“nee-oh-kee”

This is a thing I saw this morning. We’ll see if the snow sticks past lunch time. I’m optimistic that it will not, but a delayed start on Thursday might be nice.
I came home last night to two packages at our doorstep. One I recognized as my new running pants and Christmas sweater. Ignore my valley girl pose and super-enthusiastic grin.

The other, from my Grandma and Grandpa Pullan, was unexpected. I cut the tape and pulled out the packing peanuts to reveal the best sight of all for a lonely girl: our Christmas “stockings”. Every year, my grandparents put together sacks of candy and treats for the kiddos on Christmas Day. They used to come in mesh stockings, but now come in cellophane bags. The carefully packed candy and perennial favorites (fruit snacks! tiny boxes of cereal!) were just as they always are and made me feel so close to my Utah family. It was a wonderful surprise.

Last night and the night before, I got home late from work and though I was famished, nothing sounded good for dinner. I wandered the aisles of Safeway aimlessly, which is quite different than my militant, list-in-hand style when Jason is here. On Monday I decided that the only thing to quell my hunger was a caramelized pineapple quesadilla. On Tuesday, I decided to make gnocchi.

I’ve been wanting to try homemade gnocchi since Jason’s birthday dinner at Gloria’s Little Italy in 2009. As I point out to Jason often, what’s not to love about sweet little potato pillows? Smitten Kitchen provided the recipe yesterday, and I went to town.

Problem is I started at 7:15 PM. I talked on the phone to my grandparents and Adam while the potatoes were baking and to my mom while I was mixing up the dough with my hands. After a while, I had some respectable rustic little gnocchi, ready for boiling.

[They are not the prettiest. I am okay with that.]

I ignored the tomato broth portion of the recipe and tossed my little potato pillows with some Trader Joe’s arriabata sauce and parmesan cheese. At 8:30 PM, I finally sat down to supper and the UK vs. Tennessee game. It was worth it, and now I have three units of gnocchi in the freezer for another day…perhaps tomorrow.

Christmas Week

‘Twas the week before Christmas and all through Virginia, the Frosts were accomplishing many sundry feats.

On Monday we hit up Jason’s Patterson alumni reception and my Grandma’s package arrived.

Tuesday evening Jason had church stuff to do, so I went and read in the foyer.

I did my first long(er than 6 mile) run of half-marathon training on Wednesday morning and had a crazy-busy day at work. That’s all I remember about Wednesday…oh, except having to explain the Wear Pants to Church thing to my boss. That was awkward.

Thursday we stayed up watching the BYU bowl game. So glad the defense can make touchdowns.

I got out a little early on Friday (and so technically did Jason, but we got home around the same time). It started snowing a little bit, but not enough to stick. We had our usual Friday night homemade pizza for dinner and watched the BYU basketball team lose to Baylor.

We were awakened Saturday morning by our doorbell at 8 AM. Jason went to get it. Instead of the missionaries (who are pro at stopping by at inopportune times) it was a Christmas package from my fam! Inside was a butcher paper Christmas tree like the one I’d helped my mom pack up for Hannah when I was in Utah, along with paper ornaments with messages from the extended Pullan clan. It was the best surprise and so fun to hear from everyone. Also included in the package: the gray dress I accidentally left in Utah, our Christmas presents, a bag of homemade chex mix and white chocolate Rice Krispie treats. I fully intended to take a picture of the edible goods, but they are gone.

On Saturday night we had taquitos and got together with the Oswalds.

Sunday was fantastic. Jason only had one pre-church meeting and the Christmas sacrament meeting program was probably the best I’ve ever heard (not that we’d expect any less than our high-achieving ward). Primary was easy; I only had three kids and Jason came and helped for the last bit of class.

We had lunch when we got home and I settled in with Anna Karenina, but could not keep my eyes open. Jason finally told me to go lie down, so I took a three hour nap. Jason fell asleep a little after me, so we didn’t sit down to dinner (meatball grinders with caramelized onions) until much later than usual.

