevaaaaaah surrendah."
2) "So, what was it like working with Jonathan Taylor Thomas? 15 years ago?"
3) "So, do you think your recent film 'Old Dogs' is one that will stand the test of time?"
4) (my favorite) Just give a really loud "Uhhhhhhhhhh-eh!"-- the famous grunt-noise from the show "Home Improvement" opening credits. I begged Annie or Sarah to do it. We all chickened out. Next time, Tim Allen, I won't be so shy.

Asian Food Invasion

2011-03-11T14:09:00.000-08:00

Let's rewind time about seven years.

Picture an 18-year-old me, living in the dorms at BYU, having a nice dinner with some freshman year buddies in the legendary Cannon Center. This was a special night, because there was a stir-fry theme going on, and there were stations set up with frying pans, burners, various meats, veggies, and noodles for us college kids to combine and fry and flavor.

My friends and I chowed down, feeling like we belonged on Iron Chef.

Fast forward five hours.

I'd been lying on my bed in the fetal position ever since dinner, fighting a wicked disturbance in my innards. My roommate got a hold of 2 of our guy friends to give me a blessing. Shortly thereafter, I ran up to my dorm room and... the stir fry... er, relocated. Into my trash can.

From then on I had a very rocky relationship with Asian food (which rules out an awful lot of good things). The smell of soy sauce made me queasy. The words "sweet and sour" made my stomach (and buttocks) clench. A sizzling wok had the propensity to blur my vision and make my knees wobbly.

Fast forward two and a half years.

Harry Reynolds asked me out.

The night of our date, I was hiding a 100 degree fever and bronchitis behind many many ml of Dayquil. My roommates knew about the crush I had on Harry, and knew only a trip to the emergency room would be sufficient for me to call off this date. They rallied and surprised me with a box of Dayquil, a bottle of orange juice, and a new tube of lip gloss (which I still own!).

The restaurant we pulled up to was Bangkok Grill, and I swallowed my first bite of Massaman Curry and was hooked (and I knew I really liked Harry).

This date has gone down in the history books as the best date of all time.

Fast forward four years.

I gave him this for Christmas this past year. To enable my Thai food addiction. I think it's wise to give Christmas presents to my spouse that enable my own addictions (that's why I "give" him bridge mix from time to time- and yes, he's an excellent sharer).

And already we've enjoyed Thai Beef Salad, Thai Beef Soup, and today the list grows with our two recent Asian culinary adventures.

Thai Green Curry with Chicken:

and a little Chinese dish called Stir-Fried Beef and Broccoli with Oyster Sauce:

Recipes can be found here(Green Curry) and here(Beef and Broccoli).

I've been using an app/website lately called MyFitnessPal. I'm on the brink of obsession. It not only tracks the calories you eat and burn throughout the day, for FREE, but it has a recipe calorie calculator as well. I think it's always kind of nice to have an idea of what you're putting in your mouth, so here are the nutrition facts for these recipes, if you're interested:

Green Curry:

(Serves 4)

Calories: 628
Fat: 25 g
Carbs: 58 g
Protein: 41 g

Beef and Broccoli:

(Serves 4)

Calories: 493
Fat: 30 g
Carbs: 25 g
Protein: 36 g

Stating the obvious: No, these are not "light" or "low calorie/carb/fat." By any stretch of the imagination. Just know that the servings are huge, so you can usually halve them pretty easily. Trust me-- every bite is worth it.

Weekend of love

2011-03-09T20:07:00.001-08:00

This last weekend, Hal's brother Dan got hitched!

Dan and Aja (Danja, for those of you who are prone to abbreviation) had one of the most beautiful wedding ceremonies I've ever attended. I wanted to take video of the whole weekend and edit it together later. But then I remembered that when you're hanging out with family and catching up with people you rarely get to see, taking video falls by the wayside.

The wedding was beautiful. Aja is an incredible woman. I love it when you meet a couple and know that they were made for each other. My amazing SIL snapped some shots of the beautiful couple. She snaps a lot of amazing photos. For a few shots of the beautiful wedding day, go here. To see more of her amazing photos, mosey on over here.

Mazel tov to the happy couple!

I even made myself a skirt for the occasion! With the help of my Mom, I put together this little diddy two days before. It was a quick and simple design, and was done without a pattern! Here's a photo booth shot of my outfit- sent to my mom for her omnicient-seamstress-approval.

Not nearly the most amazing skirt I've ever worn, but I really enjoyed it! I'm getting the itch all over again to sew more clothing.

Lastly, the day after the wedding I snuck away to my sister E's house to see her newest addition to the family. Baby I is so adorable! He's sweet and quiet and little, and let me hold him from the minute I walked in the door.

All in all, I recommend a weekend like this.

Published!

2011-02-28T18:47:00.000-08:00

Not me, my good friend Kylie Nixon.

Kylie was our amazing wedding photographer. A low maintenance, creative, inventive, and genius girl.

She recently emailed me to tell me that one of the pictures she took from our wedding has landed a spot in a book that was just put out by theknot.com. The picture is on the right- me and 3 bridesmaids in yellow holding our flowers.

Love this girl.

In other interesting news, the moment Harry woke up this morning, he looked at me and said, "Is it too late to move to the suburbs and start a musical group with five kids known as the Jacksons?"

This was followed by a lengthy pause.

I love that man.

Because I was on my death bed when I wanted to post this.

2011-02-26T09:04:00.000-08:00

Valentine's day was weeks ago but I did want to post evidence of the love.

In bullet form:

Calalillies (favorite flower of mine)
Bridge mix (favorite favorite)
Fancy dinner at Donato in RWC
Propping our camera atop our fridge and self-timing it to get documentation of dressing up for the occasion

It was just dreamy.

Only a few short days later I was laid up, hacking, thinking to myself, "If I was a pioneer woman right now, I probably would have 24 hours to live. Or would have died already."

Harry made Thai Beef Soup. It involved a bewitching mixture of star anise, cinnamon sticks, chicken broth, mint, jalapenos, flank steak, bean sprouts, scallions... and heaven.

Aaaand just for giggles, when I was in UT Becca let me steal a bunch of pictures I didn't even know existed. A lot of them were just of our BYU days, which meant a lot of them featured Harry. What better way to post the Valentine's love than a glance at the dating years?

Dating, hanging around Provo

Fundraiser Event for Cystic Fibrosis in Park City

Wedding Dinner

Back from the dead

2011-02-23T08:54:00.000-08:00

I have finally recovered from the worst cold/respiratory infection/brush with a phlegmy death of my entire life. I have a new appreciation for the ability to take deep, pain-free breaths, for antibiotics, and for a husband who literally will get out of bed at 2:30 in the morning just to get me a glass of water and will rub my back until I fall asleep again.

