Rain Drops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens

I've been thinking lately about a few of my favorite things. This list is in no way complete, but it's a start.

Finding old mix cd's. My parents cleaned out the room I used to have, and boxed up or threw away a lot of my old things. This was fine by me, as I typically don't have pack-rat tendencies. They gave me a few boxes with trinkets and treasures, and in one of them was a stack of cd's I'd made somewhere around my junior or senior year of high school, as I was just starting to get into music (that wasn't soft rock). On Sunday, I went through those boxes, found those cd's and have been listening to them off and on this week. On the way to work today, I was surprised by my choice of songs on one particular cd. It was quite the eclectic collection of Jimmy Eat World, Phil Collins, and even Hilary Duff (that was the surprise). It's such a fun, almost nostalgic thing to listen to music I once loved for various reasons, and remember it again.

Even though the weather has been completely unreasonable this year, I still love, and always will love spring time. I love the gradual change in the weather, as each morning gets a little warmer, the flowers get a little taller, and the days get longer.

Another favorite thing is baking. I love all kinds of baking, everything from pizza, to bread, to biscuits, to muffins. I love almost all kinds of muffins...blueberry, pumpkin chip, cinnamon, yogurt, banana nut, poppy sead, chocolate chip, and probably most of all brown sugar muffins.

That's all for this one, but stay tuned for more favorite things as I happen upon them!

Poll and Tamales

I know I don't have tons of readers (or probably more than 5) but I set up a poll, because I have a dilemma. And how else do you solve dilemma, besides asking your blog readers... Anyway, I have birthday/tax refund money which I should probably just save, but I think there would be other more fun things to do with it . Let me know what you all think.

Last weekend Daniel and I went up to Gig Harbor and made tamales with his Grandparents. They are up visiting from Arizona, and it was really fun to get to know them better. We started off the morning at 4:00 with an early trip to drop Daniel's parents off at the airport for their cruise/European vacation extrordanaire. We got back after driving through snow, hail, and rain storms (yes, it's April...) and had a yummy mexican breakfast of chorrizo (sp) and egg burros. Then we got to work. Unfortunately I forgot my camera so there won't be any pictures to showcase our efforts, but it took all day! We were still cleaning at 6:30 PM. Daniel's brother took pictures but until I get copies from him, It'll sufice to say that the tamales are excellent, and there will be more tamale making this weekend with pictures!

Birthday Fun

Today is my birthday, and I know it's only 3pm, but so far it has been quite the day. I woke up and Daniel had breakfast for me. He made me a yummy omlet with ham and cheese, and he had an english muffin, and apple all ready(he was going to have oatmeal, grapefruit, and probably something else but I said I would be fine without all that food). Then, I came to work and my coworkers have decorated my desk. There are birthday decorations and fresh flowers to enjoy. They also ordered pizza for lunch today, and Dana made a very tasty chocolate cake. My coworkers invited Daniel to come after his classes, so I picked him up from the bus stop, and had lunch with us. He's so silly, sometimes I forget how funny he is. I do love him, and I'm glad he was able to come visit me at work and have yummy pizza with my work friends. It was all a very fun treat. I'm not usually too into birthdays, but today has been great.

I have an issue where I always want to be just another year older. Not that there's any perks of being 23 instead of 22. I'm sure this year will be great, and as a goal, I'm going to try to enjoy each day without wishing it away. My in-laws are supposed to be coming down tonight, and I think we're going to dinner with them, cause Daniel's grandparents just came into town before they leave on their three week cruise. Last weekend when we were up in Gig Harbor, they had a mini-birthday party for me with a huge chocolate cake, and they gave me pearls. I've always wanted a pearl necklace, and I feel so glamerous wearing it. I'm taking a personal day tomorrow, and We'll probably have dinner with my family tomorrow, and play games or watch a movie or something. I love that I'm having a three day weekend to relax and get stuff done!

Kittens

Because these kittens are so cute, I have to share them with the world.

This chubby fellow is Gilligan
and here we have black bear and Ginger playing
Gilligan again
Skipper
And the loving step father cat: Wesley! sometimes I call him Diablo Gatto...The eyes say it all. he really is a charming cat though . The kittens have Gilligan's Island themed names because their mom was named the professor. Enjoy the pictures and have a wonderful night!

