Over-Zealous Introspection

Disclaimer: I become deeply introspective around the end of each year. If you don’t want to hear my reflections on life, you might want to check back next year.

We watched The Voyage of the Dawn Treader last week. Of course, it wasn’t as good as the books, but what movie ever is? Answer: Holes. If you haven’t seen the movie or read the book I highly recommend you do both. The movie and the book are great!! It’s a children’s book, so it’s easy to get through it in just a few hours. Anyway…

At the beginning Lucy is wishing she was beautiful. Her older sister is known for being beautiful, and she longs to look like her. I think every woman (and probably most men) can relate to this feeling. I know I can. It’s so hard not to look in the mirror and only see flaws and things I would like to change. There comes a point in the movie when Lucy is looking through a book of spells to help some unusual friends become visible again, and she stumbles across a spell for beauty. She tears the page from the book and puts it in her pocket. Later that night, she climbs out of bed and recites the spell in the mirror. She is instantly changed to look like her sister, and is transported to a party, where all eyes are on her. She realizes that by doing the spell, she has actually turned into her sister, and she no longer exists. Because she doesn’t exist, her brothers and sister never found Narnia and missed out on the greatest adventure of their lives. Aslan finds her, and asks her what she has done. She tells him that she just wanted to be beautiful, and he tells her to think of all that she has lost by making that wish.

This hit me so hard. There are so many things that I want to change about myself. I wish I were more organized, kinder, thinner, more efficient, happier, a better cook, cleaner, more beautiful, healthier. The list goes on and on. But what if, magically, all these changes happened for me? What would I lose in the process? I’m not saying that I should stop trying to improve on my weaknesses. I’m just saying that maybe we need to look at our weaknesses and see if anything is gained. Maybe we can stop criticizing ourselves long enough to think about our strengths for a while.

Why Do We Do What We Do When We Know What We Know?

When I was about 13 we had a speaker at Girls Camp talk on this subject. He talked about the Israelites, and how they saw that Moses could do all these miraculous things, part the red sea, make water come from a rock, heal people on the verge of death, and yet, they were constantly going their own way. He then brought up the point that we do the same thing. We know the right things to do, and yet, we don't do them! He made us repeat the phrase over and over until we all had it memorized, and it has stuck with me these last 13 years.

I have been thinking about this a lot, not just in relation to my life spiritually, but my life in general. Why do I not do my laundry when I know it means I will have nothing to wear on Monday? Why do I eat junk food when I know I will feel awful the next day. Why do I not say my prayers every night, when I know it brings me peace?

I have all the tools available to me to live a perfect life. I know the principles that lead to a healthy life, an organized home, a peaceful spirit. I just don't use them like I should.

Why do I do what I do when I know what I know?

Bad Hair Season

I have been having the proverbial 'bad hair day' for about a week now. It's strange, because I just got a good haircut a couple of weeks ago, and I even dyed it, which will usually tame it into submission for at least a month. But every time I look in the mirror it's all frizz, pouf, and stringy-ness. There could be a few reasons for this (I haven't switched shampoos in a while, my blow-drying habits have changed slightly)but I choose to blame it on my number two nemesis: WINTER (my number one nemesis is laundry, in case you were wondering. I swear, those socks hide under the washer just to spite me!!).

I know most people don't think that winter exists here in Texas, and to other people, that might be true. But I was born and raised in the desert, and to me, any temperature below 50 degrees is Winter with a capital W!! Don't get me wrong, I was as happy to get through August as the next Texan, but why can't it just be lovely October or April all year?? I hate needing to wear a jacket, I hate having to wear tights, and I hate having my hair look like I just crawled out of the sewer! (Don't worry, I still wash my hair regularly, so it doesn't smell like I just crawled out of the sewer).

And in unrelated news, the Christmas tree is up!! No ornaments yet. At least that can wait until after Thanksgiving. I'm trying to pace myself!

It's Beginning!

I have had Christmas fever for a few weeks now. I'm trying to restrain myself from putting up the tree (three more weeks, I can do this!!) and twinkly lights and putting fake snow on all the windows.

So I decided to decorate my blog instead. I went low key, for now. No pictures of snowmen or presents or trees, just a few color changes. Hopefully it will get me through to Thanksgiving until the real festivities start! I can't wait for Christmas cookies and parties, hot chocolate, holiday movies, and Christmas shopping!!