What started as a left over cough from a cold somehow blossomed (exploded?) into something fierce about a week ago. I will spare the gruesome details; let it suffice to say I thought I had pnuemonia. I couldn't take even shallow breaths without hearing and feeling wet pockets of air in my lungs respond. I was coughing night and day. I was dizzy when I stood up. I was feverish and couldn't stand the thought of eating. The concept of showering was even too much to handle.

Thanks to wonderful wonderful doctors (and even more wonderful brothers), and the wonderful wonderful world of drugs, and after 5 days of taking it easy (so easy I'm convinced any muscle I had is now as mushy as applesauce), I am now back to normal.

As luck would have it, right in the eye of the phlegmy storm, my brother Cameron was driving out from Utah for a visit. This had been in our plans for months. When he arrived, all I could do was sit on the couch and feebly wave and whisper. But he stuck it out like a pro, happy to just hang out when I wasn't feeling good. We still had ourselves a good time, and managed to squeeze in the movie "Unknown" along with a Cheese House sandwich and some Chipotle. True to form, and lazier than ever due to, you know, being ill, I didn't take many pictures. But he's a good brother and I'm so glad he was here to hang out with his sick sister.

Forcing the boys to take Airborne to avoid my fate

My Cheese House Sandwich

Self portrait: "On the very edge of life"

Cam and Harry took great care of me. Harry even made an amazing Thai beef soup with mint and cilantro and fresh ginger and grilled flank steak for me-- from scratch. There never was a luckier sick girl.

I'm not to the point where I should go running or hiking or even and excessive kind of jumping, but when I do, I will feel over the moon about it. Good health is such an enormous blessing! I really do have a new appreciation for it. I also really want to protect it-- fiercely-- from something like this happening ever again. I want to live on grapefruit and blueberries and kale and canteloupe and brown rice and broccoli and wheat germ and flax seed and string cheese and the occasional slab of butter, and get 9 hours of sleep a night, and do yoga an hour a day and run 5 miles after that. What I'm describing isn't really possible in my life right now. But I can dream.

Thank you, B.

2011-02-18T10:53:00.000-08:00

For this Fleet Foxes cover of Swedish sisters in the woods.

Happy birthday Mom!

2011-02-16T10:53:00.000-08:00

You are the summation of all things lovely and we love you so much!

(Don't forget, calories don't count on your birthday. I think there are about 8 pieces of vanilla nut fudge at See's with your name on them!)

Ba Ha Ha Ha Ha

2011-02-15T10:27:00.000-08:00

$$$$$$$$$$$ (read: ca-ching)

2011-02-13T16:25:00.000-08:00

Last night someone had put a few recent issues of Real Simple Magazine out for anyone to grab on the first floor of our building, which I did, on the way out the door to our dinner date. I knew if I didn't snatch them then they would be gone in another 2 minutes.

Today I got a chance to sit back and read one (from last month). I read through a page of information of what you can do to manage your finances. Finance-wise I feel I'm a pretty conservative person. I'm not an impulse-buyer. 99% of the things you can find in my closet were bought on sale, snatched at a clothing swap, gifted by an older sister, or bought off the rack at a discount or thrift store. Basically, we like to save money. But reading through this article (the all-too-confusing words "S&P Index 500" were used), I realized there's a lot about money I don't know.

So I said, out loud, "You know, I think I would really like to learn about investments and IRAs and the stock market. I bet there's a lot we could be doing with our money."

Harry, who had been astutely mixing yeast and warm water for homemade pizza tonight (droooooooooooooooooool) paused, and marched over to our book shelf and pulled this little beauty off of it and handed it to me. I kind of love it and hate it when he makes me put my money where my mouth is (finance pun not intended).

He read this book in a finance class last year (which he loved. How this is possible for anyone, I will never know). He said that anything and everything I ever wanted to know about money is in this book. His teacher praised it as one of the best written on the subject.

I thumbed through the first two pages and saw the dedication. And I had to laugh.

I decided it's sort of a sign. That Harry's wife (...me, for you slow ones) needs to read this.

Will I get all the way through it? I don't know. Probably not... but I really am curious enough to look through it.

Since the (f)unemployment is still abounding over here, I've realized I'm not that great at managing free time. I'm fairly productive, but I've watched more reruns of NBC shows in the last week than I'd care to admit. Harry, brilliant as always, suggested I make a schedule for myself. You know, something like

8:00 am-9:05 am: Eat breakfast and surf internet
9:05 am- 9:45 am: Exercise
9:45 am-10:45 am: Look for a job
10:45 am- 12:00 pm: Think up awesome recipes to make Harry for dinner
12:00 pm- 12:55 pm: Clean out bathroom drawers
12:55- 1:45 pm: Organize pantry

(Whoops. I honestly forgot to put "shower" in there. Do you see what having no schedule is doing to me?!)

Anyway. Hopefully penciling in time to read this book will contribute to my overall productivity... and just maybe I'll do something useful with our $$$.

What do you do when your job ends?

2011-02-10T09:45:00.000-08:00

Take a trip, of course.

More specifically, wait two days after your last day of work, and take a trip to where people you love/miss reside, and play for 4 days straight without pausing for breath.

I've been getting better at documenting (though someday I plan to upgrade from taking pictures with my phone to pictures with an actual camera). For any/all who are interested... here was the weekend of love, 2011, Farmingtown, USA.

Driving to Provo with cousin Bec

Figuring how to fill up the car with natural gas

(Uncle R is saving the environment w/ his hot wheels)

Hello, Cam!

Don't know why I felt compelled to take a picture of the cougarettes poster. All that studded patent leather they're wearing... it was just worth a photo.

Fro Yo makes a great mid morning snack.

The BYU candy counter. We got reacquainted. We're old friends.

The only soda fountain in the world that offers Caffeine Free Diet Coke. Oh BYU. I love you.

Carl Bloch Exhibit at Museum of Art w/ cousins Libby and Mary. It was breathtaking.

Imported from Denmark.

Cafe Rio! I contacted all the local peeps I could to come join us for dinner. Thank you to everyone who came!

Salads.

Me gusta Cafe Rio!

We baked bounteous cookies and cupcakes. What we do best. Recipes can be found here, here, and here.

Driving in the car w/ Cam.

Dinner with Cam and gal pal K! Too much fun!

Visiting Cam's apartment. We watched reruns of "Parks and Recreation" and had a blast. His roommate called me "old." I wanted to kick him but realized I left my steel toe boots at home. Dang.

