The Many Adventures of Mike and Erin

School funnies

2009-08-30T13:31:00.000-07:00

Here are just a few pictures to cheer you up.

Both sides of our fourth of july float. Read carefully. (Yes, I'm serious, no one noticed this in the week long float construction, and it went through the entire Rexburg parade. No one noticed it, in fact, until I pointed it out a few days after.)

EVERYDAY ACTIONS CREATING AMAZING THINGS!

Here's a commitment to stop littering after we picked up trash off a highway to 'go green'.

I guess she is taking a stand against.....soda.

America, America, God shed his grace on thee...

2009-07-06T09:21:00.000-07:00

Oh my word....I have not updated in a very long time. It gets to be very intimidating when you forget, kind of like my personal journal, because there's no way to catch up on everything!

Well, Mike and I arrived home safely after our fun trip to Disneyworld. We came home to a brand new (well, new to us) apartment in Rigby, Idaho. It's only about ten miles from Rexburg, so we didn't move far. It's halfway in between Rexburg, where I go to school, and Idaho Falls, where Mike works.

I am back at school, hoping to finish up by Halloween, although I might end up going a few days in November. I will soon have enough hours (1500) to apply for the advanced team, called Phase 2. I am keeping my fingers crossed for this because it's a great thing to put on a resume.

Other than that, we have been having lots of fun. We got to go fishing last friday night, and we had a great 4th of July. I hope everybody else did, too.
We got up and drove to Rexburg with Yohko for the parade. (Yes, we have turned into 'that couple', the one that takes their animal everywhere.) After that, we got to BBQ with some of Mike's friends, and we ended the day with fireworks with my family back in Rexburg.

Anyway, I know this is too late for the 4th, but since summer is upon us and fruit is abundant and deliciously cheap, I thought I would share the only apple pie recipe you will ever need. It is great for potlucks, parties, and holidays, and it is SO EASY. I make it every 4th of July and every Thanksgiving and people always say it is the best they've ever had. Sorry for the crappy picture, I snapped one of my cell phone when it came out of the oven, since I had the suspicion that it would be mostly eaten by the time I pulled out my real camera. I was right!

Don't be intimidated by the lattice crust, it is SO EASY to do. I did really thick strips but it would only have taken an extra 2 minutes to do a fancy one with smaller strips. If you have any questions on how to do it, ask me :)

4th of July Apple Pie

9 inch double crust pie (Guess what...I cheat and use the box mix)
1/2 cup (1 stick) UNSALTED butter
3 Tbsp flour
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
Peeled, cored, and sliced Granny Smith (green) apples (I usually use about 4 good sized apples, and slice them into 16ths, to give you an idea of the thickness of slices)

Preheat oven to 425. Melt butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water and both sugars. Bring to a boil, then let it simmer on low for a few minutes.
Place bottom pie crust in pan, fill with apples in concentric design, until mounded slightly. Cover with lattice crust top.
Slowly pour the sauce over the crust, filling the pie. Make sure to either pour or use a brush to get the sauce to coat the lattice crust. This makes it caramel-y crunchy goodness.
Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven, then turn the heat down to 350 and bake another 35-45 minutes. Enjoy!

Disneyworld!

2009-05-31T09:08:00.000-07:00

Here comes the very long, very overdue post about our trip. It was SO MUCH FUN!! It seems like we had been planning it forever and that it would never actually get here. We bought our plane tickets last November and have just been anxiously waiting since then. I spent a frantic week before we left trying to make sure that absolutely everything would be taken care of - our room was reserved, our park tickets were there, our car would be at the airport, our flights were on time, our mail was held, the dog had a 'sitter', our bank knew we were traveling, etc etc. It was a very long week.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early! We got everything in the car and drove down to Salt Lake, stopping to drop Yohko off with my family (THANK YOU, again). My dad took us to the airport and the trip officially began. I like flying so I really don't mind the traveling part. We got in to Florida around 9:30 at night and got our rental car (an 09 Chevy Malibu....so nice!) and took off to our hotel...

We also had this neat little patio with a bug net that was outside our room. The patio looked out onto a lake with a fountain that was in the center of the resort. The pool was also nearby and it was AMAZING, but unfortunately we dipped in for a minute the first night and then went to bed, and it rained the rest of the trip so we didn't get to swim much. I also forgot to take pictures of that...

The first morning we got up was beautiful. The sun was shining and we were off!

The first day we decided to do Disney's Hollywood Studios. It was so much fun. It rained for just a few minutes during the day, but other than that it was beautiful...and very warm....and very, very humid. Here are a few pics from that day:

The tower of terror! This was such an awesome ride!

Our 3D glasses for Buzz Lightyear's ride.

Mike in a star wars....something. Not really sure but he insisted on this picture.

Isn't this cool? They have lots of Disney gardens all over all the parks.

The second day was Magic Kingdom day! We woke up to pouring rain, and I mean really torrential pouring rain. Sadly I couldn't take too many pictures with it raining that hard, but I did what I could. I was trying to keep my nice camera dry, since it was my Christmas present and I didn't really feel like ruining it on vacation. It was soaking wet all day, but still about 70 degrees. Nice and warm :)

On our way in to the park. You can't tell, but the water was up over our feet. There were lots of Disney employees whose job was solely to squeegee water off the sidewalks when it made huge puddles.

The ponchos we bought that saved our lives for the rest of the week.

Mike kept his eyes closed when I made him ride the teacups so he wouldn't puke all over.

It's a small world! The ride where all national stereotypes began.

Cinderella's castle!

Day 3 was still raining just as hard, but we bundled up and headed to Epcot. Did you know that Epcot is cool? Like, really really cool? I thought it was going to be stuff like "Science projects are neat!" and it was, but it was also really, really awesome. Here are a few of Epcot:

Aurora and Prince Philip

Belle and the Beast

Cinderella and...does this guy have a name? Prince Charming?

Mike and I in front of...something. Not quite sure. Raining though!

The back of Epcot is called the World Showcase, and it was my favorite part. They had little areas of the park that were parts of countries. They would have a little exhibit, a restaurant, and some shopping areas for each country.

Mexico:
Coming around the first corner to the world showcase

Mike in front of the Mexican...temple? Ziggurat?

The shopping plaza inside. They had a neat little boat ride in there too.

