warning: a lot of pictures of SF and airplanes

after church on sunday christopher suggested we go on a hike or something. --maybe you don't know this but i have a thing for outings and day trips and i think they're the coolest thing ever-- oh my goodness, you've never seen anyone so excited in their whole life. i was even more excited when chris changed his hike idea to a go to san francisco and watch the air show idea. so we quickly changed clothes and off we went!!!

who knew? not me.


with our trusty magyar (hungarian) speaking gps


and i especially love day trip outings to the city. when we were in provo my favorite saturday activity was to spend the whole day in salt lake going to temple square, the visitor center, out to eat, gateway mall, the imax museum theater thing, and visiting my aunt and chris's grandparents. i just liked the feel of being in the city. especially when the weather is a little crisp... but that's just an extra.


i love the hills in san francisco. the first time i came here was at the begining of my senior year of high school to visit my brother's mission (san francisco spanish speaking) and it was love at first sight. i love the long straight hilly streets. i think i even loved it before i experienced it. i used to be addicted to this car racing computer game when i was younger and my favorite "track" was the streets of san francisco... it looked just like this picture!


but the real reason for the trip was to watch the air show... it was pretty cool.


me and a plane. look real hard. it's the squiggle above my head.


i love the boats in the bay. and i just love boats. it just looks peaceful. and classic. i thank my dad for my fond feelings for sail boats like these.


multi-tasking planes and boats


red, white, and blue came out of the planes while they flew around to patriotic music.


some of the planes flew really really low. i wish we could have been on a boat! next time, next time.


even cooler to watch the planes against such a beautiful backdrop.


another low plane


and then they would fly in groups...




super close together...


and it looked like they were touching...


i got a call from dad, mom, and walter on speakerphone. it was more than a little difficult to communicate through all the loud noise (don't worry liza, my hearing is still fine, although i'm sure you'll tell me that irreversible damage has been done to my ear parts) so i had to follow up with some informative picture texts.


we had a blast. -- note: this is where any other blogger would write "thanks for the trip honey!" or something like that, but i don't bother. chris has never read our blog before ;-) --


sometimes i feel like he's my kid instead of my husband. i think that's how my mom feels about my dad too.


lombard street. it never gets old. i love it.


chinatown. again, it just doesn't get old.


city traffic. already old.

honest to goodness though, i don't even mind traffic. unless i'm late or in a hurry i really don't mind waiting. and if i'm completely honest, i kinda like traffic sometimes. it reminds me of home because, really, this is exactly what atlanta looks like.

sadly though, christopher hates it. hates it like nothing i've ever seen. he even despises yellow lights and red lights... even when he doesn't have to stop all the way. he's always in a hurry. even when he has no where to go. why else would he speed and run red lights for absolutely no reason at all? he's a strange one, he is.

so yes, look at this last picture and you now know christopher's very own personal version of hell. good thing he's so righteous.

hopefully he'll forget soon (not likely so cross your fingers) about the terrible traffic. because he swore to me eighty times over that it wasn't worth it and we were never doing this again. ;-(

i WILL get him to change his mind.

it was so worth it.

apparently we only take pictures at football games

first off, i'll just go ahead and say that chris and i love going to stanford football games. the weather is always wonderful, the seating in the student section is open, and we've won every home game so far.

i love sitting in the student section. i love being a student-non-student. poor chris has to study and go to class because he's just a plain student.

anyways, this is us, just loving football. chris even has his redzone student section t-shirt on!


but i've gotta say, some things are just plain weird...



like this...
we're the stanford cardinals but i never see a cardinal on stanford sweatshirts or around campus or anything. it's always a pine tree. and as if a dancing pine tree isn't weird enough, check out what they have this guy wearing. this has got to be up there as one of the weirdest mascot outfits. it's almost scary.


on the 3rd, we played UCLA. they have a very good marching band. very professional looking.


but this is stanford... we are more liberal thinkers here. obviously. i'm sure you can tell by our marching band (which looks like utter chaos on the field during half time).


we're just happy campers. i mean, athletic football enthusiasts.

the time chris played hockey for stanford

and then he retired

I GOT A JOB!!!

YEAY!!!

this post is not for you, it's for me. don't read it, it's boring.

wow, what a response from the follower/non-follower community. wasn't intending to fish for followers but appreciate it just the same. still don't know what a follower is or what it does. anyone care to enlighten me?

my mind has been especially scattered lately. a little difficult, but i guess i'm semi used to it by now.

conference was wonderful. watched it online for the first time ever. i still miss being in salt lake for it. i was totally spoiled at byu and somehow managed to go to the majority of the sessions in my few years at byu. especially the last two years. i was at the conference center for every session i think. as i said, spoiled.
so for that reason it makes me sad to be so far away because the whole community isn't celebrating conference weekend with me. just the lds community. so instead of being like everyone is celebrating the olympics, it's just like a small inside joke instead.
and since my sister, emily, is in hr school at utah state she got to hang out with my parents all weekend while they were in town visiting and they went to a byu game and hung out with people and just had a lot of fun without me. and it's sad because my in laws were in slc for conference too and i couldn't help but think about how my christopher and i were missing out on post priesthood session chinese food at the kelsey grandparents.

