Live, Laugh, Love

Wisdom Teeth Post Op

2012-01-29T20:13:00.000-05:00

I wanted to do a quick follow up to my previous blog about my wisdom teeth (as seen here).

Here are the highlights of my "operation."

No facial swelling. Thankfully. Because I have a round enough face as it is.
No facial bruising.
No drooling on myself. (Holland told me I would, so I packed a towel in my purse the day of. Didn't even need it.)
No extreme pain. In fact, I never even filled my prescription for the "hard drugs."

Here are the lowlights:

Wisdom tooth diet. Can I really complain about this? EVERYONE has to do this, so it's not like it's a novel thing to me. But I will. I am so sick of not being able to chew with the back of my mouth.
Not being able to brush the back of my teeth very well because of the gaping holes in my mouth. Hello 24/7 morning breath. (Not really, but the first couple days was not pleasant for Holland or myself).
Holland rubbing it in my face that he has a fully functioning mouth by eating everything I wanted to eat. Literally, he rubbed food in my face. (No he didn't.)

I had a follow up appointment with my oral surgeon this last Friday (1 week post-op). He took a look at them, very briefly and declared me the best patient he had ever had.

Or... he said that I had been keeping them very clean and they were healing nicely. But in my mind, those two things are basically the same thing.

So, for the time being, I'm being careful about what I'm eating (no chips, no sharp stabby foods), but I'm testing my limits a little bit more. Brushing more normally. Not eating ice cream anymore. Not having bad breath any more.

Overall, a great (as it could be) experience. In fact, I think I'll go write Dr. K a good review if I can find a forum to listen to me.

Revelation

2012-01-29T20:05:00.000-05:00

I've been contemplating for the last little segment of my life something pretty major. (If you thought, "babies," you were wrong!) Although I won't go into detail on my blog about it, I will say that it has caused me many sleepless nights and quite a few tears as well.

One day last week, as push came to shove, I was explaining a situation to a good friend of mine here in DC. As I was explaining my most current frustration about my decision making process, it came to me. You need to go to the temple. That one small revelation humbled me. In my arrogance and pride, I hadn't thought to go to the Lord's house to converse with Him. Sure, I could ask Him in my own home, but there is something so sacred and precious about being in the Lord's house and working out a problem with Him.

Saturday, I woke up early and decided that I would head on over to the temple before I started with the rest of my day.

As I was sitting in my session, I got the worst tickle in my throat. It was odd because I'm not sick. And it would NOT go away. I just kept coughing those awkward little coughs that show that you're trying not to hack all over your neighbor and be disruptive, but that you still have something bothering your throat. Finally, a cute old lady next to me leaned over and gave me a throat lozenge. Immediately after I popped it in my mouth (during a louder part of the session where I could unwrap the lozenge sneakily), my throat was soothed. I thought to myself, "These are the kind of people that Heavenly Father wants me surrounded by." I pondered that for a little bit - by "these are the kind of people," I didn't mean Mormons and I didn't mean cute old ladies; rather, I meant the type of people who were courteous to those around them, who were aware and intuitive of the needs and feelings of those around them.

Later during the session, a line that almost always sticks out to me resonated very strongly in my soul in a different way. It reminded me of 2nd Nephi 2:25 - "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy." Think about it (as I did at the time) - "Men are, that they might have joy." We were created in the likeness of our Father in Heaven that we might have joy.

Heavenly Father wants us to be joyful. He wants us to be happy. He wants ME to be happy. Me, specifically. So much so that he brought to my mind these two revelations*. So much so that, later on in the evening, as I was walking into our apartment building with an arm full of things, a man who had just left saw my struggling and made the extra effort to come back inside and open the door for me. He specifically put people in my life yesterday to show me that there are GOOD and KIND and DECENT people out there and I should be surrounding myself with THOSE people.

With all of this being said, I have made a very big decision in my life. I don't feel comfortable talking about it in a public blog format just yet (and maybe not in the near future), but I do ask that you keep me in your prayers as I make this shift in my life.

*On the off chance that someone is reading this blog who is not familiar with the LDS religion, we believe that, as in biblical times, God speaks with his people and gives them guidance. We call this revelation. For more information, go here.

The Joy of Photography

2012-01-29T19:40:00.000-05:00

For Christmas, Holland gifted me an introductory photography course through the Smithsonian. The title of the course is, "The Joy of Photography." Here's a description of the class:

This non-darkroom course is designed for beginners who want to learn how to use their digital or film-based camera as a creative tool. The goal is to gain skill in technical aspects of photography so that they can concentrate on composing beautiful images.
Students work digitally or with color-slide film, and topics include aperture, shutter speed, metering, exposure, ISO/ASA, composition, film selection, special effects, and flash photography. The instructor gives weekly assignments and reviews them in subsequent classes.
Students should bring to the first class a camera (digital or film-based SLR) with manual or override capabilities. Color-slide film to purchase is discussed at that time. Students working in film process it commercially outside of class. Students working digitally must bring images for review on a flash drive or CD or in print. Point-and-shoot digital cameras are not appropriate for this course.

My first class was this last Thursday. We went over some pretty basic manual settings - aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. These were all things that I had learned about previously in one of my sociology classes, but this time, it all kind of clicked. I understood how to use the three of them together and how you knew which ones would work and which ones would give you a completely black or completely white image.

Although there are a couple of people in the class who annoy me (coughcoughNOTACTUALLYBEGINNERScoughcough), I'm really looking forward to learning more about how to use my camera OFF automatic mode and how I can take better pictures with the camera. I mean, really, what's the point of buying an expensive camera if you're just going to take the same old pictures you could take on a point and shoot for a fraction of the cost?

Disclaimer: I hope none of you are expecting for me to become some world renowned photographer after this 8 week course. If so, you will be disappointed. It's regrettable that you had to be informed in such a manner. I apologize for any sadness or discomfort this may have caused you.

