a slice of november living

taco soup! super easy recipe, too. 

if you want it, holla. or ya know, just ask.

story time: on november the 8th, kortney and i hit our 5 month mark. we went shopping to return some jeans of his, and per my begging stopped by old navy. they were having the "outerwear clearance" sale of 50% off... jackets, vests, scarves. it was like i was in the bermuda triangle of temptation. the first thing i saw when i walked through those beckoning doors was a magnificent yellow coat. mr. k pointed out the gray {grey? i never know...} below and i gasped because what to my wondering eyes would appear but the most perfect gray coat, and for the beautiful reduced price of $28 {originally $54}. i tried it on three times.
i did la maz breathing techniques and told myself, as i forlornly put it back on the hanger, "i don't need this. i don't need this". {self-control award of the year my friends}. i gave it one last longing look and consoled myself that maybe next year i would donate some of my jackets/coats and then i could justify buying a similarly splendid gray coat.

well folks. mr. k is surprisingly perceptive and took note of my puppy-dog eyes upon leaving that coat behind. the very next day he secretly bought it for me for christmas. however, mr. k cannot keep a secret to save his life. the next evening as he picked me up he exclaimed, "one of your christmas presents is in my truck. do you want it? can i give it to you now??"

firmly i said 'no' but he protested, saying it was only one early christmas present and i would get more 'use' out of it now {there was a giant snowstorm that weekend}. my curiosity was peaked and i obliged. needless to say i was giddy with excitement to hold that coat in my arms.

that following weekend mr. k and i went out to dinner at the olive garden and saw 007 Skyfall to celebrate our arrival at 5 months. neither of us have been long-term commitment folk in the past, meaning this was kind of a big deal for us.

hot cocoa and a cupcake from the cocoa bean cafe in the freeeeeezing cold!

kortney didn't mind me smooching on daniel craig before the show.

other than that, i have been cheering on mr. k and his south gate basketball team on monday nights.

my papa invited me to a seminar, which actually ended up being awesome. plus they had theeee best peanut-butter blossom cookies i've ever tasted. clearly i was a happy camper.

mr. k and i went on a lunch date to sammy's. it was his first time! i highly, highly recommend the south of the border burger and/or the pumpkin cheesecake shake.

last saturday i carved out some time and went to the temple. it was marvelous. sweet and peaceful. 

i snapped this shot just as i was leaving. 

holiday + food + shopping = love

black friday has come and gone. with it, i give a huge sigh of relief! as the sign captain at home depot, i feel like black friday lasts an entire month! the appliance sale begins two weeks before black friday-- this meant a lot of preperation and christmas signing way before black friday was even on other people's minds. 

i made this sign right after halloween: 

 and i made two of these babies for the entrance and appliance showroom

my life-saver sherron helped me make presents with posterboard and ribbon to advertise big savings on fridges and washer&dryer suites. 

i cut our usual square signs to look like gift tags and began signing til my hand hurt. 

i was also kept plenty busy with christmas tree signs {it's beginning to look a lot like christmas!!!} and signs for store fundraisers for the homeless shelter and hurricane sandy victims.

before long, the actual and dreaded black friday crept up. i made signs for 3 days in preparation for the gigantic ad. wednesday night i stayed at the store until nearly 1 am with managers and supervisors, making sure everything would be ready to go friday morning. near the end we were slap-happy-- it made the night not so bad after all.

also, i want to mention how very grateful i am that my work was closed on thanksgiving. my heart broke for employees who had to work on thanksgiving because of the black-friday-outrageousness that has evolved {ahem, wal-mart, sears, malls...}. 

 don't you love the blackmail i caught of my managers sleeping on the memory foam sample?

also, the giant teddy bear is nearly as tall as me! 55" vs. 65"

after a little bit of sleep and a morning of baking my famous "sweet potato apple bake" mr. k picked me up and we headed to his parents' for THANKSGIVING! {my sister and her family are in germany, brother in arizona, and my parents drove to st. george to spend the holiday with my aunt, uncle, and counsins}.
 it was my first thanksgiving away from family but the kays kept me laughing. i ate pie until i hurt, we played aggravation and the girls won {skyfall! kakah!} and i got to talk to my family members on the phone.

 baby kyson

 the kids

 one of mr. k's brothers and his girl

 mr. k and i

 apparently licking runs in the family

 my sweet potato apple bake

black friday morning i arrived to work at 4:30 am. by 5 am {when we opened} the line had wrapped around the corner of the building! there were no crazy fights or yelling-- customers were rather civilized. i can not fathom working at wal-mart or somewhere where a bunch of crazies are stampeding the aisles. last year i nearly got taken out by an artificial christmas tree but this year i didn't have any close calls.

by the time i left at 2:30 pm i was exhausted, through and through. i took a good nap to rejuvenize myself. 

i did not brave the crowds of black friday shoppers but i did plenty of online shopping. i will pay shipping&handling any day over waiting in ridiculous lines. i simply must share my steals with you-- i am a proud bargain shopper! 

for only $125: 

12 {twelve!} movies

4 seasons of psych

the sean connery "james bond" pack

{for my papa}

1 pair of mint green skinny chords

1 pair of earrings

{online amazon, target, and old navy}

happy black friday to all, and to all a good night!

all i've ever needed

this song.

i am not rounding up when i say i have listened to this 10 times. today. 

and that blessed youtube suggested this one as well:



i clearly had to research these two, seeing as how adorable they are. as luck would have it, they're married! just over a year. they dated two months, he proposed in june, by october they were married.

