tallying

five years at BYU
two different student apartments
one dorm room
one wedding
nine and one half months of wedded happiness
fifty dollars spent on graduation robe rental (extortion)
four weeks left in midway
two soon-to-be missionary siblings
one year of law school spouse-hood down (almost!)
one chambray shirt purchased (finally)
two knitting projects on the sticks
zero midterms left, ever!
one punch left to fill my fountain drink refill card
eight weeks without mr. z this summer
three internships for a hard-working husband
one apartment to find and furnish
one hundred forty-two credit hours
two degrees
one job, start date in three weeks

one blessed and happy lady

it's happening

This showed up in my inbox today. I'm feeling pretty excited. Correction: seriously excited. 

grandma's dress

This photo is the Petersen family, circa 1967. My mom is the little girl on the right. Stylish bunch, no? My Grandma, an economical woman, learned to sew her own clothes and made a large portion of her wardrobe. 

As she stood outside the Stapleton airport posing for this picture, she was unaware that her yellow linen dress would someday hang freshly cleaned and hemmed in her youngest daughter's daughter's closet, waiting to be worn on her college graduation day. 

As she raised the family standing around her, Charlotte Jane was unaware of the countless people who would be influenced by her and her posterity. She did not know then how far her example would reach and how deeply her love would touch.

a fall retrospective

The very wintery weather today make a fall season retrospective seem appropriate. 

Fall was wonderful. In between the hours and hours of studying, we made some time to enjoy the season, with 

photo trips to the mountains

family birthdays

a peaceful and surreal weekend in an abandoned lake town

instagram photos of seasonal baking

i now extend a warm welcome to winter. i look forward to several mugs of hot cocoa, time with family (home for thanksgiving in one week!), knitting, knitting, and knitting.

education gap

Two incidents in my accounting ethics class today reaffirmed to me that some accounting students are missing some crucial aspects of academic understanding. 

Professor: "What did Machiavelli write?"

Student: "The Little Prince"

Professor: Talking about Ayn Rand and her philosophical views

Another student: "Didn't she write The Scarlet Letter?"

I suggest the addition of a couple of extra literature courses to the accounting curriculum. 

cloudy with a chance of curry

We drove home to Midway tonight in a cloudy rain drizzle.
I made red coconut curry and rice.
We ate red coconut curry and rice with glasses of cold milk and an episode of Psych.



I listened to a fantastic Spotify playlist and kitchen danced.
I love my nights at home with Mr. Z.




{on my playlist}

• Origins, by Tennis
• Blood, by The Middle East
• Mountain Sound, by Of Monsters and Men
• The A Team, by Ed Sheeran

oversight

As detailed in my previous post, I love being in this stage of life. Sometimes, though, after grocery shopping and filling up the car with gas again, I let myself feel worried. I feel hungrier, more tired, and overall less happy.

Today, after filling up the car, I was busy worrying and neglected to replace the gas cap. After making the drive from Macey's to the law building with the door to the gas cap open and the cap sitting on the bumper, I finally noticed my oversight. By nothing short of a miracle, the cap was still perched on the bumper, unmoved. Miraculous.

This miracle was a direct communication to me from the Spirit, telling me to stop worrying. My Heavenly Father has got me covered. My family's needs will never be neglected and chalked up to oversight. If He can save me from losing my gas cap, he can certainly keep me and my husband fed, sheltered, and cared for.

new version of student life

I always hoped to have a year or two as a poor, married student, and this year is it. I love it.

I love carpooling down to campus in the morning and listening to a podcast (and sometimes sleeping or applying my makeup). 

I love driving and sharing our inherited Oldsmobile Bravada that is a unique shade of kelly green. We call him The Hulk.

I love managing our minimalistic budget with collected receipts and shared accounts. 

I love talking to Johnny over our occasional study break games of pool. 

I love capitalizing on the free food offered on campus. I donated blood today chiefly for the good of blood-needing patients, but also because the Red Cross snacks are excellent. (We certainly can't afford real brand Fudge Shoppe cookies.)

I love eating all of our leftovers.

I love dreaming of the cheese I'll be able to use in my mac n' cheese someday. For now it's housebrand. Speaking of which, Target brand "Chickadees" are a disappointing substitute for Goldfish.

I love making our wedding giftcards stretch to cover as many living expenses possible.

I love packing our lunches every night for the next full day on campus. 

I love meeting Johnny in the law building at the end of the day and helping him on his way out of study mode. 

I love making goals for the future when we have a salary, knowing that the habits we're developing now will help us get there. 

We lack for nothing. We eat steak at Sunday dinner each week, enjoy dinner out when my parents are in town, and splurge on Redbox movies. Frankly, we're spoiled. 

I've never been happier. 

life lessons: brought to you by my first month of marriage

Lesson 1:
South Carolina is still my favorite vacation spot.

Lesson 2:
If you leave a Scentsy and accompanying scented wax in your car during July afternoons, you will essentially turn your car into a giant Scentsy. (In case you're wondering, the melted wax pulls off of leather seats pretty easily.) 

