JACK & JO

Valentine's Day

2012-02-15T11:55:00.001-07:00

Jack had requested sugar cookies for Valentine's Day, so on Monday night I whipped up a batch. I've never actually made them before, but I must say that I totally nailed it. They were perfect! And I put almond extract in the frosting, just like Jack likes it. Also, I usually frost at least three ugly ones before I start making pretty ones, but my first three were beautiful this time!

Of course Jack broke the rule that we wouldn't get anything for each other, since we had a little getaway to Balboa Island last weekend. And I did not break the rule, and I got nothing for him. How embarrassing. The same thing happened two years ago. What a naughty boy.

We used our Cheesecake Factory gift cards that we got from Mom and Dad Taggart for Christmas. So I showed up to the restaurant and there he was with a bouquet of stock! I had just given a lecture in the car earlier this week (morning driving time is prime lecture time for me) about how over-rated roses are, and that nobody appreciates the simpler flowers, and so on. And he got me stock! What a sweet boy.

Griffith Observatory

2012-02-01T11:28:00.002-07:00

I drove up to the Griffith Observatory after my morning job yesterday. It was sunny and warm, even at 8:30 in the morning. The view was spectacular! I stood there and thought to myself, I could totally live here. And then I remembered that I do live here! I've got to go back at sunset for the view, and I obviously need to look through the giant telescope, and I should also see the planetarium show about the aurora borealis. I realized the other day that I have no idea what causes the northern lights. Isn't that something I should know?

In my groove

2012-01-26T23:41:00.000-07:00

Phoebe in her groove

Today was just one of those days where nothing could throw off my groove. Not traffic, or crying kids, or messed up recipes, or even a bad hair day!

First, driving down the road, I realized that I had left my current favorite mix CD in the other car. (Since we are a two-car family this week!) Drat! What's a girl supposed to do without her favorite mix CD and nary an ipod hookup to be found? Trust the radio? So I turned on the radio, and lo and behold - the first track on my CD was playing! But it wasn't my CD - it was the radio! What? The radio is smart enough to play the Black Keys? No Rihanna up in here? When the song was over, that Cranberries song from You've Got Mail played! Which is also on that blasted CD! And then, yet another! The best Killers song, forgot what it's called, but the I got soul but I'm not a soldier one, that song played next! And that one is also on my CD! So, it turns out that 98.7 Jack FM is the radio station for me. Since when am I an alternative rocker?

But the day kept on giving. The children threw fits, I forgot things at the grocery store, and still, I managed to make a dang good quinoa casserole for my work family, then came home and made some perfect tilapia and sweet potato fries for my real family, plus some glorious homemade oreos. Such stamina! My energy knows no bounds today.

Also, I totally nailed it with my Target gift card and bought some purplish pants and a two great v-necks ($8 each! Score!). The pressure of a Target gift card is usually too much for me to bear. I tend to make poor decisions when I'm torn so many different ways and everything in sight appeals to me. It's like how I always order the wrong thing at restaurants - too many good options makes me think funny and even as I'm telling the waitress what I want, I already know I made the wrong choice but I still don't know what the right choice is. Anyways, I definitely made good choices at Target, and I wasn't even offended when I did a fashion show for Jack and he told me that these are the types of clothes our children will make fun of me for when they look at old pictures of us. But today I was feeling too good to retort! I just said, Jackie boy, you're so right! But choosing not to wear purple skinny jeans would totally throw off my groove!

An average week so far

2012-01-24T14:44:00.000-07:00


A portrait of a palm tree, aka lone reed

-I'm sick and have no energy, but I went to work anyways because life goes on and children still need to be picked up from school! It resulted in a messy house, unbathed children, and chicken nuggets for dinner. It was a one-time thing. Back to being a good nanny today!
-I used a neti pot for the first time. It's a little teapot thing, and I used it to pour saltwater into one nostril and it drained out the other....not sure of my opinion yet, I just can't believe I actually did it. I was desperate.

-Jack, eating leftover Christmas candy. I hear him conversing politely with himself: "Is it a junior? Is it a mint? I don't know what it is."

-I saw an old high school pal at the grocery for the second time. Weird, because my hometown is 5 hours away and also, LA is a big old place. Strange that our paths have crossed twice!

-We're borrowing my employer's car for the week. That means I don't have to drive to Beverly Hills twice a day to drop off/pick up Jack from work!

-Oh yes, Jack has a job! For one month, as a receptionist. At Samuel Goldwyn Films. Hallelujah! You go Jackie boy!

I wish today could be last Friday

2012-01-11T15:06:00.001-07:00

Last Friday was probably my favorite day of 2012 so far. How can you beat watching the World of Color show at California Adventure with all your sisters there? Sunday was my least favorite day of 2012 so far. We had a yummy lunch after church, and then they all got into cars and drove up to Modesto to party until Matt and Ness go home this weekend. Come back to us! We're trying to justify driving up there on Friday night after work to join the last couple days of the party. The Disneyland trip just went waaaaay too fast. But like Jack always says, it's so much easier to say goodbye to family when you're married! Because your best pal gets to stay with you.

2012 already gave us a new car

2012-01-10T23:46:00.002-07:00

Our new car looks like this one, but our neighborhood has less green and more...grunge.

Last week we said goodbye to our little white Jetta, also known as little white devil, or little white piece of garbage. Okay, that's a bit harsh, but we were not sad to see it go. I feel like we've spent more money fixing that car than we have on rent since we've been married! (That's a huge lie.) But who knew it would be so unreliable?

So last week when the transmission died, the first thing we did was panic. Actually, first it was anger and pounding on the steering wheel (by Jack, I'm too much of a lady to do that) and then it was panic, mostly on my part. And then things seemed so bad that it just got funny. "Ha, remember the time when our car died and we had no money for a new one? Oh, actually that was yesterday! Haha! Our life is so great!" And then we got it together. We got a rental car and researched and called and ran around town and decided on a price range and we knew our new one had to be a Japanese car, no more of this VW nonsense, and we ended up with a beautiful 2003 Honda Civic! A hybrid!

I know that everyone buys cars, and that this is really not such a big deal, but I feel like I am a real adult now! We bought a car and we aren't going to be homeless! One thing I've noticed is that our problems have always worked themselves out, even though we probably don't deserve it...I'm not sure if I should let this new car experience reinforce our somewhat reckless and unplanned style of life by saying "See? Everything works out, even though we're barely hanging on!" or if I should say "Woah, that was a close one, we should really buckle down and figure life out ASAP." Our 2011 motto was "We'll be fine!" but I think our 2012 motto is going to be "Let's be rational!" As rational as we can be living in LA and chasing dreams, right? For some reason, living life unreasonably just suits me better.

Taggart Family Christmas

2012-01-08T18:57:00.000-07:00

Look at them all lined up on Christmas morning! So cute! I miss those people. Here were the highlights:

cute baby Alina

cute baby Emmett

all the other kids too

...

okay, there were other highlights besides the kids:

pretzel rolo treats

daily walks with the ladies

playing in the creek

small boys sitting on my lap at all times

the Christmas Eve pillow pet frenzy

Meredith's egg rolls

the present-wrapping girl party

seeing cousins: Melyn, Kyler, and Travis

going running in the rain

Nick's magic show

cooking hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire pit

going to the used bookstore

going out to a fancy dinner with all the adults

receiving a kettle with which to make endless amounts of hot chocolate! (thanks Nikole!)

trips to Goodberry's

Nick's horse head and the ensuing chaos

playing at the bounce house place

being in a constant state of shock over how perfect Raleigh is

the traditional world cuisine dinner on Christmas Eve

glitter toes by Miriam

...but most of all, just being with family! Can't wait for the reunion this summer!

Here we are singing all together again

2012-01-05T09:43:00.000-07:00

Standard pyramid pic, August 2008

My other favorite Christmas gift is the Disneyland trip we'll be embarking on this very afternoon with every single last danged member of my family! The last time we've all been together is Thanksgiving 2009? I think? And that was before Tom and Sam were born! Ridiculous!

My Favorite Gift

2012-01-04T10:24:00.000-07:00

This nativity we got from Mom and Dad Taggart is so pretty that I just had to set it up last night before I pack it away. So much prettier than any nativity I would have ever bought for myself. And it's from Bethlehem and made from olive wood too! I'm going to have a hard time putting it away.

Holga in SF

2012-01-03T12:12:00.002-07:00

We got home from NC late last night (details later, it was SO MUCH FUN) and there was a huge pile of mail waiting for us on the doorstep. I was anxious to look through it because I knew my developed Holga film would be there!

I got a Holga camera for my birthday, and I used the first roll of film the day we went to SF with my family over Thanksgiving break. I was nervous to get it developed because I had no idea what I would find - snobby people on Holga forums said that if you're new to photography/lomography, you should just consider the first few rolls of film garbage. But I think most of mine turned out just fine.

I realize that they look just like Instagrams, but it's infinitely more satisfying to use real film and wait in anticipation to see how they'll turn out. Funny that film is such a novelty to me. Here's to a new hobby!

I have a testimony of rabbit rabbit

2011-12-03T18:10:00.001-07:00

This month was the first month of my entire life that I remembered to say "Rabbit rabbit." If you say it on the first day of the month, first thing in the morning before you say anything else, you'll have good luck for the whole month! Later that day I found this perfect little Christmas tree by the dumpster - already decorated with lights and everything!

Such a good husband to have

2011-11-21T23:02:00.000-07:00

This picture is from the week we moved in. The house was the cleanest it's ever been, although right now is probably second or third place for house cleanliness since we've lived here. Okay, maybe fourth. And by house, I mean little apartment.

