Highlights of 2008 Part II

Hey there. In case you're interested, here's what happened in:


July

I remember nothing but good times in July. I was done with school and was only focused on the wedding and my big move west. When I wasn't working or prancing around my house in my tiara, I was just goofing off with my friends. Ben and I were still hanging out a lot. Julie and I house sat for Lindsey's family while they were vacationing in Europe. It made me wish I'd had Julie as a full time roommate - but then I remember I love her to much.

When Warp Tour rolled around Jason, Matt's BFF, had an extra ticket and all access pass. (Apartently he's a friend of Cobra Starship and We The King's owed him one for rescuing their drummer or something. I don't look a gift horse in the mouth.) That was probably one of the most fun days of the summer (without Matt) I got all this free stuff! I only spent about $15.

I played Halo 3 with Cobra Starship against The Academy Is. And snuck into a BBQ with Tom Delong from Blink 182.

No joke! Neither one of us had "laminates" and aparently they were only feeding people with "laminates." So Jason, as crafty as he is, snuck under a random rock star's wing and "accidentally" left me at the gate. That pissed off secruity guard was the only person I've never been able to work over my womanly charm on. But that's okay. I bet after a time he became immune to that kind of thing.

So I was just standing there like, crap. How am I gonna get home? I'm probably never gonna see Jason again. And he's not only my ride but the DJ for my wedding!

And then Tom Dulong, who is really tall by the way, came up to me and shouted, "They won't let me in! Can you believe that!?"

What happened next was very much like a near death exprience. I felt really light headed. Every crazy blink video I've ever seen flashed before my eyes as I morphed into my sixteen year old self.

...............I think I mumbled something.........but I destinctly remember shrugging my shoulders. Then this really skinny guy (who must have been a very important person because he had not one, but two studded belts on and wearing eighties style sunglasses at 10:30 at night.) He had five different colored laminate passes swing from his neck and he said he would get us in, so Tom and I followed him around the back.

All the while, Jason saw this, and he text Matt: Dude. Tom Delong is talking to your girlfriend.

Hehe.

The BBQ was like nothing else. I saw Max Bemis from Say Anything with a birthday hat on and pulled pork all over his face.

I would have to say though, the best thing that happened in July is that Matt came home. His stepmom says my feet didn't even touch the ground as I ran into his arms. I think I was just so happy because that marked the moment we would never have to be apart again.


August

Matt came home just three weeks before the wedding. So that month we were swept up in a whirlwind of flowered garland and chiffon. I quit my job at the studio that month so I would have more time to breath and spend time with his out of town family that came in. With a lot of help from them, and surprisingly my parents, Matt and I created our dream wedding. Sara made us a fabulous custom cake. Jennifer took pictures that not only made me look like a "Top Model" but that we can treasure for a lifetime. Thanks to Julie, Lindsey, and Watler Knoll florist I got not only the experience of making all my flowers myself but I didn't have to spend a dime! Our moms added a unique flair to our table clothes. Frank and Kaye did an awesome job hosting the rehearsal dinner. All the months of late night calls, text messages, and picture mail finally paid off!

The next day was so weird, but one we will remember forever. His parents got us this cute little room at this bed and breakfast. Even though we went to bed at like 2 in the morning we both woke up before 6:30! So we had a luxurious breakfast and went to Six Flags with his family. Who does that? I know. But we were so giddy, Six Flags was actually the perfect place to parade around as newly weds.

Who'd have thought?

Then that night we played laser tag and demolition ball with his friends, mostly because we knew we wouldn't really see them anymore after we moved.

Ahhh, I still get butterflies thinking about all our wedding festivities.

But soon after, we had to say goodbye to all our family and friends, and embark on our journey to Idaho, where we would begin our lives as a newly married couple. It was a three day drive, but since we didn't really get a palm tree-exotic-beaches-honeymoon, we stoped at The Anniversay Inn in Utah, where we stayed in this Pirate Ship themed room. It was corny but really fun!


September

Once we got to Rexburg, life came back at us full swing. Matt went back to work right away. And school was comming up right around the corner. Meanwhile I got a job at the gym, and picked up some shifts at Wal-Mart - just to make it look like I wasn't a mooching townie.

It was hard being away from my family, but also nice to have all the alone time with Matt. He really is great you know :)

I just got really tired all of a sudden. I'm going to have to call it a night. More tomorrow.

Highlights of 2008

This was a long time coming, and it's something I've been meaning to do for a while. And since January is almost over and people have already begun throw out their resolutions, I better get too it.

So these are the things that stuck out to me in 2008.

