I Love My Mother

Having my mother be an active part of my life was a great blessing to me especially through my teenage years. When I began dating I soon learned to give boys certain advice when they were to come to my house and meet my parents for the first time. It would be something like, “Don’t worry too much about meeting my dad. Having raised a family of all girls my dad will just want to have a masculine conversation with you so that he can stay sane. He will appreciate you if for nothing else that you are a male that he gets to talk to for 15 or 20 min. My mother, on the other hand, will mistrust and dislike you from the moment she sees your car pull into the drive way. In order to be welcome in our house you will have to work hard to earn her respect by having me home not just on time but earlier than my curfew, being chivalrous and most importantly never giving me reason to say anything bad about you because she will come after you. Some boys didn’t believe me and had to learn from experience. Looking back my favorite example of this was once a young man and I had taken a walk down to the river that runs through the back of our property late at night. We lost track of time and came back very late. The young man thought it would be best just to leave quickly and quietly rather than disturb my parents and have to apologies for bringing me back so late after curfew. We went to where he had parked his truck only to find that it was missing. He began to panic, freaking out that his baby was gone. My mom then came out the front door with an amazingly smug look on her face. She said, “Your truck knew it was past curfew and tried to head home without you. Start walking and I’m sure you’ll find it!” She had put the truck in neutral and she and my father had pushed it out the driveway and down the road a ways. The boy sprinted down the driveway and never talked to me again. I was furious at the time and thought my mother was out to ruin my life. But really, she was my champion. She helped me to avoid unworthy young men and unnecessary heart break. The other thing I love about my mom is the sacrifices that she made to insure I had a better life for my spiritual and physical needs. In A Proclamation to the World it says: "By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners. Disability, death, or other circumstances may necessitate individual adaptation." As far back as I can remember my mother worked as a nurse at the local Hospital and as equal partners my father and mother were able to provide finically for our family. My mother balanced her time between work and family with prayer. Never once did I feel neglected and because every decision she made was by resorting to prayer. The spirit abounded in our home. This taught me that even though every situation is different that if the Lord is put first everything will work out. This is a lesson that has saved my life many times over and I am so grateful for my mother teaching me this through her sacrifices. In 1 Nephi 19: 9 it says,” And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they aspit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving bkindness and his clong-suffering towards the children of men.” This scripture reminds me so much of my mother. She always told me that if I was in a bad situation and didn’t know how to get out of it that it was ok to blame her and use her as an exit strategy. If anyone had a problem with it, they could take it up with her and she would defend me. I ended up using that strategy a lot throughout high school, making her very unpopular among some of my peers and even sometimes with their parents. However she gladly took the blame. Personally, I cannot think of a better example of Christ like behavior to allow others to think less of her in order to help protect me and keep me out of dangerous situations. I know my mother spent countless hours praying and fasting me and my sisters. There is no one other woman that I respect and admire more. The things she had to put up with while raising a rude, rebellious teenaged version of me were awful. But because of her patience, self sacrifice and example, I became who I am now. I am eternally grateful to her and know that in pre mortal life she was chosen to be my mother and I her daughter. I love my mother and hope she has a most wonderful Mother's Day!

Gorilla and Spandex

Atlas was driving me crazy one evening. He’d played with his friends Copper and Cash earlier that day but he apparently still had some energy to get out. So even though it was late we headed out on a walk. I figured I would walk to my sister’s apartment and say hi. That is a long walk and if Atlas wasn’t tried by then I would be surprised. It was getting dark and I was very grateful to have Atlas with me. Something about having a big dog by my side just made me feel so safe. When we got to the Hart Gym, I noticed a group of people standing on the other side of the street. They were all watching the side of the street I was on. I thought it was weird but this is campus we are talking about, everything is going to be weird. As I got closer to the intersection I saw something big, black, and furry moving behind the big pine trees by the building. Atlas saw it too and didn’t like it. He didn’t bark but I watched as his hackles went from being flat to standing straight on end. I didn’t stop, I just kept walking but then the thing that was behind the trees came running out toward us. I stared at it and saw that it was a guy in a gorilla suit. Then I looked at Atlas. His legs and shoulders were square ready to spring; his head tilted forward snarling just enough to show his teeth. If this gorilla guy got any closer I’m sure Atlas would have attacked. It was dark and Atlas blends in so well with the dark that I doubt this guy could even see Atlas from inside his gorilla suit behind the trees or else I don’t think he would have been stupid enough to come charging up to us. But when he did get close enough to see Atlas, he stopped dead, squealed, and ran back behind the trees. I’m almost positive that he wet his gorilla suit. All the while Atlas didn’t move an inch. He was right there by my side making sure that nothing was going to touch me. The people across the street burst up laughing. I guess it had been their friend in the gorilla suit and they were just there for the show (stupid collage students). Can I just say that Atlas is one of the best dogs in the world? I love that dog.
Andrew got a job up on campus! It was kind of a miracle how he got it. We had looked on campus back in October and they said they wouldn’t be hiring till spring semester. Ugh. Andrew started looking elsewhere but I was hoping that something on campus would open up. If you work on campus they only let you work twenty hours a week and work your schedule around your classes. They know that school comes first, so if he had a big test he needed to study for, they let him go home early. He can’t get over worked with the twenty hour limit. It would have been so perfect but he didn’t want to wait for spring to start working. Halloween rolled around and we needed to go out to my parents place for trick or treating. We hadn’t really thought about costumes so I dressed up in Andrew’s gym clothes (big shorts and a bright orange U.F. Gator shirt) and he dressed up in mine (spandex running capris, an UnderArmor tank top, and a zip up hoodie) Ha ha ha!!! Oh he was a sight to see! To top it all off we got Atlas into some basket ball shorts and a hoodie too. We drove out to my parents’ and as we walked up to the door I noticed that Andrew was shaking. I guess it was cold but I was in a bunch or baggy clothing so I wouldn’t really know. Andrew on the other hand wasn’t used to the kind of clothing I normally wear when working out and didn’t appreciate it. Suffice it to say that he was the first one inside when the door opened. To our surprise, we weren’t the only visitors my parents had over. One of my dad’s friends from campus had dropped by. His friend is over the computer help desk and other computerish things. He and Andrew started talking and really hit it off. Then my mom mentioned that Andrew was looking for a job and asked my dad’s friend if he knew anyone on campus that was hiring. He turned and looked at Andrew, (I could have died! This guy could get Andrew the perfect job and here Andrew was in my workout gear with a coordination head band! I was kicking myself, wishing I’d had him dress up like Superman or a successful business man or something more respectable.) Then my dad’s friend turned and as he grabbed a pen and paper said that Andrew should call this guy and talk to him. If he didn’t help, to call this other guy and ask him and if neither of them could help that he would hire Andrew. He handed Andrew the list with the names and numbers and told him to try the next morning. As we left that night I promised myself that we’d never use that idea for a Halloween costume again. The next morning Andrew called the people on the list, went in to meet with them and got a job by that afternoon. Moral of the story: Trick or treating can get you a job.

New member of our family!

Three days till we can move into our apartment! I’m so excited to have that social aspect in my life again. Don’t get me wrong, I love living out in the country but with gas prices limiting the amount of time I can go into town and see my friend, I feel somewhat exiled. It’ll be fun for Atlas too. We are moving into the same complex as our Godpuppy, so he’ll be able to play a lot more. There are more dogs in town that I’ll let Atlas play with than out in Hibbard. There is one dog out here that I’ll set up play dates with and even then every time Atlas comes home from playing with Jack (an enormous black lab) Atlas is hurt somehow. The other dogs out here are very untrained, too small, too old, or too grumpy for Atlas to play with. It is so surprising to see what Atlas learns from each dog he encounters. Jack has taught him how to play fight like an adult dog instead of a puppy. Travis (a small mix breed that doesn’t realize that he is so small that Atlas could fit Travis’s whole head into his mouth and still have room to spear.) has taught his to be more agile. Atlas could run very fast but only in a straight line. If the thing he was chasing turned a sharp corner it would take Atlas almost a minute to turn around. Playing with Travis is almost like a corners boot camp and Atlas is getting a lot better. Then with Cash (our Godpuppy, a little five month old black lab) Atlas has learned that water isn’t bad all of the time. Now it’s only when I’m trying to give him a bath does he hate it.
As we are getting ready to move out of my parent’s house I’ve been trying very hard to get the yard into shape. It doesn’t help that only one set of sprinklers works like it should or that Atlas like to lounge in and all over the flower beds as I weed them; but whatever, the key is that I’m trying to fix everything up. As I was weeding the other day a random kitten appeared through the flowers. I figured it was homeless due to state of its coat and how completely starved it looked. So I named it Momo right then and took it into the garage to feed it. When it was finished it came back out to snuggle. Atlas and Cash had been playing in the field when Momo showed up and now saw him for the first time. Both dogs ran up to this small kitten and started sniffing and licking it all over. The kitten didn’t react like I expected it to. Momo just sat there and took it. He even seemed to be enjoying the attention! Any cat that can handle itself with a puppy Great Dane and a puppy lab at the same time is worth keeping! I text Andrew a picture of Momo and informed him that we were keeping it. Sadly our neighbor girls don’t seem to like Momo. They were outside yesterday and Momo wandered over to see what was going on. A while later I saw them trying to throw the kitten into a tree. I rescued Momo and took him back to the garage so he could eat lunch. That evening I heard the girls screaming outside. I went out and they were holding Momo in their sprinkler! Oh my gosh! Crazy children! I Grabbed Momo and got after the girls. Wow, I was upset. I took Momo back into the garage and tried to dry him off. I think the only way to stop them from abusing this poor kitten is to talk to their mother about it. I’m so glad I have a dog and a cat instead of a child right now.