but we started a tradition of our own. my christopher texted me after conference wondering what fun thing we could do when he got home. first suggestion, milkshakes. i had to inform him we only had two bites left (just the right amount for one more cup of hot chocolate... which i've been having at least every day) and so he would need to think of a new idea. he thought of plenty of ideas but none so great as milkshakes. of course he came home with grocery bags...filled which what you ask? ice cream of course! i guessed he had gotten some sort of vanilla chocolate mix. probably a fudge swirl. finally he told me he got mocha almond swirl. what? mocha? why'd you get mocha? do you like mocha? and my final and favorite question... do you even know what mocha is? haha. oh my honey, he sure is a funny one.

he didn't know what mocha was. when i told him it was a chocolateyish coffee sort of mix he looked at his milkshake with quite a bit of hesitation and then it was like he was trying to decide if he liked it (even though he did just seconds before) and started checking to see if there was coffee actually IN the ice cream. as i said, a funny boy. i assured him of all of his fears and calmed him right down that the mocha ice cream was okay to eat, that it wouldn't kill him or condemn him and that it would be a tasty flavor we would both enjoy.

after that he was like a two year old that just learned a new word! i mean, i know i'm very child-like, but christopher definitely is too, just in his own way. i think i hear him say mocha at least thirty times that night. he now insists that this is our new family tradition. after priesthood session we eat mocha milkshakes. ok honey.

hmm, what else? job search still going. don't wanna talk about it.

still loving our apartment. especially since we got a vacuum so i don't have to see every speck of... well anything really... on our hides-nothing-carpets. we have a wonderful view and our apartment is so small and has such a large portion of its wall's as sliding screen doors, that if our apartment is too warm, i can cool it down in four seconds, and heat it up just as fast.

**18 hours later** got distracted. might have a job. will write more later.

i wish this was surprising

as i was signing into my blog today (which i rarely do) something caught my eye.



i have a follower? what's this about?



followers are people interested in your blog.

followers (1) Bryan and Carolyn Turnage

your friends (1) Bryan and Carolyn Turnage



need i say more?

unfortunately, i need not.

changing schools

9.19.09

saturday afternoon walking to the tailgate
me: who's playing florida state today?
chris: we are
me: no we're not, we're playing san jose.

ohhhh right, we meaning byu. having a bit of an identity crisis as i wear my red shirt.
i talked to my sister that night after the game about how weird it is cheering for another school. i'd try to get really into it (and thought i was doing a pretty good job) but then the whole student section would start some special cheer or clapping chant something or other and then i just felt like an impostor. oh well. still fun. better luck next time.

first day of school

9.14.09they sure grow up fast

our box

dorm room carpet

la petite kitchenette
the basics

the luxury

the dining room
typical dorm bathroom complete with itty bitty sink and industrial flushing toilet

we live in a box. it's a little ghetto. i am in love with it.

didn't even bust a tire

we left wednesday morning for salt lake. stayed the night with the kelsey grandparents. drove the rest of the way on thursday.

beautiful skies as we left salt lake... also lots of salt by the road.

our car was riding pretty low. the packing job was unlike anything i've ever seen before. every inch inside and two car top carriers as well. pretend you're six and you're looking at highlights magazine. can you find these items? a laundry hamper, a box of ziplock bags, a bag of toiletries, clothing, dirty clothing, a kitchen rug/mat, a flashlight, a dish scrubber, cannery food storage food, and an umberella.

after passing over the california state line. chris is sure feeling good about it. he drove the entire way.

GREEN!!! so many trees! i almost feel home again.

and then we made it.

ode to bryan and carolyn

this is bryan

this is carolyn

they like to make food. but more importantly... they like US! they randomly showed up the day we were moving out of our apartment... start to finish... all in one day. they didn't call ahead, they didn't ask, they just showed up. they saved my life!

bryan helped christopher pack the car (and more importantly kept him in a good mood) while carolyn helped me sort through and pack boxes. they ran errands for us and kept us motivated. carolyn brought me milk (we had none) and, pregnant as she was, cleaned my whole apartment, bathroom, kitchen, fridge, and all!

we would love them more but we're still a bit angry that they declined our offer to come to california and live with us.

we went on a cruise

we went to grand cayman, roatan island (honduras), belize, and cozumel. it was amazing.

if you'd like to see a couple hundred pictures from our trip, click here.

if you'd like to see a hundred MORE pictures from our trip, click here too.

what country am i in?!?!

just a list of randoms


NO ONE speaks english. EVERYONE is brown... mostly indian or mexican.

gas is anywhere from $3.17 to $3.39... colorado is $2.29

something 3 miles away will take you at least 20 or 30 minutes... any time of day.

apparently the city does not trust drivers to make left turns on their own. drivers have to pull a u-turn at the light and then make a right turn into where they want to go.

we put walmart in our gps and pulled up one location, 3.6 miles away. we put in chili's and pulled up at least 13 within 20 miles.

my nearest super walmart is over 50 miles away. my nearest super target is 128 miles away.

wal-mart prices
milk is $2.09
kraft mac and cheese $.78 - off brand was only ten cents less
vegetable oil (normal size container) $2.98
ketchup $1.64

grocery store prices (safeway)
ramen is $.38
cheapest ketchup $2.99
kraft mac and cheese $1.68 or ten for ten
milk is $2.49
soft tortillas (16) $4.26

housing is four times the price of what we paid in colorado

i had to buy something for chris's computer. total: $65.98 what i paid: $72.08 why: 9.25% sales tax

at least food is exempt from sales tax.

ps- the weather is beautiful and i like our apartment. i swear i'm not unhappy. just baffled.