6 Wonderful Months

Today marks six months that I have been married to the man of my dreams.

We celebrated by having a nice dinner - turkey potato casserole, goat cheese with crackers, rolls with honey-butter, and some cheesecake for dessert. (we're poor and couldn't afford a $20 meal at Chili's - this meal cost a total of $2 for the Goat's cheese, everything else was leftovers or we bought on sale a while ago)
It's been a really amazing six months. Very stressful, but definitely worth it. Justin makes me happier than I ever imagined I could be. The past few days have been tough as we've been looking at our diminishing budget, and I've been looking at my not-so-diminishing load of homework. But somehow everyday Justin makes it better. He sends me a text telling me how beautiful I am, he washed my car while I'm out shopping with his mother and sister, he buys me goat's cheese, he cleans the kitchen. He's so selfless, and sometimes I wish I knew how he does it. He has such an amazing testimony, and works so hard to provide for our little family and make sure we are comfortable.

I don't know what I'd do without him. He is exactly everything I've ever hoped for, and knows how to make me feel happier than ever before. I'm so happy that I get to spend eternity with him - these six months seem to have flown by, and I'm glad I don't have to worry about running out of time with him. Yay for temple marriage :)

Wreath!

So, I decorated a wreath tonight. I have never done anything like that before, I had no idea what I was doing. I mostly just stuck stuff where it looked good and then glued it in place :)

I think it turned out pretty cute! I am especially proud of the bow :)

Also, I got a hair cut!

Special thanks to Ashley, my hair stylist.

Christmas is in the air!

I love the holiday season. Justin and I went shopping on Monday to Michaels and bought a tree! We're going to have a fake one while we're in a tiny apartment, so it's waiting for Thanksgiving to come and go so that it can come out of the storage closet! We also got some cute candy dishes, a wreath to decorate, and some other fun stuff. Today we went shopping again for birthdays, and we looked around Michaels again (I'm weak, what can I say? Plus when my husband enjoys looking at all the Christmas stuff as much as me, it's impossible to resist!), and got some cute ribbon and a cornucopia. I'm really getting excited to decorate our apartment! I'll take pictures when everything is up and post them :)

Pictures!

So, I had about 125 pictures on my camera, so I'm going to share some with you all. :)

All Quiet on the Blogging Front

Hello world of blogging. I'm still alive, my husband is still alive, no need to worry about us.

So I just looked and my last blog was over a month ago... oops! Life gets crazy, and I expect November to be equally or more crazy. So if you don't hear from me until December, it's just because of all the craziness.

One exciting thing that happened recently - the young women's leadership in my ward is full! Until two weeks ago, there was a President, 1st Counselor, 2nd Counselor, and Laurel advisor. So the 2nd counselor and I were both teaching every week and doing all the counselor stuff. But we now have a miamaid and beehive advisor, so I won't have to teach very often! I enjoy teaching, don't get me wrong, but with as busy as I am at school and work and home, it will be nice to be able to enjoy Sunday mornings, and get to church early instead of pushing it to be on time. I'm very excited for this.

Also - National Novel Writing Month quickly approaches. For the past two Novembers, I dedicated my spare time to working toward the goal of writing a 50,000 + novel in 30 days. Failed the first time, but got in the 60,000's last year. This year, I'm taking a slightly different approach. I'm going to attempt it, but I know that it would be quite a feat to succeed. So, with that in mind, I'm going to write a crazy super silly story, that will just be my way of escaping into writing, and I won't worry about the 50,000 word goal. If I get it, awesome. If not, well, I'm not expecting to, so there you go.

Life at home is awesome. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband. A week or so ago I got whatever Ashley had, and I got it bad. I could barely go to the effort of showering without being exhausted, for four days. And my amazing man kept the house from falling apart, cooked me meals (well, mostly just heated up meals or made sandwiches, but it was still appreciated), helped cool me down when I had a fever, and was just overall a wonderful guy.

His mother was also incredible. Any time one of us gets sick, we joke that we should call Mom C to see if she just happens to be making her minestrone soup. Justin called the first day I was sick, and she wasn't making any for that night, but while the kids were at mutual, she put it together, along with a salad, bread, and peach cobbler, and brought it over. I'm so lucky to have found a wonderful, selfless husband, but to have a wonderful family of in-laws, what did I do to get so lucky?

Anyway, not much has been going on in our lives except for school, work, laundry, the usual. We're going to carve a pumpkin on saturday, so I'll try to get pictures up. Thanks for reading, and I'll try to not go so long between blogs!

Thief!

I'm stealing from Lindsay.

I have to say, her choice of username really threw me off. For most of my life I used lmaroney as a username, and couldn't figure out why she was doing one for me... anyway, here's my own. It's called... something weird. But you click on the linky-doo, and click on a couple of attributes you think I have, and then we can all see what I think I am like, and what you think I am like, and how it compares. It's pretty neat.

http://kevan.org/johari?name=lclement

Day off

So on thursdays, I have one less class than on Tuesdays, at that class happens to be the last class of the day. So I always get off early. WELL, today by last class on thursday got cancelled! So I have a whole afternoon to avoid doing homework! I mean... umm...

Anyway, I'm going to post a random picture, just for the heck of it. I even changed the list view so all I could see was numbers... Jenny blowing bubbles for Maddie Me kissing my handsome husband Justin in the middle of dipping me
The only weird one really is the last one, since it's right in the middle. Okay, so I cheated a little by only picking ones from my wedding. Still fun :)
I really should get to work on my homework now. Thanks for reading!

