Come To Me My Sweetest Friend

This song gets sung a lot at our house:

(There may be one slightly pornographic part in this video. I apologize. Please be responsible and shield your own eyes)

Like at least every day.

Sometimes multiple times a day.

With various word changes and substitutions.

And it makes me happy.

:)

That's all.

<3

Getting Crafty

I am not a crafty person.

Crafts, to me, translates into a lot of money and time that could be spent doing something cheaper and less messy.

Pretty pessimistic, I know.

But, I am pleased to say that my tune may be changing! 

One of our wedding presents was a window frame with vinyl lettering on the glass,
but sadly, the glass was broken, so now we just had the window frame. 

I decided this was my perfect opportunity to get crafty!

I went through a lot of options of what I could do with the frame:

pinterest

We ruled out anything with words pretty quick because we got a lot of wordy gifts - really cute gifts that I love and used them all,
but we really didn't need to add another.

pinterest

The wreath idea meant I had to find a wreathe that I actually liked and then it had to fit in our frame.

It just seemed like more work than it was worth.

pinterest

I liked the idea of hanging pictures, but Clayson said we already had too many pictures.

pinterest

Clayson really liked the idea of a chalk board, 

but to me a chalk board translates into cute artsy pictures and typography, which I lack the motivation for. 

Also, it would probably end up being more words, which was the first thing we ruled out.

So, it looked like we had eliminated all possible options.

It was kind of discouraging.

But then inspiration struck.

We put metal in it!

It sounds weird, but our fridge is not magnetic (Crazy, I know!) so we had no place to put our cute magnets and announcements or whatever. 

Also, did you know that you can write on metal with dry erase marker??

We haven's gotten any yet, but we will! Then Clayson can still draw to his hearts content  :)

fun fact: there are at least 8 wedding presents in this picture

I feel so crafty!

Clayson keeps reminding me that all I did was buy a piece of metal, but baby steps! Right?

I'm so proud  :)

It's Autumn Time!

I don't know what it is about this year, but I am absolutely loving this Fall. 

The colors are amazing!

Here is a quick picture overload of some Autumn time events:

General Conference

Between sessions we always go to Cress Creek.

my cute parents

The only descent picture I've ever been able to get of Clayson by himself

dad

random dog

classic mom

my sister, Courtney

us.... so it gets to be a big picture  :)

Sunrise

I have always been more of a sunset girl (probably has a lot to do with the fact that I'm not usually awake to see the sunrise), 

but lately I have really been enjoying the sunrises!

I love their softness.

This is what I look at as I eat breakfast every morning

This is what I see as I drive to work every morning

 (the above 2 pictures were both curtesy of my phone)

Photo Shoot!

Jana is a great model  :)

Pumpkin Walk

Nick & Krisann came to visit! We went to the Pumpkin Walk and dinner at Cafe Rio (Clayson was so happy)

Now we just need to get them to move to Logan! We already have their house picked out right across the street from us  :)

group selfie!

Nick & Krisann

pumpkin puppet show

love Krisann in the back

Fall is the best  :)

p.s. I'm starting to get back into this photography thing again.... if you didn't notice.

Divergent

We saw Divergent with some friends when it first came out. 

We liked it, so we decided to read the book together. It's been really fun and we finished it in 2 weeks. 

We were slightly obsessed.

This was taken on a different day,
but ironically we were actually both wearing the exact same thing

To celebrate finishing the book, I decided to do a Divergent themed date.

There are 5 Factions in the book, so we represented each throughout the date:

Dauntless - The Brave

I only worked a half day at work, but I conveniently "forgot" to tell Clayson.
When he came home (he usually beats me home from work) I ambushed him with my Auto Strike Dart Gun.

War immediately ensued.

battle wound from shooting my gun. It hurts.

Clayson dominated in Target practice, but I won the war  :)

We also gave each other [stick on] tattoos, like the Dauntless. This picture shows Four on the left and Clayson on the right.
The resemblance is striking  :)

Erudite - The Intelligent

To represent Erudite, we took a test. 

