The Aftermath

Married Christmas is awesome. Instead of one amazing Christmas, we got three.  We spent Christmas Eve with my family, singing songs horribly, burning the traditional bonfire, and eating cheese, sausage and crackers. Delish. After the little hiccup with Cory's original present, I wanted to get him something else. But he insisted that I couldn't spend any money on another present. What's a girl to do?
On Wednesday, December 22nd, my mom suggested we make him a quilt. We only used scraps from her fabric closet, so the only thing it cost us was time! And boy, did it ever cost us. It had 9 squares total, and 8 of the squares feature a scene from our first year together. Its like, a scrap book, on a quilt! After 18 hours of hard labor, at 12:00 pm on Thursday, the 23rd we had this:

Here's a closeup of each square-- which is your favorite??

1) Painting the Town Yellow   2) Our golf date  3) Watching movies  4) Eating dinners
5)Baking cookies  6) Our first Christmas spent cross country
7) Singing in the Rain aka He proposed  8) Weddin'

We presented it with a bottle of sparkling grape juice and a ton of fruit snacks. So we can snuggle up and stuff our faces. Sounds good to me.

We went to Cory's parents house for Christmas Day, opened a ton of presents and ate a ton of food. It was awesome. They surprised us with a new camera! So, we spent most of the day taking pictures trying to learn how to use it. So, we've got a lot of this:

Zero editing, people. Its the way of the future.  See how Cory is all sharp like,
and the background is all blurry like?  Oh baby.

Around 9:00 PM we came home to our little Christmas celebration. We filled up each other's stockings with little surprises, and opened up a few little presents. It was nice.

We're still getting the hang of self timers.

Also, the other day when we got into the freezing cold car Cory exclaimed: "It's colder than a witch's teat in here!" He insists its a common phrase. Wikipedia agree's with him. Click HERE to know more about witch's teats than you ever wanted to.

Another Christmas post. You can expect at least one more after this.

Christmas is shaping up nicely. Now that the fall semester is blissfully over, we can really enjoy getting ready. And by enjoy I mean, have an awesome day out shopping until at Best Buy I decide to be sneaky when I see the Planet Earth I bought for Cory's present playing on all 46 of their huge high def. TV's and ask ever so slyly, "So you like that stuff right?" and then cry when he responds, "I already watched all of those online--I don't want to watch them again." Umm. Yea.

But other than that little, tiny hiccup it's been very nice.

I love having the house all decorated for Christmas! It's so cozy. Well at least I think so. If Cory could describe our decor in one word it would be "flammable.

Cute right?

 Apparently covering a string of lights in fabric, and then nestling heavy glass jars into isn't "safe".

 And then placing a  large amount of kindling paper (aka coffee filter wreath) above the set up makes it worse...

He also had a problem with shoving copious amounts of lights on top of a kind of very dusty fridge.

Who made him the Fire Marshall???

But, as you can see, the overall effect IS quite cozy. Especially when I light the candles...

On this one, I'm willing to admit we're both right. Cozy and flammable. Our first Christmas.

A few days ago it finally got cold here. We're talking, take a glass of water with you when you walk to your car in the morning, cause you're gonna need it to melt the ice off your windshield. So Cory made us the FIRST hot chocolate of the season.  I saw some super cute mugs at Micheal's, and got them in preparation for colder weather. They each feature a different picture and imperative statement.

This was my cup of hot chocolate:

Cute.

I look up and I see Cory with his hot chocolate:

"Lindy, this is how a man drinks hot chocolate."

 Nothing like drinking hot chocolate out of something the size of your face.

Merry Christmas :)

'Tis the season

So, I just put up a long post about our Christmas decorations on the ol' Pile o' Craft. I was going to put it up here too, but I just can't take fighting with Blogger with posting pictures anymore right now. So click here if you wanna see what I did to our house!

If you don't wanna click over, here's the general idea:

Lindy

So long and thanks for all the fish

First things first: I made my first cute cake for Tanya the other day. She posted it, and I'm super proud of it, and you can see it on her blog.

Anyway, Thanksgiving was awesome.

We spent the first two days with Cory's family on the St. Johns River. We played with Jet-skis, smoked turkeys and went fishin'.

Cory's great grandmother has spent the last 90 years perfecting her fishing skills, so I decided to let her take the lead in that department. Cory thought it was mean of me to make a blind woman wrestle a small, wriggly worm onto a small, very sharp barb. But hey, she offered.

I woke up around 5 AM on Friday to hit up some sales with my family. There wasn't really anything we had in mind to purchase, we just...wanted to spend money I guess. The first store we hit up was Michael's. My mom and I grabbed some carts and started scoping out the deals...then we saw them. 