Best Time to Blog

I've decided the best time to blog is when you don't want to do something else. Take, for example, me blogging right now, instead of starting my short story. Last time I blogged (admittedly a while ago) I should have been working on a lesson for young women's. I'm sure I'm not the only one, just an odd observation.
Three day weekends are wonderful. Yesterday, Justin and I went and saw Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I'd rate it the same as all Harry Potter movies: good, but didn't do the book justice. And amazingly, it's still in theatres! At the Hollywood theatres on Gilbert and Warner, if you see the first showing of the day, it's only five dollars per ticket, so we saw it for a combined ten dollars. Awesome. I can afford that, if you consider how often we see movies in the theatre... last one was Monsters Vs. Aliens. It came out in the end of March.
We also had the opportunity of eating crepes yesterday, which was great! Justin's family has a tradition of having crepes for dinner on fast sundays, but for various reasons, we haven't been able to have them since June :( So we talked to Justin's mom, who was kind enough to move crepes to monday this month, since we celebrated Cliff's birthday on sunday. Yay for yummy crepes!
That's all for now, if anyone has any good ideas for a science fiction or fantasy short story, feel free to let me know, I've got nothing.
Thanks for reading!

Happy Birthday To You!

Leaning Tower of Tim Tams... except not leaning.

First we drink...

Then we SLAM!

For Justin's birthday, we celebrated by eating a super delicious dinner at YC's Mongolian Grill. His birthday present didn't arrive until today, so all he got from me on Saturday was his silly gift (a salt and pepper shaker glued together, kind of an inside joke), but today, his gift arrived!

Tim Tams!

They are these chocolate cookie biscuit things that they have in Taiwan, and they do this thing called a Tim Tam Slam.

Pumping Iron

Today I have the day off, so I took the opportunity while Justin is at work to steal a ride on his bike! Wow, it's definitely not set for me. The seat is about two inches too high, and it's angled up, which is awkward for a girl. I don't know if that's comfy for a guy, but it definitely wasn't for me! I felt really silly trying to get on it at first, it was too high! Finally I got on though, and took about a 20 minute ride. Which doesn't seem like much, but it's warm, and I went in this really cute quaint area near the apartment complex that has a bunch of ups and downs, so that was a good workout :)

Last week was pretty uneventful. We had stake conference saturday and sunday, and I think that was the first time I've ever actually really enjoyed it. I've never hated it, or dreaded it, but I really enjoyed it yesterday, there were some really good talks! I may or may not have cried... several times.

This week should be a nice break from the norm, as I have today off, wednesday I'm just working 10-2, and the other three days are just 8-5. Definitely NOT my normal schedule.

Also, we ordered our textbooks online recently, and slowly they've been trickling in. I have two books for my science fiction creative writing class, and I've already gotten both books for that class, and they're absolutely awesome! I was looking forward to the class before, but now I can't wait! One of them is just a collection of short stories (I've already read two... I got the book on friday, and haven't read it since saturday), and the other is called "The Truth About Fiction", and the first chapter is titled "Lying 101". Awesome! I started reading the latter, and after I finished the first chapter, I said to Justin, "You know, this book is very similiar to..." and I walked over to my bookcase and grabbed another book, "this one! Which I've read twice. Since I got it last november." :) I'm super excited for this class!!!

Cleaning Spree

If you read my mom's blog, you'll know that Justin and I invited my mom, ashley, zach and madie over for dinner and games last night. What she didn't post, however, was that we spent all day getting everything organized and cleaned so they could come over.
I know our apartment is small, but it's amazing how much can accumulate if you let it! On friday night I got a kick to clean the bedroom, which had never really been organized as nicely as it could have been (and is now!). We had our laundry hamper just at the foot of our bed, and we had a laundry basket with random items of clothing that had never been hung up. Various things like that. We got home from Kristi and Cliff's around 11:30, and I didn't get in bed until around 12:30. I get the urge to clean at the most random times.
Then yesterday we worked on cleaning the rest of the apartment, and finally it looks really nice! We don't have random boxes in front of the bookshelf, and we don't have piles of paper all over the table anymore. July is over, and Justin had finished his little spreadsheet of expenses and all that, so we could get rid of all our receipts and such from July, which was very nice to be able to do. Hopefully we can keep the apartment from getting so cluttered, cross your fingers!
We also had the pleasure of ordering our textbooks. Bleh, so much money! I have quite the price range, one of my lit books for english we managed to get for 5 cents, but my french book will be 150 dollars! Ick! Hooray for amazon though, makes getting textbooks WAY cheaper.
That was my busy weekend, I think I'll go make rice krispie treats to eat after dinner tonight... sounds yummy!

Because apparenlty I fail for not blogging very often

Lots of business going on lately. Not really too much to update on, my life has been filled with work, running the house, and my calling.
Work has been crazy, I was training all last week, so it was super boring, and the days just dragged on and on. This week, I get the pleasure of training again! But apparently it's someone who used to work there, so it should be easier and shorter. Hopefully.
Last week I ended up working 44 hours, which is a big jump from the 28 or so I'd been getting. Kind of hard to adjust. Justin's been super helpful though, he ended up making dinner twice last week, so I only had to cook on thursday really. He's also been taking care of some of the other things that need done, like getting insurance and such, unfortunately he's been pretty busy with that, so the house is still super messy. Hopefully at some point this week I can work on that. I'm only scheduled for like 38 hours, so... maybe?
My calling is taking up more time than I imagined it would. Between mutual every wednesday and preparing a lesson every sunday, I feel like there's always something to do. But, I don't have to prepare another lesson for three weeks (1st sunday is all the girls combined, 2nd is stake conference) so that will be a nice break.
Just wanted to let you all know why I haven't been blogging. I fell asleep at like 8:30 or 9:00 every night this past week, it's just so exhausting. Looking forward to school though, for a change in pace. I'll still be busy, but with more enjoyable tasks. I love learning!

Busy Busy Busy!

