Happy Thanksgiving Back.

Who got the "You've Got Mail" reference? Who got it? Love you.

Yay for turkey day!

Mostly because we got to spend it with Dallin's family. I mean, I love Thanksgiving with my fam and all (duh), but really, we don't get to see them hardly at all, so it's so nice when we do! Especially on a grand day of thanks.

As odd as it may seem, we met up with them in Las Vegas, since Thanksgiving was happening in St. George and apparently that was the most convenient airport for them to fly into. But that was just fine, because it meant we got to spend a day in Vegas! Dallin and I left pretty late Tuesday night, so we didn't get to the hotel until about 2ish, and then we were up at 6 on Wednesday morning to go to the Las Vegas temple. We spent a few hours there. I didn't get any pictures because it was cold and rainy, but it was such a good experience for us to all be there together doing temple work. After that, we went back to the hotel for a nap...which turned into more of a sleep...and left at about 5 to hit up the strip and see a show.

Dallin, his little bro Dayton, and I walked around to check some of the sights of Vegas:

The sweet fountain at the Bellagio...which we actually only ever saw from across the street because of timing issues...

See?

The "Trevi Fountain" at...Caesar's Palace? Not sure...but this one doesn't have gelato shops surrounding it like the real one does...sigh...

My very most favorite hotel...THE VENETIAN! Yes, I have a favorite Vegas Strip hotel...you gotta problem?

Not only does this place have replicas of stuff from one of my most favorite cities ever, but this is also the very hotel that houses the Phantom theater! Dallin and I came here when he surprised me with Phantom tickets in July. (story here). And, you should probably know...me+phantom=heart. Like, a big heart with glitter on it.

Anyways, after our jaunt down the Boulevard, and dinner at Chipotle (mmm...Chipotle) we headed to Planet Hollywood to catch the hypnomagician show we had tickets for. We effing waited for an effing while before they effing let us in to see the effing guy....if you don't get my drift, the guy was a cusser. Like, an Irish cusser. We walked out after 15 minutes or so. LAME. But then, we went and saw "Bolt." Disney rocks. They just do. It was a good movie! And there was only one f-bomb in it...

sometimes I think I'm funny.

Thanksgiving morning, we packed up and headed off to St. George. It was actually a pretty short drive.

Cool foggy-ness on the drive.

St. George was great! I've driven through numerous times, but I've never actually stopped there. My favorite part was the leaves- fall leaves! Those just don't happen round these parts.

Beautiful!

Dallin's family (we were with his Dad's side) is wonderful. They were very accepting and made me feel very welcome, even though I didn't know a lot of them! I gotta be honest, a main topic of conversation was the Twilight movie, so of course I had something to say about that! The actual Thanksgiving meal was delicious, and I even found a way to stuff myself without using my back teeth!

(Side note: My teeth/gums/cheeks/mouth are all doing fine. I actually had bruises on my cheeks, which made me sad...but they are gone now. Side note over.)

Unfortunately, all the happiness was much too short lived. After a too short nap...

...it was time to hit the road. I had to get back for work (stupid work...grumble....hate...job....grumble grumble) so we were off. It was definitely much too soon, and it made me sad! Dallin was incredibly sweet and drove the whole way...probably just as much for his own safety as for my well-being...

We drove past AZ Mills mall at about 12:30 AM on our way home, and saw the parking lot PACKED and freeway exits backed up for a mile! Craaaaazy. So glad I'm not into Black Friday shopping (and also glad I had the day off at American Eagle...)

I'm so grateful for my husband and my family. I'm grateful for the Church, for my Heavenly Father, for my Savior, and for my testimony. I'm grateful for my home, food, clothing...all the things that make my life so comfortable. I'm grateful for this country, and for the beautiful Earth we have been given. I'm grateful for good friends. I'm grateful for music, for flowers, for cookies, for rain, for good movies, for telephones, for good smelling candles, for Dr. Pepper, for pillows, for cars, and for air conditioning. Did I already mention my husband? Maybe I should again...my husband.

It was a spectacular Thanksgiving! What are you grateful for?

