Summer catch-up

Utah has officially decided to make that dreaded transition from fall to winter.  Although winter has its perks, it is far from my favorite season.  And so I shall take a few minutes and reminiscence about the summer days that have come and gone.  I can't believe this was our second summer as a married couple.  Time sure flies! 

We did lots of fun stuff this summer, but didn't take pictures of nearly everything.  I've been meaning to write separate blogs for each of the following things I did get pictures of, but because it hasn't happened yet I'll just combine everything into one lengthy post.  I did a decent job of staying caught up on our adventures up to our trip in July, but after that I slacked a bit.

Enjoy the randomness!

I took a trip to Texas (can anyone say humid!) for my friend's wedding.  Tausha looked beautiful and I enjoyed the trip with Elise, Maria and baby Creedence.

Brett went on his yearly fishing trip and came back with about 3 pictures.  I sent him with the camera and specific instructions to take pictures, oh well.. some is better than none.  I'll take what I can get!  Here is my handsome hubby sporting the fishing gear. 

While he was gone I went boating with a bunch of friends from work. I tried surfing for the first time and had a blast doing that! And of course we also spent time tubing.   I think my "water activity" trumps his any day, but he might disagree.

Speaking of boating.  We went back at the beginning of the summer to celebrate a friend's birthday and I never posted these pictures.  We officially decided we want to buy a boat when we get rich. 

I am trying to "learn" more about the things Brett loves to do.  This summer we decided we would try to go fishing more.  Up until meeting Brett most of my fishing experiences were at places like fish farms (not sure what the correct term it) where I just had to stick my pole in the water and wait for something to bite.  I do really well with immediate gratification and not so well without it.  I was a little worried about how I'd liking fishing, it just can be so slow and boring if the fish aren't biting.  We only got out a few times, but I think it is something I could enjoy on the right day.  We didn't catch any fish, but still had fun spending time together.  Brett got bored at one point and used our left over dinner to catch crawdads.  At least I know we wouldn't go hungry if we were stuck in the wilderness!

Brett played LOTS of softball this summer/fall and I think he has found a sport that he can play for years to come without me stressing about him getting hurt too badly.  He did have one minor/major incident where his instinct kicked in and he slid into 3rd base.  Of course he was just playing in basketball shorts so his leg got pretty beat up.  I'm not sure the picture does it justice, it was pretty deep and full of rocks/dirt.  It took a while to heal but he toughed through the pain like a champ.  About a week after he did that I was feeling jealous of all the attention I was giving his leg so I decided to try and chop off my finger.  Okay, so maybe it wasn't that intentional.  I was making a cabbage salad for a ward activity while Brett was at work when the knife slipped.  Because he wasn't there there I had to doctor myself up at first.  I must say, I did a great job of not panicking, applying pressure and stopping the bleeding.  By the time he got home it had stopped bleeding and was all bandaged up.  I minimized the size of the cut when I was telling him about it so he wouldn't make me go get stitches (I probably should have) and although it was very sensitive for about a week, I made it through. 

In addition to softball, Brett rekindled his love for golf too this summer. He spent many days on the golf course and got pretty good.  I actually went with him once and drove the golf cart around.  I forgot the camera for that, but here are some pictures from the driving range.

Just before summer ended we caught an Orem Owlz baseball game.  It was a beautiful summer night, but it got cold and we so we ended up leaving early.  Nothing too exciting but I figured I should throw in a picture of Brett and I together... ya know, in case you forgot what we look like ;-).

Oh warm weather, how I miss you already!  Fall/Winter will bring good times too though!  We get to celebrate brothers and cousins coming home from missions, go on a vacation to Cancun, and of course celebrate the holidays.  We have lots of traveling planned this semester so I'll be sure to update on those fun times eventually. 

Darius and Brad

For my birthday (back in July) Brett got me tickets to Brad Paisley's H2O tour. We had to wait until September for the concert, but it was so worth the wait.  Two of our favorites were preforming at the same concert!  We love Brad Paisley (who doesn't?!).  He sings our wedding song, "Then." Any many other every day songs that just speak to us.  We also love Darius Rucker.  His voice is so easy to listen too and he has some great songs.   You may remember that we saw him in concert last year.  He was just hitting the country scene at that point, but you may also know him from Hootie and the Blow Fish circa 1990's. 

