What Chris has been up to...

THIS!

And these!

-Chris

christmas time!

this is kim. not chris. even though the end of this blog is going to say it was posted by him, do not be fooled! he is not as funny and clever as i am, so i'm assuming you wouldn't have been confused anyways...

so...turns out I LOVE CHRISTMAS. every since we went on a walk through our ghetto neighborhood and someone had put up halloween lights, i've got the bug. it's finally cold here (well, at least for the day), and i've loved getting out my old coats. and drinking hot cocoa. and shopping! oh...i'm having so much fun buying presents for everyone. since chris and i are going to be away from our home over the holidays, we are going to have our own christmas here the weekend before. we are going to eat bad food, wear our pajamas, and watch christmas movies. i'm very excited. i've been working on stocking stuffers for his family and i love them. chris has been very gracious and allowed me to buy and buy and buy. (within reason...i have SOME control). all in all, i've been having so much fun and am very much looking forward to my first christmas as a wife.

enough of the mushiness, on to real life. school is coming to a close, for the semester at least, and chris and i are both looking forward to having some time to breathe. we talk a lot about how nice it will be when we don't have anything other than work going on. (and honestly, that happened this summer...and we were sooooooooooooooo bored.) marriage has gotten progressively better. our first few months were hard to get used to. i always say that chris was not someone that i would have chosen to be a roommate in the first place, so it's a little hard to get used to the way someone else lives...for THE REST OF YOUR LIVES. we have also started to train for a 5k, which, so far, we've had a good experience with. i think at the least, it helps us to have more of a schedule. i also got a new job which has made me feel a lot better about life. i get out much, much earlier and have three less kids. i think that explains enough. i am getting very ready to have a different job, which i most likely will attempt to do once i am finished with school in august.

anyways, that's a little update for all of you reader(s). sorry that we are fairly awful at updating. if it makes you feel better, we are also fairly awful at cleaning as well.

SCHOOL DAYS...

So, we have been super busy since school has started.
if you have seen us, you are lucky, but if you have actually hung out with us you are very lucky, and if you are one of the maybe three people who have hung out with both of us at the same time, then you are one of only three people.

NEWS!

Kim got a new job. She gets to come home before 7 pm (praisaluljah!)

Chris got to keep his job and go part time at Hart and at TxState. (amen brother!)

We voted!

We mostly got the house unpacked. I took the last box to goodwill on Monday.

We successfully completed a marriage group at church and still like each other!

We host a dinner group every other Friday and call it Thank Goodness It;s Every other Friday! or TGIEOF!

Chris (I) is/am doing a homebrew co-op at church and have so far done a pumpkin ale and a lapsing shu-shong pine porter.

We won the privilege of hosting Thanksgiving for the Hoke/Johnson clan/don't have to drive to Lubbock.

Chris (I) went to Hawaii for their election day. It was boring and sad. He/I missed Kim.

... I hope I didn't forget anything.

In sad news, I spilt coffee on my laptop. In good news, I found a place that will fix it for $500 less than Apple!

OK, OK, OK.

For Chris' Bday we are doing this and this.

Start warming up your present giving hands, cause Noc. 29 comes sooner than you think!


-Chris

18 things to do before you turn 18...

so...the troutmans here are huge fans of reece's cereal, and now that peanut butter capn' crunch has bit the dust (r.i.p.), it's the only cereal that can offer us our peanut buttery needs. so i've noticed on the back of the box, that lately they've got this "do you like a challenge section" with "18 things to do before you are 18". so not only do i find this offensive that they assume that their biggest eaters (no pun intended) are under 18, but their list is completely lame. listen to this:

01: ride the world's biggest rollercoaster - dare to keep your eyes open and hands in the air for the whole ride.
um. so am i completely crazy to think that this is the lamest number one thing for me to do before i turn 18? this was not even a goal of mine considering the fact that i get completely sick on all things that move, but i've also seen shows about the lame-o's that travel around to all the different openings of roller coasters...and no thanks. maybe one of them wrote this list.

02: bungee jump! - scared? at 700ft, the bloukran's river bridge in south africa is the biggest.
so, i guess there are bungee jumping lame-o's out there too. seriously? if i'm under the age of 18, i doubt my parents would a) pay for and b) encourage me to travel across the ocean to jump off a cliff.

