Tagged

So, this is how it goes:
A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

5 THINGS I WAS DOING 10 YEARS AGO:
1. Hanging out with Carly and the neighborhood clan - getting in trouble with my mom for talking on the phone too late.
2. Convincing myself that I really knew what it meant to be in love.
3. Crying over my latest "way too hard" English assignment "Do these people even know how long 2 pages are?!?!?!" This is funny because that is an actual quote from my journal. It's also funny because my average blog post is....well let's just say I don't hurt for words these days. :)
4. Explaining to the "Oremers" that their handwriting was cuter than mine because Orem water has some "cute-handwriting supplement" in it and Lindon water does NOT (clearly).
5. Apparently writing in my journal quite a bit.

5 THINGS ON MY TO-DO LIST TODAY:
1. Run at least 5 miles - this is mandatory since it will be the first time this week, and I only have 4 more days to do my other 3 runs.
2. Watch 27 Dresses with Jamie
3. Read at least 2 chapters of "The Chosen" for book group
4. 2 loads of laundry through the FULL cycle (no cheating and skipping the putting away part...)
5. Anxiously await Josh's return from school whilst sitting on the love sac and seeing all of the "hidden potential" in my living room.

5 SNACKS I ENJOY:
1. Almonds
2. Fruit Snacks
3. Popcorn
4. Frozen Gogurt
5. Ice - crushed up yummy ice. (4 of my 5 are Costco items - no wonder they love me there!)
6. Cheesecake, I have cheesecake in my fridge, and I can't WAIT to get home and eat it right out of the pan! Mmm....that's also on my to do list.

5 THINGS I WOULD DO IF I WERE A BILLIONAIRE:
1. Pay off my primary home and NEVER refinance it.
2. Buy my husband "the dream truck" and 4 wheelers.
3. Pay someone to invest it for me so I don't have to choose how to do it.
4. Travel a lot! (cruises, trips to the other side of the world)
5. Build my dream vacation homes (one on the beach, and a cabin in the mountains).

5 OF MY BAD HABITS:
1. I pop my knuckles.
2. Slouching - SO ugly!
3. Repeating myself and using filler words "good times, good times" "ya gotta love it" "you know you know" ew, I bug me sometimes.
4. Watching the last 10 minutes of Law and Order: SVU instead of asking Josh how school was.
5. Not grocery shopping even though the fridge has been empty for 2 weeks.

5 THINGS I WILL NEVER WEAR AGAIN:
1. Those really cool shirts that change color when you breathe on them. I hope they get cool again so my kids can wear them, but some things you should just grow out of.
2. My elephant jammies - I think that says enough.
3. braces - I hope.
4. Socks with sandals.
5. Claw bangs! To think I spent HOURS watching my sisters do it so I could learn how....I never did master it, stupid widows peak.

5 PLACES I HAVE LIVED:
1. Lindon
2. Fresno
3. Salt Lake
4. Avenues (it feels different from Salt Lake)
5. My very own home in North Salt Lake

5 JOBS I'VE HAD:
1. Legal secretary
2. Intern at the Developmental Center
3. Data Processing for Fair Credit Foundation
4. Administrative Assistant for David Allen
5. Data Entry for Alpine Medical Billing

5 THINGS PEOPLE PROBABLY DON'T KNOW ABOUT ME:
1. I used to swim at least a half mile every single day and LOVED it.
2. Against all that I stand for and believe in, I'm learning to like running/walking.
3. I'm still scared of the dark - unless there's noise to distract me, TV, music, book (on tape), talking on the phone, humming, for some reason I think bad guys are scared of noise...
4. I desperately want to have a baby.
5. I am married to the greatest man on the planet - I hate to break it to the rest of you women, but there's no hope for you getting anyone better than I did.

I tag Jamie, Laura, Anna Hill (that means you have to start a blog Anna!), Aubrie, and Stick. Of course anyone else who wants to do it.

Bolt!

This blog is to introduce a new game that we have named "Bolt!" it's because online I saw it called "BolO Ladder Toss" and Bolt! sounds cooler. So, we've renamed it. Josh and I were looking for something REALLY cool to give Randy for his birthday and house warming present. We shopped and shopped and couldn't' find anything cool enough. Then we remembered this game that Josh's family plays and realized it was the perfect gift. So, we built it and presented it to Randy yesterday. Fortunately he liked it. :)

Here is the recipe for the game:

Ingredients:
PVC pipe (we used 3/4 inch) cut in the following lengths:
18 at 32" each
4 at 20" each
4 at 18" each
4 at 16" each
12 PVC connector elbows
12 PVC Tee joints
12 golf balls (you need at least 2 different colors to distinguish between 2 teams)
6 lengths of nylon rope (you want the space between the golf balls to be about 16"-18" so cut them a little longer than that to allow for knot tying.

Build 2 of the stands as shown in the photo diagram.

The space between the top and second rung should be 16 inches, between 2nd and 3rd run is 18 inches and between the 3rd rung and the ground is 20 inches. Drill holes through the golf balls. Thread the nylon rope through 2 golf balls and tie the ends (so there is 1 golf ball at each end). We also burned the ends of the rope so they wouldn't fray and fall apart.

To play:

Set up the 2 stands about 20 feet apart (depending on your desired field size). 1 person from each team should stand by each Bolt! stand. (If it's boys against girls, Jamie and Cameron stand at one end of the field, and Josh and Amy stand at the other.) 2 players (on the same end of the field) have 3 BOLT golf ties each and alternate throwing them one at a time to try to "ring" a rung on the ladder. The top rung is 3 points, middle is 2 points and the bottom is 1 point.

After both players have thrown all 3 of their golf ties, THEN you score, if any golf ties were knocked or blown off by other throws, they do not count for points. They have to last through the round (all 6 throws) to count. If there are 2 golf ties from opposing teams occupying the same rung, no points are awarded (so you can "steal" or negate somebody else's points by ringing a tie on the rung they already hit OR by knocking their tie off the rung). If (when) the girls team has 2 golf ties on the 3 point rung, and the boys only managed to get 1 tie on the 3 point rung (because girls rule and boys drool), the girls are then awarded 3 points (the boys steal or ruin our first hit, but the second one still counts...). The first team to get EXACTLY 21 points wins.

If a team goes over 21 points, they revert back to 11 points and the game is still in play. This goes on until somebody hits 21 exactly.

A sample round would look like this:

Jamie throws (because Cameron lets girls go first) and hits the 2 point rung. Cameron throws and hits the 1 point rung. Jamie throws and it hits the 3 point, but bounces off. Cameron throws and hits air. Jamie throws and hits 3 point line. Cameron throws and hits the 2 point line. Scoring for that toss would be: Girls: 3 Boys: 1 (both hits on the 2 point line wash each other and nobody gets points).

Then Josh and Amy remove the golf ties from the Stand and throw toward the stand Jamie and Cameron are by. Since Cameron was the last person to "score" (by hitting the 2 point line) the boys go first. Josh hits the 3 (miracle of miracles!). Amy hits the 3 (that never happens, but it sounds like fun). Josh hits the squirrel behind the Stand. Amy hits Cameron's toe (I'm not very good at this game). Josh hits the 2 point line. Amy hits Jamie (I overcompensated). Girls: 3 (thanks Jamie!) Boys: 3 (1 from Cameron's previous and 2 from Josh). Then it's Jamie and Cameron's turn again. The boys never really get higher than 5 points, and the girls go on to get 22 (which makes them go back to 11) and then back up to 21 while the boys are still trying desperately to get even 1 point (the boys are embarrassed that the girls lapped them, but that's life). Jamie and I pretty much school Cameron and Josh at all the games we play.

This game is HIGHLY recommended for pretty much anybody for a few reasons. 1. The girls pretty much always win. 2. It's storable - and EASILY set up. We take it camping, to picnics, in the backyard anywhere. It's really easy because it all breaks down to the PVC pipes and it's very mobile. 3. Everybody looks like a dork doing it, so I don't get embarrassed as much. 4. Sometimes Garret (my 8 year old nephew) throws the best hand of the game - and that's just plain cool.

Long goodbyes

This weekend marked one of the saddest occasions of my entire life. Seriously EVER.

Despite Josh and I praying with real intent somehow Cameron and Jamie couldn't find anything to keep them in Utah any longer. Cameron succesfully passed all of his classes resulting in graduation from the U. None of their families moved to Utah. The Ocean didn't flood all of the states between Washington and Utah (creating a beach closer to Utah). The climate didn't change to constant rain and real green trees (I vividly remember being 16 years old, driving to California for a school trip and realizing that trees and grass were really green. I'd never seen the color green in real life before - just Utah's pathetic attempt). The Columbia River didn't change it's course and start running through Salt Lake City, and Cameron's dream job didn't fall into his lap (without him applying anywhere) offering to pay him disgustingly huge amounts of money that he couldn't turn down. Since NONE of these prayers were answered in the affirmative, Jamie and Cameron are leaving. They are moving to Richland (or somewhere close to that) Washington AND we aren't.

