Changes

I made changes to my blog as promised. But I am not sold. I don't love it. I painstakingly spent hours searching for a new template. I found templates that I kind of liked but nothing that jumped out and said "Pick Me!" Which brought on a lot of unnecessary self-reflection. I hate changes. Just ask Neil. I don't know if it has something to do with my OCD personality but I have patterns and routines and if anything interrupts that, I break down. So changing my blog was a lot harder than I expected. As I looked at template after template, I just kept thinking "but I like what I have now." I am also not one to "try new things" very often. However, I may have to keep changing my blog until I like it. On the other hand, I love blogging not because I am trying to show how cute and amazing I am but I just love to write. I love to be able to write my thoughts and feelings and have people read them. I don't even care if they know me. So why should the design of my blog matter? It shouldn't but I guess on some level it does. Interesting. I guess I have some more self-reflection to do.

Results from Photo Shoot

I feel a little vain saying here look at all of these amazing photos of ME!! But I am really happy with how the pictures turned out. I absolutely love the shots with the Polaroid picture. Thanks again Meg, you do fabulous work.

Rivalry Week

I just cannot contain my excitement any longer. Today is Day 1 of “Rivalry Week” and I seriously feel like a kid counting down until Christmas. Maybe I should invent “Rivalry Week” advent calendars. This week is a historic week for those of you that are not avid BYU or University of Utah fans. Today marks the day when serious trash talking begins. Today is when the statues that are all over the BYU campus will be wrapped in giant saran wrap to be protected from “Rivalry Week” pranks. Today is when students will begin to camp out on Y Mountain to protect it. I am sad to not be right in the middle of the action. This upcoming game on Saturday is often referred to as “The Holy War.” I love it. I love anything that has to do with a major rivalry. Back in the day when I had friends that rooted for the other team, we bombarded each others email accounts with trash talking each others teams. I actually received a hilarious joke through that. Sadly, it makes fun of BYU but it is hilarious. So I will share it. But anyone that can provide me with a joke that makes fun of U of U will win a prize.

“An Aggie, a Ute and a Cougar came across a genie in a lamp. The genie granted one wish to each of them. The Aggie quickly asked for fertile land in Cache Valley for farming. Then, the Cougar thought for a minute. Then he requested that a wall be put around Provo to protect them. Finally, the Ute thoughtfully asked about this wall around Provo. After the genie listed the dimensions and details, the Ute responded, fill it with water!”

I love it. The game is always intense; so full of emotion and excitement. Fights break out on and off the field. Usually, the game is very close and you are literally on the edge of your seat until the very end. I have already started gathering everyone’s score predictions. But I will not be posting them in advance because the last time I did that, things didn’t go so well. I am very superstitious. However, for fun I would love you to post your predictions. Go Cougars!

Peramore Photography

So once upon a time, I decided that since Neil and I have almost been married two years that it was past time that we got some updated pictures of us. Then, my fairy Godmother granted me my wish and along came Peramore Photography. Check it out. Meg seriously has found some fabulous locations for fabulous pictures. I am terribly self-conscious of how I look in pictures but you have got to see her amazing work. Then, you have to email her and set-up your own photo session so you can have amazing pictures too. Her prices are very reasonable. I will be posting some pictures when I get them. I will even put some in the place of our wedding pictures on this blog. Which might even lead to a face lift of this blog.

On a side note, I do have to gush about my lovely husband. He did not complain once about getting these pictures done. I guess he knew how important they were to me and he just went along with it. He didn't complain when I told him what he had to wear. He even put gel in his hair for the special occasion. He didn't even complain when I got him up at 7:00 AM on a Saturday morning. I couldn't ask for a better husband.

Note to Self

So at one point on my blog I mentioned that I needed to cancel the almost daily emails that I was getting from one of my very favorite clothing stores. I would link it for you but I can't find it. So I guess I never said that. Anyway, I never did cancel those emails, I still have been secretly getting them. Today, I received a coupon for 30% off. I haven't had that good of an offer in a long time. So I decided it wouldn't hurt to peruse. I even was good and only perused the clearance items, at first. Then, I may or may not have added them to my virtual shopping cart. I then may or may not have coveted the items in my virtual shopping cart. I may or may not have applied my discount code just to see how much my virtual purchase would be. I am proud to say that my Visa did not suffer in any of this. I did come up with all sorts of justifications like I will need nice outfits for the upcoming holiday parties. I haven't bought new clothes for awhile. Christmas is coming up..... Who couldn't use a nice silk shirt in their wardrobe or a comfy yet pretty dress?

Anyway, whoever does advertising for my favorite online shopping stores should get a raise. They are doing their job and they are doing it well. I may have resisted this time but next time I may or may not resist.

Note to self: Cancel those email advertisements!

Diary of an Insomniac

I have suffered from insomnia for most of my life. I am extremely jealous of people who can sleep. I have no idea what it is like to fall asleep shortly after going to bed and not waking up until morning. It sounds wonderful though.