Lesson 3:
Often, really great things in life (i.e. marrying the most wonderful and handsome man you know) are accompanied by a lot of not so great things.  Here's a taste of what our new family has experienced:

• four cases of car troubles including side mirror breakage, complete engine failure, tire slashing, and fuel pump failure
• a car break-in and accompanying wallet theft
• all-body-consuming stress itching
• death of a grandparent (Johnny's Grandpa Kelly)
• moving 1.5 times

We certainly haven't been bored. We've been blessed by chances to communicate with each other and become more of a unit. 

Lesson 4:

Being an aunt is great! We have been able to spend a lot of time with our nieces and nephew this summer and are so excited to welcome Babe Wilson to the crew next month!

Lesson 5:

Don't use the restrooms at gas stations in Ogden, UT.

Lesson 6:

 Weekends are best spent at the lake trying new things and enjoying things you've been doing since childhood.

New trier

Since childhood

         Sub-lesson A:

         Check your swim trunks for iPhones before jumping into a lake.

one week

I will be married one week from now. We met exactly one year before our wedding, and here's how:

Johnny Zarbock: Avid skier, adventurer, Disneyworld vacationer

Emily Wood: Pie baker, vintage clothes wearer, staycationer

How did these two single and attractive, yet different individuals come together? It happened when Johnny selected Denver on a whim for his accounting firm recruiting city of choice. Johnny had no interest in working in public accounting, but nevertheless flew from Utah to Denver on June 16, 2011 for a two-day recruiting event.

After pinning on his nametag and making professional small talk with firm employees and fellow recruits, Johnny looked up to see a girl wearing a handmade skirt and one of her Grandma’s cardigans come into the room. “Hey, there’s actually a cute girl here,” thought Johnny. “Wait, I’ve seen her before. Yes, she’s the one cute girl in the accounting program at BYU. What an excellent chance to talk to her!”

Emily drove from her family’s home in Denver the morning of the 16^th, nervous about meeting a potential employer and co-workers, not thinking much about her co-recruits. When she walked into the conference room and saw the hot guy from accounting with amazing eyes and sexy dimples, she realized that she might be networking for more than just an internship.

Emily Wood and Johnny Zarbock spent the rest of the recruiting weekend interviewing, teambuilding, and professionally flirting with each other. Before leaving the last event, Emily made sure to say goodbye to Johnny, but in a totally casual way. The result was a quick goodbye to Johnny and the other BYU recruit in the form of “goodbye fellow BYU constituents.”

Emily’s parting words and their small conversations over the course of the conference stayed with Emily and Johnny for the next two months until Fall semester started and they made it back to campus. In the hopes of seeing Emily again, Johnny continued signing up for Denver recruiting events, and in the hopes of seeing Johnny, Emily continued to attend.

As the semester started, Emily and Johnny enjoyed more encounters and conversations that finally led up to Johnny asking her out. That date led to many others and a wonderful semester of progressively serious dating and the eventual decision that married is how they wanted to be.  

overdue announcement

Contrary to my last post, the best part of my most recent semester was not the regular supply of Nutella I kept in my cupboard.

It was this guy and the fact that he is my guy.

Meet Johnny Z.

Skier, musician, favorite uncle, audiophile, worker, hot stuff, fiance'. What's not to love?

He proposed on Christmas (he told me he was coming on the 27th but surprised me on Christmas evening!) and spent the rest of the week with the Woods (brave man).

I love him.

We're getting married in June. Until then, we will each be working tax department internships at different accounting firms in different cities (he's going to San Jose and I'm staying in Denver). We're a pretty exciting couple, what with two almost-complete accounting degrees under our belts.

Note: We try not to lead off with the fact that we met in the accounting program. We tried that once and were openly told that our story is not interesting.

a semester

Holy semester, Batman!

:: Master's classes
:: Recruiting trips
:: Interviewing
:: Power suits
:: Swag
:: Excel spreadsheets
:: Over-my-head finance formulas
:: Sporadic conversation with family
:: Cutting back on Diet Pepsi
:: Nutella cupcakes
:: Wonderful Thanksgiving break
:: Women in the School of Accountancy co-chairing
:: Endless group cases
:: Tax code familiarization
:: Introductory accounting TAing

So, yeah. Great semester. Super busy.

This moment this afternoon about sums it up.

happy 24th to charlotte!

Today is Charlotte's 24th birthday! To celebrate, here are 24 things that you may or may not know about her:

1. Charlotte is extremely disciplined. When it's time to wake up, she is out of bed, something that I find very admirable. She is punctual and always well-planned.

2. Charlotte used to have a voice that sounded like a chipmunk. She also has always been a fast talker. This combination made her sound like a cassette tape on rewind.

3. Charlotte won the spelling bee in fifth grade with the word Freudian. (It's fun to picture Charlotte spelling this in her chipmunk voice wearing her big glasses and one of the many cute dresses Mom made for us in elementary school.)

4. Charlotte loves loves loves reading. She read all of The Lord of the Rings in fifth grade and could read an entire Nancy Drew in one afternoon. She never goes anywhere without a book and reads at breakneck speed.

