Noteworthy Reads

I have done a ton of reading here lately and almost all of them have just been awesome. I won't describe them or critique them, just read them.

Northanger Abby by Jane Austen
The Boy in the Suitcase by some Danish author (It was amazing!)
Turn of Mind by Alice LePlante
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (look for it in September)
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

I can't think of any others right now, but I am pretty sure there are. I will post any I think of. But these are great.

Watching X-Men.

We are starting with the first episode because we are right. So we are casting our ideal people if there was a fantasy perfect movie to be made.

by Ellen Page

Rogue

by Julia Roberts circa 1990

And Morph

by Chris Klein 

More to come later.

Happiest Days

So I hear a lot in people's reminiscing or on movies or in books or wherever there has ever been a girl in love with a boy that the wedding day was the happiest day of their life. And they even have pictures to prove it! Now people keep informing me that I am a newlywed and I should enjoy it while I can. While it is still new.

Maybe I have just been talking to weirdos or maybe I am the weirdo, but I don't really buy all that. I guess I am technically a newlywed being as we are closing in on only five months, but it doesn't really feel like it. It hasn't ever really felt like it. Does everyone feel that way or is it just because David and I were so intensely a part of each others crazy/bad sides that I feel like I have been with him forever. Not in a bored sort of way, just in a comfortable sort of way, an easy way.

Come to think of it, I have always felt incredibly easy around David (admittedly not when I was trying to avoid him in March of 2009, but a girl has to take some time to get a hold of herself). From the very beginning when he was one of two guys that I actually knew in the ward. On his first hometeaching visit to number 202, I felt like I could be comfortable with him. Scott as well, but with Scott, I could sense the effort we were both putting into it to make small talk and get to know each other. David was probably doing his fair share of work, but I didn't feel like I was. I honestly wanted to be around him, get to know him, sit quietly with him. Just comfortable. From day one.

And we are so well acquainted with one another's demons that while we may not be sure of what brand of toothpaste the other prefers (turns out we are both okay with Fresak-Ra (it's from Mexico (honeymoon toothpaste (we both forgot some))) we know each other. I honestly feel like we have been married forever.

Which in a weird God-eternity time-not line but...thing I guess we have. That sentence made sense when I first started it, but then my brain lost it. The point is, I truly feel like I have been with David forever. That he has always been with me.

That might explain why I don't understand the wedding day as the happiest day of our life thing. It was certainly the most important and anticipated day of my life thus far, but there was such a calm feeling - no, more than calm, just totally relaxed - to the day, that we were able to just enjoy it. Lost the temple recommend? We'll take care of it. Another bride running behind schedule, taking up the dressing room with my wedding dress in it? I'll wear what I have on; don't rush the poor girl. It's her wedding day. I honestly remember feeling like it was probably more crucial for her for things to go right and or it to be her happiest day than for me. I had what I needed.

It was certainly a funny day. Like I said, there were some setbacks, recommend, dressing room, David lost track of me inside the temple for about ten minutes, I hid his wedding ring in my shoe so that I didn't have to walk into the room holding it so that he didn't see that it was the One ring until I put it on his finger. The car in front of the temple making Josh mad. I forgot my shoelaces and had to wrestle my shoes with a sweet elderly lady, armed with safety pins. I stuffed myself with sushi. I hid my credit card in my bra and you can see it in some pictures at the reception. Notice omst of the funny things are my mishaps. David is much more prepared than I am.

It was a wonderful day, but I look back on it and, not to understate it's significance to me (because I cannot and won't try to express that hear) and it was just a day in the life of Kate and David. I had felt married to him for so long, this just made it official.

We have had such happy days after that too! Trying to not step on crabs while walking on a section of the white sand beaches of Mexico that was just riddled with little crab homes, watching a crazy white Mexican get pretty drunk and high[er]. Eating Papa John's on our new apartment floor after being in the car for 18 hours. Giggling during church, making a fort in the living room to watch cartoons. Not to mention all the unmentionable fun time.

I have never felt as happy and as safe as I feel when he just rests his hand on my back then falls asleep.

I don't mean this to be a sappy post (but since it is bear in mind the husband in question has been out of town all weekend), I was just thinking about it. About being happy. Happier. Happiest. How I could never have imagined a happiness so true a year and a half ago. I couldn't imagine happiness. I think that makes this all the more bright. It is almost like at least four day out of every seven every week are the happiest days of my life because I have a wonderful husband, job, and school situation, but at the very foundation it's because I am happy with myself.

