Oh, the glorious bed!

We recently (as of yesterday) joined the world of the real live furniture owners. (The kind of furniture you actually have to purchase rather than those items graciously bestowed upon you by very kind and loving family members and friends)

We decided that almost 8 months was a sufficient testing ground for whether or not a full bed was going to work out for us to sleep on. The key here is SLEEP on... not just lay down for 6-8 hours. For Bobby, who would have slept through punching me in the eyeball had it not been for me crying out in pain, sleeping may not be the problem. He apparently sleeps through everything (except for me screaming...) Though even heavy sleeper Bobby was beginning to notice the back aches he was continually waking up to...

I wish I had a picture for you that would actually do justice to the image. But just try to imagine this scene if you can. Bobby is 6'4" and has a habit of sleeping with his arms above his head, which means that his body starts about a foot into the bed already. This leaves pretty much everything from his knees down, directly hanging off the bed. (and due to age and lack of sturdy nature, this means the bottom half of the bed had a gradual curve downward) Then there is me, clinging as closely as I can to the edge of the bed, trying to leave as much as I can for Bobby because; 1) he's bigger than me, and 2) I knew that I, being the much lighter sleeper, was the one likely to wake up in the middle of the mattress or blanket war.

So decision made, we set out to buy a bed. It was an adventure of going from store to store and lying on lots of beds. Pretty much all of them, we decided, felt better than ours. Then came the moment of truth.... WHICH one of the fabulous beds out there were we going to take home? I think we started forgetting which ones we liked and which ones we hated, because we had laid on so many! We called and consulted with "the experts" (i.e. those of you who would answer your phones that night!) Then we chose our new bed!!!

It is so big we can both sleep in it and hardly know the other person is there! Bobby lying sideways is still bigger than out last bed!
I of course had to fight through a couple days of buyer's anxiety.. Did we get the right bed?? Was it worth the extra money for a bed that's better, or are they all so much better than our bed that we won't realize what we're missing once we are sleeping on it, and we should get the cheaper ones. Eric, one of our wise expert opinions, scoffed and rolled his eyes at that comment, apparently his vote was not for the questionable, cheap, no-name mattress. I'm sure he had our best interest, and our back's interest, at heart! But Bobby trumped all anxiety with the statement, "Megan, we are going to have this bed for 20+ years. Pick the bed you want for 20 years, and not just for right now." Alas, Decision made, we got the better bed. And we are very happy about it!

halloween cupcake craziness

Every once in a while I get this little itch to do something outside of my realm of comfort and talent. (Lately I have been wanting to do them more frequently, which usually just means that our little apartment is going to be a disaster until I get it all sorted out!)

This year, for some reason, I have been dying to make random crazy Halloween cupcakes. Why? I don't know, but the desire was strong enough that I actually set out for a reason to have to make the cupcakes (because heaven knows we don't need to eat 2 dozen cupcakes all by ourselves...) So a friend and I decided to put together a Halloween shin dig, just so that we would have an excuse to make fun Halloween food.

It doesn't help, mind you, that Martha Stewart puts out all sorts of magazines with fun ideas, and my brain seems to interpret them thinking that they can't possibly be too hard or time consuming.. (again forgetting my lack of experience, or creative genes!)

Then, last week, they sent around a sign up sheet at church asking people to bring a dessert to the ward Halloween activity. My response, "SWEET!" (Still being in the excited motivated, having not yet started the project, phase...)


So this is me, Tuesday night. I pulled the table into the middle of the living room to watch TV while I played, since I was home by myself. And Bobby came home to quite a mess!

He didn't mind the mess so much- because then he got to eat pumpkin cupcakes, various colors of all cream cheese frosting and random candies. (He even tried to help me decorate a few. It was awesome. He used licorice to look like a knife sticking out of the cupcake!)

We had to strategically store the cupcakes so all the fancy frosting and candies would not bump into each other. However, when I went to collect the cupcakes Wednesday, they were in a little bit of a sad shape. The taffy, once stiff and spiked all fancy like, was looking a little more droopy, and the frosting also had softened up and gotten a little slippery looking...

