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.

I Volunteered to Work for the Octogon Free of Pay

Drek left on an adventure yesterday and will not be back until Sunday. I thought sleeping alone would be hard last night, but I was so tired from only getting 4 hours of sleep the night before I didn't notice. Still, an empty house is quite dreaded now. I avoided it by spending time with my parents and then watching the 2 hour season finale of LOST (again) over at Josh and Cherie's house. They have an enormous big screen and Perfect Chairs. Josh served vegetarian pizza and Cherie got me a blanket. They discussed the show during the show (there was even a few screams) and Josh even caught a vital piece of information I totally missed last time. Can LOST watching get any better? I submit that it cannot!

My refrigerator is now full of deliciousness. My wonderful mother donated green salsa, red salsa, an enormous bowl of fruit, a gallon of whole milk (no more evil 2%! Hah! well, at least until this runs out) and a dozen Fruit and Yogurt Parfaits to my refrigerator. All this is leftovers from the Senior All Night Party.

This makes me so happy. I have recently gone on a dreaded "low calorie" diet. I am mostly dying. Before this, everything I heard said how evil low fat and low calorie diets were, and how they screwed up your body, so I never even bothered to learn what a calorie was.
It is a huge learning process. I researched like crazy on the Internet, did crazy math equations, and am now counting calories. I'm even keeping a food journal, because I read that that is the essential part of any diet. I'm still learning that how to balance it all out and how to still eat what I want (a new idea was just introduced: you can still have crazy calorie foods from restaurants, you just only eat a few bites. But then, you just wasted precious calories and are still hungry, not to mention the wasted money, food, and poor starving children in Africa). The fact that my fridge is now stuffed with food I can eat is amazing. So happy.

Is it working? I have no idea. The batteries on my scale went out a few weeks ago and I have yet to get it replaced.

Congratulations Mei Mei!!

Thursday Plan:

9:00am Wake up
10:00am Do laundry
11:00am Go to Seven Peaks & play for four hours, on way home, grab cake.
4:00 pm Go to Mei Mei's Graduation Dinner
7:00pm Go to Mei Mei's Graduation (miss 2 hour season finale of LOST)
11:00pm Volunteer at Senior All-Night-Party
2:00am Go home and SLEEP!

Thursday in reality:

8:00am Wake Up
9:00am Do laundry
9:10am Cut fruit for Senior All-Night-Party
11:00am Pick up cake for Mei Mei's Graduation Dinner
12:00pm Come to the sad realization that is is windy, overcast, and might rain. No Seven Peaks.
12:10pm Take a nap
2:00pm Wake up, realize the sun is shining. Seven Peaks time!
3:00pm Arrive at Seven Peaks, lose all faith in staff's abilities. Wait for them to "find account in computer" for 30 minutes.
3:40pm Go on one ride. wahoo.
3:45pm Rush home, change.
4:00pm Go to Mei Mei's Graduation Dinner
7:00pm Decide I am all socialized out.
8:00pm LOST!!!!! WE WATCH IT!!!!!!!!
10:00pm Die over LOST
11:00pm Volunteer at Senior All-Night-Party
11:30pm Run home to get Mei Mei's forgotten power cord for camera.
11:45pm Run home to get the correct forgotten power cord for camera.
12:00am Kid sits in Drek's food. Die Laughing.
2:00am Karaoke ends, still have energy. MUST WATCH HYPNOTIST!
3:00am Die laughing at the hilarity of the Hypnotist. SO FUNNY!!
4:00am Go home
4:10am Dead asleep

The Economy is Making Me Sad

All day, two people came into the store. One of them was the owner. Slow is an understatement.

And then the phone rings.

Me: Gives intro
Woman: Uh, hi. I've been doing some research online and...oh. Is K La there? I think I need to talk to her.
Me: This is K La
Woman: Oh. Good. Um, I was in your store in January, and I got your card. And I've been doing some research online and would like to purchase one of your chairs. Probably the most expensive chair in the store, with my luck. Chuckles softly
(We sell massage chairs, recliner chairs, and office chairs. At this point I am thinking she wants an office chair, and roll my eyes at the fact that she thinks $700 is our most expensive chair.)
Me: All right. Which chair would you like?
Woman: The Sanyo Zero Gravity Massage chair (Price = $5,000)
Me: Sucks in air so fast my gum goes down my throat. I start choking. I quickly recover.
Oh! That is a good massage chair. That is actually my favorite chair (because right now it has a $75 spiff on it) That is a very good chair!
Woman: Yeah, I was in there in January and liked it, but as it turns out my brother-in-law has that chair and for the last week we've been staying at his house. My husband sat in the chair a lot so I that's going to be his Father's Day present. Luckily, he goes on trips a lot so I'll get to sit in it too. Chuckles softly.


Booya. Thank you brother-in-law.

Introducing...Annette

I was woken up this morning by someone at the door. It was Fed Ex, delivering my new computer. Oh! She is so beautiful!! Thank you, Drek! Thank you!

MacLappy is no more. He is never coming back. All his files were backed up to a hard drive. This is Annette. MacLappy's files are now hers. She is just as smart as MacLappy, looks just like him, but is so much more!! So much happier, with so much more gumption. Even as I type I am admiring her face plate, her smooth, unblemished mouse pad and her smiling camera. She is gorgeous, smart, and will not get sick. She is clean and white with no scratches She makes a small clicking noise when you use the mouse, her keys press down with uniform ease, and if you press the F4 button, she will instantly show you your dashboard.

I love her already.

May BAMC

May's word was Mother. For this challenge, I read three books: Mrs. Frisbee and the Rats of Nimh (recommended by Drek) by Robert O'Brian, How Life Begins: The Science of Life in the Womb by Christopher Vaughan and I am a Mother (recommended by Kris) by Jane Clayson.

All three of these books had something very powerful to say about motherhood that can be summed up in one word: Miraculous.

Mrs. Frisbee and the Rats of Nimh is about the quest of a mother to save her little boy. Through faith and the love of a mother, Mrs. Frisbee accomplishes the impossible. She has adventures she could never had dreamed of and ends up better of than she could have wished for.

How Life Begins: The Science of Life in the Womb discusses that although scientists know quite a bit about how a sperm and an egg turn into a live baby, there is is much more that they don't know. It is not fully understood why a fertilized egg will turn into life with ease when done naturally, but in-vetro or artificial insemination has such a high failure rate. Nor is it fully understood why the mother's body doesn't reject the developing fetus , how the cells know what to become, or how the baby knows when to signal labor. Understanding these things would lead to miraculous scientific break thoroughs in organ transplants, infertility, stem cell research, cloning, and health care. Pregnancy in an of itself is a miracle.

