That time we had a dog for a week

More pictures from our backpacking trip. When we got home we picked up Pablo (the skinny one on the pictures) and he's staying with us for the week. Mollie (the fat one in the pictures) is pretty much low key and so we're not used to this kind of energy from this puppy, but it's been really fun to have him. He really likes to steal our socks and so we've become very clean people the past few days, always aware of what's left on the floor.

Mollie isn't as big as a fan of Pablo as we are. I brought him over to hang out last night and all he wanted to do is follow Mollie around because she's just...so cool. After a few minutes, she got annoyed, turned around and slapped him in the face with her paw. It was soft and she didn't hurt him but he got the message. Now he's a little bit scared of her. I guess I've never know this about Mollie because she isn't usually around puppies but she's kind of a crotchety old granny (i kind of like her for it though). And fat. Oh gosh. She looks so fat next to Pablo.

My parents are making me go through the last of my stuff at their house. Last night I found so many pictures/notes that remind me how awkward I was as a preteen and how obsessed I was with soccer. I found my book of 'inspirational quotes' and 90% of them were from Mia Hamm. The other 10% were from other soccer players:

I'm going to post awkward pictures next and you know you don't want to miss those.

Distance

Elliott turned 26 last week. This is weird for me because him being 26 means that I've known him for over 4 years. Even weirder is that of those 4 years we've been married for 3. That might sound crazy, but I wouldn't want to share those stats with anyone else.

Birthdays have the potential to suck when you're older. When you're young, we all know the magic of the day. If you're lucky, it falls on a weekend but even if it doesn't, you get to come home from school and have a party with your friends. Elliott's was on a Friday. We both work on Friday. I work until 7:00. Knowing the suck-potential (for lack of a better term) of the day, I woke Elliott up with breakfast in bed. Buttermilk pancakes with fresh cream and raspberries with hash browns on the side (cooked just how he likes. He calls them restaurant hash browns). We went our separate ways for the day and met back up after work and went for sushi.

The day was topped off with homemade chocolate cake (this recipe seriously rocks the socks off any other chocolate cake recipe I've tried... If you want a good recipe, I'm handing it out), and presents with my family. Ok, with my parents only.

I've had a slice of the left over cake every day since and I'm not even worried about it.

Elliott lost (or won depending on how you look at it) the war with his beard and washed it down the sink. I'm always surprised how much younger he looks without it. I like it. I think it's because his beard hides his smile lines.

Father's Day was delicious. We ate a lot of good food (including this vegetable dish which I will be posting the recipe for later because I love it) and showered my dad with a copy of Paranormal Activity 3 and a gift card for gelato. Give this guy scary movies and ice cream and he's happy, which makes him the perfect movie partner.

Elliott flew out to DC yesterday morning for his conference and after delayed flights, skipping lunch, and getting ripped off by the taxi driver, he made it safe and sound and is enjoying the beauty of my favorite restaurant back east: Chop't.

I am running away on Friday afternoon to meet him in New York to explore, eat, and visit friends and my brother. Can't wait.

MD 2012

Mother's Day was great, even though I'm not yet a momma. At church I got to teach nine 3 year olds how awesome our ears are. I played a bunch of sounds for them on my phone. They thought the elephant and the baby laughing were the funniest.thing.they've.ever.heard. Afterwards, any woman over the age of 18 got a bag of chocolates even the ones who still get to sleep in and don't have to change diapers.

We spent most of the afternoon with my mom. We sat outside and ate snacks while we showered her with gifts (or rather gift). She is so amazing and deserves more than anything I can give her. I feel so lucky that we were paired up.

Dinner was at uncle Chris's house with my grandma and rest of the family and finished the night with Mad Men and strawberries and fresh cream.

And now it's Monday, but Memorial Day weekend is close!

And on Wednesday, we will have been married for 3 years.  Crazy.

GRExcited You're out of the Way

Saturday morning I spent 4 hours taking a test: The  GRE, for the second time. This time around, the verbal section was less cruel to me and I actually improved my score! Sweeeet. I then went home and took a nap, and I am not a napping person.  I haven't taken a test for about 9 months so naturally, it drained me.

Elliott and I then went out to Crate & Barrel to get a wedding gift. Man, I'm glad that place isn't closer to our house, otherwise I would have a hard time resisting their hand towels, plates, pillows, and the rest of their little trinkets. We walked away with just the wedding gift which probably wouldn't have happened if we weren't short on time.

