A Stranger

A Stranger: Someone getting their frozen yogurt, behind the A. Nony Mouse I drew on the glass at Spoon it Up when I was there with Adrien tonight after seeing "Woman in Black."

This was my original "stranger" picture, which is clearly of three odd people with a mattress in a shopping cart, one of whom is lying on the underneath part of the shopping cart in a seal pose. We drove by in order to take a picture of them. As you can see, it turned out really well.

Hands

Hands: So, not technically hands, but these are the paws of the animal that lives in our house and likes to knead my hair.

The Buzz

My whole life I've been rather a proponent for mild feminism. I blame it on my mom, who despite raising 4 crazy children, also got her Master's degree, served a mission, didn't get married until she was 29, speaks a million languages, is way smarter than most people I've met, and somehow managed to work on top of everything else while we were growing up.

Being a young woman at BYU has exposed me to a lot of the ridiculous pressures and stigmas held around here. For example: as soon as you get to university, start looking for a potential spouse, because Man, you're already an old maid. If you're not married by age 21 (ugh, who are you?) serve a mission, otherwise people might start to question what you really want in life. Once you finally do get married, you'd better get on the baby boat right away, because we all know you're committing some kind of sin by putting it off in favor of a degree or anything else.

Okay, so those are harsh generalizations, but really, those are the kinds of things this community makes you feel sometimes. Now, I've never really been one to want to follow the crowd (surprised? Hopefully not). Both my older sisters shuffled off to Utah right out of High School and got married at age 19. I have nothing against either of them (far from it, I admire their ability to do what they did), or their choices (which I know were very personal and well-considered), but when your younger brother starts telling you to get a move on in the whole marriage thing, and you are the only single granddaughter older than 12 at family reunions, you start to feel the pressure. I almost got married at 19. And oh, oh, oh I am so glad that didn't work out. I was a young thing at Cal State Long Beach, he didn't know what he wanted in life, and 3 years of being together was enough (a bad sign, guys). So I moved to Utah when I was almost 20, and didn't really think about marriage for a good long while after that.

I remember my 21st birthday party, which was a small party with only me and my roommates (and thankfully not the non-boyfriend-boyfriend of the time). Two of them had just gotten back from missions, and they were like "Woohoo! You're 21 now, what can you do now?" And I said, half jokingly (because I want to learn to cook with it, Helloooo) "I can buy alcohol?"

"And...?"

"And...buy alcohol?"

"And go on a mission!" Duh.

But I didn't. And honestly, while a part of me was intrigued by the concept of giving up a year and a half of my life in service to others in a totally random location on the planet, I didn't really want to. And there was some guilt driven into me because I'd made that decision.

Eventually, I got married. Yes, I realize I'm still incredibly young, but I'm almost 23, which to me beats the record of young people getting married around here. And now that I am, there's this question people ask, with their eyebrows wiggling like they have some kind of clever idea. That question is "when are you going to have kids? Eh? Eh?" And really, I just got married a month ago, give us a chance to adjust at least!

We got a cat instead. People don't think that's as funny as I do for some reason.

I've always told myself that I'd think about having kids when I was good and ready, which honestly, I've never thought would be soon. Aside from the baby fever everyone got in high school when we had about 15 pregnant girls in our year (oh don't worry, some of them were on their second or third kid), I've never really been super eager about raising kids right away. I've done plenty of babysitting and nannying and interacting with kids, and I have seen the good and the ugly.

A few weeks ago in my religion class (yes, I know I'm about to graduate, shush) it got a little ridiculous. My professor drove home the point very solidly to everyone in the class (who are mostly all Freshman) that you must have children right away or you are literally committing a sin. He threw quotes around from various church leaders, told stories about people regretting waiting because they found out they were infertile, etc. Essentially, the theme of the day was have kids now or you'll be punished. As you might imagine, I left class more than a little aggravated.

And then (ah yes, the more personal aspects I've been trying to include in my blogging) I thought I was pregnant. Like a month after being married. No fair! And yet, those four days of imagining it, I felt so internally happy and excited. After I saw the negative pregnancy test, the first thing I said was "Phew!" but inside I felt a little melancholy. I've always been interested in genetics and inheritance, topics that (don't judge me) get me pretty excited about having kids. When a random video popped up on Youtube about the "miracle of life" so to speak, I watched it. And I honestly got a little choked up when the sperm's genetic material blended with that of the egg's. Yes yes, I realize I'm a sap and more than a little weird. Bear with me.

