Phenomenal Cosmic Holidays

Our mini Thanksgiving feast! 

Merry Christmas! We hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving (all the Americans reading this that is). Ryan and I had fun with our first Thanksgiving meal together. We certainly missed the big family meals we're used to, so we compensated by making sure we focus on having our favorite, classic dishes. It turned out to be quite the challenge and event to cook Thanksgiving on a small-scale. Seriously, we only had one pie, and it was still too much food. We had decided that it doesn't feel very festive unless there is an actual bird on the table, and since turkeys are gigantic, we got a mini-turkey! By which I mean a rotisserie chicken. Pre-cooked obviously. Because my favorite part about Thanksgiving is mashed potatoes and not bird-prep.

In fact most of our food took very little time to cook, so all afternoon I was antsy. I felt like I should be cooking all day, but really, for just two, you only have to plan for the hour before you eat. The real fun began when we realized that we don't yet own enough pots, pans, or serving spoons to heat up every little thing simultaneously.

I've been exploring my crock-pot recipe book. The day before
 Thanksgiving I tried a new dessert. Oreo Cream Cheese Brownies,
though ok, were not nearly as exciting to eat as they were to blend :)

So our latest and most exciting news this month is that I have a job! Like a real one! Really! Haha, ok, ok, hours-wise that's probably still questionable. I'm a substitute teacher! I sub for one of the local public school systems and currently work with most subjects, 5th grade and up. I do not sub for any math classes, but I'm sure most of you realize that is best for all involved. :) Apparently I am the only sub who knows German and Latin. (Shocking, I know) The coordinator was so excited for me to meet the high school language teachers and tell them they finally have a sub who can actually understand the lessons. It seems so silly, but that absolutely made my day! I haven't subbed for any language classes yet, but I have subbed for both 8th and 5th grade. It was so fun! It's tiring, but so satisfying and invigorating...maybe a part of me enjoys the phenomenal cosmic powers of being the teacher in a room full of students a bit too much. Honestly though, the best part is when a student says, oh so bluntly and sincerely, "You're nice. Can you sub for us every time?" If they think I'm nice, then clearly the cosmic powers aren't going to my head as much as I thought.

I only subbed twice before the holiday break started, but I still could go on and on talking about those fabulous days. Some things are just too good not to share, though, like how I may be the youngest teacher in the building, but I am still shocked by the level of technology available in every classroom and in most kids' pockets. I never thought I would be telling a room of 8th graders that if they are silent, they can have free cell phone time at the end. That really worked. And they all had phones. All of them. Mostly iPhones. It was nuts.

I promise this ditch looked exactly like a
sidewalk on Google Maps Satellite view

The last thing I'll expound on about subbing is my adventures in transportation. We live fairly near most of the schools. And since our car would prefer that I not drive it too much, I plan on biking/walking to work. One of the days I worked, it was raining all morning, so Ryan dropped me off before he went to work. This meant I walked home. But we planned it, right, so no worries? I actually google-mapped the way to bike/walk to the school and back! The satellite view showed a very clear strip of pale concrete in the grass along the road the whole way to the school. Perfect. This time, I'm a step ahead of those tricky sidewalks. Or so I thought. As I discovered on my jaunt home that windy, wet day, there was a concrete ditch most of the way, not a sidewalk. Apparently those two are indistinguishable on Google Satellite. Touche, local civil engineers, touche.

Eventually, I did get on a real sidewalk, which promptly ended at a highway entrance.

At this point I am laughing, because I can see that just under that highway sign is more sidewalk and a crosswalk. What civil engineer planned this? (I'm assuming they plan the sidewalks in cities) What kinda joke is this? Muwahaha, those pedestrians will never find this pathway!? Or maybe the joke is on the sidewalk. Clearly, I was meant to continue walking whether it continued under my feet or not, therefore it's existence is irrelevant. At times like these I am struck that the presence and continuity of sidewalks can plague a girl in the 21st century when not long ago they didn't exist at all, and in many places they would still be quite the novelty.  (Who's seen Lark Rise to Candleford? Cause there are no sidewalks in that whole show!...or most BBC shows)

This is the crosswalk 15 feet away from that last sidewalk end.
 It is behind the green sign in the other photo. I laughed so hard.

On that same, entertaining trek home, I passed under the highway. It was stunning beneath! The pillars go on and on till I couldn't see any further! This has little to do with anything; I am now rambling and in pretty-picture mode.