Twilight: Movie Style

I definitely went to see the midnight showing of Twilight Thursday night. I mean, of course I did. I'm not one to back out of a good midnight showing. Heck, I even went to the midnight showing of Quantum of Solace, just so I wouldn't miss the party. Of course, Dallin went to that one too, whereas he wouldn't have been caught dead, alive, sleeping or anything else within miles of a theater having a midnight showing of Twilight. No matter - I saw it with my mom, aunt, and sister Sarah. Of course, we didn't get to sit together, unless we wanted to sit on the front row (which we tried...but it was in one of those huge-o theaters with the huge-o screen, so sitting that close made everything literally blurry). So we ended up scattered around the theater, sitting next to strangers. lol.

So...the movie. I was really looking forward to it. Like, really. As I've said before, I'm not the biggest fan of Stephanie Meyer's writing. The books are repetetively repetetive. But, the stories carry the books through, so I was excited to be able to experience the sweet story without the annoying writing. I was, however, a bit disappointed. Some thoughts:

1) Edward=ew.

Look at this guy:

No, not the best looking guy in the world. But not bad, either, right? Right. This is what the fimmakers had to work with. Plenty of room to work, in my opinion. However, they took this potential and turned it into this:

Seriously, this is the closest picture I can find to what he actually looks like in the movie. Some other promotional pictures keep him looking pretty good, but this is what he really looks like in the movie. Oh and since you can't see his hair in that picture...

THAT is his hair! And the wind is not blowing, folks - it just sticks straight up like that. Constantly.

Now, I know this guy is a vampire. I know he's not supposed to look normal. But he is supposed to be cute. And I don't care what all those 11 year old girls say... this guy is not cute. He's just not!! His face is too white. It's beyond pale and nearing clown territory. And he's got about 12 coats of this hideous purplish red shade of lipstick on that you can't really see in these pictures but is blatantly obvious in the movie. And his hair, by the end of the film, just overwhelmed me. It's not cute. It's ridiculous.

2) Acting= comical

Expressions! The whole cast had issues with this. They were either too goofy (Mike), too vicious (James), too bored (Bella) or too...clueless (Edward and Jasper). Seriously, they looked like mindless, frightened idiots most of the time.

3) Effects= cheesy

The special effects are cheesy (slow-mo, flying/running, etc). And I've already complained about the makeup.

4) Story= huh?

As far as interpretation of the story goes...I was all right with it. I don't think anyone that hadn't read the books could have followed it at all. Edward and Bella's love is crazy- they basically love each other because...they love each other. Bella's love for him is more like an obsession, which does not come off in the movie at all. And Edward's "drug-like" love for her just comes off creepy and stalker-like. And let's face it, the whole idea of being in love with a vampire is hard enough to wrap your head around. Those of us who have read all the books might get it...but I don't think anyone else would.

5) Tree climbing+flashbacks=yay!

The music is actually really good. I'd buy the soundtrack. The scenery is good too. Basically, the ambience set up the movie to be good...and lots of other things wrecked it. There were some good scenes that I thought were really cute (tree climbing, Edward's flashes of Bella when he has to save her) but generally, I thought it was weird and disappointing. Bummer.

Speaking of bummers, my wisdom teeth and I have parted ways. I think I'm handling the separation pretty well. I'm not puffed up like a chipmunk, but ice definitely feels good. The medication helps, but it was really annoying to sleep basically sitting up. I've watched a few movies, eaten a good deal of applesauce, and blogged (of course)! And I keep tasting blood...blegh. Wonder how Edward does it...

-Katie

Wish me luck!

As of Friday, November 21 at 3:15 pm, I will be wisdom toothless!

I'm "going under the knife," as Dallin would say.

I kind of have the heebie jeebies about the whole thing...

And now, I'm off to see Twilight! Much more positive!

I'll let you know how it goes!

Most Wonderful Time

Oh my.

I'm not sure I can explain to you the goodness of the good news I have.

WHITE FUDGE COVERED OREOS ARE BACK!

WOOT!