We got some misinformation regarding the details of the concert.  There were actually two stages with three artists preforming at each.  The first set started early and the second set (with Darius and Brad) didn't start until late.  We got there early (of course) and ended up spending like 7 hours there.  It was a blast though!  Brett dunked the guy at the dunk tank (multiple times), we dank some yummy smoothies, sat in the grass and enjoyed the great weather and got to let go and just relax.  There is something about being surrounded by drunk people that helps you loosen up.  It was a great show and the perfect present! 

Deer Hunting 2010

One of these things is not like the other:

I'll give you a hint:  Its a girl, she is wearing pink, not carrying a gun, not wearing a hat and smiling in the "hunting" picture. 

Yes, that's me.  No, I didn't photoshop myself into the picture... I actually went hunting. Shocking I know.  And, even more shocking, I mostly enjoyed myself.  I say mostly because we can't forget the last part of the last hunt in which my whole body decided it was done.  My ankles were tired from supporting my body down the steep hills and my hips were tired of supporting my body up the never ending hills. 

The highlights were:

• Seeing the beautiful mountains

• Spending all day with my awesome husband.  

• And I must admit I think he is pretty dang good looking in camo (disclaimer:  this only applies when we are in the forest, I still refuse to let him wear his jacket around town).

   

• Learning more about my husband and his interests.  I learned all about the difference in deer poop and elk poop.  I learned that a boy deer is called a Buck and a girl deer is call Doe.  I learned that animals itch their antlers on trees and the marks left are called Rubs (as shown below).

• Getting a good ole fashion workout.  See that meadow, not the first one but the second one, that is where we went next.  It is the little yellow spot in the middle of the picture with the fog above it.  This picture was taken about 2/3 way into the hike.  (If you look close you can see it in one of the other scenery pictures too)

And of course seeing all the deer!  We saw lots of Does, but we (read: Brett) were hunting Bucks.  I didn't get any pictures of the deer sadly, but we probably saw 10 or 12.  We did see one Buck and Brett fired a shot at it but the dang thing was running away down hill and he had to shoot standing up because of all the brush. It was a tough shot.  The excitement at shooting at something sure got my adrealine going though! It was pretty exhilarating. 

Later in the day we were driving back to the cabin and saw more deer.  We chased them for a little bit and that was pretty intense too!  We tried another hike after that but didn't see anything but cows.  Not quite as exciting.  All in all it was a good day.  I'm not sure getting up at 4:30 to go walk around in the woods is my favorite form of entertainment but I'm glad I was able to do it once and share the experience with my husband. 

Calling all Chefs

As alluded to in the previous post, I have a hard time keeping track of recipes.  I'll read about a new recipe on a blog and then make it and forget about it (or simply forget about it), or I'll write one on a scratch piece of paper after calling my mom and lose it in some random pile of paper, or on a rare occasion I'll make something from scratch and love it but never remember what I did.  And those realities are just not working for me.

Summer was great because while I was working full time and Brett had extra time to make dinner each night for us.  Now that he is back in school full time and working part time and I'm still working full time dinners are a challenge.  I try to plan the week and go grocery shopping on the weekend to save stress each night.  But as I sat down this weekend to do so, I felt like I was in a rut.  I could only think of the same 5 dishes and none of them sounded good.  Now I KNOW I can make more than 5 meals.  I'm sure of it.  But I forget them so easily.

I'm sure you are wondering what the point is of this post... and I'm finally to it.  I'm thinking of making a blog devoted to recipes so I have one place where I can go and look for ideas.  And not just ideas, but things I know we like and that I can make fast and easy.  A place to compile our little menu.  I think this might work for me! I'm pretty excited!  I just need to get over the hurdle of picking a name/web address.  My first thought was "K's Kitchen" but go figure, someone already has that blogspot address.  Sure, she only used it once, but it will forever be hers and I can't have it. *pout*.  And so I turn to you... help me think of a fun name for my menu blog.  And while you're at it, feel free to send me some recipes for this week.

Apple Crisp

My awesome coworker has an apple tree and "unloaded" a bag full of apples on to me this week.

I decided to take advantage and make some apple crisp.  YUMMY!