Oh Toothpaste! :(

Ok so here is the deal. I wrote this humongously long blog about what has been happening in our lives this past three months. It took forever to write and when I was finished I read it to Andrew and all I got for feedback was a very disregarded “that’s nice.” I read it again and Andrew was right, the blog was so boring that it could have killed someone (mainly me). So I did the only thing that was to be done in that situation, I deleted it! It was a bitter sweet feeling. I had spent so long on that retarded blog but at the same time I loathed it because of how long it took me to write. Oh well, it is gone now! I will give you the highlights of the past three month then I will get to the good stuff on here and now.
Andrew’s Dad came up and we randomly went to Montana.
Andrew and I got a Great Dane puppy and named him Atlas.
I thought about killing Atlas for peeing in his bed.
We had a puppy shower for Atlas.
I thought about killing Atlas for pooping on the floor and leaving it for me to step in. YUCK!
I went on a blog writing strike.
I thought about killing Atlas for peeing in his bed, for the millionth time.
We bought a car and named it Smaug.
Atlas pooped in Smaug .
We sold Toothless
We got invaded by skunks.
We killed the skunks.
We got invaded by snow flees. (They don’t get on animals or people; they just eat the bacteria off of the snow. I’d never seen them before and freaked out.)
We got released from teaching primary. (Angels singing in the background!)
Atlas hadn’t had an accident in the house for a week straight.
The snow melted and we got invaded by mice and voles.
I dubbed Atlas potty trained!
Andrew finished a really hard semester with really good grades.
Andrew and I had our one year Anniversary. (I’ll write more about that later.)
Andrew’s mom cane up for a visit.
I was a Bride’s Maid for my good friend Julie’s wedding.
Alright time for the here and now! Or at least I’ll start at the first of April with Andrew’s and my one year Anniversary. When we got married we both had the winter semester off so now with Andrew on Fast Grad our anniversary now falls right on finals week. Bla! I prepared myself for a very minimal celebration. April 1, 2011 was, as I expected, a normal day aside from the superb weather. When Andrew finished studying we went outside to enjoy the sun and just got itching to clean up the yard. So we busted out the rakes, shovels and the wheel barrel and went to work! I know I’m a nerd, but this was so much fun! The music was blasting and Andrew and I were absorbing vitamin D from the sun for the first time since the end of November! The temperature got up to 60 or higher! I was amazed! Although as the sun set the temperatures plummeted back into the 30’s. All in all Andrew and I had a wonderful day. The odd thing was that it was the week after that that Andrew started to act sneaky. He told me not to book any appointments in the salon for that weekend and wouldn’t say anything else. I love secrets and surprises but when I’m the one being kept in the dark I go flat out crazy. Andrew wouldn’t budge. I tried everything but I couldn’t even get a hint out of him about what was going on that weekend. To make things worse my sister Sarah even seemed to know more about what was going on than I did! Friday finally came and Andrew relented a little bit. He told me to pack for swimming and an outdoor activity that had the potential to get our clothing muddy. I was completely lost when he started packing up Atlas’s stuff. It turns out that Andrew had planned a trip to Lava Hot Springs for the weekend! He’d found a puppy sitter, made reservations at the Lion Gate Manor, and called in some favors so that we could go horseback riding! I was floored! Andrew is the most thoughtful person I’ve ever met! When we got there we went straight to the hot pools. Oh I want one to take home! Too bad that doesn’t work… It started to snow and I thought I was going to die on our walk from the parking lot to the pools. Andrew and I went to the pool with the least amount of kids. It was like magic, every stress, all inhibition dissolved as soon as we were submersed into the hot water. I never wanted to move…ever. It turns out we went to the hottest pool and the water was around 112 degrees. Andrew and I needed to move about twenty minutes after we got in, but we didn’t want to. I just moved up a step and laid there in an inch of water with the snow creating a white out. It felt so weird! I’ve never had acupuncture but I imagine that’s very close to how it would feel! After three hours of this it was time for check in at Lion Gate Manor. We drove around a bit looking for it then up on a hill I saw a mansion. It turned out that this place was actually some guy’s house that he put theme rooms in. It was AMAZING! We stayed in the Phantom of the Opera sweet. K, this was the coolest place I’ve ever seen in my life! We enter through a secret door behind a book case and went down a spiral stair case to the Phantom’s Lair! It had everything from in the movie, from box five (the surround sound movie room with an organ and its pipes as the TV) to the music box. The Jacuzzi tub had lighting in it that changed color of the water. The water that filled it fell from the ceiling! It was just amazing… I really don’t know what else to say about it! In the morning we went up stairs for their five star breakfast. We were a little late and the table is by the bookcase we come out of. So the other guests that were already there about jumped out of their skin when the bookcase folded open and Andrew and I popped out. The looks on their faces were so funny! After we checked out we went back to the hot pools and soaked for two more hours. Awwww I really want one of those in my back yard! The friends we were going riding with had to bring the horses down from the upper fields so we needed to wait till three. When we got there Andrew and I were still in our swim suit with bathrobes over them. Ha ha I asked Andrew to go knock on the door to see if it was ok if we changed in their bathroom. I felt so bad for the girl that answered the door. There was Andrew in his bathrobe and his swim suit under it but he looked like he was naked under there! I would have been totally freaked out if I’d have been her. When we got out to the horses it was snowing and blowing pretty hard. They gave Andrew a very mellow horse we affectionately nick named slow white. My horse had much more sprit but was super mellow compared to the horses my family owned when I was younger. We started to ride off and I looked to either side of me and Andrew was nowhere to be seen! I turned around and he was still back at the hitching post just sitting there. He kept tapping the horse’s sides with his heels and saying "Ya! Mule!" but the horse wouldn’t move. He finally got going and we had a fantastic ride in the snow! What an anniversary! Andrew is so amazing; I could not have asked to marry a better person!
So we got this new tooth paste and holy smokes! If you brush your teeth too long the powerful mint numbs your mouth, mainly your tongue which makes talking a challenge. I found this out the hard way. I was rushing to get out the door for a salon day that was completely booked. I was brushing my teeth as I was getting everything ready and didn’t think a thing about it. Then while I was in the salon I tried to talk to my clients but everything that I tried to get to come out of my mouth didn’t come out like I thought it would. Words were jumbled and slurred together. After three hours of sounding like a cave man with grunts and odd noises emanating from my mouth I realized that my mouth was still just as minty fresh as when I spit the paste out. I couldn’t fell my tongue though…. That was it! It was the tooth paste!!! I was so excited that I’d found the culprit that I blurted out why I was having such problems talking. Sadly instead of words it came out, again like a cave man, in grunts and slurred garble. Darn that toothpaste!!!
Well I think I over came my three almost four month writers block! I’ll really try to keep up on the blog this time!

Little girls, little girls, everywhere I look I see little girls...."

What’s wet, squirmy and fury all over? If you can’t get this one, you need to review elementary school humor. The answer is a puppy who doesn’t really want a bath. The back ground of this joke starts with two Saturdays ago. I had agreed to do a scary movie night with Andrew and some friends. I really hate scary movies. I just get so freaked out by them afterwards. My imagination just takes it and runs with it. But somehow Andrew likes them. He’s been bummed because ever since we started dating that he hasn’t seen a scary movie. I consented to watch The Grudge with him and ended up staring at the pop corn the entire time. I still got bits of the show, at least enough to scare me. That night I couldn’t sleep. At about 2:30 in the morning I woke from a nightmare that the grudge girl was coming after me and that noise she makes was getting louder and louder. As soon as I woke up I realized that the noise I had heard in my dream was Andrew snoring with his congested nose. As punishment I made him walk me to the bathroom. There was no hope for sleep after that. The rest of the evening was spent watching The Importance of Being Ernest and Skyping with my mom about Cambodia. I finally got back to sleep around five or six. Andrew didn’t have to go back to school till Tuesday due to Martian Luther king day, so I was fine till then. But after I dropped Andrew off at school I didn’t want to go home. I went and worked out till eleven then had nothing else to do. I didn’t want to go home and be alone because I would easily get spooked and have an awful rest of the day. So as I was driving home I turned toward the nature park and went to the animal shelter. I had gone there once the week before and played with the puppies. They had about fifteen with more on the way. They were so cute and playful! But they smelled like poop. When I got there on Tuesday I asked if I could take a dog for a walk. I took this really smart lab named Jr. and when I got back I still didn’t want to go home. So I asked if it would be ok if I gave the puppies a bath. They told me that I’d be their best friend if I’d wash up the puppies. Wow! Lots of work! Some dogs didn’t care about getting a bath and just stood there while I washed them. Others went crazy! They jumped and wiggled so much that I got wetter than they did! It took forever! The younger ones were covered in poop and pee because they don’t know how to handle their bladder yet. When I started to rinse them off, the water that flowed off of them was yellow. Yuck! One of the younger ones got so frightened by the sound of the bath tub she peed on me. By the time I finished all the puppies were fluffy and clean (unlike me) and I felt good. I was glad that I could make a difference even though it was small and would have to be re done a few days later. It took all afternoon and I was a half an hour late in picking up Andrew. When I got to him I ran up to give him a hug, but he said that I stunk and to wait till I changed to hug him. Lol no, puppy pee will never make it as a perfume.
I went back again the next day so I could clip the puppies over grown toe nails but this time I took back up! I convinced a friend of mine to come along with me and I was so glad that I did! Some of those puppies did not like us messing with their feet. It took one person to hold the pup while the other person tried to clip the nail without hurting it. Again it took all day but my friend and I had so much fun! With ever puppy my friend held, she asked it if she took it home would it hold still and pretend to be a stuffed animal when her manager came around for clean checks. Lol! A growing stuffed animal, it’s a better idea than chia pets! We were almost finished when I got a text from Andrew saying that he needed to stay late and finish some homework. He said he’d be finished around five. It was almost three so I still had time to burn. Allison (my friend that I brought) and I asked if we could borrow two puppies and snuggle with them as we watched a movie. I think if anyone one else asked, they would have said no. But since I’d been spending so much time there they knew me and said that it would be fine. We were so excited! We wrapped the two puppies in towels, put together a crate for them and dashed off to Allison’s apartment. When we walked in one of her roommates came out to see who had come home. She saw the puppies and gasped in shock or excitement and dropped everything she was holding. The three of us proceeded to play with the puppies and tried and keep them from destroying the living room of the apartment. “Dipstick” had a taste for TV cords, shoes, car keys, socks, feet…. Really anything that was on the floor that would semi fit in his mouth.”Bear” on the other hand really just wanted to chew on Dipstick. So together they rolled around on the chewing and crashing into everything. Suddenly, Dipstick lunged at the TV cords, opened mouthed and ready to eat the cords like spaghetti. Thinking fast Allison grabbed another toy to get Dipstick interested in and dove to protect the TV cords. It was a great idea in theory, but as she dove she slid into the cords unplugging a lot of them. The TV went blank and Dipstick was off eating something else. BA! It took Allison about ten minutes to get everything in where it was meant to go. Finally we got to the movie and the puppies fell fast asleep. Half way through they woke up. Puppies are like most humans when they wake up. They either want food or to pee right away. I should have thought this through a bit better and brought leashes so that we could take them outside to use the restroom. Still not thinking we set them down because they were getting too wiggly to snuggle with. Two seconds later they both squatted and went pee. AH! It was chaos! I ran to get a towel, Allison ran to pick them up to go outside, and the other roommate ran to get carpet cleaner. All they had was Windex, so we drenched the carpet with glass cleaner. The movie was all but finished so we thought it best to take them back to the shelter before they decided to go number two on the carpet. Ha ha what a day! Next time we borrow puppies I will be sure to be better prepared.
Sunbeams this week went very well. They are getting better at sitting through singing time and as long as they have animal crackers they will sit through a short lesson. One of the younger girls needed to go to the bathroom. On our way I started to panic. I can handle it with puppies, but kids are a whole different story. I would vomit for sure. There was no other woman around that I could pawn the kid off on. The week before that one of the girls sneezed all the buggers out of her nose onto her face and I was seconds away from losing my lunch when the bishop’s wife swooped in and saved me. She took the girl to the bathroom and washed her up returning her sparkly and clean. I think she earned her spot in heaven that day. This week though, there was no one to save me. I walked into the bathroom with the girl, stopped by a stall and told the girl to “go for it.” She just looked at me. “Suck. I’m really going to have to do this.” I thought disgustedly. I went in to the stall praying that she would just have to pee. She sat there for a second with this look of deepest concentration on her face then she let out the worst gas I have ever smelled. I had no idea something that vile smelling could come out of a little human girl. I nearly dropped her in the toilet as I tried to cover my nose. To my great relief all she had to do was stinker and she was done. I handed her some toilet paper. She wiped then tried to hand it back to me! Good grief! Had this girl ever gone to the toilet alone?! I told her to put it back in the toilet. There was no way in heck that I was going to touch that! It was at this point that I realized that Miss. Hannigan off Annie wasn’t crazy or evil; she was just trying to cope.
We were teaching the girls (we have three 3yr olds, and two 4yr old girls, no boys) about Heavenly Fathers plan for us. It was a super deep subject for kids that young but somehow we got through it. Then as they were coloring pictures that had to do with the lesson one of the girls randomly blurts out, “I heard an owl in my parent’s room last night.” She kept talking about this owl and I was sitting there trying not to bust up laughing. At first Andrew didn’t get it, then he saw my face and put together what else could sound like and owl in her parents room at night. HA HA HA!!!!! Oh that right there made the rest of my day!

