Mostly Just More Pictures

As promised, I am uploading a few more of the pictures I have gotten (from my sister and my friend Amalea). There are definitely some good ones.

But first I want to share this cool experience... So I mentioned the Laundromat lady that I speak with in Spanish and English. (That way we both get to practice!) So yesterday I was helping her write a note to hang on the door. Basically it had to do with when her hours were. So I asked, "So you're here at those times every day?" And she said yes at first, but then said, "No, except Sundays. I don't work on Sundays, because I'm Mormon." I was like, "Really!?! Me too!!!" And wonder of wonders, she is not in Jeremy's old ward (because the Spanish Branch dissolved and was absorbed back into that Ward). How funny/cool/neat is that!?! And when I told her that I am too, she was like, "You know, I don't even know why I said that!" So anyway, I just thought it was awesome. And maybe it sounds kind of dorky, but I would categorize this as a tender mercy from a loving Heavenly Father. I can't really put my finger on why, but I do...

So we've been married for a week now. It's been fabulous, in case you wondered ;). Slowly, but surely, we are finding a place for everything. Slowly, but surely, we are getting all the i's dotted and t's crossed. Because there are forms to fill out for name changing (but since I was a total slacker and didn't file my taxes until Monday or Tuesday... I will be waiting a little longer to change my name officially). And beneficiary stuff to change. And insurance stuff to change. And bank stuff to change. And rental and lease agreement stuff to change. Yeah, that was the most fun. Because Jeremy actually had to apply to live here (even though I already do...). It was a wonderful bit of annoyance. But it worked out. Another tender mercy, believe me (because there was a brief time -- mostly on our wedding day, of all days, where we wondered if they were going to approve him, since they hadn't heard back from his landlord. Aaaahhhh!). So far I've not had occasion to sign my new name much. Only for the UPS guy at work. Well, and the FedEx guy too. I did it wrong for the UPS guy the first time. Oops. It's like a new year... It takes some getting used to ;).

On that note... Here are some pictures. With commentary. Because some of them crack me up. I have a ton of them, but I chose just a couple.

This is after the ceremony. Taken with Mark and Amalea's camera. I'm tucking in my shirt (for the bajillionth time -- can you tell?). I just love our facial expressions. He is seriously so cute.
Here's another angle of the one where we're posing like the judge told us to. It's cute :). This may have been when I said, "I don't recall signing up for this part!" (Meaning all the pictures). But we do look happy ;). So I've had a few people tell me we'll make beautiful babies... Here's to hoping!
This is now my facebook picture. I like it a lot. And not because we're sitting in the judge's chair. Apparently that's another "popular" picture (according to the judge).
This was outside before it was our turn to get hitched. I'm not sure, but I think someone (of the 5 people standing there snapping a million photos of us) told us to look at each other. And someone, I'm pretty sure, capture a shot of one of us (possibly both of us) making faces at each other. I think it's Angie, Brad's wife. I still haven't gotten the pictures she took. But I like these two, because of our smiles. It's before the real nerves set in ;).
It's important to be able to laugh and play with the one you love :). I'm so glad we are "tactically enabled" to do so ;).
These that follow are from Christina's camera. The next one is absolutely hilarious. It's right after we finished kissing in front of everyone and I was so flustered! Look closely, you can see my face is quite a different shade of red... And I'm fanning my face, in case you're wondering. Maybe this is why the judge thought I needed tissue?
I just think this one is pretty cute. I don't know what we're listening to or smiling about. So much happened in such a short amount of time... But whatever it was, it must have been good ;).
This one just makes me laugh. Haha... We look quite suspicious! And my shirt's untucked... again.
So there ya go. A few more shots that make me smile. Hopefully they bring a smile or two to your face as well :). Maybe my next post will be an update on my 2012 goals. Depends on how motivated I am... :). But Conference is this weekend, plus I'm going to Wok On Fire (a restaurant) with Lea and a few ladies I used to work with at the library on Saturday. Plus a few other events in the next couple days. So we shall see. If not, it'll happen eventually :).

It's Something Unpredictable That in the End is Right...

This is a song title post. But it didn't have to be. It could have been:

Flying By the Seat of My Pants...

... or...

Mattresses, Modems, and Marriage...

... or...

