Christmas is here!

We went and picked out our Christmas tree this week! It's only 3 feet tall or so, but it's real and it's so pretty. We bought the Christmas decorations a couple weeks ago and I thought the tree turned out really nice. We also put up lights around our windows and hung up a Christmas wreath. It just feels so festive in our apartment right now.

With the room light on. Why yes, that is Jason's clay muscle head that is acting as our stocking holder.

With all the lights turned off

Our window decorations and a Nativity

Also, remember the dead dude? They're finally cleaning out his apartment and so his door was open all day, letting his apartment air out. Remember that the guy was a hoarder. And that it took people 5 days to find out that he had died in there. Let's just say that I'm so glad for the fresh pine scent in our apartment these days.

Columbus

Jason and I drove to Columbus for Thanksgiving. His sister lives there with her husband and his other sister lives in Washington DC, so we all met in the middle. The three of us girls made Thanksgiving dinner together and I thought it turned out really well, especially considering none of us had ever made Thanksgiving dinner before. We made everything from scratch and it was delicious! Jason and I also visited with an old roommate of mine for a couple hours, made a trip to the temple, watched Ohio State beat up on Valparaiso, and did some Christmas shopping. It was fun getting to know Jason's family better. The drive home was soooo looonnnggg, but we made it back to Chicago at a reasonable time Sunday night.

It might get mushy...

Two years ago today, I was at my sister's house in California, celebrating the Thanksgiving weekend. My sister asked me about my dating life and I told her that nothing was really going on. She suggested I try online dating. I had actually been thinking about doing that for a while and told her so. I think we had gone to her gym that night to sit in the hot tub. When we got back to her house, she sat at her computer and googled "LDS dating sites". She clicked on the top link (as she says "just to see what was available"). She started filling out my information (as she says that she "was already married so she wasn't going to put in her information"). She kept telling me that I could tell her to stop, but I didn't stop her. We ended up creating a user id of "mysismademedodis" for me and I was officially dating online. I even paid for the subscription because I was determined to take it seriously and I needed a subscription to communicate with people.

One year ago today, I married Jason, who bookmarked me one week after my sister signed me up for the online dating site. It was one of the best days of my life and I have no regrets for the sealing covenants we made that day in the temple. We have had a wonderful year together, even with the appendicitis, stomach flus, difficult internships, looking for a new job, moving, and major life decisions. All our trials were made easier with you by my side. Jason, I love you for your wit, kindness, patience, and companionship. Here is to eternity together. Love you most-est-est. Happy Anniversary!

In honor, here are twelve pictures of us, one to represent every month we've been married.

November 27, 2010, Manti, UT

December 2010, Costa Rica

January 2011, Chicago

March 2011, Chicago (in lieu of February)

March 2011, Chicago

April 2011, Chicago

April 2011, Chicago (in lieu of May)

June 2011, Chicago

July 2011, Chicago

August 2011, Fairview Canyon, UT

August 2011, Chicago (in lieu of September)

October 2011

Words

My thirty year old husband still watches Saturday morning cartoons, thanks to Netflix instant streaming. As a result, I now know more about X-Men, the Avengers, and all things Marvel than is ever depicted in those movies they make. And (dare I say it) I'm excited to see The Avengers in theaters next year.

Last Friday Groupon had a $1 lunch day in Chicago. Jason went a little overboard and bought 3 Groupons for $1. All of them had to be used between 11:00 and 3:00 that day. So we ate pizza for lunch, grabbed a pizza to go, and then Jason "took one for the team" and ate at the last restaurant (no carry-out was allowed for the Groupon, but he did sweet-talk the waitress into boxing up food for his wife who had to go home and work). He had to tip the waitress at the last place, so we ended up getting about $60 worth of restaurant food for $7. Score.

Our freezer is chock-full right now. I've been trying to save up on freezer dinners for the next few months when I know I won't feel like cooking at all and now we don't have any room for anything. It's like playing Jenga every time I consider opening the freezer door. Now added to my wish list for when I have more than 600 square feet to live in: a gigantic freezer. Seriously, you can never have too much freezer space. Especially with places like Costco and Omaha Steaks in business.

