PwC x 2!

I got a job offer this morning. Dont worry, I put in my 2 weeks notice at my current job, it is safe to announce it on my lovely rarely read blog. As of the beginning of December (give or take a week) Brian and I will BOTH be employees at PriceWaterhouseCoopers or "the firm" as it will be called from here out. I will be working as an Associate in the Advisory practice, and Brian will continue his awesome work as an outstanding Associate in the Assurance practice. I have a feeling our dinner conversations are about to get a whole lot more nerdy (and considering we currently discuss things like "this american life" and "all things considered" that is saying something).

"Hygiene" Crafts

Recently, I ran across a craft blog labeled simply "tampon crafts". I thought this was absurd, and I of course had to click the link and view what exactly a "tampon craft" was. I dont know what I was expecting, but what I found was just... strange. So apparently you can do crafts with tampons. I do have to admit that I am going to shy away from this particular brand of crafting, but the idea alone is a little bit ingenious, however, I was left with a few questions like: who thought of this? why did they think of it? can you get away with decorating your entire tree with tampons without anyone knowing? and can I send my husband to the store to buy tampons for crafting purposes? I would love to have a tampon tree, and to explain to everyone that comes over, from the home teachers to the relatives, that this year we decided to celebrate with feminine hygiene products... yes the decorations were a bit more than if I used the traditional ornaments I had, but this is classy, great, and well down right fun! Okay, to be fair i am sure tampon ornaments have their place- an all girls apartment, a gynecologist's office, and your husband/boyfriend/brother's side of the room/yard/house, but sadly they wont be gracing our home this holiday season. I would love to see Brian's face if he came home to a house decorated with tampons. In the mean time I am going to go the tradiational route- snowflakes, santas, sparkles, and pine garlands... maybe next year.

For those of you feeling a bit more adventurous, a complete line of tampon crafts can be found at http://www.tamponcrafts.com/

Brie Cheese and Clementines

To me brie cheese and clemetine oranges represent the beginning of the holiday season. My childhood was filled with food, the fourth of July brought a triple layer german chocolate cake complete with coconut peacan icing, February and October brought Marie Calendar’s pie month, thanksgiving was surrounded by pumpkin pies, stuffing made at 3am, and Christmas ushered in a month of tins of popcorn, pomelos, homemade olives, and yes, brie cheese and Clementine oranges. My family eats like it is going out of style. Holidays are planned around food rather than the event, family gatherings take place in the kitchen, and sports on thanksgiving is a foreign concept.- so you can see that food is important. Clementines (cuties) and brie are semi seasonal items at Costco. They appear in mid to late October and disappear sometime after the New Year, we eat these items by the truckload during the holidays. We eat them at night, with breakfast, and as a mid day snack. They are one of the few Christmas traditions that requires little preparation, thought, or a stove. This past week while at Costco I noticed that Clementines are back, and wouldn’t you guess, so was the brie cheese. I hastily bough both, brought them home, and immediately knew that Christmas was on its’ merry way.

This American Life

THIS American Life

I listen to a lot of This American Life. I enjoy the hipster stories, the tales of people who literally crawled out from under bridges, and the shear awkwardness, that is to be frank, this American life. As I listen to Ira ramble on about another random topic, another awkward moment, and another strange person I cant help but wonder, “how do you become one of those people?”. Not one of the people in the story, but one of those people that tell the story. How do you become one of those people that tells a story so compelling that other people are willing to take time out of their busy lives to listen to you? I think all of us have met these people on one occasion during our lives. My grandma is one of those people, she can tell a story and you can picture it like are there. There are the old standbys- my dad stuffing his pockets full of candy and eating until he is sick, and my grandpa stuck in the house rafters without a ladder, but then there are the every day stories- the trips to the doctor, the conversation with one of my cousins, or the train wreck talk given in church. When I was a kid I thought all grandmas were this way- anti cooking but fascinating story tellers with extensive video collections, that wrote music, edited photos, and slept in lazy boy recliners. As I got older, I realized that not all grandmas were like that, and that I was lucky to have her and her stories. And as I continue to get older I want to develop her talent for dramatic story telling. For now, I will settle on this blog, the grammar will continue to fail, the stories will continue to be mediocre, but people (all two of you) will continue to read this, because after all on some level you feel like you have to, because we are related, and you wonder if this blog is going to improve, and because like me and Ira you know one day there is going to be a gem that you accidently but sorta on purpose discover.

Happy Late Halloween!

Happy Late Halloween! We thought you would all benefit from a bit of our silliness.

Our pumpkins. Brian's was awesome, the mouth says "texas", sadly the rangers themed pumpkin didnt help their cause but still cute!

Brian was a BYU fan... can you tell?
Okay I am not a crazy cat person, but witches do have black cats so i couldnt resist. Seriously I bought a black cat just for this costume (well that and because I like them, but still).
happy halloween. And yes we did go out in public like this. actually we went into walmart after our ward trunk or treat like this. brian's poor dad was with us, way to be a trooper randy!