This Song (with "Courthouse" in brackets at a key point)...

... or...

I'm Changing My Name, so Why Don't I Change My Personality? (but you'd have to reference the second line in this post to understand that...)

Did you catch that yet? Perhaps you have if you're a friend on facebook (or if you got filled in already). But if not, I'll help you out: I got married on Friday. Go ahead and take a moment to pick yourself up off the floor. Because I don't generally fly by the seat of my pants. And if I do, you better believe there's a good reason for it ;)!

So yeah, it's most un-Nilla of me to tell you that, two weeks ago, Jeremy and I decided it was time to get married. We have known for quite some time (like most of the almost 11 months we dated) that we would get married. It was a matter of when. And then, one day, we decided it was right. And so we moved. And we didn't take our time about it, either ;). Because, if it's right, why delay? So we decided we'd set up an appointment with a judge (a new process for both of us, so we didn't know what to expect). Truth be told, we originally planned to marry on March 16th. Schedules didn't really mesh, so the 23rd was the date! And what would follow would be an adventure in and of itself.

So we agreed to keep this pretty quiet. We planned it quick, we wanted it small and quaint. We didn't want it getting out on facebook. So we mostly only told family. That's why this may be coming as a surprise for most. We told our parents on either Saturday or Sunday. And then we proceeded to tell the rest of our family. (We plan to celebrate publicly and honeymoon in June). And like I said, initially the plan was to get married the very next Friday. And I was pretty set on that. So that Monday, Jeremy showed up at my work, since that's where we had to go for the marriage license. And we had to wait 3 days after getting the license for it to be valid, so time was of the essence. So he came to my work. And everyone recognized him from the pictures on my desk (and desktop). And yeah, plenty of people told me (after he had left) what a cutie he is and how sweet that he came to go on break with me (we didn't tell people at work either, at least not at first). So we went down and got our marriage license and the lady down there recognized me and asked for my extension number. Haha... Well, so much for stealth. Someone else I work with commented that he has the "spark of life" in his eyes and looks so happy. :) Such smiley things. And then, when it didn't work out for Friday, I was slightly annoyed. But I got over it and viewed it as a good thing, because we did have some things to put in place. Like getting a mattress (now you know why we were shopping for mattresses -- that was the day we decided to get married. Also why we were getting dessert at the Chinese place. Also the reason why my fortune cookie fortune that day ("Fear is just excitement in need of an attitude adjustment") was so appropriate). Because, yes, taking a huge step like this -- and so fast -- is a little scary! Even when you know it's the right thing ;).

So Jeremy proceeded to call the judge Tuesday. He got voicemail. Figured he would try the next day earlier in the day. So Wednesday he tried it. Left a message, and also sent me a text that it seemed the judge was out of town, so we might need to find other avenues. But I decided I would also call and leave my number since Jeremy was working swings and she might not reach him. I was able to find out from the person who originally answers the phone that the judge was expected in the next day. So I left my message with my phone number and expected a call the next day. I also knew we could talk to the Bishop of either of our Wards and ask him to marry us, but we were trying not to bother them, because they are busy men, and this was very last-minute. So imagine my surprise when the judge called me back (on my cell phone) that very afternoon! And she had the time open on Friday, the 23rd!!! Wahoo!!! And thus proceeded a classic Nilla moment that left me quite mortified. So here's the story...

So I am trying to be prepared. I want to cover all bases. I work at the County, right across the street from the Courthouse. So when juries are going in, I see the long line of people trying to get in the door and taking forever, because they have to go through security. So I think, "Well, if I know about the security status, I can tell people to leave purses in the car and maybe we can move this forward faster..." Seems logical to me, right? So I ask the judge about security. Which it turns out this is, perhaps, not the best question to ask a judge. Particularly when there had been an incident in a near-by county earlier that very day in which a judge was stabbed and a cop was shot in a courtroom... Anyway, the judge tells me that, no, there's no security because the building will be closed, but there are jailers and she can call for them, and they will come. Oh man. I immediately realize that she has not seen my question as the harmless question I intended it to be. And what follows is a very fluster-filled attempt to try to explain, but which only makes it worse. And she says, "well, tell your guests not to bring any weapons, that this is a security building." And we hang up and I think, "Great. She thinks she's marrying crazy people in a week and a half. She probably is picturing a bunch of tattooed skin-heads with piercings in every orifice of their body and chains hanging off most of them..." I was beyond mortified. So, I did the best thing I could think of. I called her from my office phone. And I said, "I just wanted to tell you I work for the County; they trust me a little bit." Because I can actually get into the Courthouse on my own with my ID badge. I apologized for my nervousness. She laughed, told me I didn't sound crazy, and for me to take a deep breath, because it was going to be a beautiful wedding. Yep... I'm glad it turned out that way... But still. Total mortification. And classic Nilla. There is such a thing as "too prepared." But at least we had our wedding scheduled!