We made some quick sugar cookies after dinner, intending to frost them on Monday.
I’m not sure if it was my nap or the adrenaline of Christmas, but at midnight I decided that instead of going to bed, we should probably try making royal icing for the first time. I put it together while Jason read, then proceeded to frost all the cookies. We finally got to bed around 1:30 AM, which would normally kill me, but is fun when you’re on Christmas vacation.

christmas at the capitol, in the capital

When the Newseum closed, we walked to Good Stuff by way of the Capitol, a.k.a. my favorite building in the city, which also has a Christmas tree.

It’s not really visible here, but in person you can see where the dais for the inauguration is being installed.

We met the Carters for dinner (Happy birthday, Elayna!) and peppermint-chocolate shakes. Jason wisely let me down approximately 80% of ours. December has the best food.

While loitering outside the restaurant before dinner, Jason and I noticed an earpiece- and suit-wearing guy making plans on a cell phone for somebody important to eat at We The Pizza. We never saw who the mystery guest was, but I craned my neck whenever a black suburban approached.

Post-dinner, we hiked down to the White House, passing some pretty stellar Christmas decorations en route.

The National Christmas Tree was a bit of a zoo. There were a zillion kids and haggard parents and giant strollers crammed in the inner circle to see the trains. We ventured in, but decided to make a quick exit to the safe outer walkway while we still could.

ME: This is so fun! Maybe it can be a family tradition. We can bring our tiny children someday!

JASON: Did you not see the chaos around the tree?? Can you imagine trying to squeeze a carriage in there?! (I love how Jason calls strollers “carriages”; it’s almost as proper as “perambulators”.)

The big tree is surrounded by a bunch of little trees that represent each state, D.C., and all unincorporated territories. We found Connecticut (pretty), Kentucky (paying homage to UK on an ornament, of course), and Utah (ornaments decorated by a school in Kamas, apparently).

We also checked out Santa’s workshop, where I was happy we were all adults and could avoid the forever-long line to sit on Santa’s lap. There was also a nativity and a Christmas carol-ing choir.

We walked around the OEOB and to the front of the White House, where the viewing stands (or “reviewing” stands, according to the placard) for the inaugural parade are in process.

Jason and I needed to get back to Georgetown to get our car and offered to bring the Carters home with us so they wouldn’t have to deal with the obnoxious metro closures. I think they probably regret taking us up on our offer. We walked to Metro Center, but discovered the next red line train wasn’t coming for a long while (at least, that’s what I gathered from the disgruntled metro employee. Can WMATA hire some pleasant people, or does working there make you sullen?). We decided to walk the rest of the way.

The night was warm for December and the walk was nice and there are always interesting things to see in the city, like six people dressed as bananas and a man wearing a Chewbacca-esque bandalo studded with what appeared to be essential oils. Weird. We made it to the law school and my ID let us in (thankfully. I was a little nervous because my card seems to work only half the time) and we made it through the labyrinthine parking structure to faithful Swift (our car, which is named after the fox in David the Gnome, a children’s television program from the early nineties that I didn’t actually believe existed until Jason showed me the opening title sequence on YouTube when we were dating). We dropped the Carters at their car in VA and made it home safe and sound.

(Since I like to know these things, Jason and my Saturday walking totaled 7.5 miles across the city. Not too shabby.)

december, by the numbers

Total days I have worked so far this month: 3

Full weeks I have worked since November 1st: 1

Degrees my fever reached at its apex on Wednesday morning: 101.8 F

Number of Law and Order episodes I watched last week while sprawled on the couch under my sage and cream crocheted blanket because reading gave me a headache: 5

Cups of hot chocolate I drank under quarantine, rationalizing that surely it would calm my sore throat: 3

Times I have done the laundry: zero (but not because we are gross dirty clothes wearers. Jason does the wash in the Frost household.)

