Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Cleaning

I'm taking a break from cleaning up my Christmas decorations. It would normally be fairly easy but since Scott moved his stuff in, there isn't much space around here anymore so I'm having to reorganize things and figure out where to put all kinds of stuff. Plus, we keep getting more wedding gifts in, which is awesome, but trying to find a place for those things is a challenge too. Now, I really need to start making some food for the New Years Eve party I'm going to tonight at Anna's house. It should be a fun time. I'm looking forward to it. Okay well, I guess I have nothing at all to talk about. My brain is too busy with other things I need to do. I hope you all have a Happy New Year!!!

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Four Christmas's

I know it's been a while since I last blogged. I've been very busy with Christmas. It started on December 23 when Scott and I had Christmas with his mom and step-dad. We had them over and I cooked for them. We opened presents and discussed wedding details (the only thing I know how to talk about these days) The next day, Christmas Eve/Jake's b-day, I woke up bright and early to fix Christmas dinner for the whole Johnson family. His grandmother can't cook anymore because of her arthritis and I'm actually the only other woman in the family as grandma had 4 boys (bless her soul) and we only had our meal with 2 of them both of whom are not married. So instead of catering like usual, Scott nominated me to cook. No big deal since I love to cook, and I am very good at it (TOOT TOOT) but this meal was a bit of a challenge. The Johnson's are Swedish and they cook a traditional Swedish meal every Christmas. The only Swedish meal I've had is the frozen lean cuisine one so I had no idea what I was doing. Grandma gave me the recipes hand written by Grandpa's mother (which were hard to read because it was more like a letter than a recipe) and I tried to follow as best as I could. I was at a total disadvantage because 1. I've never eaten it before so I didn't know how it's supposed to taste 2. I didn't know what it was supposed to look like and 3. I don't know what Swedish food is.
At 2:00 I headed to Scott's dad's house to slave away. I had to make homemade Swedish meatballs made of ham, beef, and pork all mixed together. That was gross because we all know I don't touch raw meat so I had to put gloves on while I rolled the gozillion golf-sized ball meatballs. They actually tasted good but since I saw them raw I couldn't get past that so I only had one bite before I got grossed out thinking about all that raw ground up meat. The nastiest thing I've ever cooked in my life came next. Steamed sausage and fish!! Vomit. First of all, it smelled like....I don't even know what. Who boils fish and sausage? I threw up in my mouth a few times just looking at it.
The most exciting thing for Scott of the night was the 'dupa greda.' Dupa Greda is pretty much Wonder bread soaked in the juices left over from the beef and pork roast. I gaged when I saw Scott cut the soggy wonder bread with a fork and proceed to place it in his mouth because all it looked like to me was a giant booger dangling down. I decided after that vision that I would pass on the dupa greda. I'm not a picky eater but after reading the recipes, I figured I wouldn't find the Swedish meal as the best food in the world so I cooked a few normal Christmas dishes and filled my tummy up on those. It was SO MUCH work but Grandma and Grandpa loved it and were so grateful that I did it so that was rewarding enough.
At 12:30 in the morning, Scott and I packed our bags and drove to Little Rock. My family celebrates Christmas with a big breakfast then we open our presents, then the extended family comes over for a big dinner so we had to make sure we were there for breakfast. We got some great gifts! Mostly wedding registry stuff because that's what I requested but we were surprised when mom and dad got us a 19 inch flat screen TV with a DVD player in it for our bedroom. Very exciting. Our Christmas dinner was SO GOOD because my mom and Grammy are amazing cooks. After dinner, we all went to see Marley and Me. Oh my gosh. So good! Of course I embarrassed myself by how loud I was crying in the end but oh well. I would totally recommend seeing it. When we got in the car, Dad made us laugh by saying he needed to go see a killing movie now. I called tabs on hugging Holly first when we got home and she got lots of kisses from all of us.
Yesterday, we drove to El Dorado for the Luttrell Christmas. How neat it was when dad ran over a screw and the tire popped on the interstate. It was quite interesting to try and watch Scott, Kyle, and my Dad try and change a tire because none of them are handy men. It took us about an hour to get a ghetto tire on our front right wheel and roll down to El Do.
Today is my mom's birthday and I'm very proud of the gift I got her. It's a treasure and mom said it's the best gift she's ever gotten! I had a girl from El Dorado draw a portrait of Holly. Don't worry, I'm not betraying Jake....I asked him if he could and he said he didn't think he could draw Holly so I found her and she did it. It's so awesome and looks just like Holly. I'm very pleased.