Because I had to call my mom to get the recipe and because I still need to figure out a recipe system so I stop "misplacing" recipes and because I still have enough apples to make 10 more dishes and because it is my blog and I can do what I want... here is the recipe in my own words. 

1. Peel and core 4 cups of apples.  Place in cooking dish.
2. Mix together the following:
• 2/3 cup Brown Sugar
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup oats
• 3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3. Add mixture on top of apples
4. Bake at 375 for 30-35 minutes

Easy and Simple.



I am no chef and certainly no baker so its nothing fancy, but boy does it smell good!! Nutmeg and cinnamon always remind me of the holidays.  And it tastes yummy too!  Now I just need to get some vanilla ice cream to go with it. 

Those hours Kirsten doesn't remember....

Yes this is Brett, I'm finally breaking down and writing a blog. I thought the day would never come and that it was an insult to my manhood or manliness or what ever you want to call it.  I guess a year and a half of marriage and learning how important the blog world is to many people (both male and female) finally broke me down.

Anyway, on to the good stories!

Kirsten's last memory was going into the chair at the dentist office and so I'll pick up when she got out, because she has no idea what happened between 1045am and 2pm.  I'm in the waiting room and working on my homework when the door swings open and out wheels Kirsten in her new wheelchair. Her mouth is wide open and her mouth packed full of gauze, and there is zero, and I mean zero, expression on her face.  I say hi and ask how she's doing and she just kind of looks at me and groans. And I'm like, o dear this is going to be a long weekend. 

So I get some instructions from the dentist and Kirsten happens to be facing the other way in her wheelchair while the dentist is talking to me making sure I know what I need to do. Kirsten decides she wants to be in on the conversation and turns around in the wheelchair to try and participate in the conversation, but just mumble a bunch of jibberish.

At this point I wasn't super sure how out of it she was, but I would soon find out. We head out to the car and we've got to get her in the car. I help her stand up and she is just wobbling back and forth. I've got her around her waist and arm and get her in the front seat. The dental hygienist wished me luck on on our way we went.

In the car I started asking questions and she told me that everything came in twos and that everything was spinning. She then just babbled all the way home, and I really couldn't understand what she was saying. She seemed happy and that was ok with me.  So we pull into our parking place and I decide just to drive up closer to our stairs so she doesn't have to walk through an obstacle course, and as I explained that to Kirsten she got quite upset with me! She was very adamant that she could walk on her own, but I didn't buy it.

I put the car in park over by the stairs and she was so convinced that she was ok that before I knew what she was doing the door on the car was open and she was trying to get out. As she got her foot out of the car and tried to stand up, she just fell limp into the seat. It was pretty comical! She then proceeded to tell me that should could just stand up while I went and parked the car. I told her she couldn't and she argued with me. So I got her out of the car, and I'm physically holding her up and she is just swaying back and forth and it feels like she could just go limp at any time.  All the while telling me she can do it! So I let go of her really slow to see if she can and she tips over towards the car and I catch her.  This seemed to convince her that she needed help.

The next obstacle was the three flights of stairs. We walk over the stairs and I'm holding her up and she is walking in a zig zag pattern, totally out of it. We get to the first stair and she just kicks it with her big toe and doesn't even flinch. No pain at all. I couldn't believe it.  So she gets her foot on top of the step and I lift her up so she can get up the step.  She then kicks the next one, so I tell her " you need to lift you foot up really high so you don't hurt your toe" Okay she tells me. She then lifted her knee up to waist high just to get up a normal step! Too funny.  Fast forward ten minutes and we are at the top. haha. It took so long to get her up those stairs.

We come in the house and I ask her "Bed or Couch" and I get a "Couch" response. I get her to it and she just collapses onto the couch. It was like her legs just gave out.  One of Kirsten's conscious habits is to grab the computer when she gets on the couch, so naturally she tried to grab the laptop over and over and over, but couldn't pick it up off the floor. I give it to her and she just stairs at the screen for about three seconds and says, "I need to go to the bathroom" I'll let you all wonder how that went...

I got her back on the couch and told her that I needed to go and fill her prescriptions and get her some food and liquids. By food I mean pudding, jello, applesauce and yogurt. I left her staring at the computer and her not doing anything on it. I got all the stuff as fast as I could so she wasn't home destroying everything. The last thing I told her was, "the rule is no getting up and walking when I'm gone" I'm happy to say that she listened to that council. 

