let me tell you about last week

1. aaron + thom yorke = love at first sight

2. gift from my bosses for working my A** off

3. my trash dream come true. (please let me know if you have King #3)

4. The Whitest Boy Alive in Brooklyn, NY!!!!!

Easter Twenty Ten

All the friends came over for Easter dinner. It was bunny funny yummy. We finally got to make our table into the 10' masterpiece it was meant to be.

not my child, but she is pretty awesome (amelia hales)

Red Pink Party

Lest we sit around and wallow in our Kings of Convenience sorrow, we threw a vday party with all our loved ones in Brooklyn.

The cutest girls I know: Ivy and Amelia. Shout out to Grace for the delicious homemade jolly rancher suckers.

LOVE FEST 2010? I beg to differ. And suffer.

On the Friday before Vday, Aaron surprised me with this darling handmade gem of a game.

We have both been very sick with the most annoying sinus infections known to man, so you can imagine how happy my mucus snot face was when I opened THIS surprise:

Please note that this show has been sold out for months and every time we tried to find tickets on Craigslist, they were either ridiculously inflated or already sold to a buyer quicker than us. Aaron Monson is one sneaky sneaks man; how he purchased these and how much he spent are both mysteries to me. So, like a good wife and courteous recipient of thoughtful gifts, I did not ask any questions. I merely squealed in delight, threw my arms around him, and gave him a big snotty kiss. I was SOOOOOOOOOOO excited!!! Kings of Convenience!!! NYC!!! First US tour in 5 years!!!!! Valentine's weekend!!!!! Me and the Mons going on an awesome date!!!!!!

Unfortunately all of this elation came to a screeching halt when upon my return from work the same day, Aaron had yet another present for me. Wrapped inside a Kleenex box was this:

WHAT? NOOOOOO I screamed! How could it be? Surely this was a joke! Oh no, my friends. It is no joke. All tour dates canceled until June.

Thus to our dismay, we both ended up with broken hearts for Valentine's 2010.

Enjoy your brains out. Part II.

Fourth of July you say? Fourth of Awesome is more like it. Me and the Mons flew to the ol U.T. for a weekend of friends, fireworks, and freaking Jonas Brothers. (not to mention an obligatory stop at my father's 4th marriage to his 3rd wife.) (you do the math.)

Hokamas, why must you live on the coast of the west?

angel child

devil father

nathan has sleepies

shannon has falafelies

Joe, you are the love of my teenage life

Nick, you are only but a child

before

after

Mmm bop!

Enjoy your brains out. Part I.

Now that I am unemployed, I not only have time again to blog but I have time to blog about things that happened months ago. Nothing like a little dose of better late than never. 

sometimes when you graduate you get to be with this awesome wife

and you get a big pan of pad thai

and you get to do this with your arms

and you get to hike the Y in your cap and gown

and you get to speak at graduation and show off your pretty pictures

and you get to see lots of friends who should move to New York City

Mr. Sandman is actually Mrs. Sandman

We finally made our first summer 2009 trek to the beach this past Saturday. Give it up for the Atlantic Ocean! We drove with my cousin and cousin-husband Scarlett & Chris Lindsay to a beautiful place called Fire Island, about 1.5 hours away from our casa in Brooklyn. Why do I love the beach so? Perhaps I am half mermaid, half human. Oh wait, is a mermaid already calculated to be half human? I'm not sure, I'll have to check Wikipedia for that one. Nonetheless, happy beach time, my friends. August is here. If I didn't have a personal requirement to live in a house with indoor plumbing, I would seriously consider living full-time on a sandy beach on one of the coasts. Me and the Merms. And the Mons.

This was an interesting sight... 

And her other sleepy friend...

Awesome. Not awesome.

The other day something really awesome happened: we saw these guys. LIVE and on fire. And did I mention Free.99. 

For those of you who don't recognize these fine looking lads, let me remind you who Daryl Hall and John Oates are. They are the NUMBER-ONE SELLING DUO in music history. NUMBER 1, PEOPLE, NUMBER UNO!!!!! I love these guys. I was raised on their music. Thank you Mom & Dad for having such good taste in 1983. Hall & Oates have so many ultra amazing songs, I want to pee m'britches over it. "Rich Girl", "Kiss on My List", "Private Eyes", "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)", "Maneater", "Out of Touch", "Sara Smile", "One on One", "You Make My Dreams", and "Say It Isn't So". 

