recap.

I think I've put off blogging now for so long that I don't even know where to start.

We made the 800 mile drive to California and spent Christmas with my family. The weather was so nice the entire time! It didn't really feel like Christmas though, since we usually have at least some rain or cold weather, if not snow. We went into Sacramento with my sister one day and had sushi at Arigato, my favorite place. It was amazingly delicious, as always. Sterling even loved it. Then we finished up last-minute shopping at the mall, which was incredibly crowded and crazy. After being in Idaho for the past year, California overwhelms me a bit at times. And it's weird how diverse it is!

Christmas was good, we got lots of good stuff. I'm excited to put our new fitted sheets on our bed, Sterling tore off our old ones every night in his sleep. So we spent a week in California in all. It was sad leaving. What made it so hard this time is the fact that I have no idea when the next time I'll see my family is.

Then we made our way to Grace to see the Stoddard side. Have I mentioned how much I love Southeast Idaho? We took a new way to Grace this time, and we definitely liked it better. We also stopped in Ogden on our way back to use a giftcard at a restaurant that we got for the wedding. It was for $100, so we went a little crazy. Hellllo lobster, prime rib, and bacon-wrapped tenderloins! Pretty delicious.

We had our Stoddard Christmas party on Thursday night. Sterling got a Dallas Cowboys knit hat and argyle socks that he just loves, and I got a good new cookbook. And I pretty much owned the Candy Bar Game, I must say. In the very last second of the game, I won back the much-desired Idaho Spud Bar. Oh yes :)

We went over to Sander's Furniture in Soda Springs the other day to use the money that people gave us there for the wedding. We had over $1000 in credit there! So we picked out a nice new bed and a dresser. We still have a couple hundred dollars left to spend sometime down the road when we want to buy a nice dining room table or something. We're leaving the bed and dresser down here for now though, since we're only going to be in Moscow for another 5 months or so. I can't wait to use it! 

Last night, we went down to Dayton to view the pictures from our wedding. We're really happy with them! We picked out over 100 that our photographer will make prints of for us. I'm excited to see them and put together a nice photo album. 

So here we are now, we'll stay in Grace until Tuesday, then we'll head back up to Moscow in time for my birthday on Thursday. We'll be coming back to Grace again at the end of January because Sterling's sister is leaving for her mission. 

Tonight is New Year's, but we're just going to be an old married couple and hang out at home. I will make sure we stay up until midnight though, at least!

another P.S.

Our friend posted pictures from the White Elephant party I mentioned a few posts back, and I have to share one. I just absolutely love it. Too funny :)

all the foods of Christmas.

Every year, my family hosts Christmas Eve at my parents' house with most of my mom's side. And every Christmas Eve for the last, oh, probably 8 years or so, I've been in charge of the desserts. That is my forte.  Usually cookies, some fudge, and either a cheesecake or layer cake of some new flavor I decide to experiment with.

I'm pretty excited this year, mostly because I've barely baked at all this semester. All I've made really are my favorite cookie recipe that I made all the time. So I'm looking forward to experimenting with new recipes. Red velvet cheesecake, homemade almond roca, and some sort of cookies are on the list this year. So, of course, I've spent the last hour browsing Tastespotting. It's nice not having school to worry about anymore, because I don't feel guilty about spending so much dang time drooling over recipes online!

Tomorrow I'm starting the holiday baking storm. Gonna make some cookies and test out that almond roca recipe and give them to our friends. Our friends, the Bowles', brought over some (amazing) gingersnaps and cheesecake bites the other night, so now we need to return the favor with Christmas goodies too! Great excuse to bake, right?

I also give the Bowles' full credit for us finally having a clean apartment.

The other evening, Sterling and I were taking a nice nap. A text from Justin asking if we were home woke me up. I told him we were, and he asked if he and Annie, his wife, could stop by our place with goodies. I woke Sterling up and frantically told him we needed to tidy up our apartment quickly so they could stop by. Sterling said he bet they were already on their way. Turns out he knows Justin pretty well!

Now, when I say our place was a mess, I mean it was seriously a mess. Like, a full-on hazardous waste filled disaster zone. I don't even know how it got so bad. Our living room had random articles of clothing all over the floor (for some reason I moved the full-length mirror into there a few weeks ago, accidentally turning the living room into the "dressing room"), and wedding presents and wrapping paper everywhere. Our kitchen had Sterling's attempt at making cookie bars (poor guy...I had to race to work, leaving him to finish the recipe....he accidentally left out a couple crucial ingredients :)) sitting, and staling, on the stove. Our bedroom was awful, with quilts and clothes and study notes and textbooks all over the place.