Drum roll please

January

2008 started out beautifully. My roommate and I had a rough one in 2007 so we decided to celebrate a new horizon by throwing a classy dinner party. (Well, as classy as we could afford.) As soon as the clock struck twelve Matt grabbed my face and planted one on me. It was the first time I'd kissed the guy I really wanted to at midnight. I just knew it was going to be a great year.

Unfortunately, January was also the month BodyC decided to close the store. I remember going into work the first day of the year and half the floor was cleared of fixtures and merchandise. Chrissy and Dennis (see wedding pics at sunshine photos) and I were just dancing around and doing cartwheels on the bare wooden floor.

Oh, I really missed the Crestwood store. I could get away with anything there. Luckily I transferred to the South County location, so I wasn't out of a job. But I did work a 16 hour shift packing boxes and cleaning up that last day at Crestwood.

I would add a picture here, but blogspot is gay and keeps putting my pics at the top of the page!!!!!!!!!

February

Februray is especially fabulous because that is my birthday month! I share my birthday with our first president, don'tchaknow. But first, Valentines day was a classic too. My roommate and I both had to work that night, and so did our boyfriends. So we decided to have a romantic dinner for four at eleven o'clock at night. As the chicken was simmering in the pan, Matt took me outside in the cold and got down on one knee.

"There is something I've been wanting to ask you for a while now," he said with a sheepish grin.

For some reason I started to panic. And started to ramble, as I often do when I panic. But I was shocked to see him pull a plush rose out of his jacket pocket.

"Will you be my Valentine?" he asked, unable to hold back his giggles.

I graciously took the rose and beat him with it.

On to my birthday. We ate at my favorite japaneese steak house. That was terrific because not only I was surrounded by twenty something of my new friends, but some of the friends who had exiled me only a few months prior were at the hibatchi across from us! We were all laughing and taking pictures and being the wonderfully happy people we are. And Matthew was being subltly but obnoxiously affectionate. I could tell it was making my old friends really uncomfortable. Serves them right!


March

March was a memorable one too. A week before our "one year dating anniversay" Matt went to my dad and asked for my hand in marriage.

My father politely refused. When Matt went back a week later asking him to reconcider. My dad didn't say anything.

So Matt prayed about it...and asked anyway. Buy this time my mother had gone to the lowest point of her temporary mental illness and disowned me, so Matt figured it was okay to get married anyway.

But he made it really special. He took me swing dancing at the place where we fell in love, and got up on the stage and made a big scene about it. But who wouldn't love that?

After Easter, my mom missed me I guess, so she said I could come back to the house for a visit. That first visit back to the house was very awkward and I don't remember much of it. But she said I could live in my grandparents vacant house till I got married in five months.

OH! I forgot to mention.......Kelly got in a petty fight with our land lady so she kicked us out.

Yeah, March had it's drama.


April

April wasn't much better. Kelly and I moved out of the apartment. We had been arguing for the last couple of months we lived together so she left a few days early and left me $525 in debt and with ALL the cleaning to do. Even her room. The missionaries and Nathaniel helped me move all my stuff to my new empty house. I remember nastalgically watching Kelly go, knowing I would never see her again. But I looked forward to living alone. All alone.

April was also the month Matt went back to BYU, four months before the wedding. The night after he left (only my third night in my new house) there was an abrupt, minor but frightening, earthquake. I soon regretted my decision to live alone and was a bit depressed for a few weeks to come.


May

I was just about to finish up school, and I was working to jobs, so that kept me busy. Plus the dance recital for the studio I worked at was comming up so I threw myself into that. On the weekends, with nothing else to do, (I didn't have my computer so writing in a notebook was tiresome and fruitless.) I would get redundantly gussied up and go to the clubs with my girl friends. And Dennis. Who is a girlfriend I guess.

It was really silly actually. I didn't drink, I wasn't there to meet guys. Half the music sucked. I was just despirate for some night life. Coming home to a quiet, empty house just the way I left it was nice though. And Matt never gave me the third degree if I called him at 1:30 in the morning after I got home.

As if my life wasn't Twilight Zone enough, an old friend would randomly take the liberty to call me at 3am and talk about the old days.

April and May were really tough without Matt. But he sent me a mixed CD. I really wore out "A Walk Through Hell" by Say Anything. You should YouTube it. Awesome song.


June

I grew tired of the club scene really fast. I started to hangout with Ben alot. He was lonely too. So he'd pick me up on friday night and we'd drive around the Loop in his convertable, have dinner at new resturant every weekend. Sometimes we would venture out to the Mills (a mall) and we also started up this fun D&D group. Ben's always been a good friend. We did have a falling out once, but he's always been there for me.


Okay, this is going to be really long post if I do this all in one day and you guys will get tired of reading. I don't want you to miss a moment of the drama and angst of 2008 so I will post the next six months tomorrow.

