I've Moved!

These past couple of weeks have been a little bit crazy.

Earlier this month I was feeling a bit stressed about not being able to sell my contract before I get married. But with Spencer's help and reposting my apartment for a little bit lower rent. I had TONS of people interested in taking over my contract and IT SOLD!!! But this meant we needed to find a house and move me into it before we left for our Christmas trips.

Luckily we found this humble little home (which I will only show the outside for now because well you know how things look when you first move in... like a disaster!) I finally finished moving everything over today on my lunch break and i love it!

Tomorrow morning I will head out to Texas to spend Christmas with Spencer and my in-laws to be which I couldn't be more excited about! Then I will head over to Sam's for New Year's and finally meet my new niece Chloe!!!

Oh and it snowed at least a foot within the last 24 hours so I reeeally cant wait to leave this state!

tis the season!

Oh Christmas TREE!

I was soo excited when I found this mini christmas tree @ Home Depot

I couldn't pass it up! We went and saw the awesome light set up around the Salem Pond too.

They did a wonderful job!
I really really love the lights can you tell!?

It's my favorite day of the year.

Yesterday was wonderful.

I made my very first Thanksgiving Dinner without Mom!

Spencer and I spent the day in the kitchen and made a wonderful feast! I have been so excited for this day to come. Thanksgiving has always been my very favorite holiday! The day devoted to spending it entirely with the people I love most and eating great food ALL-DAY-LONG no other holiday is better than this one! : )

This year I tried some new recipes from this blog and they turned out almost perfect. My big fear of having a dry turkey did not happen, it was delicious! We had so much fun making this and we even got started on some wedding decorations too while waiting for the food to cook!

I am so thankful for the many ways Heavenly Father has blessed me in my life: for loving parents who have always been so supportive of me. for my wonderful fiancée, i love him. for my brothers who have been my biggest examples in life. for my faith in God and knowing He has a plan for each of us. for my job. for my heater working in my car this winter. for my dear friends and for cell phones and computers that connect me to them. for my big kitchen. for good music, oh how i love thee. for chocolate. for the beautiful mountains i get to see everyday. for my freedom and safety in this country. I feel so happy and so lucky!

Our Feast!

Spencer made his first Turkey too

The Turks

He will be my Husband in 99 days!

Apple-Pear Pie with Shooting Stars and Cat cut outs (may remind you of this pie : ) )

Best Night Ever!

Ladies and Gents I am sooo excited to announce that I will soon be Mrs. Carlyn Marie Flanagan!!! I truly feel like the happiest and Luckiest Girl in the world.

Tonight my Best Friend became my Fiance!!!

Carly's Citchin'

Last month I decided to give myself a little challange for the holiday season.

Since Spencer and I absolutely LOVE Thai food I decided to learn to make it. Because this is my blog I feel I can brag and say we have pretty much mastered that over the past 8 months when I first tried it. So what's next?

Soup! I love soup a lot and with it starting to get cold, coming home and eating a bowl of soup is one of my favorite things. My challenge is to make a new soup each week. I would love to learn to master this too.

Tonight was my third week and I made my favorite so far! Dannielle requested I make Corn Chowder. I've been wanting a potato soup. SO I did a few modifications to this soup done by my favorite cooking gals at Our Best Bites.

3 Tbs butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
2/3 C flour
4 1/2 C low-fat milk
2 C chicken broth
3 Chicken Breast shredded
1 1/2 C Frozen Corn

4 medium baking potatoes (about 2 1/2 pounds) baked
2 C grated cheddar (or sharp cheddar) cheese, divided
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper

Melt butter in a stock pot over medium heat. Add garlic and saute for 30-60 seconds until fragrant. Add flour to pan. Slowly add milk a little at a time while whisking constantly to eliminate lumps. Whisk until smooth and then add chicken broth. Bring soup just to a simmer and heat until thickened, stirring often, about 5 minutes.

Once soup is thickened, turn heat down to medium-low. Add in shredded cooked chicken. Add frozen corn. Cut potatoes in half length-wise and use a spoon to scoop out potato flesh into the pot. Use a wooden spoon to smash potatoes, breaking up large clumps. Add 1 1/2 C grated cheese and salt and pepper and stir until cheese is melted. Remove pan from heat and Add additional salt and pepper to taste.

I really enjoyed this one and Spencer went back for seconds too so thats always a good sign to me! : ) I'm excited about these leftovers this week!