His hair is even shorter now than it was then! I cut it on Sunday. I used the 1, when we usually use the 2. I've wanted to use the 1 for a while now, and he let me. It wasn't the best idea, but he didn't even care. Such a good husband to have.

An extraordinarily good Monday

2011-11-21T22:37:00.000-07:00

I got to run some errands in Toluca Lake today. I love Toluca Lake! Someday I'm going to live in Toluca Lake. On one little stretch of road, there is a post office, a Chipotle, a thrift store, a Trader Joe's, a Wells Fargo, and just the right amount of interesting little shops and restaurants sprinkled through. What more could you want within walking distance of your house?

The little girl I take care of was in the worst of the worst moods when I picked her up from school. But by dinner time she was laughing on the ground with tears in her eyes in reaction to my Rafiki impression. (Asante sana, squash banana.) It's SO HARD to get her out of her serious, stressed out mode. Sometimes it's just tough to be six! So that is what I call a successful day on the job.

And then, to top it off, her momma came home and gave me a late birthday present in the form of an adorable card made by the little girl and some cash monies! She is the sweetest lady. So Jack and I took that money directly to the Porto's, which we've been dying to try, and had ourselves a dinner date! And then we promised to use the rest of it to pay those pesky bills.

For your Sunday night

2011-11-20T20:22:00.002-07:00

Halloween

2011-10-31T11:49:00.000-06:00

We somehow ended up in charge of our ward's Trunk or Treat/Chili Cook-Off (along with our friends the Ackermans) even though 1) we are ward missionaries, not activity people, and 2) we've never been to a Studio City ward trunk or treat, and we thought ours might not live up to the previous ones. But it turned out great! Of course we were so busy running around like crazy the whole time that we didn't even take a single picture! The chili was delicious, the costumes were amazing (Jon Heder came in one of his Blades of Glory outfits, it was cool) and it was really fun! We came home to our messy house and took some awkward self-timer pictures since we won't be dressing up again.

To celebrate Halloween today, I had leftover no-bake cookies for breakfast (morning oats, right Alice?) and went to see the little girl I take to school in the morning at her costume parade. She looked soooo cute and I'm desperate to post pictures, but that would be inappropriate.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

DISNEYLAND

2011-10-22T13:31:00.000-06:00

One of the moms I work for works for Disney, and she gave me the day off and two passes to Disneyland yesterday! It was kind of a last minute thing, but we got to meet up with our friends Josh and Tiersha who just happened to be in town for the weekend. It was so good to see them! They have season passes and know all the good places to eat, tricks to get on the rides faster, etc. We never waited for more than twenty minutes for a ride! One of the longest lines we stood in was for the Dole Whip soft serve. That was a first for me - it was really delicious, but I would still prefer chocolatey dessert over fruity dessert. Jack got to go on the Indiana Jones ride for the first time, which was kind of a spiritual experience for him. We ended our 13 hour day with the World of Color show, which was SO COOL. We used the heck out of those passes, and I'm so grateful for my kind employer and our wonderful friends!

We Found Nature

2011-10-15T18:34:00.002-06:00

Today we took a little nature walk, and we were only ten minutes away from our house! There are a lot of big parks in the hills between Studio City/Sherman Oaks and Beverly Hills/Hollywood. I'm pretty sure they're called the Santa Monica Mountains, but they're more like hills, not mountains. Today we were in Franklin Canyon Park.

Starstruck

2011-10-14T11:50:00.000-06:00

I saw Julie Bowen at a frozen yogurt place last week. You know, Claire Dunphy! First I recognized her voice. I thought....it couldn't be....is it? I looked up, and there she was! I kind of panicked. I started texting Jack because I had to TELL SOMEONE. I sat perfectly still and blatantly stared. She looked back at me. My mouth may have been open, I don't recall. She looked away. She probably hated my guts. Nobody else reacted! I was the only rude person in that whole place. I took a picture when she turned her back. I know that was a creepy thing to do, but!!!!

I kind of hope I'll see someone famous every time I'm out and about, but I never imagined I would have such a big reaction. If I ever see someone really famous, like Reese Witherspoon, I'll probably do something really drastic, like pass out. I'll never be a cool LA person who acts like they didn't see anything at all. I'm pathetic!

Tears of Joy

2011-10-08T00:19:00.000-06:00

This has been floating around facebook today...if you haven't seen it yet, you must! I cried.

Stuff and things (as Jack would say)

2011-10-07T12:34:00.000-06:00

Wednesday was the first day that it felt like fall. It even rained! Rain makes otherwise boring days into really, really great days. En route to work on Wednesday, we crossed a huge dip in the road that had become deep with rainwater. As we bravely crossed it in our little white car I couldn't help but feel a little bit like Maddie Ross crossing the river on her horse. Except she was going to avenge her father's death and I was just going to get dropped off at my nanny job and probably buy a dinosaur costume for a two-year-old boy. But, you know. Rivers are rivers. And jettas are sometimes horses.

Also - we went to the temple yesterday. I snapped that photo at the stoplight on our way home. See the reflection of the apple on the back of my phone in the window? I like to pretend it's a cloud that Heavenly Father placed there as a tribute to Steve.

Don't be such a baby

2011-09-27T10:25:00.000-06:00

I was feeling pretty bad for myself yesterday. Our car is in the shop for the third time since we've moved here and it's been real reeaaal expensive, and I was being a grumpy baby about it. But then my great husband did a fabulous FHE lesson in which we discussed all the wonderful things happening for us right now - and there are so many! We have lots of big blessings and lots of little blessings and I should just be really really grateful!

One of the big blessings is that I get to be a nanny. I have two jobs--a morning one, where I help a little girl get ready for school and drop her off. And also an afternoon one, which is much more involved. I buy groceries and go to the post office and pick up children and play and make dinner and much more. And it's really really fun.

Anyways, at my job this morning this is what the little girl said to me on our way to school--all in one breath:

"My friend's gray cat scratched the brown cat so they took the gray one to live in a red house and Michael Jackson died but not Justin Beaver, and I love Justin Beaver."

And then I got to come home to the cutest morning face (courtesy of Jack) and a sleeping kitten and I was just really happy.

We're cat people

2011-09-24T14:15:00.000-06:00

It seems like there are more dog people than cat people in the world. I'm definitely a cat person - I mean, I like dogs and everything, but cats are just so low maintenance! They don't cause damage to your belongings, they're not loud or messy or smelly, they clean themselves, and they're not needy for attention like dogs are.* So I guess what I'm trying to say is that dogs are like children and cats are like adults?! Haha! (I really do love children - I hang out with them all day every day!) But really, just look at her cute little face!

*Lenny was an exception to all of these.

Out and About

2011-09-20T21:35:00.002-06:00

When we moved here we made a long list of free/cheap things to do in the area. You know how you kind of just have to break in a new place? The only way to get to know your way around and figure out all the best places to eat, play, etc. is to get out of the house and do something! I love this process - getting to know a new place. There was plenty to do in Utah Valley (if you're creative enough), but after living there for four years I'm just really loving having a new place to explore! Here are some of the things we've been up to.

Santa Montica Pier/Beach

(once by ourselves and then once with the family when they came down to visit)

Some more pics of when the family was here.
...unrelated to the post, but ya know what? I like them.

Foot pictures - fun to take but not really fun to see.

Another thing Jack and I did was walk along Hollywood Boulevard and see the Walk of Stars and the Grauman's Chinese theatre. Touristy and weird and cool!

"Your hair's all fragglenuffs."

2011-09-19T12:06:00.000-06:00

Yes, Jack, yes it is.

The Weekend

2011-09-19T10:59:00.002-06:00

Weekends! I love them! But I actually don't dread Mondays like I used to, now that I have my dream job and all that. (Kidding, but nannying is pretty great.)

On Saturday we slept in, lazed about, and finally got out of the house a little after lunchtime. We ventured off to Whole Foods, because we had bought a $20 gift certificate for $10 online. Cool, right? We thought so. I got some polenta, goat cheese, hummus, and other delicious items that wouldn't have found their way into my pantry if it weren't for Whole Foods, but I kind of don't want to go there ever again! We encountered a lot more mean people than you would usually find on an average outing. It was like all the rude, condescending people in the whole city went there just to act annoyed with each other and see who could scowl the most. I came out of there wanting to cry or shout a little, but then I realized it wouldn't help to become bitter myself!

So we went to Jon's (kind of like the Buy Low in Provo - not very classy but real real real cheap!) to do the rest of our shopping, since $20 didn't get us very far into our list, and even though it was just as crowded and people were probably in just as much of a hurry, everyone was courteous and kind and smiley and pleasant. My faith in humanity was restored.

On Saturday night we went to the Getty Center with Joel and Jamie, our new best friends. If one married couple can have a crush on another married couple, then that's what we're doing here. Jamie has long, red, wavy hair like a mermaid and a face like a J. Crew model. Joel is so convincing when he pretends his chapstick is a cigar that you really start to believe it is a cigar. They're sassy and smart and hilarious. We really like them. And we really like the Getty Center! It's always free, and the parking is free on Saturdays after 5 pm. We only got to see a little of it, but it was great! Here are some of our favorites. It's kind of sad to have phone pictures of this kind of art, but you know. Here they are.

And one of the best parts of our weekend - we made a bunch of yummy food! Pinterest is just SO USEFUL, especially for recipes. I always find good recipes online, and I'll bookmark them or print them off or something, but I'll usually end up forgetting about them and never making them. But now, I have them all in one place with pictures and everything! Not to mention the constant flow of new recipes to look at - it's just really great. So on Saturday we had lemon garlic spaghetti with zucchini. On Sunday, we had balsamic garlic crusted pork tenderloin, grilled polenta with goat cheese and pine nuts (originally blue cheese and walnuts but I didn't want to buy them), spinach salad, carrots, and sweet and salty butter pecan cookies. A lot of times new recipes don't work out, but I loved all of these! Some of the ingredients were kind of expensive, so unless I can find sweet deals I'll probably just make some of these for special occasions. But the pork and the spaghetti - cheap!