Cricut machines! Retail value: 200.00 buckaroos. Black Friday Price: 59.00 big ones!!!!!

Our hands seemed to have a mind of their own as they placed the boxes in our carts. 

If you're not familiar with the cricut, you should know that it cuts paper/vinyl. If that doesn't sell you on it, just watch an infomercial and then tell me you don't want it.

I was a little unsure of what Cory's reaction to this purchase would be. As far as he knew, I just spent $60.00 on glorified scissors.

But as we sat down to figure out how to use the thing, he really seemed to get on board the with it. We plugged the little design cartridge in, and punched in a phrase ("Cory is amazing" was his request), and watched it go. He says, "Oooo, this is like a video game for crafts." 

Exactly.

We finished the break with some awesome steak made by my dad, enough pies and desserts to cause a 3-day sugar high, and a killer wasp attack. So, we had a wide range of positive and negative experiences. 

Anyway, we're thankful for all the memories we made this past week, and all the blessing we have. 

As I struggle to find the motivation to get school work and actual work done, it's been really nice to be reminded to be grateful for the chance to go to college, and have a job to pay the bills. Yay!

To Do

My Happy Place. I'll be there someday. Also, one of the many pictures I need to develop from Cory's Mission.

I like to make to-do lists. I used to make them in all my notebooks, and then leave them randomly around the house. This was especially fun when I had room mates. I don't know how many times I found "Tell Kristen she is awesome and beautiful/the best room mate ever" on my lists. And then I would HAVE to do it. Just so I could mark it off... I might have a problem.

I've found a few of the lists in my old notebooks, and it's like reading a journal! I can see exactly what I had to do one week five years ago, right down to the "Finish college application essays" (check) and "Paint Toenails: You've earned it" (also check).

Here's a little to do list for me. Let's see what I can accomplish over these next three weeks.

To do:

• Write Wordsworth final paper (8 pages. I can do this)
• Read/print Wordsworth assigned readings.
• Write 18th Century Drama Final paper (Also 8 pages.)
• Finish Web Design Project
• Take Web design Quizzes and Exam
• Edit and Print handouts/posters for Ward Christmas party.
• Make paper snowflakes/coffee filter wreaths/table decor/banners for said Christmas Party
• Re-do the bulletin board after Thanksgiving
• MAIL OUT THANK YOU CARDS (They've been written for months. That was my job. Cory was in charge of addressing them. Now, I'm in charge of addressing them. I am so, so ashamed.)
• Make a mail out a home-made gift to my Craftaholics Gift Exchange person (by November 30th)
• Use up 2 gallons of milk before it expires (12/1/10) to prove Cory wrong (that's healthy, right?)
• Plan an awesome girls cruise for May 2011. (I am so ready.)
• Work out. Every day. 30 minutes. At least...
• Visiting teaching. I'm feeling good about December...
• Get Visit Taught Tuesday: be home by 6:30. Don't forget, silly!
• Develop/Frame Cory's awesome mission pics. Christmas present potential here.
• Decorate my house for Christmas! Yay!
• Get ready to leave Wednesday for Thanksgiving fun in Jacksonville!
• Come back Thursday for Thanksgiving fun in Marianna!
• Plan awesome after school activities for the rest of this/next semester with Bridget.
• Clean out the car already. It's getting embarrassing.
• Make Hummingbird thank you cake as unfair and unequal payment for services rendered.

Sometimes the list gets away from me. But, it's important to have the big picture in mind, right? Right.

The school stuff I have zero interest in. That's going to make it difficult...but at least there's a few fun things in there to keep it interesting. I can't wait to get started on the Christmas decorations!

Wish me luck!
Lindy

Also, thanks for all the feedback on the Crafty banners! I was surprised at how passionate a response the pennant banner elicited. People either love it, or really, really don't. I'm going with option number three just to stay out of the controversy. (Sorry Becca. Please visit the Po'C anyway?)

And because I can't resist a silly Cory story, heres a little gem from earlier this week. I walked in from a very long day, and I was really not looking forward to making dinner. He greets me with:

Cory: I went and bought stuff for dinner!
Me: Yay! What are we having??
Cory: Sausage-dogs and chips. And root beer.

Yum : )

Whats in a name?

Cory likes my name. A lot.

He's been substituting my name for anything and everything that has about two syllables.

He does is ALL the time, but the only ones I can remember right now are:

Me: Cory, do you want Chicken pot pie or Hamburger pot pie?
Cory: Lindy Pot Pie!!