This week has and will continue to be insanely busy.
For those of you who don't know, I got called to be over the young women. I'm a miamaid advisor. Yep, over girls I'm only four and five years older than. Yesterday I went to mutual (the presidency is missing a secretary, so they invite me to come to everything, right now there's just the president, two counselors, and me), and we were discussing plans and such, and the bishop walks in to talk to one of the girls who just had a birthday, and asks "Who's the new Laurel you have tonight?"
Why, that would be the one you called and set apart on Sunday. Yikes! That was pretty crazy. But I am a LOT closer to the Laurel's age than to the leaders...
Justin and I also got asked to sing in church on Sunday, a duet. I've never sung in church where people can distinctly make out my voice. I'm good at blending and being a strong lead for others to follow, but a duet? I'm a little nervous, but I think it will be okay.
Yesterday I finally got new tires on my car! Now I don't have to be afraid every time I drive to work that I'll be late because of a blow out! That's always nice to have peace of mind :)
This afternoon I get to go to the MVD (I'm only working 10-2, random I know), to get a new license with my new name. We tried to go on my day off last week, but we went right after going to Social Security, and apparently it takes 24 hours to go through the system. That would have been nice for SS to tell us before we waited in line at the MVD. D'oh!
Right now I'm trying to work on the lesson I'll be giving on Sunday, and, well, as you can see I've gotten distracted. I just felt bad that I haven't blogged in forever.
I'm also SUPER excited for the new Harry Potter movie! Can't wait to see it! My parents got me a shirt from their CA trip, it's from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, it has an otter with a lightning bolt scar and round glasses, and says "Hairy Otter" it's super cute!
Anyway, I should get back to my busy life. Thanks for reading!

Guess Who!

Yep, Mrs. Lori Clement. First post as a married woman!
Sorry for the delay, by the way. It's been a crazy three weeks!
I'll try to be brief and yet descriptive in my narrative.
Las Vegas was AWESOME! I think at some later point when the apartment is more settled I'll do a post just of that, with pictures and all. We went to the M&M world factory, where they had a LOT of super fun stuff, we walked around the strip, ate a delicious burger at New York New York, had yummy crepes in Paris, it was awesome. AND we got to see Blue Man Group since we didn't have to pay for the hotel (thanks again Mom and Dad!), and it was DEFINITELY worth the cost of the tickets. Oh man, it was hilarious! If you ever get the opportunity to go, DO IT! Justin and I were cracking up the whole time, it was very family friendly, a small theatre so it was nice and personal, a great show.
That's all on Vegas for now, more later I promise.
The rest of the two weeks have been spent in an attempt to both work close to full time, and settle the apartment into a semblance of a livable situation. It's getting there, slowly but surely. The front room is pretty good, especially after I went through the ads today and threw out a bunch of excess papers. The kitchen is pretty well set up as well, since I use that room a LOT. :) The bathroom is nice as well, the main problems lie in the bedroom. Still a few boxes and such, no nightstands (although today I did concoct sort-of nightstands, made of boxes stacked and covered in a sheet!).
That's all I have time for today, I have to go get started on dinner, but I'll post again... eventually. I'd say soon, but realistically, it probably won't be soon. :)

Move in

I am getting married in two days! Holy cow! I'm really excited!

We got the keys to our apartment on saturday so we could start moving stuff in, it was very exciting! And busy! Just thought I'd take a quick moment to post a few pics :) Here's the front room/family room

This is the dining areaThis is half of the kitchen. Yes, that's a kitchen aid :) Here's the other half of the kitchen.

That's the very empty bathroom.

Sink of the bathroom, to give an idea of how big it is :)

Here's the bedroom, with our California King size bed. We don't have a comfortor on there yet, but some ladies in Justin's ward made us a nice quilt that we'll use until we either get the comfortor or can buy it :)

This is the rest of the bedroom. Pretty empty right now, but as long as the man in the picture is there, I'm happy!

Tomorrow I have the day off work, I still need to get my room taken care of, get as much stuff gone as possible, and I need to get my nails done! Can't wait for saturday!!!

Teeth Extravaganza

I totally remember loving these movies when I was little. Timmy the Tooth!

So, yesterday I had five teeth ripped violently from my head. It was an experience I hope never to repeat.

You may be reading that sentence and asking, five? I thought she said she has TWO extra teeth!
Well, we'll get to that, don't you worry.
So, I was lucky enough to have my fiance with me in the office. He could be in the room during the extraction, but he was there right up until I walked into the room, and he was there when I walked out to sit in the "rest" area. So that was nice.
They numbed me up, and it worked really fast! By the time they had finished the last shot, the first area was ready to be worked on! So they go in and remove the two teeth in the upper left area, then go down to the lower left, then they work on the right side. And they are digging around in the upper right area for the second tooth, and they can't find it. So they assume they read the x-ray wrong. So they finish up and send me into the rest area, where I sit for about five to ten minutes. Now, when the doctor was leaving the room, I almost said, wait, I thought the extra tooth was in the bottom right. But I figured, he's the doctor, and also I couldn't really talk. So I shrug my shoulders and leave the room. But then the doctors comes into the rest area and says, let me have another look at you.
Great! I was right. Go figure. So he's pushing around, and asks, is that tender? Well yeah, you had me sitting for like ten minutes before you figured it out, the numbess is wearing off. So he numbed me up again, and said he thought the tooth might be covered by a thin layer of bone. So he takes out his DRILL and is drilling away at my bone, and comes to the conclusion that what he saw on the x-ray is not actually a tooth, just a denser area of bone.
So, that was fun. Sure gave me a lot of faith in him as a dentist. Oh wait, no, no it didn't.
So then I spent yesterday bleeding a lot, eating ice cream, pudding, apple sauce, and mashed potatoes, and basically doing a whole lot of nothing. Still pretty sore today, and can't really open my mouth all the way. Plus I woke up with a sore throat. I'm not sure if that's related to the wisdom teeth being removed, or if I have the luck of getting sick on top of it, but either way it's not fun. I sound like a frog. The worst thing though is that it hurts to swallow, because it puts a bit of pressure on the areas where there are no teeth any more. And humans swallow a lot more than they realize, until they are made very much aware of each swallow. Not just food, but saliva, that's the worst part.
Well, I'll stop complaining now, just thought the lack of a six tooth story was interesting. Thanks for reading!

An Abundance of Teeth!

So I went to a dentist appointment for a consult about getting my wisdom teeth removed, and they took the extra of my mouth, and the first thing the dentist says after looking at it is:

"You have some extra teeth."

Me: "What? As in, I have more than 32 teeth?"

Dentist: "Yep. Looks like you have some extra wisdom teeth growing in."

Beat.

