Home makeover: Brysons' kitchen edition

Have we mentioned how much we love our apartment? The minute we walked in and looked around, we wanted it. (I won't mention how close it was to our wedding and how desperate we were to find a nice, clean place in our price range!) We love it though. We love being in a BYU ward, we love our neighbors, we have great landlords, we love our carpet, ect... :) It's hard to believe we've almost been here for a year! ...and we are still putting up this or that to make it more "our place". :)

This last week, Scott and I found a project to work on. We have this big, open kitchen which I love, but not being the best interior decorators we didn't know what to do with it. We had numerous possibilities I suppose...but on a cheap budget, no good ideas...we finally had decided we wanted to put up a nice shelf on the big open wall, but all the shelves we found that we liked were almost $60! We kept looking around though and found just a wooden shelf at Roberts for 50% off so it was only like $15...so much better! We bought some paint and brushes for less than $5 and started our first real crafty project. We felt so clever! :) It was fun and I think we did a pretty good job if I do say so myself...besides forgetting to rinse out our paintbrushes between coats that is...oops!

Anyway, we put it up on the wall and here it is...what do you think? :)

Now all we need to do is figure out what to put on our little shelf...any suggestions? We're thinking maybe some cute block letters saying different things that we can change for holidays or something? I'm also thinking one of our next projects needs to be to replace these old gross curtains that were already here before us. Anyone have cheap, easy ideas for making curtains or other decorating tips?? :)

amber's friday night lights

this is a first. i do not believe i have ever written about a football game i hadn’t played in. as funny as it sounds, i must say that i don’t particularly love watching other people play football. if there’s football to be played, i need to be the one playing it. but all that changes when i am given the chance to watch the most beautiful girl in the world play my game. yes, you guessed it – it is now amber’s turn to lace up the cleats, strap on the gloves, and get down and dirty playing some football! (okay, so no cleats and gloves, but i’m trying to talk her into it. :) )

i have to admit and apologize that i am not nearly as good of a fan as amber is for me – i completely forgot to bring the camera to the first game! i am ashamed. but i hope i partially made amends for my failure by taking plenty of pictures at game number two.

amber was invited to play by an old college roommate who was getting a team together for byu intramurals. the team consists of amber, her friend, and a handful of girls from the byu social program. i’m sure these ladies have numerous wonderful qualities and strengths, but football is not one of them. :) of course i’m a biased judge, but amber is definitely one of the only players who has any idea how football is played. unfortunately for the team, the ladies signed up late and were placed in the upper division, so the first two games haven’t quite gone our way. we’re still awaiting the lab results on some drug tests for steroids on some of those teams.

in the meanwhile, amber is having fun getting out there and running around, getting some exercise, and being part of a team. the team has some huge quarterbacking concerns (huge), so amber has yet to get a catch, but she has most definitely shined on defense. she is an excellent rusher and has forced numerous bad throws from the opposing quarterbacks. her biggest defensive highlight came in the first game as the other team ran a designed handoff to the left. amber chased the play down and made an amazing diving grab of the flags, stopping the play for a loss. i was personally out of my seat and five feet in the air out of excitement.

well the season is young and there’s a lot of football to be played yet. the girls definitely have potential and should get better as the season goes on. i must say that i love watching my beautiful wife play. i am so proud of her and love her so much more than she could ever possibly love me. thank you amber for being the thrill of my life. :x