I am a Mother is an LDS book about the divine roles mothers have. It's bases is that mothers need to stop saying "I'm just a mom" apologetically, and announce with pride "I am a Mother." The job of a mother is to rear children, sustain communities, shape countries and change nations. As a mother you have more power to change than world than any other job.

Reading these books changed my perspective on motherhood. I would highly recommend all three of these books. The first and third book are very easy reads, but the second one is quite technical, and may only be enjoyed by anatomy and physiology geeks.

The Number Four, Do We Really Need It?

Bells is fine. We let her go Saturday morning. She seems to be doing well. So do her babies.

Kris stopped by with baby Toby Friday night. It was nice. I am very much looking forward to her moving here. We shall play Nurtz.

Saturday morning Drek and I drove up to Park City. We had a wonderful time up at the condo. I spent a lot of time with my most adorable niece. It was so much fun to walk around with her, carry her around and entertain her in the car. She is so smart and so so cute.

Drek and I and my sister and her husband went shopping for food to eat for the short time we were there. Not only was it fun to hang out with them, but it was very exciting because this is the first year we have done the shopping.

We played a few games and went out to dinner at Macaroni Grill. There was a host there that would sing to you if it was your birthday. He sang to you in Italian, and his voice was AMAZING!! We conversation ensued on his duties, and if he was just hired because he could sing. While we were there the chef came out to give a toast, and gave every table a free desert (quite the brilliant marketing strategy if you think about it). Our table got the 3 berry Tiramisu, which was good. Not brilliant, like I thought it would be, but good.

That night we had root-beer floats (a condo tradition) and watched Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium; Which I loved.

We slept on a pull-out-couch (Oh I missed my Tempur-Pedic bed). In the morning we had a brunch with some cousins. We left early in the brunch, I was tired of socializing.

On the way to and from Park City I made Drek listen to the musical The Scarlet Pimpernel and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He really likes The Scarlet Pimpernel. I am thrilled.

I Just Want a Vacation

Bells threw up all last night. Six or seven times, I think. I've been worried sick about her all day, but she seems fine now. Poor baby.

Today was not a good day. Not a good day at all.

Tomorrow Drek and I are going up to the Condo for the official start of summer semi-family-reunion. I am so excited. I need a vacation so very badly. Thank goodness I don't have to go to work tomorrow. Thank goodness.

You Head Asplode

Tuesday morning started out by going into our neighbor's garage and looking for four little kittens. We finally found them (they were so small it took a long time) and loaded them, along with Mommy Bells, into a crate. We drove them over to the Spay and Neuter Clinic and dropped them off with lots of reassurance. We picked them up at 2:30 and were informed that Bells was to be given pain medication every morning and night until her medicine ran out. She also had to stay indoors and could not get wet.

These instructions stemmed problems. Bells is an outdoor cat, and what's worse: pretty much a stray. The family she hangs around the most cannot keep her indoors because Ben just came home from his mission and is allergic to cats. Drek and I have Acouchi. Acouchi will simply not allow Bells and four mini-bells back into her domain. Thus: problems.

We decided to keep the kitties in our bathroom, with the door closed. While setting up the bathroom, Bells walked out and into the hallway. She did this the same time Acouchi was walking out of the bedroom, into the hallway. Acouchi froze; no doubt recognizing her intruder and wondering where she had come from. Bells waked on nonchalantly; Just as she had when she was a baby.

I herded Bells back inside the bathroom and Acouchi went to sulk under the bed. After making our new guests feel at home, I went to try and apologize to Acouchi. She would have nothing of it. I brushed her, gave her a massage and told her it was only for a few days, but she did not care. She is officially mad at me (Me, not Drek) and there is no changing her mind.

Bells, on the other hand, loves my attention. She'll crawl on my lap and purr (kind of, she makes the same trill as a pigeon. It's odd. What's even more odd is two of the kittens have picked up on it, and try to imitate her) and beg to be petted. She is so cute. So are her babies. So cute, your head will asplode.







Bells is a very good mother. She's very watchful of her little ones and is very attentive of their cries. He licks them constantly and seems content to be with them. This is a picture of Bells and mini-bells
Hopefully, Acouchi will forgive me once our house guests are gone. For now, she seems very sullen.

Allow Me To Elaborate on How Great He Is

On paper, my husband looks great. He is an exemplary student, a few weeks away from getting his Masters Degree in Robotics from a prestigious university. He served a two-year LDS mission. He won Volunteer of the Year in this state for his continuous volunteer work at the animal shelter. He writes stories everyone loves to read, and one story is so great it just made him a finalist in the Writers of the Future contest (making him in the top eight in the world). He makes amazing pasta salad and is a skilled Canyoneerer.

In real life, my husband is even better. Paper just doesn't do him justice.

Last night, I was miserable. I couldn't sleep, I had a headache, my tummy hurt, and oh, I couldn't sleep. I tossed and turned, keeping my husband up. Finally I fell asleep at two thirty. My husband got up at five because his allergies were not allowing him to breathe. He didn't get me up, he just went into the living room and worked on his projects. When my alarm went off, he kissed me and let me sleep in. He even went to the grocery store (we have no food in the house. None. Not a crumb) and got me milk and fresh pineapple to bring me breakfast in bed. He then cuddled with me some more, and I finally got out of bed at ten. By this point, he had already called to check the status of his brand new laptop he ordered, and set up an appointment for Bells to be spayed (tomorrow seven thirty in the very early morning).
I called my mom to discover that she was just leaving a job interview. That's right, my brave mom is venturing forth in the workforce once again. She is so brave. I am not sure I will have that kind of courage when I'm her age. I admire her so much, not only for this, but for being such a great mom to us three girls all these years without working. Talking to her makes me realize that the student loan she took out to pay for half my tuition for Massage Therapy school is still draining her assets month by month. I go to my husband and ask if I can have $3,000 to pay off the rest of this loan. Does he refuse? Does he try to bargain? Does he cringe at the fact that our hard earned savings will suffer? He does not. He simply asks the exact amount, and where to transfer it too.
He drives me to work and kisses me good-bye. Later that day he picks my up and takes me to lunch. Even later he picks me up from work with some amazing news. I guess he thought if he was getting a fantastic new laptop, I should too. So he called Apple and complained that we had taken McLappy into the Apple store four times, and the screen still flickers (which is actually giving me headache right now). Apple apologized and decided to replace my laptop. But wait! They don't make this laptop anymore, so they will have to upgrade it to a new and super-cool MacBook, for free. Yeah. My husband is amazing.
He then takes my shopping for desperately needed groceries. He even remembered to bring the shopping list. As w are leaving the store, I see a friend from high school that I have been missing for a very very long time. There were hugs, catching up was done, phone numbers were exchanged, watermelons were killed, and my husband stands calmly by through all of this and the subsequent me showing him off.
That is how great my husband is. Best. Husband. Ever.

