Adam's Hunt

Hi folks, this is Adam. I've decided to brag, I mean blog, about my last hunt of the year.
It all started with a long drive to my hunt unit down in Az. I drove most of the afternoon, on into the night finally getting there about 2 am. I was too tired to set up my tent, so I threw down my cot and grabbed a couple hours of sleep under the stars. Opening day was pretty uneventful, except for a slight knee injury. The next day I hunted in the morning with not much success, probably due to the bum knee. I headed back to camp and hung out waiting for my two brothers and good friend to get back from their hunt. We decided to part ways again, due to they were chasing deer and I was after buffalo. Thats right people Tatonka.
I was lucky enough to bring my little niece out with me, and after some sneakin around the woods, we ran into three, huge bull buffalo. After a few well placed shots one bull dropped. SUCCESS!!!!! Madison, my niece, to my surprise was super excited. She wanted to touch his eye and even held the enormous leg while I started to butcher it. The next day I got my deer. We had a lot of fun. I missed my wife though.

Funny Story

Every morning at 6 am our alarm goes off. Adam needs to leave the house at 6:45 to get to work, and he usually gets three snooze pushes before he get out of bed. Our normal conversation is as follows:

Beep Beep
Me: Its time to get up.
Adam: What time is it?
Me: Six
Adam: Ok...zzzzzz

So on and so forth at ten minute intervals until Adam rolls out of bed.

Today's conversation

Beep Beep
Me: Time to get up
Adam: What time is it?
Me: Six
Adam: ok....zzzz

Beep Beep
Me: Its time to get up
Adam: What time is it?
Me: Bat ten
Adam: What?
Me: Bat ten
Adam: Are you speaking English??

In between snoozes I had been dreaming about Batman and apparently was not fully awake yet....

Its Christmas Charlie Brown!

One of my favorite things about the Christmas season is all the Christmas specials they have on TV. I'm not talking about the lame movies where Tori Spelling and Jenny McCarthy save Christmas and find true love, I'm referring to all the vintage cartoons specials that they play every year since I was born. I hope they never stop showing them because they bring back a little of that magic feeling you can only truly feel when you are a little kid at Christmas. Thanks to a little magic invention called tivo, I have been obsessively searching and recording all the Christmas specials this year. Here are 5 of my absolute favorites...

1) The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (I always cry in the end when dirty-faced Imogene Herdman cradles Baby Jesus and they sing Silent Night. And how could you not love the movie that inspires my whole family to yell "Its almost Christmas Charlie!" as many times as possible on Christmas Eve?)

2) The Charlie Brown Christmas Special (I'm actually watching this right now and I can't believe how clever it is. I really missed the whole point when I was little-I remember them saying the word commercialism a bunch and not understanding what they meant. It also has the best soundtrack ever!)

3)How the Grinch Stole Christmas (I LOVE this show! The Grinch's dog is hilarious!)

4)Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Claymation, I don't know how to spell this, at its best. Herbie the Dentist is a stroke of genius and I love the Silver and Gold song)

5)Mickey's Christmas Carol (An absolute classic and another tear-jerker for me)

P.S. The neighbors upstairs are currently putting up their Christmas tree while wearing their moon boots again! I am going to turn Charlie Brown up as loud as possible and sing along as loud as I can to pay them back! I wonder if they are going to hang their moon boots over the fireplace with care...If so I'm asking Santa to steal them as my Christmas present this year...

Our Little Bundle of Joy!

Adam and I have a wonderful announcement to make! After months and months of waiting we have finally welcomed a new addition to our family. Thats right everyone on November 19th at 11:34 a.m. our newest little one arrived. Little Flutie arrived via UPS overnight shipping and weighed in at approximately 4 pounds 2 ounces and 36 inches in length (when fully assembled). He/She/It is absolutely perfect and we couldn't be happier!