Beautiful Monday

There were several things which were just excellent about yesterday. I really had the best day ever. I woke up and just knew it was going to be good.

Number one on my list of things that made me super happy was that Daniel started class yesterday morning, and I am so grateful! Each class he takes is one class closer to when he graduates, and we get to move on from being poor students. I feel so good about this new step forward. It was great talking to him over dinner about the things they talked about, and what he thinks this quarter will be like. I only wish I'd taken some of my psychology classes with him at BYU-I. He had some funny theory about Freud and Bananas. I told him to share it with the class tomorrow. We'll see.

Another thing that totally made my day yesterday was my new addition to my desk at work. I got an early birthday present from my mother-in-law on Saturday. I've been doing research on orchids, and have always loved them. At costco they had really healthy looking exotic orchids, and I got one! It came to work with me yesterday, and just sat there looking happy and warm and summery all day. What a simple pleasure!

Another happy point yesterday was dinner. I thought there was nothing to make and we'd have to run to the grocery store. Fortunately I had a moment of brilliance and made delicious chicken enchiladas, and will now have something other than a sandwich or yogurt to eat for lunch today. Daniel and I recently decided to try cooking with a bell pepper, so we added some to our enchiladas, and it tasted great and added some pretty red.

After dinner my parents stopped by for a few minutes to see our baby kitties. These kittens are now three weeks old, and wandering all over. The one I call Ginger has even started climbing and trying to run. They're at such a cute stage now where the're still a little wobbly, but making daily improvements. I'll put pictures up soon. I just need to get batteries for my camera so I can turn it on long enough to use it.

Hope you're all having a terrific April 1st!

Today I'm Thankful

I'm thankful for a lot of things today.
1) A husband who doesn't get caught up in the mania that is March Madness
2) No work tomorrow or monday resulting in a
3) 4 day weekend
4) Homemade cheese bread
5) Sandwiches made from homemade cheese bread.
6) Dana brought her puppy to work, so I've had a puppy to play with and he's CUTE!

"I want you to sing with rapture and dance with a durbish. I want you to be deliriously happy. You never know, lightning could strike" Meet Joe Black

This has been the longest week. Thankfully it's only a four day week, because I work at a catholic university, and Easter is a big holiday so we have Friday and Monday off. I'm looking forward to two short weeks. This week is the student's spring break, but for whatever reason, the staff still get to come in. There hasn't been any work to do, and there aren't any students stoping by. I'm not quite sure what we're going to be doing all day tomorrow.

Daniel will be starting spring classes at SPSCC on the 31st. We're both very excited about this step. At first we were just planning on him working until he could get free tuition at Saint Martin's, but this will be a better use of his time during the interim. He's taking General Psychology and two programming classes. I'll be able to help him with psych which will be fun, but he's all on his own for his computer classes.

We're also kitten sitting for Daniel's family. We've got four two week old kittens and their mommy, along with Wesley. They're adorable, and the grow and change each day. They opened their eyes last weekend, but they're still kind of wobbeling around for now.

I'm so excited about spring being just around the corner. There's something exhilirating about knowing the world is waking up after sleeping all winter. Around town the trees are getting their pink and white flowers on them. It's such a nice time of year, especially considering there's still tons of snow in Rexburg. I'm grateful to be living in such a beautiful area, and I'm grateful for spring and for Daniel and baby kitties!

Weekend Happenings

So we wrote out talks, got ready for church, and all went well. We both did a good job, and were expecting to go about our sunday and relax. Well, imediately after the close of sacrament meeting, the second counselor in the Bishopric came over to us and said thanks for speaking, and by the way, you're not really in our ward. Aparently there was a boundry issue about a year ago, and it was still pretty sketchy to them how it worked, but in the end, it turns out we've been attending the wrong ward the last three months. They didn't bother to look into it until after they'd gotten us to give talks. I almost feel like we got sucked into something, but I think it was just an innocent mistake. After Sacrament meeting, we went to our New Ward, not expecting it to be very good at all, but it turned out great. One of my young Women Leaders and her cute young family is in that ward, and we sat right behind them. It's such a good feeling to be welcomed by somebody you know and care about, and have them excited to see you. That put me at ease right away, and I'm now just as excited about that ward as our old one.

