Attempt #2

Ben and I have almost been married for 2 years now (yay!!) and I've done my own Thanksgiving ever since (hence the title, Attempt #2). This year was so much better than last year, I think. I wish I took pictures of everything but you can use your imagination (or the help of these Google images... haha). Here's just some of the things I made that I'm particularly proud of (because sometimes you just want to be proud of what you did, you know?) :




First, and most importantly to every Thanksgiving meal, the turkey. This year, I was only going to buy a small turkey because my family has never been a big turkey fan but thanks to our friend Fuzzy, we got a 20 lb turkey for absolutely free (and as a college student, how is free not good?!). His work was handing them out and he surprised us with one. Anyways, the turkey was so big it didn't fit in any of our pots.... Ben fixed this problem with a 5 gallon bucket and a lot of scrubbing because who knows what was in that bucket. We brined the turkey in this maple-brine from Better Homes and Garden. It was seriously, so good!!



Second, the stuffing. If you don't like stuffing, I PROMISE you will like this one: Awesome Sausage, Cranberry, and Apple stuffing. I doubled the recipe for this one because Ben cleaned house with it last year and I hardly had any.... Plus, I had to stuff a 20lb turkey with it! Anyways, you can find the recipe for this on allrecipes.com.


Next up: cranberry sauce! I know, I know.... you all have probably had it at every Thanksgiving meal but I never have. And I'm not talking about the kind that you take out of a can (although we did have that as well). It was so good with the turkey... I couldn't stop raving about it to everyone. All it is: sugar (1/2 c white, 1/2 c brown), water, orange juice, and a package of cranberries. This will definitely be something that I make every year!! Plus, it looks so pretty!

Finally, the pies! If I do say so myself, I make a pretty good pie.... 3 actually: maple-flavored pumpkin pie, grandma ople's apple pie, and irresistible pecan. I think I found all 3 of these on allrecipes again. I added and took away some things from the original recipes but seriously, these are some amazing pies. I think I'll make another one soon....


So I guess the point of this whole post --- It's really not as bad as you may think putting on your own Thanksgiving dinner! We had 8 people over in our little dungeon and there was more than enough food. It wasn't as stressful as it may seem (although Ben did help out so much with the cooking!) and it is so much fun trying out new things!! The guys went out and threw a football/frisbee around, the gals played Ticket to Ride (although Riena cheats... I think that's how she has her name written in the board so many times....), we pigged out, life was good :)

Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving!!

I Still Bleed Blue!

As much as I wanted the Cougars to win this year, I had a feeling that Utah would take it... so I wasn't surprised when they did (although I'm pretty sure that it would have been a much closer game had Hall not given them a few touchdowns....oh well, at least the Mountain West gets a BCS and we'll finally get the recognition that we deserve, right?).

I'll just let you all know that this has been the BEST football season I've ever been to... and I've got pictures to prove it!

This is one of the last football games we went to. *Sigh* I will miss those front row seats....

What I love about our seats: we get to touch the BYU flags every time they run past us when we score a touchdown, trying to get all the camera men and reporters to talk to us, hearing the defensive coach yell lots of fun things at his team, looking at Pace's eyes (mmm), talking to the players, getting tons of pictures with Cosmo, getting on the big screen/tv/newspapers/etc.....

But my absolutely most favorite part of our seats were these guys:

This is our friend Fred and he's part of the chain gang. During the half, the whole chain gang would get a boxed lunch... most of the time it was disgusting, horrible things that these poor men wouldn't eat like chicken crescents, a bag of chips, an apple, a bag of vegetables, and a bottle of juice. They would give out whatever disgusting thing they didn't want to eat to whoever the craziest fan/the best pouty face.... we usually won that contest. At the last game of the season, we snuck in 10 bags of Neimann Marcus cookies and gave each of them a bag. They gave us their entire box. Oh yeah, and we made t-shirts that said we loved the chain gang... this pic below was on the back of the shirts. The picture above this extensive paragraph is Fred showing off his #1 fans (aka. us) and their t-shirts to a fellow chain-ganger.

The whole gang (see also: hard core, intense, front-row fanatics, cone heads, etc.):

Yup, it was a crazy, super fun season... I really REALLY want the same seats next year but we'll see. Go BYU!! (and no, Max, I don't blame you)

My (attempted) Green Thumb

Ben and I decided to try our hand at our 2nd year of having a garden... and this year we EXPANDED! We had tomato BUSHES (seriously, so many...), strawberries, corn, peppers (thanks Mary Anne), string beans, and 2 different types of winter squash. I was just looking through pics and thought how funny the difference between a few months are.

This was taken in July/August. Everything was so green!

And then 3 months later.... Everything died. Dead.
(Sorry the pic is crooked!)

Point of the story: I already am sick of the cold and want the sun back...
But I don't want to miss Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Why can't we have them in the summer?!

Why Would I Have Voted Yes on Prop 8??