Yeah, that's the point my mind has been trying to get at with this rambling diaryesque post. I was always happy with David, as a person and as my choice for lifetime and eternal companion, so every day with him was just wonderful, among the happiest of my life. But being happy with myself, loving myself, that is still a relatively new relationship (being just over a year now) and is more shocking to me than my life with David, who, like I already said, was the only one from the beginning.

I think I lost my point again. That's what happens when one rambles. But I guess the take home message would be that I love myself like I love my husband and everyday we are happier than sensible people have any right to be.

Saturday Of Awesome

The most important element of an awesome Saturday is definitely the weather, and yesterday's weather couldn't have been better. Just gorgeous.

David and I both woke up around seven, but I refused to get up until eight so David brought in his laptop and played Majesty after checking up on the daily deals at Woot. It was nice. Our bed is so comfortable! But the need for food drove me out of it and David and I enjoyed bowls of cereal from our awesome bags of the stuff.

We bummed around watching TV for a while until a couple that had asked for our help picking up and transporting a new crib for their adorable baby. It was painful to fill Clifford up with gas (we haven't put gas in him since we got to Michigan; he was still running on fumes from our trip up here in January) but we decided that it was just like we spent twenty dollars on gas each month since we have been here and not eighty all at once.

After that we went searching for a little ice cream and donut shop called Washtenaw Dairy. Oh, Washtenaw Dairy. It was amazing. The people were super nice. The owner was the one serving us, a stout older man. He gave us samples and chatted with us and teased me because I couldn't make up my mind. He gave us the donuts for "two for one, two for one" which means we only spent fifty cents on four donuts. For two heaping ice cream cones and four donuts, he only charged us six dollars. So I put six dollars in the tip jar.

David and I took in the nice weather with a walk around the block, eating our ice cream and checking out the houses. I love how every place has their own feel when it comes to how the houses are built. Their own special look. It was fun. I really liked this one crazy orange house, but David said it was red. We had to stop, take off our sunglasses and examine it. I still thought it was orange and he still thought it was red. I guess sometimes in marriage you just agree to disagree.

After our ice cream was all gone, we went down to Lowe's to check out the two for one (I know! We had a real day of deals) started tomatoes and peppers. We wandered around the lawn and garden section for a good hour and ended up buying a strawberry plant (our planter is coming in the mail tomorrow!) and two tomatoes. We came home and started our garden. Which only consisted of a planter with two tomatoes and another planter with a few squash seeds. I just don't believe that seeds work even though I know they do, so I put in too many just in case.

We had a dinner of bachelor food (mac and cheese fortified with bacon in a peppery chili sauce) and watched TV for a while, then went out again to check out some garden stuff. By this time it was inching towards six, but it was still plenty bright out and very nice. In the truck again ( just because it felt so good to be driving him again) we started to pull out of our little parking lot in front of our building when David spotted something of interest by the dumpster.

"You see that?"
"Yup. Go and get it."'

David hopped out and tossed and awesome padded bench into the back. It is red with a floral pattern and the most comfortable thing I have ever used as a foot rest. I love it.

We then stopped by JoAnn's to check out their fabrics because the plan is to recover both couch and bench this summer. We wandered around feeling fabrics and then yarns. I really have to go back and pick up my crocheting. It was fun.

Then we wandered back to Lowe's and ended up with a purple foxglove, a yellow daffodil, a few violet hyacinths, and a bleeding heart. Of course that meant we got more soil and a couple more planters as well. It was a little painful to see the price on the screen, but we knew that we had carefully picked out our favorites and made sure that if we took care of them, they should come back, year after year. An investment.

David ran off to Kroger while I brought up the flowers and soil, very excited. I got straight to work. Now it looks amazing. I love it. David is really excited for the vegetables, but the flowers are my pet project. I love them so much.

We finished up our happy little Saturday with some Better Off Ted and internet.

All in all, favorite Saturday of spring.

Book Review Time

Alright. In March I finally finished Towers of Midnight of The Wheel of Time. As I have said previously, I was really excited to finish the series because I was really excited about reading something else. Anything else. This is what I have done so far.