Buttons beyond Buttons

2012-01-22T20:26:00.000-05:00

I'll set the scene for you all.

It was around 6 pm. I had just ate some pancakes (look at me eating real food post-surgery!).

I was feeling a little bit tired, so I decided to take a nap. After asking Holland to pass me the brown blanket that we keep on our couch.

Now, here's a fun fact. Buttons, when she sees a blanket going over someone, automatically assumes that she will get a blanket cave. This usually consists of me bending my knees and letting her sleep under there until she gets too hot.

This time, I didn't bend my knees for her, but the way that I had my legs laying across the couch allowed some of the blanket to hang over the floor. This is where Buttons found her cave. (Kind of confusing. But I don't know how to explain it)

As she nestled underneath the blanket on her floor cave, I felt her pulling on the blanket as if she was laying on it.

Fast forward to about 20 minutes ago.

I woke up from my nap, sat up, and set my feet on Buttons. I was shocked. She never stays in her cave for that long. She usually gets too hot and ditches me 20 minutes later.

So I reached down and tried to grab her from her infernal cave.

But I couldn't reach her. I knew that she was down there, but I couldn't find her under the blanket. So I lifted the blanket up on the couch, only to find that she was INSIDE THE BLANKET.

You see, the blanket on our couch has a duvet cover over it. She had somehow crawled in between the button closures (obviously, I was not using the blanket right side up), and curled up inside.

It was really funny and my story doesn't do it justice.

Also, Holland wants me to inform everyone that he's taught Buttons how to catch.

Wisdom Teeth

2012-01-20T16:54:00.000-05:00

After my dentist appointment, I scheduled an appointment with the oral surgeon for the following Monday (MLK day if you're keeping up with the exact schedule of events).

When I got there, my doctor said that the pain was in fact, NOT from my wisdom teeth. He said, in not so many words, that dentists get it wrong about wisdom teeth ALL THE TIME. But that I probably should still get them out for these reasons:

I was at the prime time in my life to do so. Young enough to not have any extended healing times and to not have any health issues.
My bottom teeth were half erupted, so there still was some gums over top of part of them. This makes it really easy to get an infection or something if food gets trapped under the gum. He could have just cut the gums (gross :( ), but they would grow back anyway. (Side note: does this remind anyone else of a lizard who can grow back their tails? It didn't then, but it does now)

So I scheduled an appointment to get them out (I wasn't that attached to them anyway) on Friday (today, for those of you who are still keeping track).

The only thing I was really debating on was whether or not I should be sedated or not. The nervous part of me really liked the idea of being sedated. I wouldn't feel anything. Holland would have to baby me. I would make a really nice viral wisdom teeth YouTube video with all the crazy things that would come out of my mouth. I digress.

But Holland told me that it really wasn't that bad without being sedated. After confirming with Facebook, I decided that I, too, would not go under sedation (mostly to save us approximately $450 - not because I thought it wouldn't be that bad. Plus by saving us $450, I feel PRETTY entitled to buy myself something nice, if ya know what I mean).

The really nice receptionist recommended I not eat or drink anything starting the night before JUST IN CASE I couldn't handle it and wanted to be sedated. It sounded reasonable, so I played along.

To make a long story short, I was really nervous, but I went in today, went under local anesthetic, and got those suckers out.

It was a lot easier than I imagined in my mind. Plus I don't think they even messed with the nerves in my face and left my mouth partially paralyzed. Score for the doctors.

All four teeth took about half an hour to get out. There was some pressure, but all in all, a pretty easy experience for me.

My doctors were really nice and tried to do as little damage as possible. Instead of cutting away the bone around my wisdom teeth or making an incision, they were able to get them all out with relatively little effort. This means that I should have little swelling and perhaps no bruising (although, we'll see on both accounts. I haven't seen anything that would suggest otherwise, but I'm still a little numb).

As you can see, my mental facilities are about the same as they would be had I not had any procedure at all, which is another bonus of not going under.

The doctor, his assistant, and the receptionist were all REALLY impressed that I was able to just take the local anesthetic and not freak out. Apparently, they told me, people around here are prone to the dramatics when it comes to these situations. And obviously, I'm NOT dramatic at all. ;) They even gave me a gold star.

Or maybe I just gave that to myself for the purpose of this post. But... tomato... tomatoe.

Honestly, I don't know if I should help you or I should euthanize you.

2012-01-12T23:32:00.000-05:00

That quote has almost nothing to do with this blog post. The only thing it has to do with is how much I've been watching that movie.

Moving on.

Yesterday, I couldn't eat anything. Every time I tried to chew, to push on my teeth, to even close my mouth fully, I felt this intense pain in my upper left hand tooth/teeth. I tried to call the dentist at 9 EST, but his office was closed until 11. I called back a little after 11, but still got no answer. I left a message hoping he would call back soon.

I tried to ignore it the best I could. But by the time lunch came around, I couldn't do it anymore. I was eating a salad and every piece of salad I was eating took me like 7 minutes to chew because I was chewing SO carefully so that I wouldn't hurt my teeth any more than I had to.

H will tell you that this was a very dramatic moment in my life. But after approximately 5 bites of salad, I just couldn't do it anymore. I put my salad to the side, crawled under the blanket on the couch, and lay staring out the window for... quite a long time. It was pathetic, I admit it. But I WAS really sad that I couldn't eat anything without being in pain. Holland left for class pretty soon there after and I laid on the couch for another half hour or so. I got up and tried calling the dentist again. Still no answer. So I did what any rational human being would do and I called him once every half hour until I got an answer.

When I spoke to the lady at the dentist, she told me that the earliest appointment was not until the 31st of January. I'll admit it. I cried. For a much longer time than I'm willing to admit to in the public blogosphere. 20 days of pain?!?? After this long period of tears (good thing I'm a cute crier... ha!), I was convinced to call the doctor again and ask for an emergency appointment. After explaining my situation to the receptionist, she told me to come in that day. I was so grateful, I may have left the house looking like the walking dead.