Cleaning Out The Fridge For Dummies

I couldn't sleep Friday night/Saturday morning. Sometimes I get bouts of insomnia, where I JUST. CAN'T. SLEEP. Very frustrating. Luckily, this past week was one of the laziest of my life, so there was plenty of housework to keep me occupied in the wee hours of the morning. I decided to get a jump start on everything, and at about 7, after doing two loads of laundry, cleaning the guest bathroom, and eating some candy, I decided the fridge needed to be cleaned out. Below are the steps for cleaning out a fridge. If you are a dummy. Like me.

1) This first step is very important. Do not, under any circumstances, keep your fridge clean. Do not wipe off sticky bottles before putting them in the fridge. Do not use your leftovers, let them sit sadly in the back of the fridge for a few months. When they are growing new food, you know it has almost been long enough. This is important because if your fridge does not get dirty, you cannot clean it, and you might as well stop reading now.

2) Sit on the floor in front of your open fridge, and take everything out. Try not to throw up when you open containers of three month old alfredo sauce or corn that seems to be growing a new life form. Cleaning your fridge during allergy season is especially helpful due to the stuffy nose. I even recommend waiting to clean out the fridge until you have a very bad head cold, if it helps.

3) Realize that sitting with the fridge door open for that long is a waste of electricity. Turn the fridge off.

4) Separate all the food into good and bad. Throw the bad away. Keep the good in a pile. If you fridge looks like mine, you will now have half a gallon of milk and some butter left in the good pile, and half of bag of very stinky trash…

5) Fill a bowl with warm soapy water. Wash off all the shelves. Bonus points if you take out the drawers and clean them too! Extra bonus points if you can identify the sticky goo under the vegetable drawer.

6) Put all the good food back. Give yourself a huge pat on the back.

7) Make a grocery list, now that you realize your fridge is completely empty (man cannot live on butter alone).

8) Go throughout your day feeling accomplished and thinking of how bright and shiny the inside of the fridge is.

9) The next morning, have a bowl of cereal for breakfast. Realize the milk is warm, even though you just got it out of the fridge… Remember that you forgot to turn the fridge BACK ON.

10) Be thankful there wasn’t actually food in there.

11) Vow to never clean the fridge again.

Right Now

I've been looking for a new job ever since the wedding. Praying for a new job. Dreaming of a new job. It's not that I was in a bad place, it's just that I got everything out of that job I could. I was bored, and tired of the same thing day in day out.

And now I have a new job!!! I put in my two weeks on Friday!! I had daydreams of putting in my two weeks, and the song Take This Job and Shove It was always in the background, along with me shocking my coworkers, venting my frustrations to my director, and running out of the building in a blaze of glory. So the actual putting in of the two weeks was pretty anticlimactic. See, I forgot how much I like everyone at work, and how much I respect my manager, and in real life I would never want her to be blindsided. I also forgot that two weeks notice means just that- you have to be at work for two more weeks! I could have left in a blaze of glory, but it just would have been awkward to come in on Monday morning, ya know??

Now that it's done, and I know I am moving on, the sentimental part of me is taking over. I have a really hard time with lasts! (I saw a bumper sticker once that said "Why are we sentimental about things that sucked the first time?" It made me stop and think) My last staff meeting, my last team meeting, my last student yelling at me (ok, I wasn't sentimental at all about that!) the last halloween (my office goes ALL OUT).

I have also been surprised at the number of people who have stopped by my desk to tell me how nice it was to work with me. Our director even welled up when he announced I was leaving. It is all really nice, and I appreciate people doing it, but I just keep thinking- the last two years of my life would have been so much better if people would have told me nice things while I was working there. So many days I rushed to my car at the end of the day so I could cry all the way home because of what a bad day I had. Just one person saying a nice thing would have totally changed that.

It made me think- do I wait to tell people how much they mean to me or how they have helped me? Do I hold back on complements? It made me remember to focus more on RIGHT NOW and be aware of the people around me. It is so easy to lift someone's day, why not do it more?

Things I Do That I Know I Shouldn't

1) Clean my ears out with a Q-tip. I've heard countless doctors tell me not to do this. But sometimes, I just feel the need!!

2) Climb into bed after taking a shower. This is 100% guarenteed to make me late, and yet, I do it at least 3 times a week. The world is so cold, and my bed is so warm!