Hunger Games Trilogy
I didn't realize the first time through the first two books, but Katniss was pretty whiny. Then again, her life really sucked and I would be much whinier. As I remember the books, though, I just remember the story being really exciting and fun to read. All in all, B+.

House of Leaves
Wow. I will do an entire post about this one, that way this post doesn't drag too long.

The Road
The Road was very sad and intense which is to be expected when you read a post-apocalyptic story. The father and son relationship was very touching. It was a fast read, although, still, it was well written. I normally don't enjoy a sad book - actually, I'm not sure if that is true; I will think about it and get back on that - but I did enjoy this one. McCormack used the text to help the story, too. Not in that he just wrote the text, but visually, he used the text to help convey the broken world. No chapters, short segments in the story, some rules of grammar did not apply. I liked that a lot. A-.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
It was called a thriller, but I found that to not be true. It wasn't fast paced like a thriller, but it wasn't slow and didn't drag. It felt evenly paced, like a nice walk, for more than half of it and then it picked up a bit and about a hundred and fifty or so pages from the end, it flew. For about fifty pages. Then there was around a hundred pages of wrapping up. Which was pretty slow. I guess that's nice since the fast paced part was intense and ugly.
It dealt with a lot of ugly, actually. Sexual violence and the like. Not everyone will enjoy reading this book. But I liked it okay. I liked the Scandy feel to it, throughout, though. Which is why I read the next one, too.

The Girl Who Played with Fire
I enjoyed this one much more. I always like when the sequel improves on the first one. It dealt with more ugly   things, the sex trade, but not in the detail that the first one dealt with the ugly which I definitely appreciated. Never did the reader have a first hand experience with the drugging, prostitution, or rape; the story just formed around people involved with the trade and the journalists writing about it. It was also very smart. I am often pretty good at making calls in thrillers - admittedly, better at movies than books, but what are you gonna do - but I did not see how these pieces all fit together. I was very surprised which I loved. Shock. Quite satisfying.
I wish I could recommend to just read the second one, skipping the first, but I just ethically cannot do it. But almost.

Yesterday I started Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane, author of Shutter Island (which I also loved, although my timing on reading it could not have been worse). I'm only twenty-something pages in it, so I can't say much about it, but here's hoping.

Hope you are all enjoying what you are reading. I am quickly marking things off my list, so leave me suggestions.

Not I am going to go eat something. I'm hungry.

My love, my only

Brian Holt.

I found out just now that Brian Holt follows my blog. I made weird sound in my throat and accidentally punched myself in the nose I was so excited. David even stopped talking to the cultists in his computer game to ask me if I was okay. I was too happy.

My nose does kinda hurt, but it is so okay because Brian Effing Holt follows my blog. Man.

Preliminary Thoughts

Last night our bishop called and asked us to speak in church in a couple of weeks (don't worry, readers, I will not start my talk with that same phrase. If I am speaking in church everyone can, at very least, already guess that the bishop called us and asked us to speak. This preface is for you, who do not actually know this.) about Elder Scott's talk from Conference in October. Transforming power of faith. I have not read the talk yet, but I did wake up a couple of hours ago, and my brain started whirring about things I could use in my talk, experiences I feel that I have dealing with this subject. As a result I was unable to fall asleep, so just before six, I came into the living room with a notebook and pen and wrote all my thoughts out. Chances are this will not be the talk I give as it is very personal and I don't even know if it relates at all to the assigned subject matter, but I feel the need to share it somehow. I figured that with my family  and a couple friends who read my blog would be as good an audience as any.

