C & K

GRAND OPENING!!!

2010-07-01T00:42:00.001-06:00

Here's what's going down at Call Me Kristin!

Welcome to the grand opening of my Polka Dot Plum shoppe! Today is going to be full of freebies, coupons, discounts, and new products! If you're not following me on Twitter, click here. That's where I'll be giving out most of the coupons, gift certificates, and more! For those of you who don't have a twitter account but would still like a special discount, click here and sign up to get e-mail updates. I'll be picking winners of gift certificates and percent off coupons from my e-mail subscription list every hour. There are tons of new products in the shoppe and discounts galore! You won't want to miss this!

To celebrate, my shoppe is 50% off all day, so your coupons and gift certificates = a MAJOR deal for you!

For those of you who are here from the Picnic in the Park blog train [or those of you who would LOVE a digi-scrap freebie from me!], click on the image below to snag my part of the train. There are 5 handwritten word-arts and 3 lightly-textured papers for you to enjoy. Additionally, there's a surprise in the download, so be sure to unzip it right away!

You should have arrived from: Scrappin' Daisies and your next stop is Gail's Space.

If you get lost, the entire list of designers can be found at the Blog Train Blog.

In honor of the grand opening, here's a taste of what you'll find in the shoppe! [Click on any of the images to learn more about that product.]

And if you want to leave me some love in the comments, there might be a little somethin' somethin' headed your way for the 4th of July!

Thanks for helping me celebrate! This is something I've been wanting to do for a very long time & I'm so grateful to have this opportunity at Polka Dot Plum.

Jewelry Sale!

2010-06-10T16:09:00.001-06:00

Hey everybody!
I know some of you still haven't made the switch over to my shiny new blog, but I didn't want you to miss out on this.

Check out this post for some AMAZING handmade jewelry. She's having a sidewalk sale. The details are here!

Lame-o

2010-04-04T17:56:00.000-06:00

That's right. I'm talking to you. :) jk. I had the following conversation with my sister, Lindsay.

L: I read your blog on Michael Buble. It looks like you had a really great time!
K: Why don't you comment on my blog anymore? Is it scary because it's "big" now?
L: Yeah. It's scary because it's big. Lame, huh?
K: Super lame.

So, I'm here to clarify. I am still the one writing our lives up on www.callmekristin.com. It's me. Kristin. The one who also writes this blog. That blog is an effort to simplify my life a little bit. Updating 3 different blogs on a regular basis is a sure fire way to pull your hair out/go grey/get wrinkles at an early age and no one likes that. Smooshing them all together was my solution, thus, callmekristin was born. And Blogger doesn't have the ability to do that as well/easily as I wanted. So now my blog is on wordpress [for those of you who asked]. It's not scary. and I'm afraid of losing contact with all of you just because the URL switched. :(

Your comments mean a lot to me. I mean it. So please don't be scared of my "big" blog anymore. It's still a blog. and it's still us. If you want to just stay up to date on the happenings of C&K, just click on the far left circle in the header. It'll automatically weed out all the stuff you don't want to see.

Love,
Kristin

CALL ME KRISTIN

Michael Buble

2010-04-01T18:10:00.000-06:00

A few of you have been asking how Michael Buble was. It was INCREDIBLE! Check it out here. This is now our personal blog, too. So for updates, you'll need to add www.callmekristin.com to your blog reel. :)

New Duds & A Freezer Cooking Recipe!

2010-03-27T14:01:00.000-06:00

Hiya!
I've finally got my new website at the point where I'll be posting regularly. This C&K/wileymarbles address will soon be obsolete. Please add www.callmekristin.com to your blog roll to receive our regular updates. Additionally, you'll find the first Freezer Cooking recipe up! It's a modified blondie recipe from Jessica's culinary school, and THEY ARE DIVINE.

I'd love to know what you think of the site, too.

Thanks :)

CALL ME KRISTIN

Freezer Cooking Day!

2010-03-25T08:28:00.000-06:00

Image courtesy of Luxury Housing Trends.com

So, my next freezer cooking day is right around the corner. I'd like to do a post to help you plan your own freezer cooking day, so please post your questions in the comment box. Since I'm about to do my big shopping and cooking days, I'll be able to provide the best answers complete with pictures. If you have a recipe you'd really like me to convert to a freezer cooking one, post it too! & I'll post my results along with the conversion recipe. I know I haven't posted most my own personal recipes, yet. But that's because I'm in the process of changing websites. :) The unveiling will be soon. I want all those recipes to be on the new site, so they'll be coming QUICK once the switch is made. [Which is hopefully by this weekend.]

So ask away!

My New {Favorite} Hobby!

2010-03-08T19:52:00.001-07:00

***For those of you wondering where the recipes are for freezer cooking, I haven't forgotten! They're coming! Also, I apologize for the lack of a cute header. I'm not only lacking the cute header, but any and all creative inspiration for one: sooo, we wait for my creative mojo to come back.***

So, when I did our freezer cooking for February, Cameron's only complaint was that we didn't have enough snack food. I decided that in March, that would be different. Although, we absolutely HAD TO stick to our budget. I did my research, and found some great deals on YUMMY snacks.

I found a coupon online for $1 off Keebler's new Cheesecake Middles cookies...and printed five of them. One of my favorite blogs told me that these cookies were also a part of a Buy 5 get a $5 giftcard back. So, we went to Target where that blog also told me that the Cheesecake Middles cookies were on sale for $2.25. Here's how it went down:

We grabbed 5 packages of the Keebler Cookies: total $11.25. Used 5 $1 off coupons. Total: $6.25. Got a $5 giftcard back, which brings the total to $1.25 or $.25 a box! I then handed the giftcard back to Cameron, who had 4 boxes of Wheatables and 4 $1 off coupons.

Basically, we got 9 things of snack food for $6.

After that, we found Gold Medal flour on sale for $1.50. I had six $.75 off coupons. We got 30lbs of flour for $4.50. And then we decided to try to opt out of our recently renewed costco membership. [lol.]

My favorite trip happened today, though. We got all this:

for less than $4!

Without coupons and rebates, my total was: $56.49!

I saved over 92%!

2 Old Spice Body Washes

2 Old Spice Deodorants

1 John Freida Shampoo

1 John Freida Conditioner

1 John Freida Hair Spray

4 Biore Face Washes

and

A New Eye Shadow Compact

I did 3 different transactions.

John Freida products were 3 for $15.

I used 1 $3 off of $15 Rite Aid coupon

2 $3 off any John Freida Product

1 $1 off Root Awakening Product

and I'm submitting for a $5 SCR on Rite Aid.com

Total: FREE [plus $.82 tax]

Transaction #2:

Old Spice Stuff

I used another $3 off $15 Rite Aid Coupon

I also had 2 coupons for buy a deodorant get a body wash free

Then I used a $1 off of 2 deodorants

I tacked a 75% off eye-shadow onto this transaction which made the total 6.06

I'm submitting this for another $5 SCR on Rite Aid.com

Total: $1.06 [because of the eye-shadow, otherwise this would be FREE too!]

Transaction #3:

Biore

I had a coupon for free biore cleanser with the purchase of nose strips. They were on sale 2 for 10 and I bought 4 bringing the total to 20. I used 1 $5 off of $20 coupon from Rite Aid's video values coupon site. Then I used 2 FREE cleansers with purchase of nose strips coupons. They also had cleansers with a save $2 on 2 peelies, so I used one of those, which brought my total to $4.03, but I'm submitting for a $2 SCR on Rite Aid.com.

Total: $2.03

All total:.82 + 1.06 + 2.03 = $3.91

Worth it.

I'll definitely be doing this again. :)

I'm whooped.

2010-02-27T16:52:00.000-07:00

This is our freezer.

It is currently the only orderly part of our kitchen [and maybe our house. maybe.]

What is that IN our freezer?

Well, it just so happens to be 37 meals.

All made today.

*beaming*

I did this last month too, but didn't post about it because I was so dang tired that I didn't know if I'd actually do it again. The pros definitely outweighed the cons, though, so here I am after month two of

"OAMC" or

once-a-month-cooking.

[The milk is there because there were tons of sales this month and if you can get 4 gallons of milk for a buck a piece, you'd freeze it too. According to the internet, skim milk freezes best, so it's lucky that's all we eat anyway!]

And for those of you who are wondering, the food is delicious! (and nutritious) And makes for great leftovers the next day. I honestly don't know how people live without OAMC. I can't count how many times I've come home from work with absolutely no desire to cook anything. In the past we'd just go out. However, now when I come home and have no desire to cook anything, I don't have to. I grab a meal, throw it in the oven and put a batch of rice in the rice maker. 5 minute dinner that tastes like you've been in the kitchen all day.

Perk #2: you do dishes ONCE. wow. [that should really read Cameron does dishes once, let's not kid ourselves.] The rest of the month, the most there is to wash is 2 [or 4 if there's company] plates, cups and silverware. Awesome.

A lot of people have hang-ups about how much it costs to do this or how making multiples of meals gets old after a while, or how long it takes. To clear that up, we spent $130 yesterday shopping for today. We got 37 dinners, lunch meat, tons of snack food [including star wars fruit snacks...they were on sale and when you marry a jedi, he stays a jedi.], new ink cartridges, and stuff for root beer floats. It's not like we're impoverished. Also, here's the calendar for our meals:

You can see that most of the time, we have 2 of each meal: tops! And in all honesty, they don't get old. We've got mexican to italian to american to chinese. It's gonna be a yummy month! Quite often, we're excited for each meal to come back around.

Also, the how long it takes... welp, I've found that it takes approximately 90 seconds longer to make 2 lasagnas than it does 1. Personally, I think the 90 seconds is worth it. It's totally your call though. :) It also depends on what kind of meals you're doing. Last month, I was able to go shopping and make all our meals in the same day. I was exhausted, but the actual cooking time was 3 hours. A few of the recipes are chopping chicken and throwing it in a ziploc bag with it's marinade. 5 minutes and you have tender juicy chicken for 3 different nights that month.

I've decided that instead of baby shower gifts, I'd much rather come do this for my friends right around their due date. I figure 30 meals is better than 1, even if they're in charge of throwing it in the oven. So, that was my saturday in a nut shell. :) I'm off to shower, write a talk, and hit the temple with my man.

And somewhere in there I'm making dinner.

Cameron's favorite: poppyseed chicken : isn't a freezer recipe, so we have to have it on the big cooking day when I'm in the kitchen anyway. I figure at only having it once a month, it'll stay a favorite for quite a while.

O! and if you want any of the recipes, let me know! I'll be happy to post the ones people are interested in!

And, in other news. I'm opening my digi scrap shops on Thursday. I just finished a kit inspired by none else than my gorgeous sister Jessica. While I'm sharing, I might as well post this too. :)

Happy Saturday!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-18T20:27:00.000-07:00

Since our office went from 102 employees to 38 almost 2 weeks ago, I've taken on a lot more responsibility than I was in the past. I've also spent a lot of time getting my stuff together to start selling digital scraps in my shop. It's definitely taken some getting used to. It mostly means that I'm exhausted and barely have the energy to pull myself out of bed in the mornings. Thus, this blog is text based and not picture based. I don't know where the camera is, nor do I have the motivation to edit or scrap the pictures. However, we did have a fabulous Valentine's Day weekend.

Friday, we went up to West Valley to babysit Emilee and Adam's 4 adorable kids. For those of you who don't know about my amazing sister-in-law, she has a 4-year-old, a 2-year-old and twin 3 month old boys. Every single time I go over to her house it is spotless, she's showered and looking wonderful, the kids are happy, etc. I have no idea how she does it and I admire everything about her. One time I went over, the 3 youngest were taking naps and she was sitting in the kitchen teaching her 4-year-old to write her letters. I honestly love spending every minute I can at their house. She's so inspiring to me. :) [love you, em!]

Me and Cam spent a few hours keeping the kids happy and teaching the girls about the Olympics while watching the opening ceremonies. It was awesome to teach the girls about where each team was from and hear their excitement when they understood that this big "party" with "dancers" was where their Uncle Jared is on his mission. [Well...Canada. :)] I love those kids, and love playing house, and love giving Adam & Em some time to themselves. [Call us any time!!]

We spent the night at Adam & Em's house and enjoyed a yummy late pancake breakfast. I love sleeping in. [Happy Valentine's Day to Me!] We got ready and did sealings at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. My sister, Lindsay, has been incredible at family history and had prepared a few sealings for us to do. I love that temple. There is nothing like being there with the man I love. I feel at home. I feel safe. And I believe in the truth of the work that goes on there with all of my heart.

We went home and Cameron sent me upstairs to get ready to go out while he made dinner. I took my sweet time and came down to roses, candles and a tablecloth made out of the blanket we ate on at the picnic where Cam proposed to me. It was beautiful. We had sun chips, pastrami sandwiches with cranberry mustard, and spinach salad with candied walnuts and poppyseed dressing. Y-U-M. The man knows me way too well. To make it even better, he started a playlist with songs from when we got engaged: including...Michael Buble singing "I'm Beginning to See the Light" which was performed at the Mo-Tab concert we went to that night. And which concert he will be taking me to on March 31st. I love that man.

At dinner we exchanged gifts. Cameron quickly explained to me that he got "completely suckered into buying" mine. Lol. He's so cute. However, he was right. It was exactly what I wanted. I really hate my hands. They're just not very pretty. I also hate nail polish [unless it's on my toes!] and Cameron got me a manicure set with the buffer, hand cream, cuticle oil, etc. To make it even better he got me the most luxurious body butter, EVER. It's incredible. And that's saying something coming from the girl whose bathroom cupboard looks like Bath & Body Works. I got him a shirt made by one of my favorite etsy shops ever. He really likes windmills. In fact, he acts like a toddler whenever we drive by one. It was one of the first times I felt myself falling in love with him. The shirt is dark grey with this distressed image of three windmills across it. I love it. :)

We left dinner for Divine Comedy and laughed to the point of tears. They did a comedy show on Harry Potter 6 and it was absolutely hilarious. :)

Sunday was my turn. I made a lemon pepper pork roast [thank you, Hormel] with candied carrots [thank you, Mom] and potatoes. I gained wife of the year status when I pulled a reese's peanut butter dessert out of the fridge. :) We shamelessly ate the entire thing and played Milles Borne. If you haven't played it, look it up! I highly recommend it.