I really want to put up Christmas now, but haven't done it because I feel like I need to give Thanksgiving it's due. And because we'll be out of town for Thanksgiving, I won't put up Christmas for another week. But I think might just start listening to Christmas music tomorrow anyway, as a consolation prize.

I love Starbucks Peppermint hot chocolate. I'm usually not a huge mint fan, but this was a mild enough mint to not make me shudder and to put me in a holiday mood.

I've been feeling very crock pot-y lately. I've made a cake, a cobbler, chili, and now chicken pot pie in the crock pot, all in the last month. I love that I just have to throw the stuff in the pot and leave it for 6 hours. Also, I've decided that it always makes double what I expect it to make (see my comments about my current freezer situation).

The Dead Dude

A couple nights ago, Jason came home from missionary splits and ran into our favorite maintenance guy (Taylor) on our floor. We usually only see Taylor in the common areas, so it was weird that he was up on our floor. There were also a few other maintenance guys down the hallway. Trying to break into the apartment two doors down from us. Taylor gave Jason the whole scoop.

Apparently our floor had really started to stink the last couple days. No one had recently seen the guy that lived two doors down. He lived by himself. And had an alcohol problem. And he was Jamaican and none of his family lived close by. There is a master key to all of our apartments, but not for the dead bolt and this guy had dead bolted his door. The maintenance guys called the police and hospital and someone (the police? I didn't actually see) cut open the apartment door. It was really loud, by the way. Taylor told us they were pretty sure he had died of alcohol poisoning 5 days earlier. Jason looked out our door after the noise stopped and saw the stretcher with the covered dead body on it in the hallway. We saw them load the body onto the ambulence outside our window.

Truth be told, I didn't really see or smell most of it. We keep our apartment well ventilated so I hadn't noticed the smell. Still, it was kind of a weird experience. Almost like you haven't really lived in Chicago until the cops have to come to your building and break down your neighbor's door.

The Last Hurrah

We've been enjoying very fine weather lately. I fear today was the last nice day for the next 9 months. It's supposed to start raining tonight. We basked in the wonderful weather last night for probably one last time. Six months ago, Jason bought one of those online deals for kayaking on the Chicago River. We never got around to using it over the summer and now that the good weather is almost gone and the vouchers were almost expired, we finally went.

In typical me-fashion, I didn't want to go until the moment we were actually in the boats. I learned this about myself about 10 years ago. There are a lot of things I don't want to do until I'm actually doing them (most of these things involve physical exertion). I told Jason that if I ever say I don't want to do something and it's something I should want to do, that he shouldn't give me the choice of whether I'm going or not. True to form, as soon as I got in the kayak, I started thinking, "Oh, this is fun.Why didn't I want to do this?"

We did a "workout" tour that started at 5:30 pm. So it was sunset-y/dusk when we started, so we were rowing through downtown at night. It was so fun to see the city at night from the river. Jason was really nice and agreed to a double kayak so that I could take rests periodically. It was  great way to say goodbye to summer!

Getting ready to launch

Jason trying out the kayak

He's got his game face (and night light) on

Getting ready to start (Tribune building in front of me!)

Sears Tower

We got all sorts of wet

Jason said he felt like Iron Man because of his night light

It's really hard to take clear pictures in the dark

Sears Tower from the other side

We live here! Pretty cool.

Cooking

I'm sure I would do a lot more of it if I had a dishwasher. I will seriously choose which meal I'm making that night (or frankly whether I'm going just going to cook a frozen pizza or not) based on how in the mood I am to wash dishes by hand. Usually I make Jason do the dishes (I cook, he cleans up), but right now he's studying for the GRE and I wanted to make him these fantastic brownies as a treat while he studied. And I couldn't very well make him brownies as a treat for a test he's studying hard for and then make him clean up after my mess. So I have a sink full of dishes that I need to wash by hand. I think I'll do it tomorrow... I can't wait until I live somewhere with a dishwasher.

