what now?

what am i going to do now that i'm graduated?

as previously, this is what takes up most of my time with the unruly stack of charts on my desk waiting to be dealt with. i have taken a few pictures of my ever-growing stack of charts as proof of my daily insurmountable tasks.

now, if only i could figure out how to load it...maybe i would get some sympathy.

some reading.

i'm so ready to read whatever i feel like.

this shall be one of them.

i {heart} these guys!

cleaning my disgusting house that has been pretty much neglected the last 5 weeks, with only a tidy-up here and there when people come over (which mostly consists of madly throwing things in closets and brushing the crumbs off the counters).

AND, last but not least....

finishing my christmas decorating and actually enjoying the season.

i feel like there is still so much to do....see the lights, watch charlie brown and home alone, and buy and wrap a few more presents.

i did it!

the day finally came.
poor jd got more than his fair share of:

"i don't even care, i'm quitting right now"

"you sure you don't want to finish for me?"

and
"i don't care if i wasted the last 4 years"

the pictures are a little overkill and repetitive, sorry.

here we are

my mom and rod

allison and baby ham (even though you can't see her)

my dad

the in-laws

me again-

the whole darn thing

lovely flowers i ended up picking out myself because i just wouldn't let jd "be alone" as he claimed

and one more picture that isn't so great, but i wanted someone to see my cute outfit that i stressed so much over and that was covered by my hideous smock looking thing most of the time.

we had a pretty chill day and enjoyed not being at work. we went to the gym, to breakfast and costco with my friend kristen, picked up my cap and gown, made another trip to costco for some last-minute pizza, and then to the graduation. the plan after was to go to cheesecake factory, but it was a 3 hour wait. we ended up at the mandarin and had a great time. yum!

i feel so fabulous being done...except one more project due to a little "conflict" with a female batting-for-the-other-team, tattoo-sleeve-wearing professor who has taken quite a liking to me. yikes.

i don't know what to do with my spare time. if anyone needs some company, you know where i'll be!

i'm obsessed with

PepPeRmiNt

everything

i currently have all of these...mmm

its beginning to look a lot like christmas

sugar cookies with peppermint icing

christmas tree

it really doesn't look that bare, its just hard to see

and a fabulous present from my lovely friend kristen
anyone up for a good game of office trivia?

last week...

last week was crazy and the 4 day weekend went by WAY too fast.

we spent thanksgiving with jd's grandparents and i made this fabulous pie.

carmel apple cream cheese pie...mmm.

later that night we hunted around at local wal marts for this tv. i told jd i would get him a tv for christmas and the ok was all he needed. he was there at midnight and the first in line for this beauty. he stayed up all night and made friends with the other crazies that were waiting all night. apparently they formed a pact to help each other out, which included jd taking a camera off another pallet for a "teammate" before he was supposed to and almost getting kicked out and wasting 5 hours there. it was all sorts of crazy there with layton police patrolling and telling them to not put the tv's in carts because if you look away someone will take it. when he brought it home and i saw the box, i was SO nervous it wasn't going to fit. we made it with about 1/4" on each side to spare. it's quite a bit bigger than we thought.

my mom and my sisters and i got up to go shopping at about 4:30. we hit walmart with no luck, target, smiths marketplace (solely for the socks), kmart, target again, old navy, and ace harware twice. we definitely came home with more than we intended on buying, of course.
apparently we were already on to christmas because we immediately proceeded to christmas trees and decorations.


friday was 3 years from our first date. i know it sounds kind of cheesy to remember, but let me tell you a little bit about how this happened...
jd was in my english class fall semester of '05. i had noticed him before, but for some reason i'm not into talking to people much in my classes. one night i happened to mention something to ash b. when we were out....something along the lines of "there's this cute guy in my english class, but his last name is kitchen...." (and look what i ended up with!) she happened to know him and a few days later he was at my house. i wanted to hang out with him on thanksgiving so i pretended like i sent out a mass text saying happy thanksgiving so he would write me back....it worked, i'm such a nerd! we hung out for a few weeks with some friends before we dated and i really needed a date to bonus night at my work because my previously planned date didn't work out (thank goodness!) i was talking to my friend brian and told him i wanted to ask jd to go. brian told me i couldn't ask him out first, he had to be the one to do it....i followed brian's advice and ended up taking brian instead (jd and brian are friends mind you). jd has never let me live that down. sure enough, later that night jd asked me what i was doing saturday night...ugh, bonus night. i had to tell him i couldn't go. i felt so terrible i had to tell him no, but luckily he asked me out for another night. he actually called me when i was sitting right next to him in the car...i don't really remember why. we went to temple square to see the lights in the rain, drank hot chocolate and watched so i married an axe murderer. i think we saw each other every day since.
this year, we didn't follow the tradition of the last 2 with temple square. we went to the mandarin, went bowling, and finished off with a bowl of peppermint ice cream and a movie on the new tv.

love it!

funny...and a little too familiar.

we saw this last night and thought it was hilarious. it was funnier than we thought it was going to be. this movie is perfect timing...i'll definitely be thinking of this on christmas....

