Current affair of the week: I turned 24 on Wednesday and I’ve adopted Bee’s rule of celebrating birthweeks instead of birthdays. I had lots ‘o fun and many memorable moments. Sunday I went to the annual Walker Extravaganza at David Walker’s house in Rigby with the Playmill cast. We play volleyball, have a BBQ, make dry ice bombs, then watch expensive amounts of fireworks at the Merrill’s. It was amazing, especially playing Scattergories for hours afterwards.

Wednesday morning I woke up expecting to see our nasty kitchen/living room as usual because me and Bee have been refusing to clean (our other roommate hasn’t cared to in the past 2 months and we were trying to make a point) but Bee stayed up for what looked like the entire night cleaning. She had the colored lights on so everything just glowed in cleanliness. She also made a really awesome glittery flag sign on the counter and wrote “Happy Birthday Mallori” on both whiteboards. She knows how to make you feel special. After work my friends Christian and Sam came down from West Yellowstone to take me bowling and for ice cream. They are great friends. We came back to the apartment and Bee was making salsa and working on the excellent s’more cupcakes. The highlight of the night was playing charades, I had forgotten how fun it is.

Friday Allen’s younger brother, Craig, got into town from Michigan. He’s already our favorite of their family. We drove up to West Yellowstone and watched “Hello Dolly” at the Playmill, it was entertaining and we ALL loved it. After the show we got some Wild West pizza and ate it back at the Holiday Motel apts where the cast lives. We mostly talked about The Dark Knight cause who isn’t these days? I was surprised I stayed awake the whole drive back.

Yesterday Ben and Ryan took us tubing/swimming in St. Anthony. We trekked through water, caught a frog, walked across a train track bridge, saw a leech, chilled in the cool water. . . a perfect end to the week!

4th of July and West Yellowstone

I was determined to have an awesome Independence Day; since it is my favorite holiday of the year, I felt the anticipation of the next day laying in my bed. The next morning Bee and I got dressed in our cutest red, white, and blue gear and walked down to mainstreet for a good ‘ol fashioned American parade. It’s a wonder how we got such a good spot under a tree getting there 10min prior. You would’ve thought Rexburg was a city made up of patriotic orphans. The highlights for us were yelling and waving at Hannah AKA Miss Rexburg and watching the mother next to us frantically look for her missing child. Oh, and finding a $20 bill in our parking lot on the way there; we saw it as Andrew Jackson giving us a shout out. Bee made a pie and we cooked some hot dogs (which Bee did not eat) and watched “Drillbit Taylor” (excellent) and “The Music Man” (shipoopi? classic). At my insistence we had a rousing game of frisbee in the park, we went over to a friend’s house and played Trivial Pursuit (we should have won, no really (bee)), and to top the day off, watched “Yankee Doodle Dandy”. Over There!

at the Parade

The next day we were invited by an old college-mate and great friend, Johnny Walker, to drive up to West Yellowstone, Montana for a few hours. Get the hell out of Rexburg? To this we replied, “Hell yes”. While John and his friend watched “Hello Dolly” at the glorious Playmill Theater, Bee and I had some Wild West Pizza and browsed the tourist shops. Including a gem of a bookstore called The Book Peddler. We went back to the theater and chilled with all our friends that work there. It was hard to leave and go back to the ‘burg of destitution. On the drive back we read aloud from the first edition book I purchased, “The Incompatibility of Men and Women and How to Overcome It”, by Julius Fast, published 1971. I’d say we learned quite a lot. Not that it’s going to change a thing.

This is Bee now… I think there has been some confusion… Both Mallori Evans, and Elizabeth House write this blog… Bee is another name that I, M. Elizabeth House, go by. I was just wanted to clear things up, as we have received some distressed emails that might indicate a need for this correction. Thank you.

So yes, Saturday was awesome. I said to Mal, Friday night, that all that I wanted was for it to be 50 degrees, or at least feel like what I call 50 degrees in my mind. Cool with a possible need for a hoodie. Well, about 10, my dear John called me, and I was in the lab printing… and it wasn’t going well, so when he said that he wanted me to go with him to West, I knew what I had to do.

1. call Mal and tell her to get out of bed

2. clean up and get the _____ out of the lab

I got my 50 degrees, some time with John, a cool book, the pizza I have been wanting since last summer, a little time out of Rexburg… fun to last until Wednesday. That is seriously a conversation that Mal and I had.

scene: talking about the day in bee’s room at midnight Saturday night

bee: how long do you think the fun that we had today will last us?

mal: i was just thinking about that

bee: if we are really positive, I would say probably Wednesday.

mal: maybe… Tuesday?