For those of you who don't know, a little over a year ago Adam and I made the trek to the National Flute Convention (a.k.a. Flute Nerd Fest Extravaganza or FNFE for short) to try out new flutes for me. It was an extensive process in which I tried over one million seventy two flutes (well maybe not that many, but it felt like it) to find the magic flute (haha Mozart fans!) meant for me. At the end of it all I fell inlove with a Nagahara 950 silver flute. It was an amazing instrument, but the only problem was the wait list was over a year long. I sadly signed my name on the long list and set about preoccupying my time till the moment when it would arrive. After waiting one year and three months our little baby is finally here.

Oh how I love its little guts!




Our happy little family!

P.S. Nancy, I'm waiting for the name...

Down with Trunk or Treat!

This is the saddest Halloween of all time. We purchased four huge bags of candy because we assumed we would receive tons of little trick-or-treaters. We live in an apartment complex with a profuse amount of children (we are the only childless couple in all of Idaho after all), our complex is comprised mainly of kids in our ward who we know, and we live in Rexburg, the most wholesome city in the world. And yet here we sit on Halloween night, our trick-or-treater count is at 2, and there are no children to be found... Down with trunk-or-treat! It is like the fast food version of Halloween. It is ruining the beauty of walking from house to house on a chilly Halloween night with the leaves blowing all around you. It has taken away the excitement of waiting for the door to open to yell "Trick-or-Treat" as loud as you can. All children have to do now is walk from car to car and they have all the candy they need within 15 minutes. Where is the fun in that? Trick-or-Treating is becoming a thing of the past and I am mourning its loss tonight...

P.S. Adam just suggested we go drive around and hand out candy from our car. Hey little kid want some candy??? Hmmm....

Adam

Today is Adam's birthday! In honor of his newly acquired 28 years, I am going to list 28 things about him that you may or may not know...

1. He had his tonsils removed a few years ago
2. He loves Fajitas. He would eat chicken fajitas every day for dinner if he could
3. He is very strong. He can lift me up and throw me around like rag doll
4. He always feels very sad when I get hurt playing rag doll
5. He loves getting presents almost as much as me
6. He doesn't get mad when you accidentally buy yourself a present
7. He is a very hardworker
8. He is the biggest sweetheart ever. For example a few weeks ago he made me a chocolate cake with a chocolate heart in the center.
9. He will rub my back or my feet anytime I want without being grumpy about it
10. He loves eating treats as much as me
11. He is always cheerful. I have only seen him in a bad mood maybe three times
12. When he meets someone for the first time, he really is interested in getting to know them, even if he knows he will never see them again. He will ask questions and he really listens to the answer.
13. He loves my mom and my grandma immensely
14. On Christmas Eve, on his way to propose to me, he stopped and changed a stranded woman's tire on the highway and got my ring box all dirty
15. Wherever we are he has to sleep on the side of the bed closest to the door so if anyone breaks in he can protect me.
16. He loves to sneak up on me. He calls it the cheetah. Most of the time its funny, but sometimes he really scares me to death.
17. He thinks that anything I cook is the most delicious thing on earth
18. He LOVES his neices and nephews and they are crazy about him too
19. Last year for my 30th birthday he threw me a huge surpise party. He was very sneaky about it and made up a huge story about how he got into a fist fight with the neighbor to cover his tracks
20. He loves to hear about my work no matter how boring it is
21. He went to every performance of Blackbeard the musical to hear me play in the pit orchestra. He had the whole play memorized by the end of the run.
22. He went to the National Flute Convention last year and listened to me play about a million flutes and took notes for me. He even hijacked a billion free pens and pencils from the displays so I could have flute inspired writing utensils.
23. His favorite hobby is hunting and he is quite good at it
24. He knows everything about fixing things around the house, especially plumbing of course
25. He thinks I am the bee's knees even though I can be a real brat sometimes
26. He thinks Sarah Jessica Parker and Debra Messing are very gross
27. He is the best husband ever and
28. I love him very much!