Days I have run in the month of December (with only three months until the half marathon. Yikes.): 4

Dinners Jason took care of last week, including one with another couple from our ward because he is awesome like that: 3

Miles we walked on our Saturday adventures: 7.5

Days until Christmas Eve: 7!

Percentage of Jason’s presents that will be a surprise on Christmas morning: 20%

Percentage of my presents that will be a surprise on Christmas morning: also approximately 20%, though there’s a chance Jason will guess what his other gifts are and then I will continue to be the less-than-savvy gifter in our home.

{My view from the sofa Monday night through Thursday}

weekend eats

- When I got home on Thursday, that nice guy Jason had a hot dinner waiting and the house was clean. He’s pretty great and deserves a shoutout of thanks for encouraging me to go on vacation while he stayed home and worked hard. He’s the best.

- On Friday, we went out to Evo Bistro for mediterranean tapas. Jason had been before for lunch, but I hadn’t. It was phenomenal (even without wine, which, judging from the selection, is a specialty). The dishes are served in small plate portions, so we tried four: tilapia ceviche with pomegranate, lime, and serrano chilies; lomo saltado, which is apparently steak roasted with tomatoes, peppers, and onions served over rice with sweet potato fries; butternut squash-filled pasta with shitake mushrooms, bacon, toasted pecans, and sage cream; and pheasant roulade stuffed with cranberries and served on quince puree. We also splurged on the apple and date seasonal crumble with vanilla ice cream. It was a fun date night and a lovely way to celebrate being together again (and made us feel like gourmets).

- Saturday was our ward Christmas party. We made pistachio cookies, which make me feel like it is really Christmas time.

- I just realized that 2012 is the first year of our marriage that we haven’t moved. In 2009, we moved into our first married apartment, moved to a condo four months later, and migrated to DC on New Year’s Eve. In 2010, we moved from DC to Lexington by way of a three-week intercession in Payson and in 2011, we moved from Lexington to Virginia. Hooray for not moving again until at least December 2013!

- Sunday was gloomy and a little cold, so we hunkered down inside post-church to eat, nap, and read. I made a big pot of roasted poblano corn chowder and Jason brought out Andes mint cookies (which are a little like Girl Scout cookies on steroids) that he bought while I was gone.

- I get that the black background makes the blog difficult to read, but if it’s white you can’t see the falling snow!

tuesday jumble

How gorgeous is this tree? I passed it on my way home last Wednesday and thought it was glorious enough to justify pulling out my phone and taking a picture like a tourist.

It’s a little cold and drizzly today, which seems appropriate. (Thank goodness for no snow. I heard one woman tell another woman on the metro yesterday that she’d heard we would have three inches last night. She was wrong.) The rest of our turkey is in the freezer and we are back at work and we can’t sleep in every day and it’s a whole month until our next holiday. On the other hand, we got peppermint hot chocolate from Starbucks for family night.

We tried to take our yearly Christmas photo after church on Sunday, but the tree table is shorter this year and we couldn’t get one with the timer that didn’t look weird. When we’ve girt our respective photography loins again we’ll give it another shot. In the meantime, enjoy Amanda: Still Life with Christmas Tree and Pearls.

homecoming weekend

Life is good in the Frost household. We had a great weekend and are looking forward to the upcoming 4.5 day weekend and all its Thanksgiving accoutrements!My Saturday was moderately productive. I got up early and worked out and tried to go to the temple. The parking lot and the visitor’s center parking lot and the adjacent stake center parking lot were all full. I drove around for half an hour (along with twenty or so other disgruntled would-be-parkers), but was about to run out of gas (or oil in my lamp? I’m feeling a great testimony meeting metaphor here!), so I went to BP, fueled up, and came back to continue my hunt. I gave up a few minutes later and headed home. As I pulled around the side of the temple grounds, I saw a huge buck deer crossing the street; I tried to snap a picture from the car, but failed miserably.When I got home, I cleaned and made myself a quesadilla for lunch and accidentally took a nap on the couch. A phone call from Mariel woke me up, after which I went grocery shopping and vacuumed and watched the clock until it was time to pick up Jason.