Hope you all had a wonderful V-Day. :)

Here's to a relaxing weekend. [Tomorrow's Friday!]

:::::::::Drumroll Please:::::::::

2010-02-10T21:06:00.002-07:00

I've been accepted to set up shop at

2
stores!

As soon as I finish filling out the forms and apps,

you'll be able to get my fresh, new, serendipitous designs at

Misses Bee Haven

Groovy Scraps

I'm so excited to show you my new stuff!

[a little bird told me there's a kit called "humble pie" that's almost done!]

The little telephone button over there on the right will get you to my design blog. :)

Humble Pie with 2 extra scoops of blessings

2010-02-08T22:27:00.001-07:00

Where to start. . . . .

Today was a doozey. We flew to Denver on Thursday to meet our cute new niece. The weekend was wonderful & really helped me get over the fact that me and Lindsay are so far apart. We headed to the airport to catch our 7:20 flight and found out that the snow was going to delay our flight 2 hours. yuck. We found a quiet corner in the airport and watched Office re-runs until our flight was ready for boarding.

After we landed and Adam Beck the saint came to pick us up, Cameron's phone goes off. It says that I'm calling him. I've been known to pocket dial once or twice, so I started scrambling through my purse. He picks up and says hello, and a flight attendant notifies him that I've left my plane on the phone. awesome.

Cam ran back to get it and off we went, later and later. After a nice needed chat with Adam and Emilee we headed home. We got to bed a little after 1 am.

This morning we were exhausted. bleh. Cam left for school and I dragged myself out of bed for work. I got there and sat down to check my e-mail. The CFO walks straight up to my desk and asks if he can have a minute to speak with me. I follow him back to his office and he asks me if I've talked to anyone since Friday. I hadn't [Denver]. He then starts into this explanation of how on Friday, 60% of the company was fired and how the company is going a new direction. [Start to panic]. He explains that in the course of the day, even my boss was fired and my entire department. Then, he asks me if he can see a list of what I plan to work on this week. [I STILL HAVE A JOB!]

The office was eerily empty. I'm now 1 of 2 women working there. The other is a sales manager. I sat in on meetings about how to get into other people's e-mail accounts who were once in my division so I could pull information off. I was visited by the CEO and asked how I felt about becoming an executive. And then I texted Cameron in a panic.

It was so sad. The guy that worked right next to me doesn't know he's been fired yet, because he's on paternity leave. His wife just quit her job to have the baby. I just feel terrible. and grateful. and shocked. I've only worked there for 2 months and they keep me and fire my superior of 6 years?? Throughout the day I would be working on projects and need some information from someone else, I'd then ask someone around if so-and-so were still with us. Most of the time it was "no." Every "no" meant I picked up more responsibility.

I don't know if or how I'll be able to do everyone's work on my own, but the execs are willing to take a chance on me, so I'm going at it full force!

And that was the first slice of humble pie.

Then, I came home and did Plyometrics P90X with Cam, for the first time. I made it 40 minutes in [with severely modified versions of most exercises].

And that was the second slice of humble pie.

Finally, I found out today that I'm going to be a contributor for simplescrapper.com and a designer for missesbeehaven.com

I don't understand why God sees fit to bless me so much in a time of struggle. It humbles me and reminds me that I am not in control of my own life. I know I definitely didn't do anything to secure my job at Marketecture. I wasn't even there the day they made the cuts! I'm still in my 3 months of probationary employment. But the CEO assured me today that I'd be there until we move to Iowa. I've applied to design for a lot of different shops and been rejected quite a bit. Today, of all days, I get an e-mail saying I'd "be a delight" to work with and that they're impressed with my "eye for design" and one of my favorite blogs wants me to contribute content for them?

I am sufficiently humbled. [and so grateful!]

And Cam beat me soundly at every stinking game we played over the weekend.

humble.

grateful.

& blessed.

cute cute. :)

2010-02-02T20:27:00.000-07:00

28-31 :) Lillie's Baby Book!

2010-01-31T21:47:00.000-07:00

Graduation and the HP 6 Premiere!

2010-01-31T17:00:00.000-07:00

A year in review & our new place!

2010-01-29T22:57:00.001-07:00

And yes, we're only kissing in 3 of the months. :) Someone asked me the other night how married life was. I said it was great and that we'd celebrated our one year anniversary just a few weeks ago. She looked completely aghast and said "you didn't!" I reassured her that we had, in fact, celebrated our one year anniversary on January 2nd. She proceeded to compliment me because we have not yet lost that "newlywed glow." One year down, forever to go! I hope we keep the newlywed glow as long as possible!

Also for your viewing pleasure, here's a pic or 2 of our new place! They're not cutely scrapped yet, but I'm excited to show them to you!

My happy wall in the kitchen :)

Frames were each $1 at DI and we painted them. The clock was $13 at Target. I'm still trying to figure out what to put in these frames. . . I'm thinking lots of eggs and birds pictures :) Or perhaps apple trees to go with the apples in the basket? What do you think?

First thing I made after graduating. I've had a lot of creative energy that's been suppressed for the past 21 years of my life! You can't really see it, but the brown fabric has a gorgeous floral pattern. Very subtle but it's what sold me on it! Bedding is next on the to-do list. :)

This is in our kitchen...Sorry I'm too lazy to rotate it. We found that chandelier in a box at DI for $4. I got super excited and Cam told me there was NO way we were going to buy it. It was a nasty gold color and none of the pieces were put together. It was really a long shot that it would even turn on. A few coats of spray paint later and some DIY electric work by the one and only Cam the Handy Man and it turned on! Needless to say we're thrilled. :)

Here's a picture of the piano in all it's gorgeous red glory. It fits nicely in our living room nook. You can see some scrapes along the front...It really took a lot to get it in the apartment! Thank you to EVERYBODY who helped me get this from Logan, store it, paint it, transport it, etc. There are about 20 of you. This was Cameron's Christmas present this year. And I have to say, it is the sweetest thing to hear him play. It sounds like a dream and Cam sure is happy to have the real thing :)

Hope everyone is doing well!

#21 - #24 [more lillie!]

2010-01-26T18:47:00.000-07:00

My baby present to Lillie is putting together her baby book. These are from blog posts Lindsay wrote during the pregnancy. I've got quite a bit of work ahead of me!

Liilie Moore (#20) :)

2010-01-25T22:04:00.000-07:00

#19

2010-01-25T18:13:00.000-07:00

:) Be on the lookout for a 7-page scrap-blitz on the beautiful Lillie Moore!

my love. i snapped these pictures on our way home from Emilee’s in the summer of 2009. There is so much “you” crammed into these two tiny pictures. I love them. 1. your car. that little beamer is about to die, but you love it to death. It’s so fun to play “teenagers” with you and drive with the top down. 2. your tennessee hat. I love how much you loved your mission. It’s a great comfort to me to know that you served happily and honorably for two whole years. You’ll be a great example to our kids. 3. the sunglasses. they’re so awesome, you’ll make a special effort to put your contacts in just so you can wear them when you drive max (the beamer). 4. The picture from California. It’s been there since we were dating. A wonderfully immature reminder of the day we first said “i love you.” 5. Your wedding ring. I love LOVE seeing that ring on your finger. I love that you are mine. that you always will be.

#15-#18

2010-01-21T21:29:00.000-07:00

Progress Progress Progress! :)

I have the sweetest husband!

2010-01-15T09:07:00.000-07:00

9 & 10

2010-01-13T20:30:00.000-07:00

Getting married in the wintertime makes finding an apartment for a married couple just a little bit harder. It was pretty slim pickin’s. We tried to stay in our price range, but the stars of newlyweddedness blinded me good. I walked into this apartment and saw the cute little kitchen and hardwood floors and fell in love. I didn’t care that there weren’t any walls, that it was grossly overpriced and that our landlord was a jerk. Most importantly, I didn’t pay attention to the horrible feeling I had when we went to sign the lease. Cameron, wanting to please his soon-to-be wife, ignored the same horrible feeling and we signed a two year lease so the landlord would hold the apartment for us until we got married. That was the beginning of our trouble. We loved the apartment for about, oh, six weeks. Then we started noticing the couples around us paying a hundred dollars cheaper for bigger, nicer apartments that were closer to campus. We wanted to move to a better place, but when we told our landlord we were interested in selling our contract, he put forth all of these ridiculous terms. Basically, he wanted over $2,000 from us poor college kids. We decided to man up and make the best of the situation. It was super small, but it was ours. We made it beautiful. I loved cooking dinner and watching Cameron come through the door, just like I’d always dreamed about as a little girl. It didn’t matter where we were. We were together and we were married and that was never going to change. There were a lot of firsts that happened in that apartment. We learned to laugh at having to sit on barstools when the home teachers came over. We planted blackberry bushes on our balcony. We turned the TV around in our makeshift wall to watch movies in our “bedroom.” We painted the kitchen yellow. We bought a grill for the balcony and made burgers all through the summer. We both worked 2 jobs to make ends meet. The most important thing, though, that came from the ridiculous terms of our landlord was that we learned that our Heavenly Father has a plan for us. He knows what we need. We had a hard time being told “no” because we felt strongly that we should start our family in the very near future, but the apartment wasn’t at all big enough for a baby, too. We put our trust in the Lord and let Him take care of us. As it turns out, we were not blessed with a child while we were in that little studio apartment. We still aren’t having a baby, but our trust and patience paid off. We looked at apartment after apartment after apartment. Nothing seemed to work out. Nothing seemed good enough to make the move. Then, out of nowhere the perfect apartment showed up. We found it in October, but couldn’t move in until December. We had to pay a high fine to get out of our studio apartment, but we did the math and it was still worth it to move. We found a beautiful two bedroom apartment for a total steal. Our neighbors and ward are incredible. And now we have room for a baby. It hasn’t happened yet, but the feeling here is a home. And someday our little family will include one more, much smaller member. And just like our first apartment, the baby will be small, but ours.

#7 & 8

2010-01-12T20:23:00.003-07:00

this year the best christmas gifts came before the 25th. Jessica flew into town early to surprise my mom. Me and Cam drove down a day early to surprise my dad. Lindsay and Mackay arrived (8 months pregnant) on Saturday. Sunday morning, we filled an entire pew with just our family. everyone in their sunday best. even Julie walked in a few minutes before the meeting started. we all erupted in squeals to have us 5 girls in the same place. my dad is the bishop over a university ward, so he was the only one missing. until the opening song. we all squished together when we saw my dad walk through the door. mom teared up as we all sang the opening song. she introduced us 4 daughters in relief society. having us all together. knowing we all share the same love for our Savior, Jesus Christ. feeling the faith in our family. there isn’t anything better.

The text for this one can be found a few posts back. :)

#5 & 6--Lillie's Baby Book

2010-01-06T22:04:00.000-07:00

I'm putting together Lillie's baby book for my sister Lindsay. :) This is the cover and the first page. Hope you like it!

1, 3 & 4. {Yesterday's was #2}

2010-01-04T22:11:00.000-07:00

Like Mother, Like Daughter

2010-01-03T22:08:00.000-07:00

[sorry there's no border on this! use your imagination :)]

dear mom. you’ve told me so many times how much you love making a princess our of your daughters. i felt so unbelievably pretty at this photo shoot. it blows me away how selfless you are over and over again. i hope someday i get that trait from you. i’m so grateful to have your example in my life. i love this picture. i’m pretty sure this was when you were following me around with a newspaper trying to stuff it up my dress to keep it from getting dirty. i love that you promised me you’d never tell dad how much we spent on my dream gown. i love that i’ll never tell dad how much you spent on that wooden cooler. i love that we can shop internationally over the phone. i love that you can read my mind. i love that our laughs sound the same. i love how sometimes cam looks at me and says, “y’know, you’re just like your mom.” that is the ultimate compliment. and i love that we are silly. and we always will be. you are more of a friend to me than a mother. you are one of my best. thank you for teaching me everything i need to know about being a woman of God. you know, the essentials. wear nylons. shave your legs. drink water. appreciate the trees. laugh your tail off on a regular basis. wrestle with your husband. serve with a smile. wake up before noon. read your scriptures. expensive make-up might just be a necessity. high heels look best on tall girls. love with everything you have. stay close to the Lord. i owe you everything. thank you for being my confidant.
i love you. Kristin

[not that you guys care what i post on here, but i realize i haven't posted about what we're ACTUALLY doing right NOW in a long long time. i set a new year's resolution to scrap 365 pages. woo! It sounds like a lot, but really-i love it, and after graduating I have a lot of free time! so you'll probably be seeing a lot of random stories/happenings from the past year or so :)]

A Whole Year!

2010-01-02T11:53:00.000-07:00

Dear Cameron,

You are the most

handsome,

wonderful,

caring,

selfless,

smart,

kind,

romantic,

caring,

hilarious,

patient,

loving,

righteous,

talented,

man in the whole world.

And you still give me butterflies when you kiss me.

I think you always will

I'm so grateful you're mine.

Love,

Kristin

Thoughts:

2009-12-13T11:22:00.001-07:00

I'm singing Star of the East in Sacrament Meeting today.

I don't know if you've ever heard it, but it's a beautiful song about how the star is a symbol of our being able to return to live with our Heavenly Father. I love it. I really think it encompasses the spirit and meaning of Christmas.

I'm also singing Breath of Heaven with one of my best friends in Relief Society. I'd never heard it before last night in our quiet little apartment with my wonderful husband playing the keyboard. I got to the chorus and couldn't help but cry.