Can we all please enjoy the excellent photo-bomber directly
 next to Ryan's head? Well done, random citizen

Getting back to actual adventures with Ryan and me. Ryan's work had a marvelous Christmas dinner party a bit ago. It was marvelous in how professional and grown-up it seemed. We dined in a skyscraper. And the high-up bosses flew in for it. We sat one table over from a multi-millionaire, no biggie, right? A few months ago, we were dining in our college apartment with shredded carpet and busted table legs. The ghetto of Provo student housing. My, how quickly things change :)

View from Ryan's work's party!
Flat land can be pretty
 (we do miss mountains though)

Ryan and I are experimenting with holiday traditions. I think we've found a keeper: cutting our own live Christmas tree! My brother, Courtney's family, gave us the idea. It was too fun. About a month before my parents had driven out to visit us and kindly brought all my stuff that had been at home, including ornaments and decorations! We now own just enough to decorate a small tree, so we decided that we would pick one that was shorter than me. Ryan sawed it down himself and carried it to the trailer, while I made sure it was the right height. (I acknowledge that those things did not take the same amount of effort) It fit in the trunk of our car! We were originally imagining a Charlie Brown tree-type, but it is way to full and fat. We love it!

Before

After :)

I'd apologize for the length of this post, but I'm sure most of you know me too well to be surprised. It has been a fun-filled few weeks here in Oklahoma, and we are slowly getting to know people here. Another couple who just graduated from college invited us to the wife's Christmas Orchestra concert, which was so fun to go to. We've loved getting Christmas cards this past month! There's another new tradition for us to attempt next year :).  If you guys haven't seen it yet, here is a link to an amazing new Christmas video. It's a perfect little reminder of the joy behind celebrating Christmas! Merry Christmas! May all our love and the holidays fill you with phenomenal cosmic joy! 

Those TV allusions really are all over the place for Ryan and me. 

Somebody hid Momo behind baby Jesus.

Well, We Had a Good Day at the Fair

Have you guys seen the movie That Thing You Do?

Hehe, so for this line, Lenny says it with a Southern/country-type accent to pretend he's competing in the fair. Several weeks ago Ryan and I went to the state fair here in Oklahoma, and Lenny's voice just kept coming to mind, narrating all our discoveries that night. At first we thought the whole joke about how the South can fry any food was exaggerated. But oh, how accurate it is! EVERYTHING at the fair was either deep fried, or on a stick. While at the fair we discovered an entire stand of bacon-covered/fried foods, fried Oreos, fried Reese's, fried cheesecake, fried twinkies (I thought they were a myth!) and many much moosen of fried foods. Naturally, we wanted to be able to show you guys proof, so our favorites are in photos below. 

Here you can see that we did in fact eat fried cheesecake.We regret nothing. It was delicious, in a feel-your-arteries-clogging-this-instant kind of way. Ryan and I were most perplexed by the sign to the left of the fried cheesecake. "Deep Fried Garlic Mashed Potatoes On A Stick". How. How do you fry mashed potatoes? And how on earth do you keep mashed potatoes on a stick? We didn't order any, so we may never know till next year, but the sign was great to read in Lenny's voice.

The fairgrounds are huge! We probably didn't even see half of the booths in the expo center, but we were privileged to make it to the butter-carving booth. :)  It was so cool to ride the Ferris wheel at night and see all the fair lights on one side, and all of the lights from downtown on the other!

It is actually colder here now (haha! but it was warm for Halloween!), but Ryan and I are doing well and looking forward to the coming holidays. We've been told winter here will bring many ice storms, so that's exciting. Ryan's started training to run another a half marathon, and I'm very impressed. Meanwhile, I'm attempting to learn how to sew. However whenever I sit down to sew,  I usually end up crocheting instead, so it's definitely going to take some time. All our love, deep-fried and on a stick!

The Shadow of the TARDIS

Happy Fall, everybody! To celebrate my favorite season Ryan and I decorated pumpkins. I say decorated because he carved and I painted. It was pretty brilliant. Ryan carved a TARDIS (from Doctor Who, just fyi) and I painted the four elements from the Avatar the Last Airbender series on a mini pumpkin.  We totally geeked out when we first lit the pumpkin and the shadow of the TARDIS covered our entire ceiling. Really though, there was a lot of squealing and hand-waving when I saw it....I think this is a sign that everything we own, do, and make will always be a delightfully nerdy reference to some book or show. Heck yes.

As further proof of this prediction (that all we make are allusions...couldn't resist that pun), Ryan and I were Captain America and Agent Peggy Carter for Halloween. This is all thanks to crocheting, more painting, and of course raiding Goodwill stores nearby :). We went out to dinner and a movie like this on Halloween night, because what else do we live for but to entertain our waiters?

Fun fact: I now finally own my own curling iron...which my old roommates will marvel at.

More importantly, Ryan's boots are for his new work. They are super intense, electricity-safe ones so that when they go visit a power sub-station they are designing they can walk around protected from the massive amounts of electricity running through the equipment! Ryan got to go on his first one of these site visits to Texas last week, which was pretty exciting.

