We're Back!

It's pretty bad when I have to go back and read everything in my own blog because it has been a couple of months since my last post. There is a reason for my prolonged absence, though, and I'll warn you now, it's super addicting and just by mentioning its name you too could be sucked in. Yep, it's that bad. So Pinterest has officially taken over every spare minute of my free time. There's something about finding a new recipe or craft or outfit idea all in the same place that makes it very nice and convenient. All of the meals Kyle and I eat are recipes taken from Pinterest. At the very bottom of this blog I've included our new favorite dinner recipe, Slow Cooker Jambalaya.

I'll start off with a rant of sorts. Black Friday consistently proves to be a low point for the human race. I mean, who brings pepper spray and uses it on other customers in order to get whatever "must have" electronic item of the year. Oh, and those people that get trampled to death, that's just sad. Yet Black Friday is such a big deal that this year they even started on Thursday. That being said Kyle and I did go on Thanksgiving night. We really didn't need anything, it was more like a study of human behavior and trust me, we saw some crazy people doing crazy things.

On Friday morning, and by morning I mean 9 am not 4 am, we headed out to Target to see what deals they had. That is where we found our best ever Black Friday purchase! What did we find? Well, it wasn't some super expensive electronic item that was on sale for half price (though I do LOVE the Kindle that Kyle got me and I literally use it everyday). We got a ping pong table! That's right, a ping pong table. After a few weeks of sitting in our office (since turned game room) Kyle spent a couple of hours putting it together. We have tournaments everyday. I won't say who usually wins but we definitely have a lot of fun.

See how are table barely fits in the room? 

Over Christmas Break I plan to post pictures from our wedding, our new car, our Christmas Tree, and basically anything else that may have been photographed in the last two months!

Slow Cooker Jambalaya 

2 lb. chicken, cubed

1 large onion,chopped

1 large green bell pepper, chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped

1 (28 oz.) can diced tomatoes, with juice

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 c. chicken broth

1 T. creole seasoning

1 t. dried thyme

1 t. dried oregano

1 lb. smoked sausage

1 lb. extra large shrimp

1 3/4 c. rice, uncooked

Combine everything except for sausage, shrimp, rice in a crock pot. Cook on low for 5 hours. Cook smoked sausage in a skillet until a little crispy (make sure to buy the precooked smoked sausage). Add sausage, rice, and shrimp. Turn up heat to high and cook for 30 more minutes.

What happened to fall?

I knew it was coming. It's inevitable. Every year it rears its ugly head and there's nothing you can do to escape it, unless you live on some beautiful tropical island, and I don't. I live in Utah. A place that gets enough snow to hold the Winter Olympics, literally.

Don't get me wrong, I love having four seasons. Fall is super fun, with the leaves changing colors and making that pleasant crunching sound under some cute boots. Scarves and gloves and a wide assortment of pumpkin desserts that just make your heart smile. Summer, with its endless opportunities to go outside and have some fun, tan, and have BBQs with family and friends. Not to mention watching fireworks, hiking, and going to the lake. Then there's spring. Flowers and trees reawaken, the sun tries its best to reclaim your love, and fresh and clean smells makes the outside irresistible. And of course, winter. The happiness that the holidays bring, snow falling softly, amazing smells of sweets fill the air. They're all wonderful. But as I'm sitting on the couch, wearing sweats, and huddled under a big blanket I think, "What the heck! It's only October 6th and it snowed today!"

Honestly, I'm a little bitter about the whole thing (it didn't help that one of the students pulled the fire alarm today and I got to stand outside in the rain, which turned to hail and then snow). Sure, it didn't stick but that's beside the point. My toes are frozen and I should have another month before I have to worry about those kind of things.

On the bright side, the dreary weather means I can now make and bake all of those cold weather dishes I love so much! Hurray for soups!!! One of Kyle's new favorite meals is Dinner in a Pumpkin. Yep, it's exactly what it says. You throw deliciousness into a pumpkin, bake it, and eat the whole thing, pumpkin and all. The recipe can be found at the bottom of the post!

 No peeking!

Can't wait to start carving pumpkins!!!

Dinner in a pumpkin:


1 medium pumpkin
1 onion, chopped
2 tablespoons oil
2 lbs. lean ground beef
1/4 Yoshida's sauce (usually found at Costco)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 14 oz. can cream of chicken soup
1 1/2 - 2 c. cooked rice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut off top of the pumpkin and thoroughly clean out pulp and seeds. In a large skillet saute onions in vegetable oil until tender. Add meat and brown. Drain any drippings from skillet and add Yoshida's sauce, brown sugar, and soup. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add cooked rice. Spoon mixture into clean pumpkin shell. Replace pumpkin top and place entire pumpkin on a baling sheet. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Place pumpkin on a plate, skin the pumpkin and dig in!