J and A. Blushing newlyweds! They came over for the superbowl.

The men, engrossed.

Trivial pursuit. Serious business with Kyle.

And Bec.

And Uncle R.

Things not pictured:

1) Kyle playing with the remote control helicopter.
2) The wild game of mad libs.
3) Watching all episodes of Masterpiece Theater's "Downton Abbey" (thank you Whit for the link! I will watch it over and over again!)
4) Thrift shopping-- belt, ruffled satin skirt, 2 victorian picture frames= $9.
5) Seeing both Annette and Sophie for the first time in years.

6) Breakfast at Kneaders

7) The notorious trip to Costco (the Saturday before the Superbowl, apparently Costco has the most samples of any day of the year. It. Was. Epic.)

At the end of it all, it was high time that I high tail it home to this man and his fancy new glasses. I now call him Harold B. Lee, and think he should showcase his handsome retro frames as a cast member on the show "Mad Men." Only playing the part of a faithful spouse, of course (something that show is particularly lacking).

A world without the right Mary Poppins

2011-02-10T09:21:00.000-08:00

Once when I was a little kid, I was watching "Mary Poppins." I don't quite know how this thought arose, but I started thinking to myself, "What if Julie Andrews' parents never met? What if they never had her? Then Mary Poppins would have been played by someone else! And if no one had ever heard of Julie Andrews because she didn't exist, Mary Poppins never would have been a good movie! And no one would know it was because the movie was made without her!" And I began a mini panic attack, trying to imagine how we could all get along in a world where Julie Andrews did not play Mary Poppins.

I remembered this little episode last night when I was hopped up on Nyquil and Vitamin C-Monster Odwalla juice (yet another cold has struck me down! That's what I get for galavanting around SLC with my cousins/brother all hours of the night and day this past weekend...), talking to Harry about how if we hadn't met/run into each other in the library/dated, that we could have wound up with other people! And that is such a crazy thought to me. I cited the experience above re: Julie Andrews, saying "Harry, the thought that we might not be together is just as horrifying as the thought that Julie Andrews may never have played Mary Poppins! It's just so wrong!"

And then I paused and realized, "Yeah, this is one of those weird thoughts that I should just blog about."

And, there you have it.

The Secret Garden

2011-01-27T10:47:00.000-08:00

When I was but a young buck and a freshman in High School, our family decided to have a Palo Alto Thanksgiving with some extended family.

My first Cross Country season had just barely ended. My sister E has always been a runner herself, so we planned weeks ahead of time to go on a Palo Alto run together. The first night we all arrived in Palo Alto, E and I pulled on our running gear and headed out the door.

Running in Palo Alto is unlike running anywhere else. Most of the year, the air is lush, cool, and smells like eucalyptus. The streets are narrow and tree lined. E and I took haphazard turns down beautiful streets at our own whimsy. Randomly we happened upon a beautiful garden that was open to the public. It was made up of plotted squares with lanes of gravel that ran between them. The garden boasted exotic flowers, bushes, trees, vines, and an enormous vegetable patch. There were bird baths and benches and an enormous white gazebo in the center. That has remained a very fond memory to me—winding through a random garden with my sister at dusk in Palo Alto.

When I moved back ten years later, husband in tow, that garden was in the back of my mind. I didn’t make any efforts to find it though. I think I didn’t want to go looking for it, I honestly hoped I would just hear about it or magically find it. As if I live in a Disney movie or something. Very realistic.

When we first moved here one of the very first things I did was plot a run on Google Maps that would take me from our apartment to the house where my mother was raised (in the older part of Palo Alto). It’s a stunning house with white wood siding and navy shutters with waning moons carved in them and a brick walkway. Every so often I run to the house and back (if I’m feeling ambitious—round trip it’s about 7 miles) and stand outside it. Correction: I stand outside it across the street so I don’t look like I’m a stalker. And then I let the waves of nostalgia wash over me and wish my grandparents were still alive and still lived there. And then I decide that if I ever become a billionaire I’m buying it (from the billionaire who lives there now).

A few weeks ago I was running to the house on a cool, overcast Saturday morning. I was just minding my own beeswax and drinking in the smell of freshly cut lawn when I peaked down a random road perpendicular to the street I was running on. And all of a sudden… there it was.

I found the garden.

I felt like Mary Lennox in that part of “The Secret Garden” when she realizes the key in fact fits in the lock, and the robin led her to the right door.

I immediately called E (got voicemail—and no, I’m pretty sure she doesn’t screen my calls but she is a busy mother of 3.99 children) and left her a wheezy and breathless voicemail that sounded like:

“OhmygoshIfoundthatgardenthatwewentrunningthroughinNovember1999andit’sexactlylikeitwasthendoyourememeberwhatI’mtalkingabout??”

It was completely quiet and deserted, and I wandered through it, snapping pictures with my phone, wandering down every lane, and drinking in the smell. It's the Elizabeth Gamble Garden (I decided I should probably find out the name...) on Waverly and Churchill.

It’s now one of my favorite spots in Palo Alto. I plan on bringing a book here one Saturday and just hanging out on a bench with the squirrels. And I guess Harry can come too.

Oranges and (f)unemployment

2011-01-25T17:16:00.000-08:00

Nothing makes my day quite like a cold, juicy, tart orange.

I needed a really quick energy boost at work today, and there were no 5-hour Energy drinks around (or as Jerry Seinfeld calls them, "meth lab hawaiian punch jello shots"***), and realized I had a plump, pulpy orange sitting patiently in my lunch bag in the fridge.

So I tore into it and ate it in probably less than five minutes (necessary peeling time inclusive).

And then I realized that this is one of the last times I will be doing this, this being chomping an orange in my desk chair, because very very soon, I will be not-so-gainfully-unemployed, or as I like to call it, “(f)unemployed.” Yep, the start-up I have been working for since we moved here about 1.5 years ago is calling it quits.

It’s sad to see everyone go their separate ways, especially when we had such a good thing going here. Gripes about obligations to retrieve food/coffee daily aside, I’m very lucky and happy that I had this job, the people I worked with were a lot of fun, and I learned some important things.

I have an odd mixture of emotions, but mostly I’m just excited to dive into something new. I’m already doing my best to get back into the work force, but I have a secret volcano of happiness erupting in my wee heart at the prospect of not setting an alarm next week.

Sidenote: Dare I say it? I still wish I were in graduate school, with a little more direction/inspiration. Especially since, you know, I live on a campus, surrounded by people with tuition bills and, yes, direction/inspiration. But as Harry says when he’s in a lovingly snarky mood, “Patience, my pet, patience.”