The song is written from Mary's point of view. She talks about how she's traveling with the Son of God in her womb. It shows that she feels inadequate and knows this task is beyond her own personal capacity. That's where the chorus comes in:

Breath of Heaven, keep me together.

Be forever with me, Breath of Heaven.

Breath of Heaven, lighten my darkness.

Give unto me your holiness, for You are holy.

Breath of Heaven.

Can you imagine?

The first time I sang: Breath of Heaven, keep me together

it reminded me of my own mother. She is the strongest most amazing woman I have ever known.

And I know more than once, us kids drove her past the point of discouragement.

She was entrusted with six of Heavenly Father's children and I know for fact that she has pleaded with Him to "keep her together."

I gain a lot of strength from her example and I hope that someday I can teach my children, as I was taught by my mother. She lives each day as a woman of God.

She is wonderful.

And I'm sure she's been a Breath of Heaven to more people than just me.

Because she relies on the ultimate source of strength.

I love her.

Update-by-number

2009-12-01T13:40:00.001-07:00

1 phone call from eHarbor offering me the job!

6 days off for Thanksgiving break

2 adorable neices who spent

17 hours in the car with us so the other

4 Becks could come with us

10,000 wipes used to clean up Baylee & Elisha during the trip

2 turkey trots in the gorgeous Queen Creek sunshine

.93 miles walked [briskly] by Adrienne and I for

20 minutes of wonderful conversation

35+ family members who made

1 delicious thanksgiving dinner

1 amazing husband who woke up with me at

4:30 in the morning to buy

14 movies and

2 sweaters for family pictures at the Black Friday sales.

1 barn dance

2 new swing moves

3 cups of hot cocoa

2 hours of dancing

1 kiss on the lips from Pop

274 kisses from the amazing husband and
2 bahama bucks snow cones with creme to make me feel better after
4 tylenol gel caps and

1 meltdown
20 fake oreos

2 boxes of graham crackers

2 fruit punch squeez-its

1 holiday popcorn tin and

0 car problems[!] see here [except for

1 broken cigarette lighter which meant

0 movies for the girls in the car] and

10 "you can do it" texts from mom
makes for
1 amazing Thanksgiving break

Update on the Job

2009-11-19T09:06:00.001-07:00

Hello!
No word for sure yet on the job. I did receive an e-mail from them yesterday that said they hadn't come to a decision yet, but that they would be in contact with me shortly. They're in the process of moving offices, so I'm sure things are crazy over there. I'm just happy it's not a "no!"
I'll keep you posted. :)
-Kristin

p.s. in other news, we are officially less than a month away from graduation!
p.p.s. we get the key to our new ADORABLE place on Monday. :) woo hoo! (For those of you who didn't know we were moving...I promise there will be a very detailed post with pictures etc. I apologize if you didn't know this already-we wanted to keep it on the DL so people in our ward wouldn't shun us.)

Job Interview!

2009-11-11T20:51:00.000-07:00

Eastwind Creations Blog

2009-11-11T12:38:00.000-07:00

Hey Everybody!

So, I design wedding announcements for Eastwind Creations, and because of my background in advertising/marketing, I'm in charge of the blog. I just gave it a major facelift and am SO excited to get it off the ground! I'd love it if you wouldn't mind clicking over there and becoming a follower :) and letting me know what you think! if I should change anything, etc.

Click here.

Thanks!

Bright Eyed and Bushy Tailed

2009-11-10T10:35:00.000-07:00

Well hello world!

The semester is d...r...a...g...g...i...n...g on and at some points feels like it's never going to end, but we have sure been having a lot of fun in the meantime!

We went as EFY counselors for Halloween [pictures later]. Had a total blast at our ward halloween date and spent actual Halloween night taking our super cute nieces trick or treating while their pretty momma stayed at home with her gorgeous new twin boys.

We've been waking up at 5:38 every morning and working out from 6 to 7. I go walking/jogging [yay for a balanced workout-instead of a work yourself until you want to die workout. it really is a new concept for me...non-competitive athletics...sheesh] with a couple of awesome girls from the Relief Society and Cam either goes running for his marathon, does a p90x workout or lifts at the gym with another guy from the ward. The best part is, we get home at 7 and have at least an hour together before we have to leave for the day. It's been amazing. We make muffins :) or put dinner in the crock pot together, have breakfast together, read, talk, whatever.

For those of you who know me at.all. I really am not a morning person. Normally, my first thought when the alarm goes off is "I can't go back to sleep for another [x] hours...ugh" and then I justify the fated 15 minutes that puts my day in a downward spiral of trying to stay on top of everything.

This extra time with Cam, though, is a huge motivator for me. I look forward to waking up. [you can pick your jaw up off the floor now, mom]. For years and years my mom tried to convince me that my day would be so much better if I just gave myself an un-rushed morning, turns out she's right about yet another thing. Isn't the woman brilliant? Seems like the older I get, the more that happens. :)

Either way, Cam really does bring out the best in me. :) and I love him. The changes that happen after getting married [gradual as they may be] really are wonderful.

I now:

look forward to waking up
absolutely LOVE staying in a budget
can live without my cell phone surgically attached to my body
can live with a super simple cell phone with no bells and whistles
hang up my towels after I shower [this one is still a work in progress]
rinse off my dishes before putting them in the dishwasher [again, a work in progress]
read my scriptures every single night, personally and together
and attend the temple with the most handsome man EVER each week

:) What has your spouse done for you?

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-29T16:52:00.000-06:00

No pictures of our awesome costumes yet, but Sunday we had a super fun couple [the holt's] over for dinner and to make halloween cookies! They turned out super yummy. We didn't have any sprinkles, so we crushed up cinnamon and butterscotch disks and made powdered sugar icing. [more on the old candy later]. :) We also didn't have icing bags...or any bags for that matter, so we were left with butter knives and good old fashioned creativity. What do you think?

GOOD MESS! :)

The ghosts were the favorite creative cookie shape. Cam made a dinosaur foot.

But the favorite was the Elvis Ghost made by Heather.

How cute is that?

Introducing... Baby Boy Beck [squared]!

2009-10-26T22:43:00.003-06:00

Both boys are big and healthy, and Emilee looked way too good to have brand new twins. She's really becoming one of my best friends. I love you Em! Baby A was 6 pounds 5 ounces. Baby B was 6 pounds 11 ounces. That's a lot of baby inside one cute girl! Both babies did great. Baby B was having some trouble breathing-he was breathing too fast [around 80 breaths per minute]. Cameron and Adam went into the nursery where Baby B was and gave him a blessing. Almost immediately his breath count dropped to 55. 15 minutes later he was released to come see Emilee. We were happy to be able to see them together and hold both babies. They're so little! They wanted to wait to give the boys names until they could see them side by side.

the new additions to the Beck fam

[Adam's holding Baby A and Emilee's holding Baby B]

Cute little Baby B with too many breaths per minute. This is in the nursery, before he calmed down enough for the nurses to let him come meet the rest of the fam.

Kiara with Baby A on the Left and Baby B on the Right. As soon as he was in the room with the family, he opened his eyes and looked all around. They're a gorgeous deep blue. It was so fun to see this little life! Baby A was very content to sleep.

What a babe! :) [Cam holding Baby A]

Me with Baby A.

[Most of these pictures were taken before Baby B was able to come back to meet us all. I know for fact the Becks have some awesome ones! Sorry there aren't more close-ups of the newbies!]

Big Congratulations to you Becks!!! :) We love you!

Family Night

2009-10-26T08:58:00.000-06:00

I've had a bunch of meltdowns lately because it's my last semester before GRADUATION! I've been struggling to motivate myself because I'm pretty burnt out after the hectic summer we had. A few weeks ago, I came home and Cameron had Family Night all planned out. We made a paper chain together counting down to Graduation, and watched the clip on LDS.org about running the marathon and never being alone [He's kind of amazing like that]. We used white printer paper strips for school days, and colored cardstock for weekends and holidays. TOTALLY WORTH IT! I love seeing the chain get shorter and shorter, and we both live for Thursday night when we get 3 colored strips in a row. Thanksgiving looks like a total party as far as the chain goes. :) Either way, we're in the home stretch!

I have the most incredible husband.

2009-10-06T18:57:00.000-06:00

I came home to a note on the counter today.

I love you Kristin. I'll be home asap. Don't worry about making dinner. Have some YOU time!
xoxo,
Cam

Happy 100th Post!

2009-09-30T19:58:00.000-06:00

woo-ee how about a milestone?? :)
Just sharing the love-I've been working on our engagement album and came up with these gems.

There are 2 more but they're uploading into all weird colors...I'll see if I can fix 'em!

Talking in your sleep....part 2 :)

2009-09-19T10:11:00.001-06:00

So, the semester has hit HARD here at the Call house. Cameron wakes up at 6:00am to go running [training for a marathon. woo!], comes home and gets ready, out the door for class from 8-2, work up in orem from 3-6:30 and then back to campus until late...dinner happens around 9 most of the time. I've got class from 9:30 to 6:30, working on campus for 20 hours a week, designing and managing the marketing for Eastwind Creations, and trying desperately to make dinner/clean the house [which, let's be honest...cam does most of the time anyway.] On top of all that, for the past 3 nights, we've been at a barn decorating for Cam's best friend, Cam's, wedding reception to the cutest girl EVER.

It's been hectic. Either way the past few nights of sleep in our house has been pretty eventful.

You may remember our past sleeping issues here and here.

Thursday, I woke up to Cameron *shouting* "NICK CLARK?! WHO IS THAT GUY?!"
Stiffling giggles, I said softly, "I don't know Cam, who is Nick Clark?"
However, Cameron was already knocked out again.

Later that night, I was hot and uncomfortable so I got up to turn the AC back on. I curled up off the pillow and accidentally woke Cameron up. He started rubbing my back, I think confused as to how I was laying..."where...are....you?" I sit up, shocked he's even coherent, and he elbows me in the face and starts cracking up. lol. I turned the AC off, and went back to the "safe" side of the bed.

Last night was my absolute favorite though. We had just got back from enjoying the gorgeous barn reception of a beautiful couple, and watched the newest episode of The Office. Yay. We read scriptures, talked about the marriage advice Ensign Q&A [highly recommend! just good to think about!] and then knelt down for family prayer. I was surprised when Cameron started saying it because it was "my turn" but he calls on me if he wants me to, so I was interested to hear what he was so intent on praying for. Everything sounds normal until he says, "And if thou hast all the nic..."

*pause*

*Full on belly laugh* "Oh my goodness, Kristin! I just fell asleep and was dreaming about counting our fun jar..." *Belly laugh* "I guess I was really concerned about the nickels. O, please don't blog about that!"

LOL. We were both laughing so hard Cameron quickly finished up the prayer. He's so stinking cute. Even when he's tired. :)

Seven Peaks

2009-09-14T23:15:00.001-06:00

The Joys of Marrying a Chiropractor [to be]

2009-09-03T19:53:00.000-06:00

Came home to this little gem on the counter. :) o how I love him. lol.

Finished my button. :)

2009-08-31T07:57:00.001-06:00

Birthday Update :)

2009-08-26T11:49:00.006-06:00

Dear Blog,

I’m sorry I have so terribly neglected you for the past couple weeks. I not only have TONS to post, I also have fun things to post. I think about you a lot, it’s just very very hard for me to find the time to sit down and spend some qt with ya. You’re loved. I promise. To make up for it, I’ll write about our birthdays WITHOUT posting pictures. I know. The sacrifices I make.

Love,

Kristin

My birthday is on August 20th. Cameron’s is on August 21st. It’s quite convenient, what with all the free meal coupons to our fave restaurants. We got 2 huge burgers and bottomless steak fries from Red Robin for absolutely free. We went to Coldstone after that and upgraded our “free creations” to waffle cones, extra mix ins, etc. for only $3 total. That rocks. This week, we ate completely free at Noodles & co. [If you haven’t been there, I highly recommend it. YUM!]

For my birthday, Cameron went above and beyond anything I was expecting. I’ve mentioned in the past how keeping a family history is really important to me. [Honestly, it’s the main reason I scrapbook.] I’ve also talked about how much I would love to preserve the music we love and the home videos we’ve taken. Cameron, took note of all these hints and put together a video of our first year together. [My birthday marked 1 year of us being in the same city.] He started at efy, and had slides of his journal entries about me. Pictures, video, music, everything. He took me back to the dates we went on, through the proposal, engagement, wedding planning, wedding, honeymoon, and our first 8 months together. I sobbed through the entire thing. It was fantastic. He’s incredible. I also woke up to a dozen daisies. LOVE HIM. We went to education week all day, went to Zupas for dinner with my mom and sister and saw Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat, followed by gelato at Maestro’s. It was great to have my mom and sister in town too! [Which was unexpected.] My presents were delivered by balloon. My mom took me shoe shopping [got flats from Lindsay-thanks Linds!, sandals & boots from mom]. Then my mom took me for a pedicure and left me with money for a massage. talk about awesome.

At dinner, Cameron let me open the rest of my gifts. [He’s a fantastic over achiever.] He got me good & plenty’s which I love, but he won’t even kiss me if he can smell them. A new puzzle [secret: I LOVE puzzles…but I get bored with the ones I have because I can do up to 1,000 pieces in an afternoon. It gets annoying/addicting.] And my favorite: a new white flower for my hair. I wore a white flower on the day we first met, and on our wedding day. He’s wonderful.

For Cam’s birthday-we were still at education week, but I had everything wrapped and ready for the morning [I was so proud]. We constantly talk about what movies/books we want to have when we have kids, and Cam’s favorite storybook as a kid was Where the Wild Things Are. He has watched the trailer for the movie coming up tons of times and has even downloaded the background music to it. I bought him the book, and [since tickets weren’t on sale yet] put an “admit 2” ticket inside for seeing the movie in a REAL theater. To make it even better, there was a card inside for Taco Bell before the movie, and a jar of pickled okra. The kid is a little weird, but we love him. He raves about pickled okra every time he goes grocery shopping with me, so I figured his birthday is as good a day as ever. Also, I made him a peanut butter cup dessert to put candles in. We ate at Brick Oven with the Fam complete with jungle print balloons tied to his chair. [Balloons are a tradition in my family.]