But I made it to the dentist, cute or not cute, and he took a look at my teeth. After approximately 20 minutes of waiting/filling out paperwork, and 5 minutes looking around in my mouth, he told me the bad news.

My wisdom teeth had to come out. And, he said, they might as well take all 4 of them. He referred me to an oral surgeon (which I haven't seen yet) and gave me a prescription for pain medication that would take down the swelling in my gums/teeth(?) that was causing the pain.

Luckily for him, that medicine is working just fine, so I don't have to go crying to his dentist's chair anytime soon.

Side note: After I lamented to H about getting ANY KIND of surgery (of which I've had none before), he assured me that it's not so bad and that I shouldn't be worried about it. And while I'm not SERIOUSLY worried about it, can you really blame me for being a little bit worried that some guy/girl I've just barely met (who I haven't actually met yet at this moment) is going to be RIPPING four of my TEETH out of my jaw?!? And then DIGGING around my gums to get the roots out?!?! And then, as H so kindly pointed out, if they're impacted, he/she will BREAK THEM and then get them out PIECE BY PIECE. Yeah. No thank you. Does not sound like a jolly good time to me. End note.

Nap Central & Chili-Rubbed Tilapia

2012-01-08T17:31:00.000-05:00

I have a cold. I guess what this means is that my body wants to sleep sleep sleep. I woke up this morning at 10 am (we have 12:30 church), showered, put some clothes on, and then promptly fell back asleep until 11:30. I got up, did my hair (not so nicely), put on my makeup, and got dressed. We were late to church, which is pretty sad when it's 12:30 church (and without kids to boot!). During fast and testimony meeting, I felt really drowsy. And I had a hard time hearing - my ears were plugged from my cold. I also almost fell asleep on Holland's shoulder a few times. (No worries. I still picked up a few things from fast and testimony meeting.) After sacrament, I told Holland I was going out to the car to take a nap. I made my way through the halls, declining handshakes left and right (but seriously, I had to deny people handshakes SEVERAL times), and found my way to the backseat of the car with a blanket and proceeded to sleep until about 15 minutes to the end of church when I got cold. When we got home from church, I laid on the couch with a blanket cave for Buttons and promptly fell asleep again until Holland woke me up for dinner. If you're keeping track, people, that's 3 naps for one day. Record.

On a different note, I wanted to post about a recipe we tried today that I thought was really good. It was chili-rubbed tilapia. We tried tilapia earlier this week to see if it was a type of fish we could eat (we're not really fishy people). We determined it was, so we've been looking up different ways to cook it. Last time we did a lemon/garlic one, which was pretty basic fish-flavor. Today's was a bit different and SUPER easy. I got the recipe from here.

What You'll Need (for 2 people):
2 tilapia filets
2 tablespoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons oil

Mix up the seasonings together and then rub it on your tilapia. Heat oil in non-stick skillet on medium-high heat. Add the fish and cook until flaky, gently turning halfway, 5-7 minutes total.

That's it. You'll notice in the recipe, they use asparagus as well and more seasonings. And more tilapia. We didn't have any asparagus, so we just did steamed veggies. And since we were only cooking for 2 people, there was extra tilapia rub, so we saved that for next time.

So easy and so delicious. Try it sometime if you like tilapia. Or even if you don't. Promise it's tasty. And to prove it, even Buttons ate it and she doesn't like human food.

Side Note: This is the firs time we've put our plate on the floor to let Buttons eat off of it. It's not a common occurrence in our household.

My friends do, too!

2012-01-04T09:56:00.003-05:00

Sidenote: If anyone knows how to make it so this entire picture shows up, please clue me in.

My family makes me laugh

2012-01-04T09:52:00.001-05:00

New Year's

2012-01-03T15:00:00.000-05:00

This New Year's Eve was much better than last year.

As I was looking at past blogs to confirm this, I realized that I never wrote about Christmas or New Year's Last Year. It really is a shame that I didn't write about Christmas, but I can understand why I wouldn't write about New Year's.

Last year we went to a (lame) New Year's Eve dance. We left early and I may or may not have rung in the New Year's with tears. But let's not focus on that.

This year, we went to dinner with another couple from our ward to the best Thai place that I've had since I've moved to DC. (I hope that I can still say it's a great place when I go back to Seattle and have Ave Thai and not that it's just been so long that mediocre Thai tastes really good to me. But I think that it was probably good). It's this little mom-n-pop restaurant in Rockville (15ish minutes from our house) called Amina Thai.

What's interesting about this Thai place is that it's run by Muslims so it's completely halal. No pork. Which isn't really a problem for me, since I've never eaten pork in Thai anyway. I will definitely go back to this place.

Afterwards, we headed back to our friends' house to play games until the ball dropped.

And now I'll end this post awkwardly by saying nothing more. Hope you all had a good new year!

Christmas Day

2012-01-03T14:39:00.000-05:00

We woke up and headed to sacrament on a sunny Christmas morning. Sacrament was really nice. Full of great talks and music.

After sacrament, we raced home to open our presents. You can grow up, but there's still something exciting about the surprise of opening gifts on Christmas morning.

Buttons was really happy that we had opened up all our gifts to give her more room to sleep under the tree again.

I felt very blessed this year and loved all of the gifts I received. On the plus side, I even surprised Holland with a couple things that he LIKED. This, as some of you know, is a huge accomplishment on my part.

After we opened presents, we cleaned up our wrapping paper messes and started making brunch. We had invited 2 other couples from our ward over who also hadn't gone home for Christmas. We seriously feasted. I wish I would have taken a picture so you could see how much wonderful food we had. On the menu was: breakfast burritos (with chorizo, eggs, potatoes, and cheese), ham and cheese quiche, rosemary potatoes, fresh strawberries and pineapple with dip, sweet rolls, and cupcakes. I don't think I missed anything, but if I did, it's because there was just so much! We filled up on brunch and then spent the next few hours talking and hanging out in the living room.