Then it was time to wait. And wait. And wait. You'd think it wouldn't seem so interminable with only 10 days to wait. But it did. Probably seemed longer this way! And it turned out my Bishop would have been happy have made himself available to marry us. But we already had the courthouse scheduled, so we just left it at that. And we decided we had better invite the husband and wife who are responsible for the existence of Jeremy and Hila. (And yes, they attended). Jeremy started moving some of his stuff into the house on the Friday before our wedding. So that was good, because we could at least start putting away the food items and such that he brought over and not have everything to contend with after the fact. We also went and bought a modem and wireless router (and I'm currently blogging from home... :)). And we did a few other odds and ends -- getting money out of the bank to pay for things, etc. Then we had to slog through another week of only talking on the phone (that swing shift schedule is for the birds!). Ironically enough, he found out the day before our wedding that he will no longer be working swings come April. Hmmm.... Perhaps this swings deal was set up as a push to get us to go ahead and get married ;). Oh, and also I had told my boss that I was getting married (long explanation for why I spilled the beans, but I'm not going to go into it here) and she was so excited and wanted to know if she could share the news... I finally just said, "Okay, fine." And so, when I arrived to work on Thursday, it was to find this:



Considering that she was saying how fun it would be to do a lingerie party for me, I'm pretty thankful for the tameness. I mean, seriously, who wants to have their boss and the County Commissioners to know what their lingerie looks like? Ack! Just her suggesting it made me turn red. Oh, and the other cool thing that happened Thursday before work? Jeremy surprised me by coming by the house in the morning so we could have our morning prayer together :). That was really nice :).

So Friday, the day of our wedding...

Jeremy arrived with almost all the rest of his stuff. He moved it all in. We relaxed for a little while, but then had to get going on our day. We went to the funeral home to borrow Bob's (that would be Alligator Bob) truck. We had to go buy our mattress (which we had picked out the week before, but didn't have a truck to get it home...). So we did that. And then we, of course, had to say hello to a few people. And they all knew, by this point, that we were getting married. So we had to hear all the "Just a few more hours!" type stuff. And yeah, we were pretty smiley and grinning ;). We worked a bit on organizing the house, but we also had to work on our dinner. We decided to enjoy our first dinner as a married couple at home. We had planned out our menu and bought all the ingredients the week before, so we were ready! So we made the fruit salad, the green salad, and the no-bake cookies (some of which were heart-shaped, but that was a hard thing to accomplish, so only a few of them were -- and they were ginormous!). Oh yeah, we also had to stop at the bank to deposit the money my co-workers gave us as well as a grocery store to get garlic bread. And before we knew it... Well, it was time to get ready to get married! (But here we are a little bit before that):
So, I had gone shopping the week before with Lea. That was pretty much a fruitless endeavor. I tried on a couple of blouses. They looked a whole lot better on the hangars than on me. I looked at a few dresses, but I didn't see anything I particularly cared for. This was all very low-key, so I didn't want some fancy bouffant wedding dress. In the end, I bought nothing. Except for we went to Red Robin for dinner and then that Blu Berry yogurt place. So mostly we just had an awesome girl night. Even if it was pretty fruitless. So I decided I would just wear the white blouse I had and was planning to wear my skirt that is part of my interview suit. I really love that skirt and its length. Well... I wasn't planning on it being huge on me... Oh well! So, please excuse my sometimes-untucked shirt in the pictures... That was a constant battle, since the skirt was so big!

