I love this stuff. I love it air popped, microwave popped, popped from a pan on the stove, at the movies, or in those little metal things that you can put over the fire. I love it buttered, salted, with cheese, with lemon pepper salt, caramelized, toffeed (is that even a word? well i love it), even plain. Any way you can serve it, I will eat it.

I ate it for dinner tonight. That's one thing I kind of regret - eating a cookie for breakfast, and popcorn for dinner. Whenever we have kids I will have to get better eating habits or they will turn into 5,000 lb monsters. I think my love of popcorn definitely comes from my mom. I can remember her getting bags of cheese popcorn from Krogers and after eating it, my fingers would be completely orange and i would have to suck on my fingers to get all the cheesy goodness off. There's nothing quite like Krogers cheese popcorn.

My mom also had a specific pot she would use to pop it on the stove growing up. I don't know if she ever used that pot for anything else but popcorn, and boy did it always turn out super tastey. It had a specific taste because of that pot.

I loved when she would make caramel popcorn. She would always pop the corn in the pot, then make the caramel and toss it all together in a paper bag (from the Meijer's grocery store). She would lay it out on the dining room table and we would all walk in and out of the dining room throughout the night grabbing handfuls of caramel popcorn. Those were the good old days.


In another random note: I saw this picture in someone's facebook account. For those of you from MI, this is the HUGE Santa Clause at Bronners (the most amazing christmas store EVER). Thought you might like to see what happened after a storm (i hope they were able to put him back together):

Notice the head behind the tree

I ate a $75 piece of steak. And it was DELICIOUS. Was it amazing because i didn't have to pay for it? NO - it was amazing because it felt like it MELTED in my mouth. Talk about never wanting to leave the restaurant.

I had the opportunity to go to Las Vegas last week for a couple days for work. Vegas is full of many of my favorite things - awesome shows, the Rainforest Cafe, amazing hotels, and H&M. It is also full of many of my NOT SO favorite things. I don't want to talk about those.

I stayed in the Palazzo hotel while I was there - it's attached to the Venetian and it is BEAUtiful. I stayed in one of the suites and it was definitely sweet. I had three TV's, a remote for the curtains for the window, a jetted tub (with a tv in the bathroom so I could watch while I was taking a bath), and stale gummy bears in the cupboard. The hotel was great, and I had a nice time sleeping in a humungous bed all by myself - although I stayed to one side, so I could have had a smaller bed. One thing I didn't like were the towels. They felt like sandpaper on my face, which no one likes. If I could change one thing it would be the towels (oh, and the stale gummy bears that i had to eat for dinner one night because it was too late for room service).

The night before I left to come back home, my boss took some of us to eat at The Cut. It's a restaurant by Wolfgang Puck, and it was awesome. I don't think I will ever eat like that again. I decided to go all out and order a 10 oz. New York Strip that was from a cow from asia. I guess they feed it special stuff to make the meat so tender. I think they also soaked it in butter for weeks, because i felt like I was going to have a heart attack after eating half of it. I couldn't even finish it because it was so rich! I wanted to bring the other half home for Jake to try, but I didn't think it could last that long - and the people in the airport security might look at me weird for bringing a doggy bag with a piece of steak in it.

I also walked to H&M that's on the vegas strip. I usually find tons of things that I LOVE and can't live without, but I walked away with only one pair of gray tights. Talk about lame. That store was so tiny and full of flourescent clothing. I could close my eyes and still see the bright pink and green clothes. I am not big into the eighties - it's not really my style, although I did try to wear a side pony tail in college one night (low on the side, so it looked halfway normal) but i still looked like an idiot. Anyways, i wish I could have gone to the HUGE H&M store further down on the strip, but I didn't feel like getting in another taxi and hearing sob story about how bad the economy is in Vegas - i swear the taxi driver took a HUGE detour on the way from the airport to my hotel so that he could get paid more.

Vegas was fun, but I am now looking forward to Disneyland. And YES - i am going to get a pair of mickey mouse ears and take pictures at EVERY attraction. You have THAT to look forward to...

It Worked!