The working life has been great so far. I love being able to walk to and from work. Seamus, the neighbor's cat (who's we decided is Catholic by extension) seems to have a new favorite spot to hang out around 7:20 pm. When I turn the corner to go up our sketchy stairs, this is the first thing I see:

It's kind of creepy. (Do you like the massive weed forest in our backyard? Seamus doesn't like it, he loves it.)

Speaking of backyards, it's possible that we found a new apartment! It's only three blocks away from ours and has a dishwasher, washer and dryer hook-ups, three rooms, a little porch, and a backyard (possibly with a fruit tree. TBD. FYI, I just decided that the use of TBD here means to be discovered). If we decide to pull the trigger, we will be moving in June. I will wait to get sentimental about our current apartment until then.

I don't think I'll ever be able to tell anyone how much I love Sunday dinners and how lucky we are to have my parents so close, my mom who is an amazing cook and my dad who is a grill master. Last night it was just us two, my little brother, and my dad. My mom was finding her way back from a backpacking trip down in Moab (let's not talk about how I missed out on that). He grilled up some garlic chicken skewers for the boys and salmon for me. We made a beet and grilled asparagus salad, cut up some fruit, cooked some yams, and all ate dinner outside in the backyard. It was perfect.

And we all know this wouldn't be a blog post written by me without some pictures of the potato:

The site I have been using to make collages has now been absorbed by Google+ (boo) so until I find another site, big pictures it is. Anyone have any suggestions?

Hey Elliott, want to go camping for our anniversary this year? We can try out our new flash boil thing we got with our REI dividend. 

Park it Here

 Today we're outside. We're sleeping in, we're at the park, he's in St. George, I'm in Salt Lake, I'm at Jamba Juice, he's driving home, I'm cleaning apartment and enjoying the weather while I wait for Elliott to come home. Obviously, I have been hanging out with Mollie while I wait for him to come home after a wedding weekend (warning: numerous pug pictures to follow, but she's just so cute, and quite a good model)

This weekend has been nice break from the usual grind. Dinner last night at a local wood oven pizza place, scary movies with my little brother, park today. This week I will be jamming in as many little tricks to math problems and reading comprehension as I can. GRE is on Saturday... laaaaame.

Today I am especially grateful for the family I have, my job which I love, my best friend who I'm also married to, spring weather, and SLC. It's weird, the older I get the more I appreciate all of the simple things in day to day life. And when I look around, my little things are really good.

Chipotle Won Our Hearts for $12.50

This is what's going down at our house right now:

Sunday mornings aren't much of a break for Elliott. He doesn't really get to sleep in as late as he would probably like or spend time making breakfast. So sometimes, when you're really tired, you just take afternoon naps.

I think one of the reasons I have such a hard time keeping up with this blog is because I don't feel like many things change from week to week. We don't have any kids to post a million pictures of, we aren't living in some new place to go out and explore, and I'm really bad at taking pictures with people in them (but really good at taking pictures of food/dog/flowers.. see pictures below) which probably gets old for everyone but me. 

THIS WEEK

Things gone right: 

Hanging out with friends

Dad turns 53

Getting dinner at Chipotle for $3.00 because they were out of the salsa you like.

Spring flowers are definitely going right right now.

Mollie is always making the week better with her wrinkly face, her larger-than-it-should-be belly, and her curly tail that never fails to wag when she sees you (or when you take her to the park). For a "big-boned" dog, this girl sure runs a lot. Whenever I take her over to the park she turns into this crazy self-exercising dog. Yet... that belly still remains. I love it, but the vet doesn't.

Things gone wrong:

H&R Block. I thought they knew how to do taxes?

Cleaning went horribly wrong this week (or lack of cleaning)


This week I hope to finish grad school applications, study for the GRE, screen print, and make curry. That's all.

Leaving Winter Behind

 Yesterday was the first official day of spring (I guess). Mollie and I hung out yesterday and took a nice drive through the canyon and then spent some time at the dog park. It didn't feel like spring to me, but it was still a beautiful blue-sky-white-puffy-cloud day.

Last minute I met my mom for a play at Capitol Theater of Beauty and the Beast. I don't know how they pull plays like this off, but it was amazing. The costumes, the music, the sets. I wish I could afford to go to plays without piggy backing off my parents when my dad is not in the mood to watch a man in tights (Gaston) dance around on stage while singing.