I'm Drying Out

I need to go swimming. I took a shower to soak up water, but it's not enough. Maybe I need to get into a giant bathtub will all my clothes on. I think that will help.

I HATE VISITING TEACHING!!!! In a happy world, I would have spent the day swimming instead of going visiting teaching, preparing to go visiting teaching, writing emails to encourage visiting teaching and going to meetings about visiting teaching. I HATE IT!!!!!!!

Today Should be a Swimming Day

Thu sun is shining today. It is supposed to reach 90 degrees. Why am I not outside today? Oh, right. I have to work. Money is evil.

After work Drek and I are going directly to Sunstarr's wedding. She is getting married outside, up the canyon, so that will be nice.

Her "Bridal Bash" as we called it, was last Saturday. It went great! I finally found daiquiri glasses (branded with Royal Caribbean and sold for $0.75 each at D.I.). That was the best part. I used frozen Strawberry Daiquiri mix, fresh strawberries and rum flavoring. Each glass was topped off with a mini umbrella. They were perfect.
I found crazy discounts for Papa John's Pizza and got three of Sunstarr's favorite pizzas for cheap. I ordered online that morning. Not only were they delivered exactly when I asked them to be, but they were two minutes early. I was highly impressed.
My mom did the decorations, which were fabulous. She also got candy for the event (I used most of them as prizes, a bag of green M&Ms, a bag of ring pops, and two bags of Hot Tamales) the best candy being a bag of red M&Ms that were cherry flavored. They were so good!!
The guests arrived exactly the same time Sunstarr did. No waiting at all. A few of the games were huge hits, one of them was dumb, and we stopped playing it immediately. The video we did of the fiancee answering questions worked great, and overall the party was great.
I loved throwing her the party. Not only was she easy to work with and everything went smoothly, but it reminded me that this time last year I was going to my own bridal showers. That made me appreciate my husband all the more. He is so wonderful and I am so glad we are married.

Basically: Kind of a Big Deal

I am told, by my manager, that once a year, corporate comes out and inspects the store. They take pictures of EVERYTHING, they check your inventory, they inspect the salespeople, they quiz the owners. I am told, by my manager, that last year when corporate came, they fined the store for not having certain core products, fined the store for selling non-approved products, fined the store for having non-approved signs, and gave the store warnings for having dust on the foot machines, and having the boxes on the shelves not-perfectly spaced. They come in, terrorize you for an hour, and leave you crying and worrying about fines and warnings.

Yeah.

So this year, corporate came back. The entire week before I cleaned like crazy. The whole store, top to bottom, was scrubbed, vacuumed, dusted, sprayed, polished and perfectly arranged. The entire week before, I had no free time. The entire week before I had to listen to my boss tell me about corporate inspection, my manager tell me about corporate inspection, and my co-worker tell me about corporate inspection. OVER AND OVER AGAIN. I have the horror story memorized verbatim.
The day before, we loaded up non-approved products and signs in the truck to hide them. We made fake POs to pretend we had core products on order. We cleaned like fiends. Oh, by the way, by "we" I mean "me and co-worker". Like the boss or manager would do anything but complain.
The day of, I arrive at work to find "corporate" is already there. "Corporate" is one person, a very nice looking, small woman with a very loud laugh that sounds like she's crying. She is SO NICE.
My manager called in sick that day (coward), co-worker has no idea what is going on, and my boss got an urgent phone call and had to leave. Corporate comes out and talks to me. We talk about her plane trip, the store she used to work in, my training as a massage therapist, and good places to eat around here. She leaves to get lunch and comes back to work on her laptop.
Now I am in a pickle; I think I'm supposed to look busy, but there are no customers coming in, and everything is already crazy clean. I have nothing to do. NOTHING.
My amazing and genius husband comes up with the answer: He programs a phone to somehow play the latest LOST podcast. I call up a number, and toll free, listen to Darlton. I am entertained, but I look like I am on hold with a company (which I frequently am) the solution, was brilliant. This basically saves me, because she stays ALL DAY.
Finally, my boss comes back. He and corporate talk and laugh and joke. At 15 to closing, she sighs and says she better get out her checklist. She does not take pictures. She does not give warnings, she does not fine us. She smiles, asks a few questions about missing core products ("it's on order, do you want to see the PO?" "No, that's ok, I don't want to cause trouble") and then the boss takes her out to dinner.

???

The next day, I come in to work, asking how dinner went. My boss is all smiles and says we did great, we passed inspection, no problem. My manager is confused and keeps saying how different last year's inspection was. I am angry that I stressed out for no reason and that my manager would abandon us like that. However, I can now listen to the latest LOST podcasts from the work phone, so it makes everything all right.

It's Not the Years, Honey, It's the Mileage.

For my Birthday, Rissy got me the box set of Indiana Jones DVDs. She had never seen them, so we decided to watch them together. Unfortunately, she left for Disney Land before we could get together. She went on the Indiana Jones ride, loved it, came back, and thus movie parties were a must. We watched the third Indiana Jones movie on Monday. Yesterday night we watched the first Indiana Jones movie. It's her first time watching all of these, my second or third, and Drek's millionth. Mostly we just shake our heads when Indi destroys things (for an archaeologist, he has a lack of care for ancient artifacts) laugh when a metal object hits ANYTHING and explodes, and genuinely enjoy the movies. Both parties were accompanied by lots of snacks, last night it even merited a run for Sundaes. The forth movie comes out soon; it might warrant a midnight showing. We'll see.

Maybe Next Year...

Happy Mother's Day!! This year it was more of a big deal than previous years. I have a mother-in-law now, family came into town and now friends my age are moms too.

Saturday Night Drek and I took his parents out to dinner to celebrate Mother's Day. It was a lot of fun, rarely do we get them to ourselves. Our waiter turned out to be a boy I had dated once. It was...awkward, but other than that it went great.