Perhaps after brunch was over, I took a nap. Because, after all, no Sunday is complete without a Sunday nap.

The rest of the night was spent calling family, watching movies, and playing with our gifts.

Although it was a quiet Christmas without our families, we had a wonderful day. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas as well!

Christmas Eve

2012-01-03T14:23:00.000-05:00

Our Christmas Eve this year was really un-traditional.

We spent the day running errands and cleaning our house for Christmas day. I know that's really festive. We're all about festivities around here.

After we had finished our festivities, we continued in our very strict traditional values and headed downtown to EggSpectation. There, we wined and dined on french toast (or as Andy so kindly put it later in the evening - a white trash meal. Which I think is false. But I digress...).

After dinner, we went and saw Sherlock Holmes.

I made a huge movie faux pas and texted during the beginning of the movie. But in my defense, it was important Christmas-y things. So get off my back movie Scrooges.

After Sherlock (which, btw, was not as good as the first although that's not shocking), we raced home to get on Skype with Holland's family. We were up way too late Skyping with them for 8:30 am church in the morning, but we had a lot of fun, the least of which was opening up our Secret Santa gifts.

Although it wasn't a traditional Christmas Eve, we had a wonderful day and were very excited to wake up the next day for Christmas (even though we had to wake up for 8:30 church).

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T00:59:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Don't be took jealous of our family photo taking skillz (with a Z) and our ugly Christmas sweaters. It's hard to look this good. Trust me.

Christmas Kitten

2011-12-22T11:32:00.000-05:00

What's a series of blog posts without at least one with our cat?!?

Three years ago, Buttons was given to me as a Christmas present from my family. She was so tiny then and she's not so tiny now, but she still loves Christmas.

To cement her Christmas love, we bought her an outfit from the thrift store.

I know you probably want more pictures of her, so I'll give you a few more. But I warn you - they will spoil you the illusion of Buttons loving Christmas.

Fine. She didn't love being Santa's Little Helper so much. But rest assured, we will not be swayed on Christmas day. She will be Santa's Little Helper once again!

The Weekend of Holiday Cheer

2011-12-22T11:20:00.000-05:00

Last weekend was a weekend of holiday parties for us. We started off on Friday night with a hot cocoa party at our place.

We had several different extras to add to our hot cocoa:

milk chocolate chips
white chocolate chips
candy canes
mini marshmallows
hazelnut wafers
hazelnut & raspberry syrup
whipped cream

Each topping had its own place card. Cocoa was also accompanied by some treats: peppermint chocolate crinkles, pumpkin roll, and chocolate chip cookies.

The cocoa was so delicious (at least, as a cocoa fiend, I thought so) and the treats were plentiful. In fact, too plentiful. I may have overdone it a little bit, as Holland will be quick to attest, but I have no regrets. None at all.

Especially since we were able to bring a couple platefuls to the missionaries at the visitor's center. Which is where we were headed after the cocoa party. The Washington DC temple has a festival of lights every year. They use so many colorful lights around the Visitor's Center and more than just a few white lights around the temple grounds.

Aren't they beautiful? We are so lucky to live so close to the temple.

O' Christmas Tree!

2011-12-22T10:55:00.000-05:00

This year, we bit the bullet and bought ourselves a real live (but fake) Christmas tree. A 7 1/2 footer. It's a vast improvement from last years 2 footer filled with cats and Santas.

Christmas 2010

And here's the upgrade!

Sorry for the blurry pictys, but you get the idea! My grandma always had the most beautiful Christmas trees, so I was so excited to have a tree that was at least close to the beauty of hers.

Yesterday, I got the perfect addition to our Christmas tree. I was suspicious when I opened the box and found gold and purple wrapping paper, and I was very happily surprised when I found this in the box:

A little piece of home is now displayed prominently on our Christmas tree. Thanks, friend, for the most perfect gift. :)

National Christmas Tree

2011-12-22T10:40:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago we went downtown with our friends, Kelsey & Curtis, to see the National Christmas tree.

Holland was working downtown so we met him downtown at Good Stuff Eatery to get some burgers. To be honest, they were good (like we had heard), but they weren't THE BEST burgers we had ever had. We liked We, the Pizza much better.

We made our way to the National Christmas tree after dinner. The old National Christmas tree was blown over (as seen in this article) in the storms we had a few months ago, so they used a new one for this year's tree lighting. We were surprised to find it a little bit smaller than last year's

National Christmas Tree 2010

National Christmas Tree 2011 - Please note the misshapen tree. You'd think we could get a better tree than a misshapen one!!

The National Tree was surrounded by several trains. We even saw a train from Canada - sellouts!

The best part of the evening was when we saw someone get proposed to! Unfortunately, I wasn't quick enough (or creepy enough) to snap a picture of the happy couple. But rest assured, it was MAGICAL.

Reflection

2011-12-21T11:04:00.000-05:00

The FedEx lady came into my office today and mentioned that we were lucky that we received our delivery today because it has been so busy.

It made me think of a couple Christmases ago. There was a big snow storm in Seattle - I'm sure some of you remember this. The problem with snow in Seattle is that, since it doesn't snow a lot in Seattle and since it's so hilly - nobody knows how to deal with it. Everything shuts down.

This particular year, all of the shipping companies were shut down too. They couldn't deliver anything. One of the gifts I was expecting for Holland was being shipped UPS and wasn't going to be able to get to my house for WEEKS (For completeness' sake, this wouldn't be the last time Holland's gifts wouldn't arrive by Christmas, but those are whole separate stories). They suggested that we could go to the UPS shipping center to pick it up. So one day, around Christmas, we headed over to Renton (?) to pick it up.

When we got there, the line was out the door. And around the building. And in the snow.

As we got closer and closer to the front, we quickly came to the realization that not many people were coming out with packages. Apparently, because UPS had been shut down for so long and they had such a large quantity of packages (due to the holidays), they had just been just shoving all packages into trucks. In no particular order.