"we fit each other; when you know, you know, and she's the one."

i can't even handle how cute these two are. the way he looks at her gives me goosebumps. it's that real, true, crazy love. i plan to keep this song on repeat, until my future husband twirls me to its melody one day for our first dance. 

p.s. the darling couple paul mcdonald & nikki reed have a new cd-- "the best part-ep"-- available on itunes. it's a gem and a half.

lightning could strike

i often blog to get my thoughts out. somehow the keyboard organizes my scatter-brain and when i finally make my point at the end of a post, i sigh and think "yes. that's what i was getting at".

well my brain has been rambling these past few days and something must be done about it. 

first of all, i saw a puppy at work and i very nearly died i tell you. this little coonhound tripped over her dangling ears with her soft padded paws, and her big brown eyes were oh, so happy. i contemplated dog-napping for an insane moment but then decided i had better wait to have the right dog at the right time in the right place. she looked similar to this: 

precious, right??

be still my puppy-hungry heart. 

secondly, i am an opinionated movie person. 

let is be known that the new 007 {skyfall} is pretty radical. remember in the 90's when "rad" was THE word? anyways. daniel craig is hot, the story line is solid, javier bardem is a phenomenal "bad guy", and i shed a little tear-- i'm a sympathetic crier, what can i say. 

also, you should probably know that i'm one of those people who make fun of the twilight saga. i confess i read the books and found them enjoyable (beyond stephanie meyer's atrocious grammar! who was her editor? they should be banned from words) but then the whole twilight-mania happened and it was too much. soon enough the movies came out and boy, was it entertainment. my bestie and i would rent twilight {and order p.f. chang's great wall of chocolate} on a sad day to lighten our hearts that at least we weren't on crack like kristen stewart. oh, we were merciless in our mockery of edward and bella. since the final movie just came out, "breaking dawn pt. 2", we knew we needed to see it together and with our friend ali.

so there we were sitting in the theater, chomping on popcorn, and an amazing thing happened. apart from the computerized creepy baby and a few vocal spasms on bella's part, we couldn't make fun of it. it was.... good? yes. i daresay it was good! there was a span of 10 minutes where i stopped breathing from the intensity, and my eyes filled {but did not spill!} with tears. as the credits rolled we turned to look at one another and no sarcastic scorn escaped our lips. unanimously we concurred--it was worth the $6.75 and we'd probably see it again. 

*p.s. the soundtrack is beautiful. you need it. 

speaking of movies, my all-time favorite movie is "meet joe black". other movies are good. some are even great. but i cannot conceive of the day when a movie will overshadow "meet joe black" in my eyes. it is rather a bizarre movie when you consider the premise but each time i watch it i feel enlightened. inspired. enthusiastic about life and love and the unknown. i think it is time for another viewing-- 

"who knows.lightning could strike".

love is a battlefield

love is a battlefield, only it's the two of you against the world.
they throw bombs of negativity, doubt, and the insinuation that you don't understand love.

want to know a secret? they don't understand your relationship.

i could tell you till the cows come home about mr. k singing softly in my ear, but unless you're one of us, the tenderness seems minute. even if i could videotape the time he carried me like a sack of potatoes to the trunk of my car, you wouldn't understand that in that moment, i knew i didn't want to date anyone else.

i may not understand the world's version of love

but {more importantly} the world doesn't understand mine. 

so let them throw bombs because here are the facts:

i love mr. k more than oreos and pumpkin pie. 

he loves me more than espn.

i help him with homework and watch his flag football games.

he makes me laugh, kisses my forehead, and rubs my sore neck.

we take care of each other. we believe in each other. 

we protect and defend each other. 

love is a battlefield. 

we are strong. 

no one can tell us we're wrong

both of us knowin

love is a battlefield

oops

oh hello, old friend.

i'll write soon. i've just fallen off the face of the planet with daylight-savings time.

christmas spirit + a thankful heart

i am full of the christmas spirit.

i realize it is oh so early but i have sugar plums dancing in my head. i typically abhor people that play christmas music the millisecond halloween is over but i had no choice-- on november 1st i was at costco and there it was-- the lady antebellum christmas cd for $8. how could i resist? at first i was just going to listen to one song. then it was on repeat. now here i am, $20 later on itunes, with a lovely christmas playlist. oy vei.