So now that you're caught up with what I'm sure was a too detailed, boring blog, I'll let you go and talk to you soon!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

30 Days and Counting....

Well, it's just 30 more days until I become a wife. Kara Johnson. Mrs. Scott Johnson. Crazy! I can't believe it's so close. Time has really flown by and I know this next month will go by extra fast. Hopefully this next month won't be too stressful and I'll be able to enjoy being Kara Luttrell for these last few days. I'm very hung up on changing my name. It's my name! What people have called me my whole life. It's so strange to me that I'll be called something different. Not sure how I feel about it. It's exciting and not all in one. That's my big issue. I'm sure I'll get over it. Kinda have to huh! I'm very ready for that day to be here! I hope I don't cry so hard that I'll make a noise. I'm a crier though so I've already got my hankie ready! It'll be here before I know it!

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Gingerbread House

Scott and I built a gingerbread house today! It was kinda hard and I'm not sure if we'll feel the need to do it again. It was fun though and we were impressed with ourselves because our house actually stood up! Here's a picture of our gingerbread house!
Tonight is my work party at Aloft in Rogers. It should be fun. We shall see! Enjoy your Saturday!

Friday, December 19, 2008

Arianna

So stinkin cute and so stinkin hilarious!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbjR5HVKkWc

Thursday, December 18, 2008

The Price Is Right

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AKqFctkKMY

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Celebrity Life

Oh my gosh I just love watching TMZ on TV every night. (I'm watching it right now) It's more entertaining to me than it should be. (We all know I'm an everyday celebrity stalker) I think my dream job is to to be a TMZ chick. (After the singing career doesn't work out) Maybe I'll try out for American Idol this summer. Jake would not know what to do with himself if I went and did that as he is the ultimate American Idol fan. He prints out a score sheet every Tuesday. We joke all the time about going and trying out together and we've decided Jake should sing that song from the Lion King. You know...the Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba. Yeah I totally just googled that. Do you think I really knew the words to that part? If I had free styled it, I would have spelled it Naaaa Seeqwhenya Alaviseyava. That's what it sounds like to me. But back to the subject. Jake does a great impression and I laugh so stinkin hard and I have no doubt that if he could keep a straight face, he would totally make it on national TV. We'll see....
I have NOTHING to talk about. My salon had an office party today and we catered food and there were leftovers so I ate free food all day. So exciting. Now I'm watching an E! True Hollywood Story on Kimora Lee Simmons. She is so entertaining to me. I like watching her show. She is hilarious and says things out loud that I think but don't have the nerve to say! Like...take this quote..... "We have a problem. I've had a really bad day. I'm trying to diet. I can't find a proper pill. The granola's not cutting it. I'm hungry. I don't know what to eat. I'm irritated. I would be just much happier fat. I feel very Anna Nichole Smith right now. Rest in peace her beautiful soul. She likes pink, like I like pink. But I'm just not having a good day. I'm hot! Honestly probably because I don't eat. I was on my period last week. I'm just a little flustered okay. I'm glad you're so calm today. Your office smells nice you must have got some last night. At least that's one of us."
HA! Who says that? I aspire to be like here. She's like Julia Sugerbaker from Designing Women. One of my all time favorite shows that I've seen every episode of a zillion times. So good! Okay I'll leave it at that. A pointless blog that has nothing to do with anything but celebrities. Night!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Snow Village

I thought I'd share my snow village with you all! I collect the Department 56 snow village houses. My collection is small....I have 6 houses right now but I hope that one day, I'll have like....100. That may be a little much but you get the idea. Here's my snow village that I have displayed in my hallway on my bakers rack.

Scott Moves In!....Kinda

Well I had a really busy weekend. Scott moved all of his furniture into my apartment. He's still living in Memphis, but he's just gonna crash at a co-workers apartment who has an extra bedroom until he gets to Fayetteville. Moving is miserable! It takes forever. Scott's dad, Brad and Scott's friend Matt helped us move which was quite helpful! My place looks great with all of the furniture in here! Scott has really good furniture from Lighting Emporium (best store ever) so we're mostly using his stuff. It looks totally different in here! I like it! It was sort of a tease though having Scott move his stuff in. Now I'm super ready to be married! Not that I wasn't before of course. Since Scott drove a moving truck with all of the furniture in it, I had to drive Scott back to Memphis. We arrived in Memphis around midnight on Sunday then I woke up at 7 in the morning to drive back to Fayetteville and get to work on time. Miz! Even more miserable about it, I drove through an ice storm while I was on I-40. From about Conway to Clarksville I had ice beating down on my car. It was a little scary and the drive took extra long because I refused to drive faster than 55 MPH. So annoying.
Since I've had time to rest from my busy weekend, I've finally been able to get some Christmas shopping done. Christmas shopping takes so long for me to do because I always check out every store first to see what they have before buying anything. It's also bad for me because while I'm shopping for other people, I'll see something that I want for myself too. So hard to resist! Okay....time to devote my time to Fox News. Happy Holidays!