03: score the winning goal/basket - remind all your friends at every given opportunity.
okay reece's puffs. there's a higher chance that i would do the above too than score any kind of winning anything. scratch that. scoring at all. and encouraging you to be an ass about it? that's why the roller coaster and bungee jumpin' lame-o's didn't have friends and got into roller coasters and bungee jumping anyways.

04: win an award, trophy or prize - write that acceptance speech and thank the world.
luckily, the first part of this one is general enough that most people could do it, i mean even chuck e. cheese gives out prizes, but the acceptance speech. at the rate this call for social suicide is going, i'm guessing the next one is going to be "be homeschooled".

05: learn an instrument - no air guitar
okay. i was wrong about being homeschooled. this one was legitimate before it said no air guitar. that rules out all those kids that feel like being good at guitar hero means that they really can play the guitar, and in that case, no will be able to achieve this goal.

06: go backstage at a gig - it'll be something you'll boast about for years to come.
yeah. they said gig. that's all i feel i need to say about that one.

07: meet your idol - being a celebrity stalker might not go down too well.
gig? idol? and...i'm pretty sure to meet your idol, you might have to stalk them a little bit. and we all know that i don't have a problem with stalking...

08: play a part in your favorite tv show - be an extra and learn to speak without talking.
oh. okay. i'll just fly somewhere and walk onto set. since they said it that way!!

09: meet someone with your own name - with a world population of 6 billion is should be easy.
i find this really internet stalking creepy. and lucky for me, i met kimberly johnson when i was in pre-cal my sophomore year of high school. but i guess...now i have to find kimberly troutman. damn it.

10: make a discovery - whatever the discovery, make sure it is named after you.
am i the only one bored with these? what do they think? we are columbus? and going to step out and walk on new unfound land? or look into the sky with our weeny telescopes and find a new star that no TRAINED eye has found? i think someone's GIG is up.

11: get away with the perfect practical joke - be careful of retaliation, it could end in tears.
i'm pretty sure they were going to say the perfect murder but the h.r. department said that they couldn't for legal reasons. but, for their own benefit, i don't practical joke for my own fear of retaliation.

12: own a pointless collection - one person's junk is another persons prized possession.
um. there's one more way to alienate yourself. like collecting star wars toys??!!?? we all know what happens to THOSE people.

13: invent a word that makes it into the dictionary - maike it a part of your crew's lingo.
there they go using their late 50's adult lingo again. your "crew"? ugh. and also, making the dictionary and having my friends say a word are too completely different things. remember yidey? yeah. i made that word up. but it's not in the dictionary, so i have failed yet again.

14: conquer your biggest fear - if you're too scared, try hypnotism.
does anyone else find this a bit drastic for teenagers? if hypnotism doesn't work, try drugs, sex, and alcohol.

15: raise money for charity - get some exercise by signing up for a charity road race.
okay. this one is actually a little legitimate. i can't make fun of it.

16: pass your driving test the first time - go straight to the next task.
i was going to say that i never knew anyone who failed their drivers test, but then i remembered my own mother couldn't parallel park and had to retake hers. sorry mom.

17: complete a road trip coast to coast - route 66 originally ran from chicago to santa monica.
um...that's still not coast to coast. and what parent would let their teenager go and drive coast to coast after JUST getting their license (or at least i hope they didn't fail 16. there's no way to make that one up).

18: reach 18 years of age! - embrace old age.
if that's not morbid, they i don't know what is. "at least live until your 18 to know if you are a failure or not!"

so, being that a) this is lame, and b) i was 18 way before this was put out, i'm disregarding them all. and if that 50 year old collector, bungee jumping, roller coaster loving lame-o decides to write a 30 things to do before 30, i might consider a) attempting them, b) feeling guilty if i fail, or c) care nothing about them. knowing how this persons "challenges" are, i think i'll stick with c.

