MEGA POST

Hey ya'll! I forgot about this blog and then when I remembered I decided to push off updating until I had my new domain up and running (www.otti.ng). BUT ITS THE WORST THING AND I HATE IT.

Anyway.

I'm sure a lot has been going on in the land of Christian--I just did the dishes and cleared out the fridge for example. It's hard to summerise my entire spring and summer, especially since my journal joined the silence, but I can attempt to make up narratives with some pictures on my phone.

We got chickens! They were the cutest thing but then the police made us get rid of them. It was a whole ordeal which you can read in detail on my sister's blog here. Of the six: two live with my mother, another two with our co-owner's parents, one ran away, and the other turned out to be a rooster and had to leave down.

They were so great though, they deserve another photo.

A boy and his [friend's] chicken.

Then my land lady died which was really sad. She was a terrific woman and had the energy of a 65 year old even though she was 91. Read her obituary here. Following her death I offered to buy the house from them to continue living in it but the deal ultimately went nowhere and its now run by a property management group---lameeeooo.

To help cope with her death--or maybe just because I thought it would be fun--I went up to my Grandma's cabin with some friends. It was only for a long weekend but we had a lot of fun. Most of the photos are on my friends' blogs linked above.

Lifestyle shot by Mirielle

THEN THE FAMILY REUNION. Every few years my mother's side gets together somewhere for a week-long retreat. In the past we have typically gone up to a lake in Minnesota but the distance has become too great for many so this year we relocated to a ranch up past Vernal.

Lots of us, too many to name. Sorry to my descendants doing family history.

Like all fun things though, its only fun until someone gets hurt so my brother Seth decided to ruin the fun by falling 25' off a rock wall and breaking his back--ugh. It definitely made the trip memorable, especially watching him fly off in a helicopter, but next time we'll skip the attention hogging. My grandma was pissed since she was barely able to move and had to spend most of the time in the hospital but everyone was paying attention to Seth instead.

To my descendents--this is all tounge-in-cheek and both my Grandmother and Seth made a full recovery--Seth's surgeries were crazy but they worked great!

Fourth of July happened too but somehow I didn't get any photos of it? This is not completely atypical though since I am usually having too much fun to bother taking my phone out. Here is a photo Mirielle took of me at the Ballon Festival on the 3rd though.

yay for having photographer friends

Here are some other photos.

Our (mostly) annual trip to 7-11 on 7-11 continued with June and Esther Sanford. We didn't get to go see Ringo Starr afterwards though which made it not quite as amazing as 2012.

I won TWO nests in TWO SEPARATE CONTESTS by the SAME COMPANY--Provo Power. I don't think they are going to give anymore away though since I won the second one by default as no one else entered.

Visited a few Mormon heritage spots in Salt Lake with some friends. Pictured here is on the "train" at This is the Place Park. The driver was a really friendly bearded man and after taking this photo he showed us all the picture--twice--for our approval. Let the record also state that Jon purposefully matched my outfit.

And that mostly catches us up to today! Today I fixed a chair, hated my haircut, and cleaned my room.

THE BLOG IS BACK, BABY!

The Last Two Months

Here are the last two months of my life in pictures.

My birthday party went great! Jon made some of the best pizza ever, thanks should be said to Pizzeria Limone as well since we stole their pizzas. I think around fourty people showed up and we went pretty late eating and talking. I also succeeded in avoiding any birthday singing as there was no dessert

I finally got a desk! Six months after I moved in and I still had cardboard boxes in the corner of my room and a dusting desktop computer. I had very specific style and dimension demands but I finally found the perfect one and only busted around six holes in the staircase walls getting it up. I have a rug in my room now too but I am sick and I don't want to stage my room for a new photo.

One day I was talking to my co-worker Fernando about his hobbies and he mentioned he painted. When I asked him what he painted he told me to bring a picture of me in and he would paint it. Luckily I had a few photos leftover from Christmas so I brought it in and he painted this. He refused any payment. I hope my future children will become estranged over inheriting this painting one day.

For Valentine's Weekend my brother Seth came out to visit--really just to visit my Mother as it is her birthday as well. We hit downtown on Valentine's night and got to watch some weird dates, they were all dressed up and acting formal while eating french fries.

My friends Jon & Tallia went to Hawaii for a week so I had the pleasure of babysitting for them with Abby, Tallia's sister. It was so fun to watch the kids interact with the world and make up games. One day we went up to BYU and they wanted to play hide and seek in an open field, hence the picture above.

They wanted to do something, I dont even remember what, and we told them it was too dangerous. They then launched into this song. Harrison's back up rap is what really makes it.

Ice cream at Provo Beach Resort!

And that's the last two months of my life! I almost went to China which would have made this post a lot more exciting but I didn't.

You're invited, again!

Its my fourth annual birthday celebration! My birthday has been going on for many more years than four but I have been doing these parties for only four years now. It should be a lot of fun so be sure to stop by!

And yes, I realize I forgot the apostrophe.

Happy New Year!

While I always post my Christmas card online I also send a handful of physical letters to people and in them I always say something to send them to my blog with the promise of updates. I understand I have not been doing this for the past couple months but I want to do better.