Norway, which had an awesome viking ride called Maelstrom:

Walking from Norway to...China!

China, which had an awesome 15 minute "360" movie showing the landscapes and cities of China. You stood in a room that had screens all the way around the circular room. It was so beautiful

Terra Cotta soldiers inside China:

We also walked through Japan, Germany, Britain, Canada, and my favorite, France. Mike and I were together in France a few years ago so we went to the Epcot Patisserie and bought a pain-au-chocolate (chocolate filled croissant) like we did in Paris. It was delicious!

The last park was the Animal Kingdom park. I will be honest, I kind of whined to Mike because this sounded like the least interesting park, more like a big Disney zoo. (In retrospect, what on earth would be not fun about a big disney zoo?) Anyway, Animal Kingdom turned out to be one of my favorite days! It was really beautiful. It still rained on and off but we had a great time and they had some really neat rides and lots of cool animals.

Best parking lot ever :)

The whole park looked like a big, overgrown jungle

In the center of the park, they have this big "Tree of Life". It was so awesome. You can't get really close to it but it is BIG. I zoomed in on a few pictures so that you could see all the animals carved in to the trunk. It was really pretty.

This is the view up the river to the Mt. Everest rollercoaster (which was awesome)

Also, I would like to share how brave I was to go in the bat cave as part of the 'animal walk'. It kept saying "giant bats" and had all these warning signs that, really, these are really big bats. We walked in to the room and they were out under a net in their little habitat thing and THERE WERE NO WINDOWS separating us from the bats. I was very brave. Really. Big bats. Really big. And I am not a fan of bats. Lest you don't believe me about their size, here is a picture of one of the bats eating a CORN COB!

Our last few days of the trip were spent relaxing true vacation style with Mike's aunt and uncle that live near Orlando. We also went to Universal Studios one day which resulted in this picture of super-excited Mike getting ready to go into the Simpson's Krustyland. Or Krazyland, or something.

Okay folks, if I try to upload and chronologically arrange one more picture I think my eyes will permanently cross. I am so glad that we got to take such a fun vacation together and have a week to just relax and enjoy each other's company without having to worry about work and school. Next up...Summer! Fourth of July, campouts, cookouts, Harry Potter movie, Depeche Mode concert, The Killers concert, Bridge-jumping, family, and friends. What a good life.

Quick Update

2009-05-11T09:46:00.001-07:00

Sorry we have not been on here in a while...we are so busy.
Erin got to spend a weekend with her family down in Mesa, Az recently for her cousin Lucy's wedding! It was so much fun to get to spend time with everybody, and the sunshine was nice too :)

This past week we have spent moving into a new apartment in Rigby, Idaho. Yohko freaked out the first few days but now we are getting everything settled. We still don't have the internet there so we are going a little crazy.

We are also getting ready for our big Disneyworld trip this Saturday! FINALLY a vacation!!

Oh, Beauty School

2009-04-04T10:51:00.000-07:00

I have to start this post with a disclaimer. Long before I started cosmetology schooling, understood hair cuts and colors, etc, I was still pretty picky about my hair. I have a great stylist I go to in Idaho Falls and have been seeing her for over 10 years now. I have never had an experience like so many people have, where I come home crying over an absolutely awful cut/color. This stylist (Kim) has some kind of eerie connection with my brainwaves and has always given me EXACTLY what I have pictured. The cuts are always flawless and make it look as though I effortlessly have big, sexy voluminous hair. Her highlights are the icy blond weaves that I can only dream of.

However, I made a mistake this week. I committed stylist adultery. Oh boy, folks, did I commit adultery. And lest you think stylist adultery is okay, let me tell you: it is NOT.

Let me start at the beginning. My school has a three month period every year where they do intense fundraising (all Paul Mitchell schools nationwide do it together) for several large organizations (Cancer Schmancer, which is Fran Drescher's foundation; The Larry King Cardiac Foundation; Leeza Gibbons' foundation, etc). One of the fundraising ideas was to have the students bid on a full day of services with an instructor at the school. Six hours of whatever we wanted! Joy! Bliss! I had my eye on a particular instructor and put my bid in...and won. Yay!

At this point, my hair was a milk chocolate-y brown with blond highlights. I had wanted the brown out for some time, wanting to go back to my natural blond for the summer, and I also had almost an inch of my natural roots that needed done. So you can imagine my excitement when I thought of the gorgeous blond hair I would finally have when this instructor finish with me.

I will not go in to any details, but I will say this: At the end of the service, I was holding back tears. Has anyone ever had this happen with a stylist? As you're watching the service wind down and your hair get styled, that pit starts to settle in your stomach. You think things like Are they really done? Maybe it's not done. She's not going to leave it like this is she? Is it rude to ask for my money back? Do I know which car she drives so I can key it on the way out? And so on and so forth. My A-line haircut was (no exaggeration) 3/4 of an inch longer on one side. I cut fringe/bangs and they came down to my eyebrow on my left eye...and to my eyelashes on my right eye. Absolutely, no question about it, crooked. And the color-- oh the color! I did not take a picture of it just because I knew I would post it on this blog and I just couldn't let people see it like that. I won't go through the steps of the color but I will just tell you: The milk chocolate/highlighted part was now bright yellow. Think those Peeps marshmallow chicks. Yellow. Those roots I had? Now Orange. Think rusty metal outside of a barn. Rusty Orange. Do you know what this means? Now, not only do I look like a clown, but when my REAL natural hair grows out, the orange stripe will travel down my head. I looked like an idiot. I felt like crawling under a rock and dying. Honestly. I now have complete sympathy for anyone who has had this happen. Long story short, I left the school immediately after and went home sobbing. Sobbed to Mike. Sobbed to my mom (who told me I probably shouldn't go out in public). Honestly.

So I swallowed my pride and picked up the phone and called Kim. Sobbing. Still. I explained to her that I had let this happen and she told me to come in the following morning. I just cannot honestly convey to you all the depth of how horrible that feels. Men might laugh or roll their eyes and say that it's not that bad, but it really IS that bad.

Anyway, Kim worked a small miracle on me, and while my hair still looks a little "bottle-blond" and more fakey than my natural, it is so much better. I will now be going to her every six weeks on the dot until I die.