The point of all this is that now I'm conflicted. I want to go to Graduate School, I want to work and travel and do amazing things (oh that's right, I got married-- that sort of put the kabosh on most of those plans...). But now that I'm healthier because my pancreas problems are nearly sorted out, I'm feeling a little yearning in my heart, and a vague feeling of currently being a little unfulfilled. Creating life really is a miracle. I didn't give birth to the cat (thank goodness), so his role as a child isn't really filled. When it happens, even if it's a lot sooner than I ever thought I'd get around to it, I'll be excited to be a mother, especially with Sam as a father (oh give me a break, I love him).

Words

Day Two:
Words: I took Sam to Chili's for his birthday. The food wasn't amazing, but the company was fantastic (mais oui). I liked this sign.

Photo a Day

I saw this on one of the blogs I follow (of a random girl in Australia whose life I love reading about...no it's not creepy at all, she commented on here once ages ago, so that justifies me!) a few days ago. I've been doing it, but true to form, I've forgotten to post. Here is the list, and my first photo:
Day one:
My View Today: my desk at work, complete with bags of bones from Petra that I'm inventorying, lots of museum books, and a few dozen groundstones from the Kanab excavations in the background.

PS: I don't have an iPhone, and therefore no Instagram, so these pictures aren't going to be really artsy or whatever unless I figure something else out that still jives with my laziness.

I've Got an Outlaw for an Inlaw!

December 17th was a big day for me. Honestly, I thought I knew how big at the time, but it didn't really sink in until later.

On that freezing (actually far below freezing) Saturday after another tricky semester, I married Sam. We got up early in the morning and I climbed into the car with my mom in my colorful wooly socks and hair in curlers. After a long drive we arrived in Manti, where we met Sam and his family and started all the paperwork needed before we could go through with the act (don't worry, my socks and curlers stayed in the car). A little after 10 o'clock Sam and I were sitting in a quiet room being told the ceremony routine by a smiling elderly gentleman we'd never met, who was going to be marrying us shortly. Our family and close friends quietly filed in and Sam and I sat near the altar squeezing our hands together for dear life. I leaned over and whispered in his ear "I legitimately feel like I'm going to pass out at the altar. I hope it's not awkward." He whispered back, "I'm pretty sure I'm going to pass out too." I laughed hysterically inside, though I wasn't sure why it was so funny. My nerves were wired. Pretty soon we went through the ceremony and leaned across to kiss each other. I'll come back to that kiss later. It was an important one, though again, I didn't realize how important it was at the time.

We stood by the door and talked to everyone briefly as they left. There were lots of sincere hugs, people whispering how beautiful I was, how happy we looked, and many welcomes to the family. My new father-in-law sobbed on my shoulder and thanked me for loving his son, making me feel like I owed him more than I could ever repay (thanks, Dad). We had a quiet moment together after everyone moved out of the room, in which Sam and I both shed light tears and just stood and hugged each other. It was a little unbelievable.

Pretty soon we were ushered to our changing rooms, and my sisters rushed in to fix my hair and makeup before going out to meet everyone (I'd merely tousled the curls in the car before heading inside, and I only wore a little mascara). After a few minutes, I walked shakily to the lobby to meet Sam. His grandma stood there smiling at us while I freaked out over his boutonniere and wondered why she didn't go outside and wait so I could talk to Sam alone. Finally she did, I told Sam I was so stressed I could explode, he told me to calm down, and I finally did enough to give him a gift I'd made for him-- I handkerchief with a quote embroidered into it with our wedding date. It seemed ridiculous and silly, especially since I was shaking so much and felt like screaming for some reason, but he loved it, and I tried to smile as I folded it into his coat pocket. We then turned and headed out the door to our crowd of friends and family. Unfortunately, it was a revolving door, and Sam ran into me when the glass came up short behind him, and I tripped on his shoe. Fortunately, I ended up laughing instead of yelling, which made for great pictures of me smiling instead of turning into Bridezilla and roaring like a lion.

We then proceeded to take pictures with family in the 14-degree chill, the bright sun glaring at us, the photographer trying to give instructions, my 6-month-old niece crying her head off, and my dad disappeared right before we were going to take a parent picture and no one could find him (he was sitting in the warm car with my grandparents eating a donut). Finally, we gave up after a few shots, told everyone we'd see them at the reception, and I raced back inside to change out of my dress. My hands were so cold I was sucking on my fingers in an attempt to bring some life back into them.