So anyway, the Bowles' showed up, and I resorted to closing as many doors as I could and then apologizing for our apartment being disgusting.

And then doing a serious deep-cleaning of the entire apartment the next day.

I want to be comfortable with people stopping by whenever! We love having visitors, so we need to make it possible for friends to make a surprise visit without us being embarrassed of our piggyness.

So now, I'm happy to announce, our apartment is just lovely. It's cute and clean and organized, and we love it. And we're now getting ourselves into the habit of keeping it clean. And we're doing pretty good. Clothes are in the hamper, dishes are washed everyday, trash is taken out often, bed is made everyday. It feels great. And Sterling is doing so good, I must say! He's the resident bed-maker.

On Wednesday we're heading to California for a week with my family, then going to Grace to see the Stoddard side for a little less than a week probably. Then we'll get back and it'll be my birthday! This is my favorite time of the year. Can I also mention how excited I am to have sushi while we're in CA? I already talked my sister into taking a trip to Sacramento with us just to get sushi. Oh, yum.

yuck.

Oh, and P.S.: Whyyy does THIS have to happen?!

It's cold. And I slip a lot. No, really. A LOT. And I hate driving in it.

I know, I don't know why I choose to live in Idaho, either, if I hate snow so much.

final season.

I'm 2 hours away from taking my last final of the semester. I was one of those unlucky people that had the majority of their finals on the last two days of finals week. Moscow lost about 60% of its population by Wednesday. We realized this when we went to Winco last night and it was practically empty. Funny how college towns work.

Anyway, I should pass all of my classes. Anatomy will likely be a D, which is bad, yes, but it counts for credit, which is all that matters to me right now. Chemistry should be a C, which again, is nice, because I've been stressing over that class as well. Sports Nutrition is an A, and my other two classes should be B's.

College is funny sometimes. See, I slaved over anatomy. I studied a ton, I went to class religiously, I was truly interested in it, and I learned more in that class than in any other class I've taken throughout my college career. Yet, I'm practically failing it. And Chemistry? I hardly ever went to the lecture section of this class. I kept up with the homework and got A's on every assignment in the lab section of the course. But the lecture? Nah. I can't really honestly say I've learned a thing in that class. Yet I'm getting a better grade in there than in anatomy? It doesn't make sense.

Same with my two nutrition classes. Sports Nutrition is a very upper level class. Intro to Foods is not. It's the lowest nutrition class UI offers. But I have almost 100% in sports nutrition. Actually, every single one of my nutrition classes I've ever taken are a higher level than Into to Foods, yet in Intro I have the lowest grade, and I had the hardest time with.

What the heck, college?

tuesday tuesday

I got my wedding band yesterday. I'm pretty overjoyed about it.

 

(excuse the crappy cell phone picture)

 Helllllllloooo more bling! And I feel married for real now, I told Sterling. You know, cause it was for fake before ;)

In other news, I have a love/hate relationship with finals week. I hate it for obvious reasons. Um, hardcore exams? Stress? Studying? No thank you. But not having actual classes all week? Yes please. I like freedom and doing whatever I please all day. And, you know, squeezing in a bunch of studying, I suppose. I think I'll like next week better. Or the next 3 weeks, is more like it.

Next week we just have to drive to California (that's 15 hours, by the way) on whichever day we decide. Next Friday was our original plan, but I don't think I'll get any work at all next week, so if we get too bored of just hanging out at our cable-less, internet-less apartment, we'll make the trip to my parents fully equipped [with cable, internet (that's a new development, by the way! They're in the sticks, remember?), and food-stocked kitchen] house. We'll just see. I like having our options.

Yet more exciting news: Sterling is all signed up to graduate in the spring! I filled out his application and paid the fee yesterday. That's right, I did. I also filled out his extensive "Graduating Senior Survey" that's required. It must be nice having a wife, right?

the married people.

Being in a married student ward is much nicer than our old singles ward. Those people started getting a little weird. Sterling says this is because all of the normal Mormons get married off quickly then only the...uh...eccentric ones are left. That's how it is in Moscow at least.

So we were pretty excited to join the married ward. And it's great. The people are nice, it's great having other married couples around who are more on the same page as us, and there are cute babies EVERYWHERE. Seriously, I spend the majority of my church time watching babies. During all of Sacrament meeting today, Sterling and I were watching 3 adorable little boys play together. Babywatching-- It's my new favorite pastime.