The weather here is slowly getting colder, and the leaves are changing now! I'm hunting out people and places to teach at and tutor. Ryan and I still are reveling in this whole lack-of-homework/graduated-college feeling. We routinely feel like there is some assignment, test, or paper that should be taking up our free evenings. But there isn't! And it is so lovely! I now have plenty of time to read novels and crochet that perhaps someday I will actually exhaust my supply of yarn and books. ;) All our love from under the Shadow of the TARDIS.

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Ryan and I really have been enjoying our first month here in our new town. The city itself is a bit larger than Salt Lake, and we live at the very edge of it. We are a five-minute drive or a ten-minute bike ride from a tiny little rural town, and about twenty minutes from the heart of downtown. My favorite new hobby (besides analyzing the different dialects on the country radio stations) is finding and exploring this town's little quirks. 

Quirk #1: Nearly every day I go bike somewhere new, and there are a lot of trails around town. Literally, there are several trails you can bike around the edges of the city, but if you want to go anywhere in the middle you have to brave the roads and sidewalks. I only mention this because it is impossible to bike on the sidewalks easily here (trust me; I've tried)! Most of the roads are 40mph or more, so I avoid them whenever possible. But every day I discover a new sidewalk that just ends. BAM! In the middle of a block. For no reason. At first this was frustrating because these silly sidewalks would end unpredictably and interrupt my lovely jaunt of a ride. But now it is hilarious, because I remembered that Shel Silverstein poem. Guys! I found it! I found the place where all the sidewalks end! 

Would you end it like a cliff?

Would you end it by the sign?

There is a place where the sidewalk ends

And before the street begins,

And there the grass grows soft and white,

And there the sun burns crimson bright,

And there the moon-bird rests from his flight

To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black

And the dark street winds and bends.

Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow

We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,

And watch where the chalk-white arrows go

Would you end it in the grass?

To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Would you end it in the ditch?

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,

And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,

For the children, they mark, and the children, they know

The place where the sidewalk ends.

Would you end it on both sides?

Would you end it by the button?

Would you end it in bush?

Would you end it in a puddle?

The thing I love about this poem is how magical this place sounds. I love imagining a little fairy world that begins at the end of the pavement, at the end of urban reach. It is like Narnia beginning at the back of a wardrobe. So I decided to start documenting all these magical places, all these sidewalk-endings. Partially to prove that there really are an absurd amount (Seriously it's as bad as little old Culpeper!), and partially to appreciate this particular quirk of our new home.

Would you end it by the bridge?

Quirk #2: Only in Oklahoma can calling something "Texas-sized" be legitimate advertising and not just a joke:

I still smile every time we drive past this :)

Quirk #3: The river may be almost completely dry this time of year, but the view is still awesome! This whole area is actually very green (almost as green and tree-ish as Virginia!) and lovely. I can't wait for all the leaves to change color! All our love from the place where the sidewalk ends!

On a weekend bike ride on the riverside trail

Same bike ride, tributary that leads to the river

On an Adventure

Ryan and I have found ourselves at the very beginning of so many adventures that I feel certain this scene has to have taken place between the two of us and the universe:

Gandalf- "I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it's very difficult to find anyone."
Bilbo- "I should think so — in these parts! We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!"

And apparently the universe found our reply so hilarious that the adventures became very real, very quickly and all at the same time. Fortunately, we have changed our minds since that first conversation and now feel ourselves replying just like Bilbo:

                 

These few months have been a whirlwind of events and I'm surprised a bit at just how exciting its been the entire time. I mean honestly, how many people dance and sing "Oklahoma" into their Swiffer duster when they find out where the new job will be? Anyway, we've got so much to tell you guys! And show you through all the pictures I take and hoard like a crazy cat lady!

First off...pshh what am I saying? I have no idea how to keep  this blog chronologically, since we are kinda starting in the middle and some of you have all, half, or none of the in between stuff.  So mwhahahahaha! This will  be a series of events in no clear order, so enjoy! ;)

So about three weeks ago we moved to the middle of the country. The truck was HUGE and FULL, and kinda scary for me to drive, so for 16 hours on day 1, Ryan drove the entire time. We had breakfast in Utah, lunch in Wyoming, dinner in Colorado, and stayed the night in Kansas. One of the funniest moments had to be in the middle of Wyoming Ryan turns to me and says, "I'm so bored! I'm actually bored! Please tell me Kansas is better than this?"

Thank you, Colorado

When we finally got to our new apartment, a dozen people from our new ward at church came immediately to help us unload. Also, our particular apartment had just gotten brand new carpet and kitchen appliances! Yay!

Before

After :)

While unpacking it absolutely felt like we had too much stuff to fit in this awesome apartment. But it's all cleverly tucked away now :) All in all nothing much happened on the drive out here, which was definitely a huge blessing for us. And the only thing that broke, broke after getting it into the apartment. It was an old bookcase, which completely shattered when we went to move it into the spare room. I still remember the one piece of wood that remained in my hands...it was like a moment in a movie, like a mini-adventure that Bilbo went on :)