So he lets me take a look, and sure enough, behind that third molar is another tooth! In two places! The average mouth can hold 28 teeth, which is why the four extra teeth (putting you at 32 teeth) have to be removed. But, lucky me, I have 34 teeth.

It's kind of cool, if you think about it, until you look at the bill, and see that those teeth are charged the same as the others. :(

Apparently it's pretty uncommon, but not SUPER rare. I always knew I was kind of strange, but now I have empirical evidence! At this rate though, soon I'll look like this:

Thanks for reading!

Driving Home

So I was inspired by Lindsay's blog to write about something that I usually consider mundane. Although this particular instance wasn't exactly mundane, at least not in how I reacted.
On my way home from school yesterday, I was driving down Broadway (I don't take Apache to the freeway, what with all the lightrail stops now), and a bit ahead of me in my lane cars were slowing down, but only in my lane. So I slow down, and eventually come to a complete stop. As I wait for traffic to free up and the cars behind me to stop going around, I can see what's going on ahead of me. There's a truck with its hazards on. Just sitting in the far right lane. So eventually I manage to get around, and as I pass, I look in my mirror, and I see the whole fender just kind of shlumped off the car. Still attached, but only barely. Definitely more on the ground than on the car. And I can see a girl walking in the grass on her cell phone, looking very disheveled. And I think to myself, you know, some people stuck behind that truck were probably really annoyed at the delay. I mean, I was in line for a good little chunk of time. But I was just struck by the thought, I would so much rather be stuck in a line getting around a truck, than the girl driving the truck! And it made me grateful that I was waiting behind the truck, because it's better than having my car bumber-less.
And then again as I was exiting the freeway, the exit line was WAY backed up, to almost half way down the exit lane. So I get it, not knowing why it's backed up. And as I am nearing the light, I see a mom and a little girl, probably about six, sitting on the curb. And as I turn the corner, I see a tow truck and an unhappy car on it. And I have that thought again of, man, I'm glad I was in the line waiting, and not sitting on the curb with a six-year old daughter waiting for someone to come pick us up after having been in a car accident.
And then as I was thinking about this, I was thinking what I'd do if I were the mom. I can imagine the girl: "I'm BORED mommy!" What do you do? So I decided I would create a game, to count how many happy drivers you see go through each light. Because not many drivers are generally happy.
But I just thought I'd share that with you, my random thoughts of gratitude at having to get stuck in traffic. Because I'd rather be stuck in traffic than waiting on a curb with my six year old daughter for a tow truck.
Thanks for reading, and thanks to Lindsay for the inspiration!

Brief break in the crazy

End of semester = busy.
This is the first day in about a week and a half (maybe two weeks, I can't recall) that I've been able to sit down and not do homework immediately when I get home! It's wonderful, and I'm enjoying it thoroughly. The rest of the week should be easy, just study for my french oral. Next week, however, right back into the crazy. Finals!
Wow, I can't believe next week is already finals! So close to being done... so... close.... Anyway, life has been great! We got all the invitations sent out, so for wedding plans, all that's left is the small details.
I don't really have anything exciting to talk about... life is great, but it mostly consists of school, work, homework, and spending time with Justin. Sorry I'm not more exciting.
Anyway, thanks for reading.

Selfish driving

I've come to the conclusion that I quit BEDA, because it's not for me. I tried, I get props for that, right?
I've also come to the conclusion that I dislike selfish drivers. That's what I've decided to term them: selfish drivers. Those who drive with no thought for other drivers, only with their own destination and timeline in consideration, are selfish drivers. Those who cut in and out of traffic, those who whip around people with no thought, they bother me. What really bothers me is when a third lane is open just for the intersection, it widens just before, and then narrows right after, and people sit there, not caring about the people behind who are in the lane because they want to turn, they only care about getting a few cars ahead. Is it really worth it to get two cars ahead? I just don't understand, and in my mind, it's selfish.
Now that I've gotten that rant out of the way, this week has been pretty crazy. Today has been nice though, we had an institute fireside type thing (called friday forum) and a member of the quorum of the seventy came and spoke, it was really amazing.
That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Veggie Monster?

So, they talked about turning cookie monster into veggie monster... is this what he'd look like?

My friend stumbled on this picture today, and I thought it was awesome. Mostly just working on invitations today, although I did get some socks that were on sale! Yay easter sales! Woot!

BEDA not so much for me

I've realized that I don't like BEDA. I am not good at it. I am busy busy busy until Justin leaves (more often than not, later than my bedtime), and then I don't feel like blogging, I feel like going to bed.
Easter was great though. I love Easter, and I love what it represents. No, not the bunnies and eggs and chicks and pastel colors. I love that it represents the atonement and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
I also love the time it gives me to spend with family. Lots of fun activities, which kept me busy, but I loved it all, because I love spending time with my family. And, I'm very glad that I'm able to say this, I also love spending time with Justin's family. His family is so welcoming, and I really do enjoy the time we spend with them. Yay for having good in-laws!
That's all for tonight, because I'm worn out. Thanks for reading!

Six Minute Blog

I only have six minutes before I miss another day. Better type fast.
Justin and I got approved for our apartment application! hooray! We'll be living in the Eastridge Apartments on Southern and McClintock. :) Yippee! Sometime soon we want to go measure stuff so we can start planning where everything will go.
Also, we got a bed! Frame, mattress, boxspring, headboard, everything for 400. The headboard/footboard/frame are all new, the mattress/boxspring are used, but still in good condition, and pillowtop!
Only 49 more days until the big day, and we continue to progress towards having everything ready. We picked a tux today, and found out a bit more about ordering a cake through Fry's. Didn't order it though. We apparently have to order it where we want to pick it up, so we'll have to go somewhere closer to Regency to order.
That's all for tonight. Thanks for reading!

Nothin' to talk about

I can't think of anything to blog about today. My life is mundane and un-exciting. I'm pretty sure unexciting isn't a word, actually.

I had a french test today that I was worried about, but then it ended up not being so bad. Maybe because I spent three hours this morning studying for it... Anyway, I was the first one done, so I either went too fast, or knew the stuff. Hopefully the latter of the two.