Bridals, for your viewing pleasure!

This must be some sort of record. I never, ever just sit down and write (who really has the time?) and this week I've blogged more than I've been outside. Ok, not really but it sure feels that way. So, here I am, on a beautiful Monday morning adding pictures and writing away. 

Many of you are probably thinking, "What is she doing home on a Monday? Shouldn't she be working?" Well, funny story. Yesterday Kyle and I came home from church to find a large puddle of water in our hallway (never a good sign) and further inspection showed that our water heater was leaking. Of course it couldn't be something that is easily fixable and a plumber was called up and scheduled to come today. Sadly, since the water heater is turned off that means we have no hot water. Yep, in other words no laundry can be done, no dishes can be washed, and by far the most terrible part...no hot showers!!! There's no way I can be grungier than the kids I'm teaching and I can't leave our apartment because the plumbers are here fixing things as I type. Plus, I'm avoiding an office that needs to be organized and a paper that needs to be written.

Now on to the main event!

We still haven't gotten our actual wedding pictures yet (crossing my fingers that they come today!) so I've decided to post some of our bridals. We had Jimmy Bishop of Gideon Photography take them (he also did our engagements) and they turned out amazingly! For the past couple of days the weather had been pretty stormy (a rare thing for St. George) and we didn't know if we'd even be able to get our bridals done. Luckily the weather cooperated and we drove out to Leeds to have them taken. 

Jimmy was just great! We had so much fun goofing off and just being oursleves. Some of my favorite pictures are the ones where we're not posing. It was hard to choose which pictures to put on here. If certain obligations (office organizing and paper writing) weren't beckoning me I'd have put more up. Enjoy!

I just loved my bouquet!

Photographer: Gideon Photography

Flowers: Bloomers

Dress: Alta Moda

Suit: Mr. Mac

Makeup: Kelli Miller

Hair: Autumn at Taylor Andrew's Hair Academy

Location: Leeds, Utah

Spidermania!!!

I can say with confidence that I'm not a super picky person. Sure, there are things that I'm not fond of, such as meatloaf, mushrooms, and bananas (come on, who really likes those things anyway?) but everyone has a few things they'd rather pass up. There is one thing, though, that I HATE, DESPISE, and LOATHE more than anything in the world. Hopefully the title gave it away.

Yes, spiders. The bane of my existence, my number one enemy. No matter how many times I try to think of spiders as being ok and necessary I just can't do it. Look at them. They have eight eyes (which means one of them is on you at all times), eight spindly legs (making it easy for them to jump on you and attack), and when they get big enough, they're hairy. The perfect combination for disgustingness!

Usually I can go about life pretending that they don't even exist, but every so often we happen to cross paths and both of our worlds are turned upside down. It hasn't really been a problem...until we moved up to Bountiful. We've had spiders in the bathtub, one in our sheets, several by the toilet, and a ginormous one (with babies on its back) in our windowsill outside. It took up the whole corner of our windowsill!

The monstrosity with little babies on its back. 

It has gotten to the point that Kyle can identify my spider scream. Yep, I scream, my eyes fill up with tears, and I become paralyzed. Being the great husband that he is, Kyle comes running and disposes of them, usually with a tissue but sometimes he'll use his finger. You can bet I stand there and make sure he washes his hands afterwards. The worst part about Kyle being gone all day and me being home without him is that when there is a spider I somehow have to kill it myself (of course I miss Kyle too). Until it becomes too cold for them to survive (which should be in a month or so), I'll keep my fingers crossed that we don't find anymore inside.

On the brighter side of things, I made carrot cake today with cream cheese frosting. I love love LOVE cream cheese frosting!!!

A Busy Week.

I'm so glad to say that this was the week we finished up ALL of the painting. No more walls, trim, nothing. I also vow to NEVER, EVER pick up a paintbrush, buy paint, or put on my grubby paint clothes again (we'll see how long that lasts). As much as I complain about painting it did made our place look a ton better, so it was all worth it!

The amazing sandwich Kyle made for me. This is also how I felt when all of the painting was done!

You would think that with all of the painting done there would be just endless amounts of free time, right? Pshhh, I wish.

We just love our new ward. The people are amazing, we can walk to church, and our bishop is super friendly. So friendly, in fact, that he flagged us down our first Sunday there and asked if we wanted to help out in the ward's Day of Service. And what exactly are we doing on our Day of Service? Sorting jewelry. Of course Kyle and I agreed. Little did we know that we would be put in charge of untangling thousands and thousands of necklaces. So, for the past two weeks we would work through clumps of jewelry while watching movies (lately, I've been watching National Geographic documentaries, haha). It was really time consuming but we did it! All of the necklaces are untangled and hanging safely on a pole.