Why, yes, I did choose this picture particular for the man in the UPS shorts.

It was chaos. They found almost nothing that day. But when someone came out with a package, the whole line cheered for the one Christmas miracle.

Today as I was reflecting on that, it made me laugh so I thought I would share it with those of you who didn't live it (or hear about it thereafter).

Craftastic!

2011-12-13T13:10:00.000-05:00

I haven't been blogging much. That isn't to say that I haven't been doing things. I just haven't been blogging about said things.

One of the things that I have done is make a tree skirt for our new Christmas tree. (Lest you ask, it is fake. And we're okay with that. It'll save us moolah in the long run. And it's not as messy. And I love it. So there.)

I found THIS tutorial on Pinterest and got to work.

When I started the first row, I knew I was in for the long haul. It took forever for even the first one.

The closer I got to the middle the easier it got. I think this was mostly because the rows were shorter.

When I was done with putting the ribbon on, this was my final project.

I think it really turned out great (but I'm a little biased). The only thing is that I wish that it were a little bit bigger. Holland thinks it's fine, but I think that I could add a few more rows and I wouldn't be sad about it at all.

Friend Highlight

2011-12-04T21:43:00.000-05:00

This is my friend, Derek (and I).

Derek gets a special highlight today because it's his day of birth. And he is one of my greatest friends.

I was trying to think about how Derek and I became such great friends. And you know what? I couldn't remember. Maybe it's because we were neighbors. And he came and cleaned my room when I was away like a cleaning fairy (in a non-creepy way). And he came over at 2:00 am one morning when Mia and I wanted a boy in our presence even though we maybe were crying. Or maybe just I was. Or maybe it's because he thought it would be a good idea to go star gazing on a clear Seattle night. Even though we ran into a biker gang. And even though our first location totally blew and was creepy to the max. Perhaps it's because I use Derek as a my live twitter feed and tell him all my thoughts. Even my thoughts on knitting (fun fact: I hold the longest record for a knitting conversation with Derek). Or maybe it's his abs, but I think I would like him even if he didn't have them.

Maybe it's because of this Zombie moment.

Or maybe it's because he rode in the back set of the car with us from NYC to DC even though I was a grumpy gills and maybe I said a bad word (no worries, repentance granted).

Maybe it's because he came over specifically to see my kittens (when I had kittens. Before H made me give them all away).

Maybe it's because of this jump hug.

Perhaps it was because he bought my dessert right before the creepy guys bought it and saved me from a really awkward night.

It could be that he fell asleep in my twin sized bed, with Mia, when we were all hanging out at my house (because apparently, I'm THAT boring. Side note: RIP penguin pillow!).

Maybe it's because he stole my coat and mocked me with it on one of his Facebook profile pictures.

Oh wait. I know that wasn't it.

Point of the story: I don't really know how we became besties (not to be confused with beasties although, at times, I would use that word to describe myself). And that's a really good thing. Because it feels like we've been friends forever.

Happy Birthday, Derek!

Encounter

2011-11-16T09:43:00.000-05:00

Let me preface this by saying that I am not over exaggerating. Holland would tell you that I have a propensity for the extreme in my story telling. But I assure you, I am not. At least not this time.

I stepped outside of my apartment this morning on my way to the car. I got into my car, unsuspecting that anything was wrong. When I turned on my car and started driving, I glanced to my left and saw the spider of death on my window (from here on out, known as SOD). Luckily, I took a longer look and realized that it was on the OUTSIDE of my car. Luckily, otherwise you can bet I would not be at work right now. I would be begging random strangers on the street to exterminate my car of SOD.

Anyway, I kept my eye on this little SOD because, although I AM quite terrified of spiders, this one was scary beyond all other spiders. It was an average sized spider with a fairly big abdomen. This is all terrifying in itself, but to top it all off, IT WAS AN ALBINO SPIDER.

I don't know how many of you have seen an albino spider, but let me tell you - they are just about 12 times MORE scary than any other spider. Don't believe me? I risked my life to take a picture.

I know you can't see it very well in the picture, but I was as close as I dared go with the zoom on my phone.

Another thing about this SOD... It was resilient. It crawled onto my windshield and I blasted it with windshield wiper fluid (twice) and sent the windshield wipers to swiftly bring its death, but it WOULD NOT DIE. It just kept crawling back to the windshield, taunting me with it's albino-ness.

When I parked at work, I had two choices.

1. I could open my door, jump out of the car, and run for my life, praying that it didn't jump on my back.
2. I could destroy it.

Even though I am terrified of spiders, especially SOD, I chose the latter. I knew it would not rest until it had found a way into the warmth of my car. And that, my friends, is an accident just asking to happen. Imagine my surprise as I'm driving peacefully in my car and SOD crawls onto my steering wheel. And then I crash my car into the nearest tree out of fear. I had to kill it.

So I got out and thought that I would just take my rain boot and round house kick SOD, but that plan was soon foiled due to my attire this morning. With the dress I'm wearing, my round house kick could only go about as high as a toddler's could and SOD was not that close to me.

My next attempt was with a fallen leaf. I was going to brush it off the car and smash it. Unfortunately, the leaf was no match for SOD and he stood strong on my car (who probably also was terrified).

My third and final attempt was with a bottle (don't worry, I washed my hands afterwards). First I tried to drop the bottle close enough to knock SOD down. It wasn't close enough so I picked up the bottle and got as close as I dare and knocked that SOD to the ground. Then I stomped on him with my rain boots. To make sure that he didn't hitch a ride on the bottom of my boots into my office and to my desk (where I would scream like a little girl for my co-worker if he happened to show his face), I rinsed the bottom of my boot in a mud puddle. And SOD was gone.

There was no funeral and there was no mourning. All who knew of SOD (me) cheered his demise. And I lived happily ever after (until the next SOD).

You are greater than you suppose.