Sandpaper

So as I sat down to write this, I heard a random grunting noise and saw my husband’s feet flying past my face. This didn’t make any since to me, since we were working on our laptops side by side at Andrew’s homework desk. It turned out that he was leaning back on his chair (you know the way we always tell little kids not to do because they’ll fall and crack their skull) and he thought that his knee would catch on the desk and stop him from falling backward to his doom. Unfortunately he largely over estimated the catchablitiy of his knee. As he was falling to the floor he twisted around and put out his hands to stop himself (thus the grunting noise I heard) and though he was able to stop his upper body from crashing to the floor his lower body kept going (and we have his feet flying past my head). All in all, he somehow didn’t die and landed upright in his chair with me trying to get a breath in between my laughs.
Andrew and I have had so much fun over this Christmas break. Since the last break we had from school he started playing Diablo II with some of his friends from back in FL. I thought that it was good that he kept in touch with his friends from home but after a while I became jealous of this stupid game and how much time he was taking in “keeping in touch” with his friends. At the end of the break I warned him that if he spent that much of his time over Christmas break playing that game that I would crash his computer (I can wreck any form of electronic just by touching it, it’s a gift I guess…) He knew that I would hold true to the warning and he and I have found more crazy adventures to go on this break than I thought possible! It’s been so much fun! Like the other day I was getting stuff for the salon in my distributor store and I saw that they had a Tan Towel gift set that included the Tan Towel Original, the Tan Towel Exfoliator , and the Instant Tan Spray. My mother in-law had introduced me to the Tan Towel Original while I was in FL and I saw really good results with them. I would just rub this towelette on my skin and it was tan! Not orange but tan. I bought the gift set and figured Andrew and I could try it the next day. We have both lost all pigment in our skin due to the below freezing weather and lack of time to hit up a tanning bed. The next day I skimmed the step by step instructions and went to work. First was the exfoliator. We were supposed to rub this towelette all over the areas we wanted tanned to remove the top layer of skin so that the tan would sink in better. I went first. This towelette was like grade 8 sandpaper! I think I was rubbing a little too hard because some parts of me arms looked as if I had been a scratching post for cats. Then I helped Andrew. I think I rubbed a little too hard on him too because he started screaming and jumping away from me. By the end of the exfoliation we found that the instructions said gently rub skin with towelette, not grind away till you see bone. Andrew was pretty bitter at me for missing that minor detail. Next was the Tan Towel Original. We were to rub this towelette on our skin in circular motions to insure an even tan. I went first again and this towelette felt much nicer than the last one, although it did smell vaguely of beef jerky. Andrew handled this better too and it put us both in the mood for steaks. And last was the Instant Tan Spray. I had gotten bored with reading instructions by this point so I just went at it. I started squirting this stuff all over my body and to my horror I looked as though an angry Chinese food place had attacked me with soy sauce! I franticly rubbed it in and found that I was no longer white but a beach body bronze. WOW! It was amazing! I squirted Andrew down and I hardly recognized him. It was beautiful what this stuff did to our skin! Then I looked down at my hands… In hindsight I should have washed my hands between the Tan Towel I had used on myself, the one I’d used on Andrew, the spray I had used on myself, and the spray that I’d used on Andrew. My hands were now three times as tan at the rest of my body! BA! I scrubbed for twenty minutes and finally got my hands to match the rest of my body. But holy cow were we tan and so in the mood for some red meat!
A few days later Rexburg was hit with a freak snow storm. We had at least six inches of new heavy wet snow in our driveway. There was no way were going to be able to get Toothless (our car) out. We were snowed in or snowed under, take your pick. Our neighbor who normally plows us out in times like these was out of town. So Andrew called them and asked if he could borrow their four-wheeler with the plow attached to the front to clear out our driveway. They said yes and Christmas started all over for that man. He jumped on and went to work clearing out the neighbor’s driveway so that they could get in when they came home. I grabbed a snow shovel and shoveled off their walk way. By the time I was done with that I was ready to be finished with the shovel for a long time. Another neighbor was storing my dad’s tractor in their barn. Not to brag, but I’m amazing on that thing. I’d have our driveway cleaned out in no time flat. I called up my neighbor and had Andrew drive me over on the four wheeler. For some reason when we got to their house my neighbors didn’t think that I could handle such a heavy duty piece of equipment and wanted to clear the driveway out themselves. I was in shock. This offer would have been nice if I was an idiot city girl who didn’t know how to maneuver a tractor. But I’m freaking pro on this thing and really wanted to have fun moving the snow around. I assured them that I knew what I was doing and with much reluctance they let me leave on the tractor. Not after they told me a million times that if I had any problems to call them. I just had to smile, they had no idea how much time logged on this thing. I knew it better than they could despite being a girl. And I was off! I scraped out the driveway so clean and fast that I was sad that there wasn’t more to do. Andrew and I had a muscle contest with the four wheeler and the tractor. He started way back on the road and revved his engine, then shot forward ramming a pile of snow and shoved it into the snow bank. Then I started at the same spot. I lowered the front loader and charged a pile of snow. I shoved it clear up to the snow bank, lifted up the snow bank and moved the whole thing about three feet and dropped it. I think we both agreed that I won. It was such a fun day!

The New Year Approaches.

Hard to believe that 2011 is here already. So much has happened this year, and they’ve all been great! Here’s a quick recap of the year:

January:
I flew back to Idaho to continue dating Erin… ahem, I mean to work while off-track.
I asked Erin’s father if we could get married. (They actually never gave me a straight “yes.”)
The next day they left to Cambodia on their mission.
We were officially engaged on Saturday, ‎January ‎30, ‎2010, ‏‎10:40:46 AM

February:
A wedding date was selected and we began planning.
Erin agreed to be my Valentine every year for forever.

March:
Erin turned 21.
Erin’s Parents flew back from Cambodia.
My Parents flew from Florida.
Erin went through the Temple.

April:
We were married for Time and Eternity on April 1st.
Went on a short Honey Moon to Idaho Falls.
Everyone flew home.
School started up again.

May:
I turned 22.

June:
Our block classes finished.
We drove 40 hours to Florida for our real Honeymoon.
We sold Fireworks to pay for our Honeymoon.
Erin almost died.
Erin almost died.
Erin almost died.
…. It happened a lot in Florida….

July:
We finally were able to enjoy our Honeymoon.
Went to the beach and a lot theme parks.

August:
We drove another 40 hours home to Idaho.

September:
School started again.

October:
Hmmm… Halloween? And school…
Oh, I white washed Erin after a snowball fight.

November:
A wonderful Thanksgiving at the Judkins

December:
School ended.
Our first Christmas together.
Went snowmobiling in our back field.

There’s a lot more than just that that happened to us. Pretty much every day we have some sort of adventure. But all in all, it’s been a really great year.

We are still here!

