Christmas thievery

Okay, so I totally stole this from my little sister's blog (sorry, it's private, but you can see her public blog here), but I can't get over the cuteness.



Its name is Noelle and apparently it likes Christmas a lot.

Repost from my old blog

I just happened upon this old post from my pre-wedding blog. I thought it was perfect for how I've been feeling lately.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

How did I get so lucky? - Ty

While Ty is slaving away at school all day (he has super long days--from start to finish to try to get everything done that he needs to do, Ty's days usually run from about 5:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. He is a champion.), I am blogging about him. I started this post last night but then I got too tired to finish (it was probably 2 a.m.) and I went to bed. I was just telling my friend Christina this morning that I felt like a lazy house cat. And after the breakfast I had this morning of yogurt, fiber-one, strawberries...and a bunch of baked cheetos, I feel more like the "fat house cat" that Iron and Wine sing about in their haunting and beautiful song "Flightless Bird, American Mouth." And yes, this song is on the New Moon soundtrack, but I haven't seen that crazy show.

So I don't really know what the face I'm making in this picture is about, but...I love this picture. I think it is so sweet of Ty. When I saw this picture, I said, "Aw, Ty loves me." I already knew that...he did give me a ring and ask me to be his wife, he does tell me he loves me all the time, he helps me with anything and everything I ask, and he makes time for things that are important to me, he values my opinion, he rubs my shoulders and kisses me, he lets me watch him feed his pet ball python Sam, he plays racquetball with my brother even though he has a manuscript to finish, he is so sweet and gentle with me...but his expression in this picture is so adorable that I love this picture.

I could talk about Ty for hours. He is really good to me. I have learned so much from knowing him, dating him, and being engaged to him, and I am a much better person because of it...even though it has only been a few short months. He is wonderful and I love him.

The sweetest man alive

My incredibly adorable husband and me...and no, pregnancy has not been kind to me.
Neither is getting up early to go run, though...doesn't do much for "my look." :)

These past few days I have been marveling at how I got so lucky to marry such a wonderful man. Because our courtship was quick and I moved to Texas after a whopping 8 dates and a weekend visit, many of the people I love don't know my husband the way I wish they did...so--I know he won't love this, but...--I wanted to share some of the things he does that show how sweet he is. I am so not worthy...

• He always gets out of bed before me (usually an hour or two before me unless I'm teaching seminary that morning) and he'll often take my empty or half-empty water bottle by the bed and refill it or replace it so that when I wake up, I have cold water to drink.
• When I go to the bathroom in the morning, I'll often come out to find he has already fixed the bed or started to fix the bed.
• Usually while I am still in bed, I can hear him in the kitchen doing the dishes. I often think, "Oh no...there he goes again," and think I wish I were more helpful, but pregnancy really has worn me out, so I usually just go back to sleep thinking about how nice he is.
  
• He kisses me and tells me he loves me all the time--so many times in a day that there is no way I could count them from memory.
• He does his own laundry.
• He often helps me hang up my clean laundry.
• I've gained so much weight since I've gotten pregnant (disproportionate for how far along I am), so that I feel really frumpy and ugly a lot, but my sweet husband still tells me that he thinks I'm beautiful and treats me in such a way that I know he means it. He makes me feel as if he still finds me totally attractive...and although I'll look in the mirror and my messy hair, tired eyes, and round body, I know he loves me and does find me attractive.
  
• I make the same mistakes over and over again and they often impact him (still late to everything...), but he is really patient.
• I have been so emotional since getting pregnant and although I know my level of intensity with my emotions often overwhelms him, he is still so sweet and kind and still listens to me and my complaining.
• Every two weeks we give ourselves individual allowances to spend how ever we would like. I usually spend my allowance on me...and several times, that sweet, sweet boy I married has also spent his allowance on me or on doing things for me. He is so much more thoughtful and selfless than I am.
  

He is not me so I don't feel I have any claim on this good behavior. I am just the lucky, lucky recipient.

I feel so blessed, but because I know that God loves all his children, I know that this blessing I have of being married to such a wonderful person is not unique to me. I truly believe it is something that each of God's children will eventually have if they seek it. They will receive it when God knows it is right according to his plan for them. I was 33 years old before my husband and I even went on our first date. For years I thought I knew what I wanted and what I needed and I had wished I could find the right person for me...and then suddenly, at the age of 33, 14 years after meeting my husband for the first time, the time was right, we were both ready, and it all came together so quickly. He is more than I would have ever chosen for myself. He is so much better and so perfect for me.

