June BAMC: The Kon Tiki

I'm not going to lie: I didn't read very much in June. For most of June, I was waiting for books to read (The Host, Fountainhead) and I did start those books once I FINALLY got them, but I was not a good reader in June.

One of the best things about being married to my husband is that he reads to me. Although we enjoy the same books, we tend to read very different books. When we were first married Drek started reading me his favorite books. This month we read The Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft by Thor Heyerdahl.
This is an amazing adventure. The author of this novel wanted to prove that Polynesia was populated by migrants from Peru. In order to prove this, he built a raft exactly like what he theorized the ancient Peruvians built, and sailed across the Pacific Ocean. The novel is the tale of his incredible journey.
June's BAMC was Knowledge. This book is the perfect book to fit that word, because this man was truly in search of knowledge. Not only did he prove his theory, but the journey also benefited the study of ocean currents, marine life, and ancient civilizations.

I highly encourage everyone to read this book. It is both captivating and educational. Thank you, Drek, for reading me this amazing story.

Grown-Ups

My Husband now has a Grown-Up job. It has a salary, it has benefits. It is for Grown-ups only.
He is amazing!! He can work from home except on Mondays, when he has to drive 40 minutes to work. Using Grown-Up words, he telecommutes through out the week, and the has a 40 minute commute to the city on Mondays. He's doing PHP programming for a company that is planning on selling out in two or three years. When this happens, Drek and I will take our portion on the money (he gets equity in the company) and use it as a down payment on a house. Yes, a HOUSE. As in: what Grown-Ups live in.

He is 26. I am 22. So are we officially Grown-Ups now? Or does that not come until you have a baby and a mortgage and do not have marshmallow wars at 10:00 at night in a park with random friends and three strangers whom wanted to join in?

Sigh. For now, We will still live in our tiny, one-room apartment with crazy neighbors. I will work full-time, so will Drek. We will still play Human Tetris, try and figure out how to simulate a The Mole game, and try to shirk all non essential responsibilities. Today, for instance, I quit my church calling (because being a visiting teaching supervisor SUCKS!!!!!!!!). We will have fun, and love each other. We will try to save all our monies to buy a house.

My secret plan is in two years, the housing market will crash, and we will be able to buy our dream house for $10. I think I can save that much in that time...

MY HUSBAND IS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!

Human Tetris

Rissy came across this, then decided we needed to try it for ourselves.
I requisitioned the delivery guys from my work to save huge pieces of cardboard, but didn't get it in time. Cherie donated cardboard from her recent move, and Rissy and Lizzy spent the day creating masterpieces:
Let the games begin!!

Social Day

Yesterday I had a long talk with my mom, visited my sister and my niece, ate lunch with Stephi and Megan and hung out with Kris for most of the evening. I had a great time at all. H

Hanging out with Kris was a blast. We watched The Mole (I scared poor Toby into tears when I shouted for joy at one point during the show. PS: Clay is the mole). the she made me a delicious vegetarian dinner, followed by a trip to IKEA, which was AMAZING!!!!!! While there, I thought of Val (who is fluent in Swedish), and texted her. Kris and I then talked about Val, and I realized they would probably get along. I think a trip to the Castle Of Chaos Murder Mystery is needed to test this theory.
Anyway, Kris is amazing. She is a great mom, and is doing so well. She is not only someone I have a blast hanging out with, but someone I can also look up to.

Four Young Wedded Couples and a Funeral

The trip to Wyoming:
Interspersed with humor to keep the funeral part from being too sad.