The only bad thing about the married ward is that I feel young. Very, very young. Nearly everyone has been married for years and has multiple kids! The thing is though, they aren't even that much older than me. I know there are plenty of other people who are my age in our ward! But I feel like the baby of the ward because I'm new to this whole married life thing and I don't have a baby on my hip. Sterling feels uneducated in our new ward. It seems like every guy we talk to is working on his masters or doctorate.

It's a weird world we just entered into, I tell ya.

mormons and keggers.

I feel like I've been dead this past week. And I feel like that'll continue for awhile. Is it because it's the end of the semester? Or perhaps I have Mononucleosis and just don't realize it? Or am I not filling my days with enough exciting and fun things? I have no idea, but I'm ready to be a living, normal person again.

I want to sleep my days away, and sometimes I do. I had a full night's sleep Thursday night, woke up and Sterling drove me to my nutrition class at 8am Friday morning, it lasted half an hour, he picked me up, we went home and napped until I had to work and he had to meet a friend for racquetball at 1pm. One! And I was still dead tired all day. And today is a lovely Saturday that I should spend doing something fun and worthwhile, but all I can think about is going home to squeeze in a nap before we go to a pizza party with our ward at 6.

I was able to drag my lazy self out to our friends Christmas party last night. It was a good time, with White Elephant shenanigans and all. It was with our non-member friends, who we love dearly. I'm sure most Mormons don't go to your typical college party complete with dozens of drunk people and loud music and girls wearing basically nothing, and it's probably a frowned-upon thing, but we still go. This set of friends who we go with are really great people, and they accept that we're Mormon, and we have fun with them.

And it is pretty interesting being the only sober people at a party. You see a lot of things that most people don't notice, I think. And you learn a lot about people. There are, of course, really annoying moments as well, though. Like the very-intoxicated girl from our old ward who decided to stumble over to us and loudly proclaim, "We're the worst Mormons EVERRRrrrR!!!" Uh, no sweetie, leave us out of this. We can still stand up straight.

Anyway, it's interesting stuff. And though we do have fun, it makes me really really want to move to Southeast Idaho even more. Moscow is fun, but I'm pretty ready to have more Friday night options than either staying home and renting a RedBox, or going to a kegger. Just sayin'.

possibilities are washing over me

I've been going a little crazy lately applying Sterling for jobs for after he graduates this May. The other day, I probably applied to at least 20. I've decided to get a little adventurous and apply him for jobs outside of Idaho in places that I'd be interested in living for a little while.

I figure we're at a place in our lives where we're able to pick up and move to a different place for a little while, so why not do it if the opportunity arises? We could do it for a year or so until he gets a job he wants in Southeast Idaho, then we'll make our home there permanently. It would be fun. He knows I'm doing this, don't worry. I'd have to delay my last year of school for a bit (or pay a ton of out-of-state tuition again), but I'm okay with that. I'm going to get my degree. I'm not going to drop out of college with only 2 semesters away from a degree. It will happen, I promise. But if we have the opportunity to go experience something new and I have to take a year off, I'm doing it.

I went a little too crazy the other day and was applying him for jobs in Australia even. Yeah, that probably won't happen. Today though, I applied him for a bunch of positions at Con Agra, which is where he had an internship, so he probably has a decent chance getting hired through them. I applied to positions in Washington (Tri-Cities), Colorado (outside of Denver), Omaha, Nebraska, Tennessee, and good old Twin Falls, Idaho. Honestly, I'd love to live in Tennessee for a little while. It's in Memphis!!!

I'm probably getting myself a little over-excited right now. But it's fun to consider all the possibilities! Even if we end up just moving to SE Idaho in May, I'd still love that. I'm ready for this to start happening!

he's learning.

Yesterday was a very Mondayish kind of Monday. I was tired and not looking forward to these next two weeks of finals hell. Then the hot chocolate machine on campus exploded on me. I pressed the button and hot water and powder came spraying out on me. It wasn't pleasant.

Then I lost Sterling. His phone was dead, so I clarified that he was going to meet me outside my class when it got done, then we'd go together to another building across campus and I'd wait for him while he had a job interview. He apparently missed this plan entirely. So when he's not waiting for me after class, I race across campus and up to the 4th floor of the library, thinking he's just on the computer and lost track of time (this happens often). He's not there. I race back to the building where my class was, to check if he was there now. Nope. So I go to the AgSci building (where his interview was) and track down the office of whom I'm told is the only Lorie in the department (I only knew the lady he was meeting with's first name) and wait outside her office for 15 minutes, thinking he must either be in there or he'll show up there soon.