We went straight from the airport to the mall to procure our new phones, then went home to dinner and reruns of missed Thursday night television and opened presents.

Jason brought back a nativity, three Christmas ornaments and a picture for his office (not pictured):
There’s one more present, but I don’t get to open it until Christmas!

Jason had early meetings on Sunday, but I got to sleep in a little bit before church. The rest of the day was lazy and pleasant and concluded with spaghetti and Grandma Frost’s meatballs and talking to our families.

Glad we’re back together and life is back to normal.

xhdlkfjsplkdjf = head hitting the keyboard

I would really just like it to be Saturday, thankyouverymuch. This has been a long week. Part of the problem is that I’ve stayed up late every night catching up on my current Law & Order (1995) habit. I’m constantly baffled that scrunchies were once considered appropriate professional wear for an A.D.A.

Here’s how the week went (post-lame-commute-but-awesome-art Monday):

On Tuesday I went grocery shopping. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but sometimes I just really love my handwriting.

When I got home, I fixed two of my dresser drawers with gorilla glue, which made me feel like the Wonder Woman of household repair projects. I got together later that night with my friend/visiting teacher from our ward. She’s hilarious and lives close and we had a good time.

The ward book club’s annual pick-the-books dinner was on Wednesday at House of Fortune. I triple-checked the start time so I wouldn’t turn up an hour early like last time. 2.75 hours and a table-full of tasty Chinese food later, the club had selected twelve books for the coming year. I’m presenting The Sun Also Rises sometime in the summer (July, maybe?) because they’d already read my first-favorite book, Angle of Repose, a previous year. Also: though no longer an integral part of my life, the Sanders-Brown dinner was Wednesday night in Lexington!

Thursday I got up early to rock my long run, which always makes me feel great the rest of the day (but obviously not at 5:30 when I’m rolling out of bed)

I had delicious leftover Thai green curry (simmer sauce from Trader Joe’s + chicken + yukon gold potatoes + pineapple) for lunch and a busy day at work. When I got home, I made a quick pasta with red sauce and loads of fresh mozzarella for dinner, binged on leftover Michelle Obama’s cookie dough (which, Roni, is now gone without ever being baked!), then drove out to Leesburg. Rashelle, Patience, and Rashelle’s mom and sister-in-law and I got frozen yogurt, then went to the ten o’clock showing of Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part II. This was my first ever Twilight movie experience and I’ve not read the books, so I was a little confused. Rashelle answered my questions in furitive whispers, though, and I got the gist of what was going on.

I was feeling pretty alert after the movie, so I drove home around 12:30 AM instead of crashing at the Oswald’s. Of course, when I got home I was really awake, which called for more Law & Order! It’s this sort of irresponsible behavior that makes me feel like I’m actually fifteen years old.

Now it’s Friday! I woke up surprsingly early and squeezed in another good run at the gym, bringing my total mileage for the week to seventeen. I can live with that.  I thought about taking myself out to dinner tonight, but I think instead I’m going to throw together some pasta and eat the rest of my 72% cacao Swiss chocolate bar.  I need to do some cleaning and maybe some laundry and go to bed early.

Saturday will be my favorite day of this week…and of November so far.

Other things to which I am looking forward:
- Picking up our new phones. My current one has lost the ability to vibrate. (Aside: you know what kills me? My MacBook laptop, which I received in 2006, only has 60GB of memory. You can get an iPhone 5 with 64 GB! Technology.)
- Thanksgiving. Having the day after Thanksgiving off to lounge about in a turkey coma and not even think about going Black Friday shopping.
- Only two more full weeks of work in 2012, thanks to some schedule-finessing by yours truly.
- 37 days until Christmas Eve (which I might like a little more than Christmas Day).

on the horizon

I’m a girl who likes having Things To Which I Am Looking Forward (and doesn’t like to end sentences with prepositions). Jason getting home was clearly a Big and Exciting Thing, but the fun doesn’t stop there.