And although I remember the loneliness I would sometimes feel in quiet moments of my single life and although I still remember in a logical way what it felt like to experience the pain and anguish of numerous heartbreaks, now that I'm married to Ty, it all has just come together and makes sense. All those past pains seem swallowed up and I can see them for what they were--tutorials and preparation for me to be able to recognize the blessing when it came and to be willing and able to do my part to make it blossom. (Sweet Ty, I had written this paragraph generically, but then I rewrote it using I statements. :) I'm learning...)

I love my Heavenly Father and I'm so grateful he sent me Ty.

Happy Anniversary to us!

This past week we celebrated our 6-month anniversary. We knew we wouldn't have a ton of time on the actual day (Monday) to celebrate, so we had said we would celebrate the weekend before.

I bought him a cd...which he doesn't even love, but that's okay. I thought he would and it's the thought that counts.

So on Friday night, some friends had wanted to take us to dinner, so we started the evening going out to dinner with them. Ty had had a very busy day at school and work and had only had about a half hour free all day, so he rushed home after work to pick me up, grabbed a few things and we went to dinner. Dinner with Shannon and Amber was great--the food was delicious and the company was so wonderful.

After a very fun dinner, we left the restaurant and Ty blindfolded me and said we were going somewhere for a surprise. He had brought a bottle of sparkling cider and said maybe we could stop by a pond and have it. Once in the car, he said he had scouted out a place during his break during work, so...off we went. When we got to the destination, with the blindfold still on (which was actually my sleep mask that Jet Blue gave me once upon a flight long ago), he told me to wait in the car for a minute, so I did.

Ty came back and took my hand and told me to stay close to him. We walked across a little parking lot, up a step, and through two doorways. At one point, I heard voices in the distance...and then it was quiet. Ty took off the blindfold and said, "Happy Anniversary!" I opened my eyes and found we were in a hotel room where he had set up the sparkling cider with champagne glasses. There was also a candle burning, a bouquet of flowers in a beautiful vase, and the sweetest card with the most thoughtful inscription from him.

He had figured everything out and then made it happen during his short little break during the day. How did I get so lucky?

Photo courtesy of my sweet and brilliant sister-in-law Diana of Yan Photography.

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

Yesterday was my parents' 38th anniversary. I feel so lucky to have two such wonderful people as my parents and even luckier that they are still together after all these years. What a blessing. I'm a lucky, lucky girl. Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad!

Fruits of all kinds

Some people are nice. Really nice. Like our friends the Cruzes. Our friend Hannah is from Sacramento and her parents came to visit and brought a suitcase full of mandarins and we are the lucky recipients of many, many mandarinas (as they say in the espanol).

And then there are lemons. When my older brother and his family lived right outside of Sacramento (in Dixon), they had a lemon tree in their backyard (we loved that house and that yard), and those lemons were big and amazing and delicious. But sometimes lemons are just a normal size. Like 3 1/2 inches.

I shamelessly stole this photo from this site.

So what is so significant about lemons, you ask? Well, my cute, sweet husband and I decided to make a baby a while back and this week our baby is the size of a lemon. Kind of exciting! :)

Oh, Lubbock! We CAN be friends!

Look what I found at the Asian market here in Lubbock. (I may have also found manapua and they may have gotten eaten.) That large root creature is taro. I was so excited! And the stuff on the far right? Dried squid. When we were little and my mom would go to the commissary (the grocery store on the military bases where we lived), she would often bring us home sake ika--dried squid--in individual serving packets and we would be elated. Ty smelled it and said, "Will you please not teach this to our children?" I make no promises.

Why is that funny?

I made a comment the other day about how I'm a clean person and Ty started laughing. I don't get it. What's the joke?

Happy Holidays!

Last night I went to the grocery store to get some grapes (which I forgot) and some bread (which I remembered) and some cream of mushroom soup...and while there I saw this:

Picture thieved from the Little Debbie's website.

Nothing quite says, "Happy Holidays!" like Little Debbie's Christmas Tree Cakes. Sure, sure, they're a bunch of ingredients designed to poison you, but there's just something about them...the only thing that would be as festive would be a Dreidel Cake...