Sunday morning Drek and I went over to my mom's house for a breakfast. My Grandma and my Aunt were there. Afterward we went to my parent's ward (which is so so so so so much better than our married student ward). After church we had a dinner where my Grandparents from Texas came, and my Aunt and Uncle from up in Salt Lake. My older sister was also there. Dinner was yummy, dinner was fantastic, and the conversation was wonderful. By that time, I was exhausted and wanted to go home and sleep, but we had to go to dinner over at Drek's parent's house. We had a good time, but I was just so tired!!

I'm so grateful for the mothers in my life. My mom has been such a wonderful example to me and is everything a mother should be. My Mother-in-Law is an extraordinary mother and couldn't have raised my amazing husband any better. Both of them set the standard for what I the kind of mother I want to be...someday.

When I Feel I'm About To Faint I Eat a Cube of Cheese

Happy Birthday Kara!! For some reason, I thought yesterday was friday. Sorry I sent you the card a day early.

Me thinking yesterday was Friday also caused all sorts of problems at work. I had to fix them all today, the real Friday. Not fun. Luckily, I caught on that it was LOSTrsday. LOST was amazing.

I also went jogging with my new pedometer! I had to start jogging in preparation for the WOMEN challenge, which starts Sunday. The pedometer was great in one regards, but not so great in the fact that it told me my jogging route was, in fact, 1/2 a mile. This whole time I thought is was a whole mile. Whoops.

I am still not losing weight. I think the solution might be 30 minutes of Tao-Bo in the morning, ride my bike to and from work, go jogging a whole mile at night, followed by 30 minutes of Yoga. Oh, wait, can't do that, because I have a life. Crap. Maybe if I can somehow do this and combine it with the Devil Wears Prada diet, I will finally lose some weight.

The Mole

Yesterday Drek and I took a trip to the library. When we walked in, my phone rang. I quickly backed out of the library and answered the phone. It was Krisface. She had some very exciting news to tell me:

THE MOLE IS BACK!! PREMIERING JUNE 2!! I AM SO EXCITED!! THE MOLE! THE MOLE!!!

The Mole was my favorite reality show (indeed, that and 1 season of The Biggest Loser were the only reality shows I followed). My mother and I watched the episodes religiously. We bet smoothies on who the mole was. I guessed it every time, except the last, when the mole was super-super sneaky.

Last year I was thinking about this show and wrote an email to ABC saying they should bring that show back, and they should put me on it. I guess they read my email!! Alas, I am not on the show, but that is OK, I am married now and don't want to leave my husband for long periods of time anyway. I shall live the experience vicariously through my TV (or, Internet since we don't get any channels) because that is what TV is all about.

Happy Cinco De Mayo!!

Drek and I celebrated by getting free stuff at Bajio (including two piñatas!). Tonight we are going to drink Margaritas in my new Margarita glasses and whack said piñatas. Come one, come all.

You should celebrate by updating your blog. Yes, YOU. My igoogle is very sad. No one has updated in a while. NO ONE. Icluding you, husband. How am I supposed to know what's going on in your life if you don't update? Yeash, do you think I'm married to you or something?

(later)

Pictures!!


I made some yummy home made Margaritas (no alchohol, no mix). They turned out great!!
We had our small but colorful decorations
and of course the piñatas.

It was a very small party, but we had fun. Xirax and Aaron and I drove to Macey's to buy candy to stuff inside our little furry friends. Later, we rigged our own whacking systerm. Yes, that is a USB cable instead of a rope, yes that stick is a broom, yes that bat is a mop, and yes, those blindfold are ties.


Xirax vs Bird


Aaron in the hanging of the Bull

Drek vs Decapitated Bull

He Does "Cook" For Me

Yesterday I came home to find that my amazing husband had cleaned the whole house and gone shopping for a special dinner. He had bought all different sorts of fruit and in an effort to support my RAWism, had made me the most delicious fruit salad.
Isn't he great?

Not only that, but he is working so hard at finishing up his thesis (will be done this month!!) and has started applying for jobs, as well building up his own clients so he can work for himself. He is so wonderful. I'm positive he is the best husband in the whole world.

"I Wanted To Be A Jedi"

Yesterday was a very busy day at work. Highly successful, and very busy.

Kudos to Drek's cousin for mentioning SurfTheChannel.com. I have discovered that this site has all episodes of Pushing Daises. (as well as a million other shows) Glee!! Drek and I watched the pilot (Pie-lette!!) and then next episode. Ah, so much explained when you actually see the episodes you couldn't see on ABC.com. I have decided I am even more in love with this show. We watched an episode and walked away feeling happy and uplifted. We watched the new LOST and I was sad for the rest of the night. I just don't think she's coming back. I think she wondered into the forest and is gone forever. So depressing.

"I was first named Ultimate Sword Master at the Southern Area Regional Volunteer Infantry Reenactment Regiment."
"I wanted to be a Jedi."

Happy May Day!

I am going to run across the country; From San Francisco to Washington DC. How am I doing this? As part of the WOMAN Challenge: Women and girls Out Moving Across the Nation. Basically, the eight week WOMAN challenge encourages women and girls to set and achieve personal physical activity goals, appropriate for their lifestyles. When you meet your goals, your marker advances across the country. My sister got me into it, and now we're on a team!! We start May 11 (Mother's Day) and end July 5. I'm so excited!
I was supposed to lose 20 pounds by my birthday. I did not. I've been really good at excising (tao bo for 30 minutes every morning) but I haven't lost anything!! I blame this on my horrible eating habits. Everything Drek and I eat is processed junk. I also tend to eat desserts everyday. Thus, I've been doing research on a RAW diet. I am also excited about this. Yesterday I went shopping for food and for the next few weeks most of our meals will be RAW. With the new diet, the continued Tao Bo, and an extra WOMAN challenge, I'm highly confident I'll get closer to my goal weight.
Wish me luck!!

April BAMC: Pretties

The April Book of the Month Challenge was Beauty. This was frustrating because I was already reading Catch 22 (again. I love that book) and there is just no way you can use beauty to describe that book.

So, I picked a Young Adult series by Scott Westerfiels. I had the series recommended to my Krisface. I loved them. The fist book is Uglies, then Pretties, then Specials. Because these books are so popular, I had a hard time getting a hold of them at the Library. Thus, I read Pretties first, then Specials, and last I went back and read Uglies. Pretties was definitely my favorite of the three. It did the best job of showing you this civilization with all the slang, the technology, and the thinking. Also, I hadn't read Uglies yet so I didn't know who David was, and thus liked Zane infinitely better.