3) Eat half of the cookie dough before I make cookies. I know it will make my stomach hurt. I know later I will wish I had more cookies to eat. But when it's sitting there in the bowl in all it's uncooked glory, it just has to go in my mouth!!

4) Put things off. I know I will feel better when I make that annoying phone call/fold the load of laundry/clean out the fridge, but for some reason, I just keep putting it off!

Links I Love Today

I'm half happy/half sad I didn't find this site before my wedding. I love love love the bouquets SO much, but the cost of a small one is more than I spent on centerpiece and bouquet flowers!

I'm making these rolls right now. My favorite part is where they "jump out of the bowl and helps itself to a gin and tonic". LOL!! But seriously, they rise FAST!

I love Kendi. She talks about living in Texas a lot, if I ever find out where, I might go visit and try to convince her to be my new BFF.

I need to buy some boots. But once again, my expensive taste is not meeting my budget. I'll have to start eBay-ing. You know, for the one week every year it's cold enough to wear boots...

I couldn't have said it better myself!

I sent Steve to the store for ice cream two nights ago (I had gone to the gym, so of course I needed to replenish the calories I burned as quickly as possible!). He came home with ice cream AND Oreos.

Love him!

Design Your Life... Or at Least Your Cubicle

Work has been a bit blah as of late. Except for the power outage yesterday, that was exciting. So I have been thinking of ways to make my day more exciting. So far the best thing I can think of is to decorate my cubicle (it turns out starting a fight club at lunch is frowned upon, who knew?). I've been trying to find ideas, so far the coolest things I have found are here and here.

I think these might all be a little far out, even if I would love to feel like I was in the jungle all day. I might have to invest in some cubicle wallpaper though.

You've Gotta Have a Dream

I'm trying to not cross my legs as much.



It's hard!



That's all.

The Saga of the Piano

For some reason this weekend I was thinking about all the moves my piano has made in it's time with me. And since I get to write about whatever I want, here it is!

1) I get the piano from my sister. She got it from my grandma. It is moved into my second story apartment.

2) Paino is moved from the apartment into a co workers house as I will be homeless for a few weeks until my apartment is reacy.

3) Apartment ready! Piano moved. First floor this time, thank goodness!

4) I move out of the apartment (turns out I hate living alone) and there is no room in my new place. Piano moves to friends house.

5) I am leaving for the summer to work at the Grand Canyon. Friends are moving too. Piano moves to another friends apartment.

6) I come back from the summer and move the piano to the trailer, where it stays for two years (it's longest stop yet!).

7) Move to Phoenix. Live on the third floor. Don't have friends to help move. Piano stays at parents house.

8) Move into house in Phoenix. Rent a van, pick up the piano, move it in.

9) Move to San Antonio. Load piano in the U-Haul, take it to first house.

10) Move out of house into an apartment. Realize after having it hauled up a flight of stairs that going the back way does not have any stairs. Oh well.

11) Tia buys a house. Piano is moved with the help of a piano dolly (best thing ever!). Piano is tuned for the first time in 7 years.

12) Moved into Steve's apartment. Signed a lease for 14 months, so it will be in one place for a while!

Taking Advice

I've been thinking today about all the advice I give out on a daily basis. Students call, email, or drop by to tell me what's going on with them (sometimes I wonder if they make stuff up to get out of class, how many times can you get divorced/your grandmother get ill/your work hours get increased?) and I listen, ask probing questions (can you tell me more about that?), and then try and help. If I followed even half of the advice I give out, I would be much better off.

A few pieces of advice I should take myself:

1) Look at all your options and figure out what will work best for you.
2) Life happens- give yourself a break now and then.
3) Make a schedule! Set days for personal time, and time for work. Don't let one take over the other.
4) Ask questions. The worst they can do is tell you no.

What I really do:

1) Do what is easy. So what if you're screwing up your future? You get to sleep in now! Hard work may pay off later, but procrastination pays off now!
2) When something goes wrong, cry, and then make ambitious plans on how to correct the problem.
3) Do whatever, whenever. Put important things off, and let them stress you out so you don't even enjoy relaxing.
4) Never ask a question. Don't even try to return the ugly wedding gifts, what if they tell you no??

What I'm Doing Instead of Working

I woke up this morning with a killer headache. A little Excedrin fixed me up well enough to get to work, but I'm still feeling a little... off. Luckily I discovered this awesome site, which is distracting me between spurts of working. My favorites are the ones with the women workers. I could look at them all day.

