A POST ABOUT MY BROTHER

(ok, i know it's still a photo of me, but keep reading:)
This photo was taken in the country side of a certain land.
A land where my brother Calvin will soon live.
He opened his mission call in recent hours, and it was far from what anyone thought.
It will blow your minds. But I'll let him tell you.

CLICK HERE!

ONE OF THE COOLEST (OR HOTTEST) THINGS ABOUT OUR APARTMENT

The water heater behind our bathtub/shower faucet is AMAZING. We have to turn on the water and wait for it to get cool enough for us to get in instead of waiting for it to turn from cool to hot.

I like it a lot.

KIND OF LIKE SIM-ANT, EXCEPT REAL

Ok--back when we first moved in, I started to notice some ants in the bathroom. Then they made their way to the kitchen, where they invaded the mesh metal garbage can. I was solving the problem by attacking them with housecleaner spray. (A little trick I learned from the DR that kills ants much faster than the special ant-killer spray.) We changed the kitchen garbage to a solid plastic pail, and it eventually got cold, and the ants disappeared.

THEN,

right about Christmas time, (yeah, it was still winter, who knew?) I noticed some in the bathroom again. I was fine spraying them but they slowly became more frequent and found their way to the kitchen where they munched on the crumbs falling from our food prep. Sometimes they'd roam the bedroom floor. I was kind of ok with all of this, seeing as I'd lived with them on the kitchen counter for 18 months...

But when the Provo ants found the Provo kitchen counter that was it. I was sick of ants, and sick of feeling like every black little speck everywhere else was an ant. So I found these trusty things, and it took care of the problem in just days.




I won't lie, I still see about one straggler a day, but it's much better then a billion a day.

Thank you, Raid.

MY RESOLVE THIS NEW YEAR

I became aware of a certain stereotype of blogs after my mission: the new wife brags about her husband, maybe a baby & about their wonderful life. I did not want to become that blogger.

Mostly because it might have something to do with my instinct of 'over-honesty'. The same instinct that leads to my real answers when someone says "How are you?". This question is asked everyday in greeting. But how many people are really wondering how the other is? Oftentimes the greeting is sludged into one: HiHowAreYa? But sometimes, they don't even expect an answer. For some reason, it is hard for me to answer with the typical "GoodHowAreYou?" reply. When people ask how I am, I want to tell them. But every now and then, as I unravel how I'm really feeling, I also get the feeling it's way more than they expected when they first asked the question. So... naturally, I thought my blog might just really tell you how I am. The good, the bad and the ugly.


{Here's the ugly: I've had a cold for over a week now and my nose is CHAPPED.}


And I thought I'd tell it like it is: I'm not happy all the time. I get offended and I offend others. Sometimes I don't do what I know to be right. My life isn't perfect. My marriage isn't perfect. Even Provo is not perfect.

But that was back when I didn't understand.

It was after reading a NY Times article on Stephanie Nielsen that I understood. (Read the last paragraphs.)
Of course. No one's life is perfect. No one's marriage is perfect. We are all human & we're all on different levels, different courses and paths. So I have a new respect for those blogs I mentioned before - the new wives bragging. They are focusing on the beauty. And this new online show-off realm of blogging has become an outlet for the positive. Maybe it can really motivate the positives in our life. It can motivate hope.

And HOPE is a commandment.

So here's hoping for a more good, less bad & ugly life. This blog, and several other good habits (2009 goals), will be the means.

As my mother said, "2008 was sure great, but 2009 will be divine!"

TWO THOUSAND NINE SHALL BE DIVINE

Mom texted me: "2008 sure was great, but 2009 shall be divine!"

Ben got me a Present & Correct calendar for Christmas.

Ben & I get 9am church now.

TODAY

YES - THEY ARE REAL CALA LILIES. YES - BEN PICKED OUT THIS VASE AT IKEA.

in reverse chronological order:

1. Couldn't stay awake for all of Star Wars: A New Hope. (Which is too bad - I've been excited a while to see it again...)
   
2. Alma 44 at my family's house.
   
3. Ben's pork, broccoli, potato dinner w/ a blended lemonade & strawberry beverage.
   
4. Carmen coming to "job-shadow" for her Computer Tech class as I design Elise's announcement. (She also played Bananagrams with me & ate TWO meals here!)
   
5. Enjoyable 30-minute phone call with Mom.
6. My '62-'66 Beatles vinyl album playing on the turntable.
7. Fishstick/salad lunch.
8. Killing a spider and about a billion ants. In my little house.
9. Catching up on blogs - back to about August. My favorite catch-up: Lindsay's!
10. Sleeping in til 10:30
11. "You look beautiful," said Ben when I sat up from sleep to help look for the car keys.

(i could tell he wasn't just saying it...)