Married to the Most Wonderful Man on the Planet

Last night I woke up in the middle of the night--as I'm wont to do--and after using the bathroom, I noticed a medium-sized roach (about an inch long) a couple of feet away on the floor (WHAT IF I HAD STEPPED ON IT IN THE DARK?!?!). After saying, "Eeeew," I decided to be brave and try to pick it up with a million tissues and throw it in the toilet all by myself. That is since my sweet husband was still fast asleep.

Well...it ran out from under the tissues, so I let out a scream. Not even my most blood-curdling. Just a short scream of surprise/horror. The roach ran under the bathroom scale. Meanwhile, I had climbed up onto the toilet and there I stood, frozen, not knowing what to do. It seemed like I was there for a while, but it must have been only a few seconds till I heard some rustling and then my husband knocking on the bathroom door. Of course I let him in and after I explained the situation, while still looking very groggy and tired, he took the tissues from me, moved the scale, quickly grabbed the roach in the tissues, squished it (gross!), tossed it in the trash, and quietly walked back to our room and climbed back in bed.

People, if that's not love, I don't know what is.

This Day

You might think it's gratifying to see someone leave your office in handcuffs after they've blatantly lied to you and when you've called them on it, they've stood by their lies...but it's not. It's very, very sad. In fact, it's heartbreaking.

Games people play

On a field trip to the Museum of Natural History, each of six children--Juana, Kyle, Lucita, Salim, Thanh, and Veronica--is accompanied by one of three adults--Ms. Margoles, Mr. O'Connell, and Ms. Podorski. Each adult accompanies exactly two of the children, consistent with the following conditions:

• If Ms. Margoles accompanies Juana, then Ms. Podorski accompanies Lucita.
• If Kyle is not accompanied by Ms. Margoles, then Veronica is accompanied by Mr. O'Connell.
• Either Ms. Margoles or Mr. O'Connell accompanies Thanh.
• Juana is not accompanied by the same adult as Kyle; nor is Lucita accompanied by the same adult as Salim; nor is Thanh accompanied by the same adult as Veronica.

Which one of the following could be an accurate matching of the adults to the children they accompany?
a) Ms. Margoles: Juana, Thanh; Mr. O'Connell: Lucita, Veronica; Ms. Podorski: Kyle, Salim
b) Ms. Margoles: Kyle, Thanh; Mr. O'Connell: Juana, Salim; Ms. Podorski: Lucita, Veronica
c) Ms. Margoles: Lucita, Thanh; Mr. O'Connell: Juana, Salim; Ms. Podorski: Kyle, Veronica
d) Ms. Margoles: Kyle, Veronica; Mr. O'Connell: Juana, Thanh; Ms. Podorski: Lucita, Salim
e) Ms. Margoles: Salim, Veronica; Mr. O'Connell: Kyle, Lucita; Ms. Podorski: Juana, Thanh

Tune in next time for the correct answer.

Do you ever think about how you don't know when you'll do logic games again and does it make you feel a little sad?

Do you ever think about how sometimes you would start doing logic games and kind of get lost in the momentum of solving the games so that you'd keep doing games without realizing you should have moved on to something else?

Do you ever get asked by your husband, "When you say, 'you,' do you mean, 'me' or do you mean 'you?'" and you have to respond, "When I say, 'you,' I ALWAYS mean, 'people in general,' which really means, 'me.'"

You're not as hungry as you think.

I was soooooo hungry after work today (and by after work, I mean, in between works), so I ran to the grocery store, bought myself some graham crackers, frosting, chocolate (I'm sorry, my sweet husband. These are not necessary expenditures, but it really seemed like a brilliant idea at the time.), and then stopped by Arby's and bought a chicken sandwich and some curly fries and took it all to my last class teaching LSAT Prep...

Is it just me or does 8 minutes seem like a ridiculous amount of time to wait for a sandwich and curly fries in a fast food place? Especially when there's a monitor with a clock ticking away the time you've been waiting. Hey, Arby's. Look alive. But I digress...

So then I got to class and set my food on the table as I started to lecture...the curly fries were delicious and I ate about two graham crackers when suddenly the thought hit me: this is disgusting. It just seemed so incredibly gluttonous that it made me sick.

Good thing I had already finished my curly fries. I might have been tempted to throw them away and I know I would have only regretted it later when I felt hungry again.

General Conference Weekend

No, I will not be spending my first General Conference as a married woman cuddled up to my husband on the couch listening to the prophet. I will be here:
It's a resort in Del Mar, California, where my company is having an off-site meeting this weekend. And you know how I feel about it? Sad. I would much rather be with my husband anywhere than at some fancy, beautiful resort without him. Especially for conference weekend. And I know I'm being a baby, but it makes me want to cry.

