Luke "Scott" Walker

My little brother, Matthew Scott Walker, is a senior in high school this year.

(Along with his twin sister, Melissa).

When Matt was in elementary school he decided that he wanted to change his name to Luke, so that he could be like Luke Sky Walker. 

Luke Scott Walker = Luke Sky Walker

He told his teachers that he went by "Luke" at home and he started writing Luke on all of his papers.
He told all of his friends that his parents had changed his name to Luke. 

He tried to convince everyone that he met that his name was indeed Luke.  

He was able to pass off this charade for over a month, until my mom noticed that he had "Luke" written on all of his crumpled up homework assignments. When she finally stopped laughing, she had to call the teacher and explain what happened.  Poor Luke had to return to being boring old Matthew. 

I've always secretly known that Matthew still had hopes of becoming "Luke Scott Walker" someday. (Maybe even planning on changing his name with the social security office when he turns 18.)

Now I have proof: 

The 24th Annual "Walker-Oliver Pumpkin Carving"

Yep. You read that right! 

This Halloween tradition has been going for 24 wonderful year. 

(Yes, that means it was started before I was born.)

The Annual "Walker-Oliver Pumpkin Carving Extravaganza":

I just love these people. 

You see, after my parents got married they met this wonderful couple in their ward. They randomly went to Disneyland together and then became the best of friends. As both families grew, we spent a lot of time together playing games, eating food, camping, and boating.  Even when we moved from Provo to Ephraim, and then the Olivers moved from Orem to Odgen we still got together to do all sorts of fun things. The biggest event that we look forward to is Halloween.  Every year right before Halloween we get together and carve pumpkins. 

It is awesome. 

Doesn't it look great? 

David and I carved the pumpkin at the top. It is a clue as to what our Halloween costumes are going to be. Any guesses?  My Dad carved the bear paw, and my little brother, Matthew, carved the Tardis.

We had a great time, even though my sweet Jenna-sister wasn't able to make the party.  

(We missed you Jen!)

 (The night wouldn't be complete without a "funny faces" picture.)

A mess.

We have been a mess lately. Like seriously,  a mess. Between school and work and trying to figure out what are are going to do with the rest of our lives, David and I  have been just as likely to burst into laughter as to burst into an uncontrolled panic attack.

"You mean that I have to decide what to do for the rest of my life, right now?"

*cue breathing into a paper bag*

With David and I being such a mess mentally, switching back and forth where we want to be and what we want to do and all of the million options in between, everything else seems to have fallen apart.  Hello, October? When did you fly by?  I can't believe that it is Halloween this weekend. Like really? It's October 26th? I probably would have told you that it was October 18th. I'm WAY behind on the times.
 
Aside from our brains being turned to mush. Our apartment is a mess and I lack the motivation to clean it. I think that we have repeated the phrase, "Tomorrow we will do the dishes, and clean off the counter, and pick up our random assortment of junk so it isn't laying in inconvenient places around the house" about every day for the last week. I actually did the dishes over the weekend, out of necessity, but unfortunately that act of goodness has been long forgotten. I realize that I should probably be doing the dishes right now, along with cleaning the rest of the apartment so that it can again be called livable. But, it's cold. (It snowed today in Logan! I don't know how I feel about that considering that I feel like it's still September, but I can't deny how beautiful it was outside today.) I am all warm and toasty in a Utah State hoodie and big red comforter. I seriously lack the motivation to do anything productive. Besides, I can hear ESPN from the other room where David is supposedly "doing his homework." So, I can justify myself in not doing anything.

Oh, by the way... I mean it's no big deal or anything... but... we finally decided what we are doing with the rest of our lives. Yeah. Cool, eh? Haha. Yesterday, we went out to lunch with a Partner from Hansen, Barnett and Maxwell. That was all we needed to push our teetering decision over the edge! We officially accepted a position with them last night. In case you don't remember from my explanations before, HBM is a middle sized firm with a great work-family balance and awesome future opportunities. We are so happy and excited. It is like the perfect place for us to be.