Jamie and I met during my second year at college and she has been my very best friend ever since. We moved out of the dorms together, and we were roommates until Cameron stole her from me. I got married just after she did, and we've both been there for all of the big things in each other's life since then (broken hearts, weddings, first beach experiences, babies, moving, job changes, losing our husbands to school/work, getting our husbands back, the list goes on and on). Fortunately Josh and Cameron get along (which isn't surprising given that they both get along with virtually everyone they meet) just as well, and we have seriously had more fun together than I ever could have imagined. I can't even begin to list the fun things we've done together - in fact it's probably easier to list the fun things we haven't done together which includes: leaving the country, and.....well that's all I can think of. I think we've done everything else. The boys go shooting, play nintendo, and covet guns on the internet, while Jamie and reminisce (who knew that was such an ugly looking word?), color, cook, play with Evie, and covet house stuff on the internet. This was seriously the perfect match and I'm struggling to realize that it won't be quite like that anymore.

Saturday we celebrated our birthdays (mine last week, Jamie's next week, it's like fate!) by going out to dinner, and coming back to our place for games. We played, ate ice cream, and hung out for probably the last time like that. We'll see them again, but with graduation, Evie's blessing, and them getting ready to move (on top of the horrible schedules of Josh and Cameron) that was probably the last time the 4 of us had game night. As they were leaving I started to go upstairs and just cried. Fortunately Josh is kind and understanding and he let me cry for longer than I probably needed to, but it felt good to know at least he wasn't leaving me. I just don't do well with change, and this is like losing a sister. Fortunately there is no doubt in my mind that we will keep in touch. Our kids will know each other, and we will be life long "family friends" where everybody gets along (our kids will like each other, and THEY WILL LIKE IT!). Who knows, maybe we'll follow them to Washington eventually, but in the mean time, I'm getting used to saying goodbye, and trying to come to terms with the fact that they won't live 5 minutes away anymore.

Mr. Dave

This afternoon I got one of those phone calls that makes my blood go cold. Josh called and asked if I got the message he forwarded me from our Executive Secretary. We’ve been comfortably attending church in our ENORMOUS ward that has too many people and not many empty callings. I knew very well we would lie low at least until the ward splits again – that’s supposedly coming up in June. So, I didn’t even suspect any kind of calling for months. “A member of the bishopric would like to see you Wednesday night”. That was this afternoon in the middle of a very hectic day at work. I immediately made the phone call to set up the appointment so I wouldn’t chicken out and blow it off.

On my way over to the church I was praying and hoping that I wouldn’t be put in nursery because I just can’t handle being around babies all the time when I so desperately want one of my own. I seriously break down crying every week after church because everybody else in the entire world has a baby, or will soon, and I know I am the only person on the planet who isn’t a mom right now and it breaks my heart. I seriously knew that if I had a calling that required me to see how incredibly adorable all children are, I would be seriously depressed. I knew I would accept the calling and try real hard to be OK with it, but it would be one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life.

Well, when I talked to Brother Royal (who is one of the people in our ward who absolutely blows me away by his goodness) he said that the Primary had a need.....this is where I started to tear up in the incredibly long pause that he leaves before saying what the exact calling will be. He asked me if I’d play the piano in Primary. As soon as he said that my entire being calmed down and I just smiled at him. I told him I would love to. There is another pianist, so we can work out however we want to trade off who plays when.

On my way home I realized how perfect it is to be around kids all the time. During the part of my life when I don’t have any of my own children, I get to borrow an entire ward’s worth of kids for an hour or 2 every Sunday. The fact that it’s piano and not teaching makes it even better because it will require work and practice on my part, but I get to hide behind the piano and be cute and sing. I get to know exactly how things will go during primary, know which songs to practice, get to know the people in the ward who are in the primary, and I get do music!

I haven’t even done anything for the calling (other than running home finding the songs of the year on lds.org and practicing all of them, just in case) and I already love it. It is perfect and I’m THRILLED. I feel like I have a talent that will fill a need, I’ll be challenged, and I’ll learn. I can’t wait to start. I had forgotten how powerful music can be, and that the real purpose is not for American Idol, but to bring the spirit to our lives. I’m so thankful that I am loved and that I know my Heavenly Father is aware of my life, my circumstances, and of course my feelings.

Spring?

I love the snow. It really makes me happy. I think one of the reasons I love Spring so much is that it’s so unpredictable. That means a few good things for me, (1) I don’t HAVE to have a full wardrobe for warm weather and a whole wardrobe for cool weather. If I have half of each, in the spring time it’s OK. Yesterday I wore my summeriest (it’s a word according to Egbert’s Dictionary of Cool Words) clothes. Today, I can wear a turtleneck and nobody even looks at me weird because it suits the weather

Yesterday Josh brought me a picnic lunch to work (he loves me and I’m spoiled rotten) and ate with me at the park. After eating we just sat on the blanket and watched kids play at the park. We both dozed a little and enjoyed the beautiful spring day (80 degrees outside with a blue sky, green grass, and the sun shining) and the cool breeze. I even got a little pink, first sun-color (it doesn’t quite count as a sun-burn) of the season for me!

Today I’m sitting at my desk watching snowflakes the size of quarters fall on the daffodils. It’s starting to pile up on the grass and I can’t see past the house across the street. I’m seriously considering building a snowman tonight.

Yesterday when I got home from work, our house was 78 degrees and I seriously considered turning on the a/c but opted for opening the windows instead. We slept with the windows open all night long, and we were still too hot.

Today I’m literally going to go home and curl up in a blanket just to try to keep warm. I’m hoping we remembered to turn the heat back on so nothing freezes in the house. I can’t wait to pull on my sweat pants and a hoodie and curl up with a good book. Mmmmm I love both kinds of weather and I love Springtime in Utah for giving me both!

I guess some things never change.

Sometimes I feel like I'm still an awkward teenager stuck in high school: completely insecure with who I am and mostly what I look like. I feel like I will never be able to be friends with the pretty-girls and that they're all (as if all attractive females are in a club) hating my guts and thinking of ways to embarrass me. I recognize this is a completely ridiculous thought, and I recognize that I actually am friends with a lot of pretty girls, I even recognize that nobody really wants to waste their time thinking of ways to mike my life difficult, but I am still completely intimidated by those I don't know.

Today I went over to the clubhouse to exercise at my regular time. I finally found a time that there are very rarely people there, and that makes me like it better. 9:00 has officially become my "working out" time and I know the other people who go at that time, and they are nice (and pretty - which dis-proves my point).

After biking for 4 miles, the elliptical machine became available (somehow Jazz games being on always attract men to come in). Any other night there are no men in the clubhouse, but when a Jazz game is on, they all "work out" during the entire game. And by "work out" I mean sit on the weight machines and take turns walking on the elliptical while yelling at the players/coach/refs to "pass it pass it! Come on! Awwww!" and asking each other questions that nobody answers because those who should be listening are busy yelling the previous phrases. Shouts of "can you believe that? are you kidding me? when are they going to give up?" make it impossible for me to focus on reading, and force me to waste my time watching a Jazz game. After the game, they linger to watch the "post game commentary" while standing on the work out machines, and sitting on the chairs (read: weight machines). After they leave, I change the channel, and start watching a little Law and Order, when in walks the pretty girl of the day.

I probably weigh twice as much as she does, and at this point, I've been biking/walking for about 30 minutes, so I'm not pretty. When I went through my step aerobics phase, I decided that it was OK that the people on the video looked good while working out because I knew it was only because they would break for makeup and hair every 2 minutes, which is approximately how long it takes for me to go from looking like I just got home from work, to looking like I've been running from a serial killer for 26.2 miles. I don't think I've ever met anyone who looks exactly as pretty when they run as they do when they are normal.

She's wearing Bermuda shorts - I'm wearing Josh's old basketball shorts. She's wearing a CUTE fitted pocketed sweater, I'm wearing a shirt that says "Hershey's. You never forget your first love." She's wearing tiny white cheerleading/ballet slipper shoes. I'm wearing running shoes I got from Big 5. She has fresh makeup on - I've never understood how prettygirls ALWAYS look like they JUST finished applying makeup. And her hair is pulled up in a fashionable cute pony tail tucked neatly under her hat. Yes, that's right, she's wearing a really cute newsie's hat. And it looks really good on her. While she runs she lands gently on the treadmill on the balls of her feet. Somehow I manage to thump on the elliptical (I still haven't figured out how exactly how one can thump on a machine that only makes rounded smooth movements). My hair pulled back in a ponytail is frizzy and falling out. My face is red and yes, I'm sweating. I realize you're not supposed to admit to such disgusting acts, but I sweat when I run. I can't help it, and I hear it's good for you, so deal with it.

As she runs her cheeks never even flush, not even a little bit. Her hair doesn't fall out, and somehow her hat doesn't even move from it's perfect place on the top of her head. I swear it must have been super glued to her head. She didn't even breath hard, meanwhile my heart rate is literally 190 and I'm about to die. Needless to say I left as soon as I could justify it.

In her defense, she's probably a very nice girl, and in reality she did nothing to make me feel uncomfortable, but the second she walked in, I felt like a big icky blob of socially unacceptable human-ness. I thought after you grew up all of that insecurity magically disappeared, but apparently, some things never change.

Best birthday EVER!