Goodnight!

Life is Good.

Nothing much to report except life is good as usual. Matt, being off track in school right now, is working a lot. I'm working a lot. But we seem to easily still find time to spend with each other. I've made dinner at home (for the both of us) four nights this week! That's an astounding record for us. We are usually not even home together four nights a week.

Not much new at work. It's all a pain sometimes, but at the end of the day I'm thankful for both of my jobs. I know so many people right now desperate to find work and are getting doors slammed in their face everywhere. There are some business around here I've noticed that have resorted to putting "Sorry, not hiring" signs in the windows.

This is scary. But for the sake of my overactive anxiety I'm going to pin it on the fact of the over population of this tiny little town. It's always been hard to find work in Rexburg, right?

It's been snowing more. I got to use to dry ground. I'm ready for winter to be over. I'm over all the snow capped mountains and powder covered pine trees and all that scenic crap just give me the sun and tee shirt weather PLEASE!!

But whenever I get complainy like that I just shut myself indoors and remind myself it won't be like this forever. - Even though we don't really have it that bad right now :)

I Love My Husband

Sleeping In

The good thing about having a small apartment, is it doesn't take long to clean. I can have the kitchen and bathroom spotless in a little over an hour. Last night I had planned to wake up early, clean the apartment and surprise Matthew with breakfast. But my alarm went off and I thought, Oh, ten more minutes. And that turned into three hours.

The morning was nearly gone when I regained consciousness, but I decided to cuddle in bed another half an hour. The bedroom was just so peaceful, it hadn't seen the sun in days, and I thought 'Why get out of bed when there's really nothing to do?' I know things won't be this laid back forever, and I just wanted to enjoy it.

But there was plenty to do, and now my morning was gone. I rushed around the apartment scrubbing the tub and polishing the mirror. Once Matt got up I drug him out to go run errands with me. The first stop on our agenda was to get our hair cut. We like to go to the beauty school in an attempt to help out someone else and be thrifty. They usually do a good job but all the students there are a little quirky.

Take today for instance. This girl was so nervous it took her fourty five minutes just to cut my hair! She would make one snip, and then comb the strand three or twelve times. I think she moved the clips around in my hair more than she actually cut it.

It turned out okay. I'm trying to grow it out so I just got a trim. But I just giggle every time I think about it. Fourty five minutes! Poor girl.

It was late afternoon by the time we got home from the grocery store. I made stir fry for dinner because it's fun and easy. Tonight we went to see the new 007 movie. I'm not much of a Bond fan but I really like that older lady that scolds him and bosses everyone around. She's the real love of his life. All the women Bond gets and he will never love them more than her.

So it's been a day. I'm gonna go take a bath.

Here it goes....

For some reason, I woke up this morning just itching to get out of the house. And although three hours with preschoolers is absolutely thrilling, I needed just a little something more.

So I called up my friend Aubrey. Haven't gone out with her in awhile and I really like spending time with her. She's just one of those genuine people, you know? She doesn't let the small stuff ever get her down and is probably the easiest person to talk too. She's just got that positive vibe that rubs off on you and I need that as much as possible in my life. That's one reason I married Matt. He's the rainbow in my thunderstorm....

Haha! ....and the award for the gooiest, cheesiest line goes too.................

But seriously, she's not all kittens and rainbows either. Aubrey's not the kind of friend that will just agree with every opinion I spit out. It's really kinda funny how she politely and discreetly mentions that she sees things a different way.

Sowe made plans but then I was like, okay, what is there to do in Rexburg?

Matt and I have saved up a little money that is burning a whole in my pocket. I haven't been shopping for clothes in MONTHS and I'm starting to shake every time I pass a store. So naturally my first instinct was shopping. BUT that is plane ticket money and a new dress is not worth sabotaging my marriage.

So we settled for a dinner out and a movie instead. It was during dinner that I realized I haven't been out with a friend in a while because I had such a good time just talking to another human being besides my husband. I'll be the first to admit that I've been a bit anti-social for the last month or so. But gabbing with Aubrey was really nice. I got to hear about the recent change in her plans and gossip about married stuff. I found myself opening up about things that have been bothering me lately and that I haven't felt compelled to confess to anyone. You "guys" just don't know, it's so good to have "girl time."

...............Okay, now get ready for this..........

I finally saw "Twilight." I'm surprised to say I enjoyed it, but not surprised to say I liked it a lot more than the book. Of course I found myself laughing at parts I don't think I was suppose too, and I was still annoyed at Bella's naive teenager nature, but all in all it wasn't bad.

When people ask if I like the book series and I say no they retort with, "Well, it's a fantasy book and I guess you just don't understand that. It's not your thing."