What better test to take then the Aptitude Test to see which faction we belong to?

Results:

Clayson: Dauntless

Allison: Amity

Candor - The Honest

To represent Candor, we played Two Truths and a Lie. 

It was challenging to find something that the other didn't already know!

(sorry, no picture)

Amity - The Kind

Amity is "the kind" but they are also known as "the peaceful."

To get our inner peace, we had Yoga competitions to see who could hold the pose longest.

Of course, I won because Amity is my faction  :)

Abnegation - The Selfless

To represent Abnegation, we gave each other back/head massages while we watched the movie Divergent. 

Unfortunately, our massages were kind of weak because we were too caught up in pointing out things that were different in the movie
 and saying what we liked better/worse. 

We were so caught up in the events of the night that we forgot to eat dinner. 

Luckily, I had made chocolate brownies to represent the chocolate cake that they eat in Dauntless.

Brownies for dinner is always a good idea, right? 

Clayson eats the middle and I eat the edges. We work well together.

And why not brownies for breakfast too? 

:)

We are the Searles, and we have a problem....

 We eat a lot of tomatoes around here. 

We eat them in salad, spaghetti, sliced with salt and pepper, or any other way we can think of to work it into our meal.

 It has become excessive to the point that we are consciously trying to cut back on our tomato intake. 

We tried only buying 3 tomatoes on Saturday instead of the usual 5 for the week. 

I broke down on Tuesday and bought 3 more. 

We're addicts!

I told Clayson I was blogging about our excessive tomato intake and he said "What do you mean? I only got 7 this time!"
He was dead serious. 

Our addiction is getting worse! 

Don't they have a Tomatoes Anonymous we could attend?

Missin' Him Like Crazy

Wednesday afternoon, I came home from work early so I could drop Clayson off at the airport.
He is in Chicago until tomorrow night. I knew I would miss him, but I would be fine.... 

I seriously over estimated myself.

I never knew I was so needy!
I've never liked being alone, but even I had no idea how much I really need people in order to function.
I really just fall apart. I'm not handling it very well.

It doesn't help that I have somehow convinced myself that Clayson is going to die and will never return home. 

I told this to Jana and she said it was sweet. 

I think it's pathetic. And kind of embarrassing.  

I have a whole new respect for military wives or who have husbands that travel.

Thankfully, I have been blessed with amazing friends who take such good care of me!

Wednesday night, Jana took me to the store (which was so good, because I was just sitting at home thinking about horrible plane crashes and shootings in the big scary city of Chicago) When I came home for lunch on Thursday, I immediately realized it was not a good idea for me to be home alone. I called Jana and she was at my house in 5 minutes to eat lunch with me. We went to the Parade of Homes! I hung out at my old apartment and pretended to be single again  :)  Tomorrow, I'm meeting up with Krisann for lunch and I am so excited!

I really have the best friends ever!

Thanks for putting up with me, even when I'm a baby and can't handle being alone for 4 days.

The good news is I think I've gotten significantly better since the first night.... although I still have a long way to go 

This song sums up my thoughts perfectly:

The moral of the story: Next time Clayson goes to Chicago I'm going with him
so I can hold his hand when he crosses the street and dive in front of any stray bullets that are flying at his head. 

(Clayson says by the time he leaves next year I'll be pushing him out the door. I don't believe it.)

Sorry if this is overly mushy, but I can't wait to see him tomorrow night!

Full House

I am so grateful that we have a house where we can have people stay with us!

We had another full house this weekend.

can you find us?

Troy and Aubree were sealed, so everyone came to celebrate with them. 

I loved getting to see everyone!

I was really excited to see a family sealed. It was such a neat experience!

Maysa was so good and so sweet through the whole thing.

 

I am so grateful for temples and that families are forever!

us with Maysa

She is so good natured and Aubree always has her looking so cute!

My family stayed at our house with us, as well as Colby & Mykel. 

It was so much fun to have them and we wish they could have stayed longer!

The Boys

The Girls

 We loved having you visit.
Come back again soon!