Every night, without fail, I wake up in the night and need to go to the bathroom. From these trips I have learned things about how my cones and rods operate; things, admittedly, everyone else has probably already figured out.
I have learned that to say my eyes adjust to the dark is not true. More accurately, my eyes adjust to the dim light that is present, even in the dark of the apartment. When I reach my destination, there are no windows to let light seep around the curtains - only complete darkness.
Luckily, there is a light switch. The light is so bright that it hurts my eyes until they make the proper changes and I can see with some sense.
Getting back to my warm, soft bed is more of a challenge, however. After I turn off the bathroom light, I find myself blinded by the darkness. I take cautious steps, navigating slowly, as I will my eyes to see. I pause in the doorway to the living room and look for the soft light from the Home Depot across the street that can't penetrate our curtains, but, unperturbed,  finds it's small way in above the curtains. It is so dim that some nights it is of no use at all and I still stub my toe on the door jamb in spite of all my efforts.
A couple more careful steps and I am by the doorway to the study. With no curtains here to block it, a street lamp in the parking lot does a much better job of helping me and I am able to cross the bedroom safely with a little more help from a rather bright alarm clock and slip back under the still warm sheets.
I find that this is how I often navigate through my life, carefully taking steps through the darkness in the world, searching out for those illuminating truths that testify of my Savior's love.
And sometimes, I discover something so powerful that I feel I will never be blind again, but for whatever reason, I am unable to internalize it, learn it, truly understand it, and it leaves me. In darkness that is worse than before.
At one point in my life, I found myself in a long dark hallway with no windows to help penetrate the black. In my unseeing state, I could not find the door to safety and so I paced, anxiously, back and forth.
At one of the dead ends of my hallway prison, there was a little light, so, so dim, but my only light, just the same.
Months before, just after the dark hall had trapped my spirit, I had been in Texas, working with my parents on a little house out in the woods. It was in a terrible state of disrepair when my father bought it: the floor was falling in, the popcorn was peeling off the ceiling, and the wallpaper. Well, it had wallpaper! and isn't that a tragedy  in and of itself!
I became very familiar with that wallpaper as it was my job to try and peel it off. Layers and layers of the stuff, at least fifty years old once you got down to the bottom, though the stuff on top couldn't have been put on there much after the seventies. And because I had heard my father say over and over that he wanted to spend as little money as possible, I went in everyday armed only with a few scrapers.
I hated it. If any of you have done similar work, you understand why. Wallpaper is awful! But I feel it was particularly bad and more discouraging in this case because once I peeled away enough of it, what I found was not a wall of solid gold - which, again, if you have done such work you know that's the only wat it would be worth your efforts - but damaged dry wall full of holes that long remained  hidden.
Eventually, frustrated, I threw down my tools, to let the house know I was not happy, and sat down on the dirty floor next to my sad pile of wallpaper scraps.
Why was I doing this? I was tedious and pointless work. Slowly, like my eyes adjusting to a little light suddenly in the dark, truth began to dawn on me. I was doing this work, a little at a time, uncovering all the wounds that the house had hid away in shame or fear for so long so that we could fix it. Fix all the holes and hurts it had. My father understood this from the beginning, that the house would need gentle care as the wallpaper came down so the carpenter could come in and fix it. Because a skilled Carpenter knows how to heal a wounded House.
This was my one light, dim and weak against the darkness that surrounded my, but I put all my trust and faith in it. I tried to peel away my wallpaper, but my hands, so clumsy at carpentry, only left me in more pain and I found I had left the safety of my little lit corner.
Every week, I listened to the testimonies of others telling me that they understood the oppressive darkness, but were able to find light in their faith in Christ, able to carry that light with them always to navigate the dark maze of the world around them. Who was I to argue that they knew it? I did too, in my own way, but that they never lost sight was something I couldn't fathom.
The darkness only got heavier as time went on. My light seemed further than ever. I could feel the weight, the pressure of so long being without relief from the blackness around me, that I was sure it was going to crush me.
All the details I remember clearly: writing in an unlined journal during my Provo sacrament meeting, not paying attention because they were speaking a language that I oculdn't understand. I remember what I was writing. Sad, hurt, angry words. I stopped my pen as they passed the sacrament and I felt my anger melt into overwhelming heartache. I poured every last hope I had into a prayer, pleading to the Father that I needed help. That I believed people who believed that the atonement could take away our illness and heal our broken hearts as well as wash away our sins. I listed the people that I believed, trusted, that knew this with certainty. I prayed, begging to believe too, that e could do something, even the tiniest thing, to relieve my pain. "'Help thou my unbelief,' Lord," I begged in the deepest and most sacred place in my heart.
I opened my eyes and my world seemed the same. No light immediately came on in my dark and stagnant hall. I couldn't bring myself to continue writing until Sunday school by which time I had enough control over myself to not need all my concentration to not break down and cry.
The second hour of church passed and I still could not hear a word anyone said. Not really. I blankly walked into the Relief Society room and sat near the back as I always did.
We sang Lead, Kindly Light. 
And then there was a small, almost imperceptible, light. One I would not have seen had it not been so completely dark around me. I copied the words of the hymn in my journal, following the kindly light. For the first time in months, I felt the comforting presence that I had been seeking. I felt the conformation that the Lord had heard my prayers, had healed as much as He could at that time. Just like that I was able to ,with my light I now carried with me, find the allusive door, so obvious now, no longer shrouded in darkness. I left the heavy and despairing hall that had trapped me in.
This experience truly was a major turning point in my life. The first time I felt the healing love of my Savior. That I felt the assurance that my faith was in someone who would not leave me blind. It amazes me still that after so long searching, that in one afternoon, after one desperate plea with the tiny faith I had for just more faith, the Lord healed me like he healed the man's daughter in Mark chapter nine.
I am a different person than I was. I can look at my scriptures and not be overwhelmed by the things that I do not understand, because I see them through eyes of faith and know that I will understand all things in time. I can pray and know through faith that they are not empty words nor are they being ignored.
I understand what the phrase "change of heart" means and that from that change comes the light that we can carry to guide us through the darkest maze or corners the world may try and put us through.
I feel humble in telling my story and pray the someone will understand what I am saying, or that the Spirit can testify to you that I truly believe in Christ who is the light of our sometimes dark world.