The books are Science Fiction. It takes place in the future in a world where until the age of 16, you are called an Ugly. When you turn 16, you go in for a surgery that makes you a Pretty. You have perfect teeth, perfect skin, perfect muscles, and all your facial features are symmetrical. Your eyes are big and your lips are full. Along with this surgery, you move from the dorms of Uglyville to the mansions of New Pretty Town, where everyone is Pretty. What the people do not know, is along with making you pretty, the put lesions on your brain to make you complacent and content. In this way, all the problems of today are solved. There is no racism, no hate crimes, because everyone looks alike. No one is poor or starving, because the population is controlled. There is no crime, only "tricks" the uglies play to get attention.
The book makes several points on the beauty and ugliness, not only discussing the evolution of it, but also how beauty is defined by the society we live in. It also makes several points on how we, today (the book refers to us as Rusties) are ruining the world with all our pollution, greed and war. Of course, it also makes several points about agency, controlling people and government. It's totally bubbly-making.

I highly recommend this series. There is nothing questionable in them, not even any swear words. They are very easy reads and quite fascinating.

In the Catagory Of Questions Not Answered...

McLappy got sick, so I took him to a Mac Hospital. He was in there for a few days, but he is better now. MUCH better.

I'm not going to Texas on Tuesday, plans have been...changed. Drek's other family reunion is in July and it is in San Antonio. There's no point in going down twice, so instead of the Alamo and the Schlitterbahn in May it will be family and...more family in July. Sigh. Also, the Yellowstone trip has been cancelled. Well, kind of. I guess we're trying to go later in the summer, but we're not going for our anniversary. We're not really sure what we're doing.

Before I found this out, my older sister took me to a big Shade clothing sale. All shirts were $5. I found some really cute ones and so did she. The best part was that there were bathing suits there too! I got two cute tops and one pair of bottoms (Tanktini style). So now I have cute and appropriate swimsuits!! I do have a season pass to Seven Peaks this summer, I will just wear them there.

Nateizzle came to my work the other day. He brought be a chocolate bar from Krisface and a picture of Toby. He is soooooooooooooo cute. Soooooooooo cute. Krisface says he cries all the time. That's they should move here. I guess now they ARE moving here, the only question is with which job, and when.

It's now the 27th of the month. None of the girls have reported back their visiting teaching. I hate them. I am thinking of asking the bishop to be released from my calling. The only reason I didn't ask him today was because I think Drek would be disappointed in me.

I sent out all the invitations for Sunstar's bridal shower. I made them myself. They are very cute. I would take a picture and post it, but it has all sorts of personal information that I can't figure a way around.

Drek and I went on an adventure to purchase a connector thing-y for our TV/DVD player. It was quiet an adventure. Luckily, we both survived, and celebrated by eating homemade carmel popcorn and watching Dead Man's Chest on Rissy's TV and Xirax's DVD player.
I would like to start our subscription to clear play the same time I start a Net Flix free 90 day trial. That way I can watch a lot of movies for minimal cost. Alas, there are complications, so this will take time. What vexes all men? The Sea? Sums? The Dichotomy of edited R rated movies vs not watching R rated movies?

Happy Earth Day!!

Plant a tree, walk instead of drive, keep all lights turned off, recycle...
Do SOMETHING today to celebrate.

Princess Tea Party

The food was purchased, the cookies made, the cake decorated, the limo confirmed, the guests invited...
Showtime!!
The girls arrived at 5:00, all dressed up in dresses. They each picked a tiara to wear for the night. I had borrowed the tiaras from my mom, and to my surprise, she gave me the tiara she had worn as Football Sweetheart. That was the my tiara for the night. Isn't it beautiful??!!
The limo arrived at 5:30. Inside was AMAZING!!
We drove around until 6:00, when Nick called and said she was waiting out front (she thought he was taking her to a fancy dinner). We pulled up and jumped out, but she didn't notice us. We crept up to her car and all four of us stood by her window, but she still didn't notice. Finally I opened her door and then she realized what was going on.
We drove around in the limo (the driver got horribly lost, but he did get us to our destination eventually.

Tea Time!!

It was a huge success, everyone loved the little cups and the tiny (but delicious) food.

When we finally finished our teatime it was Birthday cake time. The birthday cake was my first attempt at Strawberry Shortcake. I think it tuned out alright. It was a little on the heavy side, but it was my first attempt.
Megan made a wish, but wouldn't tell us what it was.

Afterward, Nick came in and took tons of pictures of us in different poses. It was so much fun.

Happy 1st Birthday, Megan!!

Saturday I took a long lunch to go to my niece's 1st birthday party. The party was supposed to be outside in a park, but it was so windy that we moved it back to my sister's apartment. My sister had decorated two cakes for the occasion, one for the guests
and one for Megan!
At first, Megan wasn't sure about the cake,
but then she got into it.
Presents!

Drek and I got her two books (she loves babies, so one book was a color book with pictures of babies, and the other book was a counting book) and the movie The Phantom of the Opera.
Megan loves this movie, so it was a good opportunity to give a gift she would like, my sister would like, and I could add a little culture to my niece.
The party was a blast!! I hope Megan had as much fun as we did.

The Adventure of Shopping for Tea Sets

My friend, Megan (whom I really hope doesn't read this blog) is leaving this summer. She is going to Basic Training (she's in the air force) and is going to Egypt for several weeks to study Arabic (so jealous!!). Because of this, she will miss her 1 year anniversary and her birthday.
She has been the ring leader of our little clan of newlywed girls, and because of this I wanted our little clan to throw her a surprise birthday party. I started planning the party yesterday. The party is Sunday. Thus, things are a little rushed. The plan:

All girls will dress up in prom dresses and tiaras. Megan's husband will get her into a prom dress without telling her why. All the girls will come and surprise Megan by picking her up in a Limo. The limo will then drive around, giving us time to talk and enjoy ourselves. The Limo will then drop us off at a park, where we will have a tea party. Afterwards, we'll drive home.

The only complication is if it snow, which it is planning on doing (I HATE THIS STATE!!) and then we will go inside, rather than in a park.