Tonight is the BYU vs. Utah State game, a.k.a. first football game watched with Jason since August 30th. Tomorrow is General Conference–which mostly makes me feel like the last six months were a blur–and my lovely family, sans sisters, arrives in the greater DC metropolitan area. Monday is my first ever Columbus Day-off-work. Then it’s reunion and Halloween and Roni visiting and the election and Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year’s and hello 2013.

Whew.

I’ve noted before that we are notoriously not-busy, but I feel like the next three months might fly by.

Other happenings from this week:

I went to apply for my first passport on Tuesday. We don’t have any concrete international travel plans, but I figured it would be a good thing to have (and there’s a passport-capable post office blocks from my work). The passport woman took my picture, looked at it on the digital camera, and made a disgruntled face. “Do you wear contacts?” she asked. I nodded. “I think they’re making your eyes look big. Can you make your eyes smaller?”

Um, no. That’s how they are. (Aside: when I worked at the Grounds office at BYU, one of the crewmembers referred to me as “Crazy Eyes”. It caught on with a couple other crews. In retrospect, I like to assume “crazy” was a synonym for “luminous and beautiful”.)

Thus, my final passport photo (the fourth one), has me looking squinty and suspect, but at least my eyes don’t look big because that would be just terrible.

I finished my forty-eighth book of the year.

We had baked falafel in pitas on Wednesday. Jason kept quizzing me about what was actually in the falafel–because the name does sound less-than-appetizing–but he gave two thumbs up to the finished product.

There are crunchy fall leaves on the ground outside our apartment.

I made chocolate chip cookies last night for the first time in months.

The dry cleaner didn’t ruin my skirts. (I have a terrible fear of sending clothes out for dry cleaning. I just know in my bones that my beloved apparel will be returned holey and stained. I’m almost positive this phobia stems from too many childhood viewings of The Three Stooges’ Sing a Song of Six Pants).

Frost Fiscal Year 3

Wow, another year has come and gone (did I say that at the end of FY2? I’m pretty sure I did). Frost Fiscal Year 3 was a productive one. We had many wild adventures, not the least of which was moving. Again.

In the last three years, we have lived in 5 apartments (plus one interim three-week stay with my parents before moving cross-country), 5 wards, and 3 states + the District of Columbia, and have visited twenty states. We’ve held eight jobs between us (which makes us sound much flakier than we are, thanks to those student jobs and internships), garnered one bachelor’s degree each and Jason picked up a master’s degree. We’ve gone from barely-BYU-sophomores when we met to barely-seniors when we got married to real-job-holding adults.

May
Celebrated our 2nd anniversary at Saul Good.
Jason completed his first full year of grad school.
Marked one year of living in Kentucky on May 8.
Went out on the town for Mary’s birthday before she and Scott moved away.

Went to beautiful Utah for Mariel’s high school graduation.

Hiked Little Wild Horse Canyon with my familia.

June
Saw Midnight in Paris.
Saw Cave of Forgotten Dreams on a whim.
Saw The Tree of Life.
Amanda ran forty miles in a week, a personal best.

July
Amanda turned twenty-three years old
Amanda ran the Bluegrass 10,000 with Elaina, after which we got together with the Poulsens and the Du Bravacs for a Fourth of July barbecue.

Jason went on high adventure with the Bluegrass Ward young men.
Attended the Fifth Third tennis tournament, which inspired us to play tennis more frequently.
Date night with the Poulsens, in which they introduced us to Planet Thai (our latest Lexington obsession).
The Poulsens moved away and I found myself running partner-less.

August
Visited the Lexington farmers market for the first time and bought a bunch of blueberries and peaches.
Went to our last Lexington Legends baseball game.

Jason started his last semester at the University of Kentucky.
Determined through a work personality test that Amanda is a complier–the lone complier at UK HealthCare development. Not sure if that’s a good thing.
Amanda went to Utah to see Hannah before she left on her mission to Buenos Aires, Argentina!