This day just keeps getting better and better. We came home from work, walked in the door and this is what I saw. :)



I have a cute couch that matches something! It's beautiful, and SOOO comfy, and pretty trendy if you ask me. I wanted it soo much, and I absolutely knew I wouldn't have it for a long long time and then I came home and it's here! I love love love it!

I have to say that there aren't many husbands who could pull off a surprise couch without me even suspecting a little bit. My husband is amazing and I am the luckiest girl of all time! He's been lying to me all week long - he even pretended that he had to go to school this morning at 8:00 so I had to go to work early, but he was really just meeting his dad to help him bring it home. He called the store in advance and put it on hold and everything. He did some serious planning behind my back, and I don't have a clue how he pulled it off. I'm so glad he did though! Anybody wanna come sit on my couch? I guess we could play some games or watch a movie and stuff too - I just feel the need to have a party to show off my beautiful living room!

Happy Birthday Eve

Some days are just plain good days. I’ve never been much of a birthday celebrator, but this year I have decided to change my ways. I’m celebrating. I’m having parties with every family and with Jamie and Cameron. I’m celebrating with my sisters and I’m making Josh take me out.

Gramma Huggie always says you should celebrate your birthweek instead of your birthday. I’ve never taken it that far, but this year I started using the “but it’s my birthday” excuse – which I’ve never used before – at the beginning of the week.

“Josh, will you get me a drink of water for my birthday?”
“Can I have a birthday kiss?”
“Josh, will you do the dishes for me because it’s my birthday?”
“It’s my birthday, do I have to go to work today?”“Josh, tell me I don’t have to cook tonight for my birthday?”
“Let’s take a nap because it’s my birthday.”

My birthday isn’t until tomorrow, but I’ve been using it all week long, and truthfully, it’s been kinda fun.

This morning when the alarm went off, Josh rolled over, hugged me and whispered “happy birthday eve”. I literally came out of my peaceful slumber smiling. That almost never happens! What better way to start the day! Today is definitely a “today I love you” kind of day and that makes me happy. I think this is going to be a very good birthday year. I’ve already had more fun for my birthday than any other year (with the exception of the engagement, which story shall be told on the morrow) and it hasn't even started yet!

Confessions of the environmentally un-friendly.

Do you ever feel guilty just by being around somebody? There are a lot of people in the world who are FAR better at a lot of things than I am. And a lot of people who care about a lot of causes I don’t even think twice about. Sometimes I have to laugh at some of them (Save the polar bears from global warming? That’s your major concern in life?) and some I just feel guilty about as I continue to ignore the problem.

There is a person in my office who comes in once a week (on Fridays) to do small projects and keep things caught up for us. She’s probably the most environmentally friendly person I’ve ever met in real life. (I hear a lot about tree-huggers and hippies, but I don’t really know any.) A lot of people “do their part” by recycling (only if the city does it, heaven forbid we go out of our way to do so), not drinking bottled water, not being wasteful, etc. But this woman takes it to the extreme.

I work in a house between Ensign Peak and the State Capitol building. It’s UP a hill. And not a small one. Seriously, in the snow my car can’t get up the hill because it’s long and steep. She lives in Sugar House, and because she thinks it’s wasteful and environmentally un-friendly to drive, she takes the bus downtown and walks the 4-5 miles up the hill to work in the morning (adding about an hour to her commute). She’s the kind of person that has probably been taking her own bags to the grocery store for WAY longer than it’s been the cool thing to do. She doesn’t waste ANYTHING and doesn’t use anything disposable. She brings a Ziplock bag with cereal in it for lunch and I’m pretty sure has used the same Ziplock bag every day since she was born. Her husband owns some property in a town outside of St. George and she likes that town better than St. George because they don’t allow grass. She can’t believe people in St. George use so much water on their lawns and thinks it’s disgusting how wasteful they are. She also doesn’t want to live in St. George because she’d have to drive to the grocery store instead of walking or riding her bike. To top it all of she has used the same Arrowhead water bottle (just refilling it with tap water) since she started here more than a year ago.

Since she’s so vocal about how disgusted she is when she sees a car with only one person in it, people watering their lawns in a “dessert” (Salt Lake City), or somebody wasting gas driving to get fast food for lunch and then throwing away the paper bag and cup it came in, I’m pretty sure she’s also disgusted when I drink a bottle of water, and throw away the empty bottle when I’m done. We recycle the bottles - which makes me feel a little better, but I don’t compost my produce peels, grow my own wheat, or hike up the hill to work. Don’t tell her, but I even get plastic bags at the grocery store – and sometimes I don’t reuse OR recycle them.

I am a garbage folder, it’s a weird habit I’ve had longer than I can remember, but I don’t to throw things away unless they are smaller than they started. So, I squish my water bottles before I throw them away and they make a loud plastic crunching sound. Except on Fridays. I have a water bottle in my recycle can that is full of air and is taking up 3 times more space than it needs to and it’s making me crazy – BUT not as crazy as it would make me to have her glare at me for being so wasteful.

I think I am a wasteful person actually. I’m a leftovers-thrower-awayer. I drive to the grocery store for just 1 thing. I turn the lights on in my house well before the sun goes down. I leave the TV on while I’m cooking and can’t really watch it. I don’t even recycle paper anymore. I have 20-something pairs of shoes (all made in sweat shops I’m sure), and some of them I haven’t worn for months (proving that I don’t need them). I throw away water bottles when I’m done with them. I don’t rinse and re-use ziplock bags. I let the water run while I’m brushing my teeth and while I’m soaping up in the shower. I take long showers to get warm when I’m cold. If there is something scary in my food (a hair, or anything questionable in raw meat when I'm cooking) I’ll throw the whole thing away instead of picking around it. I don't think I've ever used all of a bottle of lotion or tube of chapstick.

I do have a few (3 counts as “few” right?) redeeming qualities I guess….like I NEVER throw away paperclips or rubber bands. I often re-use my grocery sacks. And I usually turn off my thermostat when we aren’t home.

For now I guess I’ll have to ignore the full-of-air water bottle that is taunting me and be confident that at least I threw it in the recycle can instead of the garbage. Maybe that will save a tree somewhere....

1,120 hours

The good news of the day today is that in exactly 1 month, 16 days, 16 hours, 3 minutes, 32 seconds that's 46 days, 16 hours, 3 minutes and 32 seconds or 4,032,212 seconds, 67,203 minutes, 1120 hours, 6 weeks Josh will officially be finished with school.

His last class is Thursday the 24th of May and he has his final clinic assignment on Saturday the 26th.

In some ways this year has flown by - like it kinda surprises me that we really already survived almost a whole year of not seeing each other more than a couple hours a day (during which we're getting ready for bed or ready for the day) with the exception of Sundays. I've gotten used to my week nights alone (sad but true) and I can't believe it's already over!

In other ways this year has absolutely dragged on. I can't even remember what we did before school. When we first started to discuss the possibility of night school, it sounded insane and I won't say it hasn't been hard. More for Josh than me I think. He has absolutely zero spare time, and since Saturday clinic started in November, he literally doesn't have a day off. He works all day M-F, comes home for "dinner" which usually includes very little food - more things like popcorn or chips & salsa. He heads out to school and comes home just in time to fall asleep. Weekends he gets up early, goes to school and finishes up his route with work. I can't imagine how excited he is to be done. And I can't express how excited I am to get my husband back. I miss him, and I'm thrilled to have time to hang out with him. We'll be able to barbecue - eat dinner together (before 11 pm), play games, make friends on weekdays, watch movies together, go on walks/hikes together, picnics.

Last summer was LOOONG to say the least. We had too few vacations, dates, and nights with our friends. This summer will be fantastic. Although Jamie and Cameron are moving :'( we'll have free weeknights. We'll get to hang out with our family. We have camping trips planned starting in June and going through the end of August. We'll get to swim in our community pool, camp less than 10 minutes away, play games with our neighbors and family, go on a cruise to Alaska and stop paying $$ to school. This will be our free summer and I can't wait!

One of these things....

Do you ever have moments when you just know you're not thinking clearly? It happens to me far more often than I'd like to admit. But, sometimes I see something, I KNOW it's wrong, and then I second guess myself and try to convince myself it's right. That's what happened last night.

I got up at 2:30 to get a drink of water - only I opened the fridge instead of the cupboard - first sign that I'm not quite coherent. After I figured out I wouldn't find a cup in there and started to turn toward the cupboard, I caught myself. I opened the fridge again thinking I saw something strange, but I already couldn't remember what it was. After I got my drink and got back in bed, I realized what it was.



When Josh comes home from school and is too tired to think straight, he doesn't always put things away quite where they go, but at least he puts it things away somewhere. In the middle of the night, I lay awake trying to decide if chips belong in the fridge or not. I finally decided that they definitely did not because of the magnet on the chip clip. It would be too cold when you took it off, and if the magnet was strong enough, it might stick to the door from the inside of the fridge. If chips did belong in the fridge, they wouldn't make chip clips with tiny metal parts on them in order to avoid bags of chips being stuck to the door, and frostbite on people who unknowingly touch said magnet.

Old Wives Tales

Isn’t it funny the things we do and believe just because someone told us to? The traditions we pass down without realizing it?

