I Ain't In Checotah Anymore

But I was there a few weeks ago!

For those who may not know, Checotah, Oklahoma, is the home of Carrie Underwood--2005 American Idol winner.

During our exciting trip to Oklahoma, I had to go there because we were only an hour away.

Posing by the Highway 69 sign

Carrie's high school...very stalker-esque of me


"Where 69 meets 40, there's a single stoplight town..."
And I was totally there! One of the highlights of my summer :)

Craigslist Treasure

In the words of Kimby, it was a screaming good deal.

A Singer Touch & Sew 600 for $30.

I've wanted a sewing machine for awhile, but I just figured there was really no room to keep one in our apartment. When Matt found this listing on Craigslist about 2 weeks ago, we just couldn't pass it up. We don't know what year it was made (probably sometime in the 1960s), but it has had 3 owners previous to me. The girl that sold it to us said the 2 owners before her only used it a few times. It sat at her mom's house untouched for 20 years. She used it quite a bit, but she, her husband, and kids were moving so they decided it would be easier to sell than move with them. I'm pretty sure the sewing machine alone would be worth at least $75, and I got the whole thing (machine folds into the desk) for $30! I haven't used it yet, but we are pretty excited about the good deal. And don't worry, we were able to find room for it in our tiny apartment :)

Graduation!

This is a week late in coming, but lateness seems to be the common theme with my posts...

And the good news: Matt officially graduated from BYU!

My original idea for this post was pretty awesome. I was going to go all out and add the playlist thing to the blog, but only put the graduation march on there. (Pathetic...I can't even think of the name of the "graduation march") It would instantly start playing the second anyone looked at the page and probably scare you because you weren't expecting it. And then you would get sick of it playing over and over again anyway. It would have been perfect :)

Now the news is a week old, although still very exciting, and I figured the playlist idea just wasn't going to happen. But I'm posting anyway to say:

Congratulations, Matt! I'm so proud of you...and jealous since I still have a ways to go :)



UPDATE: It's Pomp & Circumstance March No. 4 :D

Memory Lane

As we were driving into the Walmart parking lot tonight, the odometer officially read 180,000 miles! We obviously had to pull over and take a picture to remember that moment.

We've been driving this car together for over 30,000 miles. And don't worry, we plan on keeping it until it dies (which could be another 100,000 miles. Go Honda!).

This car has made several trips to Oklahoma and back, and all over the west. Who knows where we'll take it next. Maybe to YOUR house!

Better late than...

NEVER!

It's been over a month since my last post, and I'll tell you why. Because I'm lazy :) So after some nagging from a sister named Kimberly, I am finally taking the time to let you all in on "life".

For the 4th of July, Provo gets a little crazy. There's a giant Freedom Festival with lots of events all week. There's a lame parade the morning of the 4th...and for some reason, the entire city always camps out on the lawn/sidewalk next to the street. Megan and I did it two years ago, and although it was kind of fun to camp out, the parade was in NO WAY worth it. So Matt and I didn't participate in that this year. Instead, we got up at 6 AM to go to the hot air balloon event on the morning of the 4th. There were about 18 balloons, and they all lifted off at around 6:30. It was pretty cool. Several lovable characters there...including a pig and Smokey the Bear.
After the hot air balloon fun we were driving home and saw a fox...riding a motorcycle. Pretty random. I think he worked for the local Fox news station.
And of course the on the night of the 4th there's the Stadium of Fire, which this year had Miley Cyrus and the Blue Man Group perform, and Glen Beck MC'd. Matt and I worked as ticket-takers, and stood at the gates of the stadium for 7 hours. It was a loooong time. From what we could see/hear, the concert was good, and the fire works at the end were awesome. We almost caught on fire a few times because the gate we were at was right next to where they were setting off all the fireworks. We only had to deal with a few trouble-makers, and only had to stop a mom and daughter from trying to sneak in. Someone had left (and gotten a BYU stamp on their hand for re-entry), then pressed the stamp on the back of their hands. Too bad that made it say UYB. Then after the concert, we saw Glen Beck exit the stadium and get into a car. Awesome :)

Nothing Compares to Mother's

The other night for dinner I made french toast, and being the creative genius that I am (see previous post), I tried to recreate the delicious Crunchy French Toast I had at Mother's Cafe in Portland, OR. The result didn't look too bad and tasted great, but it didn't even compare to the real thing.

Lesson learned: next time I'm in the mood for Crunchy French Toast--plan a trip to visit Mark and Mark :D

A Giant Cookie

This term Matt is taking a History of Creativity class. As a take-home portion of one of his tests, he had to do a mosaic. Since we're both creative :D...we came up with this cool idea!

A giant sugar cookie and chocolate chips. He'll get an A for sure.

The mosaic is of the Roman aqueducts. What do you think?