The drive back to the apartment with Sam was a little surreal. He kept looking at me and saying "Guess what? We're married!" and I was incredibly happy but weirded out and the quiet voice that'd been in my mind since Sam and I had started talking about marriage resurfaced-- what if what if what if??? I pushed it away. Stupid voice. I made the right choice.

After a nice long nap, we made our way to the reception hall for the family dinner. It was delicious, and though I felt vaguely ridiculous when I was forced to tuck a table cloth into my collar to keep pasta sauce off my dress, I had a good time. Family gave us advice and reminisces. I remember particularly three things that were said: Sam's dad said I was good at finances (if you know me at all, you know I can barely add), my aunt said she noticed Sam and I really talked to each other and laughed together, and my grandma cried as she told everyone how Sam had cared for me with no complaint during my hospitalizations and illness the past semester (I told you it'd been tricky). I was inspired to be better at finances (a few days later I worked out a budget for us-- go me!), to make sure Sam and I never stopped talking or laughing, and to always let Sam care for me (I have the bad habit of hiding it when things go wrong and not letting people help).

The reception was wonderful. I relaxed after the first dance was over (Sam taught me to waltz in the reception kitchen moments before it happened). I didn't get to eat any of the food except for a few bites of cake when we cut it (with only the photographer watching). The endless homemade cookies and Italian soda bar passed me by and I didn't care. I spent the evening dancing with sisters, friends, nieces, everyone. We had an instant photo booth run by two of my old friends (the one thing I refused to compromise on in the budget, something I am incredibly grateful for because everyone loved using it), which was hilarious fun, and I barely saw Sam through the whole thing. I talked to dozens of people and lived on the high of energy. Finally it was time to go, and Sam and I were able to escape to our (secretly decorated) car and drive up to Salt Lake City to the hotel that would be our home for the next couple of days.

I won't give you details of course, but all the people that told me everything would be awkward was wrong. Sam later told me the kiss I gave him right after we got into the room and stood looking at each other, before we'd even taken our shoes off, was his favorite kiss of our relationship. It was just a peaceful time. There was nothing awkward about any of it, it was just happiness.

Anyway, the honeymoon sharply ended two days later while we were still at the hotel and my stomach began to implode (remember the aforementioned illness?). It was a bitter shock back to reality. We had a few nice days before Christmas, then we headed down to California, where my parents live, for another reception. Three days before we left, however, Sam told me he decided we were getting a kitten, and we raced up to the Utah Humane Society right before it closed to pick one out. We decided on an adorable polydactyl tabby. That night we almost went to the ER because I was sick again, but the cat (oddly enough) helped me get through it. Sam told me the next day that was a big reason why he felt we needed to get a cat right away-- he didn't want me to be alone in the night while I was sick and in pain and he was too tired to stay awake with me. It meant a lot to me. A great lot.

After returning from California, school started up again, and life started to settle down. I still hadn't really gotten the concrete answer to my question (is this the right choice for me?) like Sam had (a few weeks after we started dating-- yes, it was that fast). We had met suddenly and become the closest of friends in a whirlwind. Before I knew what was happening, we were dating, and pretty soon after that we started talking about marriage. I knew he was a good choice-- he cared for me no matter what time of day (or, realistically, night), he didn't question my slightly shady previous boyfriends, and he was a straight arrow, perfect husband material and an excellent prospective father-- but I was still worried. Many of my friends were confused by my choice. But he continued to prove himself to me (though he didn't know he was doing it). I figured I was just being stubborn and since I knew he was so right for me, and he loved me so much (don't worry, I was crazy in love with him too), I still thought about that tiny nagging voice-- what if what if what if?

After we'd been married a few weeks and I was lying in his arms one quiet evening while the cat purred at the foot of our bed, we were playing a cheesey romantic truth or dare card game we'd recieved as a wedding present. Sam picked truth for one and he got this question: "Where was our most romantic kiss? Tell me all about it." It was then that he told me about the kiss in the hotel. He then asked me what I thought mine was. I immediately thought of the kiss that had happened right after we'd conceded to marry each other in the ceremony. I told him that was it.

"Why?"

"Well...this is cheesey, but it's because, right when we kissed, I could feel all the energy of your love in it, and I could feel all of my love for you pouring into it. It was almost electrifying."