I just wanted to offer my sincere condolences to anyone who has had an experience like this.

only because it's 1 in the morning

2009-03-05T23:57:00.000-08:00

This was a commentary on my friend Jon's blog and I almost peed my pants as I read it. It is most likely because I should have been asleep long ago, but I thought it was pretty funny and maybe you will enjoy.

"Elliptical Machines - WTF? A thought from Jon"

Yeah so whenever I go to the gym (which isn't that much, but more than you would think) I try to get the courage to use an eliptical machine. For those who dont know what this is it is a contraption that has 2 step like things to put your feet on, and two handles to hold onto. So when you use this thing, your feet and arms are supposed to move in sucession. Its kind of like a nordic trac made love to a stair stepper, then that child made love to a tread mill, than that child made love to a demon, and there ya go you get an eliptical. I have always tried to imagine what it would be like to use one, but whenever I do I envision something like this:
So you get on one of these contraptions and things are going well, you got a good rythm going, and your arms and feet are going in sucession. Well now you decide you want to go a bit faster and get your heart rate up. What then results is a panic because you find yourself holding on for dear life with your hands, (which by the way are moving in sync with your out of control feet), and you feel like you might punch yourself in the face as your arms move back and forth uncontrolably. And of course your thinking "Its ok I can regain control" , but you cant. At this point my friend you are done riding the eliptical, and it is now taking you for a ride. So now your trying to figure out how to get off the mad bronco eliptical before it bucks you off and breaks your legs. Well you can't just jump off cuz the platform pedal things will come back around and break your shins in half, and you risk blunt force trama to the head from the flying handle bars. So what to do? You could tense your arms up and try to stop the beast, but then it just rips your arms off and still lays claim to your legs. You could just stop moving, but all the momentum you just built from your attempt to get your heart rate up is now moving the eliptical like a well oiled freight train, and it might just kill you.
No my friends the correct solution is to not use this tool of the devil at all. Avoid it at all costs. Unless your a risk taker, or a professional eliptical wrangler, then go ahead, but as for me I'll stay clear.

Hair, there, & everywhere!

2009-02-28T16:40:00.000-08:00

This is going to be a long, enjoyably readable update on something I haven't posted much about lately: hair! Sometimes it's hard for me to come home and update lots about what I'm doing in school because I'm just so darn busy. I will officially be halfway done with school next week! Yay! It seems both so fast and so slow.

For the past few months at school, I have been on a student run team called Design Team. It has helped me SOO much. Let me explain: I can cut your hair. I can color your hair. I cannot, however, make you look like anything but poop when you leave my chair. Styling hair is SO HARD. We all know exactly how like our hair to lay, and it is stinking hard to be able to do that for someone else. Especially someone with totally different hair than my stick straight fine blond hair. Curly hair? Why can't we be friends? I just don't know you.
Anyway. Design team is a community oriented student styling team. We do the hair and makeup for lots of local events, like school/college plays, Junior Miss, etc. We also go out and set up booths at career fairs, street festivals, etc. We each have a chair in front of us and a table of products behind us and the whole idea is that you have 5 minutes with each person in your chair to 'quick style' them. It's 5 minutes to give them a totally different hairstyle, whether it be funky, fun, or cute. My styling abilities have improved tenfold from being on this team, even though it's tiring, and I'm having so much fun.

This is an example of a quick style. As I was leaving school today, my friend Diana asked me if I could quickly give her an elegant sort of style as she thinks she is getting proposed to tonight! I only had a few minutes but managed to find something nice. Here are the before and a few after shots:

Here is a cut/color I did on my sister Emily:

Here are pictures of a fear of mine: pixie cuts. This girl came in and wanted everything chopped off. It may not be my cup of tea, but she loved it. Please excuse my flash being off for a couple shots.

Lastly, a cut I did on my younger sister Carly today. Dumb me! I forgot to take a before picture. She had simple long, straight hair halfway down her back. I styled her and sent her home, and then went back a few hours later for pictures so it's a little disheveled, but still cute.

Unfortunately that's all I have around for right now. I need to take better advantage of having a nice camera! I have had many awesome appointments that I haven't had a camera available, but I vow to be better about it!

March

2009-02-24T16:26:00.000-08:00

I know it's not technically here yet, but I think Idaho has begun to get a taste of the Ides of March lately. It's been warmer and the snow has been melting, which has been SO NICE, but lots and lots of angry wind. I can't wait until it starts storming and raining a lot, that is my absolute favorite weather. I could live with rain 364 days a year (I need snow on Christmas).

I can't wait for the temperature to rise a little bit so that taking the dog on walks won't be such a chore. I love walks, I just hate bundling up for them.

Catch-up

2009-02-08T16:31:00.000-08:00

Once again, I am slipping on my blogging duties. You can't blame me, however, as this is a traditional time of year for New Year's resolutions to weaken a bit. Not that blogging was my ambition. My ambition was to do my 90-day workout programs that I have on video before a certain event occured (more on that later). And guess what...that event is now about....97 days away. I think I better get moving.

ANYWAY, here is a short recap of the last few weeks:
Mike has been extremely depressed since he got the Red Rings of Death (No, it's not a weird rash, it's a broken Xbox).

Yohko was put up on an ad on Craigslist since we were hesitant about whether or not we could give her proper care and attention over the next few years since we're always so busy. We got about ten emails for her within 24 hours and I promptly took the ad down as I realized she is now a permanent part of our family.

And in exciting news, the mystery event I mentioned previously (as in, the one I wanted to get in shape for) is....drumroll....A BIRTHDAY/ANNIVERSARY trip to beautiful ORLANDOOOOO, FLORIDA!!! That's right, folks, Mike and I will be taking off mid-May to a glorious 8 day Disneyworld vacation. A few pictures of our resort:

And a few of our room:

We booked our vacation through the Costco travel agency and got an unbelievable deal with the above resort that also included 5 day park hopper passes to...

DISNEYWORLD!!

I am so excited, as I've never been before. Mike worked there when he was 18 and is excited to go back. He loves Florida and would live there in a heartbeat. He has been telling me all about Epcot and how much I am going to love it, and all the other things we are going to do there. If you can't hear me squealing with anticipation yet, I can assure that you will probably see much more on our blog as the vacation fast approaches.

