The Most Wonderful Week of the Year

The 5 days that contain Christmas and both of our birthdays is fast approaching!  It is a good week, but it is kind of a bummer that we never actually plan anything unique as far as birthdays go, since... CHRISTMAS.  At the same time, it's also nice.  There is no strain to do anything but tack on an extra present or two to the Christmas haul.  Also, it forces us to be really deliberate about gift ideas we give to our families, since we know all year long that we'll have to come up with a lot of ideas all at once (or risk thinking of useless things at the last second, heaven forbid).

This year I find myself turning 26, which is bizarre but also not since 26 is a lot like 25.  Scott reminded me that scientifically this is the year I begin the slow decay toward death, but the 31-year-old over here has held up pretty well, so I'm not too concerned.  The solar panel salesman also asked me if my parents were home the other day, so I guess I can't feel too old.

2015 has been a great year.  I found out I only used $12 toward my healthcare deductible and I think that's a great indication of peace and prosperity.  We're excited to ring in the New Year at Los Hermanos as always, and guess what?  We finally feel rich enough to buy some of their T-shirts, so we can save Grandma some money on our specialty drinks in perpetuity!  I think 2016's looking pretty great already.

Here, at the End of All Things

The last few months, time has slowed to an almost stand-still as we've anticipated reaching a big goal to pay off the last of our debt, hopefully forever.  But the day finally came and we actually own all our possessions now!  It's probably not socially acceptable to post about this, but it's the most anticipated day of 2015 and we want to remember it, so oh well.  I know we are pretty fortunate, and I probably don't understand what the term "sacrifice " even means, but this moment was worth every sacrifice we made, however comparatively inconsequential.  We worked hard to get here.

Now we're feeling a lot like this:

The meteor in the back makes this photos the most hilarious thing I've ever seen.

and also this...

and mostly like this...

Memes are clearly the best invention of the 21st century.

We made the final house payment on Black Friday, which I thought was kind of hilarious--the ultimate online shopping at WellsFargo.com!  Except, we had to go into the branch 3 times to make it happen.  You'd think they'd make it easier for us to pay. them. money, but whatever.  Good riddance, Wells Fargo.  I think we'll celebrate by reprogramming our thermostat so I don't have to ask Scott if I have the chills or if it's just cold in here.

Also, someone point me in the direction of the nearest RC Willey.  (The dollar signs in my eyeballs make me wonder if I learned nothing at all...)

Trick Oreo Treat

In every city we've lived (yep, all 2 of them), Scott and I have found a special ice cream place to call our very own.   This is very important to us.  I think we are borderline-obsessed, which I guess is a result of banning almost all treats from our house.  Going out for ice cream becomes a bigger deal when you haven't bought ice cream from the grocery store in years.

Anyway, in Orem, our place was Sonic because we could get a chocolate malt to share for $1.19 after 8 PM all summer long.  Here, it is Baskin Robbins, which is conveniently located next to both the bank and the library (the only places we ever go). We considered Coldstone as our place but then after going there once, we realized...Coldstone is not even good.  They only have 1, maybe 2 chocolate bases, tops!  Now that we are BR-loyal, we take it pretty personally when we see our now rival location chuck-full of people.  What is this city coming to...?

The BR executives must have caught wind of our unfailing loyalty because they even emailed Scott to become a special VIP Baskin Robbins team member.  Sadly I did not get the same email, which Scott likes to hold over my head.

Anyway, I'm not really going anywhere with this, but last month we went in to try out Trick-Oreo-Treat, which is October's flavor.  We were surprised to notice on October 3 (Mean Girls reference) that NO ONE had made a dent in the Trick-Oreo-Treat ice cream bucket. 3 days, and not one person! How do these people not know about this limited edition flavor?!?!?  Don't they check their emails?  Even Rum Raisin had a few scoops taken out, which is confusing.

As I'm sure you're wondering, Trick-Oreo-Treat was, unfortunately, kind of a letdown.  Try as I might, I just can't win with Halloween Oreos.