Phoebe

2011-09-17T19:30:00.000-06:00

On Thursday she acted like this:

But by Friday she had warmed up a little.

So cute! And so far, a lot better behaved than Lenny.

Good Monday

2011-09-13T11:03:00.000-06:00

1. We adopted this little kitty. She doesn't have a name yet. We get to pick her up on Thursday. We can't really afford to have her right now. Jack wanted a kitten reeealll bad, but I wanted to wait. We went to the shelter "just to look" and we ended up filling out the paper work within half an hour. I love her with all my heart!

2. We went to goodwill and I found this Banana Republic coat for $3. I miss DI being so close, but I think I'm going to like the goodwill stores here! Now if only the weather would cool down so I can wear this coat!

3. We got California license plates! (And driver's licenses!) I was so excited. Jack is mourning the loss of the North Carolina plates. Apparently we have to mail them back to NC. Sad day for him. I don't want to post a picture of our plates online, so here's one of Sammy instead!

Horses

2011-09-11T15:59:00.000-06:00

A few weekends ago we drove up to Modesto to go horseback riding in the mountains with the fam. I didn't really know what to expect, but I knew it would be fun because anything involving sisters, horses, mountains, Jack, ponds with lily pads, and was planned by my dad is bound to be a good time.

My horse was named Gipper - I was slighty offended that everyone said it suited me, because....Gipper? Gipper was a little bit of an idiot, but mostly nice. Jack had a regal horse named Murdock who never misbehaved. Tori had Walter, Maddie had Maddie (LOL), Livvy had Aspen, Dad had...I can't remember, and Danny had Reno. Danny had to be in the back of the line the whole time because apparently Reno is a kicker! Sassy!

We saw all different kinds of trees and flowers. It was a fun ride because the scenery was constantly changing from rocky to green, and from pretty meadows to grand views. There were little lakes with lily pads and all different kinds of wildflowers!

We stopped at lunch to eat and swim. We jumped off rocks into the water and laid about in the sun. We ate sandwiches and cookies. It was ideal.

By the end of the day we were sooo tired. We were sunburned and could hardly even walk. Horseback riding is hard on the knees! But would we all do it again? YES.

We live in Studio City

2011-08-25T15:57:00.001-06:00

We just really love it here. It's so beautiful! And we have Trader Joe's and Ikea really close, which is a dream come true. There is so much to explore - I just want to drive/walk around all day! We still haven't been to the beach yet, it's about 35 minutes away. There are about five freeways that we'll probably use regularly and that's four more than I'm used to dealing with. Tomorrow I'm going out for mani/pedis and lunch with a little girl whose momma I'll start working for next week. There's also a two-year-old boy and I'm going to be cooking, planning, driving, shopping, and playing with them! It will be hard work and I'm a little nervous. We're praying hard for Jack's job search. He's a valiant little job seeker. We have no internet, but our phones and the wi-fi at McDonald's have been sufficient. I'm glad we're here.

Mothering

2011-07-30T23:12:00.000-06:00

This is the very first tomato I've grown all by myself. I'm getting to be such a mom-type! Not because moms grow tomatoes, but because I am the mother of this tomato. I raised this tomato! I even got the tomato plant as a gift from our ward on mother's day. So that makes it even more official: I am a mom.

NYC

2011-07-27T13:30:00.004-06:00

A long time ago, I started a blog post about when I visited Jack in New York. But I never finished it, and it never got posted, and now it just reminds me of when I'm telling Jack a semi-boring story and I get distracted by something in the middle of it, and then I never finish the story because it's just not that exciting anymore. But I just need to stick it out and post this dang thing! So here we go.

While Jack was in New York this summer, I was lucky enough (thanks to my in-laws who spoil me rotten) to get to visit him about halfway through his time there. I was so excited to see Jack, I could hardly sleep on the plane! Also, I couldn't recline my seat, so that may have had something to do with it. I arrived on a Thursday morning and left on Sunday night. We had a lot to see and not a lot of time! Our first stop on the way to Jack's dorm was Central Park. Such a cool place! I wish I could have three days to explore it.

Really expensive and adorable things in a Jonathan Adler store.

My dream couch in the best antique store in the world.

It took me three days to eat this cookie from the famous Levain bakery. So rich!

The view from Jack's dorm room.

Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at the bus stop in front of the King Burger. This was right by our hotel, which was in the most ghetto neighborhood I've ever been to in my life. Modesto has nothing on Jamaica, NY.

Washington Square Park.

This is the freedom tower at Ground Zero. Pretty cool! It will be even taller when it's done.

This is across the street from Ground Zero - the cutest little church and cemetery you've ever seen. It's the oldest public building in continuous use in NYC or something like that.

This is my new favorite store in the whole world - Fish's Eddy! I wanted to buy all of it. It was all so cheap too! Jack's just lucky that I had no room in my suitcase.

We waited in line forever in Times Square for cheap Broadway show tickets. We wanted to see How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying because Daniel Radcliffe is the lead, but they sold out. We got tickets for Mary Poppins instead, and it was so amazing! Jack got to see the How to Succeed one the week after I left, and he says Daniel Radcliffe was really good.

When we were in line we got stuck in the biggest rainstorm of my entire life! I've never seen rain fall so fast and hard. And the thunder echoing off the buildings made it extra dramatic! Luckily we had an umbrella, but we still got so soaked that only the top of our heads were dry.

We saw these everywhere. And one of the screens in Times Square had a little bit on Mormon.org too. Pretty cool.

The flatiron building! We were kind of in a rush to find it because we needed to eat dinner before our show started. We came out of the subway and couldn't see it anywhere! But the blue dot on google maps on my phone said we were right on top of it! It wasn't until we wandered a block away to see if we could find it that we looked back and realized we had been standing right under it, haha - geniuses. It's so cool.

The beautiful theater where we saw Mary Poppins.

We waited about an hour and a half to get into Grimaldi's pizza. Here we are at the front of the line, hot and sweaty! Finally! I didn't think it would even be worth it, but it was! It was soooo yummy. Don't get me started because I'll explain the layers of ingredients to you and everything. (The sauce went on last? What?)

This was on Saturday, and it was the last picture we took. We were so burned out. This was on Staten Island. It was so cute and tiny and quiet compared to the city. Jack was trying to be cheeky and make a disgusted face to ruin the picture but he turned out looking super handsome. Sorry, better luck next time! I was hoping to get a good shot of the city from across the water, but it was so smoggy that you could hardly see it.

Some other fun things we did:

-Shake Shack - so yummy, but I still prefer In-n-Out

- Museum of Natural History

-Madewell and H&M

-visited some You've Got Mail locations

-Brooklyn Flea Market

-saw the temple

-saw real live subway rats, so cute

I wish we could have:

-walked across the Brooklyn bridge

-gone to the MOMA and Met

We'll just save those for next time! I hope this post will help me remember it all. I went to Beijing after high school graduation and I can hardly remember any of it! I wish I would have had a blog back then! I don't know when we'll be able to go back to NYC, but I hope it's not too long. I guess my final impression of NYC is....how can anyone live there? But also, why don't I live there?

Jack and Jo vs. LA

2011-07-25T23:56:00.000-06:00

We spent the weekend in LA trying to find an apartment. We're moving there as soon as summer term ends and boy are we nervous/excited/scared/happy! I'm obsessed with finding apartments and I had been researching apartments online for two straight months all day everyday...so this post will be boring to most people but really really exciting for me since I think I am the most valiant apartment searching hero in the whole wide world. This weekend was full of long, sweaty hours in the car, multiple appointments where nobody even showed up, some cockroaches, and millions and millions of phone calls. But, with the help of our good friends and family, we made it out alive and with a steal of a deal apartment!

It has everything we could ever want (DISHWASHER! REAL A/C!) and it's clean and bright and beautiful. And it was only $100 more a month than the super ghetto ones we saw! And it's in a really nice, safe part of town. Plus, a friend of Jack's from the film program and his cute wife live one street over (they helped us find this great apartment and we owe them our lives), and I hope we become best friends. Plus I looked up which celebrities live in Studio City, and George Clooney lives ten minutes away, so.....this apartment is just an all around winner.

But the best part of the weekend is all the friends and family we got to see! We are lucky to know such kind people. On Friday and Saturday night we stayed with our good friends Josh and Tiersha. We got to go to Cafe Rio and Downtown Disney with them, and boy do I love me some Downtown Disney! It was so good to see them - and to meet Tiersha's family. Those people are just plain good. On Saturday night we got to stay with my Uncle Kimball and Aunt Betty. I just love them! We had a great old time. I'm so glad we're going to live so close to them.

So our next challenge is finding a way to pay the rent. Pray for us!

My Sam Baby

2011-07-13T23:03:00.000-06:00

"Sometimes I like to pretend Sam is my baby." -Jo

"....that's not healthy." -Jack

Taggart Reunion

2011-07-12T09:27:00.000-06:00

Last weekend John and Marilyn were in town for a quick 24 hours to attend a Taggart family get-together. John and his three sisters and some cousins from each family were there. It was up at a Bear Lake campsite. It was so beautiful! Even though we were just there for the day, it still kind of felt like a camping trip. We spent Thursday night at great aunt Norma's, and all day Friday at the campsite with the family.

