Journaling

I have never been very good at keeping a journal. I found that my entries were just daily logs of what I did on those days, and therefore the entries were not very interesting nor insightful. But since I've been blogging, the blogging has become a record of crazy dreams, fun trips, weird thoughts...things that seem like they belong in a journal. So does this count? Can I just print out these pages and glue them in a journal? I have scrapbooks to document the photos and now words to add to what I was thinking at the time. If we are told to keep journals for our posterity, personally, I'd rather read these types of things as compared to, "What I did today."

The only thing this blog is missing is the history. All the stuff that somehow missed being included in a journal. So maybe I'll start posting some flashbacks into my past. Of course, any one who knows me very well knows that my memory is horrible (thanks, Mom) so we'll have to see how this goes.

And don't forget to check out the recipe for apple cider that I posted earlier this week. The recipes seem to be another record of who I am and how I'm changing. Check next week for a new indian recipe that C and I are trying tomorrow.

One More Reason to Love DC

Because "snowstorms" like this get us out of everything but Sacrament meeting...


I will give them some credit, however, as we did end up with a whole 4" by the end of the day. BUT, 4" would NEVER get me out of teaching Primary in Utah!

Congrats to Emily Continued

A few people told me that they thought I looked like Jonas, or rather, than Jonas looks like me. What do you think?

Congratulations to Emily!

I just found out that I'm going to be an aunt, again. Emily is having another baby---hooray! If it's a girl, let's all pray that she looks like this totally adorable young child (who ever could this be?!):

Congrats Em and Ben!

It's All Becoming So Clear Now

I'm starting to understand why people hate winter. In Utah, it's really hard to hate winter. Sure, winter means cold but cold means snow (!). And Utah snow means skiing (!), snowshoeing (!), and just plain fun (!). Utah snow is beautiful, light, and fluffy. It quiets its surroundings. It covers everything and makes it look smooth and soft. It's even fun to shovel.

However, winter in D.C. means cold, but cold here doesn't mean snow. In the six winters I have spent here, I have seen only one notable snowstorm. So if it doesn't mean snow, what does it mean?

• Cold, cold, and more cold. The humidity makes everything worse. Cold here just hurts.
• Media hype for everything passing cloud that may produce only one drop of precipitation.
• Cancelled everything. Don't believe me? Today, alone, had 336 reported closings of schools, governments (but alas, not the Feds), day cares, and "Meals on Wheels." The reason for all these closings? Three inches of precipitation on Tuesday. Today is THURSDAY.
• Along with cancelled everything is the annoying way in which they relay this information to the public. They scroll the names of all 336 closed institutions along the bottom of your television, severely decreasing your TV's viewing window. It takes more than 15 minutes to get through all of this information.
• Yucky types of precipitation. Tuesday's storm brought sleet. What is sleet?! I had no idea. Apparently it is initially snow, but then melts slightly, and then refreezes. Basically, sleet is falling ice marbles. It's the weirdest, heaviest, loudest thing to fall from the sky. And then when it settles, it's immediately hardened. In Utah, you have to wait for a couple of days for your snow to harden to the point you can walk on it without sinking. Not so with sleet. It's nasty.
• When I find I'm not even enjoying wearing my winter clothes, you know it's bad. Please let it be spring soon.

One Reason to Love Being an Adult

Being an adult is mostly fun. We can drive, we have money to travel (although we don't often have the time to travel), and we can basically do whatever we want. One of my favorite things about being an adult, however, is knowing that I can eat whatever I want. Usually I'm pretty disciplined about it. But let me reminisce about my two best meals within one 12-hour period.

Before C and I got married, I was living alone in a condo in Orem. This condo was across the street from a Target. And not just a regular Target, a Super Target. One night I decided I wanted a Skinny Cow. Being the adult that I was, I simply went and bought a container of six of them (I think it was the peanut butter chocolate variety). Once I got home, I ate one. But it tasted so good that I had another. And I'm sure you can guess what happened next. Yep, I had one more. I wasn't feeling nearly as guilty as I should. I mean, they're a good source of calcium, and they are low-fat and low-calorie. Sure I didn't get all the nutrients I should get in a regular dinner, but isn't that why I take a multi-vitamin anyway? I went to sleep full and happy that night.