Procrastinating

I am hungry.

I am supposed to be doing my Sociology assignment. Well, at least the lesson. I don't know that I have had any actual assignments yet. I am still waiting for some of the course material that will hopefully shed a little more light on the issue.

Goodness. I have been absolutely worthless today. I had a very weird, unsettling, and highly emotionally charged dream last night and it really has effected my day which I just think is ridiculous. But what can I do? I have tried several times to reassert myself, but all attempts just roll off my mind as I continue to be unsettled. Nothing bad has happened all day. Probably nothing will. But I can't shake the feeling.

This just leaves me amazed that the power that one's thoughts have over one's body and state of mind. These weren't even conscious thoughts that I worked hard to put into my mind. They were just there in strange pictures and a distorted story.

I also discovered as I was getting dress after my shower that I forgot to take my medicine last night. My birth control packet has the days of the week that correspond with each pill on it which usually doesn't make a huge difference to me because I just take it every night when I turn the lamp off to go to bed. Along with my birth control, I take my orange happy pill, and time without it, even just the thirty-some odd hours I just went without it has a staggering effect on my body. I can feel twitches and shifts under my scalp and my eyes have difficulty focusing.

With this in mind, and remembering the withdrawals I went through as I was getting off the Geodon in May, I cannot understand how people convince themselves that drugs are a good idea. Why one earth would you put something into your body that you are not certain you will be able to get again, and I that you know for sure is detrimental to your body. That thing that you live in all the time. That lets you see and experience the world around you. Why?

Anyway. I think I will try to reassert myself again to my homework and wait just a little little for David to come home so that I can eat. Chipotle here we come.

Eventually.

Fountain of Youth

I have decided that since it looks like nothing big and exciting is going to happen, I will either have to write about the end of December and all of those big events or detail my pretty low-key life. Or both. But not right now. I will spare you and only do on for now.

As I have said in past posts, I am one of the Young Women leaders in my ward here in Ann Arbor. It is much better than I expected it to be. And I knew it would be, but I am a knee-jerk pessimist about all things teenager. After my first week in the calling, I invited the girls (there are only 5 in all) to come over to the apartment for a girlie/movie night. My two beehives showed up and we ordered pizza and then we watched an old Disney movie The North Avenue Irregulars while we painted our nails. It was fun. At first I had a really difficult time adjusting myself to the twelve year olds, realizing that they won't want to watch fun action movies and I won't want to expose them to movies with any sort of inappropriate content.

After the movie we talked about books and  I led them into the study and pointed out a few of my favorites and then we settled on the floor for a fun little gab session. I had a really hard time not laughing when they talked about how it was so gross that people kissed with their tongues. "It's called French kissing," Emma told Charlotte in a distinctly conspiratorial voice. Like it was a secret or knowledge she wasn't supposed to have yet. "I know what it's called," Charlotte replied, a little defensively. I agreed with them that it was definitely, totally, super gross.

A couple  weekends later I chaperoned a Stake dance. That was pretty hilarious. I sat with my fellow leader, Lauren Bonnie, and we had a good laugh. At the youth. At them. I don't even feel bad admitting it. And I think I have every right to laugh, because I was the exact same as them. The music was so bad though and that cannot be excused. The kids these days are honestly surrounded and exposed to the dumbest music. Almost everything on the radio is just so, so dumb.