It was wonderful! and we learned so much at education week that I can’t wait to share with you! It completely changed the way I see Cameron and how we both communicate. It may seem juvenile but I just thought it was so great.

In a nutshell update: the birthdays were wonderful, and we’re more in love than ever. Hope you all are doing well too!

Just FYI

2009-08-24T10:27:00.001-06:00

the kit I posted on my other blog is now free. :) I finally figured out how to link it for download.

If you've got a minute:

2009-08-22T19:10:00.005-06:00

Check this out!

A while back, you said you'd be interested in a digital scrapbook blog, so here she is! I've finally polished up my latest kit, and would love to hear what you think about it. o-yeah-and you can get it for free. :) I'm also working on buttons for you lovely ladies to put on your own blogs.

Click Here

and become a follower! :)

Scrapping some overdue stuff!

2009-08-12T23:46:00.004-06:00

In my scrapbooking life, I'm currently working on 3 different books. 1 album of 2009. 1 album of 2008. and 1 album of our wedding. I managed to finish up 4 more pages and I thought I'd share the beauty with you!

These first two were made with Amy Teets' new kit "Spring Fling" it goes on sale at A Cherry On Top on Friday. I really can't get enough of those scripted clouds and trees. Mmm. It seemed like everything I made with this kit looked good! These pages are to go in the 2008 album. They're some of our engagement pictures. My goodness he's handsome, don't you think?

These next two layouts were done with the "I Love You This Much" kit from Foxy Designs. Also set to come out on Friday. Yay for new things to work with! The first page is from our first dance at our wedding.

This page is illustrating the amazing-ness that is the last day of school party! Text reads: Grandpa Frost passed away the week school let out in AZ. Everyone came home for the funeral, and managed to get there in time for the last day of school party, a tradition that has been in my family for decades. It was so fun to have everyone in town again! It normally involves shaving cream fights, pie fights, water balloons, junk food, watermelon, silly string, and super soakers. Since Cameron was new to the family I didn’t know how he would take the mayhem. Turns out he fit right in, and whooped my fanny at just about everything. I’m so grateful to have a husband who doesn’t expect me to be a boring grown-up all the time. We’re immature together! That's why I love you.

Scrappy Scrap Update! :)

2009-08-04T23:08:00.008-06:00

1. Finishing my internship

I worked all summer as the marketing intern at a cute little shopping center called Gardner Village. It really was a blast. I enjoyed everything about it except for the hour-long drive during rush hour traffic there and back. It really took a toll on our gas budget and made it hard for me to ever cook dinner. If I did cook, we ate at about 8. I love LOVE being a housewife, but I’m so busy a lot of the time that I don’t make a very good one. I was set to finish my internship on the 31st of July, but when I went in on the 28th, my boss surprised me with my check and a super cute mail organizer. I submitted my portfolio and took this picture on the drive home. When I told Cameron that I never had to make that drive again, he scooped me up and kissed me good. :) That Saturday he promised me we could celebrate. We did a session at the temple and set off to find a restaurant for dinner. Sushi is my favorite food ever, but it is very expensive. Cam spoiled me rotten by letting us go to The Happy Sumo for some yummy sushi rolls & edamame. He loved it too, which is lucky for me! He didn’t even complain about the $50 cost of it all and made sure I ordered exactly what I wanted. We wandered through Borders so we could make some room for dessert. Cam let me pick this too, and we grabbed a couple frapps at Starbucks. The night had “Kristin” written all over it. I am so lucky to have a husband who makes me feel so special. There are very few things in this world that make me smile like that. Cameron is one of them.

2. 4th of July

Wayne, Adrienne & Amberlee came up for the 4th of July this year. We had a barbecue for dinner out at their campsite. When the grill was hot and ready for the burgers, we realized we had forgotten the patties! Adrienne, Amber and I drove to Wal-mart to pick up our favorite burgers, ate super quick, and headed off to the Stadium of Fire.

3. Yay :)

4. Flowers 4 Grandpa

Grandpa Frost passed away after a long battle with a variety of illnesses. He grew up in Kanab, so my Grandma asked me and Cam to pick up some sagebrush on our way home, to be used in some of the flower arrangements. We stopped in Kanab and asked a few people if they knew what sagebrush looked like. As it turns out, it’s everywhere up there! We were honored to be able to bring a little bit of comfort to my Grandma and some flowers for Grandpa.

5. At the Hot Spring

on June 12th, we hiked the hot springs with Cameron Crockett and his fiancee Tyne. The water was beautiful and felt great after a long day. This was part of our fake second honeymoon, where we just disappeared for the weekend. Sometimes I really love not being “find-able.”

Today, I am grateful

2009-08-04T13:22:00.000-06:00

grateful for being a part of a worldwide church whose members are so willing to help people they may not know. And grateful for a Heavenly Father who knows His children, and for the miracles He works in order to bring them back into His arms.

I have a friend named Katie from junior-high. She has mentioned in the past how she’s been praying but doesn’t know how to find an answer. She believes in personal revelation. She recently got married and is so absolutely in love with her husband that it’s infectious. I can’t help but think that “forever” would sound so much better to her than “until death do you part.”

Katie is an actress/singer who spent months in New York apart from her husband and stayed until she couldn’t take it anymore. She returned to live with him in Virginia earlier this week. They’re having a rough time. He is in the Navy and was deployed less than 48 hours from the time Katie got home. She doesn’t have a car and doesn’t know anybody. She has no way to get to her job, and their bank accounts are completely overdrawn.

When she said, “I don’t know. I guess God just wants me to be alone right now.” I knew that I had to do something, anything, to keep her from feeling that way.

I asked her if it would be OK for me to call a bishop out there who could introduce her to a young married woman who’s in a situation similar to her and if she would be comfortable getting a ride to and from work for the next little bit until her husband came home.

She quickly gave me her phone number and address and was impressed that I could even know someone who could help her all the way out there.

She said, “Wow, you mormons are crazy networkers!”
I said, “No…we just like taking care of our friends.”
She said, “I guess so! I’ve never made friends at church before. No one was very welcoming.”

I called Bishop Austin about a half hour ago and left a pretty obscure message on their answering machine, asking them to help her find a ride to her job. I can’t wait to see the kind of people she’s going to meet. I can’t wait to hear about the conversations she’s going to have. My heart is pounding and I can’t help but know that she’ll be taken care of.

I’d love for you to all meet my friend Katie. Check out www.theyouandmeshow.com. Leave her some love. It would mean a lot to a girl who’s feeling awful alone right now.

$8.47

2009-07-30T21:20:00.004-06:00

so...for those of you who don't know [which is probably everybody except my mom...and apparently Cam-he just told me], my inseam is 37". It's what happens when you're six feet tall. Either way, it's hard to find jeans. It's even harder to find jeans on sale. I've found a place called Vanity where they sell up to 37" inseams, but only in select styles...which means the basic 5 pocket...no cute pocket detail. ANYWAY-we moseyed on over to the mall last night to kill time before 1/2 priced appetizers at Applebees and while rummaging through the clearance rack I found a pair of super-cute pocketed jeans for $10. The downside...the inseam was 33". My wonderful parents bought me a sewing machine a while back, and I decided to stick it to the short people and make a pair of knee length shorts out of them. I'm most pleased with how they turned out, so I thought I'd share them with all of you! [and yes, mom, that's an iron in the background. I even PRESSED them before sewing them to make sure everything was straight. :)] o and did I mention that I had a 20% off coupon because it's my birthday next month. I got the coupon that morning. So...cute pair of knee length shorts: $8.47. Take that, Economy!

Oquirrh Mountain Open House

2009-07-30T17:03:00.003-06:00

I finally have some time to scrapbook, so I'm catching up! These 2 pages are from the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. It was gorgeous. I can't get enough of those stars in the windows. We can't wait for the dedication so we can go through again. :)

Manti Pageant [A little overdue...]

2009-07-20T20:53:00.002-06:00

Text Reads: We left for the Manti Pageant around noon on Saturday, June 20th. We drove with our best friends, Brady and Danielle Sanders, and enjoyed homemade kettle corn and Kansas City BBQ chips on the way there. We arrived early enough to do a session in the Manti Temple, which was incredible. I really enjoy doing live sessions. It was nice to have some time to think and be together in the Celestial Room. When we got out of the session, we jumped in line to snag our seats for the pageant which started in about 4 hours. I used the time to plan my Relief Society lesson and went around to other people in line asking them questions. There were about 6 gates where people were lined up and our gate was the last to open! Brady grabbed his blanket and backpack and out-ran everyone else in line. We ended up on the front row, right in the middle! Since we had so much time to kill, we went to a nearby church and played card games for hours. It was pouring, and we were soaked by the time we got there. There’s an old belief that it will never rain on the pageant, and sure enough, around 8:30, the sky cleared up to a brilliant blue, just in time for the pageant.

It's all coming back!

2009-07-17T16:23:00.002-06:00

So-I once roomed with a film major. and the 4 other coolest girls you'll ever meet. on a reading day we made this little beauty. :) [fun fact: the curly haired piano playing one married the hunk in the story. she refused to be the leading lady because she knew he liked her and she didn't want to give the wrong impression. awesome.]

little thought

2009-07-16T10:04:00.003-06:00

"What if you knew that every time your Father in Heaven talked about you, He referenced a characteristic? What if, instead of calling you by your birth name or some other name you’ve been given, He referred to you as His “trustworthy daughter” or His “clean daughter” or His “kind daughter”? Write the name you WISH He called you by—and then live as if He already does."
Laurel Christensen

[PROUD]

2009-07-07T23:33:00.002-06:00

This is my first quilt ever. I finished the top tonight. and I am proud. Now I get to go pick out a cute back and quilt all over it! :) yay for fun fabrics. and for actually making progress. and for not giving up on new hobbies. :) WOO!

I took the pattern from cluck cluck sew...she's a brilliant quilter.
You can find all sorts of fun inspiration on her blog. It's on my blog reel. :) Enjoy!

Call Reunion!

2009-07-06T23:05:00.002-06:00

[UNDER CONSTRUCTION]

Cam says it's time for bed, so I'll finish this post later. :)
The reunion is best told in pictures. :) I sat on Cameron for most of the reunion.
I really like him!

I shot a gun for the first time in my life.
I actually called out and popped 2 balloons in a row!
Needless to say, I was proud of myself. :)

On the last night, we had a barn dance.
Cam had the guts to show his family what we do for fun [sometimes!]
I had a blast dancing with him.
His younger cousins kept saying,
"O, Kristin! You're so lucky to have a guy who's such a good dancer!"
And yes, yes I am. :)

6 Months Ago [Yesterday]

2009-07-03T15:18:00.000-06:00

i. love. you.

Those....are not....our children.

2009-06-28T20:52:00.003-06:00

So-my VT companion posted the link to "makemebabies.com"-a site where you can upload 2 pictures, and it'll smush them together and make you a "baby." I uploaded a picture of Cam & me and tried 5 different times to "make a baby." I showed Cam our flock of kids. Mid-laugh he managed to communicate the words.

"Those...are not....our children!"

[laughing]

"They don't...look anything...like us!

[more laughing]

"What are they...all doing...with...blonde hair??!"

[they're not hideous. they just don't really look like us at all. AT all.]

...[bathroom humor]...ahem

2009-06-26T14:43:00.002-06:00

so. I often use this blog as a way to remember the stories I want to tell when I have the creative energy to lay it out on a scrapbook page. I've been trying to figure out a way to tell this one without offending anyone [read: mom] but it's got to be remembered.

When Cameron goes to the bathroom, he closes the door, but doesn't lock it. He also doesn't shut it all the way, just enough so it looks closed. We are hopelessly addicted to lost, which involves a lot of "surprise" moments, and guns. The main female character in Lost is named Kate. I think she's fantastic. She stresses Cam out. So, one night, we watched like 3 episodes of Lost before deciding we couldn't take anymore and had to go to bed. Cam went into the bathroom and I kept talking to him. The next minute or so went about like this:

Me: Hey Cam!
Cam: Yeah?
Me: Guess who I am?

*kicks open the door and assumes 007 position against the wall. fingers in gun mode*

Cam: [screams like a girl, deer in the headlights expression]
Me: [falls back onto the bed laughing my head off] I was Kate!

Cam: [walks out of the bathroom, head low, speaks quietly] You made me pee on the shower curtain

oh the joys of married life. :)

[Slaughtered Chickens] = [Busy Busy!]

2009-06-23T11:35:00.002-06:00

I know I haven't posted anything substantial in....forever, but we really are running around like chickens with our heads cut off. Here's a condensed version of what's been going on.

Cam:

works at Gurus in the mornings
took Molecular Biology in Spring Term [and got an A! woot!]
works at Dr. Carr's Chiropractic Office until 6:30 M-Th
bikes 30 minutes to and from the chiropractic office
homework, homework, homework
drove to AZ for Grandpa Frost's funeral
drove to AZ for the Call Family Reunion
picked up the beamer and drove back to UT with the top down [hair blowing in the wind for 7 hours, that's love :)]
started summer term: taking Pearl of Great Price and Weightlifting

Kristin:

works 15 hours a week at the RSC designing books
works 20 hours a week at Gardner Village [in West Jordan] as the marketing intern
works as much as she possibly can for Eastwind Creations designing wedding announcements
took 2 classes spring term: Writing about the Arts and Humanities, and Family History [still waiting to hear on grades]
drove to AZ 2 weeks in a row with Cam
started summer term: taking anthropology 101...don't procrastinate your gen eds!

Current Status of Hobbies:

Quilt: in a bag, underneath the end table. Sewing Machine hasn't been plugged in for over 6 weeks now.
Scrapbook: coming along slowly but surely. Lucky to add 1 page to it every week
Sudoku: Still on puzzle set 43. they get harder as you go on! augh!
Skirts: purchased fabric today, looking for a pattern. I buy fabric like I know what I'm doing with it. lol.
Blog: pathetically neglected.