lately i have been asking nearly everyone what they want for christmas because i just want to SHOP and spread the love of giving {while in the process deplete my bank account...blast!}. i love this season. people are kinder. smiles come naturally with the tinsel and egg nog. everything is merry and bright and that happiness is infectious.

sure christmas can be stressful at times and it's not often easy on our wallets but i honestly feel so much joy sharing my love with others in this special way once a year. from january through november i show my love through different ways but come december it warms my heart to give something extra.

i love that thanksgiving precedes christmas. thanksgiving has always humbled me-- to realize everything i have on this good green earth is a blessing. tonight i went to fhe {a first in much too long} and my sweet bishop abram shared a message about gratitude. he advocated us to be thankful for everything in our lives-- even the challenges because they become blessings.

now comes the part where i get a lil' bit personal: exactly one year ago i tearfully begged, nightly, with the lord to "let hunter and i work out".  i pleaded that i would be happy again, that things could go back to the way they were, until i had cried myself to sleep.  every day without him my heart withered. for a brief weekend it seemed my prayers had been answered but 5 devastating days later we said goodbye. 

this week i was praying {something i'm trying to improve on} and out of the blue i was overcome with the deepest, most genuine gratitude that my heavenly father had not answered my prayers {the way i thought he ought to} a year ago. i never thought that day would come but i actually thanked him for not letting me have my way.  god has a plan so much greater than i can imagine-- he hadn't forsaken me but allowed me to grow stronger and realize that i deserve more. that love should be more. my life would have been an absolute disaster had i married hunter-- sooner or later i would have been miserable in laramie, wyoming ranching cattle and getting frostbite from the windchill.

if i demanded that things work out, i wouldn't have known how it feels to be validated or unconditionally loved. i wouldn't know the love and acceptance that comes with full vulnerability. i wouldn't know a wonderful family i have grown to love and adore. and most importantly, i wouldn't know myself or my savior to the degree i now do.

this post has taken a drastic detour from my opening line about christmas, but it somehow all fits together. thanksgiving prepares us to appreciate the miracle of christmas and the majesty of our savior jesus christ. his atoning sacrifice makes everything possible-- it healed my heart completely, it offered hope in his promises, and it transformed the hardest thing in my life into one of the greatest blessings.

and so, to wind down i hope you feel the christmas spirit soon. 

in the meantime "count your many blessings... it will surprise you what the lord has done". 

all things halloween

about 5 people in the world saw my apartment in the month of october: my mom, mr. k, and three friends. we could round up to a dozen if you count trick-or-treaters. i have a slim collection of halloween decorations since i'm a young thang but i wanted to display them on my blog so they could be enjoyed by someone other than our fish ryan gosling. he's too preoccupied with his eiffle tower to notice the glitter and candy brewing. 

you can't go wrong with glitter!

 "wicked". it's simply darling.

 outside our door

beyond the halloween decorations there were events leading up to all hallow's eve. on sunday we had dinner at my parents-- just my cousin, roommate, and i. we ate indian curry on these frightening placemats and then made gingerbread cake-balls. yum.

i also went to my FIRST ever haunted house. let me tell you, i almost died cried. *keep in mind this is coming from the girl who gets scared in "the mummy" and "i am legend". in my opinion "nightmare on thirteenth" was absolutely terrifying. i tried to play the brave card but two seconds in i was screaming like a baby. tiptoeing through the scarefest the order went like this 1. mr. k in front telling the wherewolves/clowns/zombies to get the girls 2. me clinging onto his arm with a death grip while hiding behind his shoulder whimpering 3.  lauren wrapped around my stomach/doubled over/army crawling/fetal position while holding onto 4. brandon, who brought up the rear and acted like we weren't in a horror movie.  

the first nightmare is the "netherbeast" realm-- furry scary things with jaws of death snarl and yap at your ankles. the second is the "haunted circus". i've never liked clowns but after one said he wanted to "use my lungs as balloons", i lost it. finally there was the "zombie apocalypse" where i felt like i was in the t.v. show "walking dead". i think that surmises my horror adequately.  when we finally emerged 40 minutes later i was sweating and shaking but happy i made it through. 

 

now for the festivities of halloween day!
halloween is one of the funnest holidays at home depot. audra won the cook-off with her white-bean chili and several co-workers dressed up-- from witches to knights to sarah palin.

 i dressed as a cavewoman for the holiday.

 this is my co-worker's cute baby boy {who i not-so-secretly want to steal}

 mr. k didn't work on halloween but came to visit me!

 my cavewoman eye makeup was kinda crazy, but that's what halloween is for!

now, before i unveil the great green monster

 know that it takes two showers and a strong luffa to get all the green off. 

but was it worth it? you betcha!

i present: the incredible HULK!

all night long mr. k said "HULK SMASH!" in a very convincing manner. 

 his brother and lady friend as peter pan and captain crunch

it was a good halloween. i'm already excited for next year.