Tonight, after work, I went shopping for tea sets. It was a very long day at work. I was tired, I was onrey, my feet hurt, but I was out of time. At store 1 I did find a dinner set with tea cups in them, but there were only 6 teacups (I needed 7) and one was broken. I had to take the box off the shelf to see this.
Store 2 sold teacups individually, but to get enough I would be spending over $50, which I was not desperate enough to do...yet.
Store 3 was Wal Mart. They had nothing close to teacups. In all the stores I browsed the toy isle, looking for toy tea sets, but hadn't found any until Wal Mart. They are perfect! Perfect miniature teacups and saucers!! And they are so cute!! Mission accomplished!! I decide to call Drek and gloat...oh, wait. Where is my phone?? You guessed it, back at store 1. It was a miracle it wasn't stolen.

I'll post pictures of the party after the event.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie...

I hate TV. I've said it before, and I will say it again: If there is anything good on TV, a quarkie will have shown it to me on DVD. The only exception to this rule has been Pushing Daises, which I found on my own, but had I waited a few months, Kirsa would have recommended on her blog.
Because of this, when Drek and I moved in to our apartment, I didn't bring the small 13" TV I own. The downside to this is that I love movies. I have lots of DVDs and VHSs, but could only watch the DVDs, and only on my laptop. After a few months, Rissy decided to give us a TV. It was old, but it was big and needed a home. I didn't want it, Drek did. Why do we need it? I asked. We don't have a DVD or a VHS player, we don't even get any channels. Why have a TV? but somehow, it stayed.
For Christmas, my grandma gave us her old VHS player. We hooked this up to Rissy's TV, and had fun watching movies that way.
Well, for my birthday, I received many wonderful things. My mother got me this beautiful rose, Krisface sent me the DVD "Enchanted" (squee!) and Xirax and Sunstarr got me...

A CLEAR PLAY DVD PLAYER!!!!! (Clear Play edits movies for you as you watch them. So now will never hear swear words ever again, and I can even rent some rated R movies!!!! EEEEEEEEE!!!)
It was amazing. A DVD player + the gift of R movies + editing out what I want edited our of every movie. AMAZING!!
The problem? The TV is too old to have the correct hook-ups. Thus, we need a new TV. Right back at square one.
We picked up my old TV and it works, but it is so small! We are thinking of just buying some sort of adapter to make the Xirax's DVD player and grandma's VHS player work with Rissy's TV.

Summer Plans

This summer is already packed with crazy-fun activities! Hooray!!

Officially, the fun starts April 29, when Drek and I fly to San Antonio, but a few days before that my darlings are coming to Utah to hang out. I'm so excited to see them! I haven't seen them since last February.

San Antonio!! We're staying at my grandparent's house, which is on the Guadeloupe River and so gorgeous. On Saturday we going to the Schlitterbahn. I need a new bathing suit for this. Unfortunately the bathing suit I have fallen in love with (a hand-me-down from my sister, actually) is a two-piece, and Drek says that will not fly. :( Besides, with any luck Drek's sister and her family will meet us there to play, and I wouldn't want to be wearing a two-piece.
We're staying in SUNNY Texas for at least a week, and then driving home with my grandparents in their Hybrid. Squee!!

The day we get home marks the official start of summer: Condo time!! Every year my grandparent come to Park City and stay at a Condo. A bunch of relatives get together here and we swim, play games, eat and hang out. We have done this since before I can remember. This event always signaled the official start of childhood summers.

Sunstarr is engaged (as of a few days ago) and I am throwing her a bridal shower. Just to show how different this party planning will be from the last party (a baby shower that didn't happen because mother-to-be was a brick), the guest list is done, the games are planned, the only thing holding us up is exactly when the party will be. The week before May 17, but the exact day is yet to be announced. I am very excited for this party.

June 7 Drek and I are driving to Colorado, the location of Drek's family reunion. This is a camping trip. Drek's family has a reunion every year and even the locations always change, most of them are camping trips. Last year was a blast, even though we had only been married for three weeks, it was the first time I met most of his family, and the family in charge of food didn't know I was vegetarian (and were quite shocked to find out)so I lived off of cheese-nips and Yogos. I hope this year is a little less awkward.

July: I am (hopefully) volunteering at the Freedom Festively and (hopefully) volunteering at the Stadium of Fire. Let's hope this works out! The day after, Drek and I are taking a road trip to Yellowstone, where I have never been. This will be where we celebrate our 1 year anniversary (awwww). This will also be a camping trip.

Sometime this summer Krisface will be here. In fact, sometime this summer Krisface will be moving here, but those dates are yet unknown.

Those are the plans thus far. Now if it would only stop snowing...

I'm Getting Quite Good at Writing Suppressed-Emotion Emails

In my married student ward, I am called as a visiting teaching supervisor. This is ironic, because I hate visiting teaching, and I hate using phones. I have had this calling for eight months now. My duties include gathering all reports from the fourteen girls in my district, compiling them into one big report, and submitting it to the girl in charge of all visiting teaching. This happens once a month. The problem with this is gathering the reports. The fourteen girls in my district are supposed to call me when they have finished their visiting teaching and give me a report. They don't. So I have to call them. They don't answer their phones, they don't return calls. Some of them don't even so their visiting teaching.
In recent months, I have made a breakthrough: I now harass the via email. This has worked better for the last two months, but I still have to ask for the reports, then beg them for the reports, and I still have to call four or five girls at the end of them because they never reply.
This month I have a problem. Drek on I are going on a much needed vacation on April 29. I refuse to be worrying about visiting teaching reports while I am on vacation. I refuse! Thus, I wrote an email yesterday:

Sisters,

We have 14 women in our district that we need to uplift, strengthen, befriend, and teach. It is a calling given to us by God, as women of his church. We are called to be visiting teachers, and then to return and report. Each of you are specifically assigned to 2 sisters. These 2 sisters are in your care. You are responsible for uplifting their souls, and making their burdens light. In D&C 1: 31 is says: "For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance;" Not doing your calling is a sin. In 1 Ne. 15: 34 it says: "But behold, I say unto you, the kingdom of God is not filthy, and there cannot any unclean thing enter into the kingdom of God; wherefore there must needs be a place of filthiness prepared for that which is filthy." That place prepared for the filthy is called Hell, sisters. And that's where you will be going if you do not do your visiting teaching and report back to me.
Last month, 5 of the 14 sisters in our district were not uplifted. They were not strengthened, they were not befriended, they were not visit taught. 5 of the 14. Why is this? It's not that hard, sisters! Each of you has a functioning, willing companion to help you out with this. I got my visiting teaching done, every month, for the last eight months, with no help from my companion, who's pregnancy is making her so sick, she can't answer a cell phone, an email, or even her front door. I can get my visiting teach done, so why can't you?
Technically, all sisters should be visited by the 25th of every month. All reports should be reported by the 25. That is in 12 days. Not counting today, you have 12 days (one of those being a Sunday!) to save your immortal souls by visiting teaching and reporting back. I know it's finals. I know you are busy, I know they are busy. So is Satan. Hell is full of busy people.
Do your visiting teaching. Email me your report by the 25. If you have not reported by the 26th, my report will say you failed to do your visiting teaching, and then I will come and hunt you down, and kill you, and you will go straight to hell, because you did not do your calling!!!!