Also, I think it's great that so many of them are taken in Pie Town! I can't imagine how the photographer ended up there. I think there might have been more people living there in the 40's then live there now...

Thought For the Day

You can do anything. You just can't do everything.

#3!!

On Friday I got my Texas drivers license, so I can mark one more thing off my list!

Texas does not have a DMV, just a drivers license office. It was one of the most inefficient processes I have seen since college registration. When I got there, the line was out the door. I should have known that was a bad sign, and gone to another office, but I was already there, so I waited. I couldn't see what line I was in, so I got behind the last person and hoped for the best. When I finally got inside, I saw that I was waiting in the 'get information' line. This is where they tell you that you do not have what you need to take care of whatever you are there for, and please come back later. Luckily I had brought every piece of documentation I had ever been given (including my drivers ed certificates, you never know!!) so after waiting in that line for 30 minutes, I was able to continue.

Line two was getting a number. This was only a few minutes long, since most everyone else got sent home for not having what they needed.

When my number got called I waited in line three. I was finally able to speak to a real person after only fifteen minutes of waiting! She processed all of my information, and was talking so much about the metal spike in her head (I'm not kidding) that she didn't even notice that the check I paid with didn't have my name on it. I was then given a piece of paper with a picture of a license on it, and was told that my actual plastic licence would be mailed to me within two weeks. She also welcomed me to Texas. I almost felt bad saying thank you, since I have been in the state over two years!

Having to wait in line to wait in line to wait in line made me miss the efficiency of the Arizona DMV. I think this is because you only have to renew your license once every lifetime, so the lines are low. But they also only have one line.

Ahhhh....

I feel like I should write something about the wedding, but I'm so sick of talking about it, I just don't want to! While we were on our honeymoon I had dreams about things going wrong at the wedding... I can't even describe how good it felt to wake up and realize it was over!

The cruise was great, so relaxing, and the perfect thing after the hectic-ness of the last few months. Neither of us brought a camera, so don't ask to see pictures. If it means that much to you, I'll describe everything in great detail. You'll feel like you were there.

I am now in the phase I have been anticipating for the last few months: I have nothing to do. The most pressing thing on my agenda is finding a place for all the wedding presents. Which is more fun than anything. It's strange, but enjoyable. I'm sure I'll get bored soon and have to find something to do, but for now it's so nice to be able to actually plan my weekends, instead of running frantically around trying to get everything done.

My agenda for Friday afternoons used to include cleaning, packing, shopping for wedding stuff, laundry, homework, and some random Relief Society stuff. This Friday I am getting a new drivers license, getting a massage, and going to dinner with my husband.

Life is good :)

Introspection

At work a few weeks ago, I helped two people who were in the same situation. In both cases, the individual did not like the options that were available, and it was an inconvenience for both of the people, both time wise and financially. What amazed me was how differently each individual dealt with the situation.

The first lady was grateful, positive, and willing to try to make it work. She asked tons of questions, found ways that suggestions would work for her, and sent me an email the next day thanking me for the help, and telling me the solution wasn’t as bad as she thought it was going to be.

The second man was the exact opposite. He was angry, rolled his eyes at every suggestion I gave, and found reasons why every solution I gave him would not work for his situation. He also sent me an email the next day, but again was angry, and insisted that I was just trying to make things difficult for him.

Both of the individuals had the same situation, but one made it harder on himself by his reaction to his circumstances. By trying to show me how difficult I was making his life (even though I had nothing to do with the situation, and was only trying to help) he really just made his life more difficult, by refusing to accept the help I offered. It made me think of the times that I do this. It’s almost like I need to prove to myself and others how difficult my life is by making things even harder than they need to be. It was an eye opener for me, and I’m trying to find ways to be more like the first person. I think the keys are gratitude and humility.

In Which I Prove I Am Getting Old

So my last post about possibly being too old for Facebook got me thinking about all the other things I do that make me realize... Oh my gosh... I'm getting old...

1) I can't stand loud music. I used to love to drive in my car alone, with the sun roof open and the music blaring. But now? Why would I mess up my hair, and how would I even hear myself think?? Sometimes, I even drive with no music at all. I know!!

2) I totally don't get Twitter. It's the new thing, I hear. But seriously?? I just don't get it...