Then, on Monday, Daniel and I got a King Size mattress. This was our christmas present from his parents, and it's great. We had been waiting for these nice mattresses from Costco to go on sale, and the first day of the sale was Monday. We went around 3:30, after hanging out with my family all morning. It's a good thing we didn't go any later, because we just barely got the very last one. Daniel and I sat down on it while his mom went to go grab somebody to help us move it. While we were sitting there, these two other guys walked up and they looked pretty mad that we had already staked it out. It was quite the process loading it up on top of the cars, but we've slept on it twice, and so far, it's taking some adjustment to fall asleep on it...but it's pretty dang comfy!

We also got to go see Definitely Maybe with Daniel's parents after we got the mattress. This movie wasn't quite what I'd been expecting, but it was still good. It started off very funny, and just got sadder and sadder, but it was a cute movie. A coworker was talking about the movie Juno today, and that's still my favorite move that I've seen this year, but this was also a good one.

I took a sick day Tuesday, cause I had a rough night being sick on Monday, and wasn't feeling well. Then today went relatively quickly, and tomorrow it's Thursday. This is one fast moving week. I'm loving it. It's great to be getting over my cold finally and feeling.

Laptop

My laptop suddenly works again. I'm so relieved. The battery pack wasn't charging, and now, after a month or so of no laptop, it works like normal. This is especially good, because Daniel and I are supposed to speak in church tomorrow, and as pathetic as it sounds, I don't know how to prepare a paper, or talk or anything without my laptop. I'm still so used to writing papers on it from my college days (not that they were that long ago) that I don't know how to do this on any other computer. So I'm pressing forward, and there will be a talk tomorrow, and hopefully my voice will also come back for it. I've been sick with a really bad cold all week, and it would just be nice to have the ability to communicate clearly as I'm trying to give a talk in sacrament meeting. We'll see how it all goes.

Love this man!

What is his name? Daniel

How long have you been married? 1 1/2 years.

How long did you date? We dated 7 months and were engaged 5 months.

How old is he? 24

How old are you? 21 (soon to be 22!)

Who eats more sweets? Daniel forsure... but from what I've heard, he used to be much, much worse. I think I've tamed his sweet tooth some. He also likes to cook desserts, and I like to eat them, so it all works out in the end.

Who said I love you first? I don't remember how this worked out technically. It was probably him, but I think I hinted about it first.

Who is taller? Daniel is 6'4" and I'm only 5'3"

Who can sing better? I'm sure Daniel would say me, but he can sing pretty well, he just doesn't know it. He always says his mom once told him not to sing, so he doesn't, but there isn't any reason he shouldn't be singing.

Who is smarter? I think we're smart in different ways. I was really good at school and tests, but I don't have anything compared to Daniel's ability to use logic and problem solve. He's really smart at math, science, and the more complicated things like that.

Who does the laundry? Usually I do, but Daniel's good at helping me gather up all the laundry and get it going.

Who does the dishes? This kind of thing goes back and forth a lot. Sometimes it feels like I do all the dishes, but slowly over the past couple months, Daniel's been doing most of them! YES!.

Who pays the bills? Me, although we both look at them and go over them. So I guess that means we both do.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? If you're laying down in it, then I do...although Daniel has this weird thing where he likes to switch it up once in a while. He usually switches back a couple nights later after he discovers that I'll try to take up all the space in an attempt to get back to my old side.

Who mows the lawn? Definitely don't have a lawn, and I sure wouldn't mow it if we did...I actually haven't ever mowed a lawn in my life. I'm quite allergic to grass, and have had the luxery of having brothers who weren't.

Besides you, who is his best friend? maybe his brother Stephen.

Who cooks dinner? Me most all of the time, although he also likes to cook. His current specialty is Lemon Pepper Chicken.

Who drives? We usually share that responsibility.

Who is more stubborn? I don't know if either of us would be considered stubborn. I think we're both pretty easy going.