The three beautiful sisters: Nancy, Norma, and Marilyn (the aunt, not the mom). And Mugsy too.

We did the only natural thing to do at a family reunion in the woods: paint rocks! But really, don't you feel like you always paint rocks when you're at a gathering that involves nature and/or extended family? We all do it! Anyways, I really love painting rocks.

We were all pretty proud of our rocks until we saw Marilyn's (the mom, not the aunt). I mean, really. Way to show us up. (I hope my children inherit her talent!!!)

And Tom's camouflage rock was pretty amazing as well. I'm going to have to practice a lot in case I ever paint rocks in the woods with these people again.

As usual, I wish I would have taken more pictures. Not a single picture of John and Marilyn or the cousins, and none of the delicious Dutch oven dinner we had! Que triste!

Fourth of July

2011-07-11T11:30:00.000-06:00

I need to blog about actual events, not just about the random thoughts running through my mind.

So. Fourth of July. On the Saturday before was the big Hawkins party! We used to go to G&G Hawkins house on the fourth and have a yummy dinner and then watch the stadium of fire fireworks on the front lawn. It hasn't happened in a few years but now Aunt Kristine and Uncle Clayton live there so the party was back on! It was just like old times, except I missed grandma and grandpa, and I didn't stay for the fireworks this time. (Too anxious because I was picking Jack up from the airport that night! Had to go home and fret around the house.)

It was an extra fun night because I got to see Nick who just got home from his mission. He was my best friend cousin growing up, we did lots of stupid things together. He'll be here in the fall at BYU, right when I'm leaving! What a tragedy! Here I am with Colton and Nick. I think we're all the same age, unless Colton is 22 already. Cousins, ya know? I like them.

On Monday, after Jack was home (YESSSS!!!!), we had a fun little adventure. We drove through Uintah National Park. I was hoping we could start at the Spanish Fork canyon end and go all the way through and come out of Provo canyon. It turns out that it is possible, but it would have taken forever and would maybe involve some bumpy roads. So we went about a third of the way through and then turned around. It was so beautiful! And the air smelled so good! I was on a nature high the whole time and making all kinds of declarations that our kids will never play video games in the house all day, we will just take them camping 24/7, etc. Jack was feeling a little sick that day and was still such a good sport with my craziness, haha. We stopped to explore a little and take some pictures.

On our way out of Spanish Fork canyon, we stopped at a weird little drive-in. What's more American than some fried food, am I right? We ate outside and in the perfect weather and had a great old time.

This is when Jack was telling me the North Carolina state bird, flower, tree, reptile, amphibian, etc. He was shocked that all I knew about California was the flower. I asked him how he knew all that and he said "I learned it in third grade!" Oh well of course! Don't we all remember the things we learned in third grade? Once something goes into his mind, it stays forever. I wish I could just remember where I put the dang keys.

It was a perfect weekend! I wish I could do it again.

Romanticizing on a Sunday

2011-07-10T20:50:00.000-06:00

6 a.m. on June 16, 2011 - Reunited at the JFK airport. Greasy, puffy-eyed, and so so happy.

Today as I was doing my best Sunday laying about, I was thinking some jumbled thoughts about the crazy things Jack and I are going to attempt in the next few months. In my temple recommend interview today, I was telling the Bishop about our plans and he said something about how fun it is to be in the "white-knuckle" phase of life - not knowing how things will turn out but keeping at it. I agree! It is so fun! It's a weird thing to feel so inadequate and unprepared but so confident at the same time. I know everything is going to turn out better than I could even plan for, but sometimes my sensible side kicks in and I start doubting and fretting. It's good to be sensible, but I think it's just as good to be a little stupid. Nothing wakes my heart up like taking on the impossible with my best friend.

He comes home today

2011-07-02T02:38:00.000-06:00

NO MORE SKYPE!

Second Anniversary

2011-06-26T08:00:00.006-06:00

Fastest two years of my life!

Jack, you're the best thing that ever happened to me. Let's do this forever!

Stress Case

2011-06-15T16:38:00.000-06:00

Today as the girl at the testing center handed me my second final exam for the day, she asked me if I have served a mission because I have "such a sweet demeanor." Ha! She wouldn't have said that if she had seen me after my first final exam of the day, because it didn't go too well and I was saying cuss words in my head. (For real!) (I usually don't do that, but it was a special circumstance.)

But I do these things to myself, you know. Even though I studied like mad, I had of course procrastinated the day of my repentance with a huge final paper that was due last night. As a result, I only got about four hours of sleep, which I could get by with on a normal day, but not on the day that I need to take three exams and fly to New York! Someday I will act like a rational adult, and I hope that day comes soon.

But! One good thing did happen today. I found this little guy by the Tanner building.

Can you spot him? Here's a closer look.

I think that deer think they are pretty funny when they come down and get all up in the wrong places. He's just like hey guys, I'm down here crossing roads and hanging out on your tiny hillsides. I'm pretty cool.

I'm off to take one more exam and then to the aeropuerto! Thank heavens!

What song are you listening to?

2011-06-14T00:58:00.000-06:00

I found these cool videos that show what music people are listening to in NYC and London. I think it's so interesting! Some people's songs are so predictable, but others don't seem to suit them at all! If I were in one of these documentaries, they'd probably catch me listening to something super embarrassing, like this. Who do you think has better taste in music, London or NYC? I'd have to go with London, especially for what the guy at 4:06 in the video is listening to! Haha even if you don't watch these videos, see if you know what song that one is! And you know what is pretty cool? I'm flying out to NYC on Wednesday night, and at the same time that I'm in the air my family will be on their way to London! They'll be hanging out with the cooler people, I guess. But not really, because I'll be with Jack and he's cooler than London. (Did you think I was going to make it through a post without talking about him? Sorry.)

Thanks to pinterest...

2011-06-12T01:03:00.003-06:00

I found this crockpot tikka masala recipe

I found this picture of Jack and I

I've got some new cute project ideas

...and I've wasted a whole lot of time browsing.

BUT all the wasted time was worth it because...

(...drum roll...)

Some lovely soul on pinterest showed me how to make the PERFECT sweet potato fry!

I've been on a sweet potato fry kick for a while now. I just love the ones from Guru's here in Provo, but that's because they're deep fried and I don't have to make them. But baking them at home has three benefits: they're cheaper, healthier, and most importantly, I can get them in my mouth sooner if I make them myself. So I've been messing around with a mixture of two recipes, but never got them quite right. It's hard to get them crispy when you're just baking them in the oven.

But behold! The secret ingredient...

...cornstarch!

(did everyone else already know this?)

You coat them in cornstarch first, before the olive oil and the spices.

It was the only change I made and my fries went from being a little limp and sweaty into total crispy fry perfection! Bring on the sweet potato fries! I think my skin is going to turn orange.

Stats

2011-06-04T00:44:00.000-06:00

Number of days Jack has been gone: 13

Nights I have gone to bed before midnight: 1

Real dinners made: 3

Number of times I've watched You've Got Mail: 4

Number of times I've locked myself out of the apartment: 3

Hours spent at Alli and Danny's: more than they probably wanted

Oh how I need Jack! Number of days until I see him: 12

Two weeks from today...

2011-06-02T23:21:00.000-06:00

I will be here

with him!

Two weeks has never seemed so long!

Oh yeah and we moved

2011-05-31T15:50:00.001-06:00

So I realized on my way home from work today that I've been so busy blogging about my poor little lonely life that I forgot to document our move to Provo. We moved to Provo! It is a wonderful thing. If I take my bike, I can get from my couch to my classroom in eight minutes.

I would take some pictures of the actual apartment, but it's a little Grey Gardens up in here right now. (That's my second GG reference in one day, but I mean it, I'm on the verge here people.) (GG can also mean Gilmore Girls...my other favorite mother and daughter). Since Jack left, I have had no motivation to eat, sleep, or clean. I don't know why I am such a baby, but these are the facts.

Here are some pictures of the view from the apartment - the view I love the most right now is my front door looking out.


So pretty.

My plants when they were babies. The tomato plant doesn't look promising anymore but the flowers look awesome!

The things I love about this apartment:

The tile in the shower looks exactly like caramel corn jelly bellies.

We have a pool!

We also have a grill! Only one tiny grill for the whole complex, but so far I haven't had any grill fights with anyone. (There's about to be a what...)

Fully furnished for four single students - which means that we have two extra twin beds in the second bedroom! I'm accepting visitors! If you are a girl and if I've ever met you anytime or anywhere, you can stay here. I hate being the only one home!

But the best thing about living here is the location. Walking or biking distance from campus, DI, and Costa Vida, and pretty dang close to Alli and Danny and SAM.

I wish I wasn't in such a silly mood as I wrote this, but it's too late now.

Samby

2011-05-31T10:35:00.000-06:00

I spent almost the entire weekend kissing this little face. I'm so lucky to have Alli and Danny so close, or else I would turn into this kind of a girl while Jack is gone. We did dollar store shopping, yummy meals, watercolors, frisbee, walks around the neighborhood, but mostly just adoring Sammy.

Philadelphia

2011-05-30T12:39:00.000-06:00

Jack doesn't have class on Fridays or Tuesdays, so this three-day weekend was a five-day one for him! So he went to Philadelphia to visit Meredith (his sister) and Jim and their cute boys. Naturally, Jack had to go around Philadelphia and visit some of the film locations from the Rocky movies. Jim took some great pictures! Go here to their blog if you want to see more. I miss that handsome face!

Good Things

2011-05-27T19:47:00.000-06:00

My favorite snack these days. Can't get enough avocado!

Little scraps of flowers in a salt shaker. Sometimes I'm desperate.