Tears started to come. Why now?

"Why are you crying?" Poor boys. They must wonder of this of their girls frequently.

"Because I just realized I have my answer." More crying. I'm such a sap sometimes.

But it was just that-- when I thought of that kiss, I realized that that is what mattered. I knew without a doubt that Sam loved me, and I knew that I had a love for him that filled me with electricity when I really though about it. And when there is love, sometimes everything else follows. The laughter, the respect, the patience, everything.

Sam realized it too at that moment. "Will you remember what you just told me for when you get impatient with me?"

I plan to.

_____________________________

In case any of you are eager to know the details of the wedding and reception, here they are. The planning of the wedding in no way went off without a hitch, especially finding a cake maker who would do what I wanted, but I'm so happy with the way everything turned out. And it was fun to use local people who were pretty cheap, and who did exactly what I wanted and exceeded my expectations. Thanks guys! My family's contribution was $3,500, which covered pretty much everything except for certain things (like the dinner), and I'm not sure about the contribution of Sam's family.

Decorations: bunting handmade from old books, maps, and music, by me and my friend Mel, and two of my other good friends (Autumn and Madison), plus Sam. Jars borrowed from parents and grandparents. Books were rescued from the trash bin of the friends-of-the-library bookstore my mom volunteers with. Dried lavender was purchased at Tai-Pan trading.

Family dinner: catered by Gloria's Little Italy

Boutonnieres and bridesmaids' bouquets: Dried lavender from Tai-Pan, ribbon from craft stores. Put together by me.

Bridal bouquet: Flower Basket Boutique

Photobooth: Prints Charming

Photographer: Nue Light Photography

Dress: custom made by Design Your Wedding Dress Online.

Italian soda bar: Griffin Catering

Reception venue: Southworth Hall

Sam's suit: Tailor for Less

Music: I made the playlist and entrusted the playing of it to my new sister Caity

Hair and makeup: group effort by my sisters Adrien, Caity, and Abby

Cake: Amber's Birthday Creations

Cookies: half were brought in from Sam's parents' old bakery in New Jersey, Cait & Abby's, and the rest were made by family and friends.

Invitations: Color Quick Printing, though I wanted to do them myself, I was just forced to reduce my personal workload.

The Gift of Brussels Sprouts

Last weekend Sam and I went to Costco and bought $200 worth of groceries. I felt so awesome working out the budget and making sure we got things we needed instead of things we wanted. It was really fun. I decided we would get our produce and dairy at the regular store since it didn't really make sense to me to buy it in bulk when we're both only just starting to try to eat more fruits and vegetables (you'd never believe we were in our 20s, would you?).

And then it dawned on me: the long-ago mention of some produce basket co-op where you can get lots of fruits and vegetables for a fraction of the cost (as in $15 instead of $50). So I did some googling and discovered Bountiful Baskets. I then spent the next couple of hours doing research, reading reviews, and looking at pictures of what people typically get. I then ran it by Sam and we talked it over, finally deciding hey-ho, let's give it a go.

So this morning at 7:50, I arose, bleary-eyed, and asked Sam if he was coming (to which he replied "Would it kill you if I didn't?" of course), hopped in the truck, sent myself on a wild goose chase (who knows west from east, really? Pff.), and finally found the elementary school where the pickup was held. I went inside and some guy asked me for directions. I gave my standard "I just don't know," with raised eyebrows (which I'm starting to think some people might interpret as being rude, but sometimes...you just don't know). We then wandered around together until we found the auditorium, waited in line, showed proof of "contribution," the ladies made fun of my IKEA bag (have they seen how big those things are?), and kindly gave me a box to take my produce home in. I then made my way speedily home (there are surprisingly few people out and about at 8am on Saturday), singing to myself "It's eight o'clock in the morning; my husband's home and he's snoring..." (sung to the tune of that weird song on the radio right now).

Anyway, this is what we got:

I'm pretty excited to use this stuff in the near future. Some of it, like the corn, I will be cooking and freezing for later. We plan to get the baskets every other week (I think eating all that in one week would be a little over-ambitious, don't you?). Obviously some of it I can't eat because of my health issues, but Sam can.

What am I supposed to do with the Brussels sprouts though? We've both had them before and agree they are not delicious. Does anyone want them? Or something? Help?

PS I promise you I've written a nice long exposé on our wedding, but I'm waiting to post it until the photographer gets the pictures to me (which was supposed to be yesterday. I'm trying to be patient). So try holding your breath just a bit longer.