But alas, we took them to the ward Halloween party anyway... But I was a little sad. I think people were a scared of them. By the time we left, I think about 5 of them had been eaten.. but I slyly took the plates out from under them and left them there in case someone else got brave and wanted to eat them (and lets be honest, I didn't want to walk out with them and have everyone know who had made the scary looking cupcakes!

So now, I got to make the silly cupcakes that I was excited about. It was half a success and half a bust... and now I'm stuck having to make them again Halloween night for the party I threw just so that I could the silly things! Sigh....

A day in the life of a grape...

One of the wonderful things about working for state government is that I get just about EVERY holiday off! So for Columbus day, while Bobby slaved away at school, I headed up to Brigham City to make Grape Jelly and Grape Juice. Little did I know that was I was going to be doing the most of was making a giant purple mess!

The first bonus, is that I got to spend a few hours outside in the glorious sunshine. I love'd my life. Bobby can attest to my longing for the great outdoors. Sometimes I will just stare out our bedroom window with this sort of longing look on my face. True Story. That is when Bobby knows it is time for a field trip. So though it took hours, I looked for every little bunch of grapes I could find on the property lining my grandma/sister/ mom's house (this was my grandparent's home, the one my mom grew up in and that I would visit every summer, then my sister and her family bought if after my grandparent's passed away, and my mom rented it from my sister when their family moved to seattle... got all that?? I know, I know, it was a tangent)



Once the buckets full of grapes actually made it into the house, there was a lot of sitting around waiting for the grapes to do their thing, and cook all the juices out, and then 1000 things to do within a 2 minute period of time to get them properly in the jars, or made into jelly and jars sealed. This means also, that there was a colossal mess to made within those 2 minutes of waiting. I can't believe that I didn't get a picture of it... My favorite is when I grabbed onto the hose from the steamer juicer, without the instant realization that it was scorching hot. When the realization hit me, I let go of the hose and it when flailing about (like only hoses filled with liquid and snakes could imitate) Do not forget that the liquid in this hose was in fact grape juice, and yes, it sprayed ALL over the kitchen. Well, at least I got to spend some quality time with the bleach, and JoElle can rest assured that the floor under the stove has been sufficiently sanitized. At days end, the mess magically turned into some pretty delicious grape treats.

bikes and skirts

I'm not so sure why, but I have this secret love for riding my bike in a skirt. I don't know if this is a suppressed connection to being a sister missionary, but I just love it. It makes me feel feminine and slightly cool all at the same time... Just waiting for the questioning backward glances.. Yes, that was a girl riding a mountain bike in a skirt that just rode by... Juvenile I'm sure, but isn't life all about the simple pleasures?

These pictures are from our trip to Oregon. There are beautiful excuses to ride your bike all over the place.

And, of course, I had to sneak in these pictures of Bobby showing off... uh.. I mean having fun!

Friday Night Date Night

Bobby asked me out on a date. He is beginning to realize that if he asks me, I'm then going to hold him responsible for planning the event. This is one of his fabulous ideas, and a perfect compromise for me needing a little spice and adventure by weeks end, and his need to just be able to chill and watch a movie..

BUILD A FORT!!

Since our living room is not very large, that really equals covering the entire living room and all of its furniture with all the blankets and sheets we own.

It was a great marathon date. First there is the building adventure...

The Monopoly inside the fort-

watching a movie on the computer-

and then slumber party!

A visit from the hair dye fairy

For most of my life, I was somewhat afraid of coloring my hair. I had this motto in my life that went something like this, "if my hair looks bad and it is naturally like this, it isn't my fault. But if it looks bad and I made it look like that, well then it IS my fault" So thus I led my life without hair color, and probably pretending that I had some high and mighty moral opposition to the whole thing.

However recently, I've had a change of heart. I don't know how long the phase will last, but I decided, HEY! I might as well experiment and do a few fun things to spice it up. So here is the closest thing that I get to spice. It feels pretty big to me.

I also have to tell you that I know little to nothing about haircolor, and can't really afford to go have someone do it who knows

what they are doing. So at first whim, I purchased a $3 soft black colored dye from the Wal-Mart. When a co-worker and my sister freaked out a bit about that option, I went for a small upgrade in price and down-grade in color. But instead of returning the original purchase.. Bobby decided he has always wanted to dye his hair black. So here you have it.. The new and improved (maybe..) Bobby and Megan! (That spiked do is what happens when you let your husband dye your hair!)