*** I don’t actually drink 5 Hour Energy, though I am regularly irritated by their remarkably mediocre commercials when I’m trying to watch “Parks and Recreation” on Hulu.

PS Today I've been married for 1.5 years. It's been good to me. Probably because Hal has been so good to me.

Whelmed, in degrees of variation.

2011-01-19T09:30:00.000-08:00

I was overwhelmed by

About just whelmed by

And sadly underwhelmed by

Overall, great idea and I did stay hooked until the end. And big thank you to G for letting me borrow your copies! But I’m really ready to move on to, say

Other recommendations are always appreciated by my fellow bookworm peeps.

(PS I will say this for "Hunger Games:" The entire time I was watching "True Grit," I KNEW that the lead actress has to play Katniss someday. HAS. TO. She goes in the "overwhelmed" category, somewhere near the top.)

Recents

2011-01-17T09:07:00.000-08:00

Good evening, and welcome back to the 2011 edition of “Sarrison’s Life: a study in the habits and lifestyles of nerdy people.”

It’s been a long time, internet. So much has happened since we last convened. Christmas came and went and so many fun things happened sandwiched in the middle of it all.

That said it was nice to come back to PA.

I went to a Royal Ball (aka Baby Shower):

Also, 90% of my Christmas pictures are on Facebook, which I still have deactivated (I’m completely over withdrawals), so I snuck on and stole them from my sprightly SIL (thank you Sal, my gal pal).

For Christmas, we had about two weeks to play with, so we drove to both of our parents’ homes, about evenly splitting the time. We figured we’d have about 22 hours of driving time total over the two weeks so we downloaded “Speaker for the Dead” to listen to in the car. The book itself was fine, but I cannot figure out for the life of me why he has the same people narrate his audio books. A few of their reading voices make me want to plug my ears and sing the theme to “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” at the top of my voice. I’ve resolved to read whatever Orson Scott Card book I want in the future to spare myself the frustration.

We spent time in Irvine with Cam, my parents, and Jeffedith (I refer to them as one unit). Here is the picture I took during that time—Cam in front of a house that was lit up all fancylike in Balboa a few nights before Christmas. My family likes to take night walks there at Christmas time, usually accompanied by my brother and Dad playing the bag pipes. This time they nixed the pipes and we just meandered.

Then we drove to fabulous Las Veeeeeeeegaaaaaaaaas (sung like the Brandon Flowers song). Here are the snatched Facebook pictures to prove it (E, I'm so sad I don't have pictures from hanging out at your house! Next time!)!

Something extra memorable was getting to see my brother-in-law’s fiancée get baptized. I’m really excited to have her in the fam, not only because she’s really fun to talk to and hang out with, but because she’s creative and inspiring and really soulful. Yep. I’m excited.

**I'm fighting a nasty cold and do not have the mental capacity nor the physical energy required to put these in chronological order, so you're going to experience some time-whiplash. Sucka.

Caroling w/ Reynoldsies.

M and A, top notch snugglers.

Christmas morning. New Christmas clothes have a funny effect on Harry.

Serenade a la SNL by Hal, Joe, Mac, Dan, and Will.

Cindy + A, me looking hazy in the background.

Sarahs.

Christmas morning (my first ever not spent at my parent's house. It was delightful in all the particulars!).

Just arrived in Irvine from Palo Alto, exhausted, happy to be watching something Christmas-like with some Eaton brood peeps.

Yoga ball. Those pants I'm wearing? Harry's high school track and field pants. I felt like MC Hammer.

Here we are in Irvine where we got to spend some QT with Annie/Go/R/M/O at the park!

That's it. I'm hungry. Peace.

Lately

2011-01-16T15:12:00.000-08:00

We listen to this.

More adventures with steak

2011-01-05T19:18:00.000-08:00

A New Years Resolution of mine is to be more adventurous with our dinner menu. I consider myself an okay cook. I think half of being a good cook is having a tested/approved recipe and fresh ingredients. Actually, I think that's all there really is to it.

I cooked my first steak a little while ago and decided it wasn't all that difficult. Plus, my awesome sister-in-law told me over Christmas break that red meat is one of the few foods that the human body can super-efficiently extract iron from, and I though I don't really seek out recipes that require red meat, I want more iron in my life.

I was flipping through our favorite cookbook of all time and came across Thai-Style Beef Salad. A compromise of all things Sarrison: a salad (something I like), steak (something Harry really likes), and Thai (something we both love).

Plus we tested our nifty new camera to document.

It was actually really perfect! Harry fried up some ramen noodles to go with his (he loves him some carbs) and while it was pretty good, I preferred my salad unadulterated.

If you're interested, here's the recipe:

Thai-Style Beef Salad

(serves 4 as an entree)

1 TB vegetable oil
1.25 pounds flank steak, trimmed of excess fat and patted dry with paper towels
Salt and ground black pepper
1/4 cup fish sauce
1/4 cup juice from two limes
4 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 medium cucumber peeled, seeded, and sliced thin
1/2 small red onion, sliced thin
1 TB packed torn fresh mint
1 TB packed torn fresh cilantro
1 head Bibb or Boston lettuce leaves washed, torn into pieces (couldn't find any so I used butter lettuce which I thought was pretty tasty)
1/2 cup unsalted dry roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped (I JUST REALIZED I FORGOT THIS PART! DANGIT!)

1) Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat until it's smoking. Season steak liberally with salt and pepper, lay it in the pan, and sautee, not moving it until well browned, 4-5 minutes. Turn the steak over with tongs and reduce heat to medium. Continue to cook until steak is browned on the second side, about 5 min. Transfer steak to a plate and let it rest for 10 min.

2) Whisk fish sauce, lime juice, brown sugar, and red pepper flakes together in a medium bowl until the sugar dissolves. Remove half of the dressing and set it aside in a larger bowl. Cut the steak across the grain on the diagonal into 1/8" slices, and halve those into roughly 3" lengths. Add steak to the smaller bowl of dressing, toss to coat, and let marinate for 5 min.

3) Remove steak from dressing and discard the marinade. Toss the steak, cucumber, onion, cilantro, and mint with the reserved dressing in the larger bowl. Arrange lettuce on a large serving platter or individual plates. Spoon steak and vegetables over the lettuce and drizzle the salad with any dressing left in the bowl, then sprinkle with peanuts. Serve immediately.

Christmas Present to the internet

2010-12-13T17:42:00.000-08:00

from us.

(credit where credit is due: thank you Luke for having this video on your g-chat status, and thank you Harry for showing it to your wife who subsequently blogged it.)

