ma famille

Do we need another post about my baby brother Joseph? Yes?? Okay!

So this is a picture of me and Joseph and our nephew Roman. Posing as a family. Oh wait, what? We are family? Well okay then. Not so disturbing, now is it.

I kept teasing Joe that his hair looked like Will Smith's from the 90's. He cut it before he left. Peer pressure, anyone?

Anyway Joseph is graduating from AIT in less than 2 weeks - Hallelujah!!! I'm so excited for him to get home. Kristofor and I will randomly say things to each other like "When Joe gets home, we're going to ________" Fill in the blank. When Joe gets home we're going to go play tennis every day. When Joe gets home we're going to play this video game together. When Joe gets home we're going to hang out in our room all the time. When Joe gets home we're going to go see that movie.

Joe can't get home soon enough 'round these parts. He's been away for too long! I don't deal well with being apart from my family. It would be better if we could email each other or something. We text - occasionally. When he can. He'll send me texts out of the blue about what kind of dream he had the night before, or about a certain girl in his platoon who looks like a mixture of my mother-in-law and Amanda Bynes. I really like those texts.

Joe is funny because he presents himself in such a way that people get different ideas about him. Like some people might think he's cocky. Stuff like that. But the thing is... Joe is much more than what meets the eye (And he gets mad that people aren't aware of that - you're supposed to just know!). He's extremely thoughtful. Like... he ponders stuff. He's a thinker. And he hates drama. He's blunt. Sometimes he's intimidating. Sometimes he's so loud in your basement apartment that your landlords who live upstairs get mad. Sometimes he'll send my sisters texts where they can't interpret how he means something - like if he sends them a text that says "What." And sometimes they assume he's being mean. And sometimes he is. But usually he's just messing around. Remember what I said about him being intimidating?

Well, according to my dad Joe is going to call tonight. I can't wait to find out what day he's coming home. I miss him. He's my true friend. I can talk to him about anything. Well... almost anything. Sometimes he stops the conversation if it ventures into weird territory. See?? Joe is cool like that.

Can I get an amen? ;)

news?

As many of you already know.... I got into the Radiology program.

Boo yah.

happy 100!

100th Post!

Dear loyal followers!!

This is the 100th post of my blog!!!!!! To congratulate me you can either give me 100 dollars, give me 100 back massages or give me 100 candy bars!! Your choice!!

Love!!

Aariel!!

p.s. Or you can just leave a comment or something if you want. Whichever's easiest. ;)

stuff I like part 2

Any readers out there probably couldn't care less about stuff I like, but it's fun for me! So sorry if you hate this post...the next one will be more exciting, mmkay?

Today I took work off and Kristofor and I took the FrontRunner to Salt Lake to stroll around the Gateway and hang out with some friends. Ohhhh, it was so fun. The main objective of the day was for us to try on some Toms Shoes to determine our size so we can order some off the internet for our anniversary. (I'm so excited but can't decide which color to get!) So we only went inside the few stores that carry Toms, but there was one particular store I just couldn't pass up going into....

Anthropologie! I've only ever been on their website and wanted to see what the store was like so while we were waiting for our friends to meet up with us, I convinced Kristofor to come inside with me so I could peek around. I felt like a kid in a candy store (overused phrase?) - seriously, I felt like my eyes couldn't take everything in fast enough! We were only there for a second because our friends came and we decided to get something to eat and go see a movie. Afterwards I somehow convinced Kristofor to let us stop by Anthro one more time before we went home - - - is he the best or what?!? Or am I the best, because I conned him into it..??

The second time around was way better - my eyes were able to slowly feast on all the glorious designs around me. AND, Kristofor liked it too! How amazing is that?! He said if we were rich we would shop there all the time - this coming from a guy who hates shopping! Oh, he makes me laugh.

Onto the loot! Well, not really because we didn't buy OR steal it....but we can pretend for now.

Kristofor liked this octopus coat hanger (don't tell him I didn't really like it, kay?)

I liked these bath towels - they remind me of my Gramma Davis because they're fancy and oven and whatnot, except they're groovy because of the awesome colors! (I'll bet Kristofor didn't like these - when I showed him he did an obligatory nod and went back into his own world)

This store makes me want to purchase completely unnecessary things I would never need, like this cloth napkin with a bird woven into it all homemade like.

