Random thoughts from people my age...

Nicholas sent me this forward from someone at his work...while I didn't favor all of the thoughts, there were a few that I either found very hilarious (mostly because I can identify with them!).  Here are a few for you to enjoy :)

1. I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

2. More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can
think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell
my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves
me.

5. Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're
going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to
be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the
direction from which you came, you have to first do something like
check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to
yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're
crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

7. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was
younger.

8. Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the "people you may
know" feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately
choose not to be friends with?

9. Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it
wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would
magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did
we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message
boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.

11. Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger
and suddenly realize I had no idea what was going on when I
first saw it.

13. How on earth are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

14. I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand
than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

16. The only time I look forward to a red light is when I'm trying to
finish a text.

20. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and
hunger.

21. Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a
Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.

24. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just
nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

29. MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure
I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

30. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how
the person died.

32. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get
dirty, and you can wear them forever.

34. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

37. Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every
year?

39. Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to
go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so
incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this
shouldn't be a problem....

40. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at
work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything
productive for the rest of the day.

41. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't
want to have to restart my collection.

44. "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this
ever.

46. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello?
Nuts!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and
goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone
and run away?

47. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not
seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

48. When I meet someone new, I'm terrified of mentioning something they
haven't already told me but that I have learned from facebook.

49. I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle,
then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

54. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not
to answer when they call.

60. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

Hope you got at least one laugh out of these...even if you aren't "my age" :)

Craft Time!

I have been into crafts lately...well, always actually.  But recently I have been more motivated to actually do a few that require more than a little effort.  I am so pleased with them that I decided to share them with everyone.

First off is my wreath.  I bought one plain wreath that I could experiment with...you know the kind that is just brown twigs.  I made it into a springy/summery wreath a while back, but it desperately needed to be redone.  I went to Hobby Lobby and found some fall leaves and berries and such and tried to put it all together one day when Koshka was sleeping.  Now it does help that I have the cutest wreath hanger invented, but I am really happy with how it turned out.  Pretty good for my second time ever to make a wreath!

Then there is the ottoman.  This one was a bit more complex.  See, we got new couches (which we love) but we hated to lose the ottoman.  After realizing that we could break the set apart since it wasn't going to anyone specific, I was determined to recover the ottoman and bring it back home.  I found some old fabric from one of my other undoubtedly great ideas that went wrong and made a prototype before I went to the store and bought more expensive home decor fabric.  I also sewed part of the ottoman together so there wouldn't be crevases...that was hard work and I am not sure how to explain what I did really but lets just say it was very necessary and was very hard on my hands.

When Nicholas went to the Priesthood meeting last night, I headed to JoAnns.  Now the fabric I wanted was $25 a yard and I needed 1 2/3 yd...nuts.  I found some microsuede that would match the fabric of our new couches that wasn't home decor (so just not as thick and nice) that was $13 a yard, but on sale for $5 a yard...but they didn't have black!  I went back and forth a bunch of times in the store on what to do and finally found the black microsuede by the courdroy...clearly in the wrong spot!  I was so happy to find it!  I got my fabric and batting and headed home.  I used my dad's staple gun to affix the batting and then pinned my new fabric in place, sewed it, slipped it on and stapled it to the underside.  Then I reattached the feet of the ottoman and Nick helped me bring it home.  It looks so much better and we are so excited to have our ottoman back!  (Above is the new ottoman...below is what it used to look like!)

I am so happy to be crafty.  It brings me such joy and a great feeling of accomplishment that I can do things and make things...it makes me sad for people who don't take pride in making things or cleaning their own home or just doing things for themselves.  I am so excited that one day (hopefully) this will get to be my full-time job! :)

Take Us Out To The Ball Game!

Last weekend I was left to "hold down the studio" while all of the other staff went up to Dallas for a competition.  I wasn't exactly thrilled to be working all weekend.  However, my boss had tickets to the Astros game and obviously couldn't use them because they were going to be in Dallas; thus, he was looking for a new owner.  I couldn't use them all- I had to work during the games Thursday and Friday nights and Sunday was church- but I could go to the Saturday evening game.

We asked my parents if they would like to go with us, and they said yes.  So we picked them up and headed to Panera where we bargained that if they would get "dinner" we would get parking downtown.  We ate dinner- by the way, the new BBQ Chicken Salad is fantastic- and then headed down to the game.  We were within sight of the ballpark and so we started looking for parking spots.  I said "How about that one?" and Nick whipped into it across a few lanes of traffic.  It was a metered parking spot but the meter wasn't running so after reading a few signs to make sure we could park there, we headed to the game.

The 'stros lost to the Cincinnati Reds, but it was fun to see a game in person...TV just doesn't do sports justice.  Our seats were out in right field, but in the 8th row and so we had a pretty good view.  We watched until the bitter end and then headed back to see if our car was still there.  It was!  So not only were the tickets free, but so was the parking...and the dinner!  (Disclaimer: we did buy my mom a Diet Coke in a souvenir cup at the game!)

"Home" Improvements

I think I could be the best wife ever if it were my full time job.  As it is right now though, I have two other jobs that consume my thoughts and time and thus I haven't been doing that stellar of a job as a wife lately.  Oh I still make Nick's lunches and all, but we had just gotten lazy and I finally decided to do something about it.

Nicholas and I rarely eat dinner together at home.  I work Monday nights, we eat together on Tuesdays pretty well, Wednesdays and Thursdays I am at the studio, Friday and Saturday we don't really make meal plans because it is the weekend, and Sundays we are blessed to eat dinner at my parents' home.  You can see how I would justify our poor dinner schedule...really it was just poor effort on my part.  So I took out the calendar (the Utah one that my grandpa gave me that is hanging in our kitchen/entryway) and started planning out our meals.  I planned for one week what we were going to have every night...whether we are together or not.

This started on Monday and I think we have done a good job of it so far.  I went to the store and got everything I needed for the whole week and have actually prepared meals for us to enjoy together or apart.  It has been really nice.  I like knowing what I am going to eat/cook and I really have loved getting regular fruits and veggies...something that doesn't always happen when it is "microwave your own burrito night".

In this whole thinking about how to be better prepared for when staying at home is my full-time job (hopefully) I decided that Nick could grow in an area or two as well.  This part was largely influenced by Ben having to get Isabelle ready one morning during the Bees weekend.  I decided that if Nick could practice putting my hair in a ponytail he would definitely be able to do it if we had any daughters someday.  So last Sunday night I got out my brush and elastics and let Nicholas get his feet wet.  He put it in a few ponytails before I asked him to do pigtails.  All in all he wasn't half bad...at least for a first timer.  We will definitely have to work on speed as I doubt any little girl will sit for 10 minutes to get their hair parted, but I was very impressed not only with how well he did but how willing he was to try it.  One husband of the year point right there.