Sometimes I like to feel really bad for myself that Jack and I are apart. And my tomatoes were drowned by the rain. And I did a dumb thing at work today. And it just kind of spirals downward from there, you know? So that's when I have to stop myself and say, Don't be such a whiner! Your life is fantastic! So in an effort to prevent myself from wallowing in the depths of despair (because after all - to despair is to turn your back on God), I want to document all the good things that happened to me today.

First of all, I bought cherry sours - my favorite non-chocolate candy.

On my walk home from work tonight I passed by a cute old house. All the windows and doors were open and a whole bunch of hipsters were packed in there, playing guitar and singing a really great song at the top of their lungs. I loved it.

I got to walk across my favorite area of campus where you can see the whole valley to the south and you can even see my favorite windmills! They're still big, even from campus.

I watched a cute video of my nephew Thomas saying his first word - tractor. What a silly boy!

I'm going over to Alli and Danny's to play with watercolors and spend the night.

Life is great!

I Skype! I'm a Skyper!

2011-05-25T08:00:00.011-06:00

I've never really been into skype. It's kind of awkward when it freezes, and the slight delay makes normal conversation kind of weird. But now that we're hundreds of miles apart from each other, we're wayyy into the skype! We're skyping it up in here like you wouldn't believe! Dorm room tours, scriptures before bed, and so on and so forth. It's just so nice to see his happy face.

Back to the Dorms

2011-05-23T13:58:00.001-06:00

Please do not execute your wife for posting this

And he thought he was done with dorms! Jack isn't usually a mirror picture kind of guy, but he knew I was requiring all kinds of details and would ask to see his first day of school outfit. But really, I want to know everything! I even said in last night's phone conversation as Jack was walking around campus, "What does the ground look like?" And then I realized what a silly question that was, but I still wanted to know what it looked like. Sheesh, you'd think he was on another planet the way I'm obsessing over it all! I think it's just that fact that he's seeing new things without me that makes me so curious. But I will be there in 24 days to visit! I can't wait to see this cute face in real life again! And NYC too, I guess.

Jack's Last Day of Life

2011-05-21T10:05:00.000-06:00

Workin it on the tree stump. He's pretty cute.

Scary windmills

Today Jack is leaving for New York! I'm trying to make it as dramatic as possible. Yesterday was our last whole day together so we did everything we ever wanted to do. Which isn't that exciting, because we live in Provo, people.

What we did:

-Out to lunch at Molly's. It had been too long. So so delicious. We are naming our first daughter after this restaurant.

-One of the most successful DI trips of all time! I will post about this later.

-The new Pirates movie, which was WAY better than the second and third ones. Jack Sparrow, he is a sassy one!

-Made yummy fish tacos for dinner and peanut butter cookies for dessert.

-A long drive through Springville and Spanish Fork. We stopped off at our favorite park and also went to see the huge windmills. SO BIG. They don't look that big in the picture, but when you get up close they will freak you out.

-Sang along with the love song from Tangled almost the entire drive. Why is that such a good song? Careful, or that scene in the movie with the floating lights will make you cry.

-Of course we had to go to see Sam baby. And Alli and Danny, but mostly just Sam.

It was a perfect day! And in six short weeks we'll do it again!

We Graduated

2011-05-01T18:55:00.001-06:00

Well...Jack graduated. I just put on a cap and gown and walked across the stage but I'm not really a graduate until August. We took way too many pictures. And we really miss our family! Baby come back to me.

I had a final and Jack had a dentist appointment on the morning of commencement.

His numbness wore off just in time for us to meet all our North Carolina peeps

at Fuddrucker's for lunch.

Almost all the NC boys. (and girls)

After Fuddrucker's, we went and found my family who drove through the night from CA.

They were eating lunch at Cafe Paesan.

Livs was already in town, of course.

She has since gone back to Modesto with the rest of the family and I miss her dearly.

I was especially excited to see Thomas, he is my favorite little rascal.

Commencement was long but not entirely boring.

Then we came out and took so so many pictures.

I ran into good old Ash. I love her!

The best picture of the weekend.

We had convocation the next day, Sammy's blessing on Sunday, we moved to Provo on Tuesday, and both our moms and Ness stayed through the next weekend for Women's Conference! It was a marathon of good times and I'm so sad that it's over.

Teeth and Money and Stuff

2011-04-19T19:25:00.000-06:00

See the cute little teeth in that cute little mouth? It's a good thing I love those little teeth and the cute man they belong to because they sure do cost a lot! Because Jack is graduating and his student health plan will be dropped next week, he figured he should go to the dentist and get things taken care of while we can do it for cheap. It's a dang good thing he went this week, because even with the insurance, 10 cavities is really expensive! In Jack's defense, he does brush twice a day and flosses a lot more often than I do! But in order to prevent future cavity disasters, I think he should invest in this:

Totally suits him.

moments

2011-04-16T17:27:00.000-06:00

We were sitting in the Wilkinson Center computer lab today.

Jack turned to me and whispered something I couldn't really understand.

It sounded like "You look super fine."

I was flattered by this out-of-the-blue compliment.

Turns out he actually said "You need to zip your fly up."

But I think I look pretty fine anyways.

Jack in NYC

2011-04-15T17:03:00.001-06:00

Just so you know, I'm going to brag about my talented husband a little bit right now. In the last week or so, Jack has started to wince/shudder every time I say the word "graduation" in front of him. Because that means real life is beginning! That means you need to have an answer when people ask what your plans are for the fall. That means you'll probably have some babies in the next five years or so and you need to feed them! That means that whatever you do or don't succeed at in the next few years could determine the outcome of the rest of your life! You know, the usual intimidation of real life...but quadrupled because did you know that he is a film student? Ambitious, right? But then... we found out that he got into an awesome program at Columbia!!! There are only twelve spots in the program, so we weren't letting our hopes get too high. It's a six-week summer program for T.V. writing (what he dreams of doing one day--and now it seems so real!) and he'll get to learn from real-life professionals and work on a script that he can use to apply for real jobs! Sadly, I will be in Provo finishing up some classes while he is there, but thank goodness for skype! And thank goodness for husbands who are brave enough to follow their dreams. (cheesy, but true.)

What a cool campus!

Seventies Skirt

2011-04-14T13:38:00.000-06:00

For our last sewing project in class, we got to pick out our own pattern! Yeehaw! I got this pattern from DI, because all the ones at Joann's were either a) easy, but so very plain or b) cute, but too hard for me. Plus, they were all like $16. This one only cost me 75 cents! I was SO excited to get started that I did a really stupid, hasty thing and didn't cut out the right length. I was going to make the version without the ruffle at the bottom to minimize the seventies-ish look, but I cut it too short and had to add the ruffle in the end. So now I'm just embracing my inner seventies diva and wearing it proudly. I think I'll make another one the same length but with no ruffle in a dark navy blue? With the same little gold buttons? Maybe. I'm so glad I got to take this sewing class, but I'm also so glad that it's over!

Conference Weekend

2011-04-08T16:41:00.003-06:00

Hoodrats wandering the streets of Sandy

Last Saturday was not a particularly interesting day, but it is a day that I would love do again! Jack and I ended up wandering around South Jordan and Sandy while our car was getting fixed up. We had no good prospects of places to watch conference, but we had bus passes and determination! It ended up being a perfect day.

It involved donuts, Chipotle burritos (Notice how I list the food first? I also did this in my childhood journal when I recounted important events. Things never change.) lots of walking around in the sunshine, bus rides, and two great conference sessions. And some quality time with baby Sammy, who is fatter and cuter than ever. We watched the first session on our laptop at Barnes and Noble and then Alli and Danny scooped us up and took us to his brother's house for the afternoon one! It worked out perfectly.

Life lessons learned from that day: making a plan is useless sometimes, but things always work out. And life is more fun without a car. So does that mean we should sell our car and move to New York with no job prospects or future plans? Maybe so! I'm feeling down for a challenge. But the most important things I learned that day are from General Conference. Go here to watch it if you haven't already or if you are curious!

Sgt. Hawkins: "Meat Ball" Destroyer

2011-04-05T01:13:00.004-06:00

A few weeks ago as I was researching online for a boring paper and getting no results, I decided to distract myself by researching something more exciting. I was on the Harold B. Library website and I typed "David Henry Hawkins" into the search box just to see if anything would come up. Grandpa is pretty cool, ya know, so why wouldn't there be something in the library with his name in it or something?

There were a few random things that came up--one was titled "Memoirs." It was supposed to be in the Special Collections way on the bottom floor of the library and I didn't have time to go down there, so I just kind of forgot about it. But last Friday I had an extra hour on campus so I decided to search it out!

I got down to Special Collections and I had no idea how official it would be. I had to sign a form, put my stuff in a locker, and be let into a special room where employees could keep an eye on me. I gave the nice boy at the counter the call number for the "Memoirs" and I had no idea what he would bring out to me.

Well I don't know how or when or why this got into the library's special collections (do you, cousins?), but it was six handwritten pages of Grandpa's experiences at war. I recognized Grandma's familiar loopy handwriting right away. It was a really short summary of the kinds of things Grandpa did and saw and felt and learned while he fought in WWII. There was also a copy of what looked like a newspaper article and a few relatively recent pictures of Grandpa with some buddies. I had a couple minutes to scribble down two interesting quotes:

"I attended the combined Jewish, Protestant, and Catholic meetings where freedom, independence, and whip the Japs were preached."

"I became well acquainted with my Book of Mormon aboard ship. We sent more Japs to Davy Jones Locker in Iron Bottom Sound than the Nephites did the Lamanites at the River Sidon. I got a lot of consolation from Captain Moroni, Teancum, and other great warriors. They taught me that I was fighting for freedom, country, home, and loved ones."