So we arrive at the courthouse. We are a bit early, but Amalea and Mark have beat us there (they are the couple responsible for us...). So I invited them to come across the street to the building where I work and see the view out the windows. Because I was going over there anyway to take down all the wedding decorations and the balloons, because I didn't want to have to carry them the block I usually walk to my car when I'm at work. So we went and did that and then headed back out to wait. And people arrived. Lea and Morgan. Jeremy's oldest brother. My mom. Jeremy's parents. Jeremy's sister-in-law and his nieces and nephews. Brad and his wife Angie and her daughter Autumn (Angie even brought her big fancy camera to take pictures!). Christina and Emily (Desiree was sick :( ).

So we get inside (no worries, nobody took any weapons!) and we head to the courtroom and start filling out papers. And the judge starts suggesting all these pictures poses. (Some I will have to include later, because my mom was waiting outside for Christina, who got lost on the way, so those weren't on my camera, but I will get them from the others...). But here are a couple where we are signing the "fancy" marriage certificate. We were laughing as I said, "Ummm... I don't think we signed up for this part!" Classic line during the paperwork was from Jeremy, "What's today's date?" Amalea overheard and laughed.

Ugh. I think this one below is so dorky looking of me! But Jeremy's facial expression is so cute!
And here I am, supervising... Hahaha...
Awww... We were getting nervous by this point. I think this was when the Judge was going to let us stand there for more pictures (ummm, I think we felt like the paparazzi was following us there were SO many pictures!) and Jeremy was like, "Yeah, I think we're good on the pictures." And we all laughed while the judge went into that room behind to get her robe and we got ready for the ceremony.
And somehow we ended up with another one. Like there were a million flashes at this point.
And then we began. And oh my gosh! So Brad filmed the whole thing, right? So Jeremy and I watched it the other night. And we laughed so hard!! I swear we look like someone was holding a gun to our heads! For one thing, we had to face the audience! That was really nerve-wracking for some reason. I seriously felt so conspicuous. Probably because I was. I am not really a lime-light lover. I am more of a wallflower. I can command a room, depending on circumstances. This was not such a circumstance. I felt really awkward. And flustered.
Seriously can't get over our facial expressions. But it got better, I promise. We eventually got to face each other, and then we smiled :). And really, these were some tender moments. Morgan ended up crying. My mom teared up. The judge cried. She offered me tissue, but I must be cold-hearted, because I didn't cry... (I'm kidding. I think I was way too wound up for that!).
And when it was all done (and yes, he did kiss the bride), I was soooo flustered that Jeremy started blowing on my face. If you look, you can probably tell my face is a tad bit redder and I was glistening. Phew! Seriously. Flustered. With shirt un-tucked. Classy. But isn't he sweet ;)?
So here's our dinner at home. By candlelight. We had pasta which we just made up ourselves. It was a jar of 4 Cheese Alredo Sauce mixed with 8 ounces of tomato sauce (makes a lovely pink sauce, and I'm loving that!) and we had sauteed up mushrooms, garlic, and onion and added that to the sauce plus some cooked chicken. Served over penne. With green salad, garlic bread, fruit salad, and heart-shaped (HUGE) no-bake cookies for dessert.
And here we are, ready to eat. In our pajamas. Hahaha.... And it's still light outside! Aren't we just the party-animals!?!
Dinner was fabulous. And we were stuffed. We enjoyed a mostly relaxing weekend. We got to enjoy church together. Where my mom was called on to bear her testimony (totally shocked her) and then, when she got up to the front, she was asked to also announce that we had gotten married. Yep. I was so embarrassed! It was like flashing back to my childhood days when my mom would bear her testimony and always managed to have some embarrassing comment to make regarding us (her children). Oy. You never outgrow the ability for your mom to embarrass you. Just FYI. I imagine one day my children will attest to the same. So yeah, there was an audible gasp from the congregation. Jeremy was "attacked" after Sacrament by a couple that works with him and had just found out he'd gotten married (!) and then they invited us over for dinner. They happen to teach the Sunbeam class (Emily's class), so when the Primary President announced in Primary that they'd have to start calling me Sis. Something New (since my name has changed), they were present to see me get all awkward and flustered for that (after Amalea told me how I was "glowing"). Yeah, it was a day of more awkward. And then Jeremy got introduced in Gospel Doctrine, but since I wasn't in there, I didn't know that. And I guess some people managed to miss the big announcement in Sacrament meeting, because there was another gasp in Gospel Doctrine. Which Jeremy managed to miss, actually, because he was more focused on just sitting down and not being the center of attention anymore. But Mark (who he sat with) heard the gasp and told him about it. So. Stinkin'. Funny.