I know it’s been forever since I blogged last. Life kinda took off, I thought it’d slow down sooner rather than later but I guess I was wrong. Anyways, I’m back to blogging so life is good again! I tried to blog a bit after Thanksgiving but I never finished so here are a few stories from then: I hate scary movies. Why? Well because they scare me. Andrew, on the other hand, seems to love them. I won’t watch any with him or if I do I’m hiding under a blanket with my ears plugged. Now you see I’m not a wimp; I just have a very over-active imagination. When the show ends for everyone else it keeps going for me in my mind. Soon I freak myself out to the point of me not being able to handle Andrew popping around the corner and saying “boo”. Just this last week I was at home folding towels, I had my music on loud and was just trying to get through all the laundry that had piled up. I didn’t hear the garage door open or Andrew unlock the door. He though it would be funny to spook me so he tip toed around the house so that he could creep up from behind me. I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to see Andrew. Although it didn’t look like the Andrew that I had gotten used to over the past month, he was no longer blonde! I didn’t immediately recognize him. My breath caught in my throat and my heart skipped a beat. Who was this man in my house!? In a second after that thought I recognized him as being my brunette husband. My body relaxed and I realized that I had begun to cry. He started laughing (I’m sure to ease the tension) and I completely broke down into tears of shock, fright, and relief. He felt really bad for giving me such a scare. All he had done was walk up behind me, but it really freaked me out. I think the tears were triggered as a defense mechanism… an emotional woman should be able frighten off any potential attacker right? [The best part is, she hasn’t seen a scary movie in years. –Andrew]
The snow has finally come. Though it hasn’t snowed enough in the valley to do much with it; that notwithstanding, the roads out in the country have managed to have formed random patches of black ice under the snow fall. I was driving Andrew into school the other day and we came to the first stop sign of the commute into town. I put on my brakes like normal but the car didn’t slow at all. It took me a second to figure out that my car was sliding on what my dad would call “a road that was slicker than greased gofer guts”. I hadn’t taken my foot off the brake yet but I heard an odd mumbling coming from Andrew as we started to slid sideways, about to hit the stop sign and the fenced off ditch right behind it. I finally translated his chanting mumbles into “let off the brake, let off the brake, let off the brake...” I took my foot off the brake and flipped the wheel into the slide and onto the shoulder of the road. The tires grabbed at the dirt and repelled us away from the certain disaster of totaling of our car in the ditch with a stop sign wrapped around us and a broken fence, and maybe a smashed cow or two. I felt like a race car driver! It was super cool! We were literally inches away from hitting something but my fancy driving rocked! Yeah… I’m really not kidding anyone am I? We were very blessed that day to be safe. But I still felt cool.
Over Thanksgiving brake I took Andrew sledding for the first time. What an adventure! My goodness… The days leading up to Thanksgiving the weather turned flat out mean. The Rexburg wind took out it’s vengeance on the valley; bringing a white out blizzard making the visibility only as far as to the end of our driveway. It was on a day such as this that I thought I should take Andrew sledding for his first time ever. (He’s from Florida and had almost no idea of what to do with frozen white stuff that was suddenly avalanching from the sky.) We bundled up in some borrowed snow gear and headed for the hills up by the college. We almost got stuck on the road in the snow behind van that was stuck in a drift at a stop sign. We finally parked and marched up the hill. The sleds acted as kites, that plus the wind blowing on us and we barely made it to the top of the hill. We ended up laying on top of our sleds to spread out our weight and using our feet to propel us over the monster drifts that had formed in the path. We couldn’t see anything but white and our eye lashes were frozen together so the first run Andrew made was the first one he could get to. I went first thinking it would just be a straight drop to the bottom of the hill but the people who had formed this run had added massive jumps that I couldn’t see due to the white out. Before I knew it I was flying four feet off the ground. I landed with a bone rattling crunch, I just managed to keep a hold of my sled as my momentum hurtled me down the rest of the hill and over a few smaller jumps that had also been invisible to me. Once I regained my senses I turned around to warn Andrew. It was too late, as I turned I saw him about midway down the hill just about to take fight off the first jump. I yelled to tell him to turn aside or bail but the wind blew my shouts back into my face. The he was off, up into the air very unexpectedly. I couldn’t see anything of his face but his uncovered nose and eye, which were wide with surprise. He made the landing and I could see his whole body absorbed the shock of the impact. He was coming down the hill at top speeds now and I realized with a jolt that in a matter of seconds that he would be crashing right into me. I had to dive out of the way getting snow all down my coat and in my face. We only made two more runs down the hill that day because it was so hard to get to the top. We came back a few days later and stayed for hours. Andrew really enjoyed it! Maybe next year, once we have our own snow gear, I’ll try him out on snowboarding or skiing.
Speaking of the crazy blizzard, I think that was the end of our cats. I thought they were old enough to handle themselves better in the cold but I guess not. Once the storm cleared we went out looking for them and there were no tracks to be seen. I don’t think the coyotes got them because there was no blood or remains. I think they were walking under the drip line of the house and a sheet of snow slid off and crushed them. I’ll find them in the spring if this is what happened, if not, I guess I’ll never know. Maybe Andrew will get me a cat for my birthday or something. By then the snow should be thinking about melting…. Maybe…
Christmas was amazing this year! Without a doubt it was my favorite Christmas ever. The night before we each chose a gift to give each other to open. Andrew gave me a yogurt maker! I love yogurt and once I figure out how to make Greek yogurt I’ll be set forever! I gave him an extra long double layered fleece blanket that I made myself. Now when we cuddle he will have a blanket that can actually cover his feet. That night we watched The Ultimate Gift. It’s one of my favorite movies. We went to bed and at six in the morning Andrew woke me up to go unwrap presents. I told him no and rolled over falling back to sleep in his arms. A few hours later we actually woke up and went up to enjoy our first Christmas together. It was so fun to be just us! I got him a nice PJ set, slippers, a bath robe, a beanie, a Leatherman, a blender, jeans, a hoodie, an I-pod arm band, a food scale, and a gift certificate to a local laser tag place. He got me some yoga pants, slippers, a teapot, a certificate for an hour massage, a really awesome chesses planer, some high quality knives and a knife block that has a bunch of rods instead of slots so I can put any knife in that I want and it will fit. He is so thoughtful! After presents he made me biscuits and gravy for breakfast. We both crashed in the fat boy chair and watched the extended addition of The Fellowship of the Ring. I slept through almost all of it and I’m not sure how much Andrew was awake for. But it took three hours to get through. By then we had to get to Christmas lunch that our amazing neighbors had invited us to. We ate till we almost died and came home and laid around for the rest of the day just enjoying each other’s company. It was wonderful.

We may never have children.......

The Primary Program was this last Sunday. Andrew and my little 5yr old class did very well. I sat in the very front where the Bishop Ric normally sits and most of my class was placed in front of me. I wasn’t too excited about being front and center. During the practices I had to split up a three way fight with the 3 yr old kids just next to me. I am amazed the smallest of the bunch didn’t come out with a concussion. My girls did everything except for sit still and none of the microphones worked when they needed to work. I figured that during the actual program the children would be petrified because they would be in front of the entire ward. With all those adults staring at them I hoped that no one would have the nerve to throw another left hook (good thing they were only three and couldn’t put much weight behind the punch). As I predicted, the children did much better when their parents were watching them from the audience. Aside from one of my girls pretending to be a lion and growling at me and taking swipes at me with her “paw”, then another one of them breaking my ear ring I had let her hold so that she would stop fidgeting . All of this was done in front of the entire congregation. Andrew sat in the middle of an older class and was almost hid completely by the piano. I think the kids around Andrew were placed there purposely so that if they killed each other no one would see. That and the fact that Andrew could get after them as many times as was needed without causing a disturbance. All in all, the program went great. Afterward was another story. The children were so fidgety from sitting still for so long that I honestly thought about velcroing them to their seats. I’m very worried about Halloween Sunday. They all will have stayed up way past their bed time and will have eaten their weight in sugar the night before. Odds are that they will be grumpy little energizer bunnies that have their volume stuck on loud or loudest. I’m so excited….. Here’s hoping that I’m wrong!
Oh! Remember the kitten that we gave our neighbor’s? Well it’s dead. At church one of our neighbor girls ran up to Andrew and me and told us that their dad found it dead in their garage. I figured that something like this would happen sooner or later. That kitten was very small for its age. I felt bad for them but now Meekus and Mittens are the only cats around our houses (skunks don’t count) and they get all the attention once again. Maybe they planned the little kitten’s death…

One Week Later...

This Sunday was… wow. I was very worried about how my primary class would handle church after a long night of trick-or-treating. To my joy, their parents hadn’t let them eat their candy the night before, although they had been allowed to stay way past anyone’s normal bed time. So instead of bouncy grumpy kids we just had barely coherent none responsive kids to teach. We were talking about our favorite stories about Jesus and one little girl must have only heard me ask what their favorite story was. Her hand shot up! I was excited to have such an enthusiastic response from a class full of zombies. But as soon as I called on her I knew that no one was listening to a word I had said. She blurted out “My favorite story is the Simba story from Lion King!” Andrew had to turn away so that the kids wouldn’t see him crack up laughing. I on the other hand, just stared at her in disbelief. BA! I fear it was pointless to try and teach today. I probably should have just let them color or something.
Andrew’s hair is back to being dark! At the primary activity this Saturday a really sassy and rather rude 9 yr old girl got into it with me about how Andrew looked as a blonde. Granted that he hadn’t had time to style his hair so it looked puffy and unkempt, when it was styled it looked pretty darn cool. This little brat had the nerve to tell me that my husband didn’t look very good (she said it with not so many worlds) I told her that he looked fine and to go away. But I guess my “subtle” hint that she should shut up and leave me along wasn’t apparent enough because she kept at it. Finally, with great effort to keep my voice under control I told her “Well, it’s a darn good thing you don’t make out with him then, isn’t it!” I wanted to say something more inappropriate or just smack her but we were at a primary function and the Bishop was on the other side of the gym in clear view. Suffice it to say I won the argument with a 9 yr old girl and if the girl ever crosses me about my husband again it may come to blows. That evening I went into town, got the color I needed from my salon, came home, and immediately took Andrew back to a dark hair color. I don’t know how much more of this his poor hair can take… I guess we will see!

Hair today, Gone tomorrow.