(clenches teeth) No. Believe me. I understand fantasy. I eat sleep and breath fantasy. But I've already lived that "fantasy." You see, I dated "Edward Cullen." The tall, fair skinned, painfully handsome "Edward Cullen." He had his alluring secrets, his mysteriousness, and his sports car. He was different from all the other boys and animalistically protective of me. My parents were wary of him. His friends told me he was "dangerous" and no good for me. But his emotional scars and accidental faults made me unconditionally in love with him.

I promise to stop using "qoutations" now.

But this little fantasy went on too long. Years too long. And in a backwards way he warped my mind and broke my heart. When I left he kept a very close eye on me. Ultimately he never let me go, and came this close to hurting the person I was really meant to spend that utopian forever with.

So now I can't help but cringe when I see more stupid girls fall into that same false sense of love. But they can't help it, I know.

That's probably the biggest problem I have with the twilight story. And it bothers me because I've worked soooo hard not to write my story with artificial syrupy romance. Not to say there is no fluff, it's just subtle. I went for more action and conflict. But if that's what people like to read, then I guess I just can't cut it.

This has bothered me for quite a while. And I haven't really told anyone. Except Aubrey.

But hey - I'm okay. This was not meant to be a depressing post. I appreciate them but it is not nessicary to post "Hey, hang in there," comments.

Thanks :)

As usual, my anxiety proved to be useless.

Once I was home, it was like I'd never left. Besides funeral stuff, and a movie, we didn't really do anything. I actually stayed in bed all day from the flu the last day I was there. But just spending time together was enough to show my mom that the changes I've made have been for the better. Honestly it was the first time in years I've felt like I can just talk with her.

I don't know what happened! But the life was back in her! You could see it in her eyes, the ten pounds she's gained, and hear it in her voice. When I wasn't doing evil things to her toilet we were talking about birth control (!!!) and she was giving me make-up tips. And she was gushing about the vacation she's taking this week with her sister.

I was completely beside myself.

So those days flew by, faster than the actual twelve hour trip it took to get there. I came home not knowing what to expect......walking in I covered my eyes just to prepare myself for the devastation that inevitably lay before me.

Seriously, what a bitch am I? I should have way more faith in my husband. And I do. The Theraflu was just messing with my judgment.

Truth be told, the apartment was spotless. Dishes done, bed made, CLOTHES OFF THE FLOOR!!! There was even a little sign on our board welcoming me home. *********

So what have I learned? It's okay to have two homes-or three. I love my mom, and I love my husband.

Not that it was ever in question ;)

This post will be titled:

"How did all this laundry get here and how and I going to get it all done!?"

Seriously, there is only two of us.

But I'm back from my trip, which went better than I could have ever imagined (if you can imagine) and all the clothes in my suitcase smell like smoke. So I have to get this laundry done before I do anything. But I promise to produce a quality one before my head hits the pillow. Oh, there are so many constructive things I could be doing besides blogging, but I do love a good rant.

Tata for now...

traveling anxieties

So in a few hours, I am off to St. Louis to tend to some family affairs. It will be a long journey, as any journey out of Idaho. But after a four hour bus ride and two flights, on top of weather conditions, we'll see how I feel.

Of course, I'm grateful beyond words that I get to go home and spend time with my family. My mother needs me right now, and I can't wait to get back in touch with my sisters. I'll get to send some time with my in-laws too. And there is a piece of me that won't be whole again until I get to see my dad. Although 2,000 miles isn't nearly wide enough to break the bond we share.

All of this and I'm still shaking with nerves at the thought of going home again. No matter how much I love my mother, I can not deny that she is a crazy person. I am dreading our initial meeting because if I show up too fat, she will ask if I'm pregnant. If I show up too skinny, she will think my husband isn't taking care of me. (P.S> there is no middle ground. Inevitably, I will be one or the other.) I've packed all my best outfits because otherwise she is going to assume the mormons have burned all my clothes in a satanic ritual bonfire. And I'll be wearing enough makeup to make a french whore jealous.

As much as I love her, I'm terrified to be alone in the same room with her for fear of my fragile self-esteem. I wish Matt was coming with me. He always knows what to say, and he's always that perfect buffer. I can't believe I'm fretting about this, but after all this time together I can't fathom spending five days away from him.

Today I did everything I could to make sure he would be alright while I was away. I stocked up on groceries, deposited the paychecks, did the laundry and cleaned the apartment. I just hope I don't come home to find the apartment in filth with Matt rocking in the fetal position in his underwear spouting proudly, "I cut my own hair!"

But I'm sure it will be fine. I have to finish packing.

Comming Attractions

I plan to add like three new posts today....as soon as Cinderella gets done with all her chores.

So stay tuned!