I have another excuse for not getting up to do the dishes. I'm working on a project for my parents. It's called, "Transfer all of the old home video hi-8 tapes into digital form so that we can burn them to DVDs." I've been working on this little project for a couple of months now and it has been SO fun to watch my little siblings and I as we once were. We were so little, and it brings back such good memories to watch these videos. I really hope that I can finish this project out perfectly. I've run into several very time consuming issues. Sometimes I just get so frustrated that I could cry. Like right now, I just realized that I just wasted an entire hour of capture time, because the tape was just on play mode instead of capture mode. You see, in order to capture the video, you have to have this ridiculously expensive tape player that will convert it to digital form as you play the tape in real time. That means that for every minute on the tape, you have to wait a full minute for it to play into the computer. Each tape is between 2-3 hours. Loosing an hour is a big deal. Now the only way I am getting up is to get some ice cream to console myself for my stupidity. (Yes, I eat ice cream when it is snowing outside if I am dejected enough. So what.) Oh well, it's worth it right? I really do love watching these home videos. They make me smile so much. I could just sit here and watch them all day.

Or maybe I will put in a movie and continue work on my latest sewing project. I am making a quiet book. Rather, I have joined a group of 13 girls who are making 13 quiet books together. It's a really awesome idea. My friend Emily, asked around to see if anyone would be interested in this Quiet Book Exchange. The premise is that all 13 people will make 13 copies of one quiet book page and then exchange them with each other. That way you only have to make one page 13 times, and you end up with an entire quiet book! She talked me into it by saying that even though we don't have kids now, someday we will, and someday we will wish that we had a quiet book. So here I am, making a quiet book and loving every second of it. (By the way, Emily is in a contest to win a free couch. Please help her out by going HERE and voting for her couch. It's entry 27.)

I love to sew. Many of you know that. However, you probably don't know what a crazy seamstress that I am. I don't always do things the way that I am supposed to, and I often make it harder on myself than if I would just follow the instructions the first time. But it always works out. I am such a logical sewer, and I love the way that sewing makes sense. (It is very cause and effect.) The problems come from when I don't think things all the way through. The moral of this story is not to make you fear my sewing skills. Not at all. The moral is that you can, in fact, sew in 13 zippers without a zipper foot. It may not be easy, but it can be done! I hope that all of you seamstresses out there just gasped and are in awe of my amazing skills. I have now put in 13 zippers free handed. Meaning that I didn't use a presser foot at all, I just freehanded the zippers. And. They. Look. Awesome. (For those of you who aren't sewers, zippers may be the single most commonly-feared item in all of the sewing world. I haven't ever had super-problems with regular zippers but it is quite the accomplishment to be able to put in a zipper without the appropriate presser-foot. Invisible zippers on the other hand are the bane of my existence  slightly more difficult. With or without a presser foot.)

Alright. Fine. I give in. Those dirty dishes are glaring at me from across the apartment. I can hear them calling to me to come and clean them.

Actually, I just set up a consultation for tomorrow at 5:00 to talk about doing someones wedding announcements. Which means the house has to be clean tonight. I'm okay with the whole cleaning thing, because I love doing consultations. Actually, I love designing wedding announcements. So I love consultations because I love to start on new announcements. It's seriously like the perfect job.

A job for David, awesome family home videos, a great sewing project, and a consultation.

I'm so lucky.

Even if I do have to clean the kitchen.

Some Random Love

Today was a fairly unproductive day at work. I think that i'm just to stressed out to get much done. Therefore, today's post is a random assortment of things that I found while stalking around the internet that I have decided that I love. Some of them are a more plutonic- "I think this is clever and neat and am glad that someone did this"-kind of love Others are a more passionate-"If I don't have one of these for myself within the next week I may die"-kind of love. I will let you decide which you think is which. 

"Tie the Knot Licorice" from HERE

 Super cute way to decorate someones car from their wedding. I love this.

 

"Rose Pillows" from HERE

 

Cute Halloween board that turns into a Christmas board:

 From HERE

Owl cupcake from HERE

"Book of Spells" from HERE

I love Halloween.

I love Halloween. 

I love the decorations, the costumes, the brisk fall air, the candy and the excitement.
 

I have such great memories from Halloweens-Past. 

Like carving pumpkins with these crazies: 

The Oliver Family is as tied to Halloween as anything could be.