My boss Kim was telling me about cooking the ham in her family. For some reason her husband’s family always cut off the two ends of the ham before cooking it. When she asked why they simply responded “I don’t know, my mother always did it that way?” the next time they saw the mother, they asked the same question only to get the same response. Eventually they asked the grandmother. “Because the ham was always bigger than the pan and the middle is the best part.” 3 generations of women always thought that’s just how to cook a ham and never realized why!

I’ve been wondering what things I think work that may not really have the impact I assumed they did. I put eggshells in the disposal because it “sharpens the blades”. If I ever got gum in my hair, I would immediately try to wash it out with ice cubes and peanut butter. I drink garlic and cayenne pepper when I’m sick (thanks to the in-laws). When we have kids, I’ll hold my ring over my belly to see if it’s a boy or a girl. I try to blow out all of the candles on my birthday cake so my wish will come true. I avoid stepping on cracks (and my mother has never broken her back, so I know it works!). I know I will have exactly 3, 4, 6, 10, or 13 children because that’s how many seeds have been in my apples, how many seeds left on the dandelion after I blew on it, and the number I counted to while twisting the stem off every apple I’ve ever eaten.

However, today I have the best of them all. The ultimate cure for hiccups, and it works no matter what. Nobody knows why, but it does. About a month ago I had the hiccups at work. And not the cute little kind, the loud embarrassing owie kind. After 20 minutes of avoiding phone calls and trying to keep my hics down instead of up, my boss Gabe called me and I answered because I knew he could ignore it and we could discuss something else. I gave him the heads up that I had loud annoying hiccups and I apologized for hiccing up through the whole conversation. At the end of it, he told me to get somebody to plug my ears, and to close my eyes and lean by head back as far as it would go while I drank 8 ounces of water.

I’ve heard a lot of hiccups cures, and I have to say that this is by far the weirdest. I’ve heard of drinking upside down, holding your breath, having someone give you $100 for the next offense, drinking a lot, being scared, and a lot of others. Unfortunately only being scared by one Cameron Mark Burch works for me and none of the others are even close. Even more unfortunately Cameron doesn’t live at my house, or follow me to work in case of a sneak attack of the hiccups.

So, since it hurt, and I had work to do, and most of it involved people, I figured I had nothing to lose. Josh was here to pick me up, so I made him plug my ears, while I leaned my head back and drank. And whah la! (I don’t really know how that is spelled, so I did it as phonetically as possible.) My hiccups were gone. And not just temporarily either, they were really cured. So, there you have it.

Today Josh got the loud owie hiccups and I told him he had to try the cure. After showing me that he could get rid of them just by holding his breath (immediately followed by a hiccup) and that my “stupid old wives tale” wouldn’t work, I forced him to pull over so we could try it. He rolled his eyes, and I told him he had to because I try crazy psycho things for him all the time.

I’m sure we looked cool on the side of the road outside the capital building, with the car running, Josh’s seat leaned back with him sitting up and me trying to get to his ears. As we drove up he started fake-hiccuping (which usually spurs real hiccups) but could only get 1 ½ out before he started laughing too hard.

I'm not saying that they're all true, but here's to the things we do because they really do work instead of because we know no other way.

Gets me every time

Google is the master at a lot of things. If I didn’t have google, I don’t know where I’d be. :) I use it for blogging, photos (I heart Picassa), e-mail (take THAT hotmail!), I would use it for calendaring if it weren’t for my job that forces me to use Outlook, and of course the search engine that started it all.

Every time I turn around google is releasing some cool new feature or program that I can’t wait to use. I’ve come to expect great things from them, and the constant improvements seem to have no end in sight. But, today I’d like to recognize the google genius behind April Fools day.

Last year when I logged into my gmail I saw the “new! Gmail paper” link and of course wanted to know what cool new thing they had come up with. Here is the outline of what it is. I read it, and re-read it. And then couldn’t figure out why anyone in their right mind would want e-mails printed. Then looked at my calendar and could NOT stop laughing. I seriously thought they had instituted this program and couldn’t figure out why!

This year, I logged into gmail, and saw the “New Gmail custom time” link and of course clicked it. My exact words were “how cool is that?!?!” and then I was trying to figure out how gmail took over the world, and somehow wrote something that would overpower every single computer’s date/time stamping abilities. Then I looked at my calendar and laughed at myself. Geez, I’m a dork sometimes!
So, google geniuses, rest assured that you get me every year. I can't wait to see what you come up with next year!

Little did I know!

OK you have to see this! I never knew there was another way to fold shirts like this and I'm AMAZED!!! I watched it about 10,000 times and then came home and watched it more times while I tried to fold ever shirt I could find. Amazingly, it's not that hard! I mastered the flip of the wrist and I've never had so much fun folding laundry!

Face in the hole

Every time people ask "what we're doing in life" we tell them Josh is currently in massage school and we both work. WITHOUT fail people always respond with variations of "you're so lucky!" "what a fantastic hookup" "that's got to be nice for you!" all of these comments are directed at me. And I have to admit that's what I first thought when Josh wanted to go to massage school. (and he thought I was just being supportive of his dreams ha!) However, every time I get these reactions, I immediately report that I never get a massage because he's ALWAYS in school, and when he's not, he's too tired or busy studying for me to enjoy the fruits of his labor.

I secretly think it kinda bugs him that I say that - like I think he doesn't pay attention to me or something which isn't it at all. I just don't get a weekly massage like people (including myself) think I do/should. And I think I'm justified in my reaction because he's given me 2 massages. Ever. Since he started school an entire year ago.

Last week he was rubbing my shoulders because they hurt and I told him that I really wanted a massage. He looked at me like something was growing out of my head "that's what I'm doing!" he said defensively. I had no idea he thought that counted as a massage. In my mind, a "massage" means he busts out his table (which is currently gathering dust in my office), lotion, candles and Enya and spends at least half an hour not paying attention to anything but me and my aching muscles. (As I write this I suddenly realize that I sound incredibly spoiled and whiny. You should know that I don't expect a regular full blown massage, I realize that's what he does for his work and he can easily get sick of it. I don't expect it, I just enjoy it when it happens.)

From this experience we've coined the phrase "real-live face-in-the-hole massage". We're always trying to better our communication and be more specific to avoid unnecessary discussions (read: fights). So, now I properly ask for a "real-live face-in-the-hole massage", and amazingly, this week I got one! I'm still amazed that sometimes I get what I want simply by asking for it.

I'm also amazed at how good my husband is at what he does. I sometimes forget that he's not a high school boyfriend, whose prime skills have to do with CD players and skateboards, and that he's a grown up who is good at things. It makes me so proud of him! And, even though I'm just the tinsiest bit biased, I have to say he is VERY good at massage therapy.

He's good at a lot of things actually. He's good at fixing stuff, seeing how stuff works, and building things (not to mention your typical man-jobs i.e. reaching high things, carrying heavy things, and opening the pickle jar and stuck on finger nail polish). He did a ton of work on his truck (may the truck rest in peace). He builds things. He can do tile. He is learning more about computers (thank you Redbox) and programming. He can fix the sink when I fill it with potato peels (not that I'm allowed to do that ever again). He can fix my emotional issues and knows a lot about physical health too. I have to say, I really do have the best husband of all time.

I'd like to go on record as saying that he does sometimes give me real-live face-in-the-hole massage and even if he doesn't do it often it's well worth the wait.

Good family fun

In high school I didn't really think of my family (siblings, parents, etc) as my friends. I always rolled my eyes when people said their moms and sisters were their best friends and thought they were lying. Then they grew up and cool enough for me to hang out with (because you KNOW I wasn't the uncool one. At 14 years old, I knew they just weren't fun enough for my tastes) and now I LOOOVE my family. I just can't tell you how nice it is to have cool family members.

After my fantastic dinner with Sarah, on Friday morning I woke up craving family and games. Katy and Randy are some of our favorite people to play games with. Randy somehow brings the level of fun in a game up by about 1,000%. When we play thinking games (settlers, attika, that one train game that I can't remember than name of) he somehow makes it competitive in a good way. All the while coaching (when necessary and appropriate) and complimenting "excellent moves". It's always a good time.

So Friday morning I called Randy and asked if they wanted to come play games. To my pleasant surprise they did! Yay for us! They came up at about 6:00, we made pizza which was FANTASTIC (ever had artichokes on pizza? you should.) and broke out the games. We played a few rounds Attika and then of course had to play Spades. Sometime in the middle of Attika we starting talking about how it was going to be a horrible drive for them and they should just sleep at our house. After all, we have a giant love sac they can use for a bed. At about midnight when we STARTED playing Spades, we knew they were really going to. Ryann was already asleep in the other room, so they could just crash here and leave after breakfast in the morning. Well, we played games until about 1:30, then they watched a movie (they're crazy) afterward. We totally had a sleepover!

I remember thinking that when I was a grown up it would be so cool because I could have sleepovers with anyone I wanted, anytime I wanted. And I wouldn't even have to ask. How cool does that make me? Then I wound up living with everyone I liked, and so sleepovers really never came into play. Once in a while we'd have people stay at our house, but it's been a LOONG time since I've had a sleepover. I love it!

