my hair crisis is over (temporarily)

i've had short hair, really short hair, medium length hair, long hair, hair with a cowlick, hair with a shaved cowlick, hair with a medium cowlick, bangs, and no bangs.  i've gone darker, but i've never gone lighter, until today when i got a melt.  and i'm happy to say it's here to say - it's just what i needed to change things up this time of year.  you may not be able to tell from the picture too well, but my hair gets lighter toward the ends and i am loving it.  you should probably get one too.

and here are some pictures of tanner for good measure

and this is what tanner decided to do with his pictures...enjoy

oh yeah, and next time i'm thinking about growing out my cowlick, please remind me what a terrible idea that it is. 

the longest of long days

yesterday was one of those days where by the end of it, i couldn't believe the morning i woke up to was part of the same night i was going to bed in.  does that even make sense?  you know, those nights where you're falling asleep, thinking about your day, and it hits you that the past 24 hours were really only 24 hours.  oh yes, that was yesterday.

6:30AM i'm waking up to my alarm and it's still pitch-black outside
7:30 i'm at school catching up on everything i'm behind on
4:15 i'm leaving school on my way to work
4:45 i make it to work 45 minutes late {i was supposed to be there at 4, but there was an overlap in my schedule}
11:00PM i'm leaving work probably because a table decided to sit there for an hour and a half after close {tipping manifesto and restaurant etiquette for utah county-ers coming soon because i swear i can't take it anymore!}

stealing from my friend claire's blog: all work and no play makes brighton a dull girl.  this is to-a-T how i felt yesterday.

i've thought a lot about blogging lately and i've decided i blog to magnify the seemingly small and insignificant things in my life, making them memorable and meaningful - to make all the small and wonderful moments in my life stand out as unique, attached to words and pictures - to make mountains out of molehills in the best sense possible. ...but i'd be lying if i said i haven't had my fair share of "yesterday" kind of days where it's harder to pick out those moments worth remembering.  but then this morning, i remembered, that i am in control of how i react to things, even emotionally - and that i can choose happiness.

and so, i blog.  

and i feel relieved that's it's the weekend.  

and i feel grateful that i have the night off.  

and i look forward to tomorrow.  

and i get excited that tanner is on his way home right now.  

saturdays at our house

most of our saturdays are spent like this - even though it was perfectly perfect weather outside today, we could barely move from the couch.

and even though we love our lazy saturdays, we were excited erica & alex gave us something to do in the evening and a reason to get off the couch.  

we saw this idea at smith's to make a nose out of the stem and couldn't resist.  and good job tanner for making it turn out so well!  and of course, no pumpkin carving event can pass without me mentioning the time my brother threw up inside his pumpkin while wearing gloves only meant for snow using a big stirring spoon to dig out the pumpkin guts.  that will probably be my favorite halloween memory for a long time.  

i'm so excited the holiday season is upon us!

newlywed pics

a couple of weeks ago we found tanner's point and shoot nikon and what treasures we found on this camera!  we must have only used it a total of three times during our first year of marriage, and seeing how i missed blogging about our 2nd anniversary exactly 2 months ago today (woah! i didn't even plan that, i swear!) i thought i would share just a few of those photos.  although it really wasn't that long ago that we were "newlyweds," looking at these pictures brings back some fun and sweet memories.  and not to be cheesy or induce-vomiting out of anyone (shea in particular...) these really have been the best 2 {going on 3} years of my life.

i wish we had more photos from where these came from, but i'm happy we found the few that we did.  plus, that would mean more braces photos, which let's be honest, the fewer the better, right?  i also just realized that i've never shared any of our professional wedding photos ever - not on this blog, facebook, email or anywhere - so expect to be seeing some of those soon.

in other news, i am so happy today is friday, tomorrow is saturday, and the day after that is sunday.  happy weekend!

not such a good looker after all...

Today I carried these things with me to school:

a yellow notebook

a blue folder full 

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

a green environment reader

my "teacher" filer full of attendance sheets, lesson plans and things to be graded

a hairbrush for my slowly growing tangled hair

lipstick to offset my ever-pale-ing skin

a dongle cord (no really, that's what it's called, 

borrowed from erica&alex - i promise to return it someday soon!)

a USB cord

a scarf

and my wallet

....wait, did i just say my wallet?  well, while it may be obvious to you that my wallet is in my schoolbag, it was not so obvious to me this morning when i called tanner in a panic, my work in a panic, and almost my bank to cancel my debit card in panic.  to tell you the truth, i was in such a panic, i practically drove to the DMV to get a new license.  and there it was all along. phew!

but see the crammed space that all of this stuff was stuffed into?  you understand how i could have missed my wallet in there, right? {...tanner? ...right?}  if you haven't noticed, i lose things a lot.  and then i panic quick. and then i look for just one more second and i find the lost thing.  maybe i should start looking longer first?

food dishes and heat dishes

and yes i am one of those girls who blogs about food.  in fact, a couple of weekends ago when tanner and i were having one of our recently common "what should brighton do with her life" conversations, we decided i should do something with food since food seems to be my passion at least when i am eating.  anyway, tanner is officially a grown-up.  he is officially a 9-5er, officially a commuter {which i guess he has been that for a while now}, and he is officially for the first time ever not being paid hourly {go tanner!}  tonight, to celebrate his adultness, we went out to pizzeria 712, our very favorite place to eat in this whole world so far.  it may even be worth traveling all the way to utah for and definitely worth making the short trip to orem.

and of course i instagrammed {@britejoan}...and i do have to admit i'm feel a little bit like a social networking crazy person right now blogging my instagrammed photos all in one night...

it was the best mac&cheese, the best caprese and the best butternut squash pizza. is your mouth watering yet??

now we are back at home - i should be grading and planning for tomorrow, but instead i'm blogging and watching 30 rock on netflix in the glory of the heat dish on our couch.  and yes, it is unfortunately and fortunately that time of year again when the air in our house begins to cost $8 a day - thank you electric heating! but really, we love you heat dish.

iowa day 4: madison's birthday and the last of photos

are you sick of iowa yet?  well, i'll be brief.  sunday was madison's birthday - she's 19!  {what???? how did this happen??}  we were excited to be there to celebrate her actual birthday with her seeing how this rarely happens when you live 1200+ miles apart.  we went to church in the morning, test drove my neighbor's subaru into the middle of no where, ate my dad's annual sunday brunch as a family, went to mcfarland park for more food and hide-and-go seek in the prairie {i know, so iowa}( my family goes here for my little sister and grandmother's birthday every year - can you tell my family is tradition-oriented?), and jumped on a late flight back to utah.  we were sad to leave and very sad to land in near-winter weather, especially when we found ourselves lost in a gigantic parking lot looking for our car (literally).  farewell, iowa!  we will be looking forward to seeing you again in december!

here's more pictures, hope you enjoyed my quad-rilogy {is that even a word?}

one thing i love about iowa is that if you drive 5 or 10 minutes in literally any direction, you will be in the middle of nowhere

iowa day 3: more food, nature, fun fun fun

1. blue note lemonades, hot chocolates, salads, sandwiches and soups @ stomping grounds and trips to the cupcake emporium where madison, davis, and sadie all work (have you noticed that all of my trips tend to revolve around my food?)

2. nature walk in the forest behind berrett & tina's house (and where i learned i might want to own a small dog of my own someday thanks to zeus)

3. delicious thai pineapple curry for dinner (which i will be sharing the recipe soon i promise!)

4. bowling @ perfect games (where even with bumpers, i didn't even bowl 100 - i know, embarrassing)

enjoy more photos!  (only one more day of iowa posts and then on with life we'll go!)