2012 Goals

I know this is a few weeks late for New Year goals, but I promise you I've been trying to write it since the 1st of January. Tomorrow Sam and I will have been married for a month. And quite a good month it has been! It's given me cause for reflection, and I've come up with some personal goals for this year.

Toilet train the cat

This one is already in progress. I'm pleased to inform you all that my cat is en route to being one of the awesomest cats around...by the beginning of March, he will be able to use the toilet instead of the litter box, and we will never have to deal with litter, smells, or excess germs ever again!

Complete every room in the apartment to the vision of what I want it to be

This goal is already in progress too; it's nearly complete as a matter of fact. The living room is well on its way to being exactly how I want it (we have 6 huge bookcases in here...don't judge). The bedroom is finished. The second bedroom is nearly finished (it's only missing a few bits of furniture). The bathroom is pretty much done. The kitchen is also well on its way. I'll have to do a post of a house tour once it's all done the way I like.

Read 25 books

I'm already 1.5 books down for this goal. I'm keeping track on the sidebar on this blog. I think it will be a lot easier to read more come summertime.

Do something out of my comfort zone (something big...for me)

So far the thing I have planned for this goal is to run the waterfront at a cub scout camp, rife with little boys. If you know me at all, you know this is kind of a big deal thing for me to do. Boss little boys around? Ha! We'll see how it goes.

Graduate from college

Hopefully this semester will be my last. However, I'll still be finishing up my two Independent Study classes in Spring term (and possible taking one last GE class), but my goal is to graduate in the middle of June. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Go to the temple twice a month, every month

So far we've failed at this one, but I guess January is still a couple of weeks away from being over, so we could still do it. Hooray!

Stick to a budget, and never be overdrawn

This means that we will have to be frugal with our food purchases and work as many hours as we can in order to be able to make rent and bills at the beginning of every month. I also have a goal that we will be able to pay for summer rent by the beginning of the summer so that we can go to Connecticut for July and part of August without having to worry about the apartment. This goal is probably the biggest for me, since I don't have the best history of saving money, but hopefully with food now stocked in our cupboards and pretty much everything we need already set up in the apartment (THANK YOU wedding gifts!!), we won't have to spend money on much and we'll be able to save up some.

Show Sam every day that I love him

People say the first year of marriage is the most difficult. I'm determined not to let that be true for us. I love him, so it's easy for me to be good to him, especially since now we're married and we're always together. But there's going to be a lot of patience, understanding, and patience (did I mention patience?) required, so it will definitely require some work.

SCUBA dive somewhere outside of Utah

Hopefully I'll be able to check this one off when we take our honeymoon (finally) at the end of April. We're probably going to be in Hawai'i, so it'll be fun to dive there.

Blog more often and be more open

I feel like I barely blog anymore, and when I do, it's usually something lame like a video I like or a song or something. I'm trying to resolve to be a little more personal on here, and write more often. This blog often takes the place of my journal writing, so I'm trying to make sure that I do it often enough, and still get the emotional needs from it that I would with a journal. I'm not that worried about people reading it because I need to be honest anyway, and not that many people really read it. I think it'll be a good year for the blog.

Here's a picture of a path that I took in Hampstead Heath in England a couple of years ago (wow, I can't believe it's been that long). Think of the path as a metaphor for my goals or something. Mostly I don't want you to feel like you've been visually gypped.

Hooray!

We got a cat! Also, we got married, but more about that later. More importantly, check this out:

His name is Brozhy (the "zh" is pronounced like a French "j"-- as in "je ne sais quoi"). I think he thinks his name is What though, because every time I see him I say "What?" and he squeaks at me. Anyway, this cat is cool. Besides not responding to his name, other things he can do are run crazily along the couch, attack his feather toy, do spinning jumps, fetch (occasionally), eat a ton, kick litter everywhere, and purr louder than any cat I've ever heard. And he's really easy to get to purr, too. I just look at him or say "What?" and he purrs.

Check out his new trick:

He's too small to jump onto the chairs, and he wants to be with us when we eat (heck, he wants to be with us all the time) so he's trying to figure out another way up there.

Also he has 26 toes. Yeah, I told you he was cool.

Hoot

I'm getting married on Saturday. Hoo boy. I also have finals this week (meaning outlandishly long papers...thank you archaeology major). But I'm bored of writing right now, so I thought I'd take a break and show you my awesome craftiness.

