Long Live the Cardboard Card Tradition

 

Halloween night we went over to the Richins for dinner and unfortunately I had to bring my laptop in tow. We are gearing up for Black Friday and Cyber Monday and my coworker Gretchen had her baby boy today so maternity leave has begun which shifts some of her accounts over to me. Let the craziness ensue but also so worth it how cute is baby Eli!?

It was fun to see all the kids dress up and go trick or treating. Also marked 5 years of never having to pass out Halloween candy because we have always lived in apartments. I did at least direct traffic over to my parents with this sign on the door. 

The true highlight of the week was my brother in law Casey's birthday. I know I've written it before but as a refresher we have a tradition of giving each other unconventional birthday cards and by unconventional I mean cardboard. It all started when I was living in SLC, going to college and dating Jaden and was invited to go to a Luke Bryan Concert for Amanda's birthday. I didn't want to show up without a gift so I found a cute pair of earrings at a local shop and then brought them home only to realize I didn't get a card or gift tag of any kind. Looking back I don't know why I didn't just rip off a page of notebook paper but instead I decided to cut a piece of cardboard off of a box and wrote a note on it and stuck it inside the jewelry bag. I did not expect her husband Casey to find it hilarious and give me grief about it to the point that several weeks later when my birthday rolled around Casey made me a bigger birthday card out of cardboard. And the rest is history. Five years later the cardboard cards get bigger and better. It always takes me a minute to figure out what to do but inspiration hit and I feel this was my best one yet (although last year's running through a wall of cardboard boxes like the Koolaid man and yelling Happy Birthday Case was pretty dang good). But since his birthday fell on a Saturday and Utah game day I decided to work off that and gave him a cardboard U inspired card. My block U was pretty spot on if I do say so myself. 

I seriously love birthdays and traditions and my family. The best memories are the ones when you are laughing and I'm glad Casey and I have this tradition. Amanda said she thought it was funny that the in-laws have the bday traditions rather than the siblings. Long live the Cardboard Cards!

Peaches 

• Found a butter turkey in my parents fridge and texted our Pittsburgh crew asking if anyone wanted one shipped to them like we received last year

• Picked my last batch of tomatoes before our first freeze and roasted them to make and freeze fresh tomato sauce

• Went to dinner in Provo with the "Fab Four" me and my three closest friends from junior high/high school try to get together once a quarter now that we are all living in Utah again 
• Found a new yummy Hempz lotion scent: Koa and Sweet Almond
• Casey's card board card installation
• The Utes did indeed pull off a win aka absolutely crushed Arizona State
• Steph's birthday and reminiscing on our NYC trip together right after I graduated high school

• Facetime calls while Jaden is hunting. This week's story's was Chesapeake's annual pheasant hunt they do for one day each year. The boys came up with a strategy in one of the corn fields they'd wait for the columbine to drive back down toward them flushing birds out at them. So you could say instead of bird dogs they had tractors helping them hunt. 

• Sunday dinner with the Moyle's and my mom's dia de los muertos offrenda

Pits

• The carnage after making a cardboard card is always annoying to pick up

• Stress of upcoming holiday and Q4 sales is mounting