Now the yutes are working on their roadshow sketch. There were only two out of a group of about fifteen who were being pills while we were storyboarding the thing. Fifteen year old boys. What are you gonna do? They are gonna be punks, regardless. Their sketch is about Voldemort, since he is nice and topical and a good foil for the theme of their skit, the 13th Article of Faith, living in Utah as an inactive member. Through the sketch he gets visited by people trying to reactivate him and teach him about the 13th AoF. At the end, he decides that he can't take it and so he moves to a less Mormon dense area, like, say, Ann Arbor. He settles in, breathes in real deep, and then his EQP knocks on his door welcoming him to the ward. I think it's a pretty cute idea and they did a good job of trying to incorporate everyone's ideas and making it funny. Good kids.

I like it back in the youth pretty well, but I am not looking forward to girls camp this summer....

I know I have been absent for quite some time, but unlike my last hiatus, it is not because I am too lazy or busy to get on and post; it's because there is nothing of note happening in my life. Don't worry; no news is good news. David and I continue to be happy. We are also still plowing our way through the Wheel of Time. I am now over halfway through with Towers of Midnight. I have a list of books that I am wanting/have been wanting since May to read.

1. The Hunger Games. I still haven't read Mockingjay so I will start at the beginning and take off from there.
2. The House of Leaves. I am very excited and super intimidated by this book.
3. The Amber Chronicles. David says they are really short, so I willl just knock them out in a hurry.
4. Confessions of Lady Nijo. We read part of it in my Japan 350 class and it was amazing! I want it all!
5. The Shining. Love it. Need to reread it. I need David to read it too so I can talk to him about it. 
6. The Road. It has been on my list for over a year now. Maybe now that it is written it shall be done.
7. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Rachel told me about this one. Plus it's Swedish. Which also means awesome.
8. Special Topics in Calamity Physics. Also a Rachel Recommendation. I think that if Rachel ever blogs again, it should be book recommendations.
9. Dracula. Started it over two years ago and never finished. It's on the list.
10. And the second Maze Runner book. I don't remember what it's called, but I am excited for it. But it means I will read the first Maze Runner also. 

This ought to be a testament of how very chilled out our lives are right now. I am blogging about books I want to read. Because nothing else is going on. 

But all the same, we are happy. And if anyone has any more book ideas, I am very happy to hear suggestions.

I have been awake for the past hour. Whatever. I can take a nap tomorrow, but my poor husband! Oh, wait. That's right. You are reading this in your own home at a decent hour of the day.

So on Saturday night, one of our neighbors' apartments was apparently the hoppin' place to be in Ypsilanti at three in the morning. David and I both woke up and had a hard time getting sleep, but, you know, it was the weekend; we get it. We aren't just old fogies. We get it.

We don't so much get it for a late Wednesday night/Thursday morning.

But because we can only hear the bass, I can't locate it. And that really pisses me off.

I would try to show emotion by adding italics or caps or bold or something, but I am already going back every other word to respell stuff because I am so blooming tired.

It literally sounds like it is coming from everywhere.

Like a bad horror movie.

Why?


Why?

This weekend

Friday: Neither David nor myself can remember what we did on Friday.  We remember Wednesday, Thursday but we can't remember Friday. So feel free to make up some fun adventure for us to have gone on. Best adventure wins.

Saturday: We were productive first thing in the morning. We went to Sam's to do some shopping and sampling. Turns out, the Sam's here doesn't start their sampling stuff until closer to eleven-thirty and we were already done and just ready to get out of there by then. Next we picked up a couple things from David's old house, namely his grills and our new kitchen table (our old kitchen table is now my desk). I internetted while David, manly man that he is, put our table together. Then we headed out to Toledo to go on a Dillard's shopping spree. It was a lot of fun. We had 458 so dollars to just go crazy with. We bought our two place settings of china that we had returned so they could avoid the move, a crystal vase (that was fifty percent off!), some beautiful bedding (that was seventy-five percent off!), a few shirts, a few kitchen gadgets, and some disappointing Pyrex that we will take back if we ever go to Toledo again. We came home and unloaded everything. David threw a pizza in the oven while I made the bed with our beautiful new bedding. I had been starving so that pizza was the best thing I had ever tasted. Thank you, Digiorno. 
Next we brought out a sheet and a couple blankets to the front room and built a fort. It was a lot of fun. I remember building tents and forts when I was a kid, having no concept at all of maybe breaking this or possibly ruining that. I just went with it; no big deal. And my tents were awesome. It was slightly harder being a grown up, but I tried to ignore that chiding and reasonable voice my head for the building process and it worked out just fine.