My love for these delicious morsels has distorted my thinking. I can no longer decide whether the appearance of these Cookies (yep- capitalized) means Christmas is coming, or if Christmas coming means the appearance of the Cookies! Either way, I bought two boxes.

Holidays are grand. Wait until I get a hold of some Mint M&Ms.

6 months!

As of Monday, November 10, Dallin and I have been married for six months! Crazy! How time flies when you're loving life.

We had school on Monday, so we didn't really get to do much during the day, but Dallin did have a nice surprise waiting for me when I got up:

He was already up and working extremely hard to get a lot of work done so he could take the day off with me on Tuesday, since the bank would be closed for Veteran's Day. Plus the flowers and a sweet card... don't be too jealous.

That night, we went to The Cheesecake Factory, since someone gave us a gift certificate there for a wedding present. Mmm...love that place.

We actually ended up having 25 cents left on the gift card and no cash to tip the waitress...we gave her a gift card to American Eagle with a few bucks on it...hope she likes that store!! (who doesn't, really?)

Tuesday was a fantastic day! Seriously, it will be doubly hard to go back to work after being able to have such a great day with my hubby. We got up, had breakfast, met with a couple dentists about advice on my wisdom teeth, picked up our projects from As You Wish (I didn't get pictures from our visit there, but you will see our projects soon enough!), and then...we went Christmas shopping!! For ourselves!! We are now the proud owners of a lovely, 7 ft tall (cough-fake-cough) Lucas pine tree! Woot!

We also got ornaments and lights for it, after much discussion about colors, shapes, sizes, and wiring. Man, Christmas is hard work...but so worth it.

After obtaining our Tannenbaum, we decided to take advantage of the lovely day and go walk around Tempe Town Lake. It really was beautiful outside!

Our location by the fountain, plus the wind direction soon proved to be a bad combo, so we eventually relocated...

After our nice walk, we were a little tired, and I had some online homework to do, so we went back home and watched Pirates/did homework. Then we went out to do some browsing for Christmas presents, before coming home and eating our cheesecake that we brought home from the Cheesecake Factory. Yum.

It was pretty much the best six month anniversary ever.

I'm so grateful for Dallin. I'm grateful for all he's taught me since I met him, and for all we've learned together since we've been married. I'm grateful to have such a wonderful best friend, someone that lets me pick the movies, cry on his shoulder, talk about my problems. He is hardworking and diligent, and he loves his job, but he would never put it before me, his family, or his church responsibilities. He takes care of me - he does the dishes when I don't want to, calls the dentist when I tell him my teeth hurt, and kills the bugs in our apartment. He respects and appreciates me, and has made me feel more beautiful and more loved than I ever have before. He's my Superman - how could I ask for more?

Ti amo, bambino.

election-ness

Ah, November 4th. What a day.

Dallin and I had to get up early to vote. We wanted to miss the lines, plus we weren't even sure if we'd have a chance to go later, so 5:30 am was pretty much our only option. Yes, that's correct - 5:30. It was early. And cold. And there was still a line...but it wasn't nearly as long as the line there was when we left at 6...yessss. We came back home and went to bed again before getting up in another hour to go to work. Thankfully, I saved my sticker so I could wear it to work, thus providing an instant topic of conversation for me and my bank customers. Unthankfully, I did not get a picture of myself wearing said sticker. So you'll just have to imagine it.

After work, Dallin and I got a generous invitation from our friend who works on the campaign for one of Arizona's congressman. He invited us to go with him to the election party the congressman was having at the Biltmore. Cool-ly enough, this was also where Senator McCain's shindig was. Of course, we didn't actually get to go into McCain's par-tay, and of course, it wasn't much of a par-tay since he lost, but hey, we were on the premises. And the congressman whose party we DID go to DID win, so yay!

I was still feeling rather sickly that night, so I wasn't on my top game as far as picture taking was concerned. Not even close, in fact. We have one usable picture from that night, and it is of me and was taken by Dallin.

Love that red coat. Possibly my most favorite article of clothing that I own. But I digress.