We drove in "The Green Car". Three and a half people in back (Anona is eight months pregnant), a driver, a passenger, and me in the middle squished with no leg room up front. We are caravaning with "The Last Car" (occupied by two adults and thee children under four) and The Van (occupied by one adult, one teenager, and Grandma. Yes, that's right, a dead body. The coffin was surrounded by dry ice, covered in sleeping bags, and the van had to be kept under 40 degrees. oh, and van was hauling a trailer behind it.) We went at least 5 miles below the speed limit. We stopped at what seemed like every possible place to stop.
In Heber, the van driver calls The Green Car passenger, and informs her he left the "Coffin Saddle" at home. Apparently, this is a device that allows flowers to be placed on top of the coffin; It is a necessity. We pull over (Van leading, followed by The Green Car, followed by The Last Car) and the two run into the nearest building to ask for directions to a floral shop. The nearest building happens to be an H&R Block. The passenger of the Last Car comes up to my car and asks "did they have a pressing need to do their taxes? quite confused as to why we had stopped.
At this point, I am DYING!! And am about to text Krisface about his Hell that is a road trip. I open my phone and find I have a text message from my mom, which reads: I am in the Sacred Grove!!
I giggle ferociously as the opportunity seems so perfect: I am in Hell!!
The journey continues, and is not that bad. The trip takes about ten hours. The two mot notable stops were at Little America (which was very nice!) and in a town in Wyoming where the tomatoes had been pulled from McDonald's (because if the Great Tomato Salmonella Scare of '08), resulting in no ketchup packets. In the same town, the so-called "Sandwich Artist" at Subway did not know what bell peppers were, or what "the works" meant. Sad.
The view from the car all along the drive was nothing great, however, this part was more exciting than the rest:

We make it to our destination! Drek shows me the farm. I love it immediately. It is so awesome!! The young married couples are staying at a very gracious ward member's house. Thank Goodness!
I go to the church to arrange flowers with Drek's mom and sisters. We have a wonderful time.
The next morning we attend the funeral. It was so so so well done. All he children got to share a memory, and a lot of the grandchildren showcased their musical talent. This is also where I learned that Grandma had two great-grandchildren on the way. (Two? I only know of one. "Who is pregnant?" a cousin asks me. I have no idea an am looking around. The question is passed on a few times before Drek casually says: "What? Oh. It's Vi."
I die. For reasons I shall not go in to, this is not good news. And why am I finding out now? My dear husband has obviously known this for a few days.
Next was the burial. I was cold. Drek took a picture:
And then the luncheon (which had no less than five dishes containing Jello). It was then time to take family pictures. This can only be described with an LOL:

After pictures Drek and I went home. The ride back contained two and a half adults in the back seat, and Drek and I up front, with no caravan. The trip took eight hours.

Trip: Successful!!

Meltdown Complete

Gosh, where to start?

WEDNESDAY: Co-worker skipped town. He stole a car, $5,000 of stuff from Rent-a-Center, lots of stuff from the store, and left no one to take care of the store. The boss is on Vacation, the Manager is moving and isn't supposed to work, and I'm supposed to be in Colorado. Good thing I'm not. Jerk.

THUSDAY: At 10:30pm Drek gets a call from his cousin saying that Grandma took a turn for the worst and she is going up to visit Grandma in the hospital, and do we want to come? Drek says later. At 11:00pm he tells me and I am confused. Grandma is in the hospital for tests, she is just fine. How did she take a turn for the worst? What does that even mean? We are visiting the hospital at 11:00 at night? Don't visiting hours end at, like, 7:00?
I call the cousin back to ask the room number and to see if the hospital let her in. She says she is the waiting room of the ICU and "we" are just waiting. I ask who "we" is. Apparently, "we" is everyone. All aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, and such. In the waiting room of the ICU. At 11:00 at night. I hang up and tell Drek I think something very serious is going on. We talk about it, and decide that if it were serious, his parents would have called and told us to come to the hospital, not a cousin calling and inviting us.
We get to the hospital. We walk in. It becomes very apparent we were wrong. People are crying, people are calling Grandma's siblings and telling them she won't make it through the night. People are going two by two in to visit Grandma to say good-bye.
Drek and I go in and say good-bye. Grandma passed away on Saturday. It worked out nicely, everyone was here for the family reunion, so everyone got to see her before she died, and everyone already took time off work, so everyone can go to the funeral on Thursday. I worked it out so I work Monday and Tuesday, and Cherie works Wednesday and Thursday so I can go to Wyoming with the family for the funeral.