Remembering some of the hard things Grandpa did was a great way to spend twenty minutes on a Friday afternoon. I am a lucky girl to have such a good example of faith and perseverance. He had to do a lot of hard things that he didn't want to do. Finals week seems much more doable after thinking about the things grandpa saw and did in his lifetime!

I love you and miss you gramps!

Cute

2011-04-03T13:26:00.000-06:00

This week Jack has been putting up his little kid pictures all around the house just to remind me that he "used to be cute." He sure was cute, and he still is.

Phone pictures of the fishchildren

2011-03-30T01:10:00.003-06:00

We got our new fishies for FHE on Monday. We haven't named them yet - we just can't commit to any names. Jack wants Tendril, Conan, and Shannon, but I'm not allowing that.

The fishes and I were alone today while Jack was at work, school, inner tuber water polo, and church basketball. I stayed home, wrote paper after paper, tended to the office, and tried to get the fish to eat. They were just too dumb to realize where the food was. Then I figured out how to take family pictures together. The little dweebs were hardly cooperative, but for phone pics shot through a fishbowl they turned out pretty cool.

And I made this shirt all by myself in sewing class! I only got an 87 on it, but what the heck. Jack says I look like a waitress and tried to order pancakes from me today, ha. I was going to save this fabric for a skirt, which I think it is better suited for, but money and stuff, ya know? I was just trying to use up what I had instead of buying new. It looks pink in the picture, but it's actually red and white threads woven together. We used kind of a frumpy pattern, but I made it longer and slimmer so it wasn't so boxy. It's growing on me. And it was good to learn!

This is a long post. But you can do it.

2011-03-26T22:26:00.000-06:00

Our last goldfish died yesterday. I hardly paid any attention to the little guy, maybe he died out of pure loneliness? I probably wouldn't have noticed that he was dead until I went to feed him, but while my visiting teacher was over with her daughters yesterday, the oldest girl went to check him out and found that he was floating on his side! She wasn't even sad or anything, but I was pretty sad. He was over two years old, which is like seven hundred years in goldfish time.

We actually started out with four goldfish: Saddam, Albie, Chet, and Peggy. We bought them when we were dating and they lived at Jack's house. Saddam and Albie were mercilessly murdered by Jack's roommates (ok, both deaths were accidents...so does that make it manslaughter? fishslaughter? ) and Peggy died just last semester. I suspect that Chet and Peggy were madly in love and he just couldn't go on without her. Anyhow, we will be making a trip to the pet store for some more little fishies. (Not Wal-Mart! Fish abuse happens there! Once we saw a whole tank full of dead rotting goldfish and the few that were alive were eating their dead friends! Fish are people too, Wal-Mart.)

Well the good thing about today is that I took my new bike out on its first ride! I got it cheap on ksl. The guy who sold it wanted me to be there on a Saturday afternoon to pick it up, but I work on Saturdays and he lived far away. So I bribed Jack with an IOU for 8 massages and my next plasma donation money to pick it up for me. He went to Sandy in the pouring rain and somehow fit that bike into our tiny car just for me! So today I rode around for a long time and visited the horses that live by our Wal-Mart. (Why do horses live by Wal-Mart? Because Utah Valley is so mixed up like that. I mean, are we in the city or the country? I bet you didn't know that there are horses by the University Mall too!)

Best for last. Jack's dad John came to visit last weekend for the wedding of Jack's dear cousin Travis. It was a great visit and we had lots of fun. We can't wait to see both ma and pa Taggart next month! Anyways, my in-laws must really love me because Marilyn sent a really cool sewing machine with John and I get to have it! It looks like this:

Cool, huh? I am so excited about it. Many thanks to Marilyn for her talent at finding cool sewing machines and to John for lugging that heavy thing here all the way from NC! I love it.

March Madness

2011-03-15T16:23:00.003-06:00

With all the hullabaloo surrounding BYU's basketball team this year, I've been seeing the word "seed" everywhere. Seed this, seed that, co-workers talking about seed something-or-other, seed in the newspaper, etc. And I'm just like, what is all this seed nonsense? And what are we even planting here? So I asked Jack. And he explained the basic concept of a seed, that a team can be "seeded", and I realized...seeded? I've heard of seeded! But I thought it was SEATED! Doesn't that make more sense? To be seated #3 instead of seeded #3? Like, you have the third seat? I mean really, what do seeds have to do with this? (I hadn't heard of March Madness until I came to college either...it seems I'm just very oblivious?)

Anyways, we have been having some of our own March Madness around here:

Madness #1

I beat Jack at speed scrabble! If you know Jack, you know that he wins at all games that require one to spell, touch, grab, talk, point, yell, or do anything speedily. I prefer games like checkers, where I can sit and simmer in my own cleverness and maybe pause for a snack break. Time constraints are not my thing. So it is total madness that I beat him! It will never happen again.

Madness #2

The beautiful Olivia turned 19! I keep reminding her that when I was 19, I got married, so she had better prepare herself to be a fabulous wife this year. And then I think, what? Livvy married? Madness! And then I realize how the world must have felt about me getting married at 19. But guess what, world? It has worked out beautifully and I picked a really good husband. But Livs, I'm kind of in the mood for a good summer wedding!

Madness #3

Maddie turns 16 tomorrow! The mad thing about this is...isn't she already 16? It seems like she reached my sixteen-year-old level of responsibility/maturity/ability-to-be-a-real-person about three or four years ago. Perhaps her skills in these areas exceed my own, even at this very moment? Teach me your ways, oh great Madsy.

That concludes our March Madness for today.

P.S. Happy Birthday Matt! We miss you!

P.P.S. I know, my blog is full of words and totally lacking in pictures, but guess who lost their camera battery charger? Me. I mean, I guess it could have been Jack, but he doesn't usually lose things. However, April will be a most exciting month in our life so we will have plenty of pictures then!

Ramblings on a Friday

2011-02-25T10:15:00.001-07:00

This nasty cold morning finds me sitting at work in the computer lab in the Wilk, trying to avoid writing a works cited form at all costs. Shall I reorganize my class schedules for spring and summer? Why yes, I think I will! Oh, is that printer out of paper? No? Well let me fill it up just in case! Seriously, though. I think I'll still make it to heaven if I don't learn MLA format.

Anyhow, I have dropped the intermediate sewing class that I was going to take this spring, and have replaced it with History of Interior Design and Architecture Part 1. Good choice, no? I have decided that the skills I have learned in my current sewing class are more than sufficient to fulfill all my sewing wants and needs, and more importantly, I am so done with crying in public. I can't help it if seam rippers and crooked zippers make me cry, I just can't, and I would much prefer to torture myself in the privacy of my own home rather than with all my classmates looking on. And all these deadlines and requirements are just trampling all over my brilliant seamstress creativity anyways. Design and Architecture, here I come!

Here is that skirt I am working on right now. The green one. Cute, right? I figure if I can make this, I can make complicated slipcovers, my daughters' wedding dresses, etc.

pure joy

2011-02-17T15:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is true! March 11 at 3 PM at a shopping center near you!

ALSO: Do you love the little green creatures dancing? HAHA why are they so ugly???

Dreams come true at the Hansen House

2011-01-30T16:27:00.001-07:00

For our Blind Date on Friday night, Jack took me out to Pei Wei for dinner. We LOVE that place. Then, Jack took me to a little Bed and Breakfast! I was so shocked. I mean, he packed my bag and everything! The house is over a hundred years old and so beautiful. Some of it was kind of cheesy, but it's all part of the experience. We had homemade donuts and hot chocolate upon arrival, and in the morning we got to learn about the history of the house over breakfast. The owners are a super adorable old couple who were quite entertaining.

Obsessed with these mirrors.

Obsessed with this couch and this husband.

Obsessed with that hot chocolate that I drank so so fast.

It was fun to get away for a night. I picked a good husband.

Blind Date

2011-01-25T18:59:00.002-07:00

One of the best parts about life right now is that I get paid more than I deserve. Yes, it's true. Here at the good old Safe and Secure, we live for free and also receive a small sum each month. But really, we don't do that much. We each must spend a lot of time at home so the office hours are covered, but guess what? That just means we do our homework and watch t.v. for eighty percent of office hours - in our very own home! And to think we get paid for that! The real reason we get paid for this nonsense is for the inconvenience of having to turn off the stove in the middle of a work-of-art omelet to dash into the office and fight with someone over late fees. It is a strange life, but a good life.

And my other job, well that one is a crime. I sit at a desk at various locations on campus, watching over and caring for my very own computer lab. This means straightening up the stapler and tape dispenser, walking around every fifteen minutes and smiling at people, and pushing in chairs. I wear a lanyard with my picture on it and get cool superpowers like sending flashing messages to people's computer screens, which comes in handy when Jack comes in and I can send him a message saying he shouldn't be looking at inappropriate content and that he has been reported to the honor code office, ha! Anyways, the point is, I don't really do anything at this job either! Sure, I get trained for Word and Powerpoint and other programs, but very few lab patrons actually take advantage of my fountains of knowledge. I just clock in, do my duties and my homework, and get paid! My life is not reality.

Well the most exciting part of this very lengthy post is on the subject of blind dates. This computer lab job takes up my Saturday nights, so Friday nights are our only Party Time. If we don't plan this time carefully, we may end up either 1) on the couch watching gilmore girls, or 2) in the car with no game plan and relying on our sometimes-not-so-adventurous spirits to guide us to our Friday night destiny. Essentially, we sometimes waste our precious Party Time. To avoid this tragedy, we have instituted something we call a Blind Date. Well, we've done it once before and this weekend will be our second one...so we can safely say it has been instituted, right? But how can a married couple go on a blind date? I mean, we obviously know each other. I will share.