Oh! Justin and I got a bed! On tuesday we got the mattress and box spring, and on Thursday we got the frame and headboard. I spent four hundred dollars this week! Intense. Plus gas. :P I hate buying gas. At least it was only $1.79! Woot! Apparently the average in the state of AZ yesterday (the day I filled up) was $1.928. I was way below! And one year ago, the average for AZ was $3.29. Blech! Glad we're not up there!

When in doubt, blog about gas. :D

So, I found out that I can no longer work on saturdays in the financial office, which is bad to find out when you are in need of money. I was able to talk to my supervisor though, and the week after next (they already have the schedule for next week) they're going to train me for front office, so I can work in one of the offices on some saturdays. It's good that they are willing to help me get more hours.

We also got cubicles when we moved into the new office, and at first I didn't like this idea, but now that I've worked in them, I actually like my little 4X4. We can decorate it, and there's a window behind my desk. I brought in a mirror so I could see who wanted to talk to me (because someone left me a post-it note while I was on a call, and I didn't know who it was, so I didn't know who to tell that I had scheduled the appointment), and conveniently it also gives me a nice view of the window! Mine is the only cubicle with a view of trees :) Plus I put up pictures of my nieces and nephews, and of the temple, and of my fiance, and of the periodic table of elements... what? I'm not a nerd!

So apparently I actually do have stuff to blog about. Thanks for reading!

Killer Spider Squirrel?

So, I'm tired (I woke up at four, and got about five hours of sleep total, split up, I woke up at midnight to work on homework), and don't feel like actually blogging.

I'll just say, I got to see Katie and Madie today, which was a pleasure, and actually got to spend time talking to both Kristi and Ashley, which was also nice. It's not often that I get to talk to them without interruptions, and I really do enjoy when I get the chance.

Justin is sick, which is why I'm home at 8:30. :( Poor guy. I told him I could stay there if he wanted me to, or go home so he could get sleep. We watched until the end of the basketball game, then did our scripture study, then I left. Hope he's better tomorrow.

Anyway, to fill up and make me not feel bad about the tiny blog post, I googled the most random phrase I could think of (killer squirrel. Actually not so random if you follow the vlogbrothers, but anyway), and found this rather interesting picture. Just thought I'd share it with y'all.

Skookie time!

As promised, pictures of a delicious skookie!
Don't eat it yet!
Justin enjoying the skookie

I don't want to sound all prideful and like I'm bragging, but that was one of the best skookies I've ever had. The first one I made wasn't as good, I wasn't sure how much dough to put in the pan, or how long to cook it. The second one (as pictured) was much better, it filled the whole pan, and cooked nice and evenly. Mmm, it was delicious.

Today, that was pretty much the highlight. Not much else has occured. French class was cancelled, so our test, which was going to be on Wednesday, is postponed to Friday. Woohoo!

Math I had a test, and it's my first real class of the day (I have insitute first, that's a different category of class), and as I reached in to my backpack to pull out my calculator, I realized, oops, my pencil pouch is at home in my bedroom. So I had no writing instruments, and no calculator. Luckily my teacher had an extra TI-83, and I borrowed a pencil from a kid in the class. And, as usual, I finished first (it's a college algebra class, not exactly a challenge. I mean, we were doing mean, median and mode, for crying out loud), so I was able to return the girls pencil.

That about sums it up. For conclusion, a picture of my prince charming!

Guilty as charged.

I forgot to mention cutting Justin's hair.

Okay, first off, hi, did you see the time I posted it? 11:10! I'm a morning person! I was tired and wanted to be asleep, so I posted as minimal as I felt I could get away with.

Anyway, to fill in what was skipped...

Thursday night Justin and I went to my work's open house (the financial office, the office I work in, is moving locations). It was kind of lame, as far as open houses go, except for the food. Which was absolutely fantastic. Kristi made it :) Mmm... I love her pasta salad and her desserts. But I got to see the cubical I'll be sitting at... blarg, I hate cubicals.

Friday night, Justin came over and my mom kindly grilled steak (it was also delicious), and then we watched The Emperor's New Groove, and I made a skookie! For those that don't know, it's a skillet cookie, and it's delicious. It was the first time I made one, so it wasn't as good as it will be with more practice, but still yummy. I'll try to take a picture of one the next time I make one. Which will probably be tonight, since I didn't use all the cookie dough.

Saturday, I mostly covered, except the evening portion. After conference, we went to Ashley's, and I cut his hair! almost entirely on my own. It was the third time we went there to cut his hair, Ashley's been teaching me. It's the whole, give a man a fish vs teach a man to fish. Now I can cut his hair on my own! She just had to show me one spot I was unsure on (around the ear), and I only messed up a little! Sorry Justin!

Then after that, while the boys were at Priesthood session, we went to Kristi's and had leftovers from the open house. I worked on stuffing invitations while I was there, and Jenny helped. :)

Today, I made muffins for breakfast, and we watched conference, and stuffed some more invitations. We folded them first too, don't worry.

So, that's what's been up with me. Look! Pictures!!!

Invitations are taking over my family room!!!

This is Justin's messed up hair cut. Not TOO bad, but it won't happen next time. Start in the middle of the back, apparently. D'oh!

Day 4...

So I suck at this. I realized though, after only three days (given that I didn't know about it until the 2nd) that I don't feel bad for not blogging as often as some people. I legitamitely don't have the time for it.
It's 11:11 right now, and I'm still awake. This is a problem.
Conference was great though! And during lunch, we went and filled out an application for an apartment! We went with the bigger one, it has more counter and cabinet space in the kitchen, which, ultimately, is more important than how open it is. Plus it passed Ashley's Refridgerator/Dishwasher open at the same time test.
Sorry, I'm too tired to write anything else, but at least it's something, right?

BEDA: Blog Every Day April

So, my friend Allison mentioned in passing "BEDA" today, the 2nd of April. But didn't say what it was. So I google it, like a nerd, and find "The Bureau of European Design Association." Pretty sure that's not what she meant. After MUCH searching (okay it was only like three minutes), I figured it out! I actually was trying to think of random acronyms, and came up with it, and then found the website that confimed it! Blog Every Day April.