Sunday, December 14, 2008

More About the Dry Cleaners

So I've got a story for ya. I decided to go speak with the dry cleaner guy myself. I drove to his office and spoke with him. I asked him if I could have a copy of the release form I supposedly signed. He told me he wouldn't be able to get it for me right then but he would look for it and make a copy for me. I said that was fine and to just call me when he found it. Then I asked him if he could refund me the $35 that I spent on getting my bedspread dry cleaned (ruined). He said 'well, we cleaned it, we got the job done....it's clean.' I said 'I know you cleaned it but it's ruined. I can't use it anymore. My pillow shams are still black and my bedspread is gray. I can't use it anymore because it doesn't match.' And he said 'oh well, you can bring the shams in and we can do the same thing we did to your bedspread and then that way they'll match. We can just ruin those too and you can still use your bedspread.' Wait a minute.....where's the hidden camera? Did you actually really just say that to me????? I said back to that 'ummmm....well there's no point in that I've already bought a new one' he said okay and that was that.
Can you believe the audacity of that man? I called my dad when I got in the car and he could not stop laughing. What kind of person are you? You'll just 'ruin my shams too so they'll match' ARE YOU KIDDING ME? What in the world is wrong with this man? Worst business man ever!!!! So, since all else failed, Scott's mom will begin writing up the letter for me tomorrow along with an attached receipt of my new bedspread cost. Surly he'll pay up after that. And Jodie said that she'd ask for the $35 dollar refund too because that really made me mad that he wasn't willing to give me that back. What does it matter if you cleaned it? You RUINED the bedspread dude. RUINED. How does cleaning it make me feel any better about that money spent? So annoying! Never, ever go to Ozark Dry Cleaners. Worst dry cleaners ever!!!!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Red Marker Invitation

I have a funny. I drove up to Bentonville tonight to hang out with Brad and Jaclyn at their house. Someone called me on my way up there and said that they had gotten my wedding invitation so I told Jaclyn and she made Brad go get the invitation from the mailbox. When he got all of his mail, he handed Jaclyn the big envelope in the pile assuming it was the invitation. The envelope was a big Christmas card but Jaclyn didn't know that. She looked at the envelope with red marker comic sans writing on it and starred at it with a blank, confused, horrified look. What she was thinking was written all over her face 'oh my gosh Kara what have you done!!!!!' After she was silent for a good 10 seconds just starring at the red marker envelope, I said...uh, Jaclyn that's not it...this one is. We laughed and laughed for a good 5 minutes. She thought I had addressed my wedding invitation with red marker. HAHA. It was so funny! I laugh out loud every time I think about it!

Drycleaners

So do you remember how I told you that I took my bedspread to the drycleaners and they ruined it? Yeah well, after that happened I gave them a call and talked to the owner. He asked me to bring the bedspread back in so he could try and fix it. I thought to myself 'there's no way you can fix it, it's ruined' but I said okay and took it in.
Well, a week or so later he called me back and told me they couldn't fix it. I said okay, that I didn't think so and before I could get another word in he said 'okay you can pick it up now' and hung up the phone. I was furious! I knew that I would get nowhere with him so I made Scott call. Scott called and the guy said that it wasn't his fault that the bedspread got ruined because I cut the tag off that tells how you clean it. EXCUSE ME? Who doesn't cut that big huge footlong white tag that flops around off the corner of your bedspread? So Scott said, 'well if you didn't know how to clean it then you shouldn't have cleaned it if you thought it might get ruined.' (Let me remind you that I've probably had that spread cleaned about 5 times since I've had it) The guy wouldn't budge with Scott and said that I signed a release form to have it cleansed. I call BS on that. I never remember doing that. So since Scott couldn't get anywhere with him what do I do.....get daddy to call!!!!
My dad just got off the phone with him and the guy said the same thing he said to Scott. My dad asked me about signing the waver and I told him I honestly don't remember doing that and if I did, I want to see it. AND, if they make you sign a waver, why didn't they have me sign one every time I took it to get cleaned? They're just a bunch of a$$ holes and I'll be damned if I don't get my money back. Especially since they're liars and trying to tell me I signed a waver when I know I didn't. They're not even offering to pay me the $30 back that I spent getting it cleaned/ruined!!
If all else fails, I'll have Scott's mom call. She works for the best lawyer in town and has gotten me out a speeding ticket before with just a quick phone call. That outta do it.
This is just crap. The spread is ruined. I had to go buy a new one. Not only that, I'm going to have to buy new curtains now and new throw pillows. This mess is going to add up to over $600 and I don't think it's fair that I have to pay for it.
So until I hear back, I would like for whoever reads this to know that Ozark Drycleaners ruins your stuff and they don't care and don't even apologize so don't do business with them!!!!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Busy Wedding Week