Well this has been a month for Andrew’s and my hair. It all started one morning when Andrew turned to me at breakfast and said, “I wonder what I’d look like blond.” Andrew has pretty dark hair naturally; I like to take him darker because it makes his features stand out more. I’ve only put bleach on his hair once and it was just one strip of blonde. But I figured, what the heck, let’s find out how that would look. So that evening, after my other appointments, I trimmed up Andrew’s hair that he’d been very persistent on growing out, (it was getting way too long and as long as I had the sheers it was going to be at least clean cut) mixed up some bleach and for the next two hours tried to take my very dark haired husband to the most platinum white blonde that I could. It normally would have worked out great, but just a few weeks before I had used a demi permanent color on his hair to darken him. This certain demi permanent does not lighten easily but I managed to a white ish yellow ish blonde.
The next week I got my hair done. Long story short it was a lengthy and complicated process and I’m just lucky that my hair hasn’t fallen out and it now, to quote my sister, “looks like fire!” Not exactly what I was aiming for but my tan from the summer has all but gone so I can pull the bright colors off. How intensely bright hair color and pasty white skin go together I’m not 100% sure, but I’m glad it does! Speaking of hair falling out, I got home and Andrew said that he wanted to chemically straighten his hair. Cool. I was kind of worried about using such a strong chemical on his hair after we had just done and intense bleach job. Again I though what the heck, he knows his hair might fall out and he’s ok with it, so let’s see what happens. The next day after my last client I had Andrew back in my chair. I got all the strengthener on and it was like magic…. Bad magic! As I looked at Andrew’s hair I saw it begin to wither, much like hair does when Nair is applied to it. I’d done chemical straightening before and it turned out perfect that time, but the hair hadn’t gotten it guts bleached out just a week before so there you go. I had to get that stuff off Andrew’s head ASAP or he’d literally have no hair left! We dashed to the sink (early that day the salon manger called saying that the hot water pipe had broken and they were trying to get it fixed. As of then all the salon had was ice cold water.) I turned the water on high and both Andrew and I jumped and shrieked with surprise. It turns out the hose on the sink needs replaced too cause it shot a steady stream of frigid water right into my face! I covered the leak with my hand and quickly went to work on Andrew’s head. I couldn’t feel my hand after about a minute of washing because the water was so cold. Poor Andrew was still whimpering and jerking when the water touched a new area of scalp. It was so cold! I couldn’t stop laughing which made it take longer and became a freezing /painful cycle of jerking, screaming, and fits of laughter. When we finished Andrew’s hair felt like cotton. It had matted together and the tips were coming off in little clumps. This past week we’ve washed it with only conditioner, styled it with conditioner, and deep conditioned it every night. To our relief it is now starting to feel like prickly grass and it is well on the road back to becoming more like hair.

Short Stories

Holy crap. Yup that about sums up the last few weeks. I’m very sorry that I’ve been slacking on my blog but I’ve barely had time to sleep little lone take an hour or so to write on this. Life has been crazy and it would be a five page blog if I went through everything, so I will just hit the highlights to make it a four page blog instead.
Remember the little kitten Andrew and I found abandon a while ago? Well the mother of that kitten had apparently thought we had done well with it so she dumped the rest of the batch on us. Thankfully the rest of the batch had grown up more than their sibling. At first I just wanted them to be wild and live in the barn but our little neighbor girls saw them once and I knew it was over. The girls spent all morning catching them, cuddling with them, and feeding them. There was no way that these kittens could be wild now. That evening we posted them on Craig’s list and in three days all but one was gone. Andrew and I took it over to the girls and said that they could play with it but if they got bored with it to just put it back up on the deck. Long story short, the kitten was never put back on the deck and our neighbors have a little kitten of their own.
Classes have been crazy. I spent one day studying eight hours straight of chemistry and nothing was making since. Frustrated and fried I decided I needed to go to the bathroom. I left my study room and sauntered to the restroom. As I pushed open the door a volt of shock went through me as I took in the scene of the boy’s bathroom. Urinals on the wall, the odd bluish tile, and guy staring back at me. I yipped and sprinted for the girl’s bathroom blaming chemistry all the way for frying my brain. I couldn’t even think straight enough to walk into the right bathroom!
When we went to Utah for conference we stayed at my sister Heidi’s house. We watched the first session there then jumped in the car and headed down, hoping to get into a live session. We had no ticks but Andrew was sure that I could get us some if I held up a sign. I hate begging but I really wanted to get in so I agreed. On our way down I saw a van smoking on the side of the road. Memories of when I was twelve flashed to the forefront of my mind. My family had gone to conference but on our way home our van broke down. I was amazed that no one stopped to help us for at least a half an hour. I couldn’t let things go the same way for this family. I asked Andrew to turn around and see if we could help. Our two-door Honda Civic wasn’t prepared for the amount of people that climbed out of the van. There were three girls, a father, a son, and two elders. It turned out that one of the girls was going to be baptized the next Saturday. She was an exchange student from Mexico. Her host family and the elders thought that it would be amazing for her to be able to go to a session of conference. The elders had been prepping her for week and she was pumped. Their van broke down only 20 min away and they were stuck. We told them that we could fit three more in our car at most. They decided that the girls should go and hopefully the men would make their way later on. Just then another car pulled up to see what they could do to help. It just so happened that the man had room for four people in his car and that we were all going to the same place. The girls grabbed the parking pass they had bought in advance for conference and gave it to us. Cool! A free five buck pass! We got down there and Andrew dropped the girls and me off. We met up with the rest of their family and we traded numbers for after conference in order to get them home. I saw that they all got in then I went to work trying to find tickets. Ba………. I wrote on the back of our mapquest directions “I need two tickets please. ” I felt so retarded. When the girls and I had walked up to the conference center I’d seen a lot of people and groups of people holding similar signs with no luck whatsoever. I figured I’d be standing there for a while so I found a spot in the shade of a tree and timidly help up my sign. Not two second after I’d help up the sign than two young men came right up to me and handed me two tickets! “They aren’t next to each other but at least they will get you in.” I was floored! I couldn’t thank them enough! Once they had left I gave my “lucky” sign to another group looking for tickets. They asked me we I had been standing so I pointed out my spot and wished them luck. Andrew and I got to enjoy conference while sitting next to each other in the 5th section. It was wonderful. After conference the family decided to take the bus home but asked that we talk the elders back to their mission car that was back at the host family’s home. The elders were so funny! We even stopped off and got Jamba Juice with them. Yummm  They were so excited about the girl being able to go to conference. They had challenged her to go with question that she had prayed about and had searched for an answer. When conference was over they asked her what happened with her questing and she excitedly told them how every single one had been answered. I was happy for them and her. What a cool experience to have right before she was baptized! Later we went to dinner with Andrew’s family and watch the gator’s game. They may hate me for saying this but Alabama played really well against Florida, at least for the half of the game that I watched. I never found out how the game ended but I would bet that it didn’t turn out very well for the Gators. After the first session of conference Sunday Andrew and I headed home to Rexburg.
All I remember of the next week was that I had six tests even though I only have four classes. I couldn’t sleep because my mind wouldn’t slow down. I normally don’t sleep well and this made it worse. I averaged about three hours a night. My stomach couldn’t handle all the stress resulting in me not being able to eat without me almost vomiting after. It was a hard week that I did not like. Let’s hope the next wave of tests go better.

Ba. Freshman!

Someone please kill me before my Chemistry class does! At least if I die now I’ll still have an A in the class. How that will help me when I’m dead….I have no idea. But it would make me feel better!
Can I just say BUYI is a much different place when you are married? It is like I’m not a person unless I’m talking to a girl or another married couple. Most guys just won’t talk to me at all! Example #1: I was in the gym lifting weights and I had my army sweats on that I earned in my military fitness class. I went to the cages to I could do hanging crunches but they we all full. A big black guy was finishing up on the end so I went to wait for his cage. He and I started talking about my sweats, how they were army and the military fitness class. I was having fun talking to him but then I reached up with my left hand to climb up to the straps and he saw my ring. He literality stopped mid-sentence and walked away. I had no idea what I had done to tick him off so badly that he justified being that rude. Then I looked up at my hand and saw my ring. When I told Andrew he just laughed at me. Latter when it got closer to school Andrew confessed that he felt bad for me because I wouldn’t have any friends this semester. I looked at him in shock then punched his arm as hard as I could. In desperation to avoid another punch that was aimed at the same spot as before, he shouted that it was because I hardly ever made friend with girls and that all the guys wouldn’t want to talk to me anymore because I was married. I hoped he didn’t know what he was talking about but the first day of school proved that he know more about the male intellect than I gave him credit for. Example #2: I was in the BYUI book store and I started talk to a guy who was waiting in line to check out. An old high school friend came up and put his arm up to give me a hug then stopped and did something really odd that morphed his hug into high five/hand shake as he said “HEY You!.....yooooour married! Oh yeah….” Then he walked off leaving me with the baffled guy that I was talking to. The guy looked at me, turned and said “Well, see ya.” And went back to staring at the back of the head of who ever was in front of him. BA! What had just happened!? And here I had thought I had made a friend. I turned around and started to walk off, sad and friendless. But then I saw Andrew, walked up to him, and received the biggest bestest hug ever. I just love that man!
The only classes I have friends in are my Math 110 class where I got in a group with two engaged guys, my Nutrition class where I made friends with the girl in front of me because the teacher partnered us up, and in the hall where I met a very nice young man. He and I started talking and he didn’t even flinch when I mentioned that I was waiting for my husband. It made my day that I could make at least one guy friend while being married! In my Psychology class I walked into the room with a newly high school graduated 18 year old girl. She looked at me in disgust and said “Oh my gosh, your married too?! Gosh everyone gets married so young here! It’s just stupid!” I was taken aback and quite confused, the way she had said that made it sound if she were married as well and then was dissing on it. I asked her how old she was and she said that she was 18; I then replied that I was 21. She gaped at me “There is no was that your 21! How the heck could you be 21?! That’s impossible!” I held back the sarcastic reply that I was born 21 years ago and that’s how I could be 21 and that yes, it was very possible. She went on to criticize her roommate who had started dating a boy within the week she had been in Rexburg. Then to my shock she wheeled around and started picking out boys in the class who she thought was cute. I’d turn to me on every one that she pointed out and asked me if I thought that they were engaged or married as if I was some kind of expert on the subject. I mentioned that I like the shoes of the girl who was sitting in front of us and she went off again on how much competition there was on campus and how I had no idea how hard it was to be a single girl on campus because I was married and out of touch. I just looked at her and wanted to ask her if she knew who she was talking to! Ba. Freshman.
This Saturday was my nephew Andrew’s baptism. He wanted to be baptized in Bear Lake at ten in the morning. My Andrew was asked to be a witness and was very worried about having to get in the lake because it would be so cold. The high temperature for the week was in the 60’s so the water had to be colder. Andrew and I had so much homework Friday night we couldn’t go down until Saturday morning. It’s a three and a half hour drive from our house to the lake. So at five in the morning Andrew and I pried ourselves out of bed and in to our Sunday clothes. I volunteered to drive first because I had a spectacular headache and wouldn’t have been able to fall back asleep in the car even if I had of wanted to. As I was driving through Blackfoot a skunk sprinted right in front of me. I mused with the idea of flooring the gas pedal but then though Andrew might get a bit upset with me if he woke up to that smell. So I let the skunk pass. We got to the church right on time, then we drove down to the lake. I felt the water and both My Andrew, my nephew Andrew, and my brother-in-law Jason had every right to want to stay on the beach. As it turned out My Andrew didn’t have to go in so he was ok. But my poor Brother-in-law and nephew! When my nephew went under the water he all but sprung out and latched himself to his father’s chest. His face was so funny that no one who was watching could hold back a chuckle. He looked like someone had just very unexpectedly attacked him with a bucket of ice. Jason carried him back to the beach where two warm towels were waiting for him. Before I was baptized everyone told me I would feel a warm comforting feeling as I went under the water. In my nephew Andrew’s case I honestly don’t think he felt warm and comforted at all when he was submerged. I’ll bet he felt something more like shock and panic! The rest of the service was wonderful, My Andrew and I really enjoyed it even though we had to leave as soon as it was finished so that we could get home in time to do some more homework. I ended up reading my Chemistry book on the way back in the car. I was too confused to even worry about getting car sick as I read. So I guess that’s a good thing….?
Well Andrew always gives me crap for writing so much so I think I’ll call it quits for now…. Well wait. I just heard that Andrew is writing about his version of our dating life. I don’t think he ever tells the story quite right to I’m going to set the record straight. We first met in the Hinckley building on campus. It was Sunday afternoon and I had just finished up with a presidency meeting. I was bored stiff waiting for my roommates in the foyer. Another girl and I started to rate guy’s ties as they walked by. We saw a group of young men over in the corner by the door and went to work putting their ties in ranking order. There were yellow ties, red ties, striped ties, and then there was this super cool blueish greenish tie! We instantly ranked it number one as the best tie we’d seen that day. We were sitting by a pumpkin that had an amazing picture of President Monson etched in it. I think the group of guys heard us talking about their ties and walked over to us with the excuse of looking at the pumpkin. We told the young man with the amazing tie that he should win a prize for good taste. Then the young man with the yellow tie asked me where I was from. It turned out that he knew my sister and he and I talked for the rest of the time. I tried not to be rude to the other guys and gave some effort to including them into the conversation but it mostly stayed between the yellow tie guy and I. My roommates then came out so I got up to leave. On my way out the door the young man with the prize winning tie followed after me[I didn’t follow after her...] and said that we should hang out and asked for my number. I had given out my number twice already that day but I figured each time I gave it out I could at least get two free meals out of it. It was an effective way of cutting my grocery bill by more than half. During the past month I hadn’t had to buy or make lunch or dinner once because I always had a date set up. I’d get to know the cool tie guy then go on a date then I’d be finished, without another worry. So I gave him my number. We texted off and on throughout the week planning for our date to be on Friday but half way through the week a friend invited me to get a date and come with her and her husband to come to the Hunted Mill that Friday. I hate scary things but I said yes anyways. I shot Andrew (the cool tie guy) a text and he sounded really excited.  BA! So the date was on.
It looks like Andrew is waiting to write about the Hunted Mill date so I will too. Just to make sure he is telling it right. 