Also, try the brownies. They're rich and yummy and delightful.

My sweet husband

I was thinking about it yesterday and I've decided I married a sweet man. He never buys me flowers. It's not really his thing. The closest he got once was buying me seeds and a ceramic pot. Or that time he bought me fruit arranged like flowers. But even though he doesn't get me the typical flowers, he does a lot of sweet things for me. Like yesterday, when he told me that he bought a Groupon for me to get a massage, just because he thought I would enjoy it. Or last week when he bought me an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie from Potbellies on his way home from class. Or a few weeks before that when he bought me a big, fancy cookie from Cookies By Design on his way home from work because I had mentioned to him once that when I was kid I always wanted a boy to give me a big cookie for Valentine's Day. So, the rest of you girls can have your carnations and roses. I'll take my food and massage.

Jason's present

We got a new toy!

Even though we got a better deal for this at Costco than we would have at Amazon, we still paid a pretty penny for it. So this is Jason's Father's Day present, his birthday present, and our anniversary presents to each other. We're excited to start using it!

U2!

Last night we went to U2 at Soldier Field (where the Bears play...the Bears are an NFL team for those who don't know/care). We live only a couple miles away, so we didn't have to worry about driving and parking. We just walked the whole way.

Soldier Field from a distance

Soldier Field close up

The Claw!

Jason's trying to do his best Bono impersonation

BTW, this was seriously a year and a half in the making. Clear back in about October of 2009 (not a typo), I bought tickets to see U2 in Oakland. The concert was supposed to be for June 2010 and when Jason and I started dating, I thought, "Oh, this would be a great date for us!" I figured when I bought the tickets that of course I would still be in California for the concert. Well then Bono got hurt and the tour was delayed. A year. And I got engaged. And married. And moved to Chicago. Suddenly I was the proud possessor of 2 tickets to see U2 on the other side of the country. We toyed with the idea of flying out to Oakland, but it just made more sense to sell our tickets and make some money instead of paying another $600 to see a concert. So we sold the tickets. But since I bought my original tickets for dirt cheap and sold them for a ridiculous mark-up a month before the concert, we had some money left to buy some nose-bleed seats in Chicago! So really, it's like we saw U2 for free.

Fourth of July

So, I know I'm more than biased, but I love, love, love Fourth of July in Gunnison. And I missed it again this year. Don't get me wrong. We had a great time in Chicago for the Fourth, but Jason and I were talking about it and there is something about the Fourth in a small town that is just more special. Maybe because it brings EVERYONE in the town out? Maybe because it's ridiculously organized? Whatever it is, I love Fourth of July in Gunnison.

But we weren't in Gunnison, we were in Chicago. We went to a local park and spent most of our time chatting and petting/feeding the livestock. We also barbecued with some friends, watched Harry Potter 7a in preparation for the release of Harry Potter 7b next week, and saw fireworks downtown.

Feeding the goats

And sheep

Fireworks over Navy Pier. I took this all by my onesie. All of Jason's were blurry :)

What the what?

It was supposed to be mid-90s today. Even after our terrific rainstorm/windstorm/hailstorm last night, the forecast still called for hot today. Even when I woke up this morning to overcast and cool, the weatherman swore it would heat up. Even at lunch time it was still 71 degrees and weather.com kept saying it would reach 95 degrees by 6pm. My friends, it is now 3pm and it is still low-70s. Hell itself must rise up out of the earth to pull off the hot day I was promised.

Also, how in the world are weathermen still employed?

Tourists. In our own city.

We had family come to visit us this past month. Someone different for almost every weekend. We had a great time walking around, eating, and seeing stuff. And here are pictures. Because they're more interesting than anything I could ever write.

Real live spider. If you can't tell from the tension in my neck.

Sox game. They got tickets from scalpers and we think the guy who sold them made a huge mistake because they got these awesome suite seats with tons of free food for $15 each.