3) I find it hard to stay up past 11:00. Sometimes 10:00. Seriously.

4) I make fun of what 'the kids these days' are wearing (Ok, I never use that phrase exactly, but still, skinny jeans? On boys? Does it ever look good? Really??)

The Unthinkable

Today I had a break at work, and so like any other person, I decided to get on Facebook. It was boring. I knew this couldn't be right, so I thought it could just be that I was looking at it on my phone, not the best format. So at my next break I logged on again, this time on a computer. Nope. Still boring. I can think of a few reasons for this:

1) Everyone I know is acutally doing things, instead of talking about doing things on Facebook. Which really takes the fun out of Facebook stalking...
2) I'm getting old. This is probably not the case, becuase as we all know, old people are getting on Facebook at an alarming rate. There is even a Facebook group called "Old People are Ruining Facebook!"
3) Too many of my friends play those dumb games, so all my posts show is that Angela got a new cow for her farm, and James killed someone in MafiaWars.
4) I'm so self centered that I no longer care about anything but me, and so looking at other people's lives is boring. Unless they hapen to be talking about me!

I don't want to jump to any conclusions, but I think it might be #4.

New Hobbies?

I just finished the last page of my action research project!! When I hit 'save' I felt a huge weight lift from me! I'm done!! The wedding plans are also coming along, there isn't much left to do there either. And I got released two weeks ago. I have often wished for more free time, and now that it looks like I'll have it, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. So here are a few hobbies that I'm thinking of taking up:

1. Carving egg shells. When I was in college I had some awesome roommates. One night we stayed up too late and decided it was a great idea to make our likenesses out of eggs. They all looked something like this. I really enjoyed that, and could make it into a full time hobby, working my way up to this! And just think of all the omelets I could enjoy while practicing!

2. Design my own fashion line. Everyone is doing it these days. Lindsay Lohan, Jay-Z, Victoria Beckham. How hard can it be? I'll probably watch a few episodes of Project Runway to get ready.

3. Writing angry letters to businesses, and possibly my congressman. The bathrooms were dirty, the ice cream was runny, the lighting was bad in the dressing rooms, I don't like the new 'no cell phone in the car' law. Maybe I'll even get free stuff out of the deal!

4. Shoe collecting. I always avoid collecting anything, because I know that's all I'll ever get for presents for the rest of my life. But if I become an avid shoe collector? I would love getting those presents! Plus, this would give me an excuse to buy this Ikea shoe organizer! I have to have something to show off my collection!!

This explains a lot!

In December I posted a list of things I wanted to do in 2010.  The year is approaching being half over, so I wanted to check in and see how it was going! 
 
Here is the list:
 
1.     Get an actual stamp in my passport
2. GRADUATE!!
3. Get a Texas drivers license
4. Sit on the beach and do nothing for a whole day- and don’t feel bad about it (sitting by a pool is also acceptable)
5. Learn to cook something outrageously fancy
6. Go on vacation without a plan, or even a map
7. Use the free volunteer day from work
8. Get a free makeover at the department store makeup counter
9. Host a dinner party
10. Get a pedicure
11. Make a quilt
12. Donate blood

And my progress:

1.      Not yet.
2.    FOUR MORE WEEKS BABY!!!!
3.    Why even bother until after my name change??
4.    Maybe on the cruise?  Nope… probably not…
5.    HAHAHA!!!  This is what I have Steve for!!
6.    Not even close.  Turns out I have control issues.  Shocking, I know…
7.    Check!  Thank you San Antonio Food Bank!
8.     I tried.  Turns out you need an appointment.  Who knew?
9.     Planning on it, when I move in with Steve and we have all our fancy wedding presents to show off!
10.Check!  Thank you college roomies!
11. Who has time for that??
12. Twice!! But the second time, I passed out on account of eating nothing the day before because of a stomach flu.  True story.
 
Well, I’ve done 3, and have plans for 3 more.  Which will put me at half.  Not bad!  If only I had put Get Married on the list ;)

Pictures!!

Below are some of my favorite engagements pictures (at least I think these are them, in the picture selector, they are really small, and I don't have my contacts in yet!!). We are both such hams, in half of them one of both of us is cracking up or making a funny face, but luckily we ended up with a lot of good ones. These are untouched and I was having a bad skin day, so don't click to enlarge ;)




Here is our invitation! Don't let me know what you think unless you say that you love it, because I just ordered prints and I don't want second thoughts :)

The Wedding Cycle

I have a theory. Planning a wedding has some similarities to the pride cycle.