Memories of the Past... (As they really happened!) Part 1

So, I decided I wanted to write about things that pre-date the creation of this blog. And if I write them, then it will be my version of events that are recorded and can be referred back to in a time of question. So, let’s say, 10 years from now, Erin wants to tell a story, but forgets (or fudges) the details, a quick search can pull up the “real” account of what happened. Genius, I know…
So what should we start with? The beginning? Sure. Erin and I’s first meeting and the proceedings:
So early in the October 2009, I was leaving church with a few other guys in my Elders Quorum. As we walked down the stairs in the Hinckley Building I saw a pretty girl sitting in the foyer with a friend. Having a goal to take a different girl out each weekend, I thought I might get my weekly quota in a little early; so, I lead the group across the room to say hello. This girl introduced herself as Erin, and complimented my tie. It was a good start I thought, but things got a little less than opportunistic when the conversation quickly became a game of “do you know…” with Erin and one of the guys in the group who lived locally. However, there was something about the lingering looks from this gorgeous girl that kept me interested. Then, as her ride was leaving, the time came for the bold invitations I was accustomed to only been off my mission for 2 months. I told Erin that her and I needed to hang out sometime (to which she agreed), and asked her for her number. I quickly entered it in my phone and she left. The guys who were still with me, turned and said: “Wow, Jarvis. That was bold. Nice work.”
During the week we texted off and on. We planned to go out Friday night, and I would plan out everything. But on Thursday, she texted me and asked if I wanted to go with her and a few friends to the Haunted Mill on Friday. Oh that was a lot of fun…. But we’ll save that for the next entry.

Pepe Le Pew

What is Labor Day even a holiday for? Celebrating that fact that people work, by closing all the schools and important stores for that day? I’m sorry America, but that makes no sense.
We have been so excited to start school again but as it gets closer I just want to jump ship and keep playing. Sadly, even I have to do my time and I should be positive about it. It’s like how children should be positive about getting hepatitis shots so they don’t die, but they can always be heard screaming in pain after the doctor lies that they won’t feel the enormous needle jab into their arm and inject them with the vaccine. I’m just say’n…. Wow, I’m sarcastic today. Ha ha it’s kinda fun.
So this past week has been a bit of a blur. My friend from Washington moved into her apartment a few weeks early so Andrew and I stopped in to say hi and fix her internet connection. While we were there she was reminded that her birthday was coming up by her mother on the phone. She had completely forgotten and was the only one in her apartment. Andrew and I didn’t want her to be alone on her birthday or have to plan her own party so we told her not to make any plans and that we would take care of it. We thought tin foil dinners, marshmallows, cake, a movie would be great! Wednesday came and so did the wind. It was gale force by the time Allison came over. We thought a fire in that weather and dry fields all around us were a bad mix. I thought that it was very possible to do foil dinners in the oven. Andrew googled it and we set to work. Our dinners look like masterpieces even though they were yet to be cooked. We popped them in the in and stood around looking at each other. If we had of been outside making dinner we would be roasting marshmallows or playing with the kittens. As we were confined to indoor activities we were somewhat at a loss for something to do. I asked Allison if she would like to watch a movie or play a card game or something. She and I went through our movies and she picked a scary one. At first I was worried. I don’t do scary movies at all. But since most of my other plans had fallen through I figured I could handle it. Andrew was very perturbed. “How come SHE can get you to watch a scary movie but I can’t?! I’M you husband!” Andrew loves scary movies but hasn’t seen any since we started dating because I refused to be freaked out for the rest of the night. Half way through the beeper went off for our food. It was far from finished and we ended up having to cook everything individually. After the scary movie (which wasn’t scary at all) and dinner we went in town for the movie we had planned on from the start, Dinner for Schumcks. It was unbelievably awkward! I wanted to die the whole time! But it was really funny! It is a remake from a French movie call The Dinner Game. I had seen the French version years ago and loved it. The American version was pretty farfetched but it was still funny.
That night we lost the kittens. Every night we go and lock the kittens up so that they don’t get eaten by bigger animals. It was about midnight when we got out there and there were no kittens to be seen. We looked everywhere, calling as loud as we dare that late at night but still couldn’t find them. The next morning Andrew and I went jogging and spotted two little kittens under our neighbor’s car. I guess they were lost even though they were less than a hundred yards away from our house. Crazy cats. The next night we could only find Meekus. Andrew was showering so I set out to find Mittens myself. I’m not sure why I was walking around with a cup full of water outside …but I was. I heard a noise in the grass and saw something that looked like a big cat. If it was a tom cat it would try to kill the kittens and I instantly got protective. I started yelling at the cat and threw the entire cut of water at it. In the darkness I didn’t immediately see that cat had a single white stripe that started at its nose and went clear to its tail. As the skunk ran from the tall grass I did a superman jump backward. It ran toward the field in the back of our property and I sprinted to the house. I burst inside and started screaming for Andrew to come kill the skunk. He came out of the bathroom all fresh and clean and just looked at me like I was insane. I told him he could shower again but then he pointed out that we don’t even have a gun. I sighed and gave up. The skunk pretending to be a cat would live to see another day. We found Mittens in the morning over at the neighbors again. We think she got stuck up in their garage hunting pigeons. Crazy cat had no idea that she had almost made me a target of skunk spray. BA!
I’m in a new salon now. It is only one door over from my old place but it’s a lot bigger and more conducive to working as a stylist. The only problem was that the booth I’m at was almost completely unfurnished. It had a chair, mirror, and a shampoo sink which got me as wet as the people I was shampooing. There was no counter to put my tools or product on. Andrew and I hunted all over to find a display cabinet for my retail and a shelf for my tools and a book case to but my color, wax, and product I use and towels. We found everything at Ikea! It is going to look great once we get everything set up but buying everything about killed me. To top it off I broke into a new product line and restocked my current retail. I spent so much money that I almost had a break down. Thank goodness Andrew was there! He just kept reminding me that this was an investment and that I would make back twice as much as I spent. I know he is right but I never want to spend money again! I bet my mother would have liked to hear me say that when I use to spend her money. Dramatic moment! Then we sped back to Rexburg so that Andrew could give plasma. I couldn’t go with him cause I hadn’t eaten hardly anything all day. When I went last week I hadn’t eaten very much before hand and I almost passed out three different times and was sick for the rest of the day. Oh the joys of newly married college life. Here’s hoping we don’t die!

It's raining cats and..... cats?