Thanksgiving 2010, Eatonian Style

2010-12-08T09:42:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving was a revelation. We went to my parents' house and had a blasty blast. We left Tuesday afternoon and came back Sunday morning—both times bypassing all of the holiday traffic. Harry is a ninja driver with wicked skills.

We listened to a really entertaining book tape. I’d recommend it to anyone.

This year, there were no little kids at Thanksgiving. I can’t remember the last time that happened! It was a little too quiet. We tempered that with the knowledge that next year there will be two more babies in our midst, both chubby roly poly 10 month old boys, so it wasn’t too bad.

We all divvied up the cooking this year, and Harry and I got my Mom’s orange rolls. We were totally intimidated—these rolls are basically a family institution. We enlisted her help a few times, just to make sure things were going smoothly. In the end I think they turned out really well! I can’t wait to make them again. Wish I'd thought to take a picture.

Cam and I ran the Dana Point Turkey Trot.

This is something we swore we would do again after his mission, and I think I literally mentioned it to him in every email I wrote to him while he was in Ecuador. There’s just something really fun about running on the coast with a thousand other people the morning of Thanksgiving. And you burn calories that you will undoubtedly pack on only a few hours later.

We made t-shirts. E’10. Get it? Eatons? 2010? I thought it was funny. We looked up the font that they used for “Bladerunner” for the front.

I ran into one of my all time favorite people—Jenna! She made her aunt pull over and chased us down the sidewalk to say hello, and I am thrilled to my fingertips that she did! This is a girl I've known since 1st grade, who has always looked out for me. I still wish I were in elementary school when her birthday rolls around because she threw awesome b-day sleepover parties.

And we walked down to the ocean afterwards for some typical Eaton-mid-air-pictures and a shot of me with my main loving man.

Other Thanksgiving notables:

My Mom gave me a sewing and knitting lesson, and sent us home with two more pillows that she made for our sad sad couch. I am now one step closer to knitting Harry a real Christmas stocking, but I am certain the whole thing will take me years.

I did Harry’s hair. It is so long I started claiming I could make cornrows out of it (he recently buzzed it, now resembling a really handsome shorn sheep). This is what happened.

We went to Roger’s Gardens and Fashion Island in Newport beach (a long standing Eaton tradition) and snapped some photos.

This one I call: "Rubber Eaton Soul."

Now I'm attempting to figure out what Harry would really love for Christmas-- no easy task.

Music, lately.

2010-12-05T19:23:00.000-08:00

Some of our all time favorite musicians have graced the Bay Area with their presence lately. We saw Brandon Flowers (lead singer of the Killers) and his opening act, Fran Healy (lead singer of Travis) at the Oakland Fox Theater a few weeks ago.

Highlight: The two headliners came out and sang “The Grass is Always Greener” together. Pictured below is Fran.

Fran Healy told about how Paul McCartney(!) agreed to play bass on one of his songs. To return the favor, Fran decided to become a vegetarian, like Paul is, as a grand gesture of gratitude. In return, Paul sent him four of his late wife Linda’s vegetarian cook books. I came THIS CLOSE to buying a Linda McCartney vegetarian cookbook myself when I got home… and then I realized, “Oh wait. I LOOOVE me some meat.”

Brandon’s moves during “Only the Young” are not to be trifled with.

But this is the picture I took.

Something we are extra excited about is Imagine Dragons.

They are honestly our favorite band to see live these days. We got to see them twice, because they were on tour going up the California coast (stopping in SF to play at the enormous Apple store downtown) into Oregon and Washington, and when they came back down they stopped in San Francisco again to perform at Café du Nord.

I’ve never met a single person who doesn’t like Imagine Dragons. All of their songs carry the perfect blend of Las Vegas synth and rock, creating a dance-inducing addictive sound. Their set is always over way before I want it to be.

We’ve seen them many times, and we can’t get enough. If you’re curious you can stream songs from their two EPs (and find out when they are coming to a venue near your house) at www.myspace.com/imaginedragons.

This is one of my favorites.

As is this.

We also got to see two more bands perform with Imagine Dragons that were really great live-- St. Motel and Nico Vega. I would wish this music on anyone. They can be checked out here (Nico Vega) and here (St. Motel).

Here they are at Cafe du Nord.

Nico Vega:

St. Motel:

Imagine Dragons:

I'm stopping now. Because we're watching "Lost," and we're on Season 5, and things are getting cray-zay.

Sometimes I'm struck

2010-12-02T18:00:00.001-08:00

by the expression of the woman on the back of the box of Nestle hot chocolate packets I bought recently.

It really just screams (mutters?) holiday delight.

Toot toot!

2010-11-30T22:14:00.001-08:00

Yes, that is the sound of me. Tooting my own horn. Not something I find attractive about myself, but I'm feeling indulgent.

I just finished my novel and won NaNoWriMo! Woo hoo! As of about 10 minutes ago, I finished the innocuous novel that I started on November 1st.

Final word count: 50,232.

As soon as I told Harry that I was about to submit my final word count, he jumped up and grabbed my phone to record the moment.

I didn't even know what to call this story, it's kind of scattered and doesn't even really do much of anything. But I wrote it, and it's really long, and the cramp in my left hand is sufficient proof.

And with that said, good night.

Sweet, sweet justice.

2010-11-20T20:15:00.000-08:00

I'm not a proponent of revenge. But, like Alicia Keys and Justin Timberlake both so eloquently say, "What goes around comes around...."

This is not a love note.

2010-11-19T09:25:00.000-08:00

Dear brainless Berkley students who woke us up by driving into our parking lot and playing your fight song with extremely loud trumpets four different times between the hours of 2 am and 4 am two nights ago:

Look, we all get it. College rivalries are great. We are playing you in football on Saturday, and for some reason your pea sized intellects have deduced that this warrants you driving all the way across the bay to ruin the sleep of hundreds of graduate students, their spouses, and their children multiple times in the middle of a school/work week with your 8th grade trumpets.

Congratulations, we all know you play the trumpet, and that you can drive quickly in and out of our parking lot. You’ve come a long way, I’m sure.

However, if you had paused and thought it out (a process of which I am seriously doubting your capability), you would have realized that you decided to used your trumpets in GRADUATE HOUSING. Which means, of all the students on campus that you chose to rudely awaken over and over in the middle of the night, ABOUT HALF OF THESE PEOPLE WENT TO BERKLEY FOR UNDERGRAD. Next time, I recommend you read a campus map. The numbers and letters all come together to point you in a crystal clear direction to the undergrad housing, where the little 18 year-olds are no doubt still up until 4:00 am, and would be delighted to kick your sorry behinds.