Why not? I blog... every now and then. I couldn't hurt to blog more. They might not always be the most interesting to read, but maybe it will make me feel better about myself because I'll realize just how much I actually get done in a day! Or maybe it will make me feel worse about myself... we'll see.

So, today, the second of April, 2009, I went to work, which was annoying. I don't feel like going into details, but it was not a pleasant experience. Then Justin and I went to my work open house for the new financial office, that was actually fun. Kristi and her family were there, she was catering, so naturally the food was spectacular. Plus it meant there were people there that I actually enjoy the company of! Fancy that! Then Justin and I went back to my house and just kind of chilled.

I think I'm going to try doing it sort of an every other day thing, where the even days I'll blog about my actual life, and the odd days I'll work on a short story. That could be fun. :-D

Busy as can be!

Yesterday was a VERY full day. I made aebleskiver for breakfast (and since I was home alone, there were leftovers for today, and for tomorrow!), and then I went visiting teaching. Right after that I went to Justin's house and ate lunch (chicken salad sandwich... yummm...), and then we started day two of our apartment hunt!
After day one, there was really only one place that we liked, and it was kind of farther away than we would have liked. Day two, we saw five more places, and they were all good! So, we had six options, and had to whittle it down. Right now, there's one that stands out, but our decision isn't quite final. Hopefully this one will work out. It's on Southern and McClintock, so it's close to school, and also close to freeways, which will make it easier for us both to get to work. It's 600 sq ft, so not the biggest one we saw, but it feels very open. Plus, we went to apartment ratings, and most of the ones I've looked at there had a rating under 50% recommended. The apartment Ashley and Zach have was only rated at 55%, and they both like it, so I was expecting the rating to be fairly low, because that seems to be the trend. I wasn't worried about it being low, because I had looked up Ashley and Zach's, but the rating for it was 78%! Wow! There were 46 or 48 reviews, and only four or five had anything bad to say. Can't ask for much more than that!
We also went and added to our registry last night. We have 7 pages at bed bath and beyond now! Which, oddly, is only 50 some items. And we had 50 some items on our target registry before adding to it... Odd. Oh well. We are up to the 80's for Target now, but we'll probably add a bit more.
Also, last week was my bridal shower, and wow oh wow! It was great! The food was great, the friends and family were great, the gifts were great, and I'm so thankful to everyone who came and who helped throw it for everything! I can't believe how generous everyone is! It's really fun to think about putting all this stuff in the apartment we looked at yesterday, to try and imagine everything as it will be. :-D
That's all that's on my mind right now, thanks for reading!

I hate titles.

So... I haven't blogged in a while, and I don't know what all I haven't talked about. And frankly, I don't feel like going back and figuring out what I've already mentioned... so, you may get repeats, or you may not get it all, but, oh well. At least you're getting something!
This past weekend Justin and I went and looked at apartments! There are a lot of apartments in the valley! We went to just a few this past saturday, but there's one that is pretty promising. We'll continue looking though, no final decision.
I'm on Spring Break! Woohoo! Except, not much of a break. I've got a lot to do. Homework, study for midterms, plan a wedding, the likes.
We also went and got our wedding invitations (or at least half of them, they only had part of what we needed, so we had to order the remaining boxes), and that was exciting! They are really pretty, and I'm excited to mail them out and invite people to come give me stuff ;-) And also to come to our wedding, that's important too.
It just keeps on getting closer! I can hardly stand it! I had one of my friends get married this last weekend, and she was so incredibly ecstatic, and I know, because she told me, she hadn't gotten hardly any sleep that whole week, but she was buzzing with energy. It was fun to go and see their reception, and to picture what ours will be like. Yay for indoors... and real food... and people we know... :)
Well, I lost my train of thought, because I'm picturing how lovely it will be to go to sleep when I finish, so, I'm going to cut this short.
Thanks for reading!

Loooong day

Yesterday was a very long day. I woke up and went to work (7-12), then I was home for about twenty to thirty minutes, then Justin and I went to a Korean Bbq, which, by the way, if you've never had, you are missing out. It was incredibly delicious. Mmm... meat... It was a group of people from the business college, there's some club thing for business college people that Justin is in, so I didn't really know anyone, but it was still fun :-).
After that, we went to Target and Bed Bath and Beyond and registered! Holy cow, registering is a lot of work. It's so much easier at Target, they just give you the little gun and let you be, but at BBaB, they talk your ear off first, telling you all sorts of things you don't care about. And then they had us look through this huge book of dinnerware. Part way through, I asked if they had a display of dinnerware in the store so we could just look at it in person (because I was pretty sure they did), but she said they didn't. So, finally we manage to evade making a decision from the book, and we manage to get away from the lady, and lo and behold, they have a display of plates. Lots of plates and bowls and cups. So, that was annoying. Crazy lady. Anyway, we got that all figured out, which is nice to have done with. The only things we still need to register for is a vacuum (I have no idea how to pick a vacuum) and bedding, because we're not sure which size bed we'll be getting. It is pretty nice to already have quite a few things, like a cutting board, cookie jar, pots and pans (!! thank goodness I didn't have to figure THAT out. Thanks mom!), and other various things.
Our next big task: find an apartment!
Thanks for reading!

Fixing an error

So, apparently when I said we picked our colors, people wanted to know what they are... not sure why, but whatever... ;-)

Anyway, blue and black. The dresses are going to have a black bodice with a blue skirt. It's kind of like the blue in this picture, except slightly different. A bit darker, and a hint of green. But it was the closest I could find.

Incidentally, funny story as to how we picked them. I was looking at my socks one day, and I thought to myself, you know, I have like, five pairs of socks with this same colors scheme. Obviously I like these colors. And so, we went to the fabric store and I brought a pair of socks, and held them up to different blues until we found the closest match. :-D I know, I'm crazy, but it works! That night, before we went to the fabric store, the night I had the revelation about the socks, I showed my socks to Justin and said, what do you think of this shade of blue? Haha I thought that was worth sharing.