That's why.... How cute is he?!

I know, I know... everyone is probably sick of hearing about Prop 8 but I have to just say that the craziest part of this whole thing was to see everyone else's reaction to Prop 8 passing!!

I was looking at different blogs/sites that I usually look at and I found this blog that really just bugged me the wrong way. It was a site for people who call themselves LDS members to apologize to all their gay/lesbian family and friends for the Church's request to support Prop 8. Some of the things people were saying were unbelievable.

Ugh, okay... end of my rant! :)

I'm Throwing Away $4,000....

Picture this.... someone calls you and asks you to support them in something completely ridiculous and you, totally ignorant, believe them and go ahead and give out your credit card number just as easily as you would give out candy to all the cute trick-or-treaters we'll be seeing shortly............


I'm sure you are shocked and thinking, "No, Trina... I would never EVER do that... EVER!" Well, I agree with you. I would never EVER EVER do that! Ever! But my poor, absolutely adorable husband on the other hand......


Now we "supposedly" have 4 accounts open for this absolutely ridiculous, completely retarded magazine company (if you ever want me to get mad.... ask me to tell you about said magazine company). And the sucky part? Each account owes OVER $900...

each.

account.

OVER.

$900.


Are you kidding me?!?! I guess they have a recorded verbal agreement from Ben agreeing to pay for a few magazines a month for 36 months.... Well, it's been over 2 years now (yes, I know... I know) and now we have 4 accounts which total to $4000. Have we not been paying these past 2 years?! There is no way that we are going to pay that but I have absolutely NO IDEA what to do to get out of this. What the heck?!

Does anyone have any ideas of what I can/should do????

Because Ben did not agree to 4 accounts... maybe 1 but not 3 more. Definitely not 3 more.

I think this picture says it best:

Job Interview #101...

Haha, well I haven't been keeping count but it definitely feels like I've had about 100 job interviews...well maybe not interviews but definitely rejections. Oh well, Thomas Edison didn't invent the light bulb on his first billion (Ok, I wanted to be accurate here but when I googled how many times Edison failed, it ranged from 100 to 3,000 to 10,000 so I decided to use a billion... deal with it) tries right? Our ever-optimistic friend Thomas commented that instead he found a billion (see above) ways how to NOT invent a light bulb (and critics out there, please do not comment that he didn't technically invent the light bulb... remember, this is my blog... mine).


Well, sorry to disappoint you Tommy but I'm sick and tired of all these rejections and I definitely do NOT want to hear interviewers telling me how my interview skills were best or how I was definitely the most memorable from the interview a billion minus a few more times just so that I can get that one job ....



Just give me the job already!!!



But just in case the interview that I have on Monday doesn't come through, like the many many others... I have already started to plan ahead. What do you think?




Brilliant! I like how this guy thinks!!



This guy is a genius.
I would totally follow his lead except ... Well, I'm not sure many of you know this but since I AM part Asian... I basically am a ninja so I don't think it will go quite well with others.



Oh goodness... Benefits.... that would be amazing.


Honestly, people, HONESTLY.


I have no idea what a flux capacitor is... but I'm sure it's expensive and requires a lot of money.


If only I was not Mormon.... if only....


And let's be honest here, who wouldn't?!


But the winner and probably the sign that you MAY see me with someday as you drive to your salary-paying, business-suit wearing, 8 - 5 job that brings in your salary and requires something OTHER than graduating from High School with a diploma (cough, Bachelor's Degree, cough, cough) .....


Well, we'll see how this next interview goes...

(Creative, Super Funny Title Goes Here)

Just an update for everyone:

• Since I've graduated, I've been looking for a job... and I'm definitely still looking.... and looking and looking... It's gotten so bad that even Ben will get online to look for jobs for me. I think I need to take that as a hint... cough, cough, um.... But seriously, I graduated from a pretty prestigious University with a DEGREE so I don't want to get just any hourly-wage job so I've been holding out for that amazing triple-digit paycheck for a job that is fun and laid-back and easy and.... Sorry Ben...
  
• And even though you would think to yourself that I must have absolutely nothing to do... I've still been pretty busy! Intramurals are still taking up our lives (of course they are, why would you even ask?!). I'm on a volleyball team, football team, ultimate frisbee team, and a soccer team. Plus, being the ever-supportive wife that I am, I go to Ben's soccer, football, and softball games when I'm able... I know, my life is REALLY rough right now. I get to play. A lot.
  
• My mom is coming down for General Conference weekend which means my house is clean clean clean until the next time family comes over to visit. Yes, I am one of those people who's cleaning schedule revolves around Visiting Teacher/Home Teacher and Family visits (so I'm sure you can imagine how much I look forward to these visits because it's the only time my house is clean!!). I know you are probably thinking "slacker" but I prefer ... Ok, I don't know what I prefer....
  

This is such a pointless blog... ugh. :) Sorry!