One last thing: Valentine's day is coming up soon and I am determined to make these little boogers to celebrate: Cake truffles! I am hoping I actually get around to it instead of being overly ambitious in my planning. Happy upcoming Valentine's to everyone!

Ode to TJ Maxx...

2009-01-26T19:19:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I get extremely sad when walking through the shoe section of Macy's, on my way in to the mall. Why can't I just have an endless supply of money? I'm so cute/nice/funny that I should have an endless supply to buy whatever shoes/clothes/kitchen gadgets that I want. It is these times that I relinquish myself to the shelves of TJ Maxx...while it is sometimes an effort to dig through mounds of craptacular junk, it is always worth it to find something wonderful for a fraction of the cost. Recently I have picked up a Williams-Sonoma cake & frosting book, several fun (and sometimes odd) kitchen doodads, and today, these beauties! Be still my heart.

Happy Birthday!

2009-01-20T20:55:00.000-08:00

Today was Mike's 28th birthday! Such a number seems far and away to an enfant like moi. While he's not really 'big' on birthdays, he humored me and let me get excited for him. We started out the day with his favorite breakfast, peaches & cream crepes (soooo yummy). After work we played some video games and hung out together. His cake request was banana with cream cheese frosting....

Happy Birthday to the best husband I could have asked for! He is the most understanding, patient, loving man and I couldn't have found someone able to handle me better. He is always willing to clean up the dog poop when I just stand there and cry, and he always replaces the high heels that Yohko chews up. He lets me pick where to eat and what movie to watch and which side of the bed and what cereal to buy and anything else I want. Basically, he spoils me rotten. My birthday wishes for you, Mike, are for hundreds of hours to magically cram themselves into this weekend, which you must fill via Xbox! I love you!

Thoughts on being a parent

2009-01-13T17:50:00.001-08:00

Normally, it is easy to love a face like this:

But today....today it is hard....

New Year's Eve

2009-01-01T09:18:00.000-08:00

It's official: we are lame. We stayed up until 10 our time last night and watched the ball drop in Times Square...and then this:

Merry Christmas to all!

2008-12-25T11:11:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted forever, but we are still alive. We are just winding down from all the Christmas morning excitement! I am still a bit of a kid when it comes to Christmas, I think Mike would sleep in and just relax all day if it weren't for me.

Santa sure stopped by our house...I got the digital camera that I wanted! I cannot describe how happy I am about this. I also got a set of frames that have letters as pictures and spell out the word "Family" (I hope that makes sense), the new Harry Potter, the new Narnia movie, warm boots and socks (the dog ate mine recently), a subscription to Taste of Home magazine, and a whole slew of candy.
Mike got a new robe (since he always wears the girly one my Gram gave me years ago!) and several new video games, along with a movie, the new Killers CD, a subscription to a video gaming magazine, and even more candy. His brother also got us one of those retractable dog leashes that goes out to 20 feet and we took Yoko out on it this morning....it is SO NICE!!! We also got even more stuff that I can't even remember right now. What a fun christmas.

We will post some pictures later but we wanted to wish everyone a Christmas as merry as ours!

Family Addition

2008-11-23T21:18:00.000-08:00

That's right everyone...I believe there is a new member of the Duerden family! And NO....we are NOT pregnant.

Recently, (as far as we can tell) someone dropped a dog off in a 'nicer' area of town, near where we live. This poor animal has been wandering around ever since, and some of my siblings took her in and started feeding her. She is a wonderful, mellow dog, and Mike and I started thinking we would love a dog. So we took her to the park today and brought her home to our basement to see how she would do...and she is like a dream! I think she must have been a house dog before. She is completely mellow and sweet, and I'm pretty sure she's full grown. We just hope that if she was dumped, it wasn't because she's having puppies soon. Anyway, she has made herself quite at home and we think that we like her quite a bit. I know this isn't a good picture, but it's the only one that didn't come out blurry, every time I turned the camera on, she came over to see what was going on. Mike named her Yoko :)

For those that know my family, she is almost IDENTICAL to Zoe in both looks and temperament. Maybe a little less grumpy because she doesn't have to deal with a puppy like Scout all the time.

The only thing not loveable about her is that she has the world's worst case of the dreaded dog farts! I think it is excitement/nerves from being in a new home. But really, she is stinking up the whole house. I came home a little while ago and she was laying on Mike's feet and he was typing at the computer with his t shirt pulled up over his nose! Yuck!

Anyway. We sort of wanted to 'see if she worked out' but I think we have fallen for her!

Bento!

2008-11-18T18:14:00.000-08:00

So Mike and I have taken up an interesting new hobby lately....Bento-ing! For those of you not familiar with bento (or if the term brings up visions of asian take-out) it is the zen-like Japanese art of...lunch boxes! They are usually very elaborate and 'cute', and Mike and I have spent time lately making rice balls and such to pack in ours. They are often made to look like characters, and come with millions of fun accessories to decorate your lunch with.

Bento boxes can be simple, beautiful, or cute -
ours have characters on them, like this one:

Here are a few pictures of bento lunches (although obviously not ones we made!):

It's a lot of fun and it also helps us to pack healthy lunches, since we usually don't have the time in the morning.

Twilight.....I'm scared

2008-11-16T10:01:00.000-08:00

So I am just as excited as everyone else for the Twilight movie to come out this week. Yay!! I love the books and I was so excited when they announced the movie...

BUT...

Has anyone else been following the actress Kristen Stewart, who plays Bella (the main character)? She seems like a big old brat! In the last few interviews she's given, she's called her fans retarded (for celebrating the movie before it was finished), said that they got in the way of her 'creative process', she has left scheduled meet-and-greets with fans because they 'couldn't control themselves properly'. Umm...isn't Twilight's main fan-base 12-18 year old girls? Of course they're not going to control themselves when they meet the cast! Anyway, she's extremely touchy about her 'acting skills', pointing out that she's not some stupid disney channel actress who's going to just stand on her marks and smile and hope she's in focus. And since she doesn't want to be stuck in Bella's "goody-two-shoes label" forever, her next movie that is in production, she is playing a stripper.
I am also scared because in all the trailers, previews, and clips I have seen of the movie, I haven't seen her smile! She does broody very well, and she does scared very well, but I'm afraid there is going to be too much of that in the movie. Bella is supposed to be nice and happy!

Sorry for the long rant :) I'm still excited for the movie!