He came in one day singing,(to the tune of "My Humps")  "My Lindys, My Lindys, My Lovely Lady Lindys..."

He also has some seasonal variations.

(To the tune of America the Beautiful) "A-Lindy-ca, A-lindy-ca!"

And more recently:

"Lindy Bells! Lindy Bells! Lindy all the WAY!" (That's Jingle Bells, if you were wondering)

He's not much of a singer, but I think that adds to the charm. I'll try to remember some of the more creative of his little outbursts, and preserve them for posterity. I really don't know where he comes up with this stuff.

Here's an engagement shot by Kim Brock. I love our pictures so much. :)

Also, I need your help, if you don't mind! I'm a little obsessed with the heading of our crafty blog. But I can't decide which heading I like the most. So, help me--pleeease.

Number 1:

Number 2:

Number 3:

I keep asking Cory, but I think he's about to go crazy trying to come up with opinions about  font, color combination, and which minor placement tweaks should be made....

Birthday Madness

About 2 months ago I saw a Mario themed birthday party a Mom put together for her 6 year old son. It was so cool! I thought, "Man, it'll be so much fun to have themed parties for my kids someday." But I just couldn't wait that long.

I don't have any kids, but I do have a husband. A husband who loves Mario. And a sister-in-law who loves it more. And you work with what you've got, you know?

So, I pitched the idea to Tanya, and she was totally game. She was willing to bring over their TV's, original, super, and 64 game systems, along with pretty much every Mario game invented for a little party in honor of Cory's 23rd birthday. So we did. And it was fun!

Jesse, Tanya, and Lara all came over and were my little party minions. They seriously worked so hard get everything done, and didn't even back talk me when I asked them to do crazy things. Like, cut a million triangles of construction paper to make a raceway banner, make a crown for my drink dispenser (Princes Peach Lemonade, I mean, without a crown it just doesn't make sense!), take out the trash, vacuum, and build a scene out of two pounds of cubed cheese. I love them. 

Tanya's pictures turned out waaay better than mine, so you should click here to see them on her blog.

Tanya, will you please e-mail me your pictures??

Also, I guess I could something like, "23 Reasons I love Cory" in honor of his birthday, but it's not like he would read it, so forget it.

I will say that after 4 months of marriage, he's finally starting to get me. For example, the other day he and his mom were looking through his stuff in their attic. I was helpfully laying on the bed outside of their attic. This is what I heard:

 

Cory's Mom: Well, this is trash. Just throw it out.

Cory: No, Lindy might want it, I'll give it to her.

Cory's Mom: What? No way. This is trash.

Cory: No, this is the kind of crap she buys all the time.

This is what he hands me when he comes out:

Elmer's Spray adhesive and black felt!!!!!! Jack pot!

I used them to make some Mario mustaches for Cory's party, and some pillow cases for the living room. (You can see the pillow cases on Pile o' Craft. Shameless plug, I know.)

He also gave me a large, surprisingly sturdy cardboard tube the other day. He said, "Here. Maybe you can make something out of this."

What a sweetie.

Q & A

Holly tagged me! So I'm gonna answer these questions.

1. What are you going to be for Halloween, and what made you choose that?

Cory and I wanted to go to our wards Fall Festival in somewhat of a couples costume (What's the point of being married, if you can't dress up in corny couple's costumes??) We looked around the house to see what we already had lyin' around, and came up with the idea to be a Cowboy (Cory) and an Indian (Me). Cory wasn't completely onboard though. I quote," Lindy, this isn't really a couple's costume. Lindy, Cowboys killed Indians. And Indians killed cowboys." We ended up going with that costume idea anyway, but I don't know if anyone realized that we were even together. Oh well. Here's a picture that we took in the photo booth Friday night:

We had a bunch of leftover instax film from the wedding laying around expiring, so we brought it and put it to good use. (Also, then I got to take pictures at the photo booth, and see all the fun costumes! Win-win-win) With that and all the upcycled newspaper decorations, we're pretty much some of the greatest environmentalists of our time. You're welcome.

2. What is one random fact about you that not many people are aware of?

I absolutely hate scary movies. I hate them. I think by now a lot of people might know this, but I feel it needs to be said. I hate the tense feeling I get. I hate the not being able to sleep in my own room afterward. I hate the way other people are manipulating my emotions. I won't watch them with you. I won't. I won't even watch preview of them with you. So don't ask.