5. Charlotte is named after our maternal grandmother Charlotte Jane Hunter Petersen, and she emulates her in beauty, intelligence, baking prowess, and faith so admirably.

6. Charlotte is becoming less of a picky eater. When she tried home canned peaches one time, all she could say was "it didn't make me gag." In her adulthood, she has expanded her culinary horizons to Thai food! That's a very big step, and we're all so proud.

7. Charlotte knows everything about Harry Potter and Gilmore Girls. We often text each other trivia from both series, and she has only missed a question once. She owns all seven seasons of Gilmore Girls, a magic wand, and she has read and listened to all seven HP books countless times.

8. Charlotte is a die hard grammarian. When we're waiting in airports, I ask her to teach me a new grammar rule. I'll never forget the subjunctive lesson of Christmas '09. She uses her skills to selflessly help others. She edits papers for me and our brother John, and she transcribed eight hours of interviews with our Grandma Charlotte and put them into a book.

9. Charlotte is a mostly self-taught seamstress. In the last six months, she has already moved up to making dresses and other garments. She's well on her way to being the next Denise Wood.

10. Charlotte gave up her private violin lessons when the family was having financial difficulties. She kept up with school orchestras and still plays beautifully. In high school, we were in a string quartet together with two of our friends. We were the Harmonious Ponies and our signature pieces were "The Harmonious Blacksmith" and the "Pony Polka."

11. Charlotte has received almost all straight A's throughout her entire education.

12. Charlotte has a terrific shoe collection. She loves high heels and wears them with style.

13. Charlotte hit a pedestrian with her car in high school and endures endless teasing about it. Like right now. The girl was fine, or else we wouldn't laugh about it now.

 

14. Up until a recent unfortunate experience with old leftovers, Charlotte loved Kraft Mac n' Cheese. She made it for me a lot when we were in Provo together. She also would make me real food, like Parmesan chicken and banana chocolate chip bars.

15. Charlotte cares about the homeless population of Portland. She has shared bananas from her lunch, coffee from her work, and other gestures of compassion with many people in sad circumstances.

16. Charlotte inherited a love of dry cereal from our Dad. She can eat Corn Flakes and Rice Krispies multiple times a day and never tire. Her treat cereal of choice of Fruit Loops.

17. Charlotte has been to both Disney Land and Disney World. She is the only Wood sibling to visit any Disney establishment other than the Disney store at the mall.

18. Whenever we have family dinner at our grandparents' house, Charlotte does the dishes and cleans the kitchen.

19. Charlotte just cut her hair after years of having long hair. I can only remember one other time in her life when she's cut her hair short. I'm very proud of her for taking the leap, and it looks great!

20. Charlotte is a great cook and baker and it adventurous with trying new recipes and techniques. She won over her husband Josh with her meatloaf.

21. Charlotte has worn glasses since early childhood and would love to have Lasik surgery.

22. Charlotte is really good at dancing really poorly. Josh will leave the room is she starts, but she doesn't mind because I'll always stay with her and come up with more and more ridiculous moves.

23. Charlotte is married to an awesome man. The last year of getting ready for her wedding and welcoming Josh into our family has been so great for our family.

24. Charlotte is and always has been my Number One, the best friend I will ever have. I can't remember a time in my life when I haven't looked up to her. She epitomizes supportive and loving sisterhood. I love her and am so excited that today is her day!

end of an era

I enjoyed refreshing pebble ice from the machine in the kitchen at work all summer. Today was my last day at work, and these are my last crunchy pieces of delicious ice. 

I'm ruined. No other ice will ever be good enough. I wonder how my roommates would feel about my filling our tiny freezer with bags of pebble ice from Sonic?

cleaning up the streets

My neighborhood is pretty clean, but this summer, this offensive sight moved in. Mom and I kept waiting for the dumpster company or renters to do something about it, but nothing happened for months. We were tired of being flipped off every time we drove home. 

It just so happened that we had two cans of black spray paint in our garage. 

hiatus over

I'm back! Summer is winding down, and along with fitting all of my overdue dental work, eye exams, and gift knitting/embroidering into one last week, it's time for some back-logged blogging.

Four Things About the Fourth of July Weekend


1. "Four"ks used in abundance to eat delicious food.

Lunch at My Pie ( No forks involved. Sorry for the deception.)

BBQ on Grandpa's patio

Breakfast cookout in the 4th

2. Four hundred (give or take) rounds of Bang! card game.

Josh was our go-to rules and strategy guide.

Charlotte entertained us by wearing the game tin like a serial killer mask and saying "Bang" in a creepy deep voice. I'm giggling as I write this and remember this. 

3. Four hours in endless Fourth of July weekend and semi accident traffic.

Endless traffic in front.

We felt so trapped. 

Endless traffic behind.

Note our average speed and the time. We left the picnic site at 1:15.

4. Four Wood siblings' and a Wilson's worth of stupid faces! (Punctuation undoubtedly incorrect. Sorry, Charlotte.)