I took today off. Because my husband is still working swing shift, and I figured I would like to enjoy one more lazy day with him until he had to go to work. So I decided to take a picture of the gifts people gave us. The crocheted doily is from his grandmother. The "Home Sweet Home" hangar, the candle, and the Pier One card are from Mark and Amalea. The Amazon gift card is from April, Greg, Courtney, and Bennett. The "with this ring" photo frame is from Lea, Chuck, Morgan, and Xavier. The other photo frame (that says "Above All Love Each other Deeply") and the cookbook are from Jeremy's parents.
And THIS is the mess we have to contend with! AAAGGGHHH!!! Where will we ever put everything!?! Well, we have a lot of storage bins stacked, for one thing. This house is tiny. Like less than 500 square feet tiny. But it's cozy. And it's home :). And we're all lovey-dovey newlyweds, so who needs space ;)?!?
And I'm positively sure I'm missing details. I know I'm missing pictures. I will just have to upload them at a later time.

So enjoy this installment of the Nilla Life. That really could have been featured on my sister's (now inactive) blog: "Flying By the Seat of My Pants." Hahaha.....

And P.S... We're working toward forever :).

Randomness

I love work pot-lucks. Shocking, huh? Monday morning was our 4th Floor Breakfast. It helps start the week out on the right foot. And today someone brought 7-11 donuts -- plain glazed. They were celebratory donuts, so I had to have two ;). It helps end the week on the right foot ;). That and Deanna brought in some pepper jelly, cream cheese, and ritz crackers. Aahhh... The snack of champions.

I'm at the laundromat again. Awesome, huh? The good news is that I will soon have internet at home :). As in, maybe tomorrow soon. I'm just technologically challenged and prefer to not get annoyed by trying to hook up stuff that doesn't work for me. I spend about 10 minutes on it, and then I'm done. Jeremy will take over tomorrow :). And I'm sure end up successful.

Cold sores are 100% lame. Actually, this week they were 150% lame. But thankfully they were mild, so that's a bonus. That's the result of fending off a cold and also being in the presence of someone who has 2 cold sores and thinking, "Oh I hope I don't get a cold sore!" Well, the good news is I didn't... I got two ;). But like I said, they are hardly noticeable. And that's nice :). 'Cuz if you have to be susceptible to them, they might as well be mild when they show up...

By the way, I'm really notorious, when using the Laundromat, for burning my fleece stuff. Kinda lame.

I'm ready for winter to leave Washington State. I don't want it to get hot. Just not so cold. I think that's amenable, don't you? Like I don't enjoy having a thin sheen of ice on my windshield anymore in the mornings. Or watching the snow/rain mixture fall outside the office window. It's lame. I think I like that word today: lame ;).

You know what? There are some really nice people in this world. Like this Laundromat attendant lady that I talk to in Spanish. She is really helpful and kind. And the people I work with too. They are a lot of really nice people.

Emily is growing up and growing out of calling me Aunt Ha. It's kinda sad. Just the other day I was hanging with Lea at the mall and I was talking about Emily and mentioned her saying, "Aunt Ha!" And Lea said, "I hope she never stops calling you that, because I think that is awesome!" Well, on Sunday, she didn't call me that. She didn't quite get my name, but there was an extra syllable and it sounded more like "Hila." Yes, it was bound to happen eventually. But now I understand why my mom was sad when Desiree stopped calling her "Ameka." There's just something special about it, because it's unique.

I'm looking forward to relaxing with some Wings in a bit. I still have to finish my laundry (it's all in the dryer now) and then put all the clothes away, eat some dinner, and shred some veggies. But then I'm jammie-bound and I'm going to relax :). And in the interest of not letting my blanket burn, I'm about to end this so I can pull it out of the dryer.... And one of these days, I will have a house with a washer and dryer. Although I will say I love having all my laundry done in 2 hours...

So ta-ta for now :). Have a great weekend! I know I will :).

Just Because I Can...