Getting married and now having a sleeping a companion has been wonderful for me but probably not wonderful at all for Neil. Because I am awake for most of the night, it gets boring, very boring. So I talk to Neil. He talks back. Sometimes he is awake, sometimes he is not. I have always been fascinated by dreams. So Neil has become my test subject. Throughout the night I ask him what he is dreaming about. I get all sorts of responses like school, math, computers and sometimes he even dreams about me. The other night I asked him what he was dreaming about. He responded, "You." I then asked, "What are you dreaming about me?" He responded, "I can't find you." I said, "I'm right here." Then, he said, "Oh." I have to admit I really haven't found out anything interesting about dreams except that Neil dreams a lot about school. Poor guy. Maybe it is more like nightmares.

We have very interesting conversations as well. I blame it on the sleep deprivation. We live near a stream that has lots of frogs. Neil has told me before that he has heard them croaking. I didn't believe him. But one night, I heard one. So of course I yell, "I heard one! Did you hear that!?" Neil replies "No." Then I start asking him a million questions about frogs. Which he answers in his sleep. Then I get concerned that the frog will freeze to death because it is cold outside. I think Neil's sleepy self had enough of me so he told me to go outside and find it. I told him I would, if he would come with me. Needless to say, he stopped talking to me.

I feel terrible, I probably ought to let Neil sleep in peace but it is just too tempting to fight off the boredom by talking. I've tried it all trust me. I even counted cows (I figured that made more sense than sheep because cows live in our backyard).

I do promise to try to not turn Neil into an insomniac too.

Warning: Seriousness to Follow.......

I was inspired by a friend who made a goal to read so many books a year. I realized at the time that I rarely read a book for pleasure. Growing up I read all the time. In fact, I read so much I consistently won reading awards every year up until I was in Junior High. I read to escape. It was so much fun to pretend to solve mysteries right along with Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden.

Over the course of this last year, my scope of reading has expanded ten fold. I admit that in the past I made a goal to read at least one classic a year but in between I read popular murder mysteries. This year I have read so many inspiring and beautifully written novels, that I truly feel that it has enriched my life. It has been so amazing to expand my reading genre from a cheap murder mystery thrill to inspiring words of wisdom. Even better is that a dialogue has opened up between those who have joined me in this new reading journey. I have thoroughly enjoyed having endless discussions about each book and what meaning it has in my life. I am about to start a book written by a Nobel Prize winner in literature. I know that it is not necessarily a privilege because let’s face it, anyone could read it. But I never would have picked this book up last year. Even though I have only flipped through the book, it just makes me feel more educated having it in my possession. I can’t wait until I have a few quiet moments for me to open “The Double” by Jose Saramago.

I challenge you to read a book that you would not ordinarily read. I even challenge you to enjoy it and let it have meaning in your life.

Lately

The last two weeks have been crazy and very strange at the same time. I have actually missed blogging some very important stuff but what's a girl gonna do when life just gets too busy? But I decided in order to update all 10 readers of my blog, I will list a few things that have happened lately. Things have been so busy lately that I seem to be making all kinds of lists.
1. BYU has won their last few games but just barely. It is not looking good. It is looking like I am going to have to eat my words.
2. Our random newspaper deliveries have stopped. At first I was more than extremely annoyed but then those Sunday papers came in handy. I actually kind of miss them.
3. I had a major health scare. I never go to the doctor. I just go once a year for the routine check-up. This time I came out of that appointment with the worst news any person my age would want to hear. So that led to another appointment that same week but luckily that one went much better and I'm not going to die. I know I'm being vague but I don't want to talk about it. I know I just did but I am going to be one of those people that refers to something but then doesn't elaborate. I hate that. Let the gossip run wild!
4. I got cast into a movie. It may just be a movie that my work is producing/developing but I am going to be so famous. It was an interesting experience. It took nearly an hour for a 7 second scene. I don't think I will be making a career change anytime soon.
5. Neil got a job as an intern for Northrop Grumman in their re-entry systems division. He is thrilled to finally get to work in his field. I am thrilled because I get to buy him a whole new "business casual" wardrobe. That may be vain but I love shopping and it's the best excuse I've had all year.
6. We only have 4 more performances to go to for Neil's class. I can't believe that we have already attended 16 events. We are going to be bored next semester.

Bad Monday

You know that Monday is going to be extra bad when.......
1. You lied awake all night feeling like a failure because your 6 year old primary class terrorized you. Six year olds should not make adults cry. I shouldn't feel all that bad, it's not like they are actually my kids.
2. You wake up with the worst headache ever. All you can think of is when you will have time to break into that ibuprofen bottle and take the maximum dose.
3. You spend a half hour waiting for your stupid computer to run it's stupid protection programs.
4. Outlook crashes the first time you open it.
5. When you finally get into Outlook you have not one by three messages marked "high priority" saying your mailbox is too full.
6. You already spent half an hour on Friday trying to clean it out. But you ended up keeping most of the emails because you work with people that can't remember things and you need physical proof.
7. You forgot to proof-read your husband's paper over the weekend that is due today, so you feel like a failure as a wife.
8. You wish instead of changing your clock at work an hour back, you could change it an hour forward, so you would be that much closer to 4:30.