This morning we had waffles (thank you Mulan "in the morning, I'm makin' waffles!") and hard boiled eggs (thank you Gramma Burraston and Easter). They had to pack up and leave early enough for Randy to do a scouting food thing. Josh had to go to school, and now I already didn't sleep in today, so I may as well stay up and clean my house. I'm excited for a fun day after a super-fun night!

The best part is that tonight we're doing games with Jamie and Cameron and Sunday we're going to Josh's family's to play games again. That's the stuff weekends are made of.

Thank goodness for sisters.

Tonight was one of those calm relaxing PERFECT nights. I dropped Josh off at school and met my sister, Sarah, at Sweet Tomatoes for a girls night. This is our favorite restaurant and the place we go every time we go out. Good food, good company it couldn't have been better.

Sarah is one of those people that is easy to talk to about anything. She's open and warm and non-judgemental and something about her just makes me spill my guts every time I see her. Sometimes I don't even have guts to spill but somehow I can sit in a restaurant with her for 2 hours, talk about anything and everything and not even realize we've been there more than 5 minutes.

Tonight we were talking about husbands being gone and how it's hard to adjust to them coming home. I told her that I'm starting to get nervous about having Josh be home all night with me. She related and then we talked more about trouble adjusting and transitioning. It turns out that from the time you are a baby (like 2 months old) one of the few "personality traits" that you can identify is trouble transitioning. The more we talked about it, the more I realized that I have that issue.

She talked about her son who doesn't like to be surprised with things. He likes having a plan and if you throw him for a loop in it (even if it's a good loop) he whines and doesn't like it. I started to kindof laugh, and then realized I do that. I think I make Josh crazy with my constant need to know what we're doing next. I can't enjoy what's happening now if I don't know how it's going to end and the next thing will begin.

Even last week, when Josh surprised me with a fun park date, I just kept asking what we were doing next. I had fun, and it was a fantastic idea, but I couldn't stop thinking about what was next. Sometimes I'm even crazy about it enough to have to know how we will drive somewhere. Josh will take a "different" (read: wrong) turn and I immediately panic. "Where are we going? I thought you were taking me to work. Why are you taking this road instead of the road we normally take?" It drives Josh crazy, and I think I'm a horrible nagging passenger, but I feel really uncomfortable when I don't know what's going to happen next. I don't even like going to restaurants I'm not familiar with because I don't like not knowing how it works.

Not only small transitions bother me, but big ones are sometimes worse. Josh going back to school was emotionally trying for me. Him coming back home is already starting to be hard. Making decisions about changing jobs, moving, committing to a new schedule in anything is scary to me. I like to just do what I did yesterday. I like consistency. I like knowing that tomorrow will be the same as today was.

The best part of all of this crazy talk is that Sarah relates and makes me feel like it's fine to be crazy. "So you know that transition is difficult for you, and you avoid situations that you don't like. When it's unavoidable, you act carefully." She says it like it's no big deal. I have a tendency to over exaggerate things and think it's the end of the world. She has a tendency to realize that life is just the way it is, and knowing is half the battle.

After a fantastic dinner and soothing conversation, I headed home to go on a walk before time to pick up Josh. My mom used to have this magnet on the fridge that was a picture of a chick (like baby chicken, not like girl) and it said "a good friend is cheaper than a therapist". I now get it, I thought I got it before, but now I can really see it. The world would be a better place if more people had sisters like mine.

J.M. Barrie

One of our favorite differences between our current ward and our old ward is that the activities are geared toward people our age since most people are our age. It's not that our old ward didn't have activities, they just weren't activities I wanted to go to. For example, book group was about the deeper meaning of Neal A. Maxwell's teachings. I don't even get the shallow meaning of his words, and I'm certainly not ready for the deeper meaning. In this ward, book group is reading Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie.

I've seen Disney's weaker, much less desirable version of Peter Pan and I didn't really love it - so I wasn't thrilled to read the book. But, Audra (a nice girl that sits by me in church) said she'd go to book group if I would, so I told her I would. Wow am I glad! What a fantastic book! It's one of those books that is so well written that I just want to read it over and over again. It's certainly not character or plot driven. It's just that I want to read the the actual words. I love the writing style, I want to laugh at the insights, I want to find something else written the same way. I want there to be a sequel, but not because I care what happens to Peter or Wendy or any of the others. I just want more of that. I haven't read something I loved like that for a LONG time.

The other part of book group this month was watching Finding Neverland. Josh went and rented it for me (by the way, Blockbuster is lame and I remembered why we love Redbox) and we watched it together. I seriously cried - and tried not to, but couldn't help it! Sometimes I cry in movies because I want to cry and a movie is a good excuse, sometimes it's because I feel obligated to, and sometimes (rarely) I cry because I seriously can't help it. What a fantastic movie. I have a little crush on Johnny Depp again (my Pirates crush went away), and I want to read a biography of J.M. Barrie. What an amazing story and an amazing life. *Sigh* I just can't express how much I loved both the book and the movie - I will buy them both and make my children read/watch them over and over with me.

Our new arrival: Junior

For Easter this year, since it's a holiday about life and we have no babies and none on the way, we decided to get a plant. A houseplant. This is funny because I have the un-greenest thumb this side of Timbuktu (which I think includes more space than "this side of the Mississippi").

There are a lot of things I do at my job, and some of them are mentally challenging and some of them are not. And some of them make me absolutely 100% crazy because as hard as I try to be qualified, I can't seem to do it. Yes, I can review legal documents for our prestigious attorneys. I can negotiate lease contracts for thousands of dollars. I can have an assistant (well, I will in the future). I can prepare hard core accounting crap for taxes. I can build spreadsheets to analyze the potential ROI, evaluate market conditions and decide if we should purchase a property or not.

I can do a million cool-sounding things. But, watering the office plants is my greatest challenge. Seriously. David has plants all over his house, and I somehow manage to kill them, bring them back to life, and kill them again. They droop. They turn yellow. They turn brown. I even sunburned a palm tree! (I think that takes special skill.) House plants are my kryptonite. So, venturing out to uncharted territory and bringing home our very own plant to love and care for is a stretch for me – but I'm STOKED about it.

Josh and I went plant shopping and of course found the perfect plant. AND the perfect bucket thing for the plant to go in. Then came the hard part. How do we plant it? We want it to grow, so our bucket is quite oversized (but beautiful). Since I have a "issues" (putting it nicely) with watering I was trying to explain to Josh how we need an ugly bucket for the plant to grow in, then a drip pan thing, THEN the beautiful decorative bucket for decoration. He thinks that limit's the plants potential (because the oversized bucket is now too small) and if you "just don't over-water it" you can just put plant in dirt in decorative bucket without having drainage issues. After a phone call to my mom, discussing it with the guy in the store, and debating about how best to care for the newest member of our family we decided to go against everything everybody was telling us and put rocks in the bottom of said decorative bucket, then dirt with plant in it. That way the rocks will act as a reservoir. The best part of our master rock plan is to "just don't over-water it".

We had to use our barbeque tablecloth to protect the carpet.

Look at my beautiful potted plant!

We came home to put our plant in the corner where it will bring life and good energy to the living room. And I must say it looks fantastic. We've decided to call him (not sure why he's a him, but when a plant is a him, there's just no arguing about it….) Junior. The label said he can grow 4 – 6 feet tall, at which point it will be even more fun to call him Junior because he'll be bigger than both of us, and that makes us happy.

The first liquid food he's had....precious huh?

And of course our first family pictures. Of course, it's just like Junior to not make funny faces when it's clearly supposed to be a funny picture. He just marches to the beat of his own drum already. :)

My adorable baby-hungry husband.

I love my husband. I think he is HILARIOUS and fantastic and amazing. And just like any girl on the planet, when we were dating I LOVED that he loved kids. He has young cousins, and I remember walking into his house one day to see an adorable scene.

He was chasing the kids around, and one of his cousins (probably 3 years old) ran up to him and shyly (I think he was embarrassed that he needed help) asked for help with buttoning his pants. Josh whipped the kid around, and without anybody noticing, buttoned and zipped up the pants and the kid ran off laughing and squealing with the rest of them. I know it’s not a big deal to be able to button up a kid’s pants faster than anybody will notice he’s asking for help, but when you’re dating and young and in love, it’s one of those things that makes you go “awwwww….” So I went ‘awww…..’ and Josh looked at me like I was stupid.

He hasn’t changed at all of course, and being the 2nd of 6 kids means he’s had plenty of practice taking care of little ones. He loves to roughhouse with my nephews, his little brothers (only one of whom is actually littler than he is), and any other male that will play. He loves to hold brand new babies and he is getting baby hungry. In fact, he’s been baby hungry for quite some time, but now he’s openly expressing it on a regular basis (like 3-5 times a week).

At church yesterday he practically stole the Sunday School teacher’s baby from her so she could teach her lesson. At my parent’s house he tried to make Ryann play with him all day long. And this morning when he woke up he jumped out of bed all excited.

