The Emperor's New Clothes

Many years ago, there lived an emperor cared much about his clothes. One day he heard from two swindlers that they could make the finest suit of clothes from the most beautiful cloth. This cloth, they said, also had the special capability that it was invisible to anyone who was either stupid or not fit for his position. Being a bit nervous about whether he himself would be able to see the cloth, the emperor first sent two of his trusted men to see it. Of course, neither would admit that they could not see the cloth and so praised it. All the townspeople had also heard of the cloth and were interested to learn how stupid their neighbors were. The emperor then allowed himself to be dressed in the clothes for a procession through town, never admitting that he was too unfit and stupid to see what he was wearing. He was afraid that the other people would think that he was stupid. Of course, all the townspeople wildly praised the magnificent clothes of the emperor, afraid to admit that they could not see them, until a small child said: "But he has nothing on!" This was whispered from person to person until everyone in the crowd was shouting that the emperor had nothing on. The emperor heard it and felt that they were correct, but held his head high and finished the procession.

K everyone, let's be honest here.  Did anyone else think Kate's dress was kind of ugly?

The Beginning of the End

I've become that girl we all make fun of and secretly judge.  The one who considers herself dressed because she showered and changed sweats today, and is openly proud that she would have won $10,000 if she had been on today's rerun of Singing Bee. Turns out I am kind of a boring person, but at least when Erik is here he validates my lameness with his company.  When Erik is with me we're a cute little couple relaxing together after a long week of work and school.  When Erik has already moved back to his hometown,  bringing home the bacon, I'm that creepy neighbor who wears her bathrobe over her PJ's at 2:00 in the afternoon that everyone wonders how she ever got married.  I was so lonely this afternoon that I seriously considered joining my wife-beater clad neighbors chain smoking on the steps talking about the best junk yards to get car parts just for some company.  Did I mention Erik only left this morning?  I am that pathetic.
Erik took a load of our stuff down, so our apartment looks a little different.  We took some pictures so that in ten years we can look back on them from our beautiful home and think "Man, it's good we moved up in the world."

You can't see our super cute purple throw pillows.  Thank to everyone who gave us BB&B gift cards for the wedding.

We bought a bed set yesterday.  It is black and adorable and the nightstand has a special kindle drawer.  Yes please.

Aside from my chain smoking neighbors whom I've lovingly nicknamed Bubba and Rex, this kitchen will be the thing I'm least sad about leaving in Layton. 

Kyle came over last night and helped us pack up this morning.  We love Kyle a thousand.

  Come visit me and save me from myself.  There's only so much CMT a girl can watch before things go south.

Don and Debbie came down to Utah for General Conference.  We love when they come because aside from being excellent company, they take us out to dinner and we get to mooch off their complimentary cookies at the Hampton Inn. We had a very fun time during their visit and really enjoyed attending the Sunday afternoon session of Conference (tickets also courtesy of Don and Debbie).

I took a picture before it started.  I don't know if you're actually allowed to do that.  Let's all practice our secret keeping...

It's a good thing we enjoy the fam, because, in breaking news, we are moving to the Northwest on April 30th!  (This is actually common knowledge to anyone who knows us, but seeing as this is this fact's first time in the blogosphere, I felt it deserved bold lettering.)  Erik was one happy camper on his last day of Enterprise, let me tell you.  Enterprise was good to us this year, but Erik is definitely ready for a new challenge working at Don K.
 The same day Erik finished up at Enterprise, I had my last day at my internship.  It was a good experience and I learned a lot, but I'm definitely excited to move on and to have that time freed up.  The whole last week I did parties with all my little character groups and played games with my individual students.  I'll particularly miss hearing a little first grader call me Mrs. Kaltberger every week.

Please excuse the creepy faceless children. 

I'm off to house search online. I'm heading to the Northwest for a long weekend next week, and hopefully we can find something nice.  Almost anything would be an upgrade from where we are now though.  Last week on my way home from the gym I caught my neighbor urinating on a tree in our courtyard. It's a sad sad world when we're supposed to be the classy ones in the neighborhood.
Come visit us me soon, the window of opportunity is closing.

New Obsession

Tonight we took my grandma out to dinner for her birthday.  We went early enough to get the early bird special, which included a dessert.  I had creme brulee.