Happy Birthday Adam!!!!

TV Show obsessions and misc.

I am currently in the middle of a TV show DVD marathon/obsession! Periodically I find a new show that I love and then rent all the DVD's of past seasons to catch up. When this happens, it is like waking up on Christmas morning with tons and tons of presents to open. The DVDs hold so many episodes just waiting to be clicked on and enjoyed with no commercial interruptions. Thank you Santa!!!!

The only draw back is the dreaded ending...when the last DVD shows up from Blockbuster Online my heart weeps because the bounty has run out. This is particularly sad if the series has already ended. The most famous example of this is my beloved Gilmore Girls. My roommates and I became obsessed with watching Gilmore Girls reruns on the family channel a couple of years ago. Every day at 6:00 I would sit down with my 2 Otis Spunkmeyer chocolate chip cookies and delve into the world of Stars Hollow. I enjoyed coffee and chili cheese fries at Luke's, I attended friday night dinners at Emily and Richard's, and I even participated in the town meetings at Miss Pattie's dance studio. I laughed at Sookie's kitchen mishaps, grew irritable with Taylor's obsession with town laws, and of course listened to hours of girl talk with Rory and Laurelei. As the seasons wound down, I started to feel a strange sense of anxiety. Soon I would be cut off from my dear friends and their idyllic little town! The thought was too much to bare... When I finally did watch the last episode it was so sad. Lets just say it involved a lot of tears and consoling from Adam. I cannot tell a lie, it was traumatic...

So my new obsession show is Bones on Fox. I L-O-V-E it! It has inspired me to a) quit my job and go back to school to become a forensic anthropologist b) become a genius and c) wear cute necklaces. It is hilarious and it totally kicks CSI's trash (p.s. is anyone else totally irritated by that red head guy on CSI Miami? He is so over the top with his tough guy sunglasses). Anyway I highly recommend it to all!

On a totally unrelated topic, I am so sick of living in an apartment! Right now the baby upstairs is crying (probably because her parents are stomping around in moon boots making a giant racket) and the girl next door is yacking it up with one of her girlfriends at about 60 miles per hour. In addition tomorrow morning at 6 am on the dot, the neighbor who parks outside our bedroom window will start his car to go to work. This would be no problem however he has a loose fan belt and it squeals like wild banshee giving me a heart attack every morning. Oooo I hate that rabbit!

I heart Friday

The most magical part of my week is friday afternoon. I LOVE friday afternoon! I love packing up my flute after my last lesson, turning off my computer, switching off my light and walking away from work for 2 whole days. Time stretches out before me untainted, unassigned, unlimited: The world is my oyster. I drive home with a smile on my face, I climb into my pajamas with childlike excitement and I lay on the couch with a sigh of sure delight.
Adam and I have a new friday night tradition. I starve myself all day on friday and the minute Adam gets home from work we go out to dinner at Craigo's Italian Restaurant. Craigo's is an old-fashioned pizza, pasta and salad bar buffet restaurant, reminiscent of the Brick Oven in Provo. The food is pretty good, but the real kicker is they have Diet Dr. Pepper and they give you free scones and cream cheese icing! Oh they are pure yumminess! Adam and I sit in our little booth discussing our week and stuffing our piggy faces. It is pure heaven!

Victory!

As of tuesday I have lost 13.6 pounds on weight watchers! I am now down to my pre-wedding weight and still going! These are a pair of pants I couldn't even get close to buttoning a month ago...

comedy

Every day I walk past this picture on my way to work and chuckle...

Political Outrage from an Uneducated Person

I have just finished watching the first presidential debate and I have come to a very strong conclusion. I cannot be involved in politics...EVER. Every once in awhile I feel guilty about not being up to date on politics. I feel bad because I would rather watch an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond than the news. "What is wrong with me?" I wonder to myself, "I am an educated person, I should care enough about our country to learn about the goings on that effect my daily life." But after participating in politics for one hour, I remember why I shy away from politics: I get too emotional, I get frightened for our country's future, and I am exasperated by the stupidity of the people that make up our voting pool.