“Do you know what today is?” He sounded so excited that I almost thought the Easter Bunny had come a day late to our house….then I remembered what day it was.
“Monday.” I groaned.
“Yeah, and I bet Jamie and Cameron are back today!” (Jamie and Cameron went to Washington for a LOOONG time (2 whole weekends), and we miss them desperately.) “Do you think they already have plans for the weekend?”
“I don’t know Josh, I’ll ask them.”
“If not, do you think they’ll let me hold Evie (their 2 month old daughter)?” Seriously, he’s like a kid on Christmas morning!

So Jamie and Cameron, wanna hang out this weekend? If you’re already busy, or have other plans, we’ll miss you, but Josh would love to babysit if you’d like a night out.

Josh is just now getting a taste of the baby hunger that I’ve had for almost 2 years now. I will say that him being that excited about it, makes the blessed event (whenever that winds up being) even more fun than it would have been anyway.

Knock knock. who's there?

I'm still getting used to being the grown-up of the house...and truthfully I'm not very good at it. It makes Josh crazy, but I don't like to talk to people unless I know what they want so I can prepare my response appropriately. So, if the phone rings and it's a number I don't recognize, I don't answer. If it's a number I do recognize, but I can't figure out why on earth they would call me, I don't answer. I ALWAYS listen to my messages and return them, and there are a lot of times I genuinely don't hear my phone or don't have it with me (so don't go around assuming I'm ignoring phone calls from you if I don't answer). But there are just some days I can't handle surprise conversations with people, so I avoid them.

I do the same thing when the doorbell rings - mostly because I'm scared it will be a door to door sales-person and I'm a sucker for salespeople. This causes a problem when you're a Mormon because the Mormons regularly drop by unannounced. Especially when you're new - which we are.

Tonight the doorbell rang, and I was in the bathroom, about to jump in the shower - which means I was blasting country love songs through my whole house and not dressed appropriately to answer the door.

The dilemma is three fold: Fold 1. I was clearly home. Whoever was there would have to be stupid not to notice that ALL of the lights were on and the sounds coming out of my house were not natural "I'm not home" sounds. Fold 2. I didn't want to talk to whoever it was anyway because I didn't know who it was and I don't like talking to people I don't know and secretly I would have avoided answering the door even if I wasn't about to jump in the shower, which I was. Fold 3. There was no way I was going to get dressed and down the stairs, hide the laundry in the middle of my living room, and answer the door before mystery person left.

Needless to say I didn't answer the door, and amazingly I resisted the urge to un-nonchalantly peek out my blinds to see who it was. But, here's my question - what am I supposed to do in those situations? It's rude to not answer the door when you are clearly home (if the lights are off, and you're hiding in your basement, and there is no way they'd know you were home, it's not so rude). And now I feel guilty like I was avoiding someone, only I don't know who it was, and I'm not sure who to feel guilty and awkward around so I'm seriously considering not going to Relief Society on Sunday just to avoid whoever it was that was at my door. *Sigh* Being a grown up and a Mormon is hard sometimes.

Officially Spring

Yesterday I was wearing sandals and took them off and wandered around the house (office) barefoot. Jason, noticed and said something, I told him it was legal to go barefoot in the summertime. He looked at me like I was crazy. Then promptly pointed out that it would be SPRING at 11:58 that night so technically, technically it was still winter.

I don't know what my deal is. I like winter, I like snow, I like clouds, I like dark gray skies. However, I also like flowers, and I'm ready now. I decided that if there isn't going to be snow on the ground, it should be BEAUTIFUL outside, like it is now. It's been the perfect temperature the past few days, not too hot, not too cold, all you need is a light jacket!

I love this time of year. You can wash your car, and it won't be covered in road salt within 24 minutes. You can go barefoot outside to grab the mail. You can have water fights in the driveway with the neighbor kids. You can take pretty pictures on temple square. When you leave after dark, it's still plenty warm and you don't HAVE to wear shoes. It is the season of vacations, swimming, hikes, barbeques, picnics, tanning, flowers, open windows, campouts, beautiful colors, family reunions and fresh smells. I LOVE Spring!

I'd like to go on record now as saying that I do NOT love summer. I love spring. I love the change in the season. I hate when it's so hot outside that you can't touch your car, seat belts, go on a walk, or do anything else for more than 2 seconds. I hate sunburns. I hate the dry waves of heat. I hate looking at mirages in the street and realizing that I literally live in the dessert. By mid-July I will be craving winter, snow storms, and crunchy leaves. I will long for the simpler days when all you have to do is brush a couple of feet of snow off the car instead of put gloves on in 105 degree weather before touching anything inside it. I will wish on every star that it will rain, long and hard, and I will take every available opportunity to head up where it's cooler (anywhere up, I don't care where).

So, for these few weeks that the weather is perfect, I will enjoy every possible second of it. I’m putting a chair on my patio, I will sit out there and relish in the sunlight. I’ll read a good book while breathing real air. I’ll eat my lunch on the front porch. I’ll walk down to the park when Josh comes to pick me up from work and meet him there. I’ll wear open toed shoes as many days as possible. I’ll probably pick somebody else’s flowers and put them in my house. (Shh…don’t tell.) I’ll even watch American Idol through my living room window so I can be outside during it. And before too long, I’ll be packing up our camping gear for as many overnighters as possible, and loving that every week there is some celebration, family reunion, event, or trip.

Sunday School answers 101

Last week Josh and I finished listening to the Book of Mormon, and since we're studying it in Sunday School this year, we decided that instead of starting over at the beginning, we'd jump in with the Sunday School lessons, and read the chapters BEFORE Sunday like we're supposed to.

Some interesting things happened.
1. We have more gospel discussions than we used to.
2. I'm more excited to go to Sunday School on Sunday.
3. We participate more in class.
4. We think about what we're reading, so we'll be able to participate instead of just reading because we're supposed to.
5. I like reading scriptures and am more excited about what’s there than I was before.
6. As a result of all of those things, we are more Spiritually Minded (which, by the way, Is Life Eternal).

I've decided that it's a great thing to be doing. It's almost like the church leaders KNEW that good things would happen if members read the scriptures with purpose and prepared for lessons in advance! :)

So, last week our lesson was on 2 Ne. 31 - 33 and Josh and I talked a little about why Christ was baptized. When we first started talking about it we immediately went to Sunday School answers: "to fulfill all righteousness, to set a good example, because it was a commandment" and while we drove in, I was thinking of all of those answers, but decided I wasn't satisfied. "to set an example of what? What am I supposed to be learning here? I already know all of that stuff, and I have for a long time, but there has to be more to it." Suddenly the Sunday School answers just weren't cutting it for me.

After thinking about it, here's what I've come up with. All of those are true. BUT we usually apply them to him and his life, and don't apply it in our lives because it's not natural. "Why did Christ need to be baptized?" naturally changes to "Why do I need to be baptized?" when you're using the ‘liken all scriptures trick’. BUT, what about "Why did Christ need to be baptized? and what situations are like that in my life?" I started thinking that Christ didn't need to be baptized for remission of sins because he was perfect. He didn't need to become a member of the church because there wasn't really an organized church and if there was he was by nature already a member (feel free to argue that point with me, it's not real strong...). BUT, he did need to do the things he'd been commanded to do because they were commandments.

Since we're taught to follow the spirit of the law, I think we sometimes forget the letter of the law. And that might be fine sometimes, but what blessings am I missing out on because I don't think I need them? We think we understand the spirit of the law and if we think it doesn’t apply to us, we don’t have to keep that law.
"I don't need the financial blessings of tithing, so it's OK if I don't pay."
"I don't need my heart turned to my fathers right now in my life, so if I wait until I'm old to genealogy, that's OK."
"I don't need the spiritual blessings of attending the temple this month, so when I feel I need that boost next month, I'll do it then."
"I don't need the physical blessings of obeying the WHOLE Word of Wisdom (not just the coffee, tea, tobacco part) because I'm healthy enough without it."
“If I’m not feeling the spirit at church (which is the whole point of going) because I’m chasing kids, and so is everybody else. I don’t need to go. I’ll get more out of staying home.”
The list goes on. BUT, even though Christ didn't need to be cleansed of sin, he was still baptized. And sometimes, I think we need to do the same. Even if we think we don't need the specific blessings that are tied to a particular commandment (which we probably do even if we don't see a need) we still need to obey those commandments. If nothing else, just so we aren't breaking commandments or ignoring counsel from the prophet.

So, there you go, those are my ramblings and my spiritual insight for the week. If we keep this up, maybe I can have more insight from next week’s lesson too! At least I hope so, I’m liking this being prepared for church thing. :)

Promotion

Today my boss sat me down and told me that I'm getting promoted. Instead of being an Administrative Assistant, I am now the Office Manager. Even though they sound exactly the same to me it means - more responsibility and more money! Yay!

The title isn't really anything that exciting to me. I'm not really into titles. I'm just happy about more money. :) Although, when I told Josh, I heard this weird edge of concern in his voice, then I asked if he was still going to be OK with me not working when we start having kids. That's always been the plan, but I think it freaks him out to think that we wouldn't have my income - and the more I make the harder it will be when it come times for me to stop working.

I've always been a little scared of quitting work (I have this underlying fear that I won't be a good mom) and I think I'm feeling the same way. But, since I don't know when we'll be having kids, I figure it doesn't do any good to worry about it until it's an issue - so here I am being excited about my promotion.