Thanks for reading!

February.

So, it's been a while since I've blogged, and that's mostly been because I've barely had enough time to do homework and get sleep, let alone write a blog. Plus I got sick, which made it even harder, because then when I wasn't doing homework, I really really needed to sleep.
Anyway, two days ago I had a birthday! And it was awesome! I got lots of great stuff! I got a set of 16 pots and pans, some super cute kitchen stuff, decoration stuff for Christmas, and, yeah, mostly everything I got will actually be useful for the future! Which is excellent, because that's what I really wanted. Because, well, I look at all the crap I have that I don't need, and I think, dang, I have to pack all that stuff up soon, and I don't really need more crap. So, yay for useful presents! Oooh, and I also got a SUPER DUPER cute pair of pink pj pants (particularly wonderful because Sarah made them, and she made them long enough! Yay!). And I got two cd's of Harry Conick Jr, and the book The Infinite Atonement. So, lots of awesome stuff. Thanks to all for the wonderful gifts!
Other than that, February thus far has been pretty uneventful. The first two weeks, not much happened. Homework, school, work. And I got sick. :-P But I'm getting better... sort of. Mostly. You could say. As long as I don't do anything except lay in bed. ANYWAY...
We went and picked out wedding invitations, that was fun! And we finally have colors. And when we went to pick out invitations, we stopped by his grandparents house, because it was super close, and his grandma has a little painting store, where she gives lessons, and has stacks and stacks of paintings, things she's done during lessons, and she told me to pick one! So I got a painting! It's really cool, it's of a boat, and it's all blue and white, and the boat is on the edge of a lake, and it totally looks like it could be a scene from a book. So I think I'm going to write a story around it. When I have time....
Also, Valentine's Day was fun :-D. We went to Jenny's royal princess ball in the afternoon, everyone was dressed up as princes and princesses and knights. Except my dad, who was the dragon :-). Then in the evening we went and saw a movie (yay for movie passes from work!), and we went to dinner. I made him some brownies for his gift (they had a layer of symphony bar chocolate in the middle, the kind with the nuts, and then caramel on top, I was trying to make them turn out like turtle brownies. I think I should have put nuts on top or in the brownie as well though. Now I know for next time!), and he got me some potted tulips, which are very beautiful, and a box of chocolate.
Well, not much else to update. Thanks for reading!

Beautiful Clippie

Beautiful Clippie,
oh so pretty,
beautiful clippie,
fills me with glee.

Beautiful Clippie,
Oh I love you,
you are more beauti-
ful than a shoe.

Beautiful Clippie,
graceful and black,
at work you help to
keep me on track.

Beautiful Clippie,
life without you
is not worth living,
I would be blue.

Beautiful Clippie,
I must admit,
If you disappear,
I'll throw a fit.

Beautiful Clippie,
you are to me,
what Ginny Weasly
is to Harry.

Hooray! I remembered the fifth verse!!

Anyway, that was in case anyone was wondering how I occupy my time at work. I work at a doctors office, scheduling appointments. So I answer phones all day. So between calls, I write awesome lyrics! You may be wondering what is so special about this one particular clip. Well, it's one of those plastic clips you can put on the cord of the headset and then clip to your shirt to keep the wire from getting in the way (it also makes QUITE the fashion statement!), but it is different than the other clips we have for this purpose. Not that I've used it for its intended purpose, but that's okay, it does something better! The grippy part that would grab onto your shirt is kind of wavy, and on the other, lesser clips, it goes one way on half, and the other way on the other half. So where it goes up on one half, it goes down on the other, and vice versa. So it's essentially good for nothing. THIS clippie, on the otherhand, doesn't do that. It goes up and down, and can be used to emboss a border around a piece of paper! It's super awesome!
This is the kind of edge you can make with the beautiful clippie!
And on the very far left of this, you can see kind of what the beautiful clippie looks like!






So, if you couldn't tell, I don't have a whole lot to blog about. This week has been like any other. Super busy, getting back into the swing of things, getting a fatty lot of homework, yay for homework... 130 pages of reading a night for one class... blah! And it's not even a good book! Oh well, hopefully it will pick up... but yeah, nothing too much to write about. I'm starting to realize just how tricky this semester is going to be, with 17 credits, working part time, and planning a wedding. I didn't realize I'd have so much reading for one class! But anyway, it'll work out.
Thanks for reading!

The Story.

Well, anyone who reads my blog should already know, but just in case you don't...
I'm engaged!
Here's the story.
It was Wednesday night (ssshhh, don't tell anyone, but I already knew what day it would be). Wednesday was a significant day for several reasons: it was exactly two months from our very first date, and it was exactly one month from when marriage first came up.
Backstory so it makes more sense: Justin and I first met at the institute opening social, WAY back at the beginning of the school year. We were both standing on the basketball court, and since we were all kind of early (there was a group of about five or six of us) we all kind of just started talking to each other, getting to know each other.
And back to Wednesday night. We are taking an institute class together on Wednesday nights, so we were over at the institute building. We got there a little early, and we walked across the gym to "find where the classroom was." We set out scriptures down in a chair just outside the door, then we were going to go walk upstairs to find our bishop (I'm getting a calling, but not yet. Apparently.). Then he pulled me aside and said, "But first, I want to make something official." Then he got down on one knee, said the line we all know so well, and of course, I said yes. :-D
So then I just have to add this part to it, because I think it's cute. We had called a bunch of people once we got home, siblings, etc, and we were having a bowl of ice cream, and suddenly I heard that it was raining. I pause, wanting to make sure I'm not hearing things, then I ask him, Is it raining? He didn't think so, but we listened, and sure enough, it was raining!
More backstory: I always thought the most romantic scene in any movie is in Sound of Music, when Liesl and Rolf were in the gazebo, and it started to rain, and they did their little dance and song. So, I've always thought it would be amazing to recreate that scene in a sort of way.
So, as soon as it started to rain, I looked over at Justin and said, Put your shoes on. He was already wearing his (because I'm smart, and noticed, obviously), so I pulled mine on, then dragged (I guess dragged isn't the right word, but I was definitely pulling him along :-D) him outside, and we stood in the rain. It was definitely the perfect way to end the perfect day.
So, now you all know!
May 30th is the big day, this semester is going to go by SO slowly, but at the same so incredibly fast.
Thanks for reading!