First, you start out excited. Planning a wedding is fun! You get to tell everyone what to wear!! And pick out flowers!! And look for a wedding dress!! And buy new shoes! And take engagement pictures! And send out invitations. And find a place for the reception. And coordinate the rehearsal dinner. And get a photographer... And. And. And...

Which takes us to step two. Overwhelmed. There are too many choices. Too many things to get done. There's not enough time, not enough money, and trying to coordinate everything is like herding cats. If you think it's easy to herd cats then you need to watch this short video. Seriously, watch it, it's funny.

Step three is deciding not to care. No one really looks at the centerpieces. And do I really have to have food? Well, if I'm not going to do that, what the point of having a reception at all? Let's just get married and call it a day. In fact, I don't have plans next week. Let's get married then. So you mentally decide that you're canceling everything. But then step four kicks in.

Sentimentalism. But, if I don't have a reception, I can't have a Daddy Daughter Dance. And what's the point of buying a dress if no one is going to see it? And I've always wanted to have great pictures of my wedding day to remember forever. No! I have to have a wedding reception! It's so fun to plan them!

And the cycle begins again.

Registering

So, I had this idea of how registering would go. I've always been a fan of home goods, but most of the time when people try to pick something out for me, I wonder if we've ever met. Do I seem like the person that would really like a frame with cute/trying too hard to be touching sayings on it? Or the person who would enjoy having cups with fish painted on them?? Because I'm not... So the thought of being able to have people buy me things that I picked out- best idea ever!

Well, registering did not live up to my expectations. IT EXCEEDED THEM. We made the mistake of looking around for things we wanted before starting the registration process. I say it was a mistake, because it was a total waste of time. One we had the gun in our hands, we just scanned things that caught our eye, and ended up with a lot of things we didn't even know we wanted. It was so much fun!! It's been fun to check in and add more things online, too.

While I thought it was fun, I was exhausted at the end of it. It had all the fun of shopping with someone else's money, but no shoppers high at the end (you know, when you take your new purchase home, take it out of the packaging, find a place for it, know that that your life is better because you have something new, start to wonder if you paid too much, or if you really like it after all. Am I the only one with a shoppers high? really?). So, it is an exercise in delayed gratification, something I am still trying to learn.

I think the best part of registering was it gave Steve and I a chance to pick things out together, and made me imagine myself cooking a wonderful dinner for him in my super cute apron (hint: it's on the list at Bed Bath & Beyond- buy it for me and I'll love you forever) in my shiny new pans and serving the meal with matching pot holders and coordinating dishes. In reality, I will probably be eating something HE cooked, or eating something I defrosted, but a girl can dream, right?

Update

Special thanks to Amy for all the topic ideas ;)

So the wedding plans are coming right along. Finding a dress was quite the ordeal! Of course, there wasn't a dress with a sleeve in the whole city, at least not a pretty one, (and PS, David's Bridal, when you say you can put sleeves on any dress, and then bring out a thin strip of netting? Not acceptable!!) so I started my hunt online. I had found one that I loved for a great price, but wanted to try a few more on just to be sure I liked the shape. This store didn't allow returns, so I had to be sure!! So I decide that I will try some dresses on while I am in Phoenix visiting my college roommates. When I got to her house, I pulled up the website to shoe them the dress-and it was closed. The company had shut down!! I freaked out!! But luckily, we went to the dress store and found THE dress! I love it!! I make my roommates help me put it on all the time (they're probably glad I'm moving out soon!) and I love it. I especially love the headband with tons of rhinestones, and the best part- it came free with the dress! I love wearing it, I totally understand this episode of Friends:

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Next post- registering. Let me just say- funnest thing ever!!!

Nothing to Write About?

I always laugh when I hear people say they will start a blog once they have something to write about. They want to wait until they have kids to brag about, a new business or job to vent about, or something else more exciting. I think the opposite is true for me. I've never been busier, now that I have added wedding planning to the mix of everything else, and for the life of me, I can't think of anything to blog about.

It's only 106 days until I get married, I go between wishing I had more time to wishing it were tomorrow so it would be over. I have the feeling now of not really caring, just as long as things get done, which I hear is pretty common. But coming up this month: dress buying, and invitations. I think after I get the dress I'll feel much better about everything. As long as my family and friends are there, and I get a few good pictures, thats all I want!