3. If you could go on a trip to anywhere in the world, where would you go?

Umm, Europe. Duh! We're actually planning our dream vacation there right now. In about 3 years Cory will graduate from FSU with his degree in Engineering, and we are going! I'm super excited. It's going to be hard to maintain this level of excitement for three years, but I feel confident I can do it. Also, it gives me a reason to save money. So, Europe or bust 2013!

4. What color best describes you, and why?

I asked Cory. He said, "I don't know...pretty colors?"

Exactly.

5. What is one piece of jewelry you absolutely can not leave the house without wearing? (aside from your wedding ring, if applicable)

My bird necklace. It's pretty and silver. People comment on it sometimes, and I always tell them "It used to be my Mom's." Then they give me a really sad look, and say, "Oh, I'm sorry." And then it gets awkward, and I say "Oh..she's alive. I just took this from her. She wasn't using it. " And then they think I'm a thief. So, it's pretty emotional for me. I'm wearing it in the following picture, taken a la myspace style.

Anyway, now you know 5 more things about me than you did before. Which is pretty awesome.

I'm kind of a party pooper and don't think I'm going to tag anybody...but I really just want to tag everybody. So, if you read this, you should do this. You'll have fun and we can all get to know you better. Win-win-win.

Lindy

At least I have my health.

Sometimes I have trouble keeping track of things. I make allowances for this behavior.

For instance, I often lose my keys. Or lock them in the car.

And so, I have a set of spare keys in my purse.

Not to mention, I'm often running late.

And so, I'm really nice when I get there.

And when I lock my purse AND my keys in the car.

I've prepared by scattering spare sets of car keys throughout my friends, family and mere acquaintances.

So you see, I've developed a pretty fool proof set of measures to protect myself from myself.

But, against all odds, sometimes my system fails me.

I was running short on underwears, which around here means its time to do laundry. (Yes, thats how I gauge the need to do laundry). But it just didn't seem right. It really felt like I had done at least some laundry with in the past week recently.

I shook off that feeling, and decided to make the bed. It had been left unmade for some time and was starting to look a little sad. I smoothed the sheets, and began to pick up the mountain of pillows and blankets heaped up in one corner of our room.

At the bottom of the mountain, hiding under all those pillows, I found a basket.

A basket full of my and Cory's clean underwears.

Mystery solved.

We all Scream.

Basically, every day I learn something new about Cory.

A few of these things have surprised me. A lot.

While we were dating I assumed we had similar taste in T.V. programming. He liked all the same shows I liked! We had very specific dates with hulu every week to catch up on Bones, Lie to Me, The Simpsons and The Office.

Not usually all at once. But, sometimes, yes. All at once.

We still love those shows, and watch them together as much as possible but, where in the world was he hiding his love for the History Channel?? He has a crazy love for shows like the following:

1) Swamp People: The good people of the swamps and their adventures/trials huntin' gators.

2) Ax Men: The good people of the logging companies and their adventures/trials cuttin' trees down.

And the greatest compilation of Cory's love and interests so far: 3) Swamp Loggers: The good people of the swamps start a logging company. I call it the Perfect Storm.

So, I've been learning a lot about swamps and logging lately. It's a whole new world, that I never thought I would be a part of.

Also, when we were picking out some ice cream at the store the other day, Cory decided to go with the giant container of Neapolitan. I never get that kind for two reasons, which I revealed to him:

1) Why get that plain kind when they have tubs of deliciousness like Cookies and Cream, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, and basically anything you can dream of?

2) Strawberry Icecream is the grossest thing ever, and I would never waste a serving of icecream in such a careless manner.

His response? "I like Strawberry icecream."

Oh. So we got it.

Less than 3 days later:

I laughed so hard when I opened up the container. Cory didn't get it.

Cory: "Why are you laughing"?

Me: "You ate all the strawberry ice cream!? And only the strawberry ice cream? In three days?!"

Cory: "I thought you said you didn't like it?"

He really likes swamps, logs, and strawberry ice cream.

Oh, and of course, ME :)

I just couldn't resist the sappiness/corniness. It was tooo easy.

We got Hitched!

These past couple of weeks have been a little busy. All of the wedding planning came together on July 2nd and 3rd, and I thought everything was absolutely perfect. My family and friends worked so incredibly hard to make it even better than I imagined it would be. It was so much fun to have my family (minus Sambo, our little Brazilian missionary) here, I always love being with them! And my friends Mindy and Holly drove through a hurricane to come from Texas! I've never felt more loved in my life!

Cory and I were married on July 2nd, in the Orlando, Florida Temple. It was a beautiful, slightly rainy day...so we broke out the umbrellas. Also, all of these images were taken by Kimberly Brock.