The good news is, I'm at the point where I can start crossing things off my list! I've finished 2 out of 3 classes I had to take this summer and I'm 4.5 weeks away from finishing my internship. We've also had a BLAST along the way. :) Sometimes it's really fun to be busy...

Stay tuned for the explanation of the fun!

2nd honeymoon [sort of]
shaving cream fight
hot springs
bed and breakfast surprise [spiders]
etc.

Last Day of Spring Term!

2009-06-15T18:23:00.000-06:00

text reads:
June 15th, 2009
Today, I had to turn in my final portfolio for my
advanced writing class at BYU. I didn’t time my day very well. The portfolio was due at 5 and I got out of class at 3, so I had 2 full hours to compile everything. Instead of getting right to work, I called Lindsay on my way home from class and talked to her for about a half-hour. When I got home, I spent time looking at blogs, talking to friends, and milling around the apartment. When it came down to it, one of my drafts wasn’t on the computer, so I had to re-type the entire thing. To top everything off, I forgot about the cover sheet that had to be turned in with it, and at 5 minutes to 5:00 printed everything off. I ran out the door and called my professor. He was just leaving his office. I ran as fast as I could up to campus. The flower fell out of my hair and I kicked my flip-flops off so I could run faster. I turned it in just as my professor was walking to the parking garage. I think it should be a rule that you can’t graduate from BYU without chasing down one of your professors.

Last day of School Party!!!

2009-06-01T11:05:00.003-06:00

I just got this e-mail from my momma. :) If you're going to be in Flag-town this weekend, get your tail over to our house! food & cream fights. :) waterballoons and watermelon. You can't go wrong. :) If you're wondering if you're invited-you are. :)

Just in case you were wondering, the Last Day of School Party is still on, [& lots of people are going to be in Flag due to Grandpa Frost's Funeral]. If you have never been, plan on it because it is REALLY fun!

WHEN: Thursday, June 4th from 1-4p.m.
WHERE: Aunt Nancy's
WHAT TO BRING: wear tennis shoes and clothes that can get messy, towel, super soakers and your own shaving creme-2 cans per person is usually enough-and a change of clean clothes

WHAT TO EXPECT: we start with a shaving creme fight-the only rule is NO FACES-, then we'll hose off and get ready for the whipped creme pie fight. In the past we have put everyone's names in a hat and lined everybody else up like a firing squad. This year, because of numbers, we may break this down into more appropriate age groups.

FOOD: We'll have watermelon, pizza, rootbeer floats and cake.

please forward this to anyone...I have very few e'mails.
Hope you can come!
Aunt Nancy

bring your A-game Cameron and Mackay...my girls are due for a whoopin'

we are SO cool. LOL

2009-05-23T10:48:00.000-06:00

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

a little more progress... :)

2009-05-21T23:12:00.000-06:00

a-Mae-zing!

2009-05-21T13:16:00.004-06:00

Last weekend, we drove up to Salt Lake for our weekly temple trip. We got there right at 3, so we had to wait for the 4 o'clock session. It was nice to just be together in the peace and quiet. I'm always amazed at how beautiful everything is. I'd never been to the Salt Lake Temple before, and I'm 100% sure we'll be back there again soon.

After the temple, we quickly switched gears and headed a few miles south to the Mae concert. We sat through at least 4 opening bands and got all mashed up in the stink of sweaty bodies, but as soon as Mae came on, everything was worth it! I've never felt so OLD though! It was weird being married at a rock concert...we left about halfway through Mae's part of the show and found the nearest Chili's for dinner. We got back to Provo just a bit after midnight, but the next morning we could barely get out of bed! Looks like our days of staying out all night and rocking out at concerts are about over. lol.

Either way-Saturday night was a BLAST!

the Dork-o-meter

2009-05-17T22:14:00.003-06:00

For those of you who talk to us on a regular basis know that we aren't the best travelers. Don't get me wrong, we're very good at keeping ourselves entertained, bringing snacks, having good music etc. Our freak accident car troubles, though, keep us close to home most of the time. A while ago, we went to AZ for Jared's farewell. Everything was going smoothly until about halfway back to Page. All of a sudden a huge windstorm picked up and I started freaking out. Cameron, the calm driver told me to get a hold of myself as he skillfully maneuvered the wind gusts. After we left Page, the wind turned into snow and hail. It was March. In the "desert." yeah. whatever. Either way, the snow spurred this lovely number from some tired travelers. I promise, it's worth a watch. It gets really good around :45.

After we gathered our composure, we arrived in Page only to find out that the storm knocked the power out, so we couldn't get any gas. The power was out in the 5 nearest cities too. We were stuck for 2 hours and got back to Provo around 2am. It's a good thing we like each other. Such close quarters require lots of laughing, otherwise you'll go insane! so yeah-we're dorks. :)

Mother's Day!

2009-05-11T15:45:00.002-06:00

...went a bit like this. :)

1. I was woken up by a kiss on the cheek, my robe, and a gorgeous hubby who turned the alarm off.
2. He surprised me with a fantastic breakfast. [chocolate chip, banana, & strawberry pancakes with homemade syrup and fresh oj]
3. There was a pot of flowers by my place instead of a bouquet because I mentioned I wanted to get into gardening. He also got me enough dirt to fill the other 2 pots on our balcony. I plan to plant herbs. :)
4. Cam wrote me such a sweet card that made me fall even more in love with him, if that's possible.
5. We had a relaxed morning, grabbed the stuff we needed for church and walked in the sunshine all the way there. I was ready a half hour early so we had time!
6. Bishop gave me the chance to talk for a couple of minutes about my incredible mother in Sacrament Meeting.
7. We taught Sunday School. It went really well. We were able to use our felt-board tithing story from EFY again. Let's hear it for nostalgia!
8. We walked home from church and talked non stop and enjoyed a rare day where Provo decides it's allowed to be Summer-for real.
9. Our apartment smelled incredible from the meal Cameron put on before we left. He wouldn't let me anywhere near the kitchen.
10. We bummed around in basketball shorts for a couple of hours, made homemade kettle corn and watched The Greatest Game Ever Played.
10a. I got a nap.
11. I spent over an hour talking to my sister and my mom. [Free weekend minutes! yay!]
12. Cameron sat down next to me on the couch and asked me to grab him the card he wrote me, he wanted to see it for some reason.
13. I get the card for him and 2 TICKETS TO MAE ON SATURDAY fall out. :)
14. We go on a walk for an hour and hold hands the entire time.

Love is wonderful, isn't it?

CRACK!

2009-05-06T22:23:00.002-06:00

We're pretty darn happy in the Call household today! Cameron heard back from a doctor's assistant job at a local Chiropractic office, and my brilliant man landed it! [for those of you who don't know, we're no longer on the pre-dental track. we're now deciding between Chiropractics and Podiatry. Cameron really liked his anatomy class, and since Chiropractics really emphasizes that, we're tending to lean that way]. It's such a good situation. He'll be able to keep the job during school and learn from an actual Chiropractor [ask questions, check out the lifestyle, etc.] and get a great letter of recommendation to med school later on.

o yeah. and we get free chiropractic care.

(mom. i know. it's insane how awesome life can be sometimes.)

Reason #8,076,326 I love Cameron Call- He's brilliant. :)

....our little family is growing!

2009-05-04T20:21:00.003-06:00

So. Me and Cameron went down to Arizona this weekend for my best friend Vanessa's wedding [congratulations!] and managed to get back up to Utah without squealing our news to everybody we saw while we were there.

*drumroll*

Our family of 2 just turned into 3!

He's really really little right now, but we think he's cute as ever!

We picked him up on the side of the road on Mesa Dr. and Southern. He was the only one in the bunch who was swimming around like mad, so we both picked him [no one wants a boring turtle!] Plus, he was the prettiest green color. :)

Naming him was a whole new story...

The options were Bredder [ha!], Troy, Zach, Zac, Zak, Zack, [noticing a trend?], Max, Pig, Quattro, etc.

We finally settled on "Pato" named after our favorite hot sauce. Honestly, a can of it goes in just about every dinner we have.

When we bought him, he was living in a little plastic cup. We quickly drove to Wal-Mart and purchased a lovely big glass bowl, cute pebbles for the bottom, and a bridge for him to hide/sleep under. We also educated ourselves on the various options for turtle health care and food.

The biggest challenge was driving the 10 hours home from AZ. I tucked him nice and snug in between the driver and passenger seats. He was quite comfy too until Cameron slammed on the breaks and turtle water went everywhere, haha! [Cam was soaked, so was the ipod, but they both pulled through!]

Now our little Pato is swimming happily in his own little square of our entertainment center.

o. we love him. :)

Bring the Heat!

2009-04-28T21:55:00.003-06:00

Things I've been meaning to blog about but haven't. :)
1. We hiked the Y at dusk the day we both finished finals and watched an episode of Lost at the top. It really doesn't get much better than that.

2. I started my internship at Gardner Village. It's freaking fantastic. My first day I was supposed to get to know the shops a little bit better, so I spent 3 hours shopping in the cutest shops ever. My family came up and my mom and I got some unrushed time up at the Village. It was a BLAST. My mom and I really are the best of friends and we don't get to see each other near often enough. [love you!]

3. My mom [funded by my dad] surprised me with a sewing machine! I've had my mom's serger for the past month to piece together this quilt I've had cut and couldn't thread the stupid thing without bursting into tears. I needed something with ONE spool of thread and ONE needle. Cameron patiently tried to fix the serger mid-meltdown, but I put the cover over it, unplugged it, and set it on the floor. The new machine was very well received. I've started piecing my quilt. Here's block #1. :)

4. Cameron has had an extremely eventful week with job interviews. He applied for a doctor's assistant position at a local chiropractor [yay!] and had his second interview today. [The first interview consisted of surveying 10 random people he found at the mall. He was the first applicant to return with the 10 surveys completed. woot!] We find out tomorrow what the verdict is. He's brilliant. :) I love it.

5. I'm on puzzle set 37 of 100 in my Sudoku book. :)

6. We're officially caught up on lost.

7. We recently brought the keyboard out of storage and into the apartment. Not that there's room for it [it's currently blocking the sliding glass door...] but Cameron plays beautifully, and it makes me wonder why we ever put it in storage in the first place.

8. We finished decorating our apartment last weekend [pictures are coming!] and decided we absolutely cannot put another picture of ourselves on the wall. Heavens. It's overwhelming, and after a while, we're just really not that good looking.

9. Spring term classes started today!

10. Cam's playing the keyboard in his G's. guess it's time for bed. lol. :)

The Final Countdown

2009-04-18T22:52:00.005-06:00

Attention: This is Cameron speaking, and it will probably be the only blog post I will ever write.

So. Finals week has taken its toll on the Call family. Our mental and emotional stability is questionable. After a long Friday of finals and studying all through the night, we awoke this morning and were on campus by 8 am. We got home tonight around 7 and were just exhausted. We realized it was April 18, the day we used to think we'd get married on............obviously, that idea didn't work out too well! (We decided to get married January 2 instead) To celebrate our almost-got-married-today anniversary, we made hamburgers with taco bell hot sauce and had a barbecue on a new grill we found on Craig's List. The dinner was fantastic. We made homemade french fries in the oven, fruit salad, and frozen lemonade in our magic bullet. It was a great relaxation meal to calm someone down during finals week at BYU.

We went on a walk to the Provo library thinking it was open till 9 only to arrive and see that it closes on 6 on Saturdays. Then, we realized we are teaching Sunday School tomorrow and needed to prepare a lesson. We got home, sat down, and began to conjure up some ideas to incorporate into our lesson on the gathering of Israel. As I sat there on the couch discussing my ideas to Kristin, I noticed she wasn't contributing as much as she normally does. While I was looking up scriptures and reading them out loud Kristin stops me mid-verse and in all seriousness asks, "Cameron, what would you do if we were being chased by an axe murderer?" I was extremely confused at her question. I looked at her waiting for an explanation, and she added, "If an axe murderer broke through the wall would you run behind me or in front of me?" I calmly ensured her that I would run behind her and fight off the axe murderer who broke through our living room wall. She then wanted to discuss other options of perhaps running side by side holding hands, jumping off the balcony and escaping in car, or running out the front door locking the axe murder inside. So, as you can tell, our Sunday School lesson was coming together very nicely.

Kristin had started to make a batch of bread while we were waiting for the hamburgers to cook. By the time the bread was finished rising and the oven was preheated we were finished with our discussion on what to do if an axe murderer breaks through our wall in the middle of the night. After placing the bread in the oven, Kristin sits down, appearing to be her normal self. We continue our lesson planning, and suddenly Kristin says, "How would you feel if we named one of our sons Bredder? Like bread, but Bredder." I was a bit shocked, and refused to even consider it (apologies if some who read this have children with that name). We laughed and I tried to keep us focused on the task of making a lesson. And then out of nowhere, Kristin asks me if I know what her favorite scene in Harry Potter is. I didn't. (Good thing they don't ask that on the newlywed game) She responded, "It's the Christmas scene. The snow is just magical!" Seriously?? I was getting so annoyed. But it was so hilarious! We had been on the couch for nearly an hour, and from my poing of view, all that was accomplished was a plan to fight off an axe murderer, crossing off a name NOT to give to a future child, and I learned something new about my wife. While I was laughing uncontrollably, Kristin began to get offended and said sarcastically she would "thunk" me on the head if I didn't stop. I couldn't respond because we were both laughing so hard and I typed on the laptop we were using that if she thunked me I wouldn't run beside her if we were being chased by an axe murderer. It was pretty funny. We both lost it. Then the beep on the oven went off to tell us bread would be done in one minute. We gained composure and listened to "The Final Countdown" by Europe. The buzzer went off, and we enjoyed a few slices of warm bread, when we finally decided there is only so much you can do during finals week. We gave up and will finish our lesson in the morning. The end. `

My Husband is Brilliant!