Wow it's been a busy week. 7 weeks until the wedding and boy is it catching up to me. I would just like everyone to know who's getting a wedding invitation within the next few days that they were stuffed and personally licked by yours truly. I meant to go buy one of those wet sponge envelope licker things but just never got around to it and it wasn't important enough for me to stop licking for 30 minutes to go and buy one. So I personally, very much so, invited you to my wedding.
I should invent a name for myself during these last few wedding weeks to keep me going. A new identity. Like Beyonce's performance name is Saysha Fierce....I think mine for the next few weeks should be something like....Amy Whinehouse.... Totally kidding. It's not that bad! I think from now on, I'll call myself.............Kwashina Saywordstomakemehappy Tenacious. I think Kwashina Tenacious can get things done!!!! Kwashina Tenacious is gonna kick booty!
Okay Kwashina Tenacious is off to find wedding songs...

Friday, December 5, 2008

Mimi and Landon

A picture I discovered on my camera! So how sweet is this. I called Scott to tell him I found a picture of my grandmother and Landon on my camera and he was like 'oh yeah I took that.' I said 'oh okay...someone tell you to?' and he said 'no, they were just sitting together so I wanted to capture it.' NOW ISN'T HE THE GREATEST PERSON EVER!! aww! So sweet.
Funny Landon and Mimi story. Landon was talking to Mimi and she said 'Landon how old are you?' and he said 'I'm 3! How old are you?' and Mimi said 'I'm 84!" and Landon was quiet for a minute and then said 'that's too many." HAHAHA!!

Wedding Planning/Football

I know the blog says it's Friday but I'm really writing this on Thursday...it's just 12:35 a.m so I guess that technically makes it Friday. Apparently my new thing is staying up into the wee early hours in the morning. Guess what I'm doing....other than blogging... WEDDING PLANNING! I only feel inspired to take care of that stuff at night. I've kinda noticed that about myself with everything. I guess night time is when my brain works best.
Yeah I'm trying to find a third song for the wedding. Impossible! I google wedding ceremony songs and dumb stuff like The Black Eyed Pea's, Let's Get It Started pops up. Yeah right, like I'm gonna have Paula Montgomery rap at my wedding. What are people thinking?? And if you try and google christian wedding songs....even worse. I Could Sing of Your Love Forever is a song about God...not your spouse. So frustrating because I'm needing to print the wedding program but can't do it until I know what Paula is gonna sing. Urg!
Has anyone noticed that I complain all the time about planning my wedding? Yeah...me too. I don't mean to be that way but it's just too much. I should have gotten a wedding coordinator. I didn't think it would be like this though. My Dad was so sweet tonight. He called me and we talked for about an hour. He asked me what he could do to help. I thought that was so nice of him. I gave him a list of to do's! Isn't that sweet that my dad is taking care of wedding to-do's? I think so. I have the best dad ever. I'm a very lucky girl.
Speaking of lists, I wrote one for myself and ran out of space on my paper. Haha. It's mostly just making phone calls and booking stuff. Since I'm driving to Little Rock tomorrow, I figure I can make all those phone calls on the 3 hour drive.
I'm going to Little Rock tomorrow/today because it's time for football state championships! My parents work with AAA so I attend every state championship for every single sport every year and have been since I was about 8 years old. I help sell merchandise and, believe it or not, it's so fun! Jake normally helps my parents during the sporting events because they need extra people to help. My parents love Jake and think he's such a good worker because 'he doesn't have to be told to do something he just does it.' I love working at events with Jake because he's equally critical as me with the stupid people with stupid questions. Questions like...is this t-shirt unisex sized. DUH! Aren't all t-shirts? Or there was the young high school girl at a track event who didn't know how to write a check and I'm seriously not kidding. Had no clue! Jake and I laughed out loud in front of her as I had to tell her what to write and where to write it. We were cracking up and could not control ourselves! And all of the high school girls get a youth large when they really need an adult medium. There's always the question "is it 100% cotton?' I don't know! Look at the tag. And I hate when people ask how much it costs and I say 15 and they say, 15 dollas!? (leaving the r out on purpose) No, 15 lemons. Yes 15 dollars!! People can be so rude too. And I don't really have much patients with dumb, rude people so sometimes I get a talkin to from my parents for not being 'sweet' to the customers. Well....don't be dumb and ask me dumb questions and I'll be nice to you! People will say, is this the only color this shirt comes in? We're not JC Penny. What's on the table is what we have. Oh goodness!!! Even sweet, chilled, precious, nice, gentle, easy-going Scott gets annoyed with people. When Scott's annoyed with someone, you know it's bad!
So yeah...I'm spending my weekend at football games...without Jake though because he has a STD disease of the mouth. (HAHA! Some form of strep that's an STD but his 'isn't the STD kind') I'm extra excited about attending the state championship tomorrow because the EL DORADO WILDCATS are playing! YAY for the wildcats! We went to state my junior year in high school and it was so fun and the whole town was so excited! We're playing Lakeside and I hope we win! We didn't win my year...lost by a touchdown or something like that. I'm so weired out because the little boy I used to babysit is the quarterback now! I'm slowly getting so old!
Okay so this is a long blog. I guess I'm bored and had a lot to say! As Scott says, I'm never short for words. I'm a talker...that's for sure.
I guess I'll get back to googling wedding songs. Wish me luck!