After my run the next morning, I decided that I wanted a Skinny Cow for breakfast. As much as I love cereal (and we all know how much I do love cereal), it was no match for a peanut butter chocolate Skinny Cow that morning. And nor was cereal a match for the remaining two other Skinny Cows I finished as well.

Like I said, best two meals ever eaten within 12 hours.

I Heart My Nephews

As this blog has truly become my journal (therefore, more for me and less for you), I had to record this as it just gives me warm fuzzies. When C and I were in Colorado in January, we spent time with my sister and her family. I LOVE her family. Of course there's my sister, with whom I love spending time. My brother-in-law is great. But then, there are my nephews. Ooooh, my nephews. Could little boys be any cuter? (I better not have boys because how could they compare to such visions of loveliness?!) It's been really fun watching them get older. Also, I love that Miles calls me "Auntie." You know, because I'm his aunt and my name begins with an "e." (Will my sister be "Auntie" to my kids??? And don't you just love the lower-case e?!) It's funny to add that Miles has an uncle named Joe and when he was asked who C was, he mixed both names to come up with "Uncle Joke." HA.

Anyway, my sister and I talk about 5-6 times a week, either by phone or by instant messaging. Sometimes while using the phone, she'll put on her older son, Miles. The most recent time I talked to them, Miles actually said, "Hi Auntie" when he got on the phone. And then, right before he handed the phone to Emily, he said, "Bye Auntie." It was the first time he had done this, actually acknowledged that he knew it was me. I don't know why I loved this so much, but just thinking about it makes me smile. I've said it before...these boys give me hope I might actually like my own kids!

My Subconscious is CRAZY

The most recent dream that I can make the most sense of was one I had the other night. C and I were in a very large room with a very large number of people in it. Somehow, C found his way to the front of the room and was playing the "air organ," you know, like the air guitar, but well, instead of the guitar he was playing an organ. (When relating this dream to a friend she asked how I knew it was the air organ and not the air piano. Duh. The organ has many different levels and I could tell that C was playing them all.) Of course I was mortified. I made my way to the front of the room and forcefully pulled him from his "act." I knew inside that I was somehow making it worse, that people felt more embarrassed for me instead of for him, but I didn't care. My husband was playing the air organ for goodness sakes. It was mortifying. Thank goodness some dreams don't come true.

Matchmaker, Matchmaker...

For the most part, C and I are pretty well-matched. We are both extremely analytical and logical. We love problem solving. We are both left-brained. We are both math nerds who are proud to admit it. We both think we're smarter than the general population (please no comments on whether this is actually true). And we laugh at the same things. However, there are two places where we are polar opposites.

First: our palettes. I am sweet; he is salty. I am pesto and pine nuts; he is pepperoni and peanuts. I am half-a-can of soup; he is two bowls of chili. Surprisingly though, he has done very well being open-minded towards new things. Ground turkey tacos? He's fine with them. Ground turkey burgers? Well, not so fine. He will try most things (veggie burgers excluding). But he does have some food-phobias that I consider slightly elementary-school. He despises mushrooms, onions, cream of anything soup (and that includes things made with cream of anything soup), most vegetables (which is okay as I also despise most vegetables), and seafood. He won't try tofu or any other meat substitutes. As I don't mean to make this seem like a "C bashing" post, I'll admit that I really won't try most real meat. I am always trying to find fat-free or lower fat options, sometimes at the cost of better taste. After two years of being married, we've compromised on a lot of things. But it's still a struggle.

Second: motivational factors. I have them; C does not. This doesn't mean that he's a slacker at work. He seems to be really on top of things there and rarely has to bring work home. However, once home, he's done working. On the other hand, while I also never bring home work, I still find little jobs and projects to keep me busy around the house. Whether it's a designing new placemats, organizing files, getting lunches ready for the next day, filling the water bottles, planning our next vacation...I seem to be able to keep busy. But other than his daily chores, he seems to think the Wii is a better way to spend his time. Again, neither is right and neither is wrong. We're just different. And different is good.