Midnight in Paris

Russ and I loved, loved, LOVED this movie.

We were delighted, nostalgic and heartbroken at all the beautiful Parisian scenery.

Owen Wilson was hilarious and it was fun to see how Woody Allen portrayed so many famous artists and writers.
Russ and I kept gasping every time a new artist came on the scene.

Go see it! Especially now that it's in the dollar theater.

Worst

My purse was stolen out of my car last night.

So I am down a wallet.

And credit and debit cards.

And a driver's license.

And a library card.

And ten dollars.

And a social security card.

And my collection of random euro coins.

And all the cute notes from Russ that I have saved for four years.

And a really cute purse that Target no longer sells.

And a Domino's coupon card I bought from one of my students who is on the basketball team.

And my makeup.

Yes, I am at school. Teaching. With not a stitch of makeup on my face.

My students are awfully quiet today, staring at me with a mixture of sympathy and disgust.

It's a perfectly bad dream. 

Too bad I can't wake up.

Skiing

Did you know Alta has free lifts every day from 3 to 4:30?

I didn't, but now I do.

And I want to take advantage of it every single day.

For all Russell's skills and ability, I appreciate his patience and willingness to scale bunny hills over and over with me, and also to race down the mountain when I'm going too fast, slide in front of me, catch me spectacularly and bring us both to a halt without me getting hurt.

Can't wait to go again!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We spent a few days before Thanksgiving in Logan with the Lees, and I don't have any pictures 

except for this one of my first-ever homemade pies:

And this one where we hurriedly squeezed into the mudroom and posed for a couple photo with Brian and MJ. I love the Lees.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at my Grandma Shirley's house. It was a beautiful day for a family picture.

My aunt Lorie made this beautiful horn of plenty.

Some people rested and let their stomachs expand rather than helping with dishes.

We played Bananagrams.

I had a genius round.

The next day, Melissa came over and we made Christmas garlands.

Today, we heard our friend Rachel give a talk. She is leaving on a mission to Independence, Missouri next month. She is an inspiration and a beautiful person, inside and out. I loved her talk.

Then I visited my darling friend Angie, who has a baby girl due next week.

Thanksgiving is such a wonderful time of year. I cherish the time I get to spend with friends and family
and eat several pounds of food.

"I Feel So Betrayed!"

I brought in my large collection of People Magazines for a project. 

My French I students loved finding pictures and cutting them out to make a collage.

But I think what they enjoyed most of all were the magazine covers and cheesy headlines of stories,
which they kept yelling out in passionate, emotional tones:

"Michael Douglas: I feel stronger every day!"

"Paris Hilton: my time behind bars!"

"Susan Boyle's Christmas album will have you nodding off in your nog!"

"Kim Kardashian: mistake or fake?!"

"Carrie Underwood's dream wedding: It was everything I could have imagined!"

"Christina Aguilera: I knew I had to end it!"

"Jessica Simpson's baby joy!"

"Bachelorette Ashley: 'I feel so betrayed!'"

Next time, maybe I should bring in Russell's collection of The Economist instead.

Three Texts From Russ

Text #1:
"There is a school-wide warning of some campus rapist and his description is me haha"


Text #2:
"Brown hair blue eyes between 6'3" and 6'5" clean shaven gray pants and black hood"


Text #3:
"It wasn't me I promise"

Better

These treasures are making me feel better.

Thank you, Divine Comedy Mormonadz. 

The Pits

Well.

My computer just deleted hundreds of my new photos.

With no explanation as to where they went.
I haven't felt this saddened or frustrated in a long time.

After a good cry and a large amount of crippling despair,
I have come to terms with it.
Almost.
After all, the experiences themselves are more important than the pictures.
(I just really love to print them out and put them in books...that's what my mom has done and I love getting them out and starting with their first year of marriage together and seeing myself as a 2-year-old and
reliving hilarious memories of my family growing up.)
So I will just tell you about the rest of October instead of show you.
Daniel celebrated his 18th birthday and we gave him a nice white button-up shirt.
I dressed up as a black cat for Halloween at my school.
We went to a murder mystery party. Russ was a mathlete and I was his math team cheerleader.
He had a mustache and looked like a pervert and we laughed about it the whole night.
We went to Island Park with our ward friends and had a blast. We stayed in a sweet cabin, hiked to the bottom of a gorgeous waterfall, saw the Old Faithful geyser at Yellowstone, drove around for hours in a sweet RV and played lots of games, and held darling babies. Oh, and Russ got some slack line and set up a tightrope between two trees.
I am ending this before I sink too deep into depression.

Fall Happenings

1. The Injury

I let one of my students borrow my red pen. 

When he was done, I told him to throw it to me. Bad one. He chucked it like a tomahawk and it hit me in the face. 

I tried to laugh and play it off, but my face and pride were suffering.

2. The Trip to Gardner Village

To celebrate my mom's and grandma's birthdays, we went to Gardner Village.
It's full of cute Halloween decorations, trendy boutiques of scarves and quilts, and cranky babies in strollers.
It was a beautiful day to walk around and window shop.

3. The Colors

Too lazy to drive the entire Alpine Loop but wanting to see the changing leaves before they disappeared, we drove instead through some richie neighborhood in the mountains and gawked at the beautiful fall colors in someone's backyard. 