After the debate was over I was interested to hear what the public response would be so I continued to watch the media coverage. I became more and more irritated as I listened to political analysts and "average" voters comment on the debate. Every analyst has a political agenda already in mind and regardless of what happened, spins the candidates' comments to sway the public in their favor. I don't understand why we should cover up the weaknesses of the candidates? If they have strengths we should talk about them and if they have weaknesses we should talk about them. Why should we pretend that they are something they aren't? Shouldn't we know all the facts and then we can make educated decisions? I would prefer the American people make voting decisions based on facts rather than mind games and political strategies.

I was further agitated when the program jumped to Las Vegas to poll a random sample of "undecided" voters. I was appalled to hear the basis for their new found "decided" vote. Phrases like "He seemed bumbly", "He was too sentimental" and "He touched my heart" were thrown around. Are these people idiots? I understand that they probably have been pulled away from the slot machines or on their way to a Celine Dion concert, but honestly I hardly think some stuttering is going to really effect the dismal economic situation or foreign policy.

I recognize that I don't know much about politics, and after tonight I prefer to stay that way. Regardless of how I vote in November, I'm sure I will still have to pay enormous amounts of taxes, gas will still be expensive, and Celine Dion's heart will still go on.

Oh and Adam's thoughts are, "Leave my guns alone."

Boo Hoo!

I saw the saddest thing on my way to work this morning. Some unlucky person accidently dumped a huge costco sized box of candy bars right in the middle of the one round-about we have in Rexburg. The box was split open and tons of sad little 100 Grand candy bars were being crushed by all the cars. They were hidden in such a way that you couldn't see them until it was too late to swerve. Oh the sad and cruel irony!

Its cold!

September 22,2008 Rexburg, Idaho: The Mittens have come out...

Dress Code Blues

So after my first week of being a professor I would just like to say: I LOVE LOVE LOVE my job! It is so fun to be a professor! I feel like I am playing dress up and just pretending to be a professor. I hand out syllabi, I stand in front of my class and say important things, I stay after class while students ask me questions and all the while I am thinking to myself "Are they really taking me seriously?" And they are! Its awesome! Despite all this gaiety, there is one draw back to working for a church school. The faculty dress code is VERY strict i.e. I have to wear skirts past my knee and nylons at all times. I have never once watched What Not To Wear and heard Stacy and Clinton tell someone that skirts that hit them mid-calf are flattering-oh yeah because they aren't. Hence Exhibit A, the photo of my first day as a professor. I would just like to point out my adherence to BYU-I dress code and how it makes me look like a sister missionary...

Oh yeah, I lost 2 more pounds last week-10 lbs total so far!

Broulims

There are many things I love about Rexburg. For instance, the fact that the gas tank in my car has been on empty for two weeks, I can bike anywhere in the city, everyone seems to know each other, and it feels like fall for the first time in 5 years. However there is one thing that is perplexing to me: Broulim's Grocery Store. There are few grocery shopping choices here in Rexburg, and since it always smells like doughnuts, I choose to shop at the local Broulim's. I have witnessed a few strange things so far that have disturbed me...Last week I saw a little boy with his mother leaving the store in his underwear. Not a diaper mind you, real honest to goodness underwear. Whatever happened to "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service"? I'm pretty sure pants are implied there.

Furthermore there is a checker girl there who has the strangest hair I have ever seen, it looks like a box. It is a very artificial color of black with the back teased up and then covered with a thin layer of hair creating a very severe square shape. All the checkers have name tags that say "Ask me about (Fill in the Blank)" to help strike up conversations at the checkout. Of course all this really does is make me mad that I have to wait in line longer while people chit chat about disney movies. Anyway, as I look at this girls name tag (I wanted to see what a person with hair like this is named) it says "Ask me about...my hair"

Hmmmm...Ok I will... "What is wrong with you hair?! What inspired such a geometric hair display? Could a person feasibly rest a house plant on your hair without it falling? Do you like the movie Edward Scissorhands?" I didn't really ask any questions, perhaps I was still in shock, but needless to say the square hair haunts me still.