Finally, some lady shows up and tells me Lorie isn't even in her office. So I give up and decide I'll just walk home and hope he shows up there sometime, even though I have his housekeys and I have to leave for work in half an hour. As I'm walking out of the building, I see my adorable husband walking away across the lawn. I don't know what to do, since yelling his name across the quad or running after him would both be equally embarrassing. But I don't want to lose him again. So I do a mixture of both running and yelling. Classy, right?

So we're reunited. And he doesn't understand my frustration, since he missed our plan entirely and thought I was just going to wait for him outside of my class for half an hour. And apparently the Lorie he was meeting was on the third floor, not the first. Then after apologizing and dealing with me being grumpy the first half of our walk home, he begins laughing at the fact that I was near-tears when I finally tracked him down. Alright, I was a little worked up.

Did I mention that he did pretty much the exact same thing a couple of weeks ago? That time, he didn't hear me clarify that we're going to go shopping right after his class, and he instead thought I was in class all day and decided to sit in the computer lab playing Settlers of Catan or whatever it is that he does. And of course his phone was dead, so I was sitting at home wondering if he was alive or not, and getting pretty angry.

I think he's learned a little about listening and good communication now. And he now knows to not get annoyed with me if I repeat our plans to him five times :)

And in case anyone's wondering, he got the job. And I paid our tithing! Ya see how that works?!

december.

Yesterday The Husband and I both ditched work and school and took a day trip up to Coeur D'Alene. We went to the Social Security Office and changed my name, so I am now legally and officially Kelli Stoddard. Ahh, love that. I have to wait until my birthday next month to get my first Idaho license with my new name on it though. When you turn 21, you have to get a new license anyway, so it's useless to pay money to get one for a month.

This coming week, I have to go through all the hoops with the University to change my name on records and receive my residency, as well as update both our FAFSA's. Hopefully now that we're poor, married, college students we will receive a lot of financial aid. Cross ya fingers.

We also Christmas shopped and got about 96% of it done. And it's only December 3rd!

Sterling and I know pretty much everything we're getting for each other. Mostly because I've bought both of my gifts from him myself. Heh heh. A custom Cowboys shirt (with Stoddard on the back!) and a diamond band for my wedding ring, thankyouverymuch.

When we were first engaged, I really wanted a band and was searching everywhere for one, but was too picky and didn't like how any looked with my ring. It's hard to find one that fits how I want! So I gave up and forgot about it. But now, after we're married, I want one again. I'm convinced everyone is going to think I'm just engaged forever if I don't get a band. So the nice Husband agreed to get me one, since I spent a good chunk of money on his Kindle (though gift cards covered the majority of it). So I found a pretty one and hopefully I'll get over my pickyness and just be happy I have a band. Or I'll just wear it on the other hand, if I don't. Either way, I'm happy :)

I'm happy to announce that our apartment is on it's way to finally being in order. We did some serious cleaning today. There's still a handful of things to do (I have to scrub a toilet and bathtub for the first time in my life. Oh, adulthood.), but you can actually walk through all the rooms now. Ha.

Aaaand that is all of the ever-so-interesting news from the Stoddard Newlyweds. 

I saw the light

I have a confession. I'm horrible with tithing. And when I say I'm horrible with tithing, what I mean is that I don't pay it. Like, ever. Sterling isn't exactly any better than me, either. And with a bishop for a father-in-law, we've heard our fair share of lectures, warnings, and testimonies.

But still, we chose to keep that 10% of our money, because it's reallyreally hard to give away precious money when you're poor college students. And I need to eat things other than just Top Ramen.

But ya know what? I'm starting to get it now. This last week we've had some unfortunate events happen that are draining the bank account. Like my dear husband, who got us a speeding ticket on the way home from SE Idaho (the cop was really a jerk though, I must add).

And today, when I got an email from the university informing me that my insurance was randomly selected to be audited, since U of I requires all students to have health insurance. Well, the thing is, I only had insurance for a couple of months this semester, since there was a gap of no insurance between transferring from my dad's to my mom's. And now that we're married, Sterling and I both are uninsured for the next three weeks of this semester. If I can't talk (or cry) my way out of this, we could be charged $700.

You can bet that I will show up to church this Sunday (in our new married ward...yeah!!!) with a check in hand. Peace offer, yeah? And I'm not going to stop paying our tithing, because it's dang scary finding out what happens when you don't!