Ode to the Summer

I have a feeling that this blog thing will be much like my journaling habits... sometimes excruciatingly detailed (he said... and then I said..., and then his face did this one thing.. and then I felt... and then I said...) and other times, it is like I have a mental sticky note, I need to write about llama fest and camping and making cobbler and going to Oregon and... Yet I still don't write it until months have past and in the end, instead of multiple entries and details that make entertaining stories, really it is just a really long run on sentence trying to make sure that I don't miss anything that I was supposed to document...

Thus we now have the Ode to the Summer.... This is the culmination of a fabulous first married summer. I'll start with what was my driving motivation to enter the blogging world in the first place... The Llama Fest. This is a well earned tradition in my book. One of those adventures where the memories and the stories you tell about it are probably better than the real thing.. I've been telling Bobby about it since we first started dating. Who can pass up watching Llama's run an obstacle course? So Bobby had his inaugural year. He was even a good sport when I told him that I was going to pay additional money to purchase "llama food" because it isn't a true experience unless you pet the llamas and let them eat out of your hand. However, he was quick to inform me that although he would be a good sport about letting me do it, he had NO intention of touching or feeding a llama.


So of course, the pictures here are because he DID give in and decided to touch AND feed the llama and let me take a picture of it! (I think secretly, I was not getting rid of the food fast enough and he wanted out of the llama pin, so he took it into his own hands!)

And then there is all the good summer food! After seeing pictures of Jeanie's blackberry cobbler... making Bobby look at the pictures too... I kept hearing about the famous Grandma's cobbler recipe.. (pictures and recipe included on Jeanie's blog http://ninijeanie.wordpress.com/2007/07/12/cobbler//2007/07/12/cobbler/) Based on Mom Porters recommendation that it is delicious when you use half wheat and half white flour.. I was finally able to drag Bobby to the Lehi Roller Mills to purchase fresh wheat flour (with the double bonus that now he wouldn't have an excuse to not make me wheat pancakes!!) and Viola! The fruits of my flirtation with the possibility of being a baking woman!

My second adventure with the cobbler was done in true dutch oven glory (although I can't take the credit as Sarah was the one who put the ingredients together before the camp out)Bobby did his job well as the dutch oven

I had a great time playing with the kiddos and eating lots of mallows and had an even greater time watching Lisee try to roast mallows for everyone and really just drop them all in the dirt, pick them back up and try to convince you to eat them.

Patrick's Point had many adventures... though it appears that we documented mostly those having to do with food... Including Sarah's sacrifice of her cake pans for our breakfast cooking needs..

But there were other beauties to explore, including Agate beach. As determined as they were, Bobby and Ethan struggled to find agates in this gaping wound of a hole they dug (though the rest of us seemed to be effortlessly finding them just sifting our hands through the sand!)

Last week we had an amazing lightning storm and the weather has been cooling down. A reminder that summer is almost over (and if I still want to call this post an Ode to the Summer, I better finish it soon!) As I was getting ready for work, I figured that the thunder must have surely at least caused Bobby to stir a LITTLE. NO. After about 20 minutes, I am curious to see the lightning attached to the storm. I go in to the bedroom and find Bobby still sleeping soundly, face right next to the window, which is rattling due to the loud thunder. But I woke him up and we sat mesmerized by the beauty of the lightning. So much so that I went to work a half hour later than usual because that is how long we stared out of our window. (although Bobby repeatedly said, okay, I want to see one more good lightning and then I'll get in the shower!!) I wish I had an awesome picture of the lightning... but I didn't think to bring out the camera.

And now that I've rambled for a really long time, (as promised) Ill finish off my tribute to the summer in list fashion with some great pictures of our adventures.

The 4th of July, complete with a field trip to the hot air balloon launch with the Norris Family (which I love because being with little kids allows me to get all excited and act like I'm 5 years old, without getting the weird looks!) As well as fireworks and sparklers with friends.

And no summer would be complete without hiking in the gorgeous canyons (sponsored by the color green... my favorite color) Which, I must say, will have to happen far more often next summer!