FHE

So.. We've recently been thinking how horrible we've been at having FHE since being married. Since every night is hanging out with each other, we haven't really felt the need to have a designated family night.

We've recently been reading a book called visions of glory, and among many things it's helped us realign priorities in our marriage. So, this morning when we were getting ready, we discussed some options for what to do for FHE, thinking we were so super grown up and mature (at least I did, because I'm the boring accountant in the relationship). Needless to say, Dal's idea won, and I just had to share the recipe for one of my favorite family home evenings ever!

1. Start with an open space. Any happy little space.

2. Gather every possible pillow in your home. Ya, it might suck putting them back after, but trust me it'll be worth it.

3. Once you've got a pillow foundation, next step is to get adequate roofing on your oh-so-awesome fort. We had a stretchy blanket that worked perfectly without having clips, etc to keep it up (thank heavens for IKEA).

4. You may think I skipped a step by not having the blankets laid over the foundation of pillows referenced in #2 before gettin your roof squared away. No way, Jose, the blankets are WAY more funnerer (spelling intentional) to set out when you already have your roof in place.

5. Make sure you have ample beverages and snacks for movie of your choice. For us? Mushu, Crickee, and Fa Mulan graced the silver screen. But movies don't have to be the main event, we considered eating dinner in our fort, but the menu for the night was a messy chicken taco (but if you haven't ever had pioneer woman's brother's chicken tacos, you MUST try them.. Link: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/03/my-brothers-chicken-tacos/. Yes they're fried, and no you cannot skip frying the tortillas. It just wouldn't be the same!) The amount of drippings meant that fort dining for the main course was not in the cards.

We ended up reading, watching movies, having late night snacks, and just chatting in our rocking fort. Dal has officially earned the eternal position of FHE activity coordinator for this one. There's just something about giving a little salute to your five year old self with your best friend twenty years later. Though let's be honest, how are we ever going to top this next Monday??

Did you know?

Scorpions glow under black light...
                                                       ....though the black light we wanted to test that theory out on was broken.

Dallin and I together....
                                       ....don't even come close to weighing as much as a baby ephelant. 

The southwest corner of the tiger pen....
                                                                 ....was the best one.

There are bird-eating spiders...
                                                 ....that grow to be as big as a dinner plate.  Just ask the creepy guy who was eavesdropping on our conversation. 

We've decided that if we ever come across a porcupine...
                                                                 ...we will, under no circumstances, EVER cuddle with it. 

Giraffe's...
                 ...stink.  Really bad. 

Going to the zoo with Dal...
                                            ...was amazing, he's my best friend and I can't wait for a Forever of crazy fun memories with him!

out with the old...

and in with the new!

Best...

1. After a full year of telling the basement tenants I was sewing them curtains, I FINALLY finished them.  Don't worry, it was only the night before we had to put the sewing machine in storage... talk about procrastination!

2. Our old house is grateful.  I don't think it's EVER been this clean.  EVER. 

3. There's something therapeutic and oddly relaxing to me about dejunking my life.  We had only been married two and a half years, but the amount of crap that we somehow accumulated was outrageous!

4. Shopping!  We've frequented IKEA and Target at least three times since moving in. 

...and worst of moving

1. Sometimes I'm an idiot... like when I thought "Hey, I'll bet toilet bowl cleaner would be a great way to get the bathtub white again."  Ya, might've been a good idea had I not left it for an hour and a half to crust over in there.  Now our renter's bathtub looks like a smurf crime scene.

2. Our landlord has completely remodeled like half of our apartment, which is awesome!  Unfortunately, the other half hasn't had anyone living in it for quite some time, so we're still finding fun little surprises.  My absolute favorite are the daily appearance of the most hideous little spiders. "Kill a spider a day" is now a common phrase in the Billings apartment.  

3. This move, Dal had to be gone for two nights right after we got to our new place.  As fate would have it, our landlord and her two girls were also out of town.  Do you know how creepy old houses are when they're empty?! I promise you, there were footsteps upstairs like every five minutes.  Worst. night. of sleep. ever.  

4. Saying goodbye. It's hard leaving our first and only house since marriage, as well as leaving our ward and friends!

From One Thing to the Next...

Grad Announcement:

It has now been a full week since graduating.  Have things slowed down even a little?  I WISH! I swear life never slows down - never waits for you to catch your breath.

Granted, it's at least slow enough for me to post :)

The last week has been a whirlwind.  Graduation last Friday, birthday on Saturday, and my best friend Savannah comin' in town till Wednesday, wrapping it up with starting my studying for the CPA and re-roofing our house this morning.