One of the coolest things about this is that they are going to be replacing our Accounts Payable person with an Administrative Assistant who will do a little bit of bookkeeping. BUT, this person will also be my assistant. I'm going to have an assistant! I'll be "over" 2 people, and doing the interviewing/hiring of the new person coming up shortly. How nuts is that?

Don't forget the lyrics

Sometimes people put discs that are not the DVD they rented from Redbox back into the machine in an attempt to not get charged. It doesn't work, but they do it anyway. For us, it means that we get to listen to some random CD's that we would never otherwise listen to.

A while ago Josh got a country Karaoke CD. I turned it on last night while we were working and was AMAZED at how few lyrics I know. Actually how few songs I know. The song would start, I’d immediately recognize that I knew and had heard the song – but I couldn’t place it. Until the chorus started and the harmony came in with the words. Even when I could place the song, I couldn’t remember any of the words – and even if I did know the words, I couldn’t place how long the intro was. So, Josh and I drove around “singing” the wrong words, to the wrong tune, to the songs on the CD. If you happened to be subjected to the horrible sounds coming from our car – we apologize for putting you through that, but it’s seriously harder than you’d think! Those American Idol contestants have a hard job and I have a new appreciation for what they do.

The emotional roller-coaster that is me.

Recently my friend Aubrie wrote a tribute blog about how so many people are so good and have influenced her life for the better. This is just further evidence of her sainthood, something I’ve never really doubted. Aubrie is one of those incredibly good Christ-like people who always looks for the best in other people. Just this morning, I decided I am not.

Last night was one of those crazy emotional nights. I’ll spare you all the details, but between 5 and 7:30 I went to all extremes of feeling grumpy, ecstatic, productive, frustrated, happy, irritated, and whooped. The forte being just after we got home, and Josh and I were trying to decide what to do.

Josh’s mom gave us a John Bytheway CD for Easter one year about what he wish he’d known when he was a newlywed. He and his wife talk about compromising, and tell some funny stories. They did say that they use the rating system when they are choosing what to do. “bowling. John: 7 John’s wife:9; go out to a movie. John: 3 John’s wife: 5; ice cream and walking. John: 9 John’s wife: 8” and then they pick the thing with the seemingly highest score. What it prevents is 2 people doing something neither of them want to do because they think the other one wants to do it. For us it also makes us figure out what we want to do.

For example, last night before we got home, Josh said he’d go on a walk with me, or go over to the clubhouse to exercise. When we got home, I was waiting for him to say he wanted to go, because I didn’t want to make him go if he didn’t want to. “So, what do you want to do tonight?” I prompted him.
“mmmm I don’t care. Do you want to rub me feet?”
“umm….if you want me to I guess I could.” (you should know that Josh loves to have his feet rubbed, and he doesn’t love walking. I knew that he didn’t want to go over to the clubhouse and he know I did.)
“OK.” He said hopefully. (He does this really annoying thing where he pretends not to notice when I grudgingly agree to do something I don’t want to do. He just takes the words at face value and says he isn’t obligated to guess what I’m thinking behind the words – when I write it down it seems much more reasonable on his part, but in real life I think it’s completely unfair and he should have to guess what I’m thinking because 1. I’m his wife and that’s what he’s supposed to do. 2. I should be exempt from telling him what I really want and he should just know.)
“Actually I don’t really want to” (I remembered the rule that if I just say what I want, he probably won’t make me do something I don’t want to do.)
Sad rejected face from Josh.
“What else would you like to do?” I asked.
“Well, I would go to the clubhouse if you rub my feet first.” Now he’s started the bartering which just makes me mad. I shouldn’t have to earn the right to do something fun with my husband! (hysteria is starting to set in.) What does he think I am? His slave? He’s the one who married me! Why do I have to work before I get to have fun when he just gets to start having fun right away! My life is so unfair.
“We don’t have to go to the clubhouse.” Even though he’s not obligated to read my tone – sometimes he does, and this is one of the times that he couldn’t have missed the put out tone in my voice.
“Let’s do the rating thing.” He suggested
And just like that he saved our night!
Out to a movie: Me 3, Josh 5;
Clubhouse: Me 9, Josh 5;
Go on nice mellow romantic walk around our neighborhood while holding hands and talking about life and the future and stuff (you’ll never guess who thought of that idea) Me 10, Josh 2;
eating ice cream: Josh 9, Me 4;
Go on a nice mellow romantic walk around Temple Square holding hands and talking about life and the future and stuff (sometimes just changing one element gets you a lot closer to what you want!) Me 10, Josh 4 (2 point increase isn’t bad)
Watching a movie at home: Josh 8, me 8
“So, why don’t we watch a movie and you eat ice cream from our freezer?” I suggested. Josh didn’t want ice cream from the freezer, then we had to rate all of the ways we could get ice cream. Turns out Josh wanted to go to Nilson’s Frozen Custard – so we went. After pulling on our most comfortable pajama pants and hoodies, we left.

We’ve never been there, but we’ve driven by it, and I’ve been told that it’s fantastic. It’s a crazy busy place on the weekends, and when we pulled up to the drive through, they had papers taped up to where the lighted menu would normally be – so we couldn’t see anything until we were right in front of it. And we didn’t even have a clue what kind of thing we wanted. I asked what a “concrete” was, and the kid working the window sighed an annoyed sigh and said it was a really thick shake. I was looking for something that sounded good even though I didn’t want ice cream in the first place, while Josh was telling me what he wanted. The annoying kid in the window got back on the thing and barked at me that people (1 car behind me) were waiting and I needed to order. I cried. And ordered. I didn’t get anything because I felt too pressured, so we just ordered what Josh wanted and waited in the rest of the drive through line (pulling forward almost 2 whole inches before having to stop in the line again!)

I have to admit, I was not looking for the best in that kid, or even giving him the benefit of the doubt. It didn’t even cross my mind until this morning that he probably had a long icky night – he had to work on a Friday night instead of whatever else he wanted to do. He was trying to get as many people through the store as possible because it was SWAMPED inside. Tons of people. So his rude remark to me probably wasn’t anything personal. But, I totally cried all night long. I cried the whole way home, and in the grocery store where I got my ice cream. Sometimes it’s embarrassing to be so emotional – but I couldn’t help it! He made me feel stupid so I cried!

We got home, I ate WAY too much Ben & Jerry’s and watched Dan in Real Life (Which, by the way, was NOTHING like the previews made it look, but was still good. I’ve officially added that soundtrack to my soundtrack wishlist.) before going to bed. In all, it was a fantastic night – and a sucky night. That must be what Dickens was talking about in A Tale of Two Cities.

Alaska here we come!

Josh and I have officially decided to be irresponsible and completely un-grown-up. And we’re happy about it. Josh has been in school since I met him, and in May he will be done, which is THRILLING to me. I can’t even tell you how excited I am to NOT be quizzing him on anatomy (not as exciting as it sounds). Plus, since he’ll be done with massage school, I might get a massage every once in a while. AND as an added bonus, I get my husband back!

Well, in celebration of that, and being married for 2 years, and getting a bonus from Redbox – we’re going on a cruise. An Alaskan cruise to be more specific. We’ll leave from Seattle on July 19th, and spend our anniversary “at sea” heading up to Juneau. Next we’ll hit Hubbard Glacier (which according to JP the cool sales dude is the “coolest of all the glaciers”, I don’t think he was trying to be punny, but he was), then to Sitka. From there we got to Ketchikan (which I just learned out to say – ask me and I’ll do it for you, I’m practicing until we get there) and Victoria and back to Seattle.

Here is my short list of reasons this is going to be an AWESOME trip.

1. You have to have a passport to go. I’m not sure why, but I think that makes a trip much cooler. It’s not like we’re really leaving, we’re just in Victoria (barely Canada which is barely not the US) for a few hours, but I’m counting it as leaving the country. I don’t have a passport (I know, I’m working on it now!) and never have, which means this is a big step for me.
2. It’s ALASKA! Tell me how that’s not cool. I dare you.
3. We’re going all by ourselves. Now, for most people, that probably doesn’t sound like a big deal, but the farthest we’ve been from home all by ourselves is St. George. So, it’s still a big deal. If you’re interested in coming on the same cruise, you’re hereby officially invited, and we won’t be sad about losing this RFAT (Reason For an Awesome Trip).
4. It’s seriously going to be cold. Like glaciers and stuff in July. Last year in July we went to St. George. It was not cold. It was hot. This will be cold….or at least not hot.
5. Seriously, it’s Alaska!
6. We get to spend a whole day “at sea”. I’ve never spent a whole day at sea – but I seriously can’t think of anything cooler. The ship is beautiful, the sea is beautiful and the food is endless, it doesn’t get better than that.
7. We’re married. The last time we went on a cruise we were not. (Also not as fun as it sounds). We went with Spencer and Stephanie and Spencer’s family (Josh’s friends from high school). I shared a room with Steph, and Josh with Spence. They were in engaged, we were engaged, it sucked - the cruise was awesome. It just sucked that we weren’t married. This time there will be no curfew, 1 big bed, and no need to stay in large groups. Marriage rocks.
8. Last but certainly not least, we get to see my wayward brother on the way there! OK That’s funny because my brother isn’t wayward at all, he just doesn’t live in Utah. Since we’ll be so close, we’ll go out and hang out with Spencer and Em and their 3 kids. We don’t get to see them enough, so it will be cool to see them and hang out if we can (can we come hang out Em?).