Also, lest we forgot… we went and found Allen, the ever-elusive Allen (who delights in being called that). Well, we had nearly sworn him out of the family for the last time (it happens twice a week), but I left him a voicemail saying, and I quote, “Allen, this is Lizzy, I don’t care what you have planned tonight, as we haven’t seen you in over a week, exaggeration? Maybe. So drop whatever plans you have, clear your palmpilot, get off the elliptical and come do something with us… or you are out of the family.” He never got the message, so we went to get him, threw rocks at his window, and then just found him at the Spori. We had an enlightening trip to the grocery store.

Sunday our joy was increased when I gave Mal an early birthday present! Make Mine Music!

We were so pleased to find all the classics including

we were also so happy, and amazed that Peter and the Wolf was included. They don’t make them like they used to. Also, my girl Mary did the whole thing. What a dream.

now our happiness/ fun really will last us well into tomorrow, which is Wednesday, as I predicted.

Did you honestly think with James and Valerie still in town that the hike would be the end of our amusements? Because it wasn’t.

Another one of our favorite things to do is to walk up to Lincoln Elementary School and revel in a night swing.

If mischievousness isn’t your particular brand of dish soap then proceed no further, unless you want your mind to be blown.

This is Bee

Sunday “after” church we went on a hike with the Best’s to R Mountain. Yeah, we are wondering what we have been doing with our lives for the past four years… having never gone there until this weekend. Ridiculous. The action, the peril, the pilates… R Mountain has it all. It was real fun. Ok? But why try to explain it, when we took over 350 pictures in less than 2 hours. We were happy to just spend a little time with our New York dreamers, James and Val.

James and Val renew their vows on R Mountain. How romantic.

James tries to show how strong he is by saving Mal’s life.

Allen is creepy in a cave

Bee…

Brotherly love?

more she-nanigans to come. Obviously. In other words. Stay tuned for part deux.

this is bee

Today Mal and I hit the jackpot…. that is if you think nearly mint condition board games from the 60′s for under $10 is the jackpot. Or how about nearly mint condition board games from the 60′s based on hit broadway musicals? Well, we did it.

We were out looking around town for things that would work for a party we are throwing on Friday for a little sister of mine… Rexburg isn’t what you would call good at having what you are looking for in almost all capacities. We started at the D.I. and low and behold, “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” was just waiting for us. We bought it because it looked cool. Then we got it home and were looking at it, and it’s all intact. None of the pieces are missing… in fact there is still a plastic wrapper around the playing pieces and the cards. I think the dye might be wood. We are kind of afraid to open it…. maybe we will always have to try hard to succeed in business…

I was taking some pictures of the board and I realized that all of the type was in Futura. Dream of Dreams. It almost looks hand drawn, which blows my mind when you look at the instructions. Also, the printing is really nice. It looks like lithography. Plus it was made in the USA… nothing is made in the USA anymore. It was a really neat find. Like I said we haven’t decided to play it or not. What do you think?

more pics later. the internet is being slow

So. I might be in a magazine? It’s going to be really funny, but it will be fun… I’m not going to be in the Inquirer. Don’t worry, please. Anyway I needed a pick that would makes Mom’s want me to Marry their sons. These aren’t the ones we picked, but we were going for pleasant and these are pleasant I would say.

Big huge thanks to Willard Cron, who in my opinion is on his way to being a photographic genius. Give him 3 years and a budget and he will be a regular Spike Jones. He just hopefully won’t ever need to marry a Coppola. Ok?

This is Mal

Bee and I have been really depressed lately, and over the years we’ve discovered our personal prozac is throwing a party. It’s not just having it, we get a bigger kick out of planning. The party we had yesterday all started in Sunday School when Bee passed me one of her perpetual notebooks with recipes and a list of guests, I knew the drill. I also knew it was coming since we hadn’t had an official gathering of people since our new living room installation. As soon as the last prayer was given we rushed home to prepare for our brunch menu of a tomato and a vegetable quiche, apple pie muffins, and every can of Jones Berry Lemonade soda from a neighboring apartment complex vending machine. Bee’s sisters are in town which is a real treat and it gave us some extra hands. Of course Bee is Queen Bee in the kitchen so we each had our assignments. I started getting rid of the dishes and cleaning up the place (one of my favorite things to do), Ashlee sautee’d the mushrooms and zucchini, Melissa grated the gruyère. It turned out a success as usual and you’d never believe the deliciousness

Mal and I really like baking… a lot, and luckily Mal is really good at doing dishes… because I am not. Over the past 3.5 years we have baked a lot. I could try to remember everything, but that would be nonsense, and let’s be real… we have only had a digital camera since last summer, and a computer to load them onto since.. hello… Thanksgiving. How were we supposed to keep up with all the candy, cupcakes, pies, quiches, cookies, casseroles, creme brulé (not really) you get the idea. So here are some of the things that we were able to document over the last little while.

So the next couple of days, we will be getting you caught up with our lives, and we aren’t trying to appeal to anyones better nature. Maybe that’s why no one will date us. We haven’t really assessed the situation to that extent.

Mal looks like Yenta and I look like a koala bear.