I wish I had more pictures of past Halloween costumes, but I don't. I even only have one really bad picture from Halloween last year. Lame. 

2007- Me as Elizabeth Swan. I just happened to run into Jack Sparrow at the party.

 2008 - Yes. I am a vampire.
(I didn't have any good shots of me in my dress, but I did wear my ballgown this year) 

2009 - David and I as Marguerite and Percy Blakeney of the Scarlet Pimpernel. 

Yes, I have worn the same dress for the last 3 Halloweens. That is what happens when you spend over 100 hours on a Halloween costume.

Other fond memories of Halloween include this book: 

My parents used to read this to me when I was little. 

I still remember them laughing as I tried to read along with them one year that I had a terrible cold.

If you read the transcript HERE you will see that they are a lot of words that are not so easy to pronounce when you have a cold. 

I loved this book and all of my other Halloween memories.

 ---------------------

 I am excited for this year's Halloween. David and I have a great costume idea planned out. (And, no, it doesn't involve me wearing my ballgown. Although, I may have to wear it sometime this month just because.) 

I am also excited to finish decorating my apartment. Especially because my darling sister-in-laws gave me an incredibly amazing Halloween sign for my birthday! I can't wait to post pictures!

Here are some other things that I may or may not get around to doing this Halloween:

from HERE

from HERE

from HERE

and even though this isn't SUPER Halloween oriented, I still LOVE it and really want it: 

from HERE

What are you most excited for about Halloween?

Un-officially Official

It's un-officially official. 

We only have 8 full weeks left in Logan. 

All of that hard work David put into his school work, interviews and follow ups has paid off. He has received a couple of offers and we are hoping for a couple more, so we actually aren't sure what company we will be with in January. But we do know that we will be working in downtown Salt Lake, which means that we will be leaving our beloved Logan.

This is the place where we met, dated, fell in love, and got married. 

The home of Utah State. Our Alma Mater.

The place where we cheered our guts out at basketball games, country danced until the wee hours of the morning, froze ourselves solid walking to class, drove to the grocery store 3 million times, met many incredible people who became the best of friends, hiked up Logan Canyon, watched the leaves change colors, read books on our porch while it was raining and many other wonderful things. 

Can you tell that this move is a little bittersweet? 

When we got the news I was SO excited. All weekend I was driving around Salt Lake thinking about how much I was going to love this new stage of our life. But now we are back in Logan and I am thinking about all of the things that I am going to miss so much. Seeing Old Main lit up at night. Driving past the temple on the way to school every day. 

However, I can tell you one thing that I will not miss: 

The incredibly bitter, windy, biting, frigid, terrible cold. 

It is definitely a good thing that we are moving in December and not in May because I don't think that we will be sad to say "See ya later!" right in the middle of the coldest time of the year.
------------
Now, for those of you who are interested in the more technical side of things:

David has applied to several (several meaning 12) accounting firms to be an Auditor. Basically he will be traveling to different companies and auditing their "books." He will check to make sure they have the inventory that they say that they have, that they have actually made the money they report having made and other associated things. He is really excited and I think that it will be a really great thing for him!  

There are four national firms that are... well... nationwide. These firms are called the Big Four. David received second interviews from two of these firms: KPMG and Deliotte. Deloitte just barely called and made us an offer, and we haven't heard back from KPMG yet. There are a lot of really good things about these firms (mainly that they have a lot of money for salary and other bonuses). However, they will work you about 70-90 hours a week during the busy season. Busy season goes from about January-June. That is a lot of hours to work per week.

There are also many regional firms that are located only here in Utah. Some of these offices are just as big as the Utah offices of the big four, they just don't have the chain name. This is really cool because you can get a lot of the same benefits from working at these larger regional firms without having such high pressure from the National Offices. (For example, the partners of the firm can make more decisions that directly effect the firm instead of having to receive permission from the national headquarters.) They don't give out as many bonuses, but they will also work you about 20 hours a week LESS than a Big Four firm would. There is a pretty big difference. I think that this is where we would ultimately like to end up. Right now we have an offer on the table from one of these larger regional firms, Hansen, Barnett, and Maxwell and we are hoping to hear back from another firm later this afternoon.