So Jake and I planted our first ever garden this year to see if we could get anything from it. I decided that even if we just got ONE vegetable then it was a success. I faithfully watered and not so faithfully pulled weeds, but it still worked! We are very proud of our small garden. We planted corn, peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, watermelon, carrots, squash, lettuce, and green peppers. The peas, cucumbers and carrots didn't really make it, so let's not talk about those. As for the corn, it grew and grew but then was attacked by earwigs. Everytime I peeled back some of the leaves on the corn, tons of earwigs would come out. NOT COOL. The squash grew like CRAZY. It was huge and beautiful, but we don't really enjoy eating squash, so that one was just fun to look at. We will probably not ever plant that again. The watermelon grew (we still have two more out there), but of course I picked it too soon because i was excited and it was NOT ready. The inside was still a light green. BUT, we did get plenty of green peppers and tomatoes. Jake and I decided to make salsa today, so I thought I would take pictures of this momentous occasion!

I LOVE FALL! I don't know what i love more - the crisp air, the fall colors, or the yummy meals of soup and rolls. I know it is probably a bit early to start getting so excited, but it is NOT AUGUST anymore! The first day of September I put away our summer decorations and put up the fall ones. I don't have tons of them, but I love the ones I have. I even got into the spirit and made my own fall wreath for the front door. I love this time of year because I can start wearing my scarves again. I love the fall jackets, the fall colored clothes, and even the fall shoes. It is all just so wonderful! I just wanted everyone to know.

Just to bring you up to speed on our life:

• Our basement now has carpet! The carpet is wonderful and is extremely soft. Jake and I carried our sectional downstairs and I wanted to SCREAM OUT LOUD because parts of it were so incredibly heavy. I am enjoying the fruits of our labor though, and watch the tv that Jake hung above the fireplace while reclining on our sectional. We can finally use the basement and it feels SO good :) This weekend we are putting up our baseboards and trim, then after that all we have to do is finish the tile around the fireplace.
  
• Our front yard is looking AMAZING. If you saw it before, you probably wouldn't even recognize it anymore. The flagpole and spotlight are gone! hooray! The huge rotten pile of rocks is gone, and the front yard is flat! Our wonderful neighbor came over with his bobcat and got rid of all the rocks, and then flattened out our front yard. We planted grass and it is slowly growing. In the spring it should look great!

Oh the joys of home renovations :) We are just living day by day and getting VERY excited to go to disneyland. It will be my first time there, and I hear it is just amazing. Happy Fall!

This is a summary of our past two weeks:

My brother Mike has been staying with us for a couple weeks until BYU starts up again. It's been alot of man time for mike and jake and I have walked in on a few wrestling matches. My friend Shiloh came over the other day and made a remark about how when guys get together they tackle eachother and wrestle, whereas girls normally sit and talk about what's going on in their lives. How funny would it be if when girls got together they tackled eachother and wrestled? I would probably bust out laughing if I saw that. At the end of one wrestling match between Mike and Jake, this was pulled out:

Then mike tried it on and Jake felt a little left out so he made his own mask:

It's been alot of fun with Mike here - he has helped out alot with doing work around our house - cutting down a cherry tree in our backyard, texturing the basement ceiling, priming all the walls and ceiling in the basement and whatever we need help with. It's been great! Jake and mike took the cherry tree down in the backyard with a machete until our hometeacher came over and offered to cut the stump down with a chainsaw.


We went to Zion National Park this past weekend which was alot of fun. We hiked Angel's Landing, Weeping Rock, Emerald Pools, and did the Subway. The Subway is a hike they say is "technical", but you don't really need any extreme gear. We just needed a rope and we were all set! We had to swim in some parts, do some bouldering, and then repel down one part. Here are some pictures of our adventure!

Weeping Rock


This is part of the subway where we had to swim

I think mike looks like he was photo shopped in here

Climbing up Angel's Landing

Creepy Faces in the Subway

This Video is of Mike and Jake running up "Walter's Wiggles". These are switchbacks on the way up to Angel's Landing. I stayed at the bottom and then took my time going up. They are intense!

This video is in the Subway - there were quite a few of these types of "water slides" but this one was on you could actually slide on.

We've had a great past couple of weeks and have gotten alot of things done! We hope you are doing well and enjoying the end of summer! Fall is just around the corner and I am VERY excited :) It is my favorite time of year!

Oh the good old days...

This past week I went to lunch with my friend Dara who is moving this coming week to go back to VA. We met in our first semester of college at BYU. We always talk about how the first time she met me she had walked into our bedroom (we were roomates) and I was reading celebrity gossip magazines on my bed and crying because i missed home. We had alot of fun together and are still good friends! I can't believe it has been about six years since we met each other. I feel really old! So at lunch this week we ate at Pita Pit, which is by the old Baskin Robbins I used to work at during college. I got to talking about the great times at Baskin Robbins and for some reason it reminded me of all the funny dates I had been on in college. I had alot of interesting experiences. I thought I would throw a few out there for you guys to help you think of the crazy dates you have been on!

1. I went on a couple dates with a 17 year old high school graduate and on one of our dates we jumped into a swimming pool with all our clothes on and i walked into my apartment and my roomates looked at me like i was a complete idiot because i was soaking wet. I realized after that date I shouldn't go out with a 17 year old when I was 21.

2. When i was at BYU-I my friend knew a guy in our ward and one time he came over to visit when he got a new car. He asked if I wanted to go on a ride in the new car so i went along. The next night he asked me on a date - the "italian stallion" is what everyone called him. The first night I met him he looked completely normal, but then when he showed up for our date he had his shirt unbuttoned so you could see his chest hair, the hair on his head was slicked back (think the movie grease), and he had a massive chain wallet. He took me to dinner and told me that he thought it would be nice if I played the piano for him while he sang, then after dinner he took me for a ride in his car and told me about how when we got married i could stay home with the kids and I wouldn't have to finish school. I never went out with him again.

3. There was a guy in one of my wards who was an awesome soccer player - and asked me on a date. We played soccer together a few times and had fun so I thought it would be fun. We went on a date and then the next morning he left a rose and a poem written on paper (with burned edges) on my doorstep. My roomates asked him what he meant by that and he told them that he had a good time on our date, but didn't want to go on another one with me. I couldn't stop laughing that he tried to "let me down easy" by putting a hand written poem and a rose on my doorstep.

4. I dated a guy at BYU-I who my roomates and I nicknamed "superfly". After a couple weeks of dating I asked to borrow his truck to go to the grocery store. I got in his truck and discovered foundation (covergirl foundation) under his driver's seat. After I got back from the store I looked at his face and realized that he wore makeup! We didn't date much longer after that.

5. This last one didn't happen in college, but in High School. I went on a date with a guy who said we were going to go someplace "fancy" for dinner and a movie. When he came to pick me up, his friend was in the back seat and came on our date with us. He took me to a drive through place that serves soups and sandwiches. We were running late, so we grabbed our food and drove to the movies. I only got a muffin because i was NOT taking food into the movie. He got a tuna fish sandwich and hid it in his shirt so he could eat it in the movie theater. (if you know me, i HATE the smell of fish, especially tuna). So at the beginning of the movie he broke out his sandwich. A few minutes later the theater manager came in and told him he either needed to throw the sandwich away or finish it outside. ( i am guessing they could smell the tuna all the way out in the hall). So, he went out in the hall to finish his sandwich and then came back in and breathed his rotten fish breath in my face and said "what did i miss?". That was the last date we went on.

I am so grateful I met Jake. We didn't ever go on any awkward dates - it has always been so fun! It's fun to remember all the crazy people I went on dates with before I met Jake.

Skydiving!

I went on my third skydiving trip yesterday. Usually on your third jump (and after the ground school) you can jump by yourself. NO WAY was I doing that. For one, I haven't taken the ground school, and two - i don't trust myself enough to jump by myself. So, I went tandem yesterday. I was able to have my own altimeter and pull the parachute. I was trained out to read my altimeter and pull the parachute about 20 minutes before we jumped. I was super nervous because I didn't want to mess up (of course the guy who i was strapped to could have taken over), but i did it! I did all the things I needed to do in order for us to pull the parachute in time. It was so fun! Learning how to do everything yourself makes it more fun than just hanging out being strapped to someone. If you haven't done it- you should do it! But remember to wear a cap because I didn't and my hair was a crazy mess and super tangley after we were done : )