It was SO fun re-living the old days with Sav: classic piano session, some legit HP time (totally rocked Voldemort's world - ya, that's right!), a little Peter Pan action, with totinos and jones to boot.  I wish life could be as carefree as it used to be - where all I worried about was how I looked and whether or not my chores were done so I could hang out with friends after school.  Oh the life....

What happened to that? Now I'm worried about bills, about how my boss feels about my work, and callings at church.  Ick.  So grown up.

That's the biggest thing that's hit me since graduating - real life is starting!  Huge responsibilities, more major decisions, and a hugely lengthened perspective.  Instead of thinking "just till the end of this semester", it's "where will I be in five years".

Luckily we'll still have this short summer to do a few things before I start my "real" job at Ernst and Young this fall.  FIRST AND FOREMOST: DISNEYLAND!  What good is graduating if you can't share it with Mickey?  We're heading out in a couple weeks (who am I kidding, I'm counting down the hours - 207.5!), and we're going to have the trip of our lives.  We found a rockin' connection and got in to Club 33, which is like the dream of a lifetime!!!  If you don't know what that is, I plain feel sorry for you.

So there are some things to look forward to before reality hits hard, I'm just afraid they'll be gone fast!

What's to get?

What's to get when people play hard to get?

Unfortunately, there's a lot of truth to that question.  Fortunately, the phase of playing hard to get is long gone and never returning for me! 

I always sit in the same chair in class.  How boring is that?  I can't handle change very well unless required (new semester, new job, etc.) I have a structured life that is comfortable and predictable.  That grooves with me, as lame as it sounds.  I'm so structured in fact, that it hurts to be creative.  Good thing I'm in my final GE: History of Creativity - cus I've got a lot to learn.  But to my point, when I heard the professor talk about the final project, which most people think is the easiest part of the class, I about broke into a sweat.  The only guideline is that it has to be creative.  ACK!

Yellow is my favorite color.  Warm, homey, light, happy, spontaneous, daring, loving, mellow. 

I need some serious recommendations for audiobooks. 

Not Gonna Play Catch Up

Ya, ya, ya.. I know it's been almost six month since my last post.  Long story short, SCHOOL happened.  With that said, I'm not going to try and bring everything up to date, because I'm pretty sure that's exactly why it's taken me this long to post again.  The thought of having to remember everything and put it into witty/entertaining order is more daunting for me than anything. 

Which makes me think - isn't that the point of blogging?  Maybe I'm just setting myself up to fail, because my journal knows better than anyone that I'm a horrible storyteller - let alone inconsistent in my contributions. 

This week has been one of remembering passions for me.  First - I HATE snow.  The only redeeming quality is that the sooner it comes, the sooner I can start complaining that it should be spring. :)  I don't snowboard or ski, so there's really no recreational value in it for me.  Sure, I'll go sledding, but any activity that makes my fingers and toes go numb no matter how many layers I'm wearing just does not appeal to me.  I'll take my fuzzy socks and a good book over snow play any time.  To add to my repulsion, we realized at 8:55 on Sunday morning (church is bright and early at 9) that it actually had snowed, which left no time to shovel the driveway before backing out, and I swear no amount of sun will ever melt the seemingly permanent ice tracks that are there now. 

Second - Cafe Rio Tostadas are probably the best semi-fast food I've ever had.  Thank goodness for the person who decided to Americanize Mexican food. 

Third - I had forgotten how much I love talking about the gospel with friends.  I had a great phone conversation with Savannah Gardiner yesterday, and we ended up talking a lot about religion.  She's found herself as a major minority (does that even make sense?) in Hawaii being one of the only Mormons, and it's given her a lot of opportunity to talk about what we believe in, etc.  We talked about some of the doctrines of the church and some of the principles of the temple, and I finished the phone call feeling really uplifted, like it really made a difference in my testimony to just have discussed what I believed with someone else.  I'm so grateful for friends who care about the gospel enough to truly study and seek out answers, and then share what they believe with me. 

Anyway, that'll do for now.  Till next time.

Your Boys? My Boys!

So, I got home tonight with every intention of plowing through some photo editing.  There are about four shoots that need to get finished and sent off very soon...so tonight was the night to knock at least one out!  Unfortunately, tonight is also the night that TBS decided to bring back My Boys, one of our favorite shows.  The show centers around PJ, a tom boy gal who has amassed a group of friends (mostly guys, as the title suggests) that live for sports, love food, and always have a good time.  The humor is perfect, we die laughing literally every episode.  

Needless to say I got through only four of lets see...hmmm...55 pictures? It's going to be a long week :)