School is almost over, and my calling is starting to get in the groove. Lucky for me, all the sisters I work with are completely amazing, and they make it easy on me! I was wondering last week what I am going to do after I get married. I wont have school, will be released from my calling, and wont be trying to plan a wedding. I might have to get a hobby! But from 25 years experience living with myself, I'm pretty sure that I'll quickly find something that will fill up my time and completely stress me out. It's just how I roll!

I'm Too Excited To Care!

I got an iPhone this weekend. I kind of feel like a wanna be trendy sell out, which bothers me a little. But I'm having to much fun downloading free apps to care!! I'm seriously wondering how I lived before-I have an app to wake me up in the morning, another one to help me fall asleep, anothe rone for grocery shopping, another one to track calories, and so on!

In other only-interesting-to-me news:

I'm pretty sure Winter is going to be here forever. (Please don't rub this comment in my face when I'm complaining about how hot it is in two months!)

I'm Gifted! Well, Sort Of...

I shouldn't have been so excited that it was warming up. It started raining again today! Why? Why do bad things happen to good people?? :)

I discovered some of my hidden talents this weekend:

1) Crepe paper. It's a gift. It always twirls perfectly for me. Now if I could keep it on the wall. I may or may not have used a staple gun on some crepe paper at a baby shower this weekend. Stupid glossy paint...

2) Folding chairs and heels. I would say most LDS females develop this talent in time, but I have always felt that I had a special gift for it. I think it's my special anchor and yank move (I'm thinking of copyrighting that phrase!). Don't believe me? Check me out after a church function!

3) Stuffing things into flast rate boxes at the post office. Even the postal worker commented on how much was in it. I'm kinda awesome like that!

That's my list. Some people are world leaders, some are great thinkers. Me, I can put up crepe paper, fold up some chairs, and send you a bunch of junk in a box!

Thankful for the Cold- Better Late Than Never

I meant to post this a few days ago, but I kept forgetting, and now it doesn't seem as relevant since it's warm outside (yay!) but I did manage to think of two things I was thankful for in cold weather:

1) I can wear tights with all my skirts/dresses, so I don't have to shave my legs as often.
2) I don't have to do my hair when it is raining.

Well, I think we have made excellent progress here!

A Warm Bethany is a Happy Bethany- Or I'm Trying to Do Anything Other Than Going to the Gym!

I'm sure everyone is already aware, but I am not a huge fan of Winter. I was born in the desert, and I plan to stay in a warm climate as long as I possibly can. I hate having to wear a jacket, I hate having cold toes, I hate layering, I hate having to wait for my car to warm up, I hate being outside, I hate waking up in the morning and having to get out of my warm bed. That's a lot of hate, if anyone is keeping track. But the thing I hate the most is not being able to wear skirts. I have developed a love affair with skirts in the last two years. They are so comfortable, and always look nice. I feel girly but not fussy when I'm wearing them. They never pinch or ride up like pants, and they are way more flattering. In the Winter, my wardrobe gets cut in half because I can't wear skirts... Even with a pair of thick tights, my legs still get cold. And wearing tights means I can't wear open toed shoes, which kills my shoe wardrobe too.

This year it seems that Winter is teasing me. It gets warm for a couple of days, then cold again, then warm, then cold... I get to wear a skirt for one day, and then its over. My poor little legs can't wait until Spring!!

And now, possibly, I will go to the gym... I need to get my legs in Spring skirt wearing shape!

What I'm Thinking About While I'm NOT Doing Homework...

1. My cap and gown came today. If that's not incentive to finish my degree, I don't know what is! I don't want to brag, but I look pretty cool in a robe with big sleeves and a flat top hat!

2. I hate being sick. Even though I'm starting to feel a lot better, I hate coughing and blowing my nose every ten minutes!

3. I used to think that I was destined to be great. I wasn't sure what I would be great at, but I was sure that power and prestige were going to be mine. I loved the stress of having big, important things to do, and loved being busy. But lately, I just want to live a nice quiet life, and be happy with what I already have. I wonder if it is a phase I am going through, or just me getting older. I guess time will tell!

4. Is it shallow to plan a hair color that will look good with the cap and gown?

5. I am blessed beyond anything I deserve!!!