Anyway, as far as the elections go... results were rather bittersweet, in my mind. I do not understand Obama-mania at all. I think people just bought into his abstract ideas without really thinking about what they mean or what it's going to take to get them done. I wasn't exactly sporting a McCain-Palin bumper sticker, either, but I still think people are setting themselves up to be pretty disillusioned with Obama.

On the other hand, props 102 and 8 passed! I think 102 in AZ was a given, but 8 was a surprise, to be honest. It just breaks my heart to see the reaction of those people that opposed it. My general thoughts are 1) The vote was taken. You lost. Stop whining. 2) You are showing more "hate" towards the people that supported this proposition than any of its supporters ever showed towards gays. 3) You aren't going to accomplish anything by protesting against Utah or the LDS Church. What exactly would you have them do?

Anyway, I think the whole thing is pretty sad. It's been on my mind a lot lately, and Dallin and I have been following the news on it and talking about it quite a bit, so I feel like I've expressed my opinion millions of times, and don't really need to do it on my blog...I'm guessing most people reading this know how I feel anyway.

So that was our election day/time experience. How was yours?

(In other news, my sickness continues...we're thinking mono. I also need my wisdom teeth pulled...or I need to get a teething ring (Dallin's solution). I still dislike the bank intensely. School continues. Christmas is coming! And our six month anniversary is tomorrow!)

Redirect!

Hello everyone!

You can find our older blog posts at partyoftwo.blacklotusweb.com

K?

See you there! :)

Halloween 2008

Hello all! I trust everyone had a fantastic Halloween. We did, anyway, On Thursday we went to our ward's Halloween party dressed as Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, as seen here:

Unfortunately, Dallin didn't have a whole lot of time to spend on his costume...so he ended up looking more like a priest than a Cuban band leader from a 50s show. But what can you do? Hopefully my brilliant ensemble saved it.

Anyway, it was a great party! It was fun to see everyone dressed up, there was good food including...

a cotton candy machine! Woot! Of course Dallin had to try his hand at spinning his own cotton candy. The results were...less than perfect.

Yeah, he should practice more. But hey, it was still very sugary and turned our mouths purple, so the true purpose of the cotton candy was fulfilled. We also did pumpkin bowling...Dallin bowled a strike right away but I wasn't so lucky.

I just couldn't knock those bottles over! Oh well...I can still beat Dallin at real bowling.

After the party, we went over to my parents' house to carve pumpkins! Our pumpkins were slightly lopsided since we waited till the last minute to buy them and so got the runts of the litter, but they still worked... we just had to stand them upside down, since they wouldn't stand right side up. Hey, don't dis our pumpkins!

Wouldn't want anything to happen to our pumpkin in transit, especially since Dallin apparently gave birth to it...

The pumpkin carving stations. This is serious business.

The rest is all a little fuzzy, since I went to work carving my own pumpkin. I had to take a break to get some homework done, and by the time I finished Dallin had already finished and was fast asleep, so I didn't get to take any pictures of him with his pumpkin, but here it is!

Groovy, no? And now for mine. Prepare to be amazed!

Mm hmm. No holding of applause is necessary; just let it all out. Oh yeah, my mom's pumpkin was really good too:

Hers was actually Halloweeny, which gets her extra points, I guess. Did I mention the excellence of my pumpkin?

I'm so proud.

Anyway, that about does it for the pictures, which means I don't have any actual pictures of Halloween night, which is sad because it was awesome! I had to work all day (grumble grumble) and then I met Dallin at my parents' house. My mom's side of the fam gets together every Halloween, so we got to see everyone. Cute costumes, great food (including homemade caramel apples- yum!), and good times. Jacob and Serenity came over, and it's always great to hang out with them. I was completely exhausted by the end of the night, and consequently did not make it through "Night of the Living Dead," but Dallin still pretended to be a zombie when we got home, probably just to make me feel included. So sweet.

So, that's about it for our first Halloween as married people! It was a whole lot of fun. I'm still a little sickish, mostly exhibited by extreme tiredness. Hopefully it will go away soon...it's really annoying to just want to sleep all the time.

HAPPY NOVEMBER!