Then you have the smaller firms. David didn't apply to very many of these firms because they don't offer the same opportunities that the larger firms offer. However, we did receive an offer from a firm up here in Logan that we seriously considered taking. It would be awesome to live up here and raise our family here, but it just doesn't feel right. So even though we would love to stay here, we will definitely be taking a job with one of the Salt Lake firms.

The hardest thing about these things is that two of the offers that we have received are for September 2010. That is nine months away. It is hard to take a job from a company that starts in 9 months when you have an offer from another company that starts in 9 weeks.  (If we do decide to take one of the offers that starts in September we are seriously considering going to Disney World and working there for 9 months!)

I hope that explains a little bit about the firms that we have been interviewing with. Several people have asked me questions, so I decided just to answer it here. It's a little confusing and all of my information may not be completely correct, because it's just what I understand from the many conversations that David and I have had.

I also want to say thank you to all of you who have been praying for us and sending good wishes our way. We have appreciated all of your love and support so much, and are so grateful to be blessed with so many good friends and family members.

Hopefully by the end of the week we will know for sure where we are going to be and then we will be able to start in on the apartment searching!

(So, if you know of any good places to live that are fairly extremely affordable - send them our way!)

Crazy Days

I must admit, i've been a bad influence on David lately. With all of the interviews that he has been going to, he has been missing a lot of class and has been barely able to stay on top of his homework. But, he is just so darn smart so I don't really worry about it too much.

Tuesday was my last full day of work this week. Yesterday, David had an 8-hour interview/conference thing for KPMG. (One of the nations top 4 accounting firms.) It was insane. They let me come for the last 3 hours and it was pretty intense (but they did feed us dinner on the top floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building - oh. my. beautiful.) We stayed in West Jordan last night, because David had/has an interview this morning. In fact, he is probably just starting his interview right now. Our plan is to drive BACK to Logan to snag a couple of hours of work and then drive BACK to West Jordan tonight so David can be ready for his interview Friday morning with another of the nations "Big Four," Deliotte. It's been super crazy, and I think that we are both a little stressed about the whole thing. But we are excited for whatever our future is going to bring to us! It's a little crazy not knowing where we will be in three months, but exciting too. As I was driving around Salt Lake yesterday, I started getting really excited to move down to this area. I've always been a small town girl, and I don't think that I ever thought that I would really enjoy living in a big city. But I really am excited for the change. I think that it will be really good for me. I was getting all excited thinking about how the roads that I was driving on seemed so foreign right now, but that pretty soon I may be driving on them every day! Unfortunately, then I had to drive downtown right at 5 when everyone was getting off of work and it was INSANE. Now I'm not so sure about this city driving thing. Haha.

While David was at the first five hours of his crazy interview yesterday, I got to go and have lunch with these two beauties:

Rebekah and Adaliah Ackerman. And yes, I definitely just stole that picture from Bekahs blog because I am a lame-o and I forgot my camera! It was so fun to chat with Bekah and to see how big Daliah is getting. She is so precious! She would look at me and smile, but if I tried to talk to her directly she would grin and hide her face from me. She is a shy one right now, but she will be a heartbreaker when she gets older! I went to middle school and high school with Bekah, and have always been SO grateful for her friendship. I remember when we were in middle school and I was really struggling with how mean my "friends" were being to me, and she stepped in and was so kind to me. Things like that are hard to forget. We stayed friends all the way through high school, and had lots of fun with all of our other friends. I think that we had the best friend group that anyone could have had. I just love this girl and I am so glad that I was able to spend some time with her!



I KNOW that I have pictures of Bekah and I. (Pictures from high school, pictures from the Big Band Swing Night that we went to at BYU, pictures from Bekah's wedding etc... there should be a lot of them!) But the only pictures that I could find on this computer or facebook were these:

With some of our other friends at my wedding.

At Kayla's wedding, I believe. And I am holding Tausha's baby, Andrea, not Adaliah.

It is so interesting how things change, but so nice to know that there are friends out there that you can always count on to lift you up and brighten your day!

After I finished partying it up with Bekah and Adaliah, I went to the Peaden house in West Jordan and did the crossword with my mother in law, Sue, and grandma, Blanche. And by "did the crossword" with them, I mean "watched in stunned silence as they cruised through the crossword." They are amazing. It got me really interested in crosswords. I think that I may start doing them! They are really fun and interesting.