And finally yesterday, I was again in the check out line being helped by friendly checker Dan, who found it necessary to yell out the numbers for produce to the girl next to him rather than scan my food efficiently. As I was waiting somewhat impatiently for them to debate the number for watermelon, I happen to glance down at Dan's name tag. It says "Ask me about...Fire"

What??? That is your favorite hobby? Lighting fire? Of all the things you would love to discuss, fire is your number one?
Even "Ask me about...produce numbers" seems more appropriate than fire!

Oh well...At least it smells like doughnuts...

W.W. Update

It is with great sorrow that I inform you of my gainage of .6 lbs...It is true, the losing streak had to be broken at some point. In my defense however I did go on vacation last weekend, where I pigged out like only true little piggies can. Adam went camping with his brother so I went down to pay homage to my peeps in Utah County. Whenever I go to Provo, I have to eat at all my favorite restaurants: Thai Chili Gardens, Bombay House, Cafe Rio, Taco Bell...(jk, Taco Bell is the one restaurant we DO have here in Rexburg). They were delicious and worth every little tenth of a pound. God Bless Yummy Food! Anyway I was at 8.6 pounds lost, but now I am only at 8.0, but I am back on board and heading off to the gym today!

Picture Novelty

I am just learning how to put pictures into my blogs(I am a bit behind I know). Here is a picture of my cute niece Bryn as she rips my fake eyelashes off at our wedding reception. I have another picture series of her kicking me in the bosom area until she figures out I have beads on my dress, then she starts rubbing my chest with her foot instead of kicking me. What a sweetheart!

Only in Idaho

Adam and I were introduced by our dear roommates Paige and Sean.  Paige and Sean were engaged at the time and soon thereafter married.  This was SO nice not only because we eventually got married too, but also because we had an instant best friend couple.  It was so fun because Paige and I were super pals and so were Adam and Sean so there was never any worry about the wives getting along but the husbands hating each other and vice versa.  

Since moving to Idaho, Adam and I have missed our wonderful friends SO much.  We have now started the arduous process of finding couple friends here in Idaho.  Adam's work had a company BBQ a few weeks ago and we started chatting with his coworker Dar and his cute pregnant wife Kara (sidenote: everyone in Idaho is either pregnant or has a child, we are the lone childless couple wandering the entire state).  It was pretty fun so we decided to go out to dinner with them the following week.  As the day approached I started to feel a familiar feeling in the pit of my stomach, I finally figured out that it was the same feeling I used to get before a first date with a boy.  I realized at that moment that we are never done dating, we just do it in couples now.  I had the same anxiousness and anticipation that accompanied a date with a boy..."Could they be the one?  The couple that we could become best pals with?  Would our children grow up together and eventually get married?  Would we share camping trips and fourth of july celebrations?"  All of these thoughts ran through my mind as I got ready for the Big Date...

The evening started off normal enough, we met for dinner and chatted jovially about funny dating stories, families, the olympics etc.  Half way through the meal Adam informs me that after dinner we are going out to scout around Dar's hunting area to look for elk.  Dar apparently has a tag for an area west of Rexburg (for those of you non-hunters, a tag is a permission slip to kill a certain animal in a certain area.  You either buy them over the counter, or you get drawn out of a lottery for one.)  I didn't really want to go, but I couldn't be a spoil sport so we headed out to the area.  As we were driving around the farmland, all of a sudden we spot a herd of elk walking down a hill.  To put this into perspective Adam and I went hunting last October and we hiked for two days in the mountains, bush-wacking through forests and bushes and we only saw a handful of elk through binoculars, until the one he shot, and here they are basically walking up to us to ask for directions to the nearest alfalfa field.