One person has the responsibility of planning the date all on their own. And it can't just be a regular date, it has to be unpredictable. For example, no movies. The date is a huge secret, and the person who doesn't know any info must beg and plead to know what the big surprise is, as if it's a huge birthday present or something. The drama and anticipation leading up to the Friday night is essential. Then, on the blessed night, the planner of the date will place a blindfold over the eyes of his or her spouse. This blindfold must be worn in the car allll the way to the date destination. The date planner must drive in a very unpredictable and confusing path to the destination, to ensure a complete and total surprise. And as everyone knows, anything is exciting if you are taking off a blindfold to see it! That is the beauty of the Blind Date! Even Golden Corral would be acceptable unto me upon removing a blindfold. And if the date is in parts, the blindfold must be worn to each destination.

Under The Tree on our first Blind Date

I was the planner for our first Blind Date. The first part was to...ta da! Angels of Philly, our very favorite sandwich shop, which has since gone out of business like everything else since the sad citizens of Provo can't even support a downtown. We walked our food over to The Tree where Jack proposed and ate before it got too chilly. And then we ended the date with the BYU Spectacular! It was great. Jack is planning a Blind Date for this Friday and I CANNOT WAIT. I have a hypothesis of where we will be going, but I could be wrong. He'll probably plan something way better and more exciting than I did, since he is just so good at this kind of thing. If you finished reading this post, you are a very patient person and are also probably Alli or Ness.

THE END

It's been a while

2011-01-14T22:14:00.002-07:00

I've been neglecting the blog bigtime. So here is the latest news, kind of late-Christmas-card style:

We still go here

and we will be both be done this year! Yessss!

We still work at the storage units. So not convenient, but sooo worth it. We like it.

We still love each other

and celebrated a year and a half of marriage in December! I can't believe it.

We still want to live in a pink house someday

in the middle of nowhere in the south

and have six kids and two chickens and a dog and a cat and a big garden.

But maybe that's just me.

Jack still likes movies, I still like...eating all the chocolate in the house, and we're still happy.

Now we're nice and caught up!

Oh! and in less than 30 days, we got two new nephews and a niece! We're lucky enough to live close to Sammy, and can't wait to meet Alina and Emmett! Babies, ya know? They're just so cute.

Condoleezza

2011-01-14T20:10:00.001-07:00

What a classy lady. She came to speak at BYU on Thursday and I LOVED IT. She pretty much planned my whole future for me right then and there in the Marriott Center. It's all in your hands, Condi.

My Husband the Filmmaker

2010-11-08T18:53:00.001-07:00

I just need to brag about Jack for a minute! The last few weekends Jack has been shooting his capstone project for the film program. It's a short film with a really funny storyline and I can't wait to see the finished product - it will be awesome! He's been working on it for a quite a while now and it will be all finished in a few months. It was so fun to hang out on set and see how it's all done. It blows my mind how much work and preparation goes into filmmaking. I thought Jack was pretty cool when I married him, but somehow he just keeps getting cooler.

(And thanks to Kristen Hillier for these awesome photos - I stole them off of facebook.)

Confess

2010-10-13T22:29:00.001-06:00

Ok Leavitts, who did it? It's only been two months since the family reunion, and Jack and I already found this at DI. Whoever you are, we're onto you!

3 perks of being forgetful

2010-09-23T16:21:00.000-06:00

1. It's pretty much impossible to hold a grudge, because even if you remember who offended you, you can't remember what they did.

2. The girl at the lost and found in the library knows who you are and already has your car keys ready for you as you approach the desk. So convenient.

3. But the very best thing about having a terrible memory is that you can watch the same movie three times before you can remember how it ends. So you really get thrice the entertainment that normal people get. It works with books too!

I'm so blessed.

P.s. This is the movie I got to re-enjoy lastnight. It's a good one, watch it!

Skillz

2010-09-21T11:15:00.005-06:00

Since fall semester has begun, I have become acutely aware of two skills that I have almost completely lost since high school.

First: nun-chuck skills. Just kidding, lame joke.

1. Fast shower skills. Showering is such a chore. I want to get in and out ASAP. I'm not like Jack, who, if he could find a way to run his life from inside the shower, would probably never get out. But no matter how fast I try to be, I'm always in there for at least ten minutes. Seriously, in high school I was a master. 60 seconds maximum. These days, I can't even seem to get the shampoo rinsed out until five minutes in! Maybe it's something about a member of your bishopric waiting outside your house to take you to seminary that can get a girl out of the house in five minutes flat. I'm missing that kind of motivation.

2. Cello. I've started cello lessons at BYU this semester. You'd think that after ten years of playing, you'd be able to scrimp up a few slightly respectable measures of music to prove to your teacher that yes indeed, you are cellist. But I guess after three years of hardly touching the instrument you can forget a lot! Maybe at the end of this semester I'll be back to where I was when I graduated. To all high-school cellists out there (Madsy): just do what your mom says and practice! I wish I had.

And now, for anyone who hasn't seen this photo yet, please enjoy.

How cute can you get?

You know you are loved when...

2010-09-02T16:17:00.003-06:00

...your husband walks two miles to Walmart to get ice cream so he can surprise you with brownie sundaes when you get home from work late!

He knows just how to please me. I'm a lucky girl.

Some other great things happening around here...
1. I love my family finance class. I love the homework and the lectures feel like five minutes long. (all two of them so far, ha). Who knew this was possible? Hopefully this love will last.
2. We love having LIVVY here! I fear that I will harass her because I'm just so excited to have a sis on campus. Sorry in advance, Livs. I'll try to stop calling.
3. I got a new job working at the computer labs on campus. Very exciting. But I kind of feel like I snuck in and any day my supervisors will realize how inadequate I am for the job and throw me out. All my co-workers are very naturally inclined to computerish things and I am not. Maybe it's just because I'm new? We shall see.

P.s. I would like to apologize to my readers (Alli, Ness, Mom, maybe Karin) for the lack of pictures, or of anything interesting, on my blog. However, I am not making any promises to change. I will continue to write if/when the urge strikes me, whether or not I have anything meaningful to say, and most likely without any pictures. So sorry (kind of).

i made it and i like it!

2010-08-04T18:48:00.002-06:00

I usually only say that about desserts and the occasional dinner. However, I have recently been trying out some homemaking skills outside of the kitchen! It was so fun to make, even though I almost cried a few times - I'm not a natural seamstress, okay? I felt like a pattern would stifle my dreams for this apron, so I just started making it up. About halfway through I realized that my dreams weren't really coming true, but I still think it's pretty cute.

music on a monday

2010-08-02T18:03:00.005-06:00

You know when you find a song that never gets old no matter how many times you listen to it? (or how ridiculous it is?) And every time it comes on the radio it is the happiest moment of your life? That's how this song is for me. In fact, it is the first song that i can remember being completely obsessed with. I was four years old when we first went to visit G&G Leavitt in England, and we LOVED hanging out in aunt Jess's awesome attic bedroom. She was the ultimately cool aunt. And even though she probably doesn't still have those fuzzy platform-shoe-shaped slippers that played spice girl songs when you walked in them, she is still the ultimately cool aunt. Anyways, I can remember hanging out with Jess, Alli, and Ness and listening to this song on repeat a million times. It's definitely my clearest memory from that trip! Thank you Ace of Base. And thank you Jess for being a nice enough twelve-year-old to let me hang out with you.

3 good things about today

2010-07-11T16:05:00.004-06:00

The FIRST good thing is that I was making molasses cookies and I was in my Sunday clothes, which means I was wearing heels, and baking is always more fun in heels. THEN, one of the alarms went off (we live on site at a storage unit complex - i know, it's so classy) and no, that is not the second good thing. The second good thing is that I got to ride the golf cart out to the unit to make sure everything was okay. It's always fun to ride the golf cart. I feel so important and in charge when I speed out on the golf cart to solve all the problems out there among the storage units, especially when I am in my slinky black dress. Unfortunately, one of my best Sunday heels got wedged under the gas pedal and I was going at top speed and couldn't stop. It was pretty terrifying. After I got it together and checked on the unit (everything was fine - as usual. always so anticlimactic) I found an abandoned full length mirror! (third good thing!) I hope nobody claims it because I have been wanting one - I haven't looked at my whole body all at once since I was like fifteen. Luckily, it is a really cheap mirror and distorts everything to be longer and thinner than it really is. Which means I can eat as many molasses cookies as I want!

the biggest adventure

2010-06-09T09:00:00.005-06:00

whenever jack and i have nothing to do, i always beg him to go on an adventure. so far our adventures have consisted of driving around to find a "new place" to explore and eventually just driving home, walking by the lake, or going to wal-mart. not so adventurous. but lastnight we had a real adventure! on our way home from the waterslides our car decided that it had had enough driving for the day. so there we were on the freeway, one mile from an exit in either direction, no phones, and in our swimsuits. (jack had a shirt but i just had my towel to cover me up.) a nice lady stopped and let us use her phone but we couldn't remember very many numbers and the ones we could remember didn't pick up. i was relieved, because i didn't want our adventure to be over that quickly anyway. so we thanked her and looked toward our next obstacle: the chain link fence running along the freeway. it was the only thing dividing us from a long walk to matt and ness's house. with a little skill and a lot of luck, we made it over that sharp pokey fence with just a few scratches. the fact that i was in my swimsuit showing my bare legs to a large freeway audience was a lot more hurtful to me than the scratches on my legs anyway. as livvy would say, "orem, welcome to my bare legs." the walk to matt and ness's house was actually very pleasant. the sun was setting and we got to walk past orchards and cute houses and pretty little yards. and who better to accompany me on this adventure than jack? once we got to matt and ness's house the boys went off in matt's car to rescue the poor little jetta and i got to stay with ness. we ended up having the car towed to the shop (we thought all it would need was a little jump to get it started but that was not the case) and matt drove us home. we are so grateful to have such a helpful bro-in-law and happy that we finally got an adventure. now we're just hoping the car will be easy and cheap to fix.