In the meantime, I hope you’ve been caught by campus police, that you’ve been fined, that your punishment also consists of cleaning my bathroom with your toothbrush, and that next time you’ll actually, you know… read a map.

Your truly,

Disgruntled sleepless cranky face girl

PS I hope we beat you on Saturday.

This is what happens when I surf the internet/start writing a post with zero direction.

2010-11-16T19:28:00.001-08:00

I waste inordinate amounts of time, but happen upon some really funky fresh stuff.

Also, can I just say something really irrelevant? Of course I can, it's my blog, sucka.

I'm participating in NaNoWriMo, which stands for National Novel Writing Month. My sister in law (who herself is the sum of all awesomeness) told me about it a year ago. You sign up and in the month of November, write a novel. It could be the lousiest thing ever written, but if it's 50,000+ words and you submit it before midnight on Nov. 30, you win. Or rather, everyone who does so wins. We all win. Win win win. Win.

The story would be a complete snooze and a joke to all who read it-- it's totally quantity over quality. But I have gotten to the point where this inane story is sort of starting to write itself. And this pleases my wee brain.

As I write this, Harry is making a "best of" Beatles mix and I'm hearing clips of songs of my childhood. Life is nice.

Bang!

2010-11-08T22:20:00.000-08:00

I went back to the hairdresser the day after I had these cut to have them fixed (as in, tweaked, not as in neutered), and now I love them.

(This picture was taken as we drove to San Francisco to see Imagine Dragons. More on that soon...)

It did still take me about 48 hours to feel like I was looking at myself in the mirror.

More work for upkeep? Yes.
Scratched my itchy need to change my appearance? Yes.
Do I still jerk my head to get the hair off my forehead and then realize… it’s not going anywhere? Yes.

Mission: accomplished

Because my spouse is the best of all the spouses in the land

2010-11-04T20:21:00.000-07:00

I got a hair cut yesterday. It was one of those risky ones where you have a vision and it’s been a long time coming and you’ve saved your pennies and the hair appointment is scheduled with a highly recommended hair dresser weeks in advance. So I went and an hour later, I left, feeling a little sad. It didn’t work out.

I think we’ve all been there—when you pay good money for a haircut that makes you feel like you belong in the 90’s on a “Friends” episode. It’s as if someone has punched you in the stomach. And you paid them for it.

I came home with spirits that were a bit deflated.

And let it be known that Hal works really hard. I’m not the only one who works all day long around here. And he listened to me as I hemmed and hawed, and eventually let all my worries snowball into worrying about my hair, my day, our crazy schedule, the lack of sleep I get, how I wish I could just have one day where I don’t have to do anything. And he was perfect. He just sat there and listened, filled in my pauses with words of both encouragement and sympathy, and then took me out to dinner. And then gave me free reign to pick what to watch on TV.

I know every wife says this, and in our own way we’re all right, but seriously. My spouse is the man.

(Sidenote: Pictures of the haircut are forthcoming. After my mini-episode, I called the salon, and they said they could easily fix my bang woes for free. Bam.)

So today I had an undeniable hankering to make him something really tasty for dinner. And I wanted it to be something manly and masculine and out of the ordinary. Because he’s the best. Is this post rapidly crossing a line marked “nobody cares but Sarah?” Then stop reading, foo, because I’m not done.

I love this site. I’ve used it many times. The recipes are all scrumptious. If I wanted to pull a “Julie and Julia” and make every recipe from one source over the course of a year, I would be tempted to use this site. Chock full of creative culinary ideas.

I stumbled upon the recipe for Steak Sandwiches a while ago and needed a good reason to cook a real steak (for the first time in my life). And today was that day.

(Sidenote: It's not like I never cook real food for Harry. But bear in mind, all ye who possess counter space and dishwashers-- cooking is an entirely different experience at my house. I'll think of a great recipe, start to crave it, and then say, "Oh wait. That's going to require like 4 bowls and like 3 pans and who knows how many spoons." And then the recipe is nixed in the name of grilled cheese sandwiches. All ye who have dishwashers: I'm jealous of you.)

Behold. It’s like I borrowed a swatch of Lady Gaga’s meat dress.

If anyone is interested in the recipe, it’s here.

PS If any further proof is needed to show that that my spouse is the man... he's doing all the dishes (by hand, mind you) as I type these very words.

Halloween

2010-10-31T18:19:00.000-07:00

I don't believe in apologizing for not keeping up on this blog. It's my little free write sounding board, my little claimed space in the internet void. Even if millions read it, it would still be my sounding board. And a way for our fams to see what it is that we really do up here in the crazy, Mark-Zuckerberg-Steve-Jobs-Arnold-Schwarzenegger-inhabited slice of California when they don't feel like chatting on the phone. So internet void, I'm not exactly remorseful about my absence, but I am raring to engage in a brain dump, and for that, I say, you're welcome.

October was stuffed like an empanada with things! We're lucky to have friends here that we really love. And who invite us to do Halloweensy-ish things! We've been turning these

into these

(Ours is Jack Skellington. Also pictured are the haunted house and the all important SF Giants pumpkin!)

(our two pumpkins side by side. Jack Skellington with a jack-o-lantern sipping a cold lemonade on a beach somewhere in the South Pacific)

with the help of these

and these

(picture of adorable fun ward family who not only fed us a remarkably delicious meal, but carved pumpkins with us. My heart melted when child T climbed up next to me, glanced inside the pumpkin I was gutting, and gave me a thumbs up and said, "Yo going a gweat job!")

We also turned these

into these (the Apple Pie Apple a la Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. My tastebuds swooned and I got cavities just by looking at it)

and watched

with the some fun friends!

(again, not yet pictured. Caramel appley hands make for non-existent camera work)

Last night we attended a Halloween party. We spent hours coming up with things to be. Simon and Garfunkel? No. Bella and Edward? No. Bird and a Bee? Negatory. Then a few nights ago, it occurred to us. It was so simple, it was as if the inspiration muse had knocked on our door and held a poster board up to us with the idea scrawled on it in black sharpie while a boombox blared holiday music (like that dude in "Love, Actually").

Feast your eyes, kids: Reynolds Wrap.

Harry had some aluminum foil accents. I went for the full out body wrap. And boy was I sweaty by the evening's end. Too much information? Too late, friends.

We managed to make a pot full of white chicken chili and submit it just in time to be judged in a contest, thus the mess behind me. My word may not mean much, but I promise, our apartment does have a livable state of cleanliness all of the time except for tonight. Yikes. Not my proudest background for a picture, but this was when I was on the verge of unwrapping myself due to complete unbreathableness of a plastic wrap dress. Oh, and the chili didn't win, but the pot was completely clean at the end of the night, and I'm satisfied.