Dar grabs his gun, I didn't even know he had a gun in the car, and after a few tense moments shoots one of the bulls.  So our first double date in Idaho ended with me holding up the legs while Adam and Dar gutted the elk and poor 8-months pregnant Kara held the flashlight. Hours later when we finally finished and were driving back home, Dar says to me, "What was your name again?"

Oh how we miss you Paige and Sean and the good old simple days of Grimaldi's!    

Me=Balloon

So something strange happened to me after I got married.  All of a sudden my body seemed to be swelling up like a balloon and I feared I may have contracted elephantitus on our honeymoon.  My clothes were not fitting anymore and I noticed that I couldn't suck my tummy into a concave shape anymore no matter how hard I tried.  Then I realized that I had fallen prey to marriage stereotype numero uno: I got fat.  Waaaaaahhhhh!!!!!

I tried to deny it for awhile by using the old excuses-my clothes had shrunk in the dryer, I was bloated from my period, blah blah blah, but the glaring truth came to a head one sad, depressing afternoon...

My dear friend Rose is engaged to a fabulous cello player named Zoran.  Zoran lives in Tucson and is very busy so I rarely see him.  About a month ago he was up in Phoenix so we all went to lunch to catch up on old times etc. etc.  Later that day I was chatting with Rose and I happened to mention how I thought I was gaining weight since the wedding, to which Rose replied these fateful words, "I know!  Zoran asked me if you were pregnant!"

shock and awe

It is one thing to privately think you are gaining weight, but it is quite another to have it confirmed out loud for all the world to hear, ok just me, but it was still humiliating.

Later I asked my mom if she had noticed if I had gained weight lately, and she replied, "Yes.  You and Adam are like two cows in a pasture.  One cow alone won't eat enough, but when there is competition for food, they will both eat as much as they can."

Did my mom just compare me to a cow????

It just kept getting worse and worse, culminating with me finally stepping on the scale and confirming that I was nearly out of my healthy weight range...sniff sniff...i love food...and candy...and cake...

Do not fret dear readers there is a happy ending in sight because here enters the hero of all heros:

WEIGHT WATCHERS(yippee!)

When we moved to Rexburg, I decided it was time for me to make some serious changes so I joined our tiny local branch of weight watchers.  I will tell you this, accountability works people.  I love and fear the moment when I step on that scale each week and they write down in my little book how much I have lost or gained.  That moment keeps me in check all week which is why I am telling you all about my embarrassing weight gain.  I figure if I am accountable to not only my WW leader, but to all my friends and family then I am going to be SUPER good (it worked for Kirsti Alley didn't it? hahahaha!).  So from here on out I am going to keep you all updated on my weight loss!  I know you are all thrilled...

Here is the tally so far to get you all pumped up...

     

In 3 weeks I have lost 7.8 pounds!

Heck I may even post a before and after picture like on tv (not in my bikini though)! However if I suddenly stop talking about it, you will have to assume that I have fallen off the wagon...into a pile of chocolate cake hopefully... Anyway, thanks for all your support (all 2 of you) and long live Weight Watchers!

New Beginning: New Blog

Hello Blogging World Old Friend!

Its been so long, so very long...I know what you are thinking, how could I possibly forsake the old cake blog, however with all the newness that has been happening (our new marriage, the move to rural idaho, and giving up soda) I thought it only appropriate to begin a new blog.

I wanted to entitle it Our Life in Rural Idaho:  The Angela and Adam Story, but it was too long so it ended up Our Story.  Hopefully our wild antics will entertain, enlighten, and yes inspire open weeping, but if it doesn't then at least it will provide a way to put off work a little longer.

So here goes...let the games begin, and don't worry I ate a ginormous piece of chocolate cake tonight for dinner...