12.12.08

FINALLY...

*tagged*

well since i was on the "A" list, here you go...

(thanks jess)

What is your husband’s name? James David K.

How long have you guys been married? 2 ½ years

How long did you date? 7 months

How old is he? 24
Who is taller? JD….not by a whole lot though, we’re both shorties
Who can sing best? I’m not sure, JD likes to sing funny in church to make me laugh

Who is smarter? I don’t know…JD is more science/chemistry/physics smart and I’m more social science/design and stuff

Who does the laundry? Actually we both do our own after a little sweater shrinking incident about 2 and ½ years ago…NOT on my part.

Who pays the bills? I do for sure, I got sort of freakishly anal about them after working at a credit union
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? When you are looking at the bed, I do….although sometimes we switch it up and sleep at the bottom of our bed or in the middle of the living room

Who mows the lawn? Well since we don’t presently have one….

Who cooks dinner? Depends on who has less homework….usually Wendy’s or something
Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? I don’t know, probably both

Who kissed who first? Debatable. I say JD (come on, would I do that?) and JD says me.

Who wears the pants? JD would probably say me...he doesn’t like to make decisions so one of us has to!

long november

does anyone else feel november has already been an eternity?

we're only 11 days in and it feels like forever. why does something you are waiting for always seem to take forever? it must be all of the impending responsibilities i know i have waiting for me...blah. the massive amount of charts at work, the assignments and papers piling up, and one BIG presentation that could make or break my graduation...

don't worry, i'll work on being thankful later in the month.

in the meantime, i don't have much else to post about so here are some random pictures from the last few weeks i never posted.

i made these yummy cupcakes for my sister's baby shower. a little early since she's not due til march, but the family was all here. these were made with pomegranate 7up (mmm...) and vanilla frosting. quite a tasty combination.

how could you not love that cute face?

my friend michelle's wedding shower
addie, me, stef, michelle, and jess
oh, and jessica's hilarious niece. her mom told her michelle was going to open some "jammies"...she was pretty excited to see what they looked like!
(what is my face in this picture? i look like i'm in pain....who knows.)



we took kristen to texas roadhouse for her 23rd birthday.
she did NOT want to get on the saddle.
the entire staff was chanting "saddle up, saddle up" until she reluctantly got on.
happy birthday girl!



yet another one...
poor heather found this in our bathroom. kristen wouldn't let us smash it so she caught it in a cup and flushed it...i flushed like 3 more times just to be safe. i don't want to see that thing coming back up!

brother and sister?

we teach the 10 year olds in primary.

last week in primary jd said something about brothers and sisters.

one of the girls interrupted jd and asked if we were brother and sister.

jd replied, "yeah brother and sister kitchen". she was still confused.

then she asked, "so you guys are married?"

i can't believe they thought we were brother and sister all this time.

then the rest of the class joined in saying how we have the same color hair, the same eyes, the same nose, etc.

then one kid says, "yeah and you both have a rough face."

what? what does that mean? sad!

i know this picture is a little old and i don't really look like that anymore, but a rough face?

do we really look THAT much alike?

snow patrol

tonight i rekindled my love for snow patrol.

101.9 was reviewing their new cd on my way home from work.

i kind of forgot about them for a while.

the new album is ok, i should probably give it another listen but i like the old school stuff.

final straw is my favorite album.

i really like the cover of this one too--it reminds me of fall.

i have to agree with parker that there is something about his voice and the songs that just make you feel. i'm not even sure what, but it does make you feel. it makes me feel reminiscent and it reminds me of my friend katie.

so, here's some snow patrol for you to listen to.

yay for halloween

we went to a little halloween party last week and this is what we dressed up as...

white trash

i kind of don't like to look at this picture because we look so gross...sorry but jd especially.

i made these cupcakes for the party and i kind of liked the blurriness of the picture



wendy

the hamburgler with his little mullet-wearing child

we tried to put jd's hat on her, but it didn't exactly fit

the punks

the fuzz and...a pixie?

michael phelps and his biggest "phan"

(her shirt said phelps phan)

michael phelps doing his stretches on the block before apple bobbing

he wins again!

i think it had something to do with the goggles

IDHATFTP

this is something i was thinking about as i just typed my response to a homework question about how cell phones affect communication among adolescents. this is really something i observed while sorting through various unneeded items in the dollar section at target.

there are 2 girls probably about 13 looking through the same unneeded, but too good of a deal to pass up, items as i am. one walks around the corner to where i am standing and says to her friend, "what is this?" to which the other girl replies, "IDK". IDK. IDK? what happened to just saying, "I don't know"? too hard? that can't be it. more convenient? hmm...not really. i don't understand. or should i say, "IDU"? i am certainly a fan of the at&t/cingular or whatever commercials with the TISNF, but really? i didn't think this was real. yikes is all i have to say. needless to say, my response to the homework question concluded that yes, i do think cell phones are affecting adolescent communication skills.

in case you were wondering what the title of my post is...

i don't have a title for this post

hmmm...

i really don't have much to post about at the moment...