13:

new news

i'm sure all of you have been wondering and wondering what the good ol' troutman clan has been up to as of late.  and i can tell you with sincere honesty that it hasn't been much.  we are truly trying to live up to our doing nothing standards especially with school starting back for us both at the end of the semester.  boo for having less of a life than we do now.  we have watched a lot of movies, i have attempted many crafts, and chris has been brewing lots of things at home, which i think qualifies this as homebrewing.  i have been trying to take pictures of the house as each room is clean...so it's taking some time.  there are still a few more rooms to go, but for now, heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere's our house!

this is our living room if you are looking into it.

here's the back of our living room.

and then, there's our grown up dining area (which we rarely eat in due to a wonderful invention called the tv tray).

here's our bedroom, which i pretend is a fancy hotel room.

so far, that's all that i have pictures of.  our kitchen used to be much cuter, but we recently got a portable dishwasher which completely threw off the feng shui.  and our bathroom used to be much cuter but our toilet seat broke and our floor got dyed black with hair dye.  and the guest room used to be much cuter, but the closet recently exploded and it's taking time to get it back shoved in there.  chris' room has pretty much always looked like this:

that really is a picture of chris' room.

we worked really hard to get our house organzied that now we can't find the strength to finish it.  i just hope it gets organized before the end of the month, because if it doesn't, it won't be touched again until we have to move again next year.

other big news (besides our purchase of a portable dishwasher that helps us to love each other more), i won a tetris tournament in the girls' division, and chris got third place.  it was a lot of fun and also very nerdy.  i would post some pictures...but our internet is completely slow.

we went to a friend's wedding last weekend where chris and i happened to run into my doppleganger 15 years ago.  it was strange and i couldn't quite decide if i should encourage her that things would get better or stab her in order to put her out of the misery that she would have for the next...well...many years.

did i mention that we got a dishwasher?

that about sums up our lives as of late.  if chris can think of something else to write about, i'm sure he'll come and post something.  someday.

Independence Day in Irving

We decided to take a holiday and go to the lush vacation spot of Irving Tx. 

Lots of stuff happened. 

To celebrate our nation's Independence Day, we behaved as American as we could.

We went to IHOP with the DeWitts.

James gets intense about his pancakes...

Then my grandparents took us to Applebees

Then we went shopping.

But not in our roller shoes.

I got Eat Shoots and Leaves, and all day called it Eat Shoots and Runs. 

We got a lot of TV shows on DVD... we are such a high tech family. 

I got Mr. Show. 

After some shopping, we went and ate with my grandparents, again, at El Chico!

Then fireworks...

Now, since Kim and I have been together, this has been our fourth holiday that is traditionally celebrated with fireworks. New Years, the 4th, New Years, the 4th again. And for every attmept we have made to see fireworks... we have been thwarted. 

We think fireworks is avoiding us. We were sure to brush our teeth and wear our best pair of Guess jeans for this night, cause we wanted fireworks to think we were down to hang with. 

We went to Running Bear Park. It is directly North of Lone Star Park horse track in Irving, where they have a fireworks show. 

We were excited...

And laying down.

And we learned that Kim takes funny pictures when she is talking.

And she even learned to levitate to impress the fireworks. 

And I gave her a kiss as a reward for her contribution to getting fireworks to think we were cool. 

There were a good amount of amateur fireworks displays. We both thought this was dumb and dangerous. 

I made this real funny joke (funny in context... not if you repeat it to other people).

It goes like this, "Wow, if they're not careful, they're going to take away someone's independence to Oh say can you see..."

But... fireworks were 2 hours late and were hidden behind a bunch of jerk trees. 

So we'll just have to wait till next American holiday celebrated with Chinese explosives. 

simplicity

i've recently become increasingly interested in moving toward a more simplistic life.

i know this sounds ridiculous considering the fact that my husband and i with no children, no dogs, and no live-in relatives share a three bedroom, two bath house.  so, indulge me, and let me explain.

i recently watched a documentary that had to deal with a specific aspect of the amish lives.  in watching this, i felt that there were many things that i felt that the amish were actually doing right.  and, like my simplicity cynical husband stated, many things that they are doing wrong.  but i felt that there was something about their life, their community with one another, and their self sustainability that i'm quite fascinated by.  for the past few days i have become a little consumed with grand ideas of simplicity.

i think in a generation that is consumed with consuming, it's a refreshing idea to actually consider using the resources that God has provided for us to provide for ourselves.  things like gardening, handmade clothes, baked goods and canned foods are all things that i feel have nothing but good to offer for chris and i, but are also such a tool for developing community not only in our neighborhood, but also in our church.

it is a little overwhelming and hard to make decisions about which parts of society are more efficient to keep and which ones should be left out, but to me, it sounds like a little adventure in seeing how creative i can get and how much we could actually do for ourselves.