When I walked in I found her on her side on the couch out cold with the laptop on the ground upside down. I should have taken a picture, it was priceless.  She didn't move from that spot until 2, when I decided she should wake up so I could see how she was doing. I started the laundry, which was decently close to her, and she didn't wake up, did the dishes, no response, put some food in the microwave and that did the trick.  She started coming to.

When she woke up I went over and she was just starring at the clock trying to figure out how it was 2 in the afternoon when the last thing she remembered was being at the dentist at 830.  She was pretty much back with it at this point and doing good, but slept for another 3 hours.

After all of this I decided that my wife would be a terrible drunk.  She would be getting tipsy after just a little bit and it would be pretty comical.  I also realized how much caring for someone makes you love them.  I thought about all those long nights with my parents and all the parents in the world who care for sick kids or people and how they just can't help but love them. I felt that for Kirsten as she was lying there in her sick state. Love ya babe and look forward to many more sick days!

a loss of wisdom

In case getting my wisdom teeth out really does cause a loss of wisdom I figured I'd document the transition.  Okay, bad joke, I know.  But I'm still a little groggy so give me a break...

Here is a little time line: 

Thursday night:
Brett surprised me and took me out to dinner and a movie.  (awww, isn't he sweet!) Dinner was my "last good meal" before I couldn't eat solids for a while.  And the movie was to distract my mind from the "what if I die tomorrow" thoughts.   

Friday morning:
Sometime before 7:00am I was laying awake in bed because I was too paranoid about sleeping through the alarm.  The alarm went off at 7:00 and I had to take the first of two "sedation pills" that the dentist gave me. I slowly got ready for the day (minus eating breakfast, putting on make up, doing my hair or generally getting ready at all).  At 7:30 I took the second pill and began to feel a little dizzy when I moved my head.  Brett drove me to the dentist for my 8:30 appointment.

At the dentist office:
The immediately invited me back and I sat down in the dentist chair where the kind lady gave me another pill to dissolve under my tongue.  The last memory I have was her giving me another pill, the first one falling into my cheek, and me being aware enough to use my tongue to move it back.  I have a vague memory of thinking "there is too much stuff in my mouth!"  and feeling upset about it all.  But that is all I remember from the office.

My next memory:
I am laying on the couch in my apartment and Brett is asking me if I am okay.  I start crying.  It took  me a few moments to remember where I was, where I had been and why I felt funny.  Now THAT is a weird feeling.  Once I got over the initial shock I stopped crying and Brett helped me into the bed.  I decided laying on my ride side was not a good idea (I had two teeth removed from that side and only one from my left side).  I fell asleep in my bed and slept for hours.  Brett woke me up at one point, gave me some medication made me drink some yummy Sobe Lifewater (my favorite!) and then I was out of it again.

5:00 ish:  I woke up and was actually feeling awake.  I relocated back to the couch and convinced Brett it was okay if he went to his mission reunion.  He made himself some dinner and I ate a cup of pudding and jello.  I kept thinking he was making lunch, not dinner, but finally got it straightened out.  Before he left we examined my face and were surprised at the minimal amounts of swelling.  My tongue felt something weird on the right bottom side on my face and I was aware enough to determine the object to be a stitch.  Brett was convinced my mental status was functioning and headed out.

9:30- Over the last few hours I spent some time researching post-wisdom-tooth-extraction care.  I learned that the peak of swelling and pain isn't until 2-3 days post op, became anxious of what I will look like on monday and worried myself crazy about getting Dry Socket.  Right now I am feeling great:  minor jaw pain and some swelling and soreness on my right side near the bottom, I'm starting to feel hungry (for the first time all day) and am still pretty tired.  Over all, not too bad.  (knock on wood!!) 

9:45- My amazing husband is home from his mission reunion and I can officially go back to being overly needy. Good thing he loves me! 

We'll see what tomorrow brings. Also, I'll try and make Brett share his side of the situation.  Apparently I said and did some funny things on the way home from the dentist.

sorry no pictures:  I didn't think my swelling at this point was significant enough to document and like I mentioned at the beginning... I didn't get ready for the day so no pictures.