I feel fully Halloweened out. In the best sense.

Weddings, funerals, family.

2010-10-17T09:05:00.000-07:00

This last weekend my seester and her husband (collectively I refer to them as Jeffedith) came into town for the wedding of a good friend! They decided to stay at Chateau Sarrison (aka, sleep in sleeping bags on our family room floor. Brave souls, those two). I got to see with my own two eyes that yes, my sister is expecting a human and that pregnancy looks very chic on her.

Jeff promptly picked up my iPhone and started snapping footage.

We got together with Jeff’s darlingbeauitfulcharmingexquisite sister and brother-in-law, Michelle and Mark, and we made a night of it on Friday with scrumptious Thai food, Pinkberry, and a meander through Stanford Shopping center, stopping only to pay homage to the largest pumpkin we’ve ever beheld.

I had such a great time! I am especially looking forward to the day when family doesn’t have to squish inside our teeny apartment for a good visit.

On the other end of the spectrum, Hal and I recently flew to Las Vegas for a funeral. In the most bittersweet of occurrences, Harry’s grandmother passed away last week. I was privileged to know her for a few short years, and I know she lived a long, full life. She is greatly missed, and for good reason.

In my experience, funerals are a very positive thing. I’ve been surrounded by loved ones and friends at every funeral I’ve attended, and have come away feeling a definite sense of finality and calm. So, I feel strange saying it, but I just don’t dread them. In the LDS Church, we do mourn over losing loved ones, but we like to make a point out of rejoicing over the knowledge that death is not the end. We are so lucky to have had Marco in our lives and are even happier to get to see her again someday.

Here are the brothers-and-cousins-turned-pallbearers. It amazes me how many generations of good people can come from two grandparents.

Added bonus: I got to spend time with this guy. I picked him up and he snuggled right into my shoulder, so I frantically whispered to Harry (terrified that talking at a louder volume would break the magic snuggle spell) “Hey! Take a picture! Quick!” There is nothing quite like being snuggled by a squishy-adorable-easy going baby.

Seeing family is like stealing away vacation time. It's the best. It creates a permanent state of impatience within me and at any given time I'm dreaming about blowing this town and heading to Irvine/Vegas. In the meantime we're biding our time, working, studying, being adventurous in our food choices (we tried a tapas bar last night), and wracking our brains for Halloween costume ideas (we decided that being Jesse James and Sandra Bullock might not be the most "Ward Halloween Party" appropriate idea).

Happy almost Holidays, internet.

Tidbits/segues

2010-10-03T17:36:00.000-07:00

Exciting tidbit: it finally happened. I am the proud bearer of an iPhone.

(seen here eternity-style because of it's reflective screen and the fact that this picture was taken with Photo Booth. Trippy, no?)

I feel like the training wheels have finally come off my bike after years of T9 predictive text and a 1 megapixel phone camera. It's like we had a baby or something. Like all of a sudden I own this incredibly fragile and complex thing and I have to somehow keep it from dying. It's a weird mixture of joy and intimidation. In the words of my sister, "it's like a tiny computer that also happens to have phone capabilities." I'm already in the midst of 2 scrabble games and have created my ringtone thanks to the help/brain of my lover. You can hear the song I chose for it below-- "Innocent Bones" by Iron and Wine (except for the tone I made for my Mom-- that's Carla Bruni. More personalized ringtones are forthcoming. Leave all personalized ringtone requests in the comments if you are so inclined/particular).

Topic segue: General Conference Weekend has just come to a close and I loved every last second. This is not me tooting my own spirituality horn. Conference, for me, came at the perfect time. Last week was the worst kind of insane. Too many things (albeit good things) took up my mornings, evenings, and nights. Weeks like this make me feel like I'm hurtling through space with not a solitary grasp on anything.

Thus, General Conference this year was perfect.

In between sessions on Saturday we meandered down to the farmer's market at Stanford shopping center. We picked up tangerine habanero mustard, fresh amadeus cheese, peppered salami, olives stuffed with blue cheese and feta, bridge mix (!), Stewart's orange cream soda, Henry Weinhardt root beer, fresh raspberries... it was magical (being on something like a diet lately not all of those things made their way into my mouth, but we bought them, and that's something).

For two days I got to sit and enjoy not only the company of the husband I never saw last week, but I also got to sit and let my proverbial brain sponge soak up all the goodness, reassurance, and resolve of the leaders of our church. It couldn't have come at a better time, and it couldn't have been better. If my being had been scattered all over various corners of the universe, then Conference gathered all the little pebble pieces and placed them inside a pretty little linen drawstring bag, and I feel like I'm myself again.

Plus I started knitting this scarf.

All is right with the world.

If you are like...

2010-09-22T20:48:00.001-07:00

I you are like to see the more Theo, please to be enjoy.

If the not, be skipping.

Putting the pathetic in "apathetic."

2010-09-22T20:35:00.000-07:00

I’ve been feeling a lot of apathy toward broadcasting our life on the internet lately. My life feels really cozy and happy these days. I work, he studies, we go to the gym, make dinner, watch a Netflix TV show, do laundry, rinse, repeat. Sounds drab to the outside world, but I couldn’t be happier with it (the only exception being the NASTY confrontation I had with our refrigerator this morning because the fruit drawer REFUSED to open more than two inches and I had to weasel my hand in there for my grape tomatoes and as a result my hand is scraped and raw. Lame 1970’s fridge.).

Said apathy is probably stemming from the fact that I recently deactivated my facebook account. I was realizing (and so was spouse) that following the people I love via virtual reality always winds up making me feel so blue. I miss all you people who don’t live here, and wind up feeling even farther from you after going through your photo albums of “Baby’s 1st Photo Shoot” or “Pictures of the Triathlon” or “Weekend in ______ City.”

Then, I inevitably start asking myself, “Shouldn’t I be doing/learning/making all the things that ____ is? Shouldn’t I be traveling to ____ like Whoseewhatsit? Did I miss my opportunity in life to become a _____ like JohnJaneSmithDoe?” And thus, I get myself wedged in a weird funk of patheticalness (yes, this is a real word per dictionary.com). I’m not proud of it, but it happens.

So, I’ve gone cold turkey. I feel like I’ve been unplugged from the Matrix. I feel like I’ve commenced some sort of 12 step program for addicts. I feel like Jessie from “Saved By The Bell” after Zach stages an intervention to get her off caffeine pills after she has a nuclear meltdown and she misses her girl-band performance (“I’M SO EXCITED! I’M SO EXCITED!”). Maybe someday I’ll want to dive back into my electronic friendships, but for now I feel like life is treating me right.