Then we crawled underneath and called Jerra and Claysen and Max on the webcam. It was really fun to talk to them. Jerra is such a cutie. But we told them we were in a fort and when they come and visit us, we can al build a fort and eat pizza and candy! Jerra "Oh my"ed and giggled and clapped her hands. Max made monkey noises at us and Claysen was just laying back, too sick to be very responsive or excitable. Then we hung up and snuggled under blankets and watched cartoons like The Tick, Futurama, Harvey Birdman and the Venture Brothers. It was a lot of fun. Eventually we got too tired - and I was too cold - to stay in the fort much longer. We crawled into our bed and I oohed and ahhed over how wonderful our bedding was and David just grunted at me. Turns out he doesn't get the whole bedding thing. Oh, well.

Sunday: David made me waffles first thing in the morning and I made some bacon and we enjoyed a nice little breakfast together. We just lazed around the house for the rest of the morning because our church doesn't start until 1 o' freaking-clock. Church was good. The first speaker was a cute girl but she was very nervous. It was nice though. We sat through Sunday school like champs and then split up for third hour stuff. Relief Society let out before Priesthood and I sat, waiting on him. When he came out he told me the bishop wanted to see us. Long story short, I was called to be Young Women's secretary and he was asked to be Elder's Quorum secretary. The bishop told us first thing that we had made quite a splash because everyone wanted us to be on their whatever. I can just see it "I want the new people who aren't completely burnt out of being ___." We accepted even though we hung our heads in the car. I think this means I might have to do something for girls' camp this summer. I don't know how to spell the awful face I am making while thinking of that.

And that was our weekend. Hope y'all's was comparably good, but not better. Because no one should be better than me! Aw, I'm just kidding ya. You're great.

Our Home

This will be an ongoing blog, but I don't feel like vacuuming yet, so I would like to blog instead.
So our home. It is pretty nice. Often cold, but I haven't finished insulating the windows yet, and the toilet gets blocked a lot (and, yeah, I do know how to unblock a toilet. It's not hard, but I have three plungers in the bathroom telling me that I am stupid.) but those things are pretty easy to fix. We live in a nice, roomy two bedroom apartment with a ton of storage space (except in the bathroom, but I am not complaining. The kitchen is small so it is pretty tight when David and I are both in there, but that just means that I try to have dinner ready before he gets home and I let him do dishes.
What I am most excited about, though, with my new place is decorating it! We have cool lamps and our pretty crystal on display because we don't have kids who will wreck it. The other night we bought curtains. These curtains. We couldn't afford the valence at this time, but I am keeping my eye on them, don't worry. To go with them, this is the rug I would like.
What's that? You think that they are both hideous? Yes. That is correct. And I love them. To best explain my feelings, I give you this video from the great movie The Other Guys.



So I am decorating my living room sarcastically. I love my life.

Ypsilanti

Ypsilanti....It's a strange place. It is very cold right now and very white. Snow everywhere. It is pretty ghetto here too which isn't very different from Daingerfield; it's just more populated here so it is easier to see, I think. I just normally keep a running talley in my head of all the strange things I notice while I am out and about, so I will share that with you and I think that will give you the best picture of my new home.

The roads here are terrible. I guess it's because of all the salt on the roads, but they suck really bad. Pot holes that would take you to China in the MIDDLE OF THE MAIN STREET!!!! And pot holes that were terribly patched up. I cannot describe how awful the roads are. Just imagine the ranch road and then put asphalt on top of it without smoothing it out or anything and that's about right.

The streets make no sense. North Congress is parallel to West Congress, but Congress St is no where near them. Southlawn, Eastlawn, and Northlawn all are perpendicular to Dexter Ave. North Huron and Huron Parkway are on opposite sides of town, but Geddes Avenue and Geddes Street are RIGHT next to each other and go very different places. At main intersections in town NO ROADS ARE LABELED! There are no street signs anywhere unless you are in more residential part of town. But if you are trying to find a business on a MAIN street, there is no street sign.