Seppppptttttemmmmbbberrrrr

I didn't blog at all in September. Unless you count this.


I also didn't do my visiting teaching. I forgot, okay? I always do it, but for some reason...I don't know where the month went but suddenly it's over and I didn't do it. Sorry, Christy. Sorry, Anna.

Good grief, that man is sexy!

I know he has my blog on his google reader and these are the kinds of things that embarrass him, but guess what, he is out of town for two weeks and we're just barely at the halfway mark. I really miss him. And I was looking at pictures and I thought, "Good grief! That man is sexy!" He can sue me in a court of law if he has a problem with that.

Seminary

What is seminary, you ask? Oh wait, you don't ask because most of you did seminary as high schoolers? Well, for those of you who didn't, this is seminary. And I get to teach the version that meets from 6:30 a.m. - 7:20 a.m. every morning, Monday to Friday. Why, you ask?

Well, when I was engaged to my husband, I used to sing that song from the Sound of Music to myself, "Perhaps I had a wicked childhood, perhaps I had a miserable youth, but somewhere in my wicked, miserable past, there must have been a moment of truth. For here you are standing there loving me, whether or not you should. So somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good." I still feel that way--I don't even know how I got to be so lucky and blessed to marry this man whom I love so much. I must have done something good.

And for all the rest of my iniquity...I get to teach seminary. I'm kidding...or am I? My current Facebook status says: "Nothing like teaching seminary to help you realize that teenagers do not think you're cool." And then one of my cousins (a teenager) commented and described the typical uncool female seminary teacher. Wait, what was that? Are you talking about me? Ugh...well, I better go to bed. 6:30 comes early.

So much has happened

Oh, did I say I was going to bed? What I meant was that I was going to make a quick list of all the many millions of things that have happened and that I haven't blogged about:

• TR (that's my husband) and I joined a gym, but our membership doesn't start till December 1. We want to make sure we're doing the right thing. Just kidding. It's brand new and is opening down the road from our house.
• I started my job. I love it, but I have never seen so much craziness in a workplace in all my life.
• I started another new job. So far I'm just doing the training to teach LSAT Prep courses and that is why I am in Dallas. But I have to retake the LSAT (not for official test purposes) and fax in my results on Monday and then start teaching actual classes on Saturday, August 7th. Ugh. I mean, good, but...ugh.
• TR decided to do a sprint triathlon, registered, and two weeks later did one. Please check out how adorable he is:

• TR and I had our first night apart since we were married. I cried. It's true.
• My sweet, sweet parents came to visit us for a day while driving through on their way to Oklahoma and North Carolina (yes, I know, it's not on the way) and bought us a ton of food and other fun things and also brought us all our wedding presents that we couldn't bring on the plane.
  
• Several friends have also come to visit: LJ, MT, and TC to name a few.
• I have become dead to the world to several other friends.
• TR and I have gone without sugar for 3 1/2 weeks (almost a fate worse than death, but I will admit that being without him for 2 days is far worse).
• I stayed up till 2:20 for the first time in months.
• I got to my lowest weight since we've been married, which is only 2 pounds more than my lowest weight ever as an adult.
• I was asked to teach a religious scripture study class for high school students from 6:30-7:20 every morning during the school year. I accepted. Cuh-cuh-cuh-razy! (And yet totally right)
• I fired someone at work for insubordination.
• I told her supervisor to talk to her and tell her I was willing to not process the termination paperwork if she would come in and talk with me and not fight with me.
• I laid the smack down at work because I got sick of the fakeness and people challenging everything I said not because they don't agree that it's right but because they're combative and think they can do whatever they want.
  
• I got a call from my boss in LA at 9 p.m. one evening to ask if I had said the f-word at work and to say that her boss, the owner of our 5000 person company, had called her to say he was concerned about me because he heard I said the f-word. What the?! (And by, "What the?!" I mean, "What the heck?!" because I ain't nevah be sayin' the f-word...well, at least not for a long, long time and definitely not at work.)
• I realized one night in complete awe and total sincerity that I had somehow managed to marry the most wonderful man on the planet (yeah, yeah, if you want you can pretend that either you or your husband/dad/brother fills that position, but I know the truth).
• TR and I (he did the clicking) bought him a Mac!!!! It should get to our house two days from now.
  