2009-04-17T16:36:00.002-06:00

Here's a shameless brag blog about Cam. :)
He got an A in Biology.
Woot!
That's all. :)

u.p. to the d.a.t.e.

2009-04-17T10:07:00.006-06:00

Finals are kicking my rear.
Cam seems to be doing fine.

I start my internship on Tuesday. Let's hear it for change!
If I had it my way, I would quit everything and just be home.

Cam is trying to console me via text message. It's not going very well, but the thought is sweet.
I haven't been able to work out, scrapbook, or quilt in who knows how long.

Finals are still kicking my rear.
Cam is at the library again.
If I can make it through the next 3 days life will be pretty darn stellar.

People in my finals groups are completely flaking out on me and/or driving me INSANE.
Finals are over in 3 days.
Cam is as handsome as ever. (he's not a loser. he works out. sometime i won't be a loser too!)

I can't seem to make up my mind as to whether to really "go for it" in the career arena. It changes on a daily (sometimes hourly) basis. Today is a career day.

ha.

-----------------------------------

But it is amazing how a nice long hot shower, a good country mix, a sea salt mask, shaving your legs, plucking your eyebrows, using that [really] decadent body wash, new makeup from mom [thanks!], and taking a ridiculously long time to do your hair can fix everything.

Bring on the day!

Eastertime!

2009-04-13T15:34:00.003-06:00

This Easter ended up being much MUCH better than I had anticipated. Lindsay and Mackay surprised us by coming back to Provo for the weekend. We miss them a whole bunch and it was great to have family for the holiday. We went up to Salt Lake for Mackay's family Easter party. Even the adults had an "Easter Egg Hunt" Well, sort of.

What happened was we blindfolded all the husbands and the wives lined up on the porch. Bags of candy with each couples' names on them were all over the front yard. The way it worked was the wife had to yell directions (lovingly) to their husbands who would retrieve a bag and bring it back so they could see if it was their bag. It was hilarious, and I couldn't hear myself above all those Moore women! (which is a feat...I'm pretty loud)

Here's Mackay and Cam preparing for battle. Go Team!

And we found our bag of candy. :)

Sunday we went to an amazing sacrament meeting and headed up to Salt Lake again to spend Easter dinner with Emilee, Adam and Kiara. I was SO excited to see Elisha and Baylee! (They've recently decided to like me. It's wonderful.) I also managed to finally figure out how to make my apple pie again! Adam was most pleased. :)

the game plan

2009-04-13T13:23:00.000-06:00

At this point in my life I have a lot of “options.” There are lots of pros and cons to the different potential routes and I’m proud to say I have made a decision!

My plan a few days ago was to take my time, enjoy being in school with Cam, work at the job I currently have for as long as I could because of its “cushy” nature (location, pay, people, etc.) I was content to do this because doing an internship, a full load of classes, and another 2 jobs on top of that for the summer just doesn’t sound very fun. It also isn’t humanly possible. Believe me. I checked.

My plan before that was to do the humanly impossible, and finish in December. That plan lasted until I mapped out my schedule for the summer and realized that working 40 hours a week and taking the equivalent of 18 credit hours in a single term just wasn’t going to happen. I got tired and depressed just thinking about it. So we reverted back to the “April” plan. And I took the countdown off my blog in a huff of disgust.

Here’s the exciting part. . .

The Countdown is Back!

See that cute little frog gaily leaping across the purple flowers? He’s counting down to me being done with school in December! Woo!

General Conference spoke volumes to me this year. We are taught to be balanced. That means you can’t be 100% at a job and 100% at school at the same time. It doesn’t work like that. You only have 100% (or sometimes 110%) of yourself to give. So I maturely and securely decided to stay within my limits and devised a plan where I could still graduate in December without absolutely killing myself. I asked Cameron what he thought of my plan at about 11:45 right before we fell asleep. His response was “I really wish you wouldn’t bring things like that up right before we go to bed.” Hahahaha. But in all seriousness, he is so encouraging of everything I want to do. I’m a lucky lady.

*Drumroll*

Here’s the plan!
During spring term I will be:
Working 20 hours at my internship (which is a class)
Working 10 hours at my paying job (so we don’t starve)
Taking 2 classes
-Family History (last religion class!)
-Writing about art and the humanities (let’s hear it for procrastinated generals)
for a total of 5 credit hours.

Summer term my class load is reduced to 3 credit hours. And by starting my internship this early, I should be finished with it in July-giving me all of August to have a REAL summer. It’s not much but I’m stoked to be realistically finishing in December.

After that, I just have one full 15 credit hour semester to take-and I’m DONE!

Just thought I’d letchya know. :)

Making Progress. . .

2009-04-08T18:53:00.001-06:00

I think I've let my blog suffer a little bit, but I really have been [making progress]! Here's an overview of the scrapbooking I've managed to get done in the past couple weeks.

"lanky, claw-toed, gorilla babies" -Jessica McGuire

2009-04-06T14:13:00.003-06:00

Cameron jammed his left [big] toe while playing basketball on Christmas day. It has been appropriately rotting for the past 3 and a half months. He played in our ward's intramural basketball game last week and squished that purple toenail up against his shoe. Apparently his toenail had had enough because it stood straight up and started causing lots of pain. ouch!

Cam asked me what I thought he should do. I told him to shower so it was clean and wouldn't get infected. Ask me if we even have band-aids. nope. He got out of the shower and put some pjs on, [so I could take pictures]. :) but really, I snapped a couple with my phone and spent the rest of the time gagging in the corner. [I got my mom's gag reflex...really, it's genetic] He finally pulled it off which made his face look like this. :)

Poor guy!

I think this only goes to prove Jessica's point when she labled me and Cameron's future children as "lanky, claw-toed, gorilla babies." Thanks Jess.

There once was a girl at BYU...

2009-04-01T20:45:00.002-06:00

...who had so many hobbies she didn't know which to do!

I believe I have taken things a bit to the extreme this time. A few weeks ago it occurred to me that science classes are hard. And a husband who takes 3 of those science classes in a single semester (soon to be 4 or 5. yikes!) has lots of studying that has to get done every night.

So.

I got a hobby.

or 4.

1. You have all experienced my new found appreciation and LOVE for digital scrapbooking. I do adore it. And when else in your life do you have an excuse to have hundreds of pictures of you and your gorgeous husband looking fabulous?!

2. I had a sudoku obsession last year. I had this one book The Sudoku Code that came out during the Da Vinci Code fad and it absolutely blew my mind. Each spread inside has a sudoku puzzle with numbers and a "wordoku" puzzle, with 9 letters that spell a phrase. There's one square in the sudoku puzzle that's circled. When you finish that puzzle, you circle the rest of the numbers that are the same as the one in the circled square and then solve the wordoku. When you solve that puzzle, you circle the same squares that are circled in the sudoku puzzle. Then! the whole thing spells out a message through the entire book, which then tells you to do something completely different. Well-last year I finished half the book and then lost it. So-when I decided I needed a hobby I looked on Amazon and found it for $3. fantastic. I'm now on puzzle set 12 of 100.

3. Last thanksgiving (before me and Cam decided we don't really "do" thanksgiving anymore) we had a bit of car trouble and ended up staying in AZ longer than we had originally planned. We decided to spend the extra time watching the first season of lost. This has now become a common activity before bed. We're smack in the middle of season 3 and go to bed so anxious because they never give you any answers but the stupid hopeful part of me half expects it to make sense in the end. Does Lost addict count as a hobby? I think so.

4. Finally! I decided a few months ago that I wanted to learn how to quilt. I went to the quilting shop that's 4 blocks from our apartment and got super inspired and drastically overwhelmed at the same time. I decided to make a quilt as my summer project. Lo and behold, out of the sky comes the lovely Danielle Sanders who just happens to quilt all the time! So now I have a good friend who knows what she's doing and can help me figure out what I'm doing! I also went running today and on my way home saw that the quilting store was having an insane sale for the next hour! I went in and took tabs on how much everything cost. I went home and found the pattern I wanted (which happens to be on this super cute blog) took off for the store again and found 9 coordinating fabrics and thread for my mom's serger. All for under $25. (Money I had from selling my clothes to Plato's closet.)

*sigh*

it's going to be an awesome summer.

Digital Scrapbooking.

2009-04-01T12:25:00.003-06:00

A lot of you lovely ladies have been asking how to get into digital scrapbooking. I’ve tried to respond to as many of you as I could, but I figured it would just be best to post it here so you can always come back to refer to it.

*deep breath*

Here goes!

I personally use Photoshop to put my pages together. Any photo manipulation software will work, but photoshop seriously lets you do ANYTHING you want. Worth every little pretty penny it costs. (if you’re a student you can get a CRAZY discount by ordering through the bookstore)

I have a few favorite sites I use. www.shab byprincess.com (click on downloads) has tons of free papers/embellishments/alphabets etc. it's fantastic. :) They are also good to use when you're first starting out because they give them to you in "Collections" that help you see what goes together well. When you get more comfortable with it all, pull stuff from different collections and go crazy! :)

Another site I use for inspiration is www.scrapbook.com click on gallery>digital layouts>favorites These are pages other people have filtered through and marked as their favorite. There's some AWESOME stuff there, and if you want to figure out how to do something, just ask. They're pretty good about getting back to you with what they did. Scrapbook.com also has a newsletter you can sign up for that gives you something free every week. (papers/embellishments/etc.) I have NEVER paid for anything for digital scrapbooking.

The site I use for fonts is www.1001freefonts.com. It's fantastic. It might take you a bit to figure out how to install this on your computer, but it's worth it. :)

One other site I would mention is www.brusheezy.com It has photoshop brushes with everything you can imagine and can really make some cute touches on your page.

(ex. The brown swirl on this page is a brush.)

Last site I promise! www.scrapbooksetc.com>free collage templates.
How to make super cute multi picture layouts in pretty much no time at all. :) worth a look for sure!

Because of the response I got from posting just that one page, I’ve been considering starting a digital scrapbooking blog where I can let everyone know the cool new things I find and post pages of my current projects. I would love for it to be like a community effort where others (you!) can post pages too and we can all inspire each other. Answer the poll up at the top and let me know what you think!

Just FYI

2009-03-30T15:52:00.001-06:00

My parents are finally on the blogging network! YAY.
McGuire Family Blog

The Start of Something Big

2009-03-24T22:28:00.002-06:00

So-
I've made a new goal.
I'm going to keep up with the scrapbooking and print out a book as an anniversary present to myself every year. This year's gonna be a doozy as it includes the wedding, (bridals, engagements, receptions, etc.) the honeymoon, and the rest of our crazy lives! but so far things are going well. :) Plus, I hate flipping through pictures on a computer and feel a huge rush when I create something I'm satisfied with. :)

Page 1 of the wedding.

Confession

2009-03-23T13:34:00.004-06:00

I can't write radio ads to save my life.
It probably has to do with the fact that they're all obnoxious.
I just can't contribute to that.

Love is Remembering

2009-03-18T17:43:00.001-06:00

Cameron knew I was giving him his valentine’s day on the 13th because I didn’t want to cramp his plans, so he brought me flowers on the 13th too and totally surprised me! Not only did he surprise me, but he came home with Gerber daisies and roses just like when he proposed to me. The next day, he told me to be ready by 4:30. When he came home, he blindfolded me (just like when we got engaged) and put me in the car. We drove for about an hour. Once we stopped, he got me out of the car, took of my blindfold and kissed me. We were at the Jordan River Temple to do sealings. I had mentioned while we were engaged that if our families weren’t all in Arizona, I would have loved to have been married in the Jordan River temple. Cameron is so sweet! He does little things for me all the time that just show me he listens to what I say, that it is important to him, and that he remembers it.

[Addicted]

2009-03-17T15:46:00.003-06:00

Cameron and I have recently fallen in love with the card game NERTS. I’ve played for years and years with my family. Apparently so has he. I’ve never lost in my family and most of the time could play by myself against both my parents on a team and win. The funny thing is, Cameron’s never been very good at it, until now. The first time we played one on one, Cameron whooped me 4 times in a row! I was so shocked I had to call my mom and tell her about it! I honestly didn’t know what to do with myself. All my mom said was “Bless that Man!” I’ve since woken up to the fact that when only 2 people are playing, it’s not about who’s faster, but more of who’s more aware of what’s going on. Cameron really kills me most of the time. It’s infuriating! Couples in our ward have invited us over to play and we’re pretty darn good as a team. :) We’ve made some awesome friends named Brady and Danielle Sanders. They are total NERTS fans too, so our Sunday afternoons consist of good food, good friends, and good competition. I love beating Cameron, almost as much as he loves beating me. It’s hilarious because you get so frustrated but can’t help but laugh at how proud we both get. Most of the time we play until our brains beg us to stop. Upon discovering each others’ infatuation with the card game, we’ve played in various locations, including restaurants while waiting for our food, the city park, and the kitchen floor. We’re absolutely addicted.

I Married A Jedi Episode 3

2009-03-16T21:25:00.000-06:00

For our first Valentine’s Day, I decided to skip the pink and red altogether. Since I’ve never seen Star Wars, I decided to throw Cameron a Star Wars party instead. I made Yoda Soda, Wookie Cookies, and chocolate dipped light sabers. I decorated with glow in the dark stars and an awesome Star Wars poster. I let him pick his favorite episode, which we would watch while wearing our Wookie Pants Jessica made us for Christmas this year. I even promised him I wouldn’t kiss him during the entire movie. It made for a very happy hubby!

Let's Play!

2009-03-10T11:53:00.005-06:00

So... my cousin has this fun post on her blog that I am posting here. It's kind of a game for us "blogger" types. Here's how it works: the first FIVE people to respond to this post will get something made by me personally. What I make is my choice, but it will be made JUST FOR YOU! My choice. For you. However, like all things that sound too good to be true :), this offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- There is no guarantee that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you personally.
3- It will be completed sometime this year. :)
4- You will receive no clues as to what it's going to be. I'll let you post a request of some sort with your comment, but still... it could be anything!
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange if I so desire... it may blow your mind! Or it may not. It may be very simple and predictable... but hopefully you will benefit from it!