I always feel a little awkward as I end my posts, because I don't know how to end things smoothly, so forgive me... but I must go and get ready for the rest of my day! Wish us luck through the rest of this week. Two more interviews (Well I guess just one more after David finishes the one that he is at right now) and then we will be done with interviews! All that will be left is to wait for offers and then we will know what we will be doing for the rest of our lives. Hooray!

Ten - Eleven - Two Thousand and Ten

What is so special about Monday, October 11, 2010? 

I will tell you what is so special. 

It is this boy's birthday!

Twenty-six years ago, this amazing boy entered the world determined to "do good things" and make the world a better place. In his "quarter-of-a-century-plus-one-year" he has done many wonderful things including:

• Serving an LDS Mission to Nashville, Tennessee - Spanish Speaking
• Vacationed along with his family  (7 brothers and sisters) to all sorts of cool places around the nation. (I think that he has been to like 45 states or something like that.) 
• Married his #1 adoring fan in the Logan LDS Temple (that's me!)
• Earned a double Bachelors Degree in Accounting and Economics
• Earned a Masters Degree in Accounting (This actually hasn't happened yet, but we are on the downhill slope! Just a couple of more months.)
• Made the lives of all of those around him happier and brighter.

Join me in wishing this boy the very happiest of birthdays!

(Breakfast of pancakes, bacon, and eggs + Lots of decorations = A very happy birthday boy!)

Stay tuned! There is more to come on our exciting "Birthday Week Activities." We started celebrating last Saturday and will continue until this coming Sunday. Hooray for David's Birthday Week!

Also, for more information about this darling boy read THIS POST from last year. The list of things about David is still incredibly accurate. 

Cinnamon Tacos?

This is the recipe for what David and I ate for dinner tonight.

Follow closely.

Ingredients:
Uncooked Hamburger
Cinnamon
Chili Powder
Onion Salt
Garlic Salt
Cheese
Salsa
Ranch

Supplies:
Frying Pan
Spatula
Strainer/Colander

Procedure:

Step 1: Turn stove to medium-high and put hamburger in frying pan. Randomly poke at meat with spatula until it starts to brown.

Step 2: Reach into the cupboard and grab this

from the place where this

usually sits and shake it ALL OVER THE ENTIRE PAN. No. Really. Make sure that all of the meat is good and covered.

Step 3: Smell the strong aroma of cinnamon, turn the bottle you have be shaking all over that meat, read the label and then PANIC.

Step 4: Contemplate trashing the whole thing and making a McDonalds run before David comes out of the bedroom.

Step 5: Pull out your strainer/colander. Shove the dishes from last night out of your way and set the strainer in the sink. Dump your half-cooked cinnamon meat in the strainer and try to wash out all of the cinnamon.

Step 6: Dump meat back into pan, put it back on stove.

Step 7: Drown meat in chili powder, garlic salt, and onion salt.

Step 8: Again, contemplate trashing the whole thing and making a McDonalds run before David comes out of the bedroom.

Step 9: Grate cheese, wash and tear lettuce, set out salsa and ranch.

Step 10: Tell David it's time for dinner.

Step 11: Silently pray that David won't notice anything wrong with the meat while he is saying the prayer.

Step 12: Watch over his shoulder as he heats up his tortilla, puts meat on his taco and begins eating.

Step 13: Answer "I'm not!" to his question of "Why are you looking at me so funny?"

Step 14: Force the taco down your own throat, because if David can't taste anything... it's probably fine. That overpowering cinnamon taste is just your imagination.

Besides, it's probably a delicacy in some countries. In fact. I bet people would pay extra for that at a restaurant.

I should start charging the big bucks for my excellent culinary skills.



(Yes, this really happened. No, I really did NOT tell David. Until I was cleaning up. Then I told him.)

Bride Hunting

You may or may not know this, but... I love weddings.

I love everything about weddings.  

Whenever I see a bride in her beautiful wedding dress, I get butterflies in my stomach. 