So I'm hanging out at the Laundromat. It's where all the cool kids hang out on a Thursday night :). Actually, this works out nicely. I don't have to worry about doing laundry on Friday. And I recently found a Laundromat even closer to my house than the previous one -- with cheaper washing cost and free wi-fi!!! It's an all around win :). My only complaint is that most of the machines use a card as opposed to coins. Oh, and another bonus? The night attendant speaks Spanish, so I practice my Spanish with her and she practices her English with me!

Seriously, I'm just blogging for the sake of blogging. Because I can :). I didn't have anything in mind to actually say. When I go home, I'm going to pack up my winter clothes. Winter isn't actually officially gone from here yet, it's true... We had the craziest weather ever this week. It snowed, it hailed, it rained (hard), it drizzled, and it sunshined. Truth be told, all those things even happened all in one day. As well as throughout the week. Strange stuff. But my closet is entirely too small, and I've decided the best way to fix that is by packing up the clothes I'm not going to use for a while. And, being that it is halfway through March, it's not a bad time to start doing that. I will probably also pack away my boots. I also need to go through my wardrobe with a more discerning eye and get rid of what I won't wear again. I've kind of kept a huge span of clothing sizes, that way, come what may, I wouldn't have to run around naked ;). Haha... Okay, kidding. But seriously, some of my clothes are now way too big for me. And I don't know if I'll ever wear them again. So I probably should get rid of them... Of course, it's not like I have tons of space for storage in my little house either... But I'm getting creative :).

I got my two seasons of Growing Pains in the mail yesterday :). I haven't finished Wings yet, but I'm getting close. I'm in the 2nd to last season.

Man, this is like the most boring blog post ever! Sorry for those of you who took the time to read it ;). I wish I had something great to impart. Maybe in a week I will... But the laundry's almost ready and I'm going to head home and unwind. The end of my day... The end of my work week... The beginning of the rest of my life :).

Best Date Ever!

I don't have a bed. I have been sleeping on an air mattress since about the end of October. I had been sleeping on my couch for about 3 weeks. But in my old age, my body said "No more!" and seriously, my back hurt so bad. I would be sitting at work, the phone would ring and I'd reach for it, and a pang of pain would shoot through me, and I'd grab my lower back and say, "ooo!" I felt really really really old. So I inflated my air mattress and have been sleeping on that ever since. It's kind of getting old. So, in light of tax season, I figured I wanted to buy myself a real mattress. So in light of that, Jeremy and I proceeded to have the best date ever.

So we started out by going to Panda Inn and ordering some Chinese food. That is a good Chinese place. Not seriously fatty and greasy. I ordered Szechwan Beef (was feeling spicy). Jeremy ordered Mu Shu Beef. It was way cool to watch the lady construct his Mu Shu Beef into the Chinese pancakes so they looked like burritos. But we also had dessert -- first. We went with the most exotic looking thing on the dessert menu, which was icy lichee. Haha... Jeremy is braver than I am. I go with the known. So here we are, enjoying our icy lichee before chowing down on our yummy dinner :). And my fortune cookie fortune? Fear is just excitement in need of an attitude adjustment. Jeremy and I got a little smile out of that :).
Aren't cell phone pictures top notch?!? I should have thought to take my camera. Especially for what came next. Well, we went shopping at Fred Meyer. Then we went mattress-hunting. We started at Ashley Home Furnishings. We got a run-down on how to tell which mattresses on the floor were ones they sell. So we went from bed to bed (including in the sleep spa area) and just relaxed on them to test them out. Foam. Plush. Firm. Plush Firm. Good grief! Who knew there were so many options!?! And how do you really pick one based on 3 minutes of laying on it? So we asked questions, took a business card, and went on our way. We saw Sleep Country USA. We pulled in. We got out of the car. The sales guy inside walked toward the door and I thought he was going to open it for us. How nice. Ummm... Or not... He quickly locked the door and unplugged the "open" sign. Haha... We laughed about that for the rest of the night. Guess where the mattress will not be purchased!

So we left empty-handed as far as mattresses are concerned. Oh well. One day. It's not vital. The air mattress isn't awful.

And I don't know why it was the best date ever. But we seriously had so much fun! Making new memories, laughing, smiling :). Gotta love it :).