Helped the Pullan family become hopelessly addicted to Settlers of Catan.

September
Skipped my five year high school reunion.
Traveled to Oxford, Mississippi, and had the best time. The BYU vs. Ole Miss game was pretty good too. Also, tried fried catfish for the first time. Surprisingly tasty.

Attended a UK football game…in which the wildcats pulled out a victory!
Date night at Planet Thai with the Thompsons.
Gave talks in the Liberty branch and were called as nursery leader and employment specialist respectively in the Tates Creek Ward.
Received a package from my familia that included cinnamon bears and blue and white cougar tortilla chips.
Amanda discovered (after an early Saturday morning run far away from home) that the car’s gas pedal cable connecter can come loose and cause the gas pedal to not work.
Amanda started MPA evening classes at UK.

October
House/pet-sat during General Conference.
Took a wonderful weekend trip to North Carolina to visit the Holbeins and attend Mary’s wedding.

Worked (and survived) the Sanders-Brown annual dinner.
Went to Big Blue Madness, the University of Kentucky’s first official basketball practice. It was nuts!

Attended a coming home party for Laura.
Jason attended the Patterson School fall conference.
Watched a lot of BYU football.

November
Jason attended the Patterson School negotiation simulation and was on Team UN.
Sampled our first ever Spalding’s donuts.
Signed paperwork for our Virginia apartment, ending a stressful long-distance hunt.
Visited the Frosts for Jason’s first CT Thanksgiving since 2003. Drove 16 hours straight to get there and had a really nice visit.

December
Put up our tiny little Christmas tree.

Attended a post-comps party at Anne’s, where I thought mulled wine was beet soup and dished some up in a bowl. A goblet is just too little for me, apparently.

Attended Patterson graduation and after-party.
The Great Food Redux of 2011.
Amanda flew to DC for a <42 hour interviewing extravaganza.

Both rocked 4.0 GPAs.
Had pre-Christmas dinner with the Laytons before they left on their Christmas vacation.
Invited the visiting Holbeins over for pre-Christmas dinner, and had a great time with them. Love the new Sting CD.
Celebrated our first on-our-own Christmas Eve, complete with early-morning bowling, Thai food for lunch, and White Christmas at night.
Celebrated our first on-our-own Christmas, and it was wonderful. Spent the morning at Church and opening presents, then went to the Harris family’s for dinner and games.

(I acknowledge that I’m wearing the green striped BR sweater in every photo from this winter. I love it. So sue me).
Moved to Virginia. Loved our new apartment.
Stayed up until the wee morning hours constructing IKEA furniture. Ate at The Cheesecake Factory.

January
Jason started work.
Amanda stayed in Kentucky for two weeks finishing out her job and had many great adventures.
Upon her return, and while unemployed, Amanda became hopelessly addicted to Downton Abbey.
Got together with Aunt Kathleen and Uncle Bruce, Mark and Amy’s fam, and Sara and Chris and the Monk family.

February
Celebrated Jason’s twenty-sixth birthday with a trip to La Sandia.
Hosted Mariel for her Christmas gift visit, which included trips to several museums, the mall, the Capitol, and Good Stuff Eatery.

Amanda made macarons and accomplished most unemployment goals.
Had Dave over for dinner while he was (briefly) in town
Amanda started work at Georgetown!
Saw Rana Santacruz in concert and went to a Georgetown hoops game.
Both got new glasses.

March
Jason went on his first business trip.
Amanda did not go crazy while Jason was gone for two weeks
Watched a lot of basketball.

April
Enjoyed General Conference.
Watched the Final Four with the Oswalds and got together later in the month for games and cheesecake.
Relished the Kentucky national title win!
Had a fantastic bonfire and s’mores with the Jensens.
Jason went to Kentucky to take his final exams.
Jason passed his exams and officially finished at UK!

Here’s hoping FY 4 is less transitory, but just as awesome. Happy anniversary to us!