Who kissed who first? Daniel kissed me first, but I hinted about it and made him be the one to make the first move. It was really cute too, cause he said he always wanted to marry the only girl he kissed, and so I knew it meant a lot when he did it.

Who asked who out first? I think it was a mutual thing, we became best friends really really fast, and then it was just kind of a natural progression.

What was your first date? I gave him a tour of Rexburg, but mostly it turned into a trip to Porter Park. I think we walked like 15 laps around that park just talking and talking about everything. It was great.

Who proposed? Daniel and it was the sweetest most well planned thing ever.

Who has more friends? Me, and he likes it that way.

Who is more sensitive? We're both pretty sensitive, but are also pretty good about it most of the time.

Who has more siblings? Me, I have 3, he has 2.

These Days.

I must say I made an absolutely delicious dinner last night. Daniel gobbled it down like I've never seen before. He went out to return some movies, and I had him pick up a couple ingredients, so we could have Sweet and Sour chicken. It was fun to make with our little hand-me-down Fry Daddy, and it turned out delicious.

Also, our cat is on a diet now, and will only be eating the prescribed amount of food. At this point, it's more preventative, after all, he's young enough to still be a skinny little cat. He doesn't seem thrilled about the whole situation. I understand that he's used to eating whenever he wants, and now switching to breakfast and dinner is less fun, but he has been particularly meowy about the whole thing.

Have you ever rediscovered a CD that was once a favorite, but somehow slipped away for a couple years? I was driving to work yesterday morning, and it always bothers me that the raido only plays commercials during that 10 minute commute. I usually just switch between stations trying to content myself with any random song, but yesterday morning, I grabbed my cd case, and quickly chose an older Something Corporate CD to put it in. Listening to this music made my morning drive so happy. I know it's only a 10-12 minute drive, but yesterday it was the best. Rediscovering one of my old cd's was such a treat that turned a so-so morning around and put a smile on my face.

New Background

I am so pleased with myself about finding a new background, that I like. It took some figuring out, but my blog now looks much better.

Today was interesting. I woke up at the normal time, feeling kind of sick, and debated calling in sick. I figured I could tough it out, after all, how hard is it to sit at a desk? So I got to work, and saw that the parking lot was empty. Maybe 10 cars, at most. That made me start wondering if maybe I missed a memo about a meeting or something. I got in to work, and opened my e-mail, and saw that school/work was 2 hours late! If only we'd had internet at our apartment maybe I'd have thought to check and see. Although, there was less than an inch of snow on the ground, and it was pretty much just slush anyway, so why they delayed it is beyond me. I guess it was probably inevitable.

Either way, I went back home, had some food, and laid down for an hour nap. I fell asleep watching Magic Schoolbus, and woke up feeling much better than I did when I left the house this morning. It has been a pretty regular wednesday other than that, and I'm happy to be going home in 6 minutes!

Hello World

I started this blog about a year ago, for posting pictures for a photography class. I didn't love the class for several reasons, but this blog has survived with little to no attention. I've gotten into other people's blogs, but hadn't put any effort into my own. Here I am, a year later somewhat bored at work, and ready to try and blog something more meaningful than a few pictures I scrambled to take to meet an assignment.

Over the past year, I pushed my sanity to the edge, and amazingly enough graduated college early still emotionally intact. I took mad amounts of credits and put my junior and senior years into three semesters, so Daniel and I could move back to Washington. We appreciated Rexburg, but were ready for a change. So with that goal in mind, we went into countdown mode, and waited anxiously for July 18th to roll around. It did...eventually...and we packed our little apartment up into a U-Haul, and made the drive back to the beautiful Northwest. We are now situated in a cute apartment in Olympia, with a washer, dryer, and dishwasher...What more could I ask for from life??

I'm working in the Financial Aid Office at Saint Martin's University and loving it. We're heading out of the slow season, and will be gearing up for the new school year soon, so I may not be bored at work for too long. Daniel will attend school here next January, taking full advantage of tuition remission, and is currently looking for work until then.

We're still happily married, enjoying life together with our Kitty, ready for each new adventure.

My attempts at capturing motion

packing peanuts everywhere!

pouring water
the fish tank

Light Pictures

Four Better Pictures

My Best Photos