2011-11-15T00:58:00.001-05:00

Tonight, I felt very small.

As I was driving home tonight on some back roads, I started thinking about the stars. I was thinking about how, when I lay under the stars, I feel very insignificant. I am one girl under a massive blanket of stars. One girl under billions and billions of stars.

Tonight, I felt just as I was - one girl alone in one average sized apartment. And because I had such moments to ponder who I am, I remembered a piece of a talk I heard at stake conference.

The speaker was telling a story about a Russian atheist communist who had the opportunity to go to a temple open house. He was going so that when he returned to Moscow, he could write a social commentary on the church.

When he returned to Moscow, he said that when he went into churches and temples in Russia, he felt very small. They were designed to feel big so that when you entered, you would remember that you are nothing. You are insignificant. You are small.

But when he was in the temple, he felt as if he was much more than he was. He felt like he mattered. He was something big.

This story gives me heart. It reminds me that even if I am just one girl under a sky full of stars or just one girl alone in an average sized apartment, I am greater than I seem. I am important. I matter. I am a daughter of God and He sees me. He knows me. He knows of my struggles and heartaches. And He loves me in spite of my flaws.

In the words of Presidet Uchtdorf from this last General Conference, "No matter where you live, no matter how humble your circumstances, how meager your employment, how limited your abilities, how ordinary your appearance, or how little your calling in the Church may appear to you, you are not invisible to your Heavenly Father. He loves you. He knows your humble heart and your acts of love and kindness."

And

"God sees you not only as a mortal being on a small planet who lives for a brief season—He sees you as His child. He sees you as the being you are capable and designed to become. He wants you to know that you matter to Him."

Good night, my friends and family. Remember always, you are greater than you suppose you are.

Dream a little dream for me

2011-11-15T00:21:00.000-05:00

Last night, or more likely, early this morning, I had a series of strange dreams. It was like they rolled into one another.

The first dream took place in my primary school. I don't remember exactly what was happening, but my primary school was kind of like a dorm setting in that I lived there with a bunch of other people. In bunk beds. Maybe it was more like summer camp.

Regardless, I was in the bathroom and my hair was wet. As I was looking around, I realized that I forgot my blow dryer in my bedroom. Luckily for me, they had those wall hand dryers. So I started to dry my hair with that.*

When I was done drying my hair, I stepped outside and saw a person that writes a blog that I read frequently. And she was hugging a bear. And the bear was smiling.

And yes it was a grizzly bear. All of a sudden, we heard a giant crash and we saw that another grizzly bear (an angry grizzly bear) was coming our way. We ditched the smiling bear and hightailed it out of there.

Next my dream moved into my bedroom. I was laying in my normal spot on the bed (where I was laying when I was dreaming said dreams) and Holland came in. He was wearing a towel (sorry, Holland, to call you out on this, but you were in my dream). But he was wearing a towel like a girl would wear a towel under her armpits. (No, Holland does not actually wear his towels like this). And I specifically remember that he was using a towel that was not a bathing towel.

And I said to him, from my spot on the bed, "Holland, I just dreamed of a peek-a-keek."

Holland stared at me. And I realized my mistake. "No, wait a minute," I said, "I was dreaming of a pea-gull."**

And then my alarm went off.

* I think maybe I dreamed my hair was wet because my hair was, in fact, still wet.
** While I have no idea what a peek-a-keek is, I do remember that a pea-gull is a cross between a peacock and a seagull. You're welcome scientific world. Go find your pea-gulls.

For more dreams, see here.

Winter

2011-11-05T23:56:00.000-04:00

It sounds a teensy bit pretentious (or perhaps OCD), but today, we switched from our "spring/summer bedding" to our "fall/winter bedding."

It made a little sad.

Winter is coming.

Intruder

2011-11-04T10:32:00.000-04:00

Holland informed me this morning that we had an intruder in our apartment.

It was a baby mouse.

And while I'm disgusted that this is the case, I am happy that we happen to live with a resident mouser.

And while we're on the topic of our resident mouser, I wasn't too surprised when Holland told me this morning that she had smoked the little guy out. You see, starting last night, she had been holding post outside our hallway closet door. And while it wasn't entirely unusual to see her laying somewhere strange (kitchen mat or AC unit, anyone?), the cold, hard hallway floor just didn't seem to fit her style. And she slept there all night long. Which is also unusual. Sometimes you'll find her laying by the window on our bed by Holland's head. Or sometimes even stealing my pillow right from underneath my head. But never the cold, hard hallway floor. Plus, this morning as I was getting ready for my (deathly) early shift, she was sniffing the crack under the hallway door. I knew all of those things spelled trouble, but there was no way at 6 AM that I was going to go rooting out a mouse, screaming bloody murder, and waking up not only my apartment members, but also the ones around us. No way. So I, being the responsible apartment owner, left it there. I knew my mouser would take care of it.

And she did. On Holland's watch.

Now all that's left to do is scour the closet for any remaining mice (on Buttons' watch, naturally) and get our apartment management upstairs PRONTO. Because we don't need any more intruders. Even if Buttons likes to play with her food.

Halloween 2011

2011-10-30T21:32:00.000-04:00

It took me forever to figure out what we wanted to be for Halloween this year. (That's right, I said that it took ME forever to figure out what WE wanted to be. I was the decider this year). Finally, Wednesday night, I had a Pinterest epiphany. And so I was off to the fabric store to buy the supplies to make these:

Mickey & Minnie Mouse. Since I figured out what we wanted to be on such short notice, I made Holland a Tux Mickey Mouse rather than a Red-Pantsed Mickey Mouse.

Unfortunately, when I was making Holland's Mickey Mouse hat and ears, he wasn't home to let me measure his head, so I just guessed. That meant that by the time Holland got home, his hat and ears were a teensy bit too small and couldn't fit on his (fat) head. (Just kidding, HK. Love your cute head.) He had to stand very still for pictures. :)

Also on my list of crafting to-dos this year was to create a lion mane for Buttons. Since she's our only "child" right now, we took several pictures:

It didn't turn out quite as well as I had wanted it to. But it'll do. And Buttons loved it. DUH.