I made an advent calendar of sorts for Sam. Just for him, nobody else.

Each envelope (Day 1-25) has either a fun thing to do (ie driving to look at Christmas lights, decorating a tree, drinking hot cocoa, going to a movie, etc) or a special message from me to him letting him know what I like about him, or what I appreciate that he does, or whatever.

I saw it on a website of a lady that has kids, but this advent calendar is just for the husband, not for the kids, so it makes him feel special and appreciated. I know that (even though we won't be married or living together for another 5 days) Sam has really enjoyed opening an envelope every morning and reading what's inside.

Some people (like the aforementioned lady I stole the idea from) make it all scrapbooky and crafty and complicated, but I just wrote on 3x5s and put them in envelopes that I drew on. And really, the hardest part about this project was coming up with a different picture for each envelope. The messages came really easily.

So yeah, happy holidays and all that. Have a good week! I probably won't write again until after the wedding. And I will be a married woman! Wahoo!

Progress for the Sake of Progress

I have a framework for my 15-minute presentation (I only lack numerous colorful photographs to accompany my super intelligent speech on Anasazi red ware sherd distribution in Fremont sites).

I have 9 out of the required 15-20 pages of my paper on the symbolism of the Greek goddess Nike (and I'm not perturbed that I stole it from a paper I wrote for another class at another university).

Progress! This deserves a little break to watch this video (but mostly to listen to the song) for the five-billionth time (and maybe work a little on wedding stuff?), and perhaps get the lyrics out of my head (no, nope, I don't think it's possible, they're too much fun):

Blargh School!

Did you know that if you take the letters in the word "school" and remove the "schoo" part, and replace it with "evi" that it spells EVIL??? IT'S TRUE!!!

Sometimes professors apparently forget what it was like to be a student. I think they also forget that all their students are taking more than one class (usually). I'm only taking two classes (that matter-- two others that don't really) this semester, and I'm still getting overwhelmed. I have two major essays and a major presentation due soon. And a massive test to study for (read: relearn everything I was supposed to learn this semester).
The days of this phenomenon are upon us:

Oh PS Happy Veterans' Day. Hug/email/text/call your various veterans and thank them for what they do/have done.
PPS It's also 11/11/11. The world still isn't ending.

It's Happened.

Winter. It is here. I have to wake up earlier to scrape ice off my car. I get to wear the same shirt I sleep in because I wear 209,367 sweaters all day and no one will see it anyway.

Lose/Win?

Lobster

I think there's no avoiding it-- I'm going to need to live near the ocean. The last video I posted, plus this one... Man.

The Perennial Plate Episode 77: Lobster Pie from Daniel Klein on Vimeo.

Oh, and if you're wondering where I find all these day-in-the-life food-related videos, they are from The Perennial Plate.

Des Momies!

After a year of research and work and trials and tribs, the mummy case in the Learning Lounge in the MPC (where I work) is finally completed. I invite you all to come and see it and be proud of me. This project isn't over yet, it will eventually become my senior thesis, and I'm submitting to a couple of research symposiums. Wahoo!

Tumult

I really like this video, even if I feel like some of what he says is just strings of philosophical hubbub. It made me happy. I miss the ocean.
A Day in the Life of a Seaweed Harvester:

The Perennial Plate Episode 76: Seaweed Man from Daniel Klein on Vimeo.

Fixer-Upper

We're too poor to get nice furniture for the apartment. Instead, I've been perusing KSL and Ikea and Craigslist for dills and sells (that's Utah speak for deals and sales for those uninformed) and buying things little by little.

A couple of weeks ago we bought this table for $20. The chairs were $25 each, and we got 4 so we can entertain guests or something.

I call the color something in the neighborhood of puke green.

Then last week we bought this a-mazing dresser for $40 (it was originally $50, but there's no way I'd pay that much for this beast). Those are glow-in-the-dark red stars. Just fyi.

Anyway, clearly these needed fixing. So we went to Lowe's where we had a coupon for 10% off everything and bought paint and hardware for the drawers.

And then the great project began. We sanded everything (I took stalker-y pictures of Sam working)...

Here are post-sanding pictures:

Then painted the table a "lovely green"

Then painted a gray base coat on the dresser

Then painted it turquoise and sanded some more to make it look sort of antiqued

Et voila! The finished product!