And like most things that sound too good to be true, there is a catch. You must re-post this on your blog and offer the same deal to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. Not too bad, huh? In fact, I think it'll be a lot of fun!!

So-- on your mark, get set, GO! The first 5 people to leave a comment telling me they posted this on their blog and want to win a free, FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift from me will receive just that!!! **Remember: You have to tell me in your post that you've posted this on your blog before you can be guaranteed one of the five slots!** Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

(P.S. Still check to see if there are winner spots available... just because it says there are 5 or more comments doesn't mean that there have been 5 winners yet!)

I Belong To The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!

2009-03-09T13:07:00.005-06:00

There has been a large controversy involving HBO and

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I am a member of this Church and have found much of

the material of this new development

in the series "Big Love" upsetting. I found great comfort

in this press release and wish to share

it in hopes of comforting those who felt similarly.

For those of you who desire to learn more about

the "Mormon" church, I invite you to check out www.mormon.org.

SALT LAKE CITY 9 March 2009 Like other large faith groups, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sometimes finds itself on the receiving end of attention from Hollywood or Broadway, television series or books, and the news media. Sometimes depictions of the Church and its people are quite accurate. Sometimes the images are false or play to stereotypes. Occasionally, they are in appallingly bad taste.

As Catholics, Jews and Muslims have known for centuries, such attention is inevitable once an institution or faith group reaches a size or prominence sufficient to attract notice. Yet Latter-day Saints – sometimes known as Mormons - still wonder whether and how they should respond when news or entertainment media insensitively trivialize or misrepresent sacred beliefs or practices.

Church members are about to face that question again. Before the first season of the HBO series Big Love aired more than two years ago, the show’s creators and HBO executives assured the Church that the series wouldn’t be about Mormons. However, Internet references to Big Love indicate that more and more Mormon themes are now being woven into the show and that the characters are often unsympathetic figures who come across as narrow and self-righteous. And according to TV Guide, it now seems the show’s writers are to depict what they understand to be sacred temple ceremonies.

Certainly Church members are offended when their most sacred practices are misrepresented or presented without context or understanding. Last week some Church members began e-mail chains calling for cancellations of subscriptions to AOL, which, like HBO, is owned by Time Warner. Certainly such a boycott by hundreds of thousands of computer-savvy Latter-day Saints could have an economic impact on the company. Individual Latter-day Saints have the right to take such actions if they choose.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an institution does not call for boycotts. Such a step would simply generate the kind of controversy that the media loves and in the end would increase audiences for the series. As Elder M. Russell Ballard and Elder Robert D. Hales of the Council of the Twelve Apostles have both said recently, Latter-day Saints in the public arena should conduct themselves with dignity and thoughtfulness.

Not only is this the model that Jesus Christ taught and demonstrated in his own life, but it also reflects the reality of the strength and maturity of Church members today. As someone recently said, “This isn’t 1830, and there aren’t just six of us anymore.” In other words, with a global membership of thirteen and a half million there is no need to feel defensive when the Church is moving forward so rapidly. The Church’s strength is in its faithful members in 170-plus countries, and there is no evidence that extreme misrepresentations in the media that appeal only to a narrow audience have any long-term negative effect on the Church.

Examples:

During the Mitt Romney election campaign for the presidency of the United States, commentator Lawrence O’Donnell hurled abuse at the Church in a television moment that became known among many Church members as “the O’Donnell rant.” Today, his statements are remembered only as a testament to intolerance and ignorance. They had no effect on the Church that can be measured.
When the comedy writers for South Park produced a gross portrayal of Church history, individual Church members no doubt felt uncomfortable. But once again it inflicted no perceptible or lasting damage to a church that is growing by at least a quarter of a million new members every year.
When an independent film company produced a grossly distorted version of the Mountain Meadows Massacre two years ago, the Church ignored it. Perhaps partly as a result of that refusal to engender the controversy that the producers hoped for, the movie flopped at the box office and lost millions.
In recent months, some gay activists have barraged the media with accusations about “hateful” attitudes of Latter-day Saints in supporting Proposition 8 in California, which maintained the traditional definition of marriage. They even organized a protest march around the Salt Lake Temple. Again, the Church has refused to be goaded into a Mormons versus gays battle and has simply stated its position in tones that are reasonable and respectful. Meanwhile, missionary work and Church members in California remain as robust and vibrant as ever, and support for the Church has come from many unexpected quarters — including some former critics and other churches.

Now comes another series of Big Love, and despite earlier assurances from HBO it once again blurs the distinctions between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the show’s fictional non-Mormon characters and their practices. Such things say much more about the insensitivities of writers, producers and TV executives than they say about Latter-day Saints.

If the Church allowed critics and opponents to choose the ground on which its battles are fought, it would risk being distracted from the focus and mission it has pursued successfully for nearly 180 years. Instead, the Church itself will determine its own course as it continues to preach the restored gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world.

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/

Snowboarding!

2009-03-06T17:28:00.002-07:00

Emilee and Kiara took me snowboarding last weekend. I've never been before but I've wanted to learn for a really long time. I'm proud to say I only biffed it off the lift once all day :) and learned how to carve. Not bad for a first timer. It was a blast to have just us girls for a while. I don't think I've had more than 5 hours without Cameron since we got married. I was very ready to see him after we got off the mountain! I should have taken pictures of my battle scars, but I ended up with 2 black knees, a bruised hand, and a tailbone that I wanted to cut out of my body. I've since forgotten exactly how bad it hurt, though, and can't wait to go again! I look pretty awkward when I'm boarding, though, and I don't know that my pride can take Cam seeing me. :) I'm sure I'll get over it. Thanks for a fantastic day, girls!

LIBERATION!

2009-03-05T16:01:00.003-07:00

So, I'm doing a bit of a school project. All responses will be kept completely anonymous (you can even post an anonymous comment if you'd like), but I really need to know what you wish you could be liberated from, or an experience where you felt liberated. Everything helps. :) The responses can be as serious or as silly as you'd like. Thanks so much! I really appreciate it!

I've got my man who could ask for anything more!

2009-02-24T11:01:00.002-07:00

I have an interview for an internship with the marketing department of Gardner Village today. It’s the first time I could actually have a job where my schooling is actually important to my success. Frankly, the idea of having a real job is pretty intimidating. I’m confident in my abilities to perform to the standard I will be held, I’m just amazed that I’m at this stage of my life and that I actually am “good enough” to be considered competitive for such a position. This “amazement” resulted in a bit of a break down last night. I’ve gathered and compiled my portfolio, my hair looks good, I’m wearing this fantastic green sweater, and I feel quite ready to show my stuff. This little bit of insecurity was still tugging at the back of my mind. I opened my phone to text Cameron when a girl with these balloons, a snickers bar, and some junior mints comes through the door. “These are for Kristin.” ☺

I have the coolest husband in the world.

. THE . COOLEST .

Love you!

Called to Serve

2009-02-12T13:06:00.003-07:00

Jared Call was called to serve in Toronto Canada! Congratulations Jared! We know you'll do great! We sure love you!

I hear the secrets that you keep....

2009-02-05T13:36:00.001-07:00

Cameron obliterated any doubt in my mind that he belongs in our family last night. The Frost/McGuire family often has weird sleeping behaviors. Some examples include Lindsay flipping around in the middle of the night so her feet end up on her pillow (This absolutely freaked Mackay out the first time it happened. Lol), a previous post of mine describes me waking up and getting out of bed, grabbing my pillow and blanket, and being really angry with having to sleep on the couch but not knowing exactly why it was that I HAD to be there. Bethi Goodman (my cousin) posted a pretty darn hilarious sleeping experience. Her blog’s over there→

Either way, last night at about 5:30am, I woke up to Cameron reciting scripture in his sleep. It went on non-stop for about 2 minutes. He was practically shouting it. I listened for as long as I could before bursting out laughing. I woke the poor kid up. He asked me what was so funny and I told him what he had been doing. Pretty defiantly he stated, “No, it wasn’t scripture. I was reciting Julius Caesar. I was reading it with Kiara and Mema.” At this point I really couldn’t breathe and had to ask him if he was even really awake. Lol. O my husband.

SKOOKIE!

2009-02-03T21:18:00.003-07:00

so...as we tried to account for everything that was stolen over our honeymoon, I had come to terms with the fact that my laptop and all my design work was gone. However, to make us feel better after a long day of buying back our wedding presents, we decided we'd come home and make skookie's. A wave of terror swept over the car as we realized those darn bandits had sure as hollerin' stolen our skookie pans! I could understand a laptop, but skookie pans? The only people who would ever steal someone else's skookie pans was someone who was intent on making that person absolutely miserable. I think all told it was only 5 minutes after realizing the skookie pans were gone that I was buying a new set at Bed Bath and Beyond with the last of our gift card money. We weren't going home until we had them. After that we were too tired to make cookie dough and just went to bed. I don't know why we hadn't used them yet. It's like we were saving them for something special. Well, today was special, i suppose. It was Tuesday. :) Tuesdays can be special. Today was also "not too cold, not too hot, all you need is a light jacket!" So today was Skookie Day!
Let's recap-in pictures. :)

Step one: Resee's chocolate peanut butter cookie dough and dreyer's cookie dough ice cream.

Step two: (not kidding...less than a minute later)

Step three: <3

There you have it. $24.99 at Bed Bath and Beyond. I highly, HIGHLY recommend the gooey, chocolatey, happiness. :) mmm. (THANKS ADAM AND EMILEE!!!)

Note: Lindsay and Jessica. Any stabs at the phrase "sure as hollerin'" will not be tolerated. -Kandi

the call

2009-02-02T14:07:00.004-07:00

take a listen. i love this song. :)

Progress. :)

2009-01-24T09:50:00.004-07:00

So, I'm holding out on taking pictures of our apartment until we finally get all set up. Yesterday we made great strides toward that point and actually started hanging pictures. By that, I mean I arranged them on the floor and Cam recreated it on the wall. My part took sufficiently less effort, but I appreciate him like crazy! We've got the frames up for one wall, all I have to do now is get pictures printed...

up up up there's no way but up from here!

2009-01-15T23:03:00.004-07:00

Things haven't been too great around here. Actually-things have been pretty lame. The past week or so has truly been the hardest time I have ever experienced. Cameron continues to be wonderful. We're getting through everything together, but from financial to medical to otherwise it's pretty overwhelming. It's frustrating. I think I've finally driven myself (and possibly Cameron) crazy with my negativity. I've decided to change my way of thinking. It's times like these we often don't realize how much we have to be grateful for. Buckle Up! You're about to experience a paradigm shift! (how stephen covey of me... :) )

10 things I'm extremely thankful for today-

1. I am married to the most incredible man I have ever known. He really blows me away on a regular basis. He is so patient and kind. I am grateful we were both worthy to be married in the temple at the start of this month, and the new year. I am grateful to have the comfort of knowing his love for the gospel will never falter. I am grateful that he honors his priesthood. I am grateful that he knows how to comfort me and calm me down. I am grateful that I get to be with him forever. :) I'm grateful for our habit of scripture study. It sure makes for a peaceful ending to the day. Gosh, I love him.

2. I am grateful for friends who are close enough to the spirit to recognize when a strong need needs to be met. Lindsay and Mackay called last night to take us out to dinner. With everything that's been going on we haven't had much time to just relax and enjoy ourselves. We went with Kevin & Blair, Marc & Kathryn, and Mackay & Lindsay. Good food, good company, good conversation. It was amazing. I think it's the first time me and Cam have really laughed since being back here in Provo.

3. Found out yesterday our renter's insurance might cover our personal possessions that were stolen on our honeymoon. (keyword-*might*) Either way, getting together an insurance claim and a police report is a lot easier when you know there's a chance to get some of it back. O that would be such a blessing! Here's hoping. :)

4. Erik and Nicole Rasmussen gave us the nicest set of knives I have ever seen. (I'm really hoping it was an old wedding present they received because heaven knows we're all college kids.) Ours was stolen. We had bought a $4 set from ikea to suffice until we had money for a nicer set. Family is such a blessing! (P.S. they gave us a copy of Get Smart too. :) one of the movies we bought with our wedding money which was also stolen... sweet!)

5. This one's going to be vague, but it's probably the one I'm most grateful for. The thing that I thought was terrifying is no longer terrifying. Still something to be concerned about and keep an eye on, but not terrifying. I'm grateful things went well yesterday morning and that I had an amazing husband to hold my hand through it all.

6. I am grateful to have a cute apartment to come home to every day. It makes me wish I could just stay there and cook and clean and be a wifey all day. I am grateful to have an escape from everything else. I am also grateful we do not have cable. It allows us to spend much needed time together and really think about what we're going to watch. Most of the time it's Lost.

7. Last night I took the most incredible shower I think I've ever had. I wasn't in a hurry. I kept the water as hot as I could stand for as long as I wanted. I put a protein mask on my hair. Shaved my legs. I even plucked my eyebrows after I got out. In other good news, the face care regimen my mother got me for Christmas is working wonders on my face. (Shameless plug for Arbonne)

8. I am grateful for lots of nice people who I am excited to get to know in our new ward. Two sisters came and sat next to me in Relief Society. I found out one of them is a newlywed, and the other lives 4 doors away from us. It's great to have people in similar situations who can relate to you. The whole ward was really welcoming and helpful. The bishop is amazing. He stopped by and asked us to speak in church this week-which we're also grateful for. Preparing for the talk is really helping me remember what's really important.