My parents let us have the reception at their house the next day. From what I hear, everyone went a little bit crazy Saturday morning and afternoon getting things set up for it, but by the time I got there it all looked beautiful.

We were so lucky to be able to have two very special people bake and decorate our cakes. My sister Jackie flew in from Utah a week early to get started on the wedding cake. Three glorious layers of lemon and carrot cake, decorated with homemade frosting and marshmallow fondant. Our friend Joanna, who I was friends with since even before she married Cory's best friend Danny, made a golf themed groom's cake for Cory. Both were absolutely adorable. See for yourself:
One of the things I loved most were the special handmade and homemade details everywhere. I asked my sister Kourtney to make a few banners for us, completely unaware of the stress I was bringing down upon her. She made two perfect banners that hung over the BBQ buffet and Ice cream dessert bar. She worked soooo hard to make them perfect, and they were stunning. The picture doesn't capture the light blue layers of each letter, or the carefully glittered words...but it will give you the general idea.

And, of course no July 4th weekend wedding could be complete without fireworks. Kourtney's husband Juan and my brother Jesse ended the night with a bang or two.


I'm so happy to be married to Cory, and I'm excited to see what our new adventures will be. I have so many friends getting married lately, so the wedding fever is extended! I'm so glad the planning process is over for me though...just sayin'. I can't wait for Kristen's wedding this weekend, and Jesse and Tanya's next weekend!

Also, I'm now accepting suggestions for a new blog name. Something with both Lindy and Cory in it, maybe. Bring it on, and maybe you're suggestion will be chosen!

Pile O' Craft

I recently discovered the plethora of craft/diy blogs out there.

It was a big game changer for me.

Lots of time was wasted/enjoyed browsing through the amazing ideas other people have.

It made me want to go to thrift stores a lot.

And find out what Mod-podge is.

And print coupons.

So, I tried it! And its so, so fun! After some pretty intense discussion with anyone who would listen(and didn't make me feel completely ashamed of my new addicition) we came up with a name. I made a new blog, and tried it out...just to see how it went. I learned a few things, and talked my sisters into it, and here we are today.

We don't post much (sorry.) but its quality, right?

I'd like to introduce you to:

Pile o' Craft

We're still learning, but its fun! Enjoy it. I know we are.

Also, suggestions for improvement, tactfully submitted, are welcome :)

Manifest Destiny

So, even though I don't update this blog all that much...I decided I wanted another one too. Thats pretty greedy, huh? Oh well. The new one is for crafts/wedding planning. Just in case, you know, I have a sister who lives far away that I want to show things to and get feedback on. I called it Tulips and Roses, 'cause I couldn't think of anything more creative. So, enjoy it--and let me know what you think :) Click here.

Mawwage. Mawwage is what bwings us together today.

Last weekend Cory decided it was time to get down to business. After 6 months of dating, he'd had enough. So, he took me up to a rooftop at FSU last Saturday, and proposed to me in the rain. He did such a good job of finding a ring that I absolutely love! I'm so excited to be marrying such a sweet, thoughtful, handsome, silly guy!

Lara snapped a picture of us right after it happened. I'm on the phone with my mom:

Here's the ring Cory chose, resting (ever so gently) in some roses Cory brought over:

The only help I gave him was my vague desire for "fancy metal designs" and "pretty." He did amazing, all things considered. I've never really been the type looking to get married at age 20, but I guess sometimes I even surprise myself. We've set the date for July 2nd, in the Orlando, Florida Temple. I just can't believe it!

As Promised

First order of business: I told a few very special people that I would post the recipe for delicious, fresh, and all together amazing homemade fresh Salsa. I learned to make this from my roommate Kristen, who learned it from her previous room mate, who is rumored to have learned it from mouth of Martha Stewart herself. I later saw a super cute recipe notecard for the almost same exact stuff in Becca's super de duper cute recipe cards, so I'll post that for you and note the variations I made.

(Isn't that the cutest little card you've ever seen?? And she has dozens of them! Dozens! Check out The Renfroe Scoop for more of her amazing recipes, stories, and opinions. If you want. I don't wannna be pushy.)

You can use 2 cans of Rotel in place of fresh tomatoes, and leave out the onion entirely if it makes you sick. Its really up to you, dear. I drain all of the ingredients, 'cause I don't like it too runny, and I've never used black eyed peas before. I use way more cilantro...I really love cilantro. And I've been known to use lemon juice from concentrate. And leave out the avocado if you don't have any on hand. Do whatever you want and everyone will love it. Promise. Eat it with chips, in tortillas, or just...you know...plain. I won't judge you.