Updates...

According to my mom I haven't blogged in a while... it's been just over a week, give me a break!
Life has been good as ever. Saturday Justin and I went over to Ashley and Zachs and watched the cardinals game. Yes, I watched a football game. It was actually really fun! Granted, most of the time I ignored the game to either play with Madie or to make chocolate covered strawberries (the one thing we've found that I eat faster than Justin).
My dad's birthday was on Sunday, my sisters and I went in together and got him a miniature verion of the leg lamp from A Christmas Story. We wrote FRAGILE on the box, and as I predicted, my dad said the line from the movie before opening it. My dad placed it prominently on the sewing table right by the front room window :)
Monday night Kristi and Cliff and Ashley and Zach came over with their kids, and we had another dinner and played Guitar Hero World Tour, another gift my father got for his birthday. We got booed off a lot, but it was still fun :) Justin had his first experience playing, and by the end made vast improvements. He's up to playing on medium. And I found out I can play on expert on the bass part :)
Then on Tuesday we (Justin and I) went to the Suns game, which was my gift to him for Christmas. Not the best seats ever, and there was a very obnoxious (and very drunk) lady behind us yelling through most of the game, but it was still a good game. It was really close at the end, but the Suns ended up winning! Hooray!
School starts up again next tuesday, I have my first classes on Wednesday, I'm looking forward to starting up again. I like being in school, because it means I don't have to work every day, just tuesday and thursday, and every other saturday. Plus I'm really looking forward to my french class. And my English 213, intro to the study of language. Yep, still a nerd :)
Life is going great, just thought I'd give some updates.
Thanks for reading!

Resolutions [or lack thereof]

Happy New Year!
A bit late, but it still counts. Why? Because I said so, of course!
Most people make New Years Resolutions, and some people actually accomplish their goals. In years past, I've made broad, vague goals like "eat healthier" (I can't exactly say lose weight, because frankly I'd prefer to gain it in muscle), or "read the Book of Mormon" or "keep my bookshelf organized". And these are all good goals to have. But, I've never really continued on with them through the entire year. I couldn't tell you what my goals were last year if my life depended on it. I could probably guess and come fairly close, but only because I know how vague my goals have been in the past.
I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with this yet, so stick with me.
This year, I thought about making resolutions. But I thought about how likely I am to keep them. And I realized, the ones that I want to accomplish, I'm already working on, and the back-burner ones are likely to stay on the backburner. Frankly, my life is busy. I barely have time to STAY in shape, let alone get in BETTER shape. I barely have time to eat, let alone think about how many calories I'm consuming. Plus, I really just don't care about how many calories I consume. If it is yummy and in front of me, I eat it.
Anyway, this year, as I've thought about this, I decided (by this year, I really mean about five minutes ago, when I started this blog) that I'm going make a different sort of goal this year. And I'm only going to make one. Because to me, it is the most important goal a person can make as a New Years Resolution, and there are many ways it can be accomplished. Also, it will help in every other aspect of my life.
My goal is not to lose weight, or to read the entire Book of Mormon, or to finish my novel (although I wouldn't complain about any of the above three happening). My goal is not to get all A's, although I will strive for this.
No, my New Years Resolution for 2009 (I really love building up anticipation, can't you tell? Not the first time I've done this either. It's the author in me, I just can't resist a good build up) is to draw closer to the Lord.
I want to become closer to my Lord and Savior.
That's all. And I think as I do this, it will affect every other aspect of my life. Now, I like to think that I have a good relationship with Him, but life is about progression. If you don't go forward, you go backward. And I refuse to let that happen. And yes, I'd do this whether it was a resolution or not, but I think it's nice to write it out, put it out there for the world to see that I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. I am not ashamed to put my trust in the Lord, to show him that I know He can make up the difference.
Yesterday (I suppose technically it was two days ago, since it's 1:00am) I went to Justin's singles ward. I have never been to that ward, and I didn't know very many people, so I didn't get up to bear my testimony. If I had been in my own ward, even though I really don't know many people there either, I probably would have gotten up. Sunday, I felt the spirit so strongly, and I really just wanted to get up and testify. So instead, I'm going to do it here. I would rather let my family and close friends know that I have a testimony than a group of complete strangers anyway.
I know the church is true. I know without a doubt in my mind that Christ came to earth and died for me, personally, because He loves me, and wants me to return to live with Him in the celestial kingdom. I know that God loves me and watches over me, every decision I make, and I know that if I but turn to Him, he will be there waiting. Always. He will never leave me without comfort, without hope. I know that Joseph Smith was inspired of God, that he translated the Book of Mormon, and that he laid the foundations for the restoration of the only true and living church on the earth. I know that the prophet and apostles are ordained of God, and that they have power to govern His church. I've been through some difficult times, some times of doubt and unbelief, but I can say to you this day that I know all of these things to be true. It fills my entire being, the truthfulness of these things. I honestly don't know where I'd be without such a strong, sure foundation in my life. I am so grateful for all the many blessings I have received through my faithfulness and dedication to my Lord and Savior. I am so grateful for the support of all my family and friends, and for their love. I'm grateful to have so many people to love in return. But mostly I'm grateful for the amazing sacrifice of the Father and the Son, and for the chance it gives me to live with my family for all eternity.
I'm also grateful for the opportunity to share my testimony with you all. It is humble and meek, but I hope you will all take it at face value. These are the things, the thoughts and feelings that govern my every day life. These sentiments are what drive me to make the decisions I do, to live my life the way I live it.
Well, I didn't intend for this post to go the way it did, but I'm glad it did. I was sad I did not end up bearing my testimony in church on sunday, and feel much better now that I have.
Thanks for reading.