And that’s just the short list! Just wait until I get to the long list. *sigh* This is going to be the summer of freedom, irresponsibility, and fun.

Which came first the Byrds or Solomon?

This morning was a good music morning. I frequently use my blog as my own personal radio station when I'm at work since I don't have a radio, but I do have a computer and my blog has a lot of my favorite songs. So, this morning during the silence of breakfast, I "turned on" my blog.Josh looked over at me with a puzzled expression on his face.

"That's a good song." He said hesitantly.
"Thank you."
"That's weird." He responded.

Josh and I don't always agree about music. We both like country, but that's about it. He grew up on FM 100 and I CAN'T STAND that station except on Sundays. Yes, they have some good songs once in a while, but I don't and can't listen to it all day every day, and the annoying morning DJ's make me crazy. I like 101.9 and he calls it "angry girl music" and immediately changes the station if I turn it on. I'm OK with that, and we don't really fight over it, we just both know we don't agree.

However, this morning he was shocked to find that he liked a song on my blog. I think he forgot that we really do like some of the same music, just not all of it.

On the way to work, as I was frantically searching for anything worth listening to, we found "Turn! Turn! Turn!" by the Byrds. We listened and I explained to Josh that in Jr. High my seminary teach (Brother Evans) made us listen to this song when we studied that scripture in the Old Testament.

"What scripture?"
"The one that has the same words as these lyrics." I paused waiting for the light to click on above his head. The one only I can see.
"This is in the scriptures?" He asked. "Do you think they took the words from the scriptures?"
"No dear, I think that Solomon took the scriptures from the 60's band the 'Byrds'" I tried my hardest not to sound too much like the "here's your sign" guy – but when you're saying something so simple it's hard. Josh thought about that for a second, then decided to argue his point so he didn't feel so dumb.
"You know those Old Testament prophets were pretty….prophetic. Maybe he saw them making that song and decided it sounded like good scripture so he put it in there." I have to admit, Josh is good at thinking outside the box that's for sure. And while I don't agree with his idea, I have to give him kudos for creatively arguing his point.

Guiltlessness

I’ve made a decision. I will no longer feel guilty about not being productive all night when Josh is gone. My new productivity-curfew is 10pm.

With Josh and I getting up and going to work at the same time every day, I can’t get over the fact that he keeps going all night long and doesn’t get home until 11:00 every night. I get this overwhelming sense of guilt when he comes home to me sitting on the couch watching TV. I know he’s working himself to death, and it makes me think I should too. Until this week. I usually come home, clean, do laundry, my nighttime job, read, try to better myself in some way and then crash just before he gets home. It occurred to me that I don’t necessarily need to feel guilty about that, and since I don’t particularly enjoy the guilt, I quit. I can be as productive as I want before 10:00, laundry, dishes, walking, working, etc. But at 10:00 my night belongs to me and that’s OK. Josh is at school, and he’s working hard, and learning, but he also gets a massage every week, and his school is all about relaxing, restructuring and therapeutic stuff. So, the trade off is that I get to quit my day an hour earlier than he does.

It might be stupid to think it needs to be even, but I really do. I guess that isn’t really even, but I’m calling it good. No more guilt after 10:00.

So, here I am doing whatever I wan, which happens to be blogging about how it’s OK that I’m blogging. I’m sick. Seriously sick.

Just like mom

We’ve now lived in our house for 2 months, and for the first time I finally made it over to the clubhouse. I was excited to have a clubhouse, but just haven’t made the time to go and use it.

Maybe it’s because on Sunday my mom told me she joined a gym, which makes her cooler than me, but I decided that Monday was the day I would run over and check it out. I figured that it’s maybe half a mile away (I watched the odometer when we drove by one day) which means I’d jog a mile (counting both ways) and go do a bike machine or something while I was there.

As it turns out, it was kinda cold and I didn’t feel like taking the real roads, so I cut across the common area and between people’s houses and in reality probably walked 1/10 of a mile to get there instead. BUT, I got there and did the treadmill for a mile and half, and biked for almost 2 miles. I know it’s silly, but I’m kinda proud of myself for doing it. AND it wasn’t hard because there is a big nice TV there, so I can just watch something and before I know it, I’ve gone a lot farther than I thought I would! So, tonight the plan is to walk while I watch American Idol, and hopefully I’ll get addicted to this routine. Who knows, I’ve been addicted to crazier things.

I hereby resolve to use my beautiful clubhouse at least 3 more times this week.

Let's Go Fly a Kite

When Josh and I went to Oregon with our parents, my mom and dad bought a really cool trick kite from the coolest kite shop I’ve ever been in. My dad has wanted to play with it ever since, so yesterday, because there was wind, we figured we’d try it out. It was SOOO cold! And it made SUUUCH a mess of the kite string. But oh man did we have fun.

We tried to get it up, but I think the wind was too strong so it was hard to control the thing – hopefully next time they’ll have more luck. In the process we created the mother of all knots.

(The main focus of the picture is Dallin - he didn't bring a coat, so he wore my dad's sweatshirt - it was a little too big. In the background you can see Dad walking in the door carrying the string - in a knot)

I remember reading a book when I was a kid about a really big knot. There was some impossible knot at the school and nobody could ever undo it. Then the mysterious stranger moved into the area the knot magically came undone a little at a time. To be honest I’m not sure I remember the point of the story – in fact I bet there was deeper meaning to the knot, but I don’t have a clue what it was.

I just remember the mental image in my head (possibly an illustration from the book) of a boy with a round face and small nose, laying on his back on a school desk, with a BIG knot hanging by 1 string from something above (assumed ceiling). At that point I also decided that conditioner and no-tears no-tangle was a hoax because if it really worked the kids in the book would have just sprayed some on the knot and run a comb through it.

I wonder what book that is – maybe it’s not real and I’m just making the whole thing up, but I’m really not that creative, so I bet it exists somewhere. I almost want to link it with Maniac Magee, but I think that Maniac Magee is more about a kid who runs fast….

ANYWAY this was a big knot of kite string and took pretty much the rest of the night to undo. Next time we fly the kite, we’ll hope for warmer weather and less wind – but still enough to keep the thing in the air. I can’t wait till we learn how to do tricks with it!

I'm back!

I am officially finished with the Twilight series (or at least finished to the extent that everybody else on the planet is finished - waiting in suspense for the next one), which means I will no longer neglect my responsibilities. Instead of staying up reading until my eyes are red and the lids too heavy to stay open, I will go to bed at a reasonable hour, read the scriptures while I dry my hair and spend much less time on the love-sac and trying to invent new ways to read while I cook without ruining a book.

It's amazing to me how much those books took over my life. They were good, fantastic even - but to take over real life? Why I care more about vampires, werewolves and people that don’t exist living in a place I've never heard of is beyond me - but nevertheless it is me. It's not just these books either. I'm a fairly quick reader, so usually these phases only last a few days (at most) but to be sucked into a series of novels is my own kryptonite. I zone out. Completely. Until I'm finished. Until I know the only thing stopping me from reading is that there is nothing to read.

Josh does it with movies – when he was sick he watched all of the Matrix movies (edited) and wouldn’t/couldn’t focus on anything else until he knew how they ended.

I do it with books. I even do it with books I don’t think are that great. I have this compelling need to finish them. I remember doing it when I was younger too. I specifically remember reading something about a frog (or cricket maybe…) in times square and it was past bedtime. I shared a bed and room with my sister, so I took the side by the door, which I would leave cracked just enough to light the words on the page. I’d lean over the edge of the bed, put the book on the floor, with one arm dangled over the edge to hold my spot and read in the dark. I’d listen carefully for when someone was coming down the stairs, hoping not to get caught.

Well fortunately I have nothing to worry about now, I can go back to life, stop neglecting my husband, and my house. Maybe I’ll even get back into a routine of cooking and cleaning – that would be a beautiful thing.

Now as soon as American Idol (another, more embarrassing addiction) is down to 1 hour and 2 nights a week instead of this ridiculous 2 hours 3 nights a week thing, imagine how productive I can be!

Picnic at the Park

Yesterday was such a beautiful day that on the way to work we decided that Josh would take me on a picnic for lunch. We went to memory grove and thoroughly enjoyed how warm and beautiful it was! I'm not one to be a winter-hater by any means, but the sunshine felt so good, and everything smelled nice, and it was an undeniably beautiful day. Even for a winter-lover you can't beat that.


I am suddenly excited for spring/summer. Josh will be out of school in May (and the peasants rejoiced) and we can go camping all the live long day. I'm thrilled! I can't wait for another fun filled summer of adventure, bonding, bbq's, badminton, swimmin', campfires, s'mores, Alexander Lake, slip 'n slides, and most importantly NO SCHOOL! It's like I'm back in elementary school and summer is the essence of my life. I can't imagine anything better than the ultimate freedom that comes with summertime!