Happy Halloween!

Graves Mountain Apple Harvest Festival

2011-10-30T21:18:00.000-04:00

A few weekends ago, a couple friends and I decided we were going to take a Saturday girl's trip to a semi-local apple harvest festival. We drove a couple hours to Syria, VA to see the Graves Mountain Apple Harvest Festival.

We had planned to get there around lunch time and beat our goal by a little bit, so we walked around and looked at the booths they had for a little while. It kind of had a carnival/fair-like feel to me: people selling things that they had made and whatnot.

Here are a couple of my favorite shops:

A redneck wind chime, made of beer cans. Rest assured this is hanging in our home today. (No, it's not.)

Also, we found these nice pellets. We really considered buying some, but then we remembered that we saw some pellets on the road on the drive up, so we saved our money. (JK again.)

We decided we wanted to eat after that. So we walked around to see what our options were. On the way, we got distracted by the guys making apple butter.

While we were assisting, we learned that apple butter takes 20 hours to make. And it has to be stirred the entire time it's over the fire. When I was stirring, I learned that they actually DON'T stir it the entire time. Overnight, they put it over coals and let it sit like that without it being stirred. We also learned that a cauldron like that takes a TON of apples and just a little bit of other spices.

We finally made it to our lunch and here was what we decided on:

They had these really great homemade onion rings. Admittedly, we all ate a little too much lunch.

After lunch, we decided that we wanted to buy a couple things from the shops. Unfortunately, we hadn't really thought ahead, so we had to leave the festival to go to the nearest which was about 20 minutes away. On our way out, we passed these beautiful trees. The colors on the way up and around the festival were so beautiful. It was the perfect day to go. Sunshine and beautiful colors.

On the way back, we ran into a LONG 2 mile line heading to the festival. We tried to take a few pictures while we were in stop and go traffic. Some of them weren't so successful (and not really attractive on my part):

Here is the one that we managed to get of the three of us. It was a lot harder than you would think.

One neat thing about the harvest festival was that they had painted a bunch of these painted hay bales.

When we finally made it back to the festival, we decided to go to the u-pick apple area to grab some apples.

When we got there, we found that a bunch of them were VERY well picked over. In fact, so picked over, that we didn't even choose any of our own u-pick ones. But we did take a picture in the orchard.

By the u-pick area, they had this little pumpkin patch. Naturally, we so the need for another photo-op.

After u-pick, we went over to get some treats. Funnel cakes:

Here's some fried apples. We didn't actually eat any of these, but they looked pretty good.

Apple Butter donuts were another one of the things we got. The donut machine was really cool to watch.

Then we picked a few apples from the buckets they had. They had 7 or 8 different types of apples there, all grown in VA.

On our way out, we stopped by the hay bale cat.

And this is a very anti-climactic ending to a very long post. :)

A moment lasts a second. A memory lasts forever.

2011-10-25T08:58:00.000-04:00

On our second anniversary, I decided that I wanted to follow up with something I saw on Pinterest. The idea of the craft (seen here) is that you record things that happen throughout a given year. Rather than wait until 2012, I decided that I would change it to reflect a year in our marriage.

Now, I may be out-memory-ing Holland three (or perhaps four) - to - one, I still have a good feeling about this.

Office Casualty

2011-10-25T08:52:00.000-04:00

Perhaps I can blame it on an early morning shift this time, but I have once again injured myself at my desk job.

One of my job duties is to bind proposals that we give to our clients. If you aren't familiar with a binding machine, it looks something like this:

On those spikes that stick up, you use one of these binding combs:

The binding machines also punch holes that make it possible to put the paper on the binding combs (if that makes sense). I had just placed the binding comb on the binding machine when I realized that I hadn't punched holes in an essential piece of my proposal. Now the rest of this is a little bit fuzzy and I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I think this is what happened. When I realized that I had forgotten to punch holes in something, I left the binding comb on the spikes. Not realizing that I had left it there, I started to punch holes in my papers. Unbeknownst to me, if you leave the binding comb on the spikes and try to punch holes, it shoots off the binding machine into whatever unsuspecting person happens to be standing in the way. AKA me. Thus:

Another office casualty (that little welt on my arm). Who would have thought that those binding combs would be so dangerous?

I think that this has taught us all a valuable lesson: Kristin should not be operating any sort of office machinery earlier than 9:00 am. It's just dangerous.

(To read more of my mishaps in the office, go here or here.)

Hiatus

2011-10-21T14:57:00.000-04:00

Lest you think I've died, I assure you I am very much alive.

My computer, however, is no longer among the living. At least not for the next week-ish.

Long story short, I have to replace my logic board. For the THIRD time. Thanks a lot macbook/apple!

When my computer gets shipped back to me, I assure you I will bore you with 3 or 4 blog posts right in a row.

Until we meet again...

Hair Styles

2011-10-09T20:17:00.000-04:00

When I'm at work, I like to use gmail's gchat to talk with people who are also on a computer all day. I talk to several people throughout the day, usually.

One of the people I talk to most is Mia. Oftentimes, our conversations turn to our outfits or our hair. I've sent several pictures to Mia displaying each of these things, so I thought I would put those pictures to other use and document them here in my blog. Here are a couple new hairstyles that I've been trying lately.

1. No heat curls with a stretchy headband

Most of the curls that I'm showing you are no-heat, which I think is GREAT because my hair doesn't hold a heated curl and it's also less hassle. Plus, I'm less likely to burn myself. Overall, win, win, win. This is one of the first ones I tried. Here's what you need:

80-90% dried hair
Hairspray
Elastic headbands - something like this:

Here's the video where I originally learned how to do this no-heat curl.

And here is my final result using this method. Ignore the myspace-y feel to it.

P.S. I think I've already talked about this method, but for the sake of a complete post, here it is again.