 It was the most delicious thing I have ever tasted.  I never want to eat anything else ever again. 

While We're on the Topic...

While we're on the topic of things that have been going on recently (I know, two blog posts right in a row-- I have officially out-losered myself), on Wednesday we had our cheerleading banquet.  We had it at this yummy Mexican restaurant called Javier's, and I was really happy with how it went.  We did paper-plate awards and plaque awards, and my cheerleaders got me a cute framed picture of all of us that they all signed.  I'm gonna miss these girls (and guys) and this job so much, it's seriously the funnest job I've ever had.   

 For reasons I still can't figure out, Erik and I decided to take a different route to the restaurant than we took when we tested it out. I think we thought it would be faster.  It was raining really hard, I was feeling pretty stressed, and I told Erik to take a wrong turn.  We got horribly lost, and I was not my usual ray-of-sunshine self.  I think Erik wanted to kill loved me more than ever at that moment.

Spring Break

Last year for Spring Break Erik and I went to Vegas and Arizona.  This year we're closer to being grown-ups and still had to go to work/practicum, so we just hung out in Layton.  I loved having the time off though, and for the first time in quite a while I feel decently on top of everything.
A particular highlight of Spring Break was seeing my family.  My mom and Nina had plane tickets they bought about a month before, and they came on Friday afternoon.  Coincidentally, my dad had work meetings in Salt Lake on Friday morning, so he and Jack came up Thursday night and left Friday afternoon, which worked out best, because we really aren't equipped for too much company here in the Meadows.
Friday morning Jack and I went to Plato's Closet.  I love shopping with Jack, mainly because he is the only man in my life who will still occasionally let me dress him.  After we shopped we hit Barnes and Noble and met up with Erik for lunch (in honor of the occasion we sprung for dessert--mudslide brownie, sooo good and only 14,000 calories per serving).  It was a way nice day so we went on a walk, and then watched the Pink Panther, which is only funny if you watch it with Jack.

Work it Jack

 

My dad rolled in about 2:00, and they took off for Logan and I went straight to the airport and picked up my mom and Nina.  We had a wonderful weekend of shopping, getting our nails done, blog stalking, discussing celebrity gossip (I bet you didn't know Justin Beiber isn't shaving for the whole month of March), and enjoying yummy mom-cooking.  Alex came up on Sunday, and overall we had a great time.  I was super sad to see everyone go, but we'll be back in Idaho for Easter.  

My mother is like a ninja when it comes to avoiding being in pictures, but I managed to get this one of her wrist...

Do you see how concave Nina's stomach is?  It makes me hate her just a little bit

Yay for Spring Break.  I'd like another one please.  Come see us!

Here's What's Up

There's not a lot of exciting things happening in our lives right now.  In fact, we're kind of in the calm before the storm.  On my end, cheerleading has really winded down, the GRE is out of the way, I bunched my practicum and my school all on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I've been able to stay pretty organized.  On Erik's end, he's back at the Layton Enterprise office, which means regular hours and no commute, and also the NFL is going on strike.  The combination of all these factors has led to a pleasantly mellow, but fairly boring from the blogging perspective, past couple of weeks.  Everything should pick up here in the next two months, between family visiting, getting ready to move, finals, graduation, etc. 

One of Erik and my resolutions was to do sit-ups every day.  We have a little calendar in our room that we mark off every day we remember.  In honor of doing my sit-ups every day in February, I got a shellac manicure.  Shellac is awesome.  It's like a mix of polish and gel, so it goes on and it never chips, but I can keep my nails short enough for harp and still have them look pretty.  I love it.   

One thing that I am excited about is that Chris and Beez finally set a wedding date! Everything about their wedding sounds so elegant, I cannot wait.  A few years ago I asked Chris when he and Beez were going to get married and he told me "Shanna, you'll probably meet someone, date someone, get engaged to someone, marry someone, and have his baby before Beez and I get married."  4/5 Chris, not too bad.  I love these two to death, and am frankly glad that they're finally getting their act together and planning this wedding that I have been waiting for for 4 years.  They were bridesmaids/bridesmen at my wedding, and I can't wait to be a bridesmaid at theirs!

 

PS--Also, my cheerleaders did really great at their last performance.  I tried to load the video on here, but it was rejected, so instead check it out here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/home.php?sk=group_170682412952229&ap=1