There are no street lights along the main streets if you aren't at a stop light, and even then, they aren't always guaranteed. So David and I seldom drive after dark simply because you cannot see anything!

There is no post office. Oh, I know if you enter 'US Post Office Ypsilanti MI 48197' into Google, it will give you several addresses, but none of them exist or are possible to get to or are really post offices. One of them is in Meijer!

Also, Meijer. Because up here we don't believe in Wal-Mart. Corporate scumbags, or something, so instead we have Meijer. What is Meijer? you may ask. It's a Wal-Mart.

There is no DMV or County Clerk or anything like that. Instead there is the Secretary of State. No, it's not a person. It is a place. Ours here in Ypsi is just a regular SOS office, but in other places there are SOS Super! Centers. With the exclamation point and everything. I couldn't even make that up.

And, weirdly enough, the people at the Social Security office are really, really nice and helpful! What kind of place is this?!

Sunday

I would like to get around to posting about the wedding and honeymoon and trip up to the cold north, but I am already putting off to many things that need doing for this post, so I will get to it later.

On Sunday, David and I went to the family ward we are now in. Sacrament was nice; the organ was loud, and no one knew the closing hymn, but the talks were nice. After the closing prayer, David chased down the bishop to introduce himself to him again and the bishop invited us both into his office to "get to know" us a little. He asked us about where we were from and all that and our backgrounds in the Church. David explained that he had been around the block on the whole callings thing - EQP, Sunday School teacher, yadda yadda yadda. The bishop looked at me expectantly.

"Well, I was in some committees that single's wards have, but I have never had a big calling...." I looked at David, cringing, "And that was the worst thing I could have said."

The bishop chuckled. Or maybe he didn't. I always like to look back on encounters like this and see myself funnier or more charming than it turns out I really am. Anyway. The bishop began talking about something; I tuned out a little bit, rethinking how dumb it was of me to say I had never had a big calling, until I heard "..but two of the leaders are expecting and will need to be released soon. Is that a place you could see yourself?"

I quickly went back over what he had said.

"We don't have many young women and the presidency is good, but two of the leaders...."

DANGIT!

"Umm," I hate it when I say 'umm,' "Yeah, I think I could."

"It's not a formal calling," David interjected. A statement with just barely the sound of a question to it.

"Right," the bishop agreed. (I just realized I have no idea what my bishop's name is.) "Not a formal calling; just something to think about."

I looked over at David. He was grinning at me like a punk.

The rest of church was good. The Sunday School teacher we had seemed pretty good. On top of things. Relief Society wasn't even very boring, but I still spent most of the time with my head down, sketching, as I listened. After the closing prayer, I was gathering my things and the girl sitting next to me introduced herself to me. I don't remember her name, but I remember that she looked fifteen and stopped by the nursery to gather up one or two little ones. The shocked voice in my head was Jessica's as I thought about how these young girls are having babies! It's crazy.

But I quickly found David by the door and we wasted no time heading out to Lenny. We had chili in the slow cooker after all. We were stopped, though, by a young couple who had chased us down. They introduced themselves as Jackson and Kara, chatted with us about Texas and then invited us to dinner. I, feeling pretty antisocial, try to politely decline, but David happily accepted. I wrote down their names, address, and phone number, and we parted ways.

We stopped by David's lab so he could do some magic to the E.Coli he has been working with, then we went home to change and headed back out to go have dinner with ole Jack and Kara. Another couple and their two kids joined us there. And they were all very nice. And they were all from Salt Lake. Like I said, very nice, but not really our type. I felt so very dry and sarcastic the whole night even though I was on my very best behavior! The girls asked me if I followed such and such recipe blog. Nope. Not this girl.

We did have a really good time, and, who knows, maybe we will hang out more and they will see that they love mine and David's sense of humor and company and we will become great friends. Maybe. Or maybe we will have dinner together a few more times and just call it casual ward buddies.


Also, I have lost my cell phone. I will find it, but if you have been trying to get a hold of me that is why you have been unsuccessful. I am not deliberately ignoring anyone. You can always call or text me at my google number 434-261-BOSS or 434-261-2677. I will gett back to you as soon as I can.

Well, my dryer is done. Better get to it.