Kristofor and I both liked these melamine plates .... until we saw the price tag. *cough!*

Kristofor was interested in with this cup and saucer set. There were tons out and on sale but we couldn't find the price! (We thought the cup came separately and kept checking the bottoms of different cups to see if there were price tags anywhere...in fact, I knocked a whole stack over while in the process of price checking and almost died because I was so worried I would somehow have to end up paying for all the stupid expensive cups even though none were broken but what if an employee saw me and got mad - !!!!!)

He also liked this dinner set. The octopus was a popular theme today.

Okay I didn't see this wallpaper at the store, but still, I love it! Just the right amount of color to make it pop but not enough to make it too crazy.

These letters were pretty cool - the only one I would have wanted would be an "M" but it only came in the fabric that the "A" is in, which is my least favorite...so.

We went home empty handed.

It was oh, so good.

birfday fotos

and the boy turns 25

Kristofor turned a quarter of a century old last week! YAY for getting old!! ;)

This is him on his big day. I was standing below him when I took the picture, so the angle is weird. I think he looks like he thinks he's "bad you-know-what-it-rhymes-with-glass."

For my boy's birthday week I bought him something new every day. One day I gave him Toblerone, obviously not knowing he doesn't exactly love toffee....okay, weirdo! Another day I bought him a Styrofoam head for us to decorate...more pictures of that later. Another day I brought him a 44 oz. Coke. See? I can be semi-thoughtful.

So anyway, the night before his birthday I thought it would be cool to give him a tiny surprise. A little background: As you may remember, a favorite place of ours to 'get away' to is Anniversary Inn. We haven't been in over a year and would have loooved to make it there BUT with our limited funds and poorness we decided to just stay home and hang sans jacuzzi and awesome room. At Anniversary Inn they not only serve you a yummy breakfast and supply you with movies to rent for free, they leave a little gift for you when you check into your room. That little gift is called a perfectly chilled bottle of Sparkling Apple Juice and 2 slices of delicious cheesecake in the mini fridge.

SO! COMING BACK TO MY LITTLE SURPRISE: I thought it would be fun for Kristofor and I to have cheesecake and Sparkling whatnots for his birthday. I bought sparkling apple juice at Macey's (Big plus! It was on sale! Little did I know, that's because it was "Lite" with 2/3 less calories than regular sparkling drinks! I didn't notice until I had opened the bottle! Arg!). I went to Albertson's (or whatever it's called now) to get cheesecake. Now, they had mini cheesecakes from the Cheesecake Factory for 6$, or an off-brand but large cheesecake for 10$...hmm, the frugal woman inside me chose the 10$ hugeness. It really was huge. I thought, "Kristofor loves cheesecake, this way he will be able to have as many slices as he wants, AND it's kind of a better deal! AND I'm not spending 6$ on a mini cake!"

So I surprised him and it was lovely and it was nice . . . Until we realized the apple juice was a bit funky from the Splenda they put in it, and the cheesecake . . . was pretty bad. ("I cry!") Really, that cheesecake tasted like cheap cheapness with too much spice and not enough cream cheese. Oh, I was sad. Kristofor laughed. He said, "That's just so you. You are thoughtful, but then...something is just slightly off." So I was bummed for a while, and then I got over it and we laughed together. And I drank all the juice. I grew accustomed to the taste and ended up really liking it. . . I am not lying, I drank it straight out of the bottle.

We put our giant cheesecake in the fridge with a note inviting any and all to partake.

There have been 3 slices eaten in total.

I guess it doesn't always pay to be frugal. Next time, I'm getting a GOOD cheesecake and I don't care how much it costs!

****************

Alright, my fingers and tired of typing and I pretty much just want to watch my series now. So I'll finish up with the rest of the story of Kristofor's actual birth DAY next time - it really was fun. I loved it.

les poissons?

This is a project I've had in the works for a couple days now... I bought a canvas simply because it was on sale and I've been wanting something to hang above the fireplace in my room. So I sketched a few things and decided on fish. I drew the image I wanted in Microsoft Paint to determine my color scheme, and (after getting Kristofor's opinion - he liked a yellow background the best) went to Michael's, bought the paint, and went to work!

The finished result! I outlined the fish with a Sharpie (oh so professional). It was fun to do, I'm glad to be done with it, and happy that I have something to hang above my fireplace!

The problem I have with hanging my own artwork or projects up around the house is that every time I look at it I criticize it and find faults or think of things I could have done differently. I really hate when I do that, but I can't help myself! So far that hasn't happened yet with this project, so hopefully I don't fall into the same routine!