If you have any favorite soup recipes you love to make send them my way! It's gunna be a Looong Winter!

M.F.E.O.

I came across this video of Zooey Deschanel and her husband Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie today and I just LOVE this song!!! The original was done by The Seekers in the 60's ENJOY!!!

Best Coast

Tonight WE went to see Best Coast at Urban Lounge in Salt Lake. They put on a great show!!! Spencer and I got free tickets from the fantastic Slowtrain Record Store. Knowing we were of 10 people there who got in free, there should have been waaay more people at this show! Utahns missed out tonight!

1 week ago...

We were in California! and ever since we left we want to be back!

-

Over the summer Spencer was in LA interning with Filter Magazine. Last week they put on a 4 day festival in LA with bands that came in from all over the world! We were able to go on Thursday and Friday and saw some really great bands! Casiokids were def my fav! They are from Norway and the lead singer was so entertaing. Some of his dance moves he must have gotten from an aerobics video!

-

Saturday night went to Knott's Berry farms haunted Knott's Scary Farm and that was incredible. I mean I have NEVER ever been so terrified in my life. or paranoid eiter! Their haunted mazes were very haunted and they had monsters all over the park whereever you walked jumping out/following you! I'm feeling tense again writing about it. I started feeling like everyone walking by me was going to try to scare me. and they did. Poor girl behind me in one of the mazes got a little to close to me and when I turned around and saw her I screamed! Then i saw her face and she was just another scared girl like me!

-

Sunday we went to his old ward which was very nice. I must admit, I felt like I have been dating a celebrity and didn't know it!!! Everyone loves and misses Spencer out there a lot! We stayed with his best friend Jon-Michael and his family for the weekend, the Bradley's were very good to us. Meeting all these great people that Spencer loves and talks about was so much fun!

-

Now time for the Pics!

-

We made a stopped in Vegas on our way down (right before my car deciede to over-heat)

The Venetian... Make me reeeeally want to go to Venice again! (me and nad 2007)Jamison, Spencer, and Jon-Michael at Newport BeachI love being with this boy!These ladies were soo cute! They remind me so much of my Grandma and her Sisters!Grandma, G-Aunt Doris, G-Aunt Helen (Newport 2008)Culture Collide Festival- Casiokids at the Echo!

Bow Ties and Bling!

Can it get any better than that? I think not. We be Rappin' and Singin' in the SLC last night before we head over to see the Shining at the Tower Theater... it was great evening!

Also as you know, October is here. I like that. New Month, New Season. Time for change. Time for some exciting things! And lots of scary movies!

I haven't decided on a costume yet but for the first year in a veeery long time I am actually excited for Halloween! Thank you Dannielle for getting me to this point. The abundance of themed parties the past couple weeks has also brought on this excitement!

New Season of Glee Started! Episode 1 Theme: New York


Glee Episode 2: White Trash Brittney. aka sweats, comfy clothes, no make -up, and def no pictures were taken to show that off!

National Katy Perry Day: Sept 24th

Brilliantly Brittish Birthday Bash Sept. 25th HAPPY B-DAY CAITY!!!

SPICE UP YOU LIFE!!!

It's a Party in your mouth Every Time!

Today marked a day for change. A very sad change. For nearly 5 wonderful years I have LOVED brushing my teeth simply because of this Magical Toothpaste. Crest Vanilla Mint. It’s like no other. Sweet yet refreshing and delicious! I remember the day KC Buel called me and she described this wonderful stuff to me. Needless to say I was convinced it was necessary for me to go try it. I have been a loyal buyer ever since. (Only once when I went to three stores and couldn't find it did I ever buy a different flavor.)

I am so sad that others have not enjoyed this wonderful stuff! I noticed a few months ago my suppliers were getting more sparse but now I CAN NOT find it ANYWHERE in Utah anymore.

This morning I squeezed out the veeeery last bit. So after work I had a big decision to make. I stood in the toothpaste aisle for at least 10 minutes trying to figure out what flavor I will want to taste every day... some Crest Peppermint Flavor. Boo Totally not as cool.

Thankfully though, Spencer found this video that will bring the excitement back into brushing... ENJOY

Party Time

This weekend was so fantastic! Mom and Dad came out to Provo to visit and for the big UW-BYU football game!

It was so much fun having them in town and being able to show them my new apartment! They came in pretty late Friday night so we kicked off the partying around 1:00 with some pre-game tailgate action! The Schaat’s came down from Rexburg to join us for the game too and cook up those burgers : ) Amber, Jeremy, and Riley were also in town and although they didn’t get tickets to the game they came hang.