2. Sock bun (curls)

I learned about this method shortly after the headband method. It's basically the same thing, but you use a sock bun instead of an elastic band. Here's the video:

Ideally, you're supposed to come out with super cute curls like this:

When I woke up, my curls did not look like that. In fact, they didn't even look like curls. They looked like a rat's nest. And let me tell you, my friends, that is not a good look on ANYONE. Maybe my hair was too short, maybe I did it wrong. I don't know. What I do know, however, is that I kind of like the sock bun on its own. Kind of like a ballerina bun. I could do this with my own hair, but my hair (although I have a lot of it) is pretty fine so it doesn't look like a lot of hair if make a bun sans sock. But here it is with the sock bun.

Keep in mind that these were originally FMEO (for Mia's eyes only), so I'm being PRETTY generous in sharing them all with you.

3. Twist braid curls

I watched a video (that I can't find now) and did not get it.

But then I realized that I had been twisting my hair all along in smaller amounts. I wish I had the video to explain. Basically, I just did a bohemian twist all around my hair. Starting on one side, I took a handful of hair from above my ear and started twisting. I went around the top of my head (like above the forehead, I guess) and then went to the other ear. Then, I continued on to the bottom portions of my hair until i had a ponytail left that wasn't twisted. Then I twisted the pony-tail part, and pinned it to the back of my head. Sometimes, I wear a head scarf to bed so that I don't mess up my hair or make it fall out. It's super sexy. Regardless, here are the end results.:

Again, FMEO. That's why I'm also super sexy in the picture

And there you have it. Those are the no-heat styles I do most frequently. I have a couple others that I'm wanting to try, but we'll see if I get around to it.

Brain Dump

2011-10-09T19:39:00.000-04:00

Since Holland is doing homework today (on the Sabbath??!?! ::collective gasp::), I'm pretty much on my own to entertain myself. Holland will attest that maybe sometimes this is difficult for me and maybe sometimes homework is interrupted. Whatcha gonna do about it?

I digress. Since I'm entertaining myself, I thought I would just do a little (maybe long?) brain dump on my blog. I might even do TWO blogs. How do you like them apples??

First of all, a couple pictures from my phone.

I bought these shoes the other day for a steal. I was playing chauffeur for Holland and we had a little extra time before he had his pre-interview coffee chat (true thing), so we stopped by a store near campus. It kind of reminded me of a weird Ross-like store. But more organized. And on the whole, cheaper. When I saw these shoes, I gasped. I don't mean to sound cheesy or confessions-of-a-shopaholic here, but I really did. You see, I had been eyeing these shoes at DSW that are very similar to these shoes, but at a much higher cost. I couldn't justifying those shoes, but these, you betcha. And in case you were curious, yes I am wearing sweat pants with my heels. I'm a classy lady.

We had to buy new speakers for our TV because our other ones broke and the sound on the TV is no bueno. With our new speaker came a bunch of styrofoam. Buttons was kind of terrified of it. And I kind of encouraged this fear by poking her with the styrofoam and swinging it at her. (FYI, in case you're wondering, one day, yes, I will be a GREAT mother.) So when she went into the bedroom, I wanted to see what she would do if I put the styrofoam in front of the door. The fear stuck and she was trapped in the bedroom. She looked like a sheep in its pasture. Only cuter. And less stinky. And we don't harvest her fur for UGG boots and yarn. And it didn't last. She eventually got over her fear and jumped the fence. It was nice while it lasted though.

Secondly, I'm trying something new this week. I'm meal planning our dinners. I've never done this before, but last week, we hit an all time high for store visits, so in efforts to make it so that the local Safeway and Target employees don't recognize my face, I made a menu. We'll see if it works out. And if it lasts. I kind of hope it does. It was kind of fun to plan out this week's, albeit; time consuming.

Thirdly, I had a third topic (and a fourth), but I changed my mind. Maybe more brain dumps later. :)

Pictys

2011-10-08T20:02:00.000-04:00

When we first got married and moved into our first ever apartment together (which was such an awesome apartment, by the way), I always wanted to hang up a picture in the bathroom. I even bought a picture frame for it. But I never got around to putting a picture in it and hanging it up in the bathroom. Eventually, I just used it in our bedroom.

When we moved into our second ever apartment together (here in Maryland), I got that same itch to hang a picture in our bathroom. But I never did anything about that either.

UNTIL NOW.

When I was in Target the other day (one of my favesies store), I found these picture frames for fairly cheap.

I know you can't see the price tag from this far away, so I did you the favor of taking a close up picture of how cheap they were.

$1.48!! I knew that I could re-purpose these to fit my needs. So I bought some supplies - paint, brushes, and painters tape - and I went on my way.

After painting one coat of white paint on all of them, I realized that painting them wasn't going to be as easy as I thought it would be. So I took the easy road out and bought some spray paint. I guess I thought taking another picture of a white picture frame (albeit spray-painted this time around) was snoozeville because I don't have a picture of the spray painted white picture frames.

Next, I covered them in painter's tape. This was so obnoxious. And as you'll see in later pictures, I didn't do it perfectly.

After that, I put on a couple layers of blue spray paint. Which is clearly more exciting than white paint. Clearly.

Next, I took just about an hour deciding which pictures I wanted to put inside them. Then I took the tape off and put those pictys inside of them. Here they are on my table.

Here's the grand finale, people. The picture frames. On the wall. In my bathroom.

And in case you were curious as to how they looked in the whole scheme of the bathroom, here's another angle.

TWO YEARS, PEOPLE. It took me two years to accomplish this feat. And I am proud. Even with the little bits of blue paint where there should be white paint, I am proud. Move over, Martha.

doubledutch.com DUH

2011-10-03T23:24:00.000-04:00

Some of you may remember when we brought double dutch ropes to an Institute Opening Social in Seattle. After a while of doubledutching (.com DUH), we decided that we needed a lot of people to single jump rