Tanner

Last weekend I flew home to watch my youngest sibling play in his High School Championship Football game at the Oakland Coliseum. I arrived late Friday night and left Sunday afternoon; a quick but extremely eventful trip home. Each night I stayed up as late as possible, absorbing all the time and attention I could get out of my little bro. Growing up as the 2nd oldest of 6 kids didn't give me very many chances to spend one-on-one time with my siblings. I find myself trying to rid them of the image of my being the nagging older sister/babysitter. But if I loved Tanner then (he doesn't remember me begging him for little baby kisses) he probably doesn't have any idea of how proud of him I am or how much I love being around him now.

And Congratulations to the Concord High School Football team. They won the NCS Football Championship for the first time in their school history. They beat Rancho Cotate High School, 40-37, by scoring a touchdown in the last 25 seconds of the game. It was amazing.

thanksgiving

after rachel and daniel left, i started prepping the house for thanksgiving and more family (yay!). i figured it was only fitting to make my first full thanksigiving meal in our first home, and with that, i decided to make everything. from scratch. except for the pumpkin pie and the rolls. two important components, yes. but as there were only two of us, i started to forget why we didn't just go out for dinner. or order in. the rolls and pie became very long after-thoughts. i still can't decide if it was all worth it, but i guess i'll chalk it up to an experience.

the menu:

roasted butternut squash soup

cranberry sauce

sausage, dried cranberry and apple stuffing

buttermilk mashed potatoes

gravy

a whole (yes whole. i'm still not over it) roasted turkey with rosemary citrus salt

roasted brussel sprouts (for me)

brown sugar carrots (for nic)

cranberry marshmellow salad delight

pumpkin pie (henry's farmers market)

rolls (costco)

so this was our first full thanksgiving menu. i have a feeling in 20 years i'm going to enjoy looking back and seeing this. i'm pretty sure the only things i loved were the cranberry salad and soup. next year if we're alone again, i think i might just go for a pot roast. turkey shmurkey.

and then there was carpet. finally.

after 4 months of living on plywood, we finally had carpet laid. it was a good day.

these aren't great pictures, i know. but it's all i have for right now. finished product to come soon! (i hope)

Daniel and Rachel

This year for Thanksgiving, Nic and I decided to stay in Orange County. After our first year of living down here, I promised Nic I would never go home for Thanksgiving again. This was of course while we were in the thick of traffic heading south on the 5 on the Sunday following the most traveled holiday of the year (the normal 6 hour drive took over 10 hours). Probably not the best moment to make such a statement. Although I don't think the decision will be permanent, we haven't gone home since for this particular holiday. Last year we spent Thanksgiving with some of my family who came down to visit, and this year, we got to spend time with members of both our families.

I had this brilliant idea of convincing my 3 youngest siblings to come down and visit us for a few days before actual Thanksgiving day. The idea was for Daniel and Rachel to drive here from BYU on Sunday and then drive up to be with the rest of our family on Wednesday. I found a great price on a one-way ticket for Tanner to fly down, with the plan for him to drive home with Daniel and Rachel. Unfortunately, my plan foiled with Tanner's high school football team made it to the play-offs. I should say, unfortunate for me and fortunate for him and Concord High. (Stay tuned-I fly home this weekend for the FINAL game of the season at the Oakland Coliseum! Concord High made it to the FINALS for the first time since 1989. I'm a proud older sister.)

Fortunately, Daniel and Rachel were still on board to come and got here on Sunday just as we got out of church. We had so much fun. We ate, we watched movies, we talked, they argued, we shopped, we ate some more, had bowling night at Lucky Strike, watched Harry Potter and went to a live taping of Jay Leno! Nic had to work when we went to the taping, so it was just the three of us. There's something about the experience of seeing a taping of a show that you know will be broadcast on live TV. It was very cool. We didn't end up with the most exciting of guests, but it was the experience of it all that made it worth it. (I should say that Daniel really enjoyed the guest-The Rock, Dwayne Johnson)

Nic makes fun of me because I have a short attention span when it comes to certain things. Well, lots of things. Like in a round of golf, I usually lose interest around hole 13. I typically stick to just 9 :). When we bowl, I lose interest after 2 games. Like clockwork. We paid for 2 hours of bowling, so Nic came up with some ideas to make things a bit more interesting. We bowled with eyes closed, backwards, granny style, left-handed (right-handed for Nic), from the front line, etc etc...I think you get the point. It kept us focused and competitive and it was so fun.

They are both planning to leave on missions next year, so it was so nice to have so much quality time with them. I'm not gonna lie, I cried when they left...And I miss them a whole lot. I'm so glad we'll be together for Christmas so soon.

Worth the Wait

We are finally on the last leg of our remodeling journey...the hardwood! Nic started the installation of our hardwood on Saturday. To say we are excited is definitely an understatement. Yay!

A Sneak Peak of the Progress

November 9, 2010

Happy 3 year anniversary to my sweet husband. I can't believe it's been 3 years. Thank you for making my life sweeter, more loving, more peaceful, more exciting, and happier than I could ever have imagined. I love you.

GO GIANTS!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010 World Series Champions!!!

Paint

So I have this love-hate relationship with Paint...the act of painting and the actual substance. To those that would listen, I voiced hesitation and slight panic at the prospect of painting our new home, even before we moved in. More than any other project we had decided we could handle with buying a house, painting is what scared me the most. I dreaded it. It took me weeks (dare I say months) to simply pick out a color. Now it has taken months to get the color on the walls. I'm pretty sure that almost no one can understand why it has taken so long, so let me explain. In our new world, painting isn't simply rolling color onto walls. It's sanding baseboards, filling holes and dents, TSPing everything, taping around trim, painting trim, taping the painted trim, taping and covering walls and light fixutres and outlets and cupboards and ceilings. We have a tri-level house with 3 separate stair cases (which all include spindles and handrails....aka 'trim') and 15' ceilings. We've dealt with bad spray tips, bad spray guns, and so many trips to Home Depot that they anticipate what we need before we even open our mouths. Even if someone I trusted had tried telling me, I wouldn't have believed how much money could be spent on tape and paper and plastic. I now understand why the 'P' word is a bad word in the Carl Mattingly household. Basically, Preparation sucks.

But now on to the love...I LOVE* our paint colors and how beautiful they look on the walls with the crisp lines and even sprays. I now know for sure that prep is worth every minute. And I'm so grateful for a husband that is willing to put in the time and effort to make all our hard work worth it. Nic has, with unconditional help and guidance and countless phone calls with Carl, learned how to paint a house with a paint sprayer and I'm seriously really proud of him. Another reason I'm feeling love...we are almost finished! Well, with the painting part at least. :)

*After 10 years, I thought for sure my mother-in-law wouldn't put it past me to love a neutral color, but she said it wouldn't happen. Not only was she totally wrong, but the tables have turned and she is now seeing for herself the beauty of neutral colors. (insert cunning laugh :))

It is currently 62 degrees

overcast, and drizzling right now in Orange, CA. Welcome October, welcome Fall and welcome the Holidays. I've missed you and I'm so happy you're back.

A paint color was picked...

Below are some pictures from our weekend extravaganza. I know everyone is so jealous that we are now going on two months and I still have to concentrate on not stepping on tack-strip as I climb the stairs. And I'm sure you're wondering why all the pictures of the house still look like the day we moved in. But I don't really have a reason. I just want to say thank you to Carl for the endless hours of hard work this past weekend. We are much further along because of you and 'thank you' just doesn't begin to describe our gratitude.

Nic standing on a jimmy-rigged scaffolding on the top rung of a 16 foot ladder. I'm glad I wasn't here for this.

There's really no place to sit. Unless you count the camping chairs now sitting on our front porch.

This...

Equals this:

Hard at work:

Our Birthdays

Last week, Nic and I both celebrated our birthdays…I turned 27 and Nic turned 29. The best part of our birthdays is that we get to share them with each other. We are two days apart (me on the 8th, Nic on the 10th) and people always ask me if I like sharing my birthday. Let me confirm: I LOVE sharing our birthdays. It’s become my favorite part of my own birthday, knowing that a celebration for me is also a celebration for him. The best part is that it usually turns into a birthday week, and we are equally excited because we are both celebrating together. It's no longer Nic's Birthday or Bekka's birthday. It's Our Birthdays. It’s seriously the best.

Each year as we turn a year older, I reflect on our previous years together. Sometimes I can’t believe we are getting older. Most of the time, I still feel like the 16 year-old little girl that fell head-over-heels in love with the 18 year-old with bleach blond hair. I think it’s this reason that makes getting older so much weirder. Yes, weird. It’s not hard or unwanted, it’s just weird. We look the same (almost identical) and we feel the same (except that now we’re married and have graduated from college and work full-time and own a home…but you get the point), but we’re now 11 years older. He’s no longer writing notes to get me out of class and our date nights no longer consist of grilled cheese sandwiches and hot chocolate at Denny’s. But I’m just as head-over-heels for him now as I was then. Every day, my love for Nic grows deeper. After 10 years, he still opens doors for me. he holds my hand as we fall asleep every night. he dances with me to my favorite songs in our living room. he loves whatever I make him for dinner. he respects me and honors our marriage. and he loves me regardless of my imperfections. I love this man and cherish every birthday with him. I can't wait to look back on our adventures as we celebrate 98 and 100 together.

Progress...

is slow. and picking a paint color sucks.

We finally have Internet!!!

I have totally taken internet for granted. We finally have internet at the new house and I'm so happy. It's weird how no TV and no internet can make you feel completely isolated from the world. Hello World. I've missed you.

The Joys of Home Ownership