Seriously, it can be a problem. Fortunately for me, I have a wonderful husband who supports puts up with me and my craziness. This means that any time we see a bride, he can expect us to follow them around for a minute (sometimes from a distance, sometimes for not as large of a distance). I can't help it. I'm a little obsessed!

 Last Friday we had the chance to attend the wedding of this sweet couple: 

Scott and Kalli got married in the Salt Lake Temple and it was beautiful. It was my first time attending a wedding ceremony in that particular temple, and I LOVED it. I especially love how the entrance to the temple makes you feel like you are entering the Garden of Eden. 

Back to Bride Hunting. Before the ceremony, we walked around the temple a bit to burn some time and I commented to David that I was surprised that we didn't see more wedding couples (meaning that we hadn't seen ANY yet.) He reminded me that it was a Friday, and it wasn't really "wedding season". Most people are in school right now. I agreed, but was a little disappointed. I shouldn't have worried though, because after the ceremony there was a plethora of pretty wedding dresses! 

Here was "Our Bride."

With their families. Kalli is so pretty!

Look at the detail on Kalli's dress. Isn't it gorgeous?

I had to include a picture of the back of the dress, because I thought it was so pretty.

Now on to the other brides we "hunted" that day: 

 Pretty Silk Bride

We actually saw this couple inside of the temple as they were entering the Celestial Room. They looked so happy and I was amazed at how beautiful her dress was. It looked like it was pure silk with big silk flowers. The train was super long, and it was breathtaking in how traditionally beautiful it was.

Pretty Silk Bride with her new husband.

I tried to get a close-up of the silk flower.

 Beautiful Bunches Bride

I actually got a better picture of this couple coming out of the temple than I did of Scott and Kalli. Actually, I probably got a better picture of this couple than a lot of the members of their bridal part did. It's not my fault though. They seriously came out of the doors 2 minutes after Scott and Kalli, and we hadn't had time to move yet. Don't worry though. Their mom's made them go back and walk down the stairs two more times.

Bride stalking? Yes. "Don't worry about me... I'm just taking a picture of the temple."

Gorgeous Ivory Bride 

This couple was taking pictures on the stairs right next to us. I thought that they were a beautiful couple. Her ivory dress, dark hair and complexion were a perfect contrast to his red hair and grey suit. I thought that it looked SO classy!

I loved the neckline of this dress, as well as her bouquet.

We caught them again a little bit later next to the reflection pool. He was such a gentleman as he scooped her and her dress up and set her on the step next to the fountain. It was so precious.

 White Bouquet Bride

I didn't get a great shot of this bride. We were walking by fairly quickly. But I did get a good shot of her with her white rose bouquet. I'm a sucker for white roses. 

Lace-up Belle Bride

This was my favorite dress of the day. It reminded me of Belle's gown at the end of Beauty and the Beast. I love the bunches because they are very subtle, while maintaining an air of elegance. (I don't generally love the super bunchy dresses, but this dress made me swoon!)

Not to mention the fact that it laced up the back. Oh. My. Beautiful.

"From a Distance" Brides

(These are the brides that I wasn't fast enough to catch!) 

The "Through the Gate" Bride

The "Down the Path" Bride

The "I had to lift my camera above my head to catch a shot of this bridal couple" Bride

All-in-All it was a successful day of Bride Hunting! I was able to see lots of glowing brides and grooms, gorgeous wedding dresses, and excited family members. I always think of my wedding day and how much I loved everything about it! Seeing how happy these newlywed couples are makes me even happier to have been married to David for almost a year and a half! 

 Here are some more pictures of the day: 

Scott (the Groom) was David's mission companion, which is how we know them and why we were at the wedding. This boy is another guy who served his mission with David. Name = I don't know because I'm a bad person. It's Adam or something.

Aren't we cute?

My handsome husband in front of the temple.

This is me in front of one of the two original cabins from when the pioneers settled Salt Lake. It was cool.

We were burning a little time at the temple because David had an interview in downtown Salt Lake about an hour after we got out of the temple. He did awesome at his interview. My favorite part was that while he was interviewing I was able to walk to the gateway,  buy a new pair of shoes and a new shirt, walk back, and write a card for Scott and Kalli all before he was finished! All within 30 minutes. I'm amazing.

And to end, one last bride picture: 

Just because I wanted to.