so here are some pictures of the mini cupcakes i made for my friend sharon's baby shower. i thought they were delicious! everyone thought i got them from a bakery.

and, let me tell you a little secret...

i made them with soda instead of eggs and oil. yes, it really works (people always ask...like i'm going to tell you to try something that doesn't?) try it out, it's pretty tasty. just use 1 can (12oz) of any soda and cake mix, nothing else. mix them in a good combination though...

i am sure i will be posting more cupcake pictures, so don't get sick of them! this weekend will be cupcake overload with 2 halloween parties and a baby shower.

sadly, i had to reschedule my cake decorating class until january because it was during the time we were in tennessee, so more cakes to come!

ps.....7 more weeks

of what?

oh yes, SCHOOL!

i will be free for the first time in 19 years

(minus a year in new york)

walking in memphis...

here is our trip to tennessee....

if you are not family, you may not be interested. and i'll warn you now, this is a long one.

this is our hotel room at the hyatt. apparently it wasn't in the greatest part of town, but it was nice and the people were super nice. jd wanted to stay at one downtown called the gen x hotel...i just couldn't do it. the name just sounded dingy. and i'm quite glad we chose this one when we saw the gen x in real life.

we had a sweet king size bed

a 42" tv with a little sitting area

and a little desk and kitchen area

we went over the border into olive branch misssissippi. if you look really close, this sign says mississippi on it. we couldn't find a better one.

we stopped in downtown olive branch and walked around the one and only block there. they were just finishing up a christian rock festival. the south is so funny.

the mississippi river on the west side of town

here is a little more of the river and the walkway next to it

the orpheum theater where they have a lot of musicals and plays and stuff

we stumbled across this little treasure on our way downtown. no, we are not elvis fans. no, we did not go to graceland. apparently it's expensive and not worth it.

beale st, which is supposed to be the happening place down there. they have a lot of local, live blues music and bbq. i think we were there before the REAL party got going....which is probably a good thing. i think it gets kind of wild. there really isn't a lot to do there unless you drink so we walked around the 2 blocks and were pretty much done. the downtown area was a little disappointing. we decided it was comparable to ogden because there were a few restaurants, but most everything else was vacant. there were also a lot of areas that you cannot go to....especially if you are white and blonde. yikes! we also went to rendezvous bbq that my boss recommended and it was really good. it was a long wait, but good. we had this cute little waiter that was probably 70 and the tiniest little black guy! he was super nice.

the famous memphis sign on beale st

coyote ugly. we walked past and saw the girls up on the bar and bras covering the entire wall above the bar....so we kept right on walking.

this is the bridge over the mississippi. we tried to go over it and ended up on another bridge that took us to west memphis in arkansas. that is not a good area we found out...we were told not to stop there and if you do, don't get out of your car. comforting, right?

we also went to the midsouth fair while we were there. quite the experience. there were not very many white people there. and a special BONUS....boyz II men were performing in concert! i wasn't aware so many people like them still. i do have to say, they perform in style. suits, ties and sunglasses....yes, it was dark.

i'm not sure what is up with my camera, but it certainly was not snowing like it looks like. see how there are no white people in sight?

the close up

we only stayed for a few songs....on bended knee, boyz II men are back, ya know the good ones. we decided to go after a few songs because we felt quite silly being pretty much the only white people. they were probably wondering what we were doing. the next day we found out there was a shooting at the fair! good thing we left! apparently they ruled it an accident...

it was really pretty and green there, which i really like. it was comparable to ny for me and georgia for jd. we both really loved that part. it was also nice weather. a little humid and my hair sucked, but it was about 80. it stays pretty nice through october and november and in the winter it stays in the 50s for the most part. i could definitely get used to that. i'm not a winter girl.

this was from the car, but i thought it looked really cool. jd was the designated photographer because i drove. and in case anyone was wondering, we were really glad we had our gps.

i love the trees. i bet it looks fabulous when the leaves change.

if you've made it this far....congrats! read on, it gets good!

we did a lot of exploring and checking out the area and it was a lot different than we thought. we thought there would be more of a mix of races there. there were not very many white people. it was really strange to be the minority. i know, we don't have a lot of that in utah, but i've been to plenty of places around the country plus living in california and new york. i know about diversity. we have heard from a few people that there are some civil rights issues still, but the other way around. there are a lot of blacks that don't like whites. i really don't have any problem with them, i'm just worried about them having a problem with me! there are also A LOT of people who don't like the mormons. we found some cool neighborhoods and houses, but ultimately decided the night before the interview that we just weren't completely comfortable there. we weren't sure if it was just the reality of everything or if it was real and something we should pay attention to. so, we decided it couldn't hurt to apply to a few more school and we are still waiting to hear from ohio state. after we got back, jd applied to SUNY (nyc), ICO (chicago), and SCCO (fullerton, ca). we want to at least compare it to another school and see how we feel. so, its not off the table, just on hold until we see how we really feel. i think the actual interview part went really well and jd should hear in the next week. this is such a complicated process. it will be so nice when it's over and done and we know where we're going and living. i can't wait for that day.