Not kidding around,
-K la


Alas, in my church, there is an unwritten rule that all sisters must be "bubbly" to each other. At all times, all phone calls, all messages, all emails, must sweet and happy. Drek said the above email was probably not fitting these requirements, so this is the actual letter I sent out:

Sisters,

Happy Sunday!
We have 14 women in our district that we need to uplift, strengthen, befriend, and teach. It is a calling given to us by God, as women of his church. We are called to be visiting teachers, and then to return and report. In "True To The Faith" it says: As you visit and serve your assigned sisters, take the time to teach the gospel and nurture friendships. In addition to serving individuals, you can play an important role in strengthening families."
Last month, 5 of the 14 daughters of God in our district were not uplifted. They were not strengthened, they were not befriended, they were not visit taught. 5 of the 14. We can do better!!
Technically, all sisters should be visited by the 25th of every month. All reports should be reported by the 25. That is in 12 days. Not counting today, you have 12 days (one of those being a Sunday!) to build the Kingdom of God by doing your visiting teaching and reporting back. I know it's finals. I know you are busy, I know they are busy. Please make the time. You will be blessed and they will be blessed.

Have a wonderful April!
-K La

Bubbly enough? Maybe not, but that's all the emotion I could suppress.

Day of Doom Version 22

This year, I will even go so far as to not call it the Day of Doom, I will call it My Birthday. It was awesome.

Monday after work Drek and I went up to his parent's house to have a birthday dinner. We were welcomed by his littlest brother announcing that the dinner they made was all vegetarian, just for me. There was a big banner wishing me happy birthday over the door. When we walked into the kitchen, the "vegetarian dinner" turned out to be breakfast for dinner: Hash browns, waffles with whip cream and strawberries, and egg kishe. It was so yummy! They had even made me a chocolate cake which was amazing. They sang to me, and I blew out the candles. They gave me a few presents (a nice smelling candle from mom, Rachie made me earrings, a box of chocolate candies). It was very birthday-ish.

That night was my very last night of being 21. Therefore, I decided to go on a crusade to make up for my last birthday. I called Russel, and asked him to take me to the liquor store. I picked him up. When he got in my car he asked if he had heard me right. I laughed and told him yes, I said the liquor store. I needed a bottle of Spiced Rum. "For Banana Foster!!??" He asked excitedly. Dead on. Crazy.
We went to the store, bought the rum (they asked to see my ID!!!) and to my surprise they even supply you with a brown paper sack to put it in. Giggle giggle. We went back to his apartment and I attempted to make Banana Foster (from the recipe provided by Google's how to...). Alas, it did not work. In order to get the flame, the alcohol has to be proof 100, ours was only proof 70. But it still tasted delicious!! And I could say that I went and bought alcohol when I was 21.

Tuesday I was woken up up by amazing husband singing "Happy Birthday" softly in my ear. He is the best husband ever. for the last week he kept asking me what I want for my birthday. Silly boy. Doesn't he know that he is all I could ever want? We went to the Bakery for a breakfast of eclairs and orange rolls, then we came back home and he made me a breakfast burrito, just how I like it.
I went into work and was wished happy birthday by my co-worker and my manager, a few minutes later my boss came in carrying a bouquet of balloons.
They were weighted down by a cheeseburger from Wendy's. "Now that you're 22, I'm sure you're mature enough to eat a cheeseburger." I declined, he said my real present was in his car. It turned out to be the most delicious chocolate pie! he had even put candles on it. He also have me a ring with a heart on it; Because I am "the heart of the store." :) It was so great!
My mom took me out to a wonderful lunch, my sister called, Kris called and even tried to get Toby to talk to me! Xirax called, which was fun. And Russel called later that night. That night we went out to dinner with Rissy and Ismail, and after having a very hard time finding the place, we had a wonderful (and hilarious) dinner. I tried to get Ismail to eat an octopus, but the waiter took it away too fast.
When we got home, Drek had decorated our bedroom in the most amazing way!

I have never seen such a wonderful decorating job! He has sprinkled the bed with my favorite kinds of chocolate, and he had bought me a picture frame that I had been wanting for a long time. He is amazing. Thank you, Drek. I love you.

Wednesday I made Napoleons. It took me all freaking day, and the crust didn't turn out right, but it was still yummy. We had a family party in the afternoon, ate Napoleons and ice cream and had a great time. My little niece is the most adorable little girl in the world. She was the entertainment for most of the party. Her birthday is next week. She will be one year old.

So now I am 22. I don't mind, actually. After I got used to it, I liked saying I was 20. I think 22 will be the same way.

I Burned My Hand...On My Muffins

Conference weekend: Always a great weekend!

Saturday was spent at work, but because no one comes into our store while the boys are at priesthood meeting, we shut the store at six. Drek was gone, of course, so I went over to my mom's house and hung out with her. A little while later, Rissy and I went to go see Nim's Island, which I highly enjoyed.

Sunday Drek and I listened to Conference from the comfort of our own home. I continued my tradition of cleaning while I listened, resulting in our little apartment being CRAZY CLEAN!! I bought a handheld steam cleaner a few days ago and used it like crazy on all walls, baseboards, coutertops, sinks, and all kitchen appliances, including the refrigerator. I even cleaned Acouchi's room. It was while I was using my steam cleaner that I burned my hand. Not on muffins, but by putting the back of my hand directly in the path of the super-heated steam. I think my subconscious is trying to kill me before Day of Doom Version 22, which is tomorrow.

For the afternoon session, Rissy and Ismail came over to play the LOST bord game and CLUE FX. We set up dinner plans for my Day of Doom. I am excited!
I see potential in the LOST bord game. I think if there were different Fate cards, and if the game was players vs. The Island instead of players vs players. I want to make it like that crazy fun game Matt had. I don't know what is was called, but I played it with Pratt and Brad like three times. I am thinking I will redo the LOST game, until it is crazy fun.