Their driveway and wall are visible in these pictures. Ha.

Sweet Finds

Dress: $22

Tweed blazer: $16

Leather Italian shoes: $24

Bow tie: $7

What do we learn from the photos?

1. We had a lucky day of good finds from our favorite thrift store Decades

2. I still put clothes on backwards (only found out after three hours of church today
that the buttons are supposed to go in the front)

3. Russ has a rather large cold sore that hopefully goes away soon
4. He gets fussy when I make him take pictures with me
5. We have dirt and weeds instead of a front lawn

6. I cut my hair!

Birthday Weekend

Russ turned 26 on Saturday. 

We got up at the crack of dawn to hike Timp with my dad, Katie, and Daniel.

It's such a beautiful hike. It was my fifth time reaching the summit.

We drove home and showered and napped and then partied the night away.

Russ got a ton of treats and fun things. He was so happy.

I love this boy so much. I am so grateful he's mine. Who else would learn the song "Aubrey" on the guitar and sing it to me on our anniversary? Who else would play soccer with Emma in the backyard for 2 hours after hiking 18 miles? Who else would miss the BYU vs. Utah game to clean our church building and sing songs with me while he cleans the urinals and I wipe the sinks?
He is the absolute best.

School Picture

Don't you wish you had a job where they made you sit in front of a nice blue background and took your picture and THEN gave you an entire package of lots of different sizes of pictures FOR FREE - small ones to trade with your friends, medium ones to give to your grandparents, and a giant 8x10 that you have no idea what to do with?

I really do give the medium ones to Grandma and Nana.
And I really don't know what to do with the 8x10 except scare Russell by putting it on the fridge.

Blue backgrounds are lame and boring.
I'd much rather have a little creativity in pictures, and let your interests and personality shine:

What We're Watching

One Day

I never ever pay full price for movies, unless it's Harry Potter. After I finished reading the life-changing book by David Nicholls, however, I couldn't not go see this movie right away. Jim Sturgess and Anne Hathaway? Romantic Scottish accents? Yes please. Russ went on a long run and I went to Cinemark and forked over $8.75 to watch this by myself. Even though the book is better (isn't it always?), I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It's a tender, simple, beautiful story of two people and their relationship over the course of twenty years. I laughed and cried a lot.

Sophie Scholl: The Final Days

I read that this movie about Sophie Scholl, Germany's most famous anti-Nazi heroine, was amazing and won lots of awards. Russ and I love foreign films, so this came to us in our Netflix queue. I can't believe this is a true story. Sophie had incredible strength and courage to stand up for what her conscience told her was right. It's such an inspiring story, and it made me think about my values and what I would be willing to die for.

Mad Men

Several of our friends recommended this show to us, so we rented Season 1, Episodes 1-3 from Blockbuster for 99 cents. I'm glad we didn't pay any more for it. Mad Men, do you seriously expect me to believe that there wasn't a single conversation or relationship in the 1960s that wasn't riddled with misogyny and/or sexual innuendo? Why are your characters such rotten people? Not even one of them is likable. Don Draper showed promise at the beginning, and held out for an episode and a half, but quickly proved himself to be just as much of a scumbag as his disgusting co-workers. The most irritating part is that Russ and I are weirdly intrigued and we want to know what's in store for these dummies. Pathetic and embarrassing? Yes.

King Kong

I absolutely love this movie. I saw it ten times in the theaters (Yes, ten. That's thirty hours of my life). Every time I got asked out on a date and we went to the movies, I'd casually say, "Oh, I haven't seen the new King Kong yet" and that's what we'd see. I love Jack Black and Naomi Watts, I get totally freaked out by those indigenous people, I cry for King Kong when he's confused and upset in the city, and I think the fight scene with King Kong and the T-Rex is some of the best CGI I've ever seen. Russ loves it too, which is perfect, so we Netflixed it, and I enjoyed it for the fourteenth time just as much I did the first.

Bachelor Pad 2

This is definitely the most embarrassing show I watch. I don't have a TV, so I have to go to a friend's house or wait until Tuesday to watch it on Hulu. This show has been so entertaining and full of drama. Michelle Money! Russ and I both have a crush on her. Vienna and Jake in the same house! Kasey being a backstabbing jerk! Weirdo Ericka trying to seduce everyone! The Michael-Holly-Blake love triangle! Melissa acting so insecure and immature that I have chills of embarrassment! I can't wait for the finale.

Midway to Heaven

Nerdiness and cheesy lines know no bounds in this Mormon romantic comedy, which we only saw because we love Michelle Money. It's about some widower dad who is doing everything he can to prevent his only daughter from marrying Kirby Heyborne (wouldn't you do the same?).

Super 8

This movie was such a delight. We were so glad when something worthwhile finally came to the dollar theater (Seriously, Rio? Even if you stay there for six months, I won't see you). The bit with the alien was a bit contrived and sappy, but I really believed in the chemistry between Elle Fanning and Joel Courtney. They are the cutest couple since Kate and Leonardo. I also laughed my head off at all the banter between Joe and his pre-pubescent friends. Freaking hilarious.