• TR and I went and bought me a racing swim suit, goggles, and a swim cap...which I dutifully brought with me to Dallas and which I still have yet to use...unless you count the time I changed into the suit on the way home from that shopping excursion while I was driving my car and TR was driving his (we were coming from our respective work places) and then I also put on the goggles so that when we arrived home, I could hop out of the car looking like an absolute freak.

Okay, speaking of freaks, I need to get to bed. I have to be up by 7 in order to get ready, get packed, check out of my hotel, and get to church on time before my last 3 1/2 hours of training on LSAT Preparedness.

Fat housecat = night owl

So my awesome husband is an early bird and I'm a night owl/fat housecat. Since we were married, a little over two months ago, I have really tried to follow his schedule, which means getting up at 5, 5:30, or 6 in the morning and feeling like you're about to die of exhaustion around 8 p.m. This sad little weekend is our first weekend apart since we were married. He is in Houston with a few friends and I am in Dallas doing some training for another new job (more later)...and whaddaya know, left to my own devices, I'm back to my fat housecat ways. I feel disgusted that it's 2 a.m. and I'm still awake and yet, I have such a hard time focusing myself and making myself go to sleep. But now I must do it. Even though I still haven't finished some of the important things on my list like repacking the books I brought and painting my toenails. So urgent and yet such lame reasons to stay awake. And on that note, good night, cruel world. I can't wait to see my husband again in 18 1/2 hours.

Fat housecat awesomeness derailed!

I am cougar. Hear me roar!

So just when you think life is all about fat housecat awesomeness, suddenly everything changes and you become a cougar.


Ty took this picture of me when we were home last month hiking naked in the Uintah Mountains. Just kidding. (Did you think I was serious? Suckahs. That doesn't even look like me. It looks like a picture I got off of this site.)

I just got a job offer this afternoon and I'm going to take it, so fortunately/unfortunately, I will now have to relegate fat-housecatting-around to the weekends. And so from Monday through Friday, I will reveal myself to the world as the triple cougar I am. (That is, I graduated from the BY tuh-wice, people--Go cougs!--and since I am 15 months older than my husband, he likes to tell people I'm a cougar. I can't help it if the sweetest boy ever came to earth after me, now can I?)

Fat housecats and other friendly creatures

One of my favorite songs of late that has been played on repeat on my iPod is a melancholy little indie tune by Iron & Wine. (Most of the female and/or teenage worlds probably also love this song since it was featured on one of them vampire movies, but let me say, my love was pre-vampire.) The song has a line in it that sadly really resonates within me every time I hear it. "Now I'm a fat housecat..." I'm gonna be honest. That's kind of how I feel these days--like some clueless, pampered, self-indulgent creature that just lounges about all day waiting to be fed.

In February, I got engaged to the most wonderful man in the world (in my opinion :) and moved to Texas where he is pursuing a PhD. I lost my job shortly after the move (which was a huge blessing since my old job made my life feel so sad) and have been looking for a new job off and on since that time, but although I was work-less, planning a wedding (or rather, stressing about a wedding since my amazing mother and talented little sister planned most of it with my older sister and many others chipping in to pull it all off) occupied a lot of time so that I never felt idle.

Well, the stress paid off and things came together so that Mr. Wonderful and I were married in the latter part of May surrounded by people whom we love and adore. And now that we have been married for a month and a half, I've pretty much got our combined households feeling like one household (unless you count the three still unpacked boxes on the side of the bed or the pictures leaning up against the wall of our bedroom because I can't decide where to put them or the boxes of clothes and books in our living room that I need to sell on ebay, craigslist, or a consignment shop). I've also scoured the job boards several times over and applied for everything that sounds remotely interesting, like it might pay more than unemployment (don't worry--unemployment doesn't pay much), and that wouldn't make me wonder why I bothered to go to grad school. I've also gone to Target a million times over, hung out at the mall on a few occasions, and even made bubble magnets, so...what's a girl to do? Well, I'll tell you. When it's a girl like me who loves to cook, bake, and eat, then she spends a lot of time sitting on the couch wondering what she's making for dinner, figuring out what treats she can make with the ingredients in the house, and thinking about how she should work out but she can't bring herself to do it because...hey, too lazy.

So...now I'm a fat housecat...and I can think of nothing better for a self-indulgent, fat housecat to do than to start a blog. So until my next post, here's a little Iron & Wine. Enjoy.