This was my first experience attempting antiquing of something. It turns out it would have been loads easier had we rubbed a candle on parts of the base so that the top coat would have come off a lot easier. But you live, you learn, right? And I think it looks pretty dang good for a first attempt.

P.S. These are crappy pictures taken at night with my phone and/or Costco camera. It looks a lot cooler in person, promise.

Win It Nao

Since I was one of the first three commenters on my cousins' cousin's blog the other day, I am obligated to post this too as part of the winnings. But I'm actually really excited about this. So here it goes:

Here are the instructions: The first 3 people to respond to this post will get something made by me! However, there are some rules, which are:

1. I get to decide what it is.
2. But I will keep you in mind and it will be personalized. I'm not going to make you a teapot if you don't drink tea. I wouldn't make a teapot anyway, I have no clue how.
3. You'll probably have to wait until after the wedding. I'm too insanely busy to get it done beforehand. That ok?
4. It can be anything. Maybe I'll paint you a picture (on canvas), maybe I'll embroider something for you, maybe I'll bake you something...It all depends!

The catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 3 people who do the same on your blog. The first 3 people to leave a comment telling me they will win it forward get a fabulous homemade gift by me! Oh, and if you have a blog, be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it.

Muse

I feel like I haven't talked about my real life in a while, aside from the post I wrote in the hospital.

This has been an interesting semester so far. Between the numerous doctors' appointments and blood tests and diet changes and the veritable pharmacy I carry around with me everywhere I go, my health has sort of taken center stage. I don't like it that way. Not at all.

Another thing is the whole being engaged thing. People tell you planning a wedding (and carrying out those plans) is a menace, but they often forget to mention all the learning and growing you and your partner do. That, my friends, is a process. It's rather time-consuming. It makes me forget that I have a life outside of Sam, that my friends are still my friends. But if I'm going to spend the rest of my life with Sam, we need to work out the kinks and learn to be together, and not act as though we are two people, or single people living together. I'm not sure I got that point across, it's complicated.

And of course, as far as school and work goes, I have (typically) bitten off almost more than I can chew. Well, it's more like one of those enormous bites you take where you have to cover your mouth for a while to prevent things from flying out until you can get a handle on everything you've shoved in your mouth. Yeah, nice image. I have four research projects this semester, two of which I volunteered for. And the display case I've been working on putting together at the museum is finally almost up. And yet, the inevitable things are going wrong.

That's something I've learned to deal with better (at least I hope so) lately. Sometimes things don't go the way you plan, and as hard as you try and push to make it work, the universe (or people...) push back. Nothing will ever be perfect, not in this life. It's part of my growing experience to learn to be truly flexible and learn that not everyone, no matter how kind they can be or how well-meaning they are, will act according to plan.

But I have a lot to be grateful for. I'm actually grateful for all these experiences, even if it means I can't have my wedding precisely the way I want (note to the world: if it's not your wedding, it is NOT your wedding), or that I have to redo the labels in the display three times over and over, and get cut by a razor in the process, or that I live from meal to meal, wondering how everything I put in my mouth will affect me. And I'm grateful that I have friends who have offered support and anything they can do to help me. And I'm grateful for family, who constantly make me laugh and provide an outlet to really be myself. And I'm grateful for Sam, who will one day be my family, and who already understands me better than anyone else, and will do anything for me. We will work through the years ahead together, and I feel more confident knowing that he'll be by my side.

Fall Has Fallen

This past Sunday after church, Sam and I hopped in the truck and drove up to Sundance to look at the Fall colors in the leaves on the trees, since I've never driven through a canyon or anything to do so (I've only even had two other real Falls before, and I missed it both times).
Needless to say, it was a beautiful drive. I wanted to do more, but we ran out of gas. Such is life.
On another, completely irrelevant note, I bought new mascara the other day and used it this morning for the first time. I've read about Maybelline's Great Lash for years-- all magazines everywhere rave about it. I've never tried it, but this time I was attracted by the neon-colored bottle. When I pulled out the brush from the bottle this morning, I noticed how small the bristles were, and frowned a little. Surely it would be ineffective.
But wow. It worked like a dream. Absolutely zero clumping of eyelashes or anything! I literally said "Wow" to myself when I saw the results. So here's my plug: go try it. Seriously. I got it in waterproof in blackish brown.

Coming Soon: Our apartment is starting to take shape! I'm starting to actually like spending time there because it doesn't seem trashy any more. Ha!