HELP!, Christmas, and a few other things

2008-11-09T20:00:00.000-08:00

So a few weeks ago, we got a calling in our ward to teach sunday school every other week to the 12-14 year olds. This was our first week teaching and....oh...my...gosh. Sorry Gracie, but I gotta say....what a terrible age! There were 11 kids in there and I wanted to cry. I'll admit the lesson wasn't the greatest, since we just found out Friday evening that we were teaching, and I had school and then work all night Saturday, so the lesson got prepared this morning/early afternoon. But those kids! Agh! We played a game to get to know everybody where you have to tell one lie and two truths about yourself, and we couldn't even keep their attention through that. And the lesson? Forget it. I've never seen kids just talk to the person next to them, outright and completely loud, without trying to hide it one bit. I kept having to yell "Hey guys, come on, we're almost done". Bribery, being the "cool teachers"....none of it worked. Now I know why we'll only be teaching every other week. I couldn't handle this weekly! :) There were a few smaller boys in the back playing with toys and their chairs, and the girls were talking to each other and the 'cuter' boys right in the front row. The whole time. Sorry to rant, but what a frustration.

In happier news...Christmas is a mere 6 weeks away! How did that happen? I found the perfect camera riiiight here and I'm kind of hoping Santa throws it my way...:)
I know it's not even Thanksgiving yet, but I want to bust my tree out already. I wish we had the room for it!

We also got the invitation for my cousin Casey's wedding today...just a few days before Christmas in sunny Arizona! With Mike's new job, I'm not sure we'll be able to make it down for the wedding but we are looking forward to their reception in Ogden in January.

We are going to be coming down to Salt Lake for Thanksgiving, though! We are going to try and make it a long enough trip to spend some time with my family and with Mike's dad and his family...so any friends (Jessica, Kylie) that want to meet up for lunch or something, let me know! I would love to see you guys. I think we will be coming down Thanksgiving and staying through Sunday.

Beauty school girls.... shakes head

2008-11-04T18:24:00.001-08:00

While I love what I am doing, sometimes I cannot help but give myself a big ol' slap on the forehead for having to listen to some of the things these girls say.

Today being election day, we were released from school for about 45 minutes this morning so everybody could vote. I thought that was really cool. Anyway, right before we were allowed to leave, an instructor, another student and I were standing around folding towels for the day and the topic of voting came up. The conversation goes thus:

Dumb girl: Yeah I totally wish I could vote but I forgot to register a few weeks ago.

Me: Actually in Idaho you can register onsite. So anywhere you can vote, you can just register there.

Dumb girl: Oh yeah. Well they actually don't do that anymore.

Me:....Oh, really. I'm...uh, I'm pretty sure they still do that.

(This argument continues for a moment. By the way, I registered with my new last name today....onsite. Imagine that!)

Dumb girl: Well I live in Shelly (about 45 minutes away) and I forgot my proof of residency and stuff anyway.

Me: Don't you have an Idaho license? That's all you have to have.

Dumb girl: Yeah. Well. The polls stay open for like three weeks anyway.
(At this point the teacher starts snickering and has to leave)
Me (with head shaking and little patience): The polls don't stay open for three weeks. They close today. The election is today.

Dumb girl: Well last time I voted they were open for like three weeks. Like for the sheriff and stuff. That election. So they're probably open longer than today.

Me: .....

Dumb girl: And did you know that it doesn't even matter if you vote? Cause Idaho is like waaaay conservative. So basically nobody could vote here and it doesn't even matter.

Me: Flawless logic, there.

*At this point, she realizes I have somehow insulted her intelligence although she probably doesn't quite understand, and leaves. Then, I KID YOU NOT, dumb girl #2 walks up*

Dumb girl #2: Can you believe somebody else will be in the White House tomorrow?! That's like sooo crazy!!

Me: January. He will be in there in January.

Dumb girl #2: Yeah! He will be in there for four years, actually! (walks off and starts looking at herself in a mirror)

Lobotomize me, please! Save me!

Jessie's wedding

2008-11-01T21:32:00.000-07:00

One of my best friends from high school, Jessie Crystal, got married today in the Rexburg temple. It was so awesome! It was the first wedding of any of my friend's that I've gotten to go to. We went out to dinner with all their family last night. Her new husband is Australian, so dinner was pretty fun-filled. Congratulations Jessie! I don't have any pictures from the wedding yet, but here is my favorite pictures of Jessie and I (and our friend Mckenzie). We have been friends for 10 years now! I love these girls.

PS I cannot get the picture to work...click on it to see all 3 of us.

Husband Tag!

2008-10-29T20:35:00.000-07:00

My sister-in-law tagged me to fill out this blog survey about my hubby. Since I posted such a demeaning picture of him in the previous post, I guess I owe it to him to sing some praises :)

1. Where did you meet? Although it's a vague memory now, we met in 2004 when I was dating his coworker and he was dating a girl he had been with for seven years. We all went on a date to see the new Harry Potter movie. We 're-met' in the summer of 2005 when I got a job with him. We worked together for several weeks before we started hanging out...and the rest was history. Kind of.
2. How long did you date before you got married? We had some ons and offs for 2 and a half years before we got married.
3. How long have you been married? Just coming up on a year.
4. What does he do that surprises you? He is a GREAT listener. It makes him good at his job. If I really have a problem he is the best person to sit me down and logically talk me through it.
5. What is your favorite feature of his? He gets this mean crinkle in his eyes right before he tickles me. Also, he has a fantastic 'uh-oh' face. Like today I teased him and he threw the wrapper from a pill packet at me and it hit me right in the eye and he immediately got this great shocked 'I'm in trouble' look.
6. What is your favorite quality of his? He will work as hard as he needs to in order to take care of us.
7. Does he have a nickname for you? For years he has called me 'kid'. I have always called him Uncle J - he has that swoopy hair like Uncle Jesse on Full House.
8. What is his favorite color? Red
9. What is his favorite food? He likes thai, chili mac, and lots of asian dishes.
10. What is his favorite sport? Xbox. Or maybe playstation.
11. When and where was your first kiss? At his friend's house, August 2005.
12. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? Take naps and shirk responsibility. Ha ha. We like movies and going out to dinner. His favorite thing to do together is haunted houses because I hate them.
13. Do you have any children? Nope. Maybe in five or ten years.
14. Does he have a hidden talent? He is a killer karaoke singer. Not just the singing, he will get into the whole hip-shaking, lip-curling Elvis impressions.
15. How old is he? About a hundred. He will really be 28 in January.
16. Who said "I love you" first? He is always quick to jump in on this question - He said "I love you" first and I said "Thank you". Haha!
17. What is his favorite type of music? Alternative. He also likes comedy and political talk radio.
18. What do you admire most about him? He is always the first to say "sorry" after a fight...even though I usually start it.
19. Do you think he will read this? Nope :) "This blog stuff is women's business!"