i pamper myself

2010-06-08T11:25:00.003-06:00

this morning we met matt and ness and baby at denny's for breakfast. why? i don't know. i think we were just celebrating summer. the girls got the value menu grand slam and the boys got that plus a biscuit and gravy. it was pretty cheap and pretty delicious. and pretty greasy.
now we are at home lazing about, being cozed out on the couch and waiting for a single solitary customer to come into the office to give us something to do.
tonight we will be heading down to seven peaks and i think i'll just look forward to that instead of thinking about my mental to do list that involves most unpleasant things like exercise, homework, and manual labor.
tomorrow i won't be so easy on myself but today it sounds pretty good.

my life is bright and full of sunshine

2010-06-07T17:33:00.004-06:00

that's what a guy at work said to me today when i asked him how he was doing. haha!

anyways, now that we are almost settled into our new home and new job, i have been starting to make summer plans. at the start of every summer i always think "this is going to be the best summer of my life" and so far that has always been true. so here's to making this one the best one yet! here are some of the plans/goals that have been floating around in my head.

- attend a session in 5 different temples (at least!)
-run 100 miles (some people do a quarter of this in one day, but this is good for me for a whole summer)
-stick to a budget
-catch a fish. i saw some this morning at the lake and i had an overwhelming desire to catch one. i even picked up a stick thinking i could spear one, but then thought of what the other people on the trail would think if they saw a dorky girl trying to harpoon a fish. but i'll get him next time, and i'll eat him too.
-sew something before my sister with a sewing machine moves away (thanks ness)
-celebrate our first anniversary which is in a couple of weeks!
-get all A's in my summer classes
-get our money's worth using our season passes at seven peaks!

i feel obligated to say "i'll let you know how it goes," but let's be honest. i probably won't.

a tribute

2010-04-21T16:35:00.010-06:00

Next week we will be moving out of our cute little brick home and into a lonely cinder block apartment above the office of a storage unit. It was something we applied for just for fun, but the more we learned about it the more we REALLY wanted it and it ended up working out! I really love where we live now. We have lovely neighbors, a semi-lovely yard, a cat we love dearly and may not be able to keep, and just an all-around cozy setup. But you just can't say no to a place that pays you to live there! And it's new and clean and big, which we are not accustomed to in the old place we live now. So today I took some pictures of our place after a little spring rain. I'm really going to miss it!

indignity

2010-03-21T16:43:00.004-06:00

Somebody LOVES bathtime!

the art of homemaking

2010-02-17T21:18:00.004-07:00

i got this awesome book from DI with that title. it has lots of clever ideas and adorable little cartoons, but sometimes it insults me with its accuracy. which one do i resemble in the morning? i bet you can figure it out.

sometimes arcade games are fun

2010-02-07T14:31:00.005-07:00

Just pretend that this was us on our date this weekend. We didn't get a picture of us together, and this picture reminds us of the short-sleeved sunny days that lie ahead. We started off with dinner at Diego's, a tiny little taco place with good authentic food. But not so authentic that you're sketched out by the meat and the pictures up on the menu - a great place. Then we went to NICKEL CITY, the brand new nickelcade on state street! Jack beat me at everything except throwing the footballs through the hoops. Who knew that I had such good aim/arm? Who knew that Jack was so good at Tetris? I did. After displaying way too much drama playing Deal or No Deal, wasting way too many nickels on "Betty Bling" just so we could win way too many tickets, we turned it all in for way too much candy and called it a night. Observe Lenny wallowing in the candy:

Jack is a good date.

we had thanksgiving

2010-02-06T20:48:00.003-07:00

last sunday ness and matt found a big fat turkey running around outside...so we decided to kill it, pluck it, and have a thanksgiving feast! (did you believe me? it was just a regular frozen guy.) it was the best meal of 2010 so far, hands down. we all brought a part of the meal, and everyone did a perfect job. best turkey roasters ever - matt and ness!

business in the front, party in the back

2010-01-27T13:43:00.005-07:00

danny wins nastiest mullet award.

kittens! inspired by...kittens!

2009-11-09T14:07:00.006-07:00

we drove out to lehi and picked him up lastnight! totally free, and he even came with a bonus can of food!

of course we had to invite all sistas over.

my two favorite boys.

i'm just a little scared for chet and peggie.

strictly pink

2009-11-09T13:38:00.005-07:00

lately i have been lucky enough to play with this little one when i'm not at work! aubrey lives down the street from me and her mama started working again. i hate being home alone, and she does too, so we've become friends. she is so hilarious, we laugh so hard and play all kinds of games. sometimes we even get out and visit friends or run errands together. life is more fun with a little one around. it makes me excited for the arrival of matt and nessa's little joaquin!

home is where the heart is, the heart is, the heart is.

2009-10-31T12:31:00.004-06:00

a little time off of school can make a gal feel useless... but that's why i've been keeping myself busy! we live in an old, run-down little place, but we've done a lot of good work on it. since we've moved in we've done two coats of paint on all walls and ceilings, some serious yardwork (no weeds have been pulled since 1953, i'm pretty sure), and much more. and in the next couple of weeks some very economical and adorable home decor items will be arriving in the mail. my favorite:
to go atop a crystal base from DI. i LOVE it. since we live in such an old house, i'm just going to go ahead and make it a little grandma-inspired.

there are some problems with the house that we can't fix easily - like the fact that the hose on the side of the house leaks into the kitchen when it is turned on, and the front door has to be slammed about six times before it will stay closed. but the charming little kitchen, the pantry space and laundry room, the ridiculous faucet and wallpaper in the bathroom - they make up for it.

and i'm just pretty lucky to get to live in this cute little house with my best friend in the world, even if he's not as excited about the lampshade as i am.

maternity wedding dresses

2009-10-09T09:36:00.004-06:00

i didn't know i was wearing one.

a treat for me

2009-10-08T08:02:00.006-06:00

so, i work at a music store and it's the best job i've ever had! recently i've been spending a large portion (a little too large) of my monthly allowance on music, which leaves me with not much money to spend on useless things like beauty products and cherry sours. but it's so hard to resist!

the best things i have bought so far:

-the song on sense and sensibility that kate winslet sings...the one that goes "softly, soflty lies sleeping." it's tricky but fun. the piano is easy but it's so hard to sing! it's actually called "weep you no more sad fountains." so whenever i'm home alone and in a dramatic mood, this one will come in handy.

-a piano book called "the very best of john williams." jack, who is majoring in film, wants to get better at piano and i thought it was very suitable. we're very excited.

-a charming rendition of "baby it's cold outside." jack and i are working it up to performance level and we'll sing it for anyone who wants to listen at christmas.

-a women's barbershop quartet version of "bye bye blues!" there are only three of us hawkins girls in utah to sing it, but maybe momma can join in at thanksgiving!

it's so great to be around music all the time, and talking to piano teachers and grungy teenage boys who want to play the guitars and mysterious old men who just want to play our piano and are REALLY good. and hoping someone famous like mack wilberg or janice kapp perry will come in to the store. (which does happen!)

and the next two month's allowance might go towards a grunge distortion pedal for my guitar. it's cool. or maybe if i save forever i could even get one of these:

so i guess what i'm trying to say is that i love my job, even if do have to wear a dorky red polo.

see?

2009-10-02T12:51:00.006-06:00

i am redeeming myself as a blogger.
four whole posts in four months! don't mind that this is the third one today.

i want to write about our fabulous summer. jack and i took off to north carolina right after the wedding! we drove alllll the way there, but it was fun because we were with each other. (awww.)

while we were there, we hung out with ma and pa taggart, went to disneyworld for a week, played with these people whom we love dearly, and just thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. north carolina is the most beautiful place on earth.

we also took care of the fattest cat of all time. he loved to sit inside of a shoebox and his body would fill up all the corners. i couldn't even tell if he was a solid or a liquid. and you could slide the box all over the carpet and he wouldn't even care. unfortunately, i don't have a picture of angel.

now on to fall things!

i just wanted to show you

2009-10-02T12:36:00.005-06:00

my newborn haircut,

and also this precious little mirror i got at an antique store.
i never would have found it if i hadn't gone into the bathroom!
i immediately snatched it off the wall in there.
and i think i might just go a bit shorter on the hair.
kelsey the hairdresser didn't quite get it, but it was free.
thanks kels.

a little over three months!

2009-10-02T11:02:00.008-06:00

since we have been married. and life is great! everything is better with a husband. fall is better with a husband, eating dinner is better with a husband, waking up is better with a husband. you name it. i feel pretty lucky to have this cute boy around all the time.

i think it's a little shameful to post wedding pictures this late, but i'm doing it anyways. we STILL don't have the REAL pictures, but these are some alli and danny took, and they are just fabulous.

the state of nevada is prettier than the word "blog"

2009-05-11T23:27:00.000-06:00

but that's a rather negative way for me to start out, isn't it?

well, this has got to be quick. work is early and it is late. so for my first post, i'll just give you 5 great things about life:
1) marriage (this is especially great if you are engaged to jack taggart)
2) climbing trees
3) boden
4) patriarchal blessings
5) second chances

in no particular order.

think on that a bit. doesn't it make you happy?

and now, to spice it up, a picture of the girl i miss most these days.