After they left Drek and I went over to my parent's house for more games. We played Killer Bunnies and Hand and Foot. My mom also discussed Day of Doom plans with me. She's taking me out to lunch (Cafe Rio!!!) and we're having a small party, where we will have a dessert recipe I have been dying to try ever since I saw it on Google's "how to of the day". I'm so excited! All in all, this birthday is already infinitely better than last year's. Worst. Birthday. Ever. Although I did get a killer game of Pirates' Dice which has come in useful time after time. Not everyone forgot my birthday last year (thanks Xirax!!).

Hooray!

Still on an Adrenaline Kick

Today has been insane. From the time I woke up, I have been on a dead run.
This morning I opened the store, then had to run over to a doctor's appointment. Well, not really a doctor, a nurse. It's a long story. Anyway, Laser Hair Removal is a go!! My first appointment is Wednesday! EEEEEE!!!
Run back to work. Today at work, we are rearranging the store. All. Freaking. Day. Moving beds, boxing them up, moving them to the truck, taking new beds out of the truck, bringing it in, unwrapping, setting them up. Building chairs, pushing five-ton cabinets around, building shelves, rearranging shelves, re-building cabinets, re-rearranging shelves. . . All. Freaking. Day. This, apparently, was hazardous to my health. Remember last Friday when my finger was bleeding all over? Today I scraped my thumb knuckle on a piece of wood and the blood was already all over the back of my hand before I noticed. I run to the bathroom, wash it off, get a band-aid, and go back to work. An hour later, I am moving pillow boxes, and get a very deep cardboard-cut on the side of my finger. The blood starts immediately. I am getting too familiar with the first aid kit. There are too many band-aids on my fingers. Also, my boss can't stand the sight of blood, which made the whole thing more hilarious.
And what should UPS deliver on this frantic day? The healing pads that we have been waiting for for over a month. Eight came in. Five we already paid for, so I had to call those five people and tell them their pads were finally here. Two of them were mine (One of them is for a little girl I massage, her muscles are always so tight, I think think it will help a lot. The other one is my birthday present to me! I'm so happy). The other one was up for grabs. We had four people's name on a list to call as soon as the shipment came in, because they wanted one, but didn't wasn't to pay for it in advance. Thus, I called all four of them, and whoever got here first, got the pad. An hour later is was gone.
In addition, noon was the deadline for a writing contest I wanted to enter. Alas, I had not started the story until last night. So every free second (and there were so very few) was spent on my laptop furiously trying to type out a good story. I failed. But I did finish a story. I submitted it 23 minutes late. I hope it still counts.
After work Drek and I went to dinner with my family. We had a wonderful time, even if we were thirty minutes late. After that, we dropped of the healing pad to the little girl's house, and then came home for some much needed quiet time. This is when I discover that they announced the performers at the Stadium of Fire on the 4th of July: Miley Cyrus and the Blue Man Group. Oh. My. Gosh. I want to go so bad. Drek says we are already spending too much money this summer. I suggest we buy fifty tickets, and scalp all but two of them at just enough profit to pay for the two tickets. Drek says no. I suggest we don't get tickets, but when we go to Vegas this summer we have to get tickets to the Blue Man Group. Drek says we aren't going to Vegas this summer. I suggest we go to Vegas now, win a bunch of money at the Black Jack tables, and use that to pay for Blue Man Group tickets and tickets to Stadium of Fire. Drek says ok??? What the...???

Down with Junk Mail!!

I have become very annoyed with mail. Drek has an obsessive compulsion that requires him to check our mailbox everyday, even though the only thing we get is mail addressed to people who don't live there anymore, and junk mail. All important mail for him goes to his parent's house, all important mail for me goes to my parent's house. Thus, the only reward for checking the mailbox is a stack of papers in a house that I am already struggling to keep clean. I have also recently realized how many dead trees are in our mailbox everyday. This is also alarming.
Internet research was done! This is what I discovered:
The average American household receives 18 pieces of unsolicited junk mail each week, according to the Center for a New American Dream, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting responsible consumerism. Tallied up, that bulk accounts for 100 million trees lost each year and carbon emissions equivalent to three million cars. By reducing the amount of junk mail you receive each year, you personally will save two trees and prevent some 92 pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the air. Not only that, but if we only use USPS for important mail, instead of junk mail, maybe the price of stamps would go down? Or do I have that backwards?
Anyway, I did more research and went on a crusade to stop junk mail. I did went to OptOutPrescreen.com to stop credit card junk mail, I went to abacusoptout@epsilon.com to stop catalogs, and then I found ProQuo.com which basically the most useful site of all. If you are stopping junk mail, just go to this site. It will take you to all the others. Then, I called the Post Office, to see if they could not deliver to me other people's mail.
A little history on our house:
Our apartment is in a highly coveted neighborhood. Our apartment is highly coveted. It is never vacant and has a waiting list a mile long. The only reason we got it, was because the previous occupant was arrested, taken back to New York, and thrown in jail at exactly the same time we needed an apartment.
Because he was unexpectedly thrown in jail, he did not forward his mail, and he did not leave a forwarding address. Thus, our only recourse has been to mark "return to sender" on important looking mail. He gets A LOT of important looking mail. He is also getting an increasing number of mail marked "LAST WARNING!" and "FINAL NOTICE!" and "VERY IMPORTANT!" and "TAMPERING WITH MAIL THAT IS NOT YOUR WILL RESULT IN JAIL TIME". This makes me very nervous for him, because he is obviously not getting his mail, and more nervous for me, who does not want jail time. His name is King Edu (name has been slightly changed, only slightly, the weirdness has been kept for effect). Hasford Sackey also gets a lot of important looking mail. I have no idea who he is.
Anyway, I called the post office, talked to a very nice girl who obviously hated her job. She took down the information and said they would try and get the carrier to not deliver their mail to me.
This morning I got a call from the supervisor of the post office. He said he received my request, but needed to clarify the names. "Ok." I said. "the first one is Hasford Sackey, H-A-S-F-O-R-D is his first name..." The supervisor interrupted me. "his name is Hasford Sackey? First name Hasford, last name Sackey?" "Yes." I answered and the other one is King, K-I-N..." "His first name is King?" And that's when I realized what the phone call was about. "Yes. I know they're strange names. King lived here before us and I have no idea who Hasford Sackey is. But those really are their names."
He thought is was a prank. giggle giggle.