For starters I had a lovely Christmas and New Years. While last year was an amazing experience to visit Pittsburgh and New York City I treasured the chance to stay home for the first time since Christmas 2003. Each day I went to bed in my own bed and woke up with no pressure to do anything.

Anyway, besides doing nothing which is boring to read about here are some things I did.

As you all know I am working for a catering company now and I did our first event mid-December. My old company, Mocavo, hired me on to cater their company party and we went all out. We served prime rib, herb mashed potatoes, roasted balsamic carrots, and bread pudding.

Playing the part while plating the pudding.

I was immensely ill-prepared and would have drowned if my friend Jon hadn't jumped in to save me. Still with his help I ended up working 22 hours the day of the event with prep, my standard gig, the event, and clean up. It was fun but I'll grab several people to help me next time.

For Christmas my mother made a roast goose! The whole house smelled like a Dickens novel. Besides making smoked potatoes for our small family dinner I found some purple sweet potatoes for our larger gathering. It was unreal how purple they were, it really looked like royal purple play-dough.

#nofilter

We finished the year off with a "Cat Show-Off" as planned by my friends' child and all went to bed promptly at 12:05.

Happy New Year!

Christmas Card 2014

Happy holidays!

I’m pleased to have the opportunity to write to you this year after a near drowning mishap with my friends in Yellowstone. Thankfully I survived and get to send this card to you all.

Photo by Mirielle Sanford

This year I moved into a new house with my sister, Allison. Its a beautiful historic home right in the heart of Provo and we have enjoyed having many small get-togethers with friends inside its walls. We like to brag that we live in a house with its own Wikipedia page which you can read here.

Soon after moving I left my job at Mocavo and joined a small catering company in South Provo called Mountain Vista Catering. Its a small company so while I run their outside sales I also am working in the kitchen and learning a great deal about food preparation, mostly how great it is to have a commercial kitchen.

I am still serving as the executive secretary in my local congregation and it continues to prove satisfying. This is my third Bishop to serve under and I’m hoping to hit four years of service (coming up in June) before they shift my labors elsewhere.

I wish you the very best this Christmas and send this note with my love.

November Condensed

Hi!

This will be a tiny post but my Christmas card will be coming up soon; hopefully next week. I did however want to share a bit of what happened in the month of November since I neglected my blog the entire time.

I voted in the midterm elections! This isn't very exciting on its own but I wanted to take the weirdest #ivoted photo; thankfully I had a bunch of stickers from my time working for the county Elections department a couple years ago.

I cooked my first turkey! Our Gilmore Girls group has a monthly potluck and we naturally had a Thanksgiving theme this month. (Photo by Mirielle Sanford)

For actual Thanksgiving Allison and I drove over to Colorado and stayed with my brother, Seth. My aunt hosted the dinner which was fantastic except for two things: my dish turned out to be unpalatable, and there were no sweet potatoes; so sad. We hit the thrift stores for black friday and I found the coolest typewriter. Which I now plan on using to type everything from checks, forms, and envelopes.

While we were there we also picked up  my brother's old TV and in-house AC unit (for our living room), and our grandmother's grandfather clock which now sits proudly in our main hall.

OH! AND I BOUGHT MSG! I bought three pounds of MSG which I am so exited to start using in food. I am totally serious about this and am not being ironic, I really bought MSG and I really am excited to figure out how to use it as a seasoning. I'm hoping to start implementing it in recipes at work as soon as possible.

McKinleyville Trip

My brother Justin recently moved himself and his family out to Northern California and so five weeks ago Seth flew out to Provo and we made the 16 hour drive to visit them. The drive was pretty but the only remarkable things were that it rained the entire time and the strong skunk smell of marijunana as we started driving through Humbolt County, CA.

Trinidad Beach

 Over the next week we went on various excursions. The kids were still in school so Seth and I would go on solo trips during the day with a big group outing later in the evening. Seth and I also cycled through all the kids giving them special trips with us each night we were there.

Trinidad Beach (this is not a gravestone)

I unfortunately did not take many pictures but in addition to the below Seth and I explored downtown Eureka and saw some meth-heads sell stolen merchandise, we went to a tiny cheese factory in Loleta, I learned all about Animal Jam and my nieces' obsession over it, and picked up my nieces and nephews from school every day.

Riverbed in the Avenue of the Giants

The second tallest totem poll, someone in Canada took the crown.

Fern Canyon, a really cool hike through a steep riverbed where the walls were literally covered in ferns. There were also caterpillars EVERYWHERE; carpeting the walls and piling up in big piles of corpses in the river)

On the last day we went to Agate Beach and watched the sunset.

One of my neices asked if we could go to Moonstone Beach for her special evening because "everyone gets along at Moonstone Beach." It was in fact a magical place.

We had a fire on the beach fulfilling one of my dreams.

The trip was a nice mix of relaxation and doing things and I'd happily visit again. Apologies should be said to Justin and Jen as I did not take a single picture of them even though they kindly hosted us.

For good measure here is a cute video of my niece Wren playing on the beach after the camp fire.