Wow! We have had quite the last couple of weeks! First off, Andrew and I got addicted (very, very addicted) to the TV series called Heroes. For those of you that have seen the show LOST, you will understand. You just have to keep watching and if you miss any of the last episodes you have no hope of understanding anything else in the series. We made it through the first season on Netflix in about five days. Any spare time was dedicated to that show. The second season wasn’t as good and by the time we got to the third season we just wanted the show to end. Finally at the end of the third season it gave us an ending that we could end with and we turned it off before the fourth season could even start. It’s nice to be able to get back to life.
Andrew and my mother finally consented to letting me get a pet (Andrew and I are living in my parents’ house while they are on their mission, so any new furry residents have to be cleared by them too). We decided that we couldn’t handle the time commitment it took to raise a puppy right now but that a kitten might not be so bad. Andrew said he hates cats but would put up with one if I really wanted. I did, so he and I searched Craig’s List for free kittens. We found some that seemed to be the perfect age to try and survive life out on the farm. I figured one kitten would get lonely and bored when we started up classes, so I pleaded with Andrew to get two kittens. He said he didn’t care as long as he didn’t have to mess with them much. We went to Walmart and got two little cat toys, two flea/flea egg/mosquito collars and cat food. I was so excited! We had arranged to the family to meet us at a gas station close to our house for a kitten drop. When I had talked to the people with the kittens I asked them to bring their most durable kitten due to the dangers for cats that live out in Hibbard. They brought a boy kitten with black and white spots and a girl kitten that looked like a gray tiger but had pointy tuffs of fur on the tips of her ears making her look as though she were part Links or Bobcat. We bought them home and put the collars on them. I have never seen something so spasmatic in my life. They would be walking or playing with the toys we got them, then suddenly flip around and try to either itch their collar off or bite them off. It was too close to their head for them to be able to bite it so they looked completely ridiculous! Don’t worry I made sure that the collars weren’t too tight. Andrew named the boy Meekus , like off of the movie Zoolander. And I named the girl Mittens, off of the movie Blot. They are such funny kittens and even softened Andrew’s heart. He actually admitted that he liked them!
Oh the stories I could tell about those cats…. Once I was standing out on our deck with Andrew. He and I were facing each other and I was wearing somewhat flowy pajama pants. There was a slight breeze that blew the legs of my pants back and forward. (I was so unaware to the danger I was in from the prowling kitten, whom was stalking ever closer.) Andrew and I were in conversation when in mid sentence I let out a piercing scream of shock and pain. It felt like little knifes had been systematically plunged into my upper calf! Then the knifes started to leap higher up my leg! I collapsed and smashed the maniacal Meekus who was still attempting to attack the ruffling pajama pants. Poor Andrew had no idea that the kitten had just tried to rid the world of my flowy pants (and my right leg along with it). He had just been deafened by my ear splitting scream and witnessed an attempt on our new kitten’s life. Meekus and Andrew now sat there looking at me as if I was the one who was crazy! It was all too much and broke down laughing. I laughed till tears were streaming down my face and Andrew still had no idea what had just happened! When I could breathe again I told Andrew what his kitten had done. We laughed for another three minutes.
Last Sunday Andrew and I were sitting out on our deck with the kittens watching the sun set. It was so peaceful and quiet. Then out of nowhere there was a high pitch cry of a kitten. We looked down at the kittens snuggled up on our laps. The cry came again but it wasn’t from our cats. We got up and started following the noise. It lead us out to an old two level play house in the trees of our back yard. I hadn’t been inside it for years and the latter to the upper level had long since been destroyed. In its place was a flimsy little metal latter. The cry was coming from somewhere in the top of the play house and the kitten that was admitting the cries sounded as if it were in pain. I climbed up the wobbly latter into the top section through countless spider webs. Once I was in the top I looked around. It was defiantly where the cries were coming from but there was no kitten to be seen. The only thing in there, other than me, was a wooden play stove. I bent down and tried to lose the latch on the oven. The cries started to come faster and more desperately but for the life of me I couldn’t get the rusty latch open. I pulled the oven away from the wall and found that there was no back to the oven. I looked inside and saw a little fuzzy kitten no bigger than a mouse edging around the inside of the wooden oven. I scooped it up and gave it to Andrew so I could get out of the spider infested play house. We warmed up a rice bag and created a bed for the kitten. This calmed it down a considerable amount but it was still crying. We guessed it was hungry. I knew we shouldn’t give it cow milk because that kind of milk would give a kitten diarrhea to the point of killing it. (I had tried it without knowing what would happen before and to my terror I had watched the kitten I was trying to save die.) We jumped on Facebook and sent out an SOS. Then we called our neighbors who might have had to save a kitten or two in their time living out in Hibbard. We were told that in a pinch cow milk would work but that in the morning we should try to get a kitten formula. I started feeding it warm cow milk while Andrew got back on Facebook. He found that my friend had posted a web site for new born kitten care. According to the web site we needed to feed it ever three to four hours and help it defecate. Bla. Andrew did not want to get up in the middle of the night to take care of the kitten, so I took the night watch. By morning I wanted the kitten in someone else’s loving care. I was exhausted. I sent a mass text out and one of my friends sent me a number to one of her friend who might be able to help. I called right away! The girl said that her cat had just had a batch of kittens and it might be close to the same age. With any luck her mother cat would adopt the kitten and raise it like her own. We immediately jumped in the car and sped over to her house. The second we put the kitten in with the other kittens it stopped crying (it was the first time it had shut up in nine hours). The mother cat came over and started licking the kitten like it had been hers all along. Andrew and I were so relieved. When we got home we went out to Meekus and Mittens. We sat there and just petted them, thrilled that they weren’t crying at the top of their lungs.
Yesterday Andrew and I were sitting in to living room looking out the window at the back yard. I was messing with something when Andrew said in an odd voice “I think the kittens are twenty feet up in that tree….” Apparently Andrew had seen a dark shape out of the corner of his eye. He had thought that it was a really big bird but then he looked closer and saw that the “bird” looked a lot like Meekus…. That the bird was Meekus and right below him was Mittens! They were almost all the way up a tree and Mittens was trying to climb down head first. She kept almost falling but catching herself right before she went plummeting to the ground. Meekus was frozen in place, clinging to the tree for dear life. I honestly think that cat is scared of heights. Andrew and I rushed outside to catch Mittens if she really did fall. Then we tried to get Meekus down. There was no way that he would retract his claws that he had deeply set in the tree. Andrew tried everything he could think of but he ended up barrowing the neighbors latter (that was too short) and half climbed up the tree to rip Meekus from the top branches. That night I think I figured out what they were doing up the tree in the first place. I went out on our deck to put the kittens away for the night (so that they wouldn’t get eaten by skunk, tom cats, dog, or coyotes) and saw that the deck was covered with feathers. Meekus was already asleep in the big dog box/kennel we had converted into their bed. Mittens came running up a trail of feathers floating off of her. Now the score is even. Meekus caught a mouse and Mittens got a bird… here’s hoping she’ll stick to birding on the ground instead of trying to catch them in the trees!

Sometime I just wish I had my Invisiblity Cloak...

After the beach it was time for us to take on the Universal theme parks. By this point Andrew and I were almost always on the brink of exhaustion. The morning we had planned to be the first day of going to the park I wasn’t feeling very good. Lack of water mixed with intense heat and humidity made my brain feel like the different lobes were playing bumper cars every time I moved my head. I figured it would go away and we braved the park anyway. No sooner than we had entered the park then my head tried to explode. I was finished with the day and wanted to die. Maybe if I just held still for a while it would go away…. The Men in Black ride looked like it had a long enough line to let my head simmer down. I honestly can’t believe I was gullible enough to think that. The first red flag should have been the words ‘long line.’ Long lines lead to board kids who then turn into annoying pains in the neck while they are trying to find something to do. Also the length of the line meant that it would be forced outside into the muggy heat. Long story short, after standing in line for over an hour we finally got to the ride. My head never had a chance. The ride seemed determined to try and give me an aneurism. Andrew and I promptly went to guest services and asked that the hour and a half that we had been there be over looked so that we could go home and still have three full days on our passes. They were very understanding and gave us the extra day.
The next day was much more eventful. We went back and jumped in the single rider line of the Men in Black. There was this crazy guy who had been on the ride a million times in front of us. The moment there was a pause in the movement of the line he spun around and started telling us all the secrets of how to shoot the aliens to get the most points. He talked Andrew’s ear off the whole time we were in line. Good thing the single rider line only took fifteen minutes to get through. Surprisingly the man was right! Crazy… but right! Andrew and I dashed around and jumped back into the single rider line. Just ahead of us we heard the man going off to someone else about the ideal targets during the ride. We just smiled. After that we took on the Mummy ride. The line was forever long but the roller coaster more than made up for it. I rode it once before when I was twelve but, as I did with almost all the roller coasters at that age I had covered my eyes and ducked wishing the ride would end. I had only ridden them because I knew my sisters would have never let me hear the end of it if I hadn’t. Now though, I really enjoyed it! I had forgotten about the fire part. Of course that was when the ride camera took the picture. Andrew laughed pretty hard at the expression the picture had caught on my face. We rode the Mummy again in the single rider line then moved on. We made our way toward the new Harry Potter area of the park. It was amazing! I knew that they had built a Harry Potter ride but I didn’t know that they had converted an entire section of the park into the wizarding world depicted in JK Rowling’s books. Andrew and I had Butter Beers, walked around Hogsmead, went into HoneyDuke’s, saw the owl post office, and went into Hogwarts. It was so fun! The line for the new ride was never under an hour wait but we finally sucked it up and went. The line was surprisingly enjoyable. It took us through corridors of Hogwarts, through Professor Sprout’s green houses, the defense against the dark arts room, Dumbledore’s office, and a huge room covered with moving/talking pictures. Before we knew it we were at the ride. Oh wow that ride was amazing! I don’t know if my description can do it justice… so I will just highly suggest that anyone and everyone go and ride it! We liked it so much we turned right back around once we were off and jumped in the single rider line. That line was a different story. It took forever to get through. Andrew and I started talking to the lady and her daughter behind us. When we had finally gotten up to the front I was in a conversation with the mother and the girl when the mother pointed and said that Andrew as going on the ride, I had forgotten that I was in a single rider line so the girl and I ran to catch up with Andrew. One of the female workers dressed in Hogwarts robes turned and yelled at us. “Hey! You two get back here!” then under her breath as she stood in front of us at the line she muttered “Ya, nice try.” The girl and I turned and looked at her mother who was trying hard to hold in an outburst of laughter. When she finally got control of herself, she whispered (because the worker was still right there) “At least she didn’t put you in detention!” Her daughter and I felt retarded but laughed about it as soon as the grumpy worker left. So yes, I got in trouble at Hogwarts. We rode the Dueling Dragon three times in a row and had to go home earlier than we wanted because we were both motion sick and had brilliant headaches. The next day we repeated the day before and again had to go home early. Unfortunately we found that we had lost our camera. It had all our pictures from the beach and everything we did at Universal on. We’ve been trying almost every day to find it. Even now we keep calling them. Sad days! At least I know what I can get him for Christmas!
Our Florida trip had come to an end and we packed up Toothless to bursting point. I drove most of the day and Andrew took the night shift. I took over again in the morning and let Andrew try to sleep off his car sickness. At one point, just outside of New Mexico we hit absolute insanity. We were laughing at nothing and singing All American Rejects at the top of our lungs with the volume turned almost all the way up. I have never been so happy to get out of the car as I was at my sister’s house in New Mexico. We spent two days there then set out for Rexburg. We drove straight through and made it home at 11:00 that night. We walked in the house, went to our room, and crashed on the bed without even changing our cloths. But we were HOME!

