My Favorite Time of Year!

I've been having way too much fun to blog! For Christmas this year we're in Las Vegas visiting Calder's family and it's been busy busy busy since we flew in last Saturday. Warning: REALLY long post to follow.

Sunday night was the big Christmas party. Tons of family and close friends came over for some delicious food. It was really fun to see everyone and get to know some people a bit better. I discovered Calder is really bad at introducing me to people - several times I was standing next to him when he started a conversation with someone I had never met before - and just left me standing there! He has gotten better. Unfortunately I didn't pull my camera out for this event :(

Christmas Eve we went over to Calder's aunt and uncle's house for Christmas dinner. We had the traditional turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry deliciousness. After dinner we played a fun game of Christmas Bingo (I love anything 10x more if it has the word Christmas in front of it) and Aunt Catherine read us all a cute Christmas story. Again with the no pictures - sorry!

Christmas day is a day that I'm used to spending hanging out and relaxing - this year it was busy and fun filled all day long!

Christmas morning - we slept until 9ish and got up to open presents. It was so nice to not have any kids around to wake up super early. We got lots of great presents including a beautiful nativity set from Calder's parent's recent trip to Israel, Turkey, etc. Also I can say that being in a jewelry family pays off and we're anxiously awaiting going home and playing with our Playstation 3 (a combined gift from my parents and his). I did get some fun pictues here. We were going to a brunch and Calder's grandmas house right after so we didn't have any gross Christmas morning pictures.


An Obama book for the family liberal


Zoe in the cute "Santa's Little Helper shirt" we got her


The fam


The pre-opening

Next was breakfast at grandma's house! More delicious food. We also watched a really nice slideshow of family pictures throughout the years. I really like things like that - I'll have to get a copy. It was fun to watch Calder evolve from a cute happy kid, to a big grump, to happy again.




After brunch we went over to Calder's Aunt Linda's house for Christmas dinner with the Huntington side of the family. More delicious food (are you seeing a theme here?) Highlights included a super cute reenactment of the nativity story and some pretty Christmas music. I also got to meet a few family members that I hadn't met yet, so that was nice.



Saturday we woke up and took a family trip to the temple and had dinner at a yummy mexican restaurant.

Sunday was Coulson's mission farwell. He's preparing to serve in the Lima Peru mission. He goes into the MTC late January but was kind enough to have his farewell a few weeks early so that we could all be there! He gave a great talk and we enjoyed more hanging out with family and friends.

And that brings us up to today! We're here until January 6 and have lots more fun things planned!

Just Wait Until Calder Sees This!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Math 2374 - Multivariable Calculus (Calculus 3)

Wednesday Dec. 3 - 3rd Midterm Exam
Friday Dec. 5 - Homework Due
Tuesday Dec. 9 - Lab Report Due
Wednesday Dec. 10 - Homework Due
Wednesday Dec. 10 - Pre-lecture quiz
Friday Dec. 12 - Final

GIVE. ME. A. BREAK.
I'm supposed to study for this final when?

1. I like to study in the law school - it's more serious.

2. Calder studied at school Sunday and I stayed home and cleaned and watched Lifetime Christmas movies. I loved it.

3. I really like the Atkins Advantage vanilla shakes.

4. I'm not putting up Christmas decorations at all this year. I won't notice them at all during finals and we're leaving right after.

5. I didn't go to work today so that I could study for my two tests today. Now I'm blogging.

6. We bought a TV on Black Friday.

7. We got massages last night - found a massage school about 20 minutes away - $20 for a one hour massage.

8. Also got pizza last night. I bought a coupon book for $20 a few months ago with buy one get one deals for places all over the twin cities. We use it all the time and are trying to find where to buy one for next year.

9. We eat out a lot, but always have coupons. Love this website.

10. So excited for finals to be finished - a break and a vacation.

11. I'll have a double commute next semester. School in the morning (15 minutes from home), work (30 minutes away from school), then school at night. I'll do this at least two days a week, maybe three. I'm happy that I have a job and that I can go to school.

Before:


After:


Side View:


I LOVE it! The pictures don't do it justice - and it looks a little crazy since my bangs are still 'learning' to go to the side and to stay flat. Now if I didn't have to put on a hat to walk up to school everyday I'd look awesome.

(Do you like my Halloween decorations still up in the background?)

New Hair

I need a haircut and I'm having a really hard time making up my mind. Right now it's just long, flat and straight. It's not bad except that it's always in a ponytail by 9:00. I've narrowed it down to a few options... let me know what you think. Calder likes long hair... I told him that when he starts shaving his face everyday then he can have some (small amount) of input in my hairstyle.

Option 1: Heidi Klum Hair

Cute but doesn't really solve the 'long and annoying' problem.

Option 2: Hayden Panettiere Hair

My hair is straight and thin - so it could actually look like this.

Option 3: ... 'Random Girl With Cute Hair' Hair

I like this one, but I don't know if it would work well with my hair.

Option 4: Kimberly Caldwell Hair

I like this, but I think it's too short. I also don't think my face is round enough.

Let me know!

The Best Procrastination EVER

I have a paper due this week, another due early next week, two lab reports to do, math homework, and two tests coming up. What do I do?

LAUNDRY.

I haven't folded anything since school started. It had spilled over the first basket, spilled over a second, and had found a resting place at the foot of the bed. I was taking my life in my hands to get out of bed every morning. Now it's done.

Now back to work...

Crafty!

I went to a HUGE craft fair yesterday morning - I didn't buy much but found so many things that I want to have 'someday'. Most of it was decoration type stuff that I just don't have space to store right now but really loved.

My absolute favorite was the artist Randal Spangler. This is how I want to theme a kid's room... someday - a boys room more specifically. I love all the prints with the little dragons reading books. They are so colorful and really illustrate the love I hope any future child of mine will have for reading. He also had some paintings of awesome libraries. Really, really neat and whimsical. Check it out if you have a chance.

Also, and this isn't anything new, but they had some really cool felt play sets. I really liked the Bible Costumes and Costumes of The World sets.

I finally got to wear my new coat! I bought it a few weeks ago on a 50% off sale and loved it! Of course, the weather got warm again so I had to wait until today to wear it out of the house. Sorry for the dorky photo, I wanted one outside with the fall leaves and such, but when we pulled in the parking lot Calder had to dash upstairs to watch a replay of something that had just happened in the Vikings game.



I also feel the need to clarify my last post, just in case anybody was jealous. I thought he had folded the laundry. I later realized he only folded the whites and sweats and things that don't need to be kept unwrinkled. All of the actual clothes are still in a laundry basket that I will now need to iron. It was a nice try I guess.

Today I am Thankful that Calder did laundry (and folded it!) while I was working on a group project. Thanks babe!

Tripe

Ok, somehow I have lived the past 22 years without anybody being kind enough to tell me about tripe. I, before tonight, was oblivious to the fact that I shouldn't order it. Never. Nobody told me this. I'm blaming you.

Calder and I went out to a Thai restaurant that we've been to a few times, and every time previous I've had pad Thai. I really like it and am of the mindset that if I know I really like something, I don't want to risk getting something I don't like. Especially when I have to pay for it.

This said, I decided to act out of the box tonight and try something new. I saw Beef Laab on the menu and it looked delicious. Lime, green chilies, mint, cilantro, beef tripe. yum. I told Calder he pretended to look at it on the menu and said it looked good and I should get it.

My first hint that I was making a mistake was when the manager came out and described it as a very authentic dish just to make sure I knew what I was getting. I figured it is Minnesota and we weren't exactly in an area that I consider to be very open minded about food (I know, I'm one to talk) so I didn't think that much of it. Until my food came out and large chunks of something gross were all in it. I, still not understanding, tasted one. It was VERY SQUISHY.

To me, texture is huge. So I went through, and picked it all out of my food, and gave Calder one. Calder then, as I am starting to choke down the rest of my food (which still had small bits of the squishy stuff) decides to tell me what he things it is.

Intestine.

Not ok.

I covered up the bowl that I had put it all in and couldn't take another bite of my food.

Luckily and thankfully, Calder was nice about it (since I tried it with an open mind) let us get dessert (delicious banana egg roll things with ice cream) and then got me some egg rolls to eat so I didn't starve.

So now I feel an obligation to warn everybody about tripe. If you see it on a menu, be really careful and don't order it. Gross.

I'm thankful for...

Ok, so I'm a copycat. But today I'm thankful for the snow. I know I'll hate it in a month, but it snowed all morning (then melted) and it was so pretty and peaceful. It made me want to listen to Christmas music, then I decided that if I started now I'd be tired of it by Christmas, which would be sad.

If it were Obama, they'd be in jail.

It's official! Calder called yesterday and accepted a summer associate position at Richards, Layton & Finger in Wilmington, Delaware! They focus on corporate law, which is exactly what Calder wants to do. Delaware's law is such that many businesses throughout the country are incorporated in Delaware, so he's excited to be able to work that environment. With the economy in its current state, we feel very blessed and excited for this great opportunity. Many of our friends have had a hard time finding jobs since many firms have significantly cut back on their summer hiring.

Of course we had to celebrate - if you know me at all, you know that I love any excuse for a celebration. There's a seafood and steak restaurant called Alaska right by our apartment that we've been curious so we stopped in. Calder had a rack of wild boar and I had a bison rib-eye. Mine was definitely better than his (I think he just got sucked in by the idea of eating wild boar) but both were delicious. The best part about the dinner was the Parmesan truffle fries. Holy cow - delicious. If they sell just the fries to go I'm in deep trouble!

We're excited to see what Delaware has to offer! It's another place that I've never considered living, but seems to be nice. Wilmington is about 2 hours from DC, 45 minutes from Philadelphia, and 2 1/2 hours from New York City so that's three places (where I've never been) that I'll get to visit for sure!

Hurricane Ivy?

I usually try to keep my blog positive and free of complaining and whining, but I've had this incredible bad luck streak these past few weeks and it is actually starting to by funny. Here it goes (some of my days might be off a little...)


• Sunday - rolled over and smashed the end of the printer cable with chair so we had to print everything at school for a week until we got a new one
• Monday - Spilled water bottle in my purse - Everything was ok, Calder pulled the car over so I could dump it out...
• Tuesday - Dropped and broke laptop - Luckily Calder had accident protection on it so it's at Dell getting fixed now.
• Skip ahead a week…
• Wednesday – Mixed up the time for my Chemistry test and missed it completely - The professor is giving me an excused absence so no real harm done
• Thursday – Desktop computer (which only I use) mysteriously wouldn’t turn on - This isn’t my fault, but it was just one more thing wrong. Calder said it’s something about a power supply
• Friday – On our way to a nice relaxing dinner Calder asked for his credit card that I used for gas on Tuesday.- Looked everywhere, haven’t seen it since Tuesday

Stingy?

Is it bad to make food to bring somewhere, while secretly hoping that nobody likes it (or is even inclined to try it) so you can bring it home and eat it all yourself? I made some crawfish cornbread for enrichment tomorrow and already I can't stop eating it! It'll be amazing if any even makes it there, but if it does, I don't want anyone else to eat it. It's one of my favorite things and I don't have any more crawfish to make more!


(This is a picture from google, but mine looks similar)

Just for fun...

Cajun Crawfish Cornbread

2 c. cornmeal or 1 ½ c. meal and ½ c. flour
1 T. salt
1 tsp. soda
6 eggs
2 med. Onions
½ sliced jalapeno pepper (or more)
1 lb. cheddar cheese
2/3 c. oil
2 (16 oz.) cans cream corn
2 lbs. crawfish

In a large mixing bowl combine cornmeal, salt, and soda. In a medium bowl beat eggs thoroughly. Chop onions and peppers. Add grated cheese. Add to eggs, onions, jalapeno peppers, cheese, oil, corn and crawfish. Combine this mixture with cornmeal mix and mix well. Pour in a 12 x 14 inch baking dish. Bake at 350º for 55 minutes or until golden brown. 12 servings.

Since my mom linked to my blog today - I figured I'd better update! We've been busy busy busy and it doesn't look like it's going to calm down anytime soon. I'm sill working part time at Encompass and going to school in the afternoons and evenings. Calder's back in school too, as well as traveling around interviewing for summer jobs for next year. Generally the firm/company where you work the summer after your second year offers you a job after graduation, so it's a pretty big decision. So far he's been to Delaware and he's in Phoenix right now. He still has Dallas and some here left. I've been trying and failing to find time to do things like clean the apartment and enjoy myself. Some things I've just given up on, like folding clothes. Since school started, we've been grabbing clothes out of a basket of clean laundry that sits in the hallway. I wash every Sunday, hang up the stuff that will wrinkle, and everything else just sits there. Dishes pretty much sit in the sink until a weekend.

Here's a few thoughts on school:
1. I miss the BYU dress code. Some things I'd rather not see.
2. Everyone is really early to classes here. If I show up 5 minutes before class starts, it's hard to find a good seat and I actually feel like I'm late.
3. Nobody uses laptops in class. In some large classes, I'm the only one with my computer open. Super weird. I've actually seen people pull them out to look something up, then put it back in their backpack. So I guess people have them - just don't take notes on them?
4. People smoke here. Something I never thought about not seeing at BYU.

I am really enjoying being back in school - and it hasn't been too bad so far since I'm really excited to be there.

In my 'spare time' - I've been making thank you cards for Calder to send to his interviewers - look how cute!

Convention Thursday Night

Wednesday Night Convention Pictures

Sorry!

It appears my link for my last post didn't work out quite like I had planned - Sorry!

Here's some pictures from Wednesday - they're all pretty self explanatory I think!









!

Republican Convention

I went to the Republican Convention tonight and had a GREAT time. We have a good friend who's been working for the convention all year and she got us some passes to get in. I have to be at work at 7:30 so no time for a real post, but I did upload the photos to shutterfly for you all to see! Sorry I took so many - I just got a new camera (Happy Birthday to ME!) and was trying to figure out how to work it.

(The McCain is cardboard but Carly Fiorina is real! We ran in to her in the call and had to get a picture. We didn't have the flash on (Dang new camera and me not knowing how to work it yet).

PHOTOS

Hopefully this works and I promise more details will come - I might get to go back tomorrow!!

First Day of School!

Today was our first day of school!


I had Philosophy 1003 - Into to Ethics first. I actually went to the wrong class and got the first part of a Linguistics 4009 class before I realized that was definitely not where I wanted to be. My class is a big class taught by a grad student who seems like he'll be a lot of fun, but maybe not the best teacher. We'll see. It seems like a great topic, so I'm excited.

Next I had Math 2374 - Multivariable Calculus. It was the lab so we worked on computers and I got my first introduction to Mathematica. I'm pretty scared for this class since I struggled so much in my previous calculus classes, but I know there are a few freshmen in my class, so that does make me feel a little better.

Calder had Accounting & Finance and Tax. He's not much for details, but apparently the classes are fine - maybe more info later?

(I won't tell you what I had to do to get him to take this picture)

End of Summer Celebrations!

We took these past few weeks to have tons of fun before school starts up September 2. Both of our jobs have offered to let us stay part-time during the school year, so we're not going to have much time to do the things that we'd like to when that starts up.

Earlier this month Calder's parents came to visit for a week. We had a great time! Some of the highlights included seeing Mama Mia (Which I LOVED and am so glad we went - Calder never would have taken me otherwise), a delicious birthday dinner at Zelo (Thanks Grandma Hyer!!), a bus tour of the twin cities, and some time at the Mall of America. Ric also helped Calder install some lights in our living room so we can read at night now (Thanks!). I didn't take many picures, but here's some at Minnehaha Falls, a stop on the bus tour.


We had such a fun time with them!

A few days after they left, I had my company's tickets to a Twins game and we invited our friends Jason and Allison to come with us. We won, but it was a pretty fast game. Of course, the most important part of the baseball game is the ballpark food! Calder got a HUGE hotdog and I walked halfway across the dome to find some delicious nachos, which didn't disappoint. I didn't get the cracker jacks I was so looking forward to because the game was almost over by the time I finished the nachos :(



Early the next morning we left for Louisiana! The night before our wedding, we ate at a Mexican restaurant called Los Cucos and it was the best food we'd ever eaten, no lie. So we've really been looking forward to going back, which we did first thing after flying into Houston, and it didn't disappoint! It was so good we wen't back again when we were flying back home. Excuse the terrible picture of me.



Of course we went to the Creole Nature Trail hoping to see some gators. We saw some babies in the beginning, but nothing else the whole way around. When we got back around to the babies, we attempted to lure out the mama with a Fiber One bar. We never did see the mama gator, but we did lure out some more babies!






And of course we ate at Steamboat Bills!




And we went fishing! I haven't gone fishing in years, but luckily I have a great dad that would put the worms on my hook and take off the fish (I caught 10 but they were all tiny). Most of these pictures were on my mom's camera so I don't have them :(



We did a lot of other fun things - but that's everything I have pictures for!

And We're Off!

Yikes! I can't believe how fast time flies - summer is almost over! We've had a pretty busy couple of weeks. Calder's parents were visiting from Vegas all last week and we had a great time! I'll hit more on that later...

In 5 hours our flight leaves for home! I definitely wasn't planning to stay up all night tonight, but I just can't stand to go on vacation with a dirty house, and I didn't even start packing until after 10! We don't have a lot planned to do while we're there but it'll be fun to see my family.

We're still alive and expect a good long blog when we get home!

My Turn!

1. As a comment on my blog, leave a memory or two that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see what memories people have of you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. I would love to hear what you guys remember about me!

A few days ago I made Calder come with me to feed the ducks and geese. One thing that really shocked me when we moved here was the ridiculous number of geese EVERYWHERE! At the pond we went to I counted about 30 geese and 20 ducks. We had some moldy bagels, and it sounded fun.

Did you know that gesse hiss? Yeah, like a snake. They'd stand right in front of me and hiss until I gave them food.



I tried to get a picture of one hissing, this is as good as I could do.



I got brave and started letting them eat out of my hand. Notice the ugly babies - they used to be so cute!

We went to the farmer's market this morning (after I drug Calder around to garage sales!) and got a little excited about zucchini! It was $3 for a basket or $5 for two - of course we think - we might as well get two! We got home and realized we had 10 huge zucchinis! We broiled one for lunch and I have some zucchini bread baking right now - and no idea what to do with the other 8!




Poor guy - didn't get to sleep in this morning. Most garage sales here don't start until 9, but since I didn't know, I made us leave at 8 at the LATEST and figured we'd miss all the good stuff. We didn't run into any really good goes, but found this one that was stelling their house and most everything in it. They had tons of really neat antique things, typewriters, an old radio, a dictophone, old singer sewing maching, organ, and something they called a vacuum cleaner but was pre-electricity. Oh, and they had a really old baby stroller that I thought was really neat. Calder was really into the typewriters, so we bought one.

I got called out today on not having posted on the 4th of July. Sorry to all! I didn't because, well, I was so disappointed that I forgot to take pictures and figured that nobody would want to read a boring post about what we did with no pictures to go along with it.

Ok, here it goes, July 4th is Calder's birthday - so it was a double whammy for us! I love his birthday because it being a holiday means we'll always get to hang out and do fun things.

Thursday after work we started celebrating right away! Calder's work had some cake so I left a little early and went down there for that. They got an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen - yum! We walked around downtown for awhile and then went to Joseph A. Banks to buy Calder another suit. We also went and bought a cake.

Friday we started the day by going to our ward breakfast. It was fun to get up and eat good food that someone else cooked, but we were the only younger people there. Our ward has a ton of young couples, but I guess none of them felt the need to wake up at 8:00 and eat breakfast at a park. We vegged out most of the day and had dinner with our friends the Cooks. Later we walked with them down to Calder's office where we met up with some other friends and watched the fireworks from the tip top of one of the downtown buildings. It was a great day - I love holidays and weekends and birthdays!

All in all, it was a pretty uneventful weekend, Calder likes to just hang out and watch TV and read stuff on the internet. Since it was his day, that's exactly what we did! Holy cow - I can't believe he's 26 - that's almost 30 - YIKES!

Fast Food Junkie

I have a confession. I LOVE Sonic. I was devastated when I moved here and found out that there weren’t any around. It’s just one of those things you take for granted, you know? I went to Sonic before school at least 3 days a week my senior year of high school, sometimes more. Rt. 44 Diet Coke and large tots 90% of the time. Sometimes I’d mix it up and go for a strawberry cream slush. I didn’t even think to check for Sonic before we decided this was the place for us. I don’t know that it would have changed my mind, but I would have been prepared. Anyway, a Sonic opened up here! It’s way over on the other side of St. Paul, but it’s here. I’ve tried to convince Calder to go with me tons of times, but apparently it’s not worth the 35 minute drive from our house. Ridiculous. I was in the area today for work and figured, why not, it’s only about 6 minutes out of my way instead of 40. I got a burger and some tots with a rt. 44 cherry limeade. YUM! Sonic is such a hit here that they're using a nearby parking lot for cars to line up to get a stall. I didn't have to wait very long, but I heard that the waits were up to an hour when it first opened. I wanted to get so much more, but decided to have some restraint. Sonic is on my list of things to enjoy when I go to Louisiana!

More Nothings

We've been loving watermelon lately! This is what's left of our second one so far this summer. I actually had watermelon for lunch Sunday and Calder had it (with a cookie and a brownie) for dinner tonight. It's not the most filling food, but it sure is delicious!



To my excitement, I found some tomatoes growing on our plant! We gave up on the poor hail storm survivor plants and bought a new, more grown up, tomato plant from costco. I wanted to taste one, but decided it would be best to let the grow a little longer.



This is one of our favorite dinners. I know, it looks terrible. It actually tastes WAY better than it looks and is super easy to make. We have this probably once a week. It's as simple as throwing some things in a rice cooker and waiting.

Rice Cooker Cabbage

1 lb. seasoned ground round or chuck
1 med. Onion
1 bell pepper
1 can Ro-Tel tomatoes and juice
1 c. rice (I like wild rice)
1 c. water
1 head cabbage, chopped (sometimes it doesn't all fit)
Season to taste

Layer in rice cooker as listed. Push to cook rice. It's usually not done and needs to be cooked a little longer.