9. I am grateful that there are star wars figurines on the entertainment center. (There's even an Anakin that fits inside the Darth Vader one...awesome-i know). I'm grateful for these because it means my husband and I are such good friends we're comfortable enough around each other to truly be ourselves. Cameron put them there as a joke to motivate me to unpack and looking at them just makes me laugh. I'm grateful to know that Cam can keep me optimistic through any circumstance. He's really amazing. I'm also grateful for the strong religious family he comes from. We had the chance to fast as a family for his grandma who recently was in the hospital for a stroke, which turned out to be a seizure. During the fast, she finally started responding. I'm grateful for opportunities to strengthen my testimony on a daily basis.

10. I'm grateful to have discovered the beauty of freezing leftovers and to finally have tupperware to put it all in. Bread, soups, cookie dough, you name it-we're freezing it. It's great to just come home and pull something yummy out of the freezer (that didn't come packaged that way) to have it on the table in like 10 minutes. It's my new favorite way to cook.

There you have it. Some are simple, some aren't.

I think all that matters, though, is that I'm feeling much better. :)

Bring on the day-

if you like it put a ring on it!

2009-01-15T11:55:00.002-07:00

I've always been annoyed with married people that fall off the face of the planet when as soon as they tie the knot. It's like they never even were. No one knows where they went. They just cease to exist to the rest of the world. And then their friends sit around scratching their heads wondering exactly what happened. So-->here's my attempt at not falling of the earth! We got married about a week and a half ago. (pictures up asap) Me and Cam have had a blast the past 2 weeks getting moved in and adjusting to the whole married and school thing. It's pretty fun. We went on a cruise to Mexico for our honeymoon (pictures will be up soon for that too) and came back to find out our car full of wedding presents has been broken in to. *sweet* We're working on insurance claims and police reports as of late. We've taken multiple trips to ikea setting up our little place (pictures for that will be up soon as well). School's been going well for both of us. We're in a great ward. We are actually speaking this Sunday, and making friends who are in the newlywed situation too really helps. :) Finding time for each other is a little more difficult than it was on that beautiful cruise ship, but we're figuring out the balance.

The Real Mrs. Incredible

2008-12-12T15:39:00.003-07:00

We're in the home stretch for planning this wedding! (3 Weeks Away! AH!) My mom is jumping through hoops, moving the earth, and scheduling so many different things i can't believe she hasn't driven herself completely insane. She's incredible. :) This post is a shout out to her I suppose. She probably won't have time to read this, though, because she's sewing 5 bridesmaids dresses, planning the menus, scheduling temple sessions, photographers, cakes, flowers, reception halls, etc. She's stuffing announcements and tracking down addresses and on top of it all making me feel like such a beautiful bride. I couldn't ask for a better mom. :) I love you!

(PS- The announcement up there ^^ is supposed to be brown...I don't know what made it change to blue, but it's still pretty :) )

Oh Lola!

2008-12-10T16:15:00.006-07:00

I've got a lot to catch up on!
1. Cameron surprised me with tickets to the vocal point concert a couple weeks ago. (Vocal Point is BYU's national champion a cappella group. They're fantastic and I've been a big fan ever since my EFY counselor was part of it back when I was 16.) The concert was funny and really impressive. I highly recommend their next concert in March. :)

They sang songs like Grace Kelly, No Not Much, and an awesome Christmas Medley based around the 12 days of Christmas. Way WAY fun. i LOVE going to shows with Cam. :)

2. We headed home for Thanksgiving and a much needed break. We spent the day before cleaning and vacuuming the cars, buying water and snacks for the road, and getting ready for a stress free weekend.

By the way-Christmas Popcorn Tins are the #1 roadtrip food ever found. You get the sweet, salty, crunchy, and satisfying all in one festive container. :) mmm.

On the way down, we decided to change the wedding to a day earlier. This caused all sorts of emotional trauma and various freak outs mainly from yours truly. (I think my New Year's Resolution is to achieve emotional stability). FYI-The Wedding is Friday, January 2nd 2009 at 9:45 am in Mesa.

We made it to Flagstaff Tuesday night and slept in the next day. We got our wedding announcements printed and ready to send out (it was much more stressful than I make that sound, but if you look at the big picture, now it doesn't seem so bad...) We spent Thanksgiving with my family. My mom's birthday is on Thanksgiving so we stayed up late making a sign for her and getting the kitchen ready for a great day. It was really fun to see Cameron around my siblings helping them color and write notes to my mom. He's such a crack up!

Thanksgiving had some awesome food. :) a turkey from Jessica complete with maple butter and some awesome stuffing. Homemade gravy, pistachio salad-my favorite! and new birthday dishes that made a beautiful dinner. :)

I made an apple pie for my mom's birthday. Count your blessings Call family. :) No pie has ever turned out like the one I made for you a couple months ago! (remember...the one that caught on fire??)
Sidenote: At one of my bridal showers Sister Kitterman gave me this apple corer/slicer/peeler. It seriously cuts the time it takes to make a pie in half! Maybe I'll be able to perfect the whole pie thing now... :)

Dad & Alyssa
JT and Rick

My gorgeous Mom :)

The Chef herself-Jessica

Me and Cam

3. We discovered JT inherited my dad's hair.

4. Here's where things get interesting. I think I've been subconsciously avoiding blogging for a while because I didn't know if my emotional state could take remembering this...here goes! Me and Cameron left for Phoenix to go see his family Thursday night. We got a flat tire after about an hour of driving. I didn't have a wrench to get the lug nuts off so we spent an hour and a half flagging cars down to try and get some help. After one intense phone call with 911-a nice man and his daughter stopped to help us. And the cops showed up right on time-when everything had settled down and we were almost on our way. :)
(Cameron does know how to change a tire and was all ready to do so. I just didn't have the right tools to accomplish the job. I'm sure there's a Seminary object lesson in that sentence somewhere!)

5. We drove for about 40 more minutes when Lola (the car) decided she didn't want to drive anymore. Seriously. She just stopped. We made it to the side of the highway in Scottsdale, Cameron pushed us to the closest gas station and a variety of interesting people helped us. One guy helped us push the car the last 100 yards. I think the conversation went about like this.
Guy-(breathing hard) I'm out of shape!
Cam-Yeah?
Guy-Yeah! Pot does crazy things to you man...
Cam-I can only imagine...

6. The tow truck (graciously paid for by Wayne-Cam's dad) showed up and we had a great conversation with the driver about tattoos and prison (no, seriously-we did). We got to the mechanics at about 1am. It took us 7 hours to get from Flagstaff to Phoenix!

7. We woke up at 6:30 to be at the mechanics when they opened so we could get our car worked on as soon as possible. They said they'd take a look at it and give us a call with the details. About an hour and a half later they called with the damages...to the tune of $1200. My clutch had completely gone out. I'll spare you the details, but it was followed up with a phone call telling us the car wouldn't be ready for us to take back to UT by Sunday and Cameron's anatomy lab final was Monday morning at 9. YIKES! A few prayers and frantic plans later and the mechanics pulled a miracle for us. :) Meanwhile, me and Cameron developed an intense love affair with Lost. :)

8. All was well and Lola returned healthy and happy. :)

I'm just grateful we were able to keep laughing through all of it! (We also needed 2 new tires and a new headlight) it got to the point where I said, "Put it on my tab..." and Cameron just shrugged his shoulders and said, "Of course it does. Why wouldn't that need to be replaced too?" Keeping things positive, Cameron's still really REALLY cute and we got to make out while waiting for the tow truck :) we also got to eat some pretty awesome mexican food from El Rico's because our car wasn't quite ready yet. The ride back to UT was really quick compared to the Flag to Phoenix trip though. Lola drives great now!

We've decided we're buying a beta fish. Her name is going to be Lola.

In Idaho...

2008-11-18T10:49:00.003-07:00

Anyone who knows me even a little bit knows that me and nature don’t get along too well. I went to a family reunion in Idaho this summer, where there was no cell phone service for an hour’s radius and I about died. The highlight of the trip was while we were on a hike on top of this mountain my cell phone went off. For me it was heaven. Looking back on that, I realize how pathetic it was. I was in possibly the most beautiful place I had ever been in, with tons of people that I love, and all I could think about was how lame it was that I didn’t have access to the outside world. I regret now the time I wasted there. I recently read a blog post on my boss’s blog, actually, entitled “Solitude, Silence, and Darkness.” It completely changed the way I see things! (If you’d like to read it, check it out here. àhttp://rsc.byu.edu/blog/?p=52)

My mom calls it being “plugged in” with ipods and cell phones and laptops, technology has become a staple in our everyday lives. It’s good when used, like everything else, in moderation. But when you can no longer take time to appreciate the gorgeous world we live in, it becomes a problem. I think I’ve become slightly addicted to technology and it’s going to stop today. There’s no reason to get online as often as we do. My addiction to technology kept me from enjoying what could have been an awesome opportunity to build better relationships with my family and, more importantly, my Heavenly Father. I don’t ever want to let a chance like that pass me by again.

And to Cameron's delight, I think I want to go camping. :)

i love this face <3

2008-11-17T10:52:00.000-07:00

Top 10 Reasons I Love Cameron Call Today
(I had to tack the "today" on there cause more reasons keep coming out of the woodwork. :) He's pretty incredible.)

1. Cam loves to surprise me. Last week was super tough with midterms, meetings, work, and class projects. Cameron Call was pretty darn stressed out too-but he woke me up with breakfast burritos, orange juice, and orange rolls. :) mmm

2. Cameron Call is 6'5". Since we started dating, I have bought 4 new pairs of heels. :) I've never been able to do that before! I wear 4" heels and I still only come up to his nose. :) Shoe shopping is a whole new world for me.

3. Cameron always wants to go do something. He's definitely not one to just sit around. After school and work he always asks me to go with him to play duets on the piano or go on a walk. We rarely watch TV.

4. Cameron Call plans dates. He actually plans them! He's already put a ring on my finger. He doesn't have to impress me any more. I'm already sold. But he loves planning dates and going out. This week, we're going to a piano quartet, the vocal point concert, and gardner village with 4 other couples. :) A couple weekends ago, we bought the polar express in 3-D and watched it with Lindsay and Mackay, complete with 3-D glasses.

5. Cam has the best facial expressions I have ever seen. It's hilarious to watch him eat "good" food. a sound of "oof" generally accompanies the good food. :) His silent laugh is hilarious. He gets a huge grin on his face, he can't breath, but no sound comes out at all. :)

6. Every now and again Cameron throws me into a dip while we're kissing. :)

7. Cameron constantly thinks about what will make me happy. He knows what makes me tick. And because he is so aware of what I need, I trust him to take care of me, and I can completely focus on what will make him happy. It's the most selfless relationship I've ever known and I love it.

8. Cameron Call is smart. He knows how to balance his time and money. He is self-motivated. He works really really hard. He knows what he wants, and he understands what it takes to get there. He is focused. and he knows how to motivate me and help me be successful in everything I do.

9. Cameron encourages me to do everything I've ever wanted to do. When I asked him about taking an extra semester to graduate so I could take some elective courses I was interested in, he just said, "absolutely. Do it." When I asked him about applying for an internship back in Virginia, he said, "o you should absolutely do it. Go for it! We'll figure out the details later." He isn't controlling. He never tries to hold me back. He supports me and I love him for it.

10. Cameron is good at planning. He has been planning his entire life. He is family-oriented (you should see him around my family), kind, and gospel-centered (he's studying the pearl of great price manual with me every night so I can better understand the temple before I go). It shows in everything he says and does. He stands by his word and treats those around him with love and respect. He's had his priorities straight for so long they have become second nature. I love him like crazy. :)

I don't know what I did to deserve such an awesome blessing, but I'm so grateful for him! :)

For the non-believers!

2008-11-06T12:52:00.000-07:00

I realize that my original post: The top 5 true stories of Kristin's awkward dating life might have come across as too awkward to believe. I would like to display proof that the stories are, in fact, true. (These pictures were posted about an hour ago on facebook, the dress exists!)

C & K

GRAND OPENING!!!

Jewelry Sale!

Lame-o

Michael Buble

New Duds & A Freezer Cooking Recipe!

Freezer Cooking Day!

My New {Favorite} Hobby!

I'm whooped.

Happy Valentine's Day!

:::::::::Drumroll Please:::::::::

Humble Pie with 2 extra scoops of blessings

cute cute. :)

28-31 :) Lillie's Baby Book!

Graduation and the HP 6 Premiere!

A year in review & our new place!

#21 - #24 [more lillie!]

Liilie Moore (#20) :)

#19

#15-#18

I have the sweetest husband!

9 & 10

#7 & 8

#5 & 6--Lillie's Baby Book

1, 3 & 4. {Yesterday's was #2}

Like Mother, Like Daughter

A Whole Year!

Thoughts:

Update-by-number

Update on the Job

Job Interview!

Eastwind Creations Blog

Bright Eyed and Bushy Tailed

Happy Halloween!

Introducing... Baby Boy Beck [squared]!

Family Night

I have the most incredible husband.

Happy 100th Post!

Talking in your sleep....part 2 :)

Seven Peaks

The Joys of Marrying a Chiropractor [to be]

Finished my button. :)

Birthday Update :)

Just FYI

If you've got a minute:

Scrapping some overdue stuff!

Scrappy Scrap Update! :)

Today, I am grateful

$8.47

Oquirrh Mountain Open House

Manti Pageant [A little overdue...]

It's all coming back!

*little thought*

[PROUD]

Call Reunion!

6 Months Ago [Yesterday]

Those....are not....our children.

...[bathroom humor]...ahem

[Slaughtered Chickens] = [Busy Busy!]

Last Day of Spring Term!

Last day of School Party!!!

we are SO cool. LOL

a little more progress... :)

a-Mae-zing!

the Dork-o-meter

Mother's Day!

***CRACK!***

....our little family is growing!

Bring the Heat!

The Final Countdown

My Husband is Brilliant!

u.p. to the d.a.t.e.

Eastertime!

the game plan

Making Progress. . .

"lanky, claw-toed, gorilla babies" -Jessica McGuire

There once was a girl at BYU...

Digital Scrapbooking.

Just FYI

The Start of Something Big

little thought

CRACK!