The real 1st America settlement

St Augustine is the Oldest settlement in the Continential US. This will surprise many, but it was founded some 60 years or so before Plymouth Rock. Settled by the Spanish in North East Florida it was the first stop on the their trade route. It grew in prestige and was attacked several times. Thankfully the Castillo de San Marcos, this huge fort made of ‘coquina’ (or something like that), a sort of concrete rock made of crushed shells, is there to protect the citizens. The fort has never lost a battle. Ok, enough with the history lesson… But St. Augustine is really cool. It has been a family favorite for a long time. My Mom loves old stuff, so this place is right up her alley. Erin, my Mom and I all took off up there when we left Daytona to spend half a day there. Our first stop was the fort of which I used as such a splendid introduction. They have a cannon demonstration, and 5 guys in thick wool suits (remember this is mid-day in Florida…), march out and shoot like 3 pounds of gunpowder off, with unfortunately no cannonball. They shortened the demo to 5 minutes, from the historically accurate 10 minutes to fire the cannon. Crazy, I know, in the shows its only like 10 seconds. We walked around the Fort and took in the sites around, and then headed to St George Street. It is kinda the main street of Old St Augustine, with loads of old buildings that have been converted into money making museums and shops. One cool thing about it is that the road is super narrow so they converted it to a walking only street. So we walked around and checked out the shops and sites until we were too tired to move. We had a long drive ahead of us back to Orlando so we weren’t looking forward to it, but had to trudge on in our adventure! Check back for Erin’s telling of our fun times at Universal.

O' Brother Where Art Thou?

Last week was Beach time. We went to South Daytona Beach and spent a couple of nights at an old family favorite. Its right on the beach and is a lot of fun. My sister and her family as well as my Mom all made it out. We had a blast. The waves were a lot calmer than the last time we went to the beach and Erin was able to handle it a little better. She claims she learned a little more in Ocean 101 now. Our first day there, we all started to build a big sand castle but the tide interrupted us with its own idea of what it should look like. So, we went out and played in the water. We decided to go running early the next morning on the beach and watch the sun rise. It was beautiful! I haven't been a big fan of running for many years now, but I've changed my mind and we both enjoyed it. On our run we saw several dolphins making there way up the coast, it was postcard worthy with the sun rise behind them. As surprising as the dolphins were, we saw a very large group of people, hundreds in fact, congregated tightly on the shore. We first thought a dolphin was beached, as many were waist deep in water. But as we neared, I saw a man dunk someone in the water and another from the queue walk up to him. A baptism? Sure enough as we got closer we saw several men in the water baptizing this large group. "O Brother Where Art Thou?" flashed in our minds. Come on in boys, the waters fine! Oh the South...
Later that day we swam with dolphins! We were out body boarding and suddenly a dolphin surfaces and Erin freaks out. As the dolphin approached within 20 feet of us, I had to reassure her, it was a dolphin and not a shark. Erin added dolphins to her list of things she's swam with. We finished the trip lounging around the pool, throwing footballs and Frisbees around, and playing Rumikub.

Long one...

Well we finished at Disney! It's all been a blur and we get home so late that I can barely stay awake long enough to brush my teeth, let alone blog about the whole day. We went to Animal Kingdom super early to see the animals before it got hot. They don't like the heat much. The gazelles were full of energy, running, prancing, and frolicking around their enclosure. It was almost as if they were showing off, bringing to mind Marty the Zebra from Madagascar. To contrast the lively gazelles, the tigers could have been stuffed furs and we wouldn't have known the difference. It struck me how dismal a life it would be to be caged in a zoo. I asked one of the tiger keepers if they were going to feed them lunch anytime soon but they only eat before the zoo opens and after it is closed. Once in a while they freeze a hunk of meat in a block of ice and toss it in the tiger's watering hole. The tiger will spend a good hour playing with it trying to get the meat out. This is the only mind stimulating that cat gets. I'm so glad I'm not that tiger! After that we spent a few days at Disney Quest and the Disney water parks. Wherever we went there were buses and buses of Brazilian teen age kids running around. Oh my word. They were always either clapping in unison, singing loud chants, or talking at the top of their lungs to their neighbor who was only inches away from them. They walked slow, talking up entire streets, and were impossible to cut through. They have no comprehension of forming a line or waiting in a line that was already formed and they don't speak a drop of English so you can't tell them to get into the back of the line. I have no doubt that if an American school took a trip to a non-English speaking theme park that the American teens would be just the same and the natives would be just as annoyed. Suffice it to say, after ten days of being in crowded theme parks Andrew and I are sick of people. It is hard to stand in any form of a line anymore. It seems annoying people search us out and deliberately hang around us. I'm not making up how ridiculous a lot these people are. For example, while standing in line at Blizzard Beach (a water park) there was a family with two girls who were between the ages of 8 and 11. The mother bent down to talk to the oldest of the girls and the girl mouthed off to her mother and slapped her in the face. The mother just took it and the father didn't say a word. The same girl reached up and grabbed the waist band of her father's swim suit and pulled as far back as she could. If Andrew or I had of been any closer to the man we would have had front row sets to a bare butt shot from him. I'm sure people in the line beside us got to see all the way down. The father turned and stifled a yell of embarrassment and anger at the girl. But the girl wrapped her arms around him and nuzzled her head into him. The father turned back around and the girl did it again! The same thing happened but no actual punishment ever took place. Then the girl started groping her father. I was shocked. I couldn't believe this was being allowed to take place at all, let alone in public. Her father pushed her away and stepped as far as he could away from her. This left only the girl's little sister to pick on. The girl stood there for only a moment then grabbed her sister's arm and twisted the skin on it in an painfully ugly way. This child was a honest to goodness brat. She could have done well with a good spanking and other disciplinary actions. She had no respect for anyone one, least of all her parents. Andrew and I just stood there in awe at what we had witnessed. This is just one example of the the kind of annoying people we have encountered. For this reason we feel our anti-social behavior is necessary for a reboot before we go deal with more crazies at a park. I think my favorite water park was Typhoon Lagoon. The lines weren't too bad and we got to go snorkel in a cold salt water pond with sharks, sting rays, and other tropical fish. At first I couldn't get the hang of the snorkel. I'd try to breath out of my nose (which obviously didn't work)then I would hyperventilate trying to breathing out my mouth piece. Finally I got the hang of it and started through the pond. Andrew was ahead of me. He looked back and gave me a thumbs up, I smiled but my high cheek bones raised up with the smile breaking the suction of my goggles. Water started pouring into my face mask and I inhaled a great deal of salt water through my nose. The burning went all the way down my spine. Somehow I made it to the midway point and climbed up the rock that was the rest stop. Andrew met me there and we fixed my mask. The rest of the swim/float was great. Andrew almost touched a shark! We had so much fun we went to that park twice. The second time through the water was much better without any inhalation of salt water. Last Friday we headed to Tampa to go to Busch Gardens (it's like Animal Kingdom but targets an older age group). The tropical storm Bonnie had hit Tampa pretty hard drowning our hopes of making it to the park that day. Our hotel room was great though! It was right by the beach and had a beautiful view. That evening Andrew and I went on a moon-lit walk along the beach. It was as though I was in a fairy tale. Everything was just so perfect and beautiful. The next day we headed over to Busch Gardens. It wasn't as nice as any of the Disney parks, but it was still good. We got in and went straight to this huge roller coaster. We went to get in line but the girl who was measuring the kids to see if they were tall enough to ride started freaking out at us. She said that we had to put our back pack in a locker. Ok.... So we went to the lockers and found that they wanted to charge us to use the lockers. We hadn't brought change so we went to a gift store to see if they could break our dollars into change so that we could use the lockers. I was very put out about the situation. We had already paid an arm and a leg to get into the park and now they wanted to charge us more ride the rides. I pointed this our the the worker at the gift shop and told him it was ridiculous that we had to pay to ride a ride that we had already paid so much for. He agreed and said that if we wanted we could just put our things where everyone put their shoes but the park wouldn't be responsible if anything was stolen. We were ok with that so we went back. We walked past the girl again, and again she started yelling at us. I was not in the mood for her crap so I started having back at her. She still wouldn't let us through even though we explained to her what the man at the gift shop had said. She was so rude to us I couldn't believe it! Andrew asked for her name so that we could report her if we needed to or had the chance. We went back to the gift shop and told the other worker what had happened. He called his manager, came back and told us to go back to her and have her call her manager. We went back to the girl but she had called in for a switch and in her place as a tall black guy. I don't know if she thought this would intimidate us or if she was just trying to get out of there before we came back and I didn't care. The way we had been treated and the park's policies was ludicrous. We had the tall guy call his manager and they still said we had to pay to ride the rides. Andrew and I had had it. We went to guest relations and got a refund for our double pass to Bush Gardens and Sea World. This actually works out better. We have four open days to do the Universal parks and the beach. The rest of the day Andrew drove back to Orlando while I napped. That evening we went to the movie Inception. OH MY GOODNESS! The previews made me made because I couldn't figure out what the movie was about. I didn't want to see the movie because I was still irked that it had confused me. But the ratings for it were so good! Andrew really wanted to see it so I caved. I'm glad my stubbornness took a break on this one. It is the best movie I've seen in a long time. Really really intense. The movie got out super late. The mall it was in had closed, Andrew and I had to walk all around the outside of the mall to get to Toothless. As we were walking we saw a a black guy walking toward us from the bushes separating the other parking lots. There was only one other couple around and I was already on edge from the movie. I changed our direction slightly to see if the guy would continue on straight. My stomach dropped as he adjusted his course to intercept with ours. Again I redirected us and again he corected to match us. I started to panic. He was walking fast and the parking lot was dark. the other couple had gotten into their car but hadn't pulled away. According to Andrew, they were keeping an eye on us and making sure help was there if we needed it. Finally the guy was about seven feet away from us, he called out politely and asked if he could borrow our phone. He said his ride had left him and he needed to make a call. Andrew handed him his phone. He made his call and left. The other couple left after the guy was past their car. I was grateful for them. It just goes to show you that there are good people everywhere, even in creepy dark parking lots at one in the morning. Thank goodness.