I tag Kylie!

Beauty school husband

2008-10-26T20:52:00.000-07:00

I would first like to take a moment of this post to call attention to my loving wonderful husband...who is so incredibly patient with me. It can't be easy to be a beauty school husband. Seriously. As of late I've been wanting to practice both acrylic nails (the kind they do in those stinky salons in the mall) and french braiding (which I have never done before in my LIFE). On a lazy sunday evening, where oh where could I find a model?

Seriously. Most. Patient. Husband. Ever. And our basement stinks like methacrylate.

I have been stocking up on Halloween decorations lately. I've been buying decorations as the seasons come since we got married and Halloween/Thanksgiving will complete the collection (until I'm rich, anyway).
These cute little guys were all from walmart!

I have also accumulated several (too many) pumpkin shaped glass candy jars. I can't help it, Fall is one of my favorite seasons.

No other exciting news with us! My christmas wish is a new, more user-friendly digital camera so that I can take pictures of hair I'm doing and start a before/after portfolio. I have a few pictures but I took them on my mom's camera, I will try to post them soon. I gave my cousin some highlights that turned out beautifully, and cut my sister's hair in to a really cute new style.

We are spending tomorrow night with several friends - making a chili dinner, carving pumpkins, and then going to one of the haunted houses around Rexburg. I will try to take some pictures of that and post them!

P.S. - Any good halloween costume ideas, anyone?

Finally....Taking Appointments!!

2008-09-21T09:49:00.000-07:00

Well everybody, the time is finally here. Starting on Tuesday, I will actually be able to take my own appointments at school! I spent the first six weeks in class all day long learning the basics for everything, and I spent the two weeks after that shadowing people that take appointments, helping and watching, etc.

Anyway, for those in the area that ever want anything done, you can make an appointment with me by calling 656-0800. To book with me you have to let them know you want to request Erin D. - student # 1095.

Click here for a list of services and prices. I better see some of you soon!

2008-09-12T22:30:00.000-07:00

I am bored on the computer way too much. Today I found this cool website:

http://www.howmanyofme.com

I found out that while there are 27 Erin Langley's in the United States, I am the only Erin Duerden!

P.S. I saw this commercial on my friend's blog....it make me think of Mike and I also fell out of my chair laughing!

As promised!

2008-08-17T13:09:00.001-07:00

Okay, okay, here it is. Sorry that we have been out of touch with most of you for a while. Everything has just been sooo busy....

We successfully moved into the basement of Mike's mom's house. While most of our stuff is packed tightly away in rubbermaid boxes, I think we will survive for the next year.

I started the Hair Academy at the end of July. It is pretty intense so far. Their program is 'unique' to say the least....the first six weeks (of which I am halfway done!) is called 'Core', and it's hands-on, pack your brain learning all day everyday. You learn the basics of everything. When the six weeks is up, you have a floor test and then you are out on 'The Floor', which is the area you work on actual clients. After only six weeks of class! Anyway, once you are out on the floor, for the entire rest of the program (about a year) you do one hour of a theory class every day and then work on guests the rest of the day. I'm really excited to start that but extremely nervous at the same time....six weeks seems like nothing! I feel like I'm not ready to have people trustingly hand their hair over to my hands.
Anyway, the most exciting part of the program is THE KIT!!! The kit is this wonderful metal box that holds vast loads of treasures, the worth of certain items inside would make you sick so I will withhold that information....
Here is a picture of my kit, which includes all the items I'll be using to do hair over the next year.

It may not look too bad, but I have developed a great respect for mother who carry around babies in carseats. That thing is so heavy and bulky! Anyway, I also have a smaller kit just for items to do manicures/pedicures with, and in a few weeks I will be getting a professional makeup kit, too. Here's an example of an updo I did a few days ago (on a dolly head, anyway).

I am also getting used to the dress code, which is simply 'black'. My closet is increasingly becoming one color.

OUTSIDE of my school news, Mike is getting settled into a new job with a company in Idaho Falls that he interned with last fall. He just started part-time as their new Psycho-Social Rehabilitation worker. I think he enjoys it a lot and hopes to move up to full-time as soon as they can provide him with enough clients to do so. He will probably be taking the GRE test for graduate school in the next month or so, and the Psychology subject GRE a few weeks after that. After we get back the results, it's time to apply for graduate schools! I think we have it narrowed down to our favorite few but it's so far away that I won't list them yet because plans could easily change. He will start applying around Christmas time to start the school year Fall of 2009. I am so excited for him and really proud, too.

IN OTHER RANDOM NEWS:

I finished Breaking Dawn! Probably not as fast as Gracie did, but I was surprised and happy with the last book in the series. I am now anxiously awaiting the first movie (which was moved up to November, yay!)

Mike and I will be taking a much-needed break in October to go to Las Vegas. One of Mike's best friends will be getting married (by Elvis) so we are happy to take a trip down to be there with them. Phantom, anyone?!

I am now looking for a new book series to start. I have heard that the Fablehaven books are cleverly written and are pretty good, but I need recommendations, so if anyone has read anything good lately, please share it.

Mike's little brother Jacob leaves on his mission in just a few weeks! Anyone interested in coming to the farewell, it is two weeks from today - August 31st. He will leave straight from Idaho Falls to the Brazil MTC. Awesome!

Mike has been fishing a lot recently and has been catching HUUUGE fish, which I refuse to cook. Maybe I will recycle them out of the freezer and take a picture of them :)

I hope this was a satisfactory update! I hope everyone is having as much fun this summer as we are.

We are still alive!

2008-08-15T07:51:00.001-07:00

Sorry to my poor neglected blog. We are still alive and very busy. I promise a full update by Sunday afternoon!!