Elliott just finished an album review for The Shins. Check it out here:

http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/ae/greatness-of-port-of-morrow-well-worth-the-wait/ 

Most of the Weekend

I don't think it's uncommon for people to try to make the most of their weekend. We are among those people, but it doesn't always happen. Sometimes, all we want to do is relax and watch movies. Sometimes, all we have to do is clean and do our heaping pile of dishes. Other times, we go out and do really cool stuff.

This weekend was one of those weekends. Friday night we went to a wedding reception and then went and saw the artist at The Broadway (by ourselves). It was a great little date accompanied by chocolate covered raisins and chocolate covered pretzels (which I almost ate a whole bag by myself). The movie was amazing. We left very satisfied and repeating to each other that we haven't seen a movie that good for a while. I went into the movie with lowered expectations because really, how good can a silent movie be? I was definitely proved wrong. We often rate movies based on if we want to add it to our movie collection. This one made the cut.

Saturday morning we slept in, ate breakfast, and then took off for Park City. We  I did a little shopping at the outlet stores and we grabbed lunch before we drove to Strawberry Reservoir for our first.. kite boarding lesson! This was Elliott's gift for Christmas and we finally booked it for Saturday. It was super windy and overcast, but we still had a ton of fun learning how to fly the kites. I definitely underestimated the power of the wind, which threw both Elliott and I on our faces a time or two. We didn't get to jump on our skis or board this lesson, but if we decided to try again, which we probably will, we get to go for it.

After our lesson we sped home and changed for the Real game. It was the home season opener vs. the New York Red Bulls (who have their fair share of arrogant and annoying players). There was an 80% chance of rain and high winds, neither which decided to make an appearance. We lucked out fo sho.

Sunday we did our Sunday things (church, trying to entertain/teach ten 3-year-olds, sunday dinner, season finale of the Walking Dead). For dinner we made pizza on the grill. Four of them. They were tasty. For dessert we passed around a pint of Ben and Jerry's pistachio ice cream until it was gone.

This week is going to be a good one. I can tell. Thursday, the new shopping center City Creek opens just a few blocks from our house. Friday night we have tickets for the midnight showing of The Hunger Games. Sunday, after a very very long absence, Mad Men returns on AMC. This is one of our favorite shows on TV.  We will have to wait until Monday to watch though, we have tickets for a house show played by David Bazan. We went to his last one in Salt Lake. It was amazing. (I feel like I use amazing/awesome a lot. I need new adjectives. That's where Elliott comes in. Ahem).

Other than wanting to squeeze in one more ski day, I'm ready for spring! I want to:

Camp a lot, a lot
Canyon BBQs
Wear shorts
Go swimming
Go hiking (with Mollie. She needs to lose about 6 lbs. Yeah, only about 20% of her body weight, no big deal)
Try trail running?
Go to as many Real games as our wallet will let us
Go to California for Disneyland/Magic Mountain/Santa Monica therapy

Walks

When I take Mollie on walks, I usually just spend most of the time laughing at her. Her crooked walk, her large shadow, her floppy ears. I love it. I mean look at that shadow: look at how her big belly shakes. 

Elliott and I have recently been talking about having a booth at the farmers market this summer. I have been going Pintrist crazy thinking of things to make for it. The challenge will be coming up with original patterns for stuffed animals and such. Elliott will be screen printing. Have any great ideas?

Moments

We're back from STG. We lucked out with temperatures in the mid 50's and enjoyed a lot of blue blue sky (which is nice when you live in Salt Lake during the winter). Mollie spent her days at the doggie daycare playing with new friends and her nights with us at the Bueler home. She had a pretty nice set up on the drive to and from if you ask me (see picture below). She's not spoiled. Right.

 My mom and I started a project last week and were able to finish it tonight. We made a new shade for her kitchen. The fabric is from Ikea and we just made mental notes on the previous shade while we were tearing it apart. For our first sliding shade, I'd say we didn't do too bad:

So Far

So far in 2012:

Made Story Ark shirts (remember to post your favorite story on the page), or even on this blog.

Took Mollie to the dog park and took pictures of her funny oversized shadow

Went to church were I was told by a 3 year old that her favorite color is Tinkerbell and that Heavenly Father was in the basement.

Went to breakfast with our friends Angie and Jesus at Blue Plate diner and had some good conversation.

Been lazy

Slept in (which is an extension of being lazy)

Sunday dinner

Not bad for only 2 days?