the complete sherlock holmes, vol. 1 - sir arthur conan doyle

"elementary, my dear watson." undoubtedly you could name the speaker of these famous words even if the answer wasn't given to you in the title of this blog. while those exact words were never actually spoken by the most famous detective of english literature, they do go a long way in describing the resident of 221b baker street and his unparalleled eye for observation, making the obscure seem obvious. this particular collection of his most famous adventures consisted of 23 short stories, as well as 3 longer ones. it began with 'a study in scarlet', which was well written and an intriguing story, but left me very disappointed for describing the people of my religion in a very radical way. i did discover that the author later deeply apologized for his very inaccurate portrayal of the mormons, but it's sad that his erroneous description will forever hinder the cause of the gospel concerning those impressionable readers who take the story as based on facts.
after my initial disappointment, sherlock soon regained my favor over the course of his many adventures. they were simple, easy to read, and fun. i found it enjoyable trying to solve the many mysteries as they played out before me, striving to do so before holmes would reveal all at the end of each tale. although i found all the stories to be good reads, i must single out for recommendation the final story of this collection, and most famous of sherlock holmes tales, 'the hound of the baskervilles'. while each story before it presented its fair share of intrigue and mystery, 'the hound' had me completely captivated, eagerly turning the pages to discover the next little twist of the story. if you read but one tale of sherlock holmes in your lifetime, make it this one.
as the adventures of mr. holmes and dr. watson drew to a close, amber and i began to watch the television series 'monk', about an ocd detective with a very similar gift of observation and deduction. between the book and the series, i find myself striving to look closer at the world around me, seeking to realize some great answer to an unknown question. the only thing i have been able to deduce is that i think my milk has gone bad. i guess we can't all be detective geniuses. :)

The Kite Runner

I really enjoyed this one. It was a little sad and not the most upbeat happy book, but I think it was really well written and a much easier read after reading the Scarlet Letter!! :) This was a story about a boy who grew up in Afghanistan and then came to live in America when things got tough there. He ends up going back to his home town though to resolve some issues and it describes a bit about the war and everything that was going on there. At times I was reading about things happening to these fictional characters and it was sad to realize those kind of things probably did happen to real people. The story kind of ends different too, it doesn't really resolve everything but they leave you with a little hope that it could eventually have a happy ending. It was definitely intriguing. It makes me want to read his other one someday soon...A Thousand Splendid Suns!

football has begun!

the fall 2009 season of flag football has officially begun. in the inaugural game of the season, the diamondbacks (no longer affiliated with uss but still graciously endorsing the team for free) played the team named ‘top gun’, but better known as “the cops”. fear and trepidation filled the boys in blue, not only having to shake off the rust of the off-season and the nerves of the first game, but also suffering great unease as to whether they’d all get parking tickets for winning. because of this anxiety, the diamondbacks played shaky offense, with a couple drops and miscues here and there, giving our respected opponents a chance. but ultimately that chance was squashed as the donuts caught up to the poor police officers and the tidal wave defense of the diamondbacks was just too much for them, as they only made it past midfield once or twice the entire game. the game mvp had to go to the entire d-line crew who sacked, hurried, cavity searched, and in every way harassed the opposing qb all night long. well done. the game went final with a score of 24 to 0, appropriately getting a "donut". special thanks must go to our beautiful and devoted fans who looked absolutely lovely in their matching shirts, showing us much needed support. after the game, players and fans then rushed to their cars and proceeded to leave as quickly as they could, while remembering to obey all posted traffic signs. if you see any of our faces on a most wanted poster, ignore it.

McClellan Family Reunion

So a couple weekends ago, Scott and I went to Colorado for a fun camping trip with my side of the family. It was lots of fun. Took a total of about 11 hours driving there and 7 1/2 hours driving home (amazing the difference having kids makes the length of a drive! ). We caravaned there on Thursday with my sisters and their families, but decided to stay a day later and drive back Sunday by ourselves. :)
The reunion included volleyball, a talent show, a temple trip, SPUD, more volleyball, singing and good quality time with family. I have some of the most adorable nieces and nephews ever. They sang and performed there own puppet show, it was so cute. We enjoyed our trip and being with family. Here are some pictures of the fun weekend...

The Family (I can't believe how much our family has grown...31 out of 41 were able to come, not bad, but we definitely missed the 10 that weren't able to make it!)

The Talent Show

"Popcorn Popping" video

The Hiatt puppet show

My brother Daniel juggled- He would juggle fire if my parents let him! :)

Lot's of volleyball...

Scott was helping me serve in this one...I know how to serve, but they didn't want to wait til I finished putting up my hair into a ponytail!

My niece loved wearing my shoes and walking around the campsite.

Playing an intense game of SPUD

We had to create our own shade cuz there wasn't any at the campsite, I thought we were pretty clever! :)

S'mores are a must when camping...