Dear Everyone

2008-07-19T08:15:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update to say that we are still alive....barely. It's moving week! Most of our apartment is packed up and we will be out of here by next Tuesday/Wednesday. I start Paul Mitchell just a week after that! Mike says he gives me two months until I have that black/white/choppy/ugly skunk hairdo that most of the girls there have, but I'm going to hold out :)

Tagged!

2008-07-04T15:46:00.000-07:00

Kylie tagged me to fill out a little questionnaire about myself! I know it's kind of dumb but here goes :)

Joys:
1- I LOVE LOVE LOVE traveling. Especially out of the country. Mike and I would like to eventually spend a few months teaching English in China (we almost did the program right after we got married but decided that was a bit too overwhelming). We've also been to England, Scotland, and France together, and I (Erin) have also been to Mexico, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy!
2- I love reading. During the years that Mike and I dated, we would often go to the mall in Idaho Falls where we would go to the video game store for Mike, and then Barnes and Noble for me.
3- I enjoy eating s'mores more than anything on earth.

Fears:
1- While snakes and rodents are okay, I am terrified of spiders. Cannot. Handle. Them.
2- I don't really like scary movies. I get a little too 'in to' the movie/story and end up grinding my poor teeth in terror when I go to sleep.
3- Also terrified of getting pregnant! Haha!

Goals:
1- To visit several more countries, including but not limited to China, Japan, Thailand, India, Russia, Australia, Greece, etc etc.
2- To get out of debt by any means!
3- To complete a marathon. Okay, maybe not a marathon, but at least a 10k in a Run for the Cure race for cancer.

Current Obsessions:
1- Trashy celebrity news! I can't get enough! I'll read it online, watch it on VH1, I am a tool for it in any form.
2- This Blog.
3- The Twilight book series. The next book is out in less than a month, and the movie comes out this december!

Random, Surprising Facts:
1- I love music and one summer I went out on tour with a few bands from California as the 'tour manager/mom'. We drove from california to louisiana and back in three huge vans! It took about a month.
2- I am the best Rock Band drummer you will ever see. (That goes for guitar hero as well).
3- I have flown a plane!
Tag, You're It! I tag Felicia, Gracie, and Aunt Wendy.

Camping!

2008-07-01T14:22:00.000-07:00

So saturday afternoon, we realized that it may literally be the only time this summer that we have a free weekend to go camping - so we took off almost immediately. We went up to Warm River in the Teton Forest. The campground we wanted to stay in was full of RV's and kids on 4 wheelers so we drove around the forest for a while until we found a gem of a spot :) The mosquitos were pretty bad but other than that it was so much fun and really pretty. Here are a few pictures of our drive, our campsite, and of the Warm River Springs which are SOOOO cold but so beautiful!

A Much Needed (and Large) Update

2008-06-22T20:27:00.000-07:00

Lots going on in the Duerden household. It's finally warming up around here! It's been in the 80's or so for the past few days....I hope I don't jinx anything. Since Mike has been out of school, he has spent most of his time with friends, working, and studying to take the GRE exam sometime this summer so he can start applying to graduate schools. We are probably going to look around Utah, Idaho, and Washington for the most part.

I (Erin) have been having more issues with colleges...for brevity's sake, I will just say that BYU-Idaho and I have a love/hate relationship and things didn't work out the way I planned with the school. I wasn't sure what to do, since I don't know where we will be moving for grad school next fall, so I decided to do something I've been interested for the last few years but never had the guts to commit to! On July 29th, I will begin classes in the year-long program at the Paul Mitchell school here in Rexburg. This is the link if you're interested in looking at it. I've been in there several times as a customer and I'm really excited to start, it's a fun atmosphere and I think I will really enjoy doing that.

SOOOOO.....on to the second part of this double edged sword of news...in order to save a little money and pay my tuition, we will be MOVING!!! We decided to move in to the basement of Mike's mom's house, which is laid out almost like an apartment of it's own, with a door and bathroom and kitchen and everything. I'm sure it will be hard at times but it's well worth it and I think it will be fun. I'm incredibly sad to leave the cute apartment that has been our home together, but I guess there always comes a time....etc etc.

I decided to post some pictures of the apartment we've been in since we got married...not only for everyone else to see, but for Mike and I to have so that we remember it!

This is the four-plex that our apartment is in, including our front door and my semi-flourishing garden.

A better view of the garden. The flowers are doing very well but the vegetable seeds got mixed all together when it rained for three days right after I planted everything. They are still growing, just all over the place!

One more of the garden.

The view looking in our front door into the living room and back into the kitchen.

The living room area. By the way, click on the pictures to make them bigger!

Another living room picture.

More living room from the other corner.

Tv, entertainment center, and some pictures.

The kitchen (my favorite part of our house) and going back into the bathroom and bedrooms.

Back into the bedrooms.

Bathroom. No, it's not clean, and yes, that is harry potter on the toilet. :)

Another of the beloved kitchen.

The back bedroom on the right, which is our computer/guest room (i.e. bachelor friend crash pad).

The same room...the guest bed, shelves...no curtains, very boring.

The back bedroom on the left side is our room. The picture above the bed was my christmas present from Mike and I love it so much.

The window and other side of our bedroom. I love the cherry dresser underneath the window. I hope it's big enough to see if you click on the picture.

One last one of my favorite picture!

Whew! I hope everyone enjoyed the virtual tour. I'm glad I took the pictures so that I can remember the house like this, since we'll probably start packing soon (we should be moving out in about a month). Any other news will be posted as it comes! We love you all!

For all of you in warmer climates.....

2008-06-12T09:35:00.000-07:00

I just want you to know that we had a BLIZZARD yesterday! IN JUUUUUNE!! What's wrong with Idaho?!

P.S. We will have many changes coming up soon and while I am still too emotionally distressed (not an unordinary feat for me) to blog about them, I will announce them soon. Have fun in the sun everybody...unless you're nearby!

a good weekend

2008-05-19T18:30:00.001-07:00

Another quick post just to say we had a wonderful weekend. It was almost 80 degrees here the last few days! That's pretty amazing for Idaho. I got to go on lots of long rides....

We bought a grill pan at Ikea a while ago and pulled it out to cook the first tasty steaks of the summer (which were bigger than my head, by the way)...