And this video that Harry found is also treating me right.

What I did after Church on Sunday.

2010-09-13T17:09:00.000-07:00

There's a first time for everything.

(For those interested, I used this recipe.)

Nice day for a white wedding

2010-09-12T14:30:00.000-07:00

A little over a week ago, the loverly wedding nuptials of my cousin James and his magnificent bride Adrienne took place. It's so nice when weddings happen in your neighborhood, and you don't have to fly anywhere. Especially when the neighborhood you happen to live in can boast some very beautiful and scenic places in which to have a wedding.

I tried (REALLY tried) to get pictures on my own. When I forgot my camera (typical), I took a few with Harry's iPhone.

Adrienne is what I like to call a bombshell. James, too.

(Dad and Uncle Robert pontificating on Hiroshima, or something while we wait for the couple)

Friends of my mother came up to us at the wedding reception and told me how my mother and I could be twins ("I mean really, just put your long hair on your mother and I can't tell you two apart!"). I'm always happy to hear that. She's a classy broad.

This past weekend, we saw the fulfillment of my birthday present come to pass in the form of a concert. We drove to Berkeley (aaaaaaand boy am I glad that we live in Palo Alto. I'm just SAYING) and saw Ray LaMontagne and David Gray in concert.

See them if you ever get a chance, that is unless you don't like getting your MIND BLOWN.

Ray LaMontagne and his band were tighter than a band of newsies (I realize the heresy of this statement). I couldn't take my eyes off them all, especially the drummer who not only looked like his arms were actually snappy sticks of rubber, but looked a good deal like James Lipton from "Inside the Actor's Studio."

Ray was smoky and husky (he doesn't come in any other flavor) and dare I admit that I became a little emotional during "Let it Be Me?"

And then there was David. He brings new meaning to the word "jig." He bounced around and rattled his head in between lyrics and punched the air and his voice was entirely inexhaustible, and from a distance looked like a younger Phil Collins. And what, my friends, is not to love about that?

I breathed a sigh of relief when he finally played "Shine" as an encore. Really, sometimes I have a beef with encores... we all know when David Gray walks off the stage that the crowd will put up a stink for at least one more song until he comes back out. Yet we will have to wait and scream for it. I heard that Guster once said in concert, "Well, that was our set, but we have a feeling when we walk offstage, we'll be prompted to come back for an encore, so how about we play three more songs right now?" THAT is my style of encore. Just give me what I want and don't make me wait.

Can you imagine how I handled waiting for Christmas as a child?

In which I steal other people's photos.

2010-08-28T12:58:00.001-07:00

I promise, someday I will change my ways. Someday I will buy a REAL camera, check out some photography books, and learn how to take real pictures that are actually artistic and composed. Until that day, I will continue to pluck up other people's pictures from their blogs/facebook, and blog them here. Because how ELSE am I going to illustrate my summer? Hmmmm?

The Reynolds Family Reunion.

We all spent a week hanging out, taking dips in the pool, playing on the rented bounce house/rented water slide, taking the kids down to Excalibur down at the strip, visiting the biggest trampoline room around and playing dodgeball, rock climbing, seeing some movies, catching some concerts, and playing yoga ball at the church. Hal and I even cooked dinner for everyone one night-- our very own recipe, Bacon Alfredo. It's always been a favorite, ever since we made it together for the first time three years ago when we were dating. It's been tweaked here and there over time, and I think we have it down.

Somewhere in the middle of all the hubbub, we managed to also kick back, read some books, munch on some delicious food, and take cat naps. One of my favorite parts of these reunions is the bonding all the little kid cousins do. They are all smart, adorable, kind, and creative kids. And they always make me feel like the bomb when they say, "Sarah! Come sit by me!"

Thank you to my sister in law, from whom I stole the following pictures:

The newest member of the family, Jack.

Harry on the water slide. Style and pizazz, as ever.

Yoga ball! I'm not one for competitive sports involving a ball... my hand-eye coordination is limited to the piano. But I heart yoga ball.

Action shot. Too good to NOT post.

Rock climbing!

Is he a better rock climber than me? Much. But I'm the one who wears spandex, and I personally feel that that counts for something.

My youngest brother in law received his Eagle Scout award while we were all there. All the brothers, who have received their eagle awards as well, got to sit in the "eagle's nest" and watch. I love seeing all the boys together like this, and this was a really sweet experience.

The whole fam. I miss them already.

How nice to have both our family pictures taken in the same summer. However, at the rate that everyone's reproducing this picture will be outdated in about 3 months. Ah well.

Now that we're back we're keeping really busy. This week at work flew by! So I'm going to try to organize my time more efficiently with very important things.

Next project: Find a frame with two windows to fit both family pictures in, because we really like them.
Subsequent project: Enjoy the oncoming fall weather and think of a creative halloween costume.
Even more subsequent project: Start looking forward to the holidays!

Back to reality.

2010-08-22T20:32:00.001-07:00

Summer is over.

We're back in our student housing apartment. I'd forgotten about the smell-- something between a dorm and a hotel room. It smells like cascades of tenants and chemical cleaning supplies. Even so, it feels really nice to be back in our little corner of Palo Alto.

In the last 36 hours we have driven 661 miles. In our separate cars. It's one thing to drive that much when I'm in the same car as Harry. We can talk a blue streak together. But when it's just me and the book tape, it gets lonely after a little while. Good thing "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" is the longest audio book EVER. I have 3 discs to go on this book-- I've been chipping away at for months. Will I ever get sick of hearing Simon Prebble's voice read about 19th century magic? No.

It's also a good thing that we used walkie talkies the entire drive. I felt like a kid from "The Sandlot" during that part when they try to get the baseball signed by Babe Ruthe back from the enormous dog in the yard next door by building a ramp and robotic car and lowering it over the fence. "Initiate retrieval suction!"

Our Las Vegas summer left nothing to be desired. I spent ample time with both families and read 5 books in my off time. I attended amazing concerts and movies and went swimming and ate snow cones and dippin dots. I hung out with my nieces and nephews. I played basketball and yoga ball. I visited with old friends and their offspring. It filled my proverbial life sponge with water of contentment and giggles. I'll admit, yesterday morning when we headed out, I became more than a little teary eyed. I really love my family-- both the one I grew up with and the one I married into.

That said I'm really happy to be back. We've got a good thing going here.

Now we're sitting on our couch (well, loveseat) watching KCRW reruns and cooking frozen pizza. I way like my life.