This was just at the rest stop on the way home. Nothing special there, just a cool photo moment. :)

don't mess with texas

i now have the privilege of writing part 2 of our much needed vacation. amber wrote of the texas reception, but i must first return to earlier that day when kyle and i gave our wives a quick tour of grand ole abilene, including a stop at the grace museum to show off how cultured we pretend to be. after our fun with the cool sound effect wall, we quickly bypassed most of the boring stuff (stopping occasionally to make disparaging remarks with our sly wit when it was clearly required of us to make fun of certain art work), and found our way to the children’s area! we shot air at each other, played with the mini tornado, and pushed kids aside so that we could dance in front of the retro-colored-screen-thingy! good times. then, as a less than thrilling finale to the museum, we finished with the ‘historic abilene’ floor, seeing rooms through the ages and learning all about boots. exciting. i prefer shark skin myself.

the reception was that night, church the next day, and then monday, me, amber, and the whole bryson clan (22 in total) were off to san antonio. a short 4 hour drive later and we stood at the gates of schlitterbahn, the greatest waterpark in the world! say it slowly – IN… THE… WORLD! too bad so many people agree because the lines were way too long. fun day still, but awfully tiring. day two of our san antonio excursion found us back at schlitterbahn. this time we hopped the tram over to the other half of the park across town and quickly found the line for the ‘master blaster’, voted time and again by water ride experts (i believe they only offer that degree at yale) as the best water ride in the history of the universe ever! say it slowly – IN… THE… HISTORY… OF… THE… UNIVERSE… EVER! too bad so many people have read the scientific papers written on the subject because the line was about 2 hours long! and very deceptive. after an hour you think you’re almost to the end, then you walk up the stairs and you’re hit with the sad realization you’ve got another hour wait. i felt used, cheap, and dirty. but the ride was a blast, so it’s hard to complain too much.

we eventually found our way to the wave pool lazy river. i did forget to mention that we had purchased a waterproof disposable camera for the trip. for my ease, i put the camera into my swimsuit pocket (which is a great invention cuz i used to have to hold stuff when i swam – now my wallet and phone fit nicely into my pocket). well we get into this not-so-lazy river and i notice a camera floating by me. i smirk, check my pocket, then tore into a frantic spasm after the camera. having secured it, i made the brilliant move of putting it right back into my pocket, since it worked so well the first time. a couple laps in the river and again i notice it missing. i was sure it was gone for good this time, but just as i thought this, a plump little girl floats by in her tube, randomly taking pictures with a camera that looked an awful lot like ours. amber chases her down and asks if the camera is hers. she says no and promptly drops it back into the water and we watch as the current whisks the camera away. we chased it down quickly enough, which ended up not being as important as we wished it had – very few of the pictures turned out. oh well. funny story.

day three found us touring the sights of san antonio. first stop was the alamo (which is really nothing more than a boring museum, but don’t tell my texan friends i said so). we then wandered down to the river walk and had lunch at the hard rock café. amber and i then snuck away from the bryson party and drove over to austin to see her brother jarom, his wife linda, and their new baby boy jadon. jadon was a little shy around us, but was still way too cute. ladies, mark your calendars now – sixteen years from now he’ll be available. J

day four had us back at an amusement park, but this time it was six flags: fiesta texas. while we definitely enjoyed the much shorter lines, we definitely missed the water because it was hot! at our very first ride, the boy in front of us passed out from the heat. we kept plenty hydrated, rode some roller coasters, found shade as often as possible, relaxed often, and had an enjoyable day. we gathered at the end of the night and enjoyed a firework/ laser light show boasting of the greatness of texas. amber was so inspired that she was ready to drive a truck, ride a bull, fight for the alamo, or do any other truly texan thing to show her loyalty.

we headed back to abilene the next day and back home to provo the day after that. a lot of driving, a lot of walking, a lot of sun, and a lot of money spent (almost all by the parents – thank you so much mom and dad!), but it was a very fun couple of weeks. and i can now proudly say my wife is a true texan! she knows the four seasons of texas, has been to the alamo, got in a drunken bar fight and stabbed a guy with a broken pool stick, and has seen a prairie dog. yee haw amber! slowly - YEE... HAW... !