See, all safe.

Yes, those are my dirty fingers from touching all of those necklaces.

But that's not all. On the 24th (the actual Day of Service), we'll be at Hatch Park putting each necklace individually into little, tiny ziplock baggies. And anytime any ward gets together and does anything there's always food involved, woohoo! Can't wait to see what amazing recipes we can nab from it!

Aside from painting and jewelry untangling, a lot of odds and ends needed to be done. You know, the stuff that needs to be taken care of once you're married, like changing your name on everything, getting a job, that kind of fun stuff. Probably one of the scariest places on earth is the Social Security Office and it isn't because of the workers. I'll admit, this was the first time I've ever been to a Social Security Office so I'm not sure how all of them are, but when you walk into the room and there are two security guards, well, guarding the door, that kind of makes one wonder. Since all of the people there looked like they were from the rougher parts of town I chose the closest seat I could next to the two guards. After an hour of Angry Birds and proof of marriage I officially became an Arslanian. 

So, basically in one day, my driver's license, social security card, insurance, job, and jewelry duty were all taken care of. All that's left to do is organize the office and relax!

A fall wreath I made in my, um, spare time. 

A new addition to the family?

It happens to most new couples. You get married, some time passes, and you realize that your house seems empty, like there's something missing. There are a few ways couples combat this: have kids, get pets, or realize they were crazy for thinking anything was amiss in the first place and live their lives just as they were.

Well, Kyle and I are pleased to say that we have two little additions to the family. Yep, we have pets. When most people get pets they come in the form of a furry, four-legged creature that wait lovingly for you to get home and pet them. Nope, not us. We have fish. What can I say? We're pretty much the most exciting couple out there (plus we have a pretty strict pet policy at our new place so Spot or Killer will have to wait).

A nice screen separates them so they're not fighting all the time.

The blue on lives on the side with the red rock... 

...and the red one lives on the side with blue rock.

They're probably the easiest pets in the world. I don't have to take them on walks or house break them. I never lose sleep because of barking and I don't have to deal with cat litter. These fish have been known to survive in puddles so you can't even accidentally kill them. They're Karrah-proof. Now we just have to think of some names. See, they're already becoming pretty demanding.

Where to start?

One of the most difficult things I've run into with this blog is figuring out where to begin. Being the procrastinator that I am (there, I admitted it!) means that I have years and years to cover and I'm pretty sure it's the same for Kyle, so we have A LOT of catching up to do.

So, where do we begin? I would have loved to start with our wedding but I don't have all of the pictures yet so that'll have to wait (no worries, they're coming soon!). Instead, we'll talk about our new beginnings up in Bountiful.

They say that trying to find a place to live can be a little stressful and they are definitely not lying. Every weekend for a good two months Kyle and I searched high and low for a place. Since Kyle was going to start at the U in the fall we knew that we wanted something in the Salt Lake area. We looked, and looked, and looked some more. Some places we looked at were pretty sketchy. Super sketchy, as in we drove up, took one look from the car window and left. It was just draining to know that we spent the whole weekend calling, looking around, and getting nowhere.

Luckily, Kyle is pretty good when it comes to looking for various options and he suggested searching around Bountiful. Well, we ended up finding a nice, little place and moved up in August. Thanks to Paul and Julie we were able to fit everything we had in two trucks, a little trailer, and the Mini (you know how Minis are known for their extreme leg space, haha).

Here are some pictures of our place. It's still a little unorganized and there's still a little unpacking left to do. We took on the fun job of repainting everything.

Our soon to be office.

The bedroom. Can't wait to use that fireplace in the winter!

 

Food storage/pantry. No hungry newlyweds here.

TV...

Nice, little kitchen.

Bathroom

Did I mention the office used to be flamingo pink, our bathroom was baby blue, and our kitchen cupboards were pea green? Unfortunately, I didn't take any "before" pictures but if you just close your eyes and imagine those colors all in one house, you'll probably shudder. I sure did. All that's left to do is the trim. Farewell free time.

Here we go!

Alright! After being married for a month, things have finally slowed down enough for the two of us to start a blog. So, our dear friends and family, this is where you'll come when you want to have your fill of Kyle and Karrah. And unlike the other numerous journal attempts that have always started out strong yet fizzled out a week later, this one will actually live on. Why? Because we're married, and that automatically makes us super responsible and dedicated....right?