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Passport Photo

I have a funny story. I went to Walgreens to get my passport photo taken and the girl that worked there was so odd and she made me feel like such an idiot. First I went to the counter and told her I needed to take a passport photo. She rolled her eyes and sighed really hard. So then, she told me I couldn't take my picture in my white sweater because the backdrop was white. So I told her, no problem, I had a green tank top on underneath it. The girl grabs her camera and holds it up to take a picture so I smiled. Then, she said 'you can't smile' and started laughing at me. I felt like such a dumbass. So then she told me to give her five minutes while she printed it. While I waited, I decided to text Scott and Jaclyn informing them that I couldn't smile in my passport picture therefore looking like a drugged out hippie getting a mug shot. What they were saying back was making me laugh really hard. I walked up to the counter to pick up my picture and the girl said 'what's so funny?' I just said 'oh nothing' got my picture and left.
When I got in the car and looked at my picture, I was mortified not only because I was looking at the fugliest photo of me ever, but I look naked in it because my hair is covering the tank top. NEAT! I'm so grossed out.
So anyways, that's my funny story. And I laugh out loud every time I think about smiling for my picture and her laughing at me. So awkward!

I got my christmas tree decorated! Wanna see a pic?


Monday, December 1, 2008

Wedding Planning

I'm taking a break from giving myself carpel tunnel from writing thank you notes for all of my wedding gifts. I told myself these would be sent out by noon tomorrow. It's 10:30 p.m. and I still have 27 more to go! I refuse to let another day go by without sending them out so it looks like I'll be up for quite some time. My thumb hurts so bad....
So I'm officially freaking out that my wedding is in 54 days. 53 really. I've still got a zillion things to do. I'm making a to-do list in a minute and completing it tomorrow. It's partly hard on me because I have to drive to Little Rock to do everything. That makes it just slightly difficult. My florist called me today wanting to set up a meeting. Nothing exhausts me more than to meet with my florist. The flowers, the colors, the linens, the chairs, the lighting, the candles, the centerpieces, the sofas, the spacing, the head table, the seating, the bar. AHHH! It's too much to think about. I almost want to be like 'surprise me!' and be done with it. Every time I leave a meeting with her I have to go home and take a nap. I felt better about myself when Jaclyn had her first meeting with her florist and she said it exhausted her too. Your brain just works overtime with the creativity I think.
Okay so now that I'm done seeming like a total complainer, I'll go make a to-do list and get back to my thank you's.

Two Year Anniversary

Yesterday was mine and Scott's two year anniversary! It was a great day! We celebrated Saturday night by having a yummy dinner at Theos. When I got to the restaurant, Scott had beautiful flowers sitting on our special table- The corner booth. We decided to be different and we ordered the 5 course tasting menu with the wine to compliment it. It was very yummy!! We've done a tasting menu before at a restaurant in Memphis called Chez Phillipe. It was delicious so we thought we'd give Theo's a try. It's always fun because you have no idea what's coming out. Pairing it with the wine was nice but it was a different glass of wine with each course so needless to say....we left the car at Theo's and Scott's friend, Trey, had to drive us home. We weren't thinking that far in advance when we decided to do the wine pairing with the meal. Oops! Everything we got was so good and Scott and I had a great time!
Yesterday was extra awesome because it snowed in Fayetteville!! It snowed on our very first date so that was kinda cool. I've had the best 2 years of my life and I feel like the luckiest girl in the world that I get to be Scott's forever! He's my everything! I couldn't live life without him! Here's a picture from our dinner night!