AAAAAND....I got all my planting done! I finished the flowers a few days ago and the veggies on sunday morning....I'm pretty sure that almost none of them will grow because they need full sun and they won't get it where they are...but it never hurt to try. The two green ones off on their own are strawberry plants, and there are also carrots, green beans, and cucumbers. The flowers are mostly petunias, and the back row are (i think) lobelias, which I think I have already successfully killed, along with one of the pots. Maybe it's just in transplant trauma...haha.

There's even some little guys popping up...they might be weeds...but either way, I didn't kill them :)

School's Out & Summer Projects

2008-05-18T09:14:00.000-07:00

School is finally done for the summer! Now I can relax and just have fun :) My motorcycle is no longer being neglected and when I take afternoon rides, the air is so warm and nice. Finals went fairly well, and for the semester, I got 3 A's and 2 B+'s. Not too bad :)

Now I've found my 'summer project' - something to do all summer instead of watch tv. In front of our apartment, we've had this nasty little dirt patch that has basically been a garbage dump all winter. When the snow melted, we found trash from about twenty bucks worth of Mcdonald's food. Gross! I forgot to take a picture before I moved most of the garbage, but I've decided to try and make it a little garden area....even though I've never (and I really mean never) grown a plant before in my life. Except bamboo, which I don't think counts!

That's the disaster after I picked all the garbage out of it. I also pulled out a bunch of poles from someone who tried to grow tomatoes or something last year. It took me all afternoon and I finished after it was dark. Here's a blurry Mike giving it the thumbs up.

I also did a few flower pots and bought a shepherd's hook to hold a hanging pot and some chimes I bought a few years ago. I LOVE the sound of them and I'm trying to enjoy them while I can until our grouchy neighbors either complain or just steal them altogether.

...wish me luck!

Trifle!

2008-05-07T20:17:00.000-07:00

Tonight we had dinner with some friends from work...we take turns every few weeks and we each bring something. Tonight I made this chocolate brownie trifle in a trifle bowl that we got for our wedding. It turned out SOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOD!!!! It was really easy to make so I thought I would share the recipe :)

Chocolate Trifle

* 1 (19.8 ounce) package brownie mix (The best is that Hershey's triple chunk)
* 1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
* 1/2 cup water
* 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
* 1 half pint whipping cream, whipped (add a Tbsp sugar if desired)
* 1 (12 ounce) container French Vanilla Cool Whip (or regular Cool Whip)
* 2 Heath candy bars smashed into small pieces

1. Prepare brownie mix according to package directions and cool completely. Cut into 1 inch squares.
2. In a large bowl, combine pudding mix, water and sweetened condensed milk. Mix until smooth, then fold in whipped cream until no streaks remain.
3. In a trifle bowl or glass serving dish, place half of the brownies, half of the pudding mixture, half of the 12 ounce container of Cool Whip, and half the Heath candy. Repeat layers. Shave chocolate onto top layer for garnish. Refrigerate 8 hours before serving.

The last few weeks

2008-05-06T06:47:00.000-07:00

Sorry we haven't posted in so long!!! I'm really the only one who posts and I've been SOOOOO busy! Everything finally died down last week and I had a week of no classes so I could study for finals - they start today.

I had a fun weekend down in Salt Lake. I got to stay with Gracie and Hannah (and Scout, Zoe, and Cricket) while Dad and Julie went on a vacation back to Georgia! We watched too many movies and played too much mario party but it was fun :)
Then on Sunday, it was stake conference....I was grumbling and groaning because I had just had stake conference the week before in Idaho! I shouldn't have to go twice! But I'm so glad I did....guess who the speaker was!

Yeah! The PROPHET!! How awesome is that? He lives in our stake in utah and was just sitting there like everybody else. He gave a half an hour talk and just told lots of stories. He has such a good memory, he remembers all these names of people from when he was a kid.

Oh, speaking of prophets - I found the cutest picture of President Hinckley that I wanted to share with everybody.

Click here to see it

They're pretty cheap to order and I thought it was neat because it's kind of a 'different' picture of him.

OKAY off to finals week! Wish me luck! As soon as it is warm enough I will post motorcycle pictures :)

Mike's Graduation....

2008-04-11T09:20:00.000-07:00

Well, today is the day...the one he's been working towards for years and years...the day that seemingly hundreds of thousands of stinky sweaty people gather into the Hart Gym at BYU-Idaho and watch the four thousand graduates march across the stage for ten hours. I am so proud and excited for him...but...where's Mike?!

Oh. He's in the living room watching cartoons.

Just so that everyone knows, the reason no invitations or news were sent out about Mike's graduation is because he prefers to have it mailed to him (in just 6-8 weeks) instead of participating on campus. That's right folks, he's not walking, not doing convocation, not nothing. We are going to wait a few weeks until it warms up and then have a big huge party for him with all the family and friends that are close enough to come. I solemnly swear to post pictures of that!

Ty and Felicia leaving :(

2008-04-10T08:39:00.001-07:00

So I sadly didn't take any pictures, but last night Mike and I went out for the last time (for the summer anyways) with my brother Tyler and his wife Felicia. They are getting ready to move (today!) to Long Island for the summer where Ty will be working for Apx Alarms selling security systems.
We all went bowling last night and then out to dinner. It was lots of fun and I will miss having them around....but we are going to try to visit them this summer in New York!

Erin's trip to Mexico

2008-04-03T15:32:00.000-07:00

For those family members who have asked to see them, here are the pictures from my mexico trip. I'm sorry I don't have them all labeled yet but I know people on both sides wanted to see them!

Mexico Pictures

Finally starting a blog for us

2008-04-03T11:10:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I've been meaning to do this forever....and since most of my friends and family have beat me to it, I figured it was time to get serious. :)

I hope to use this to keep in touch with all our friends and family, which I'm bad at!

We are both super busy right now - Mike graduates with his bachelor's in 8 days! WOOHOO!! I think he's really excited to be done with school (for a while, at least, then it's off to grad school). I am in the middle of a semester at ISU and I will be done in a little more than a month. Then we can get ready for a summer of playtime. We want to take lots of trips - Las Vegas, Disneyworld, Arizona to visit the Langleys, and New York City to visit some friends....if only we could fit it all in :)

Maybe soon I'll post some pictures of our recent happenings.