Blu Berry

So that's me and Benjamin, who just turned 5 a couple weeks ago. Rather than ice cream, he voted for a place called Blu Berry -- which is frozen yogurt. It's pretty cool, really. You choose your yogurt and your toppings and then you pay by weight. Benjamin picked some really random stuff. Chocolate and vanilla -- pretty normal. Then some strawberry lemon sorbet on top of that. With marionberries (7 of them), mint chocolate turtles, and Cap'n Crunch cereal. yummmm. Haha... Mine was mint and chocolate all the way. It's the only way to fly ;).

Benjamin was a chatterbox the whole way there and the whole way back. But then he chose to sit at the kid table and leave me at a big person table. So I ate alone :(.

Ummm... There are probably a bunch of other things I could blog about. But I'm not feeling very bloggy right now. But I was wanting to post this picture, mostly for my dad :).

From Kitty Litter to Nose-Rings in 15 Minutes (Etcetera)

Sometimes at the end of the day of work -- especially on a Thursday when everyone else in the office has pretty much jumped ship -- you just feel like you've run out of steam and the clock has stopped ticking. Blah. Time. Stands. Still.

And so it's awesome when a co-worker is feeling similarly and so you strike up a conversation that leads to memory lane-type stories. And those are always fun to tell and laugh about! Because you might start by talking about the kitty litter cake you and April enjoyed (along with Courtney and Greg) back in the day when you had your The Office themed party. But you somehow end up talking about the library-themed feast you had also. And then you mention that you two (that being you and April) have been planning a Scrubs-themed party for about 2 years -- and you share some of those ideas. And she asks you how that show ended up, and you tell her about this Peter Gabriel song that you love, love, love that you had never heard until the final episode of that show (or what should be the final episode, because, in my book, Season 9 shouldn't have even existed...). Which, of course, makes you think of another Peter Gabriel song you love and the movie it was in -- so you comment on that. And she (the co-worker) totally agrees and talks with you about other John Cusack movies that are good. And when you mention Serendipity, she shares that she isn't a fan of the female lead, but that he really carried it for her. And that brings you to your strongly-held opinion that you never go see a movie for who is in it. And you reference movies you saw with Juliebean back in 1999 (oh those younger years...). You know, the summer of the chick flick. And your co-worker agrees that was a great summer with all those movies. But you had told that story to tell the one about the time you went with Juliebean to see a movie (just like old times) and she picked the movie, and it was Three Kings and that was a movie you couldn't understand why she picked... And when she said why, it's because of George Clooney, Ice Cube, and Marky-Mark. Uhm... Yeah. So not impressed (still!). Which leads to the story of another time Julie picked a movie: The Guardians of O'Hoole -- you know... That ridiculous owl movie you guys didn't like. Which then leads to the memory of how Julie had her broken movie card and how it was such an embarrassment to Alysha (because there was a teenage guy behind the counter helping us). Which makes the co-worker remember a time when her dad embarrassed her in front of a guy she was totally flirting with; because her dad said they were leaving soon, and maybe she should go to the bathroom. In fact, he insisted that she needed to go to the bathroom. In front of that "totally cute guy." Mortifying! (Why do parents do this ;)?!?) And then you tell the story about David the nose-ring Army guy who totally thought you were older than 15 and asked you out (and that was cool back then, but it's not so cool anymore, like when you get mistaken for a grandma...).

Yeah, this is how you alleviate some of the time that seems to be frozen in place. It's also how you laugh and remember and even make new friends. And it's also how you go from kitty litter to noserings in 15 fun-filled minutes :).

P.S... Those links will take you to various blog posts from my past that will tell these stories :).

Anyway... so on Friday Lea and I went to a play. It was Aladdin, Jr. Which is just a shortened version of Disney's Aladdin. I knew the two lead roles -- they used to be in my Sunday School class before I got called to Primary. So I wanted to go out and support them and invited Lea along. And it was so fun! They did a great job. And we even took a picture with them at the end :). I think this is going to be a tradition for me and Lea... To take a picture with cast members of whatever play we see together (if possible).

Then this weekend was Stake Conference. Oh so fabulous! I always feel so uplifted and spiritually fed. And it's seriously wonderful to get to go to church with Jeremy and hold his hand or lean against him when he puts his arm around me :). Definitely a treat.

And it seems like I had another few thoughts I was going to share, but they are gone. Must not have been important. Or maybe I'll remember it for next post :).