My apartment is right behind the stadium so my ward also had a BYU tailgate party… ours was waaaay better of course!

Although our Huskies couldn’t give us a win we had a great time.

I am truly blessed to have such a great family and so many great friends.

Was this a Huskie Cake? Yes of course it was.

Was the inside purple and yellow? YES of course it was!

She was happy

NEVER too young to be wearin' the purple and gold...

Heading to the Stadium! GAME TIME!

SK8RGURL

Nothing makes me want to get out my skates more than this:

Delish

I just watched Julia & Julia for the first time and I just have to say that movie is Delicious! If it weren't 11 right now trust me, I most definitely would be putting on my apron and cooking up a storm! But instead of going to my kitchen, I went to my favorite cooking blogs.


There are so many new things that I want to try making! So tonight I have decided that for the next month I will make many new things that are not Thai or Indian. (That is basically the ONLY kind of food I have been making for the past few months.) mmm just thinking about it is making me hungry!

Too many!

You know you are in Utah when you see this:

Wonderful things to come.

Yesterday work was dreadfully long in every way. 14hours of not awesomeness. SO I decided to think about the things I am excited for :)

August 1st: My brother Sam and His cute wife Audi move to Arizona! Like 10 states closer to me, I'm thrilled! and in 1 month Audi will give me another niece!

August 12th: Matisyahu is coming to Salt Lake and I am so giddy i really cant wait for this!

August 24th: Mockingjay and Katy Perry's new CD Teenage Dream come out!!!

The Hunger Games series is Amazing if you haven't read them DO IT! They are so fun and I am dieing to know what happens next!!! I have never been one to do things on opening night because of the crazy crowds but this time, count me in! I will be that crazy girl going at midnight!

August 25th: Spencer will live in Utah again!!! This of course is my absolute favorite part of August!

August 26th: She & Him will be in Salt Lake at the Twilight Concert Series and WE will see them for Free. I Love free and Zooey Deschanel is my idol.

August 27th: Going the Distance come out in theaters:

These lovely things got me through the Day! What do you look forward to in the coming month!?

Twilight.

Better than the books. Salt Lake has a lot of cool things going on and one of my favorites is the Twilight Concert Series. It's put on every summer free of charge by the Salt Lake City Arts Council. Last year I had a magical experience seeing Bon Iver. This year I know will not disappoint either.

They had to move the party over to Pioneer Park this year though since it’s getting to be such a big deal. (This place is commonly known as the bum park downtown… kinda sketch place but holds a lot more people.)

Spencer and I attempted to go to the first show last week but man waaay too many people to enjoy. SO we peaced out of that place and hit up the mall and movie instead. : )

Tonight was a different experience. I think since it was soo crowded and chaotic last week it kept a lot of people home! Girl Talk played tonight and it was so much fun. Dance Party, that’s what it was. This guy does crazy remixes with every style of music and brings so much energy into it. This was not like any other show that I’ve been to!

Other bands of note: Avi Buffalo. They already played but I highly recommend giving them a listen. I can’t wait to see Matisyahu… I have been waiting for this day to come for years! And August 26, Well I’m just excited to see both of these bands and Spencer will be back to come with me too!

• July 8: Modest Mouse w/AviBuffalo
• July 15: Girl Talk w/Memory Tapes
• July 22: Beirut w/Twin Sisters
• July 29: The New Pornographers w/ the Dodos
• August 5: Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings w/ Jamie Lidell
• August 12: Matisyahu w/Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe
• August 19: Big Boi w/Chromeo
• August 26: She & Him w/ Dum Dum Girls

Betty Crocker Beware!

Spencer came to visit last weekend, we have so much fun together! We made a lot of really delicious food, had a few adventures in Salt Lake including our favorite record stores, resturants, a hike up to donut falls, the Farmers Market and visiting good friends.

He makes me happy.

At the Farmers Market we found some cool ladies who were selling Indian Spices. I LOVE Indian food but haven't ever made it. So we got the Korma Masala Spice. Thats my favorite dish in the resturants and we gave it a try! To top it off I want to learn to make the Naan bread to go with it next time.

Dessert: Coconut Sweet rice w/Mango

Back in March Spencer and I went Washington to visit my Fam and His sister Wendy. While there she made us this super dilicious Thai noodle dish that we just can't get enough of:

Dessert: CAT BERRY PIE