i think there's something to be said for the fact that seeds can sprout and grow into the exact things that we need to nourish our body.  and the fact that the sky naturally springs forth with water and sun to encourage their growth.  i keep remembering the story of manna falling from heaven with the exact amount that they needed for that day.  no more.  no less.

i feel that we are all created for a purpose and that God gave us each passions for a reason.  i love to make things with my hands and i'm excited about the idea of using that passion to hopefully not waste the manna that God provides for us daily.

screwed and then redeemed...but still sort of screwed

so...chris and i might be the only people in the whole world who still actively buy vhs movies.  surprisingly enough, our vcr's have outlasted all of our dvd players, and there is a huge bounty of movies for sale for under two dollars at most goodwills...which we enjoy...and also, as we discovered this past week, at half price books.

so, for two dollars a pop, we bought batman, batman forever, and one of the indiana jones'.  i wanted to watch batman the other night when chris wasn't here, but upon remembering how scary the joker was when i was a kid, i declined...and instead watched the muppets take manhatten...just to ensure that i wouldn't get scared at all when he wasn't there.  although amnesia is really no laughing matter either.  poor kermit.

so...last night...upon eating some red meat (blast!!) i spent the night in bed and in another room...which i'm sure you can figure out without me not being a lady and revealing it.  i decided tonight was the night to watch batman (especially after seeing the batman previews everywhere which i am COMPLETELY excited about).  chris got the vcr hooked up in our room, got batman out, and SHOCK!! it was fatal attraction.  what.a.bummer.  so i decided i would settle for batman forever and SHOCK!  it was the original batman!  can you believe it?!?  so, i did get the batman i wanted, but we still ended up with fatal attraction, which i definately won't be watching when chris is not around...and honestly, probably not when he is around either.

in other movie news, we went to see get smart with the butterworths yesterday, and in the middle of our movie, the movie theatre we were at got struck by lightening!  no kidding!  isn't that so exciting?!?  so...being that we were half way through the movie already, we now have to decide if we want to go to the theatre and watch one half of the movie over again JUST to see the end, or if we want to use our free passes to see another movie that we don't feel like paying for.

oh.  decisions.  decisions.

the house is coming together and starting to feel a lot more like home.  we have a big church party here on friday, so i'm hoping that i will all be done by then...for the sake of being done and also for the sake of giving off the appearance that the troutman's have got it all together.  which, of course, we totally do...

First post plus H-moon pics for tha kidz

The Troutmen; an introduction

This is a (lame) blog I (Chris) made, without consulting Kim, about us. I took the day off of work (I participated in a cubical decorating contest at work and won a Tuesday) and this is the best thing I can think to do with it.

We are married now and love each other whether we like it or not.

We have a new house on Cloverleaf Dr. It's on the east side. On the drive from the reception to the house to change clothes before the flight, someone threw a knife across the street in front of our car. I took several trips to Homedepot yesterday, and I saw the same Hispanic cross dressing gangster three times. We have an A&W less than 200 yards from our house. Our neighbors on one side are lesbians and the other side own a roto-router truck and a bug zapper.

I'll post house pics later.

Here are H-moon pics for enjoyment.

Kim getting her crotch inspected by airport security- also the TSA agent didn't like me photographing their crotch inspecting techniques.

We are in an elevator at the W in SF.

The only photo of us together that we didn't have to hold the camera.

Kim pre breakfast...

Kim post breakfast.

You can look but you can't touch. This is off the market now.

Kim liked the preview for Step Brothers so much she wanted me to take a picture of it!

This was our hotel view. And Kim.

The prettiest thing in the SFMOMA

A SF hot dog. I ate the whole thing! This was at the place where George Lucas filmed American Graffiti.

Kim's first subway!

Kim and a guy having the worst day ever.

Us in front of a glass boat thing. I have large stubble.

Kim is having a good time in Haight-Ashbury.

This is serious.

A kid missing an arm.

JADE NOODLES!

China Town made us dizzy.

Yep.

Hotel room.
Kim found a hat.
Chris found a hat too!
Kim in City Lights. We bought books.

I got in a little argument with this guy at the mall.

Kim is good karate teacher.

These two pictures go together.

We saw this bread place on TV in the morning and then ate there for lunch!

Lots of sea lions and the golden gate behind them. It smelt bad here.

Kim is so excited for Alcatraz!

So happy to be married and on a ferry.

Let her out!
Ok thanks.

Let's end this post on a poop joke picture.