SAY IT ISN'T SO is right, whoop whoop! 

So you can imagine my sheer excitement when Aaron called to say he would be home from 

work early to see this free concert in Coney Island. We got there with just enough time to bust our way onto the grass next to the Old Lady Smoke Stack and the Really Cool Black People getting their Hall & Oates groove on (there is something so intriguing about watching black people dance, especially when it's to super mellow cheesy 80's hits). 

To be honest, the concert was pretty dang boring except for when they sang their hits, which at that point, the crowd would go wild and everyone would sing along. (Isn't this the case at most concerts?) I was actually starting to get upset by the end because they never sang Rich Girl which is my favorite song of theirs, so after they finished, me and the Mons started walking away. Until the encore started and I suddenly heard through the nighttime heat waves the intro to RICH GIRL!!! Ooh baby, I wasn't mad anymore. We ran back so I could belt my little heart out ... You're a rich girl and you've gone too far cause you know it don't matter anyway, You can rely on the old man's money You can rely on the old man's money, It's a bitch girl but it's gone too far cause you know it don't matter anyway, Say money but it won't get you too far, Get you too far-r-r-r-r-r-r......

Oh joy. 

In other news, the same day I dealt with this little gem.

A $130 cell phone violation from the grand ol State of New York. Yes that's right, I got a ticket for talking on my cell phone in a moving vehicle except 

1) I was not talking on my cell phone 

2) the vehicle was barely moving (honestly) 

3) I don't even have a freaking car here in the first place 

4) I think it's really unfair and really rude for the police officer to not understand my simple plea that I didn't know it was a law in New York, it's not a law in Utah, I just moved here, this is my first time driving a car, and I was only telling someone I was on my way to pick her up and I wasn't having a conversation and I was at a red stop light anyway and ... 

Unfortunately I'm not a rich girl who can rely on her old man's money.

Do you know what the officer said to me? "Welcome to New York." 

You know what I say?

Hall & Oates, you are never rude and you always understand what I'm feeling and I appreciate your 1980's haircuts and weird rocker clothing you were wearing the night of August 6. Thank you for helping me relive my childhood memories last week. You're the bomb.

Summer. 2009.

Why hello there old friends, it's been awhile. Yes we moved to New York City and yes Aaron has a design job and yes Carrie is now a bonafied housewife and yes Carrie is dying of heat stroke inside their apartment and no they do not have air conditioning (or dishwasher or laundry facilities) and no they cannot afford to buy these items and yes they still love their brownstone in spite of this and yes they greatly enjoy homemade Italian icees on every corner and yes their ward is awesome and yes they hope to have a baby (but only after Carrie is off Methotrexate sometime next year) and no they don't have a savings account anymore because Carrie spent it all on new home decor and furnishings and yes Aaron is always working and yes Carrie rides her bike to the public pool 3 times a week to hang out with all the black kids who are hilarious and yes Carrie tries out new recipes every day and no Carrie does not miss Utah and no Carrie has not found a job yet (but she is looking) and yes Aaron is teaching early morning Seminary this school year and yes Aaron has really cool design clothes and no Aaron has not biked every street in Manhattan yet (but he's working on it) and yes we invite you to come visit us but you will have to help pay our daily rent of $69/day (sorry).

oh lovely Carroll Gardens, thanks for letting us live here

mmm peanut butter icees

it's possible I will get a disease from here this summer

my indoor garden

home projects on our patio, aka the fire escape

momma Wendy came to town

HOTT

riding to Prospect Park with the Philadelphia Monsons

news for today

Hi friends. I'm coming back to the blog world. In very slow stages. Remember how we just moved across the country? So cut me some slack. I've been a very busy girl. But for today's enjoyment, please see how beautiful my BFF Ali is. She got married yesterday in the St. George temple and I flew in to see the whole shabang. She is beautiful and it has been a wonderous weekend. Ali, I love you and wish I could be on the cruise with you right now, except, not really.

Also while in St. George, I had the privilege to see this piece of work. More like, pieces of work. I about died every time we drove past this house. My friends say a man named Cactus Bob lives here and if I had had the honor of meeting him this weekend, I would have told him he has done a fine job of putting a bunch of weird crap in his front yard. Kudos to you, CB!!!

More blogging to come. I promise.