SATURDAY: On KSL I found a story about a little girl raising money to give her cat a surgery. The cat, Patches, had an accident as a kitten that resulted in her dragging her back leg around. Somewhere the girl was told that Patches would have a more normal life if that leg was amputated, but the surgery would cost $700, for all the best medications, the best antibiotics and so forth (please note that this is not a life saving surgery, but a life improving surgery). I talked to Drek about this, and he organized a way for people to donate money to ucpets.com, and the money would go to Patches. In two days, lots of people donated anywhere from $5-$75, and we had all $700!!! We then took the money over to a bank where a fund was supposed to have been set up. Two days later, it was and we deposited the money. In that time, KSL reported that 3 individuals volunteered to pay all of it themselves, and countless people had sent checks via snail mail, not to mention dozens of people stopping by to give the girl money, and donating to the fund once it was FINALLY open. So Patches had about six times what he needed. Great right? No. KSL reported that Patches underwent the surgery, and died. Yes, died. I can't tell you how upset this made me, so I can't even imagine how upset that poor girl is.

The whole time all this was going on, I was miserable. I was dieting, and I didn't realize how witchy that made me, until Drek and I got into our seventh fight in two days, and we never fight. I went off of my low-calorie diet on Sunday, as it wasn't doing ANYTHING and I was so cranky. Drek was about to kick me out of the house. I am no longer allowed to diet to the point where I snap at everything that moves.

Everything is looking a little brighter now. Thank goodness the meltdown is over.

4 Days to Meltdown

This morning Mei Mei got a call saying her trip to Palestine (scheduled to leave Sunday) has been cancelled due to crap going on with the Prime Minister and the raised threat level.

This morning I got a call saying my trip to Colorado (scheduled to leave Saturday) has been cancelled due to Grandma being hospitalized.

Today has not been a good day. I am not foreseeing this week getting better, only worse. Doom is coming. Impending doom. The bright side: Megan will home tonight!!! Thank goodness. I'm taking her out for ice cream tomorrow, after her husband takes her to get a massage. Also, Kris is supposedly in Utah. I am not sure when I will be allowed to see her. But, she is here.

Also, for those keeping track: My vacations scheduled this summer: 3
My vacations cancelled within the week of leaving on them: 2
Vacations still left to be cancelled: 1

Intruder Alert

Saturday night I stayed up as late I could, not wanting to go to sleep alone. I finally went to sleep around 2am. I'm not sure what time it was, but a little while later I heard someone come in to the bedroom. What is that, a murder? Aw, I've got to get some sleep.
It took a few seconds to register that is was my wonderful husband, home a day early. Hooray!!
He had come in, taken a shower, and only when he came into the bedroom did I wake up enough to hear him.

Sunday, while I was cooking dinner, I talked to Kris a little bit. While I was doing this, Drek was cleaning out his canyoneering gear, which included putting some of his gear out on the front porch. Kris was just leaving Tulsa, making her exodus out of Arkansas and back home where I have missed her so much. She was telling me that her cats were none to happy about the move. She wanted me to listen to them, so she but the phone up to one so I could hear them. At the same time I heard her cat meow, I heard a dog bark and a cat hiss, all in very close proximity to me. I look over into my living room, and there is Acouchi, up on the shelves, hissing like crazy, at the dog that is in my living room. Yes. A dog in my living room. Drek left the door open, the dog saw my cat and invited herself in my house. I chase the dog out, flinging my fork I was cooking with around in the air, resulting in the carpets being splattered with refried beans. At this point, Kris comes back on the phone, and is highly confused.

Kris isn't even back in Utah yet and already we're having crazy adventures again. I take that as a good omen.