I'm excited for this year. I'm happy with where we are and what we are doing. Life is so much better when you learn how to balance living in the moment with planning for the future. Our living in the moment for the next few months will include skiing, indoor climbing, trying new vegetarian recipes, learning guitar songs, reapplying to grad school, a kite skiing lesson, and Elliott's tentative scuba diving class.

We don't know where we're going to be in a year, but until that time comes, we're loving SLC and enjoying our family and friends.

Lately

Sweet tooth fairy cupcakes, making yarn wreaths with friends, Mollie (of course), trying to eat more salads.

It snowed this week and it got me really excited for winter. Skiing, walking in the snow, Christmas light, parties, hot drinks, making/buying presents, arizona for thanksgiving, and hats!

Lucky

The past few weeks I have felt like the luckiest girl. All summer I was stressing out about grad school apps, what happens if I don't get in, and what the future holds. What did it get me? Grey hairs! Yes, that's right, I have a few of them. So I decided I was done with the stress. It does not do me any good, wears me out, and takes my focus away from all of the good things I have going. This has really helped me live in the moment and even though I should hear about my applications any day now, I'm less stressed and just enjoying all the great things I have in life right now.

Things that are making me incredibly happy:

1. Pug falling asleep in the cutest positions possible  2. Finding a perfect climbing tree 3. Elliott taking Mollie to the dog park while we were out of town  4. Cupcakes from Sweet Tooth Fairy (nutella crepe and pumpkin chocolate with cream cheese frosting) 5. Pictures of Mollie by Elliott 6. Fall colors

Although I have no idea where we'll be in a year, I'm happy I live in a beautiful city where I get to do all the things I love, I'm happy ski season is just around the corner, I'm happy I have such a great family, I'm grateful for my health, I'm really grateful I have a job, and I love watching favorite my t.v. shows with Elliott.

Life Lately

From top to bottom, left to right: 
1. Spending the morning with the potato.
2. Mollie making camp under the car before we left for Nashville (she does this every time we go on a trip somewhere that involves suitcases).
3. Potato
4. Walk with Mollie, fall leaves are everywhere
5. Potato
6. Potato's big belly
7. Cranton Plantation in Nashville, TN. This was used as a hospital during the last big battle of the civil war. It was the bloodiest battle of the war where thousands were killed in just a few hours.
8. Civil War cannon
9. Civil War cemetery.
10. My new favorite picture of mollie and her boyfriend (the bunny). I'll leave this one to your imagination.

Dog Park

We've found a new dog park for Mollie. There are always other dogs there (most way bigger and more athletic that her) and a little pond of water. She's not a big swimmer but she's making progress by dipping her feet.

This is one happy pup. One day we hope to have a few dogs of our own. A bulldog for sure, and then maybe one who can make it on a hike. Our friends just got a bulldog puppy and we are insainly jealous. I want to just take the leap but I know it's not the right time. In the mean time: Mollie's going to be taking a lot of trips to the park.

Weirdo

Our dog does weird things like: try to dig a hole in her bed, jumps up on the wall when it's dinner time, tilts her head back and forth if you say anything in the form of a question, and this:

It's her favorite spot. I don't know how she thinks this is comfortable?

For the 24th this year the Storey/Bueler fam went mountain biking up at Solitude Ski Resort. This was Elliott and my first time mountain biking. Elliott said he was afriad to try it, not because he thought he would get hurt, but because he was afraid he would love it. And that's exactly what happened, we both fell in love. The mountain is so beautiful right now. The snow just barely melted away and the wild flowers are abundant. We forgot to get pictures on the bikes (weird) but we got some on the lift ride up:

Yesterday was spent eating Sunday dinner with the Storey fam while listening to the rain outside. Soup. Fruit Salad. Green Salad. Bread. And a healthy dose of pug.

Mollie has been a part of our family for almost 7 years, and I still can't get enough of that flat little nose.

And that little butt with that pig tail:

And the way she plops herself down on the floor when she's tired and sticks one leg straight out up in the air while her face smooshes on the carpet.

It's raining hard today in Salt Lake, but it smells great. I threw my rain jacket on and went out to our garden to pick some red lettuce for my sandwich. Fresh picked lettuce is amazing. Elliott and I spent Sunday afternoon making egg salad and chicken salad for our lunches this week so I was super excited to enjoy it.

Then I forgot my sandwich at home.

Now I'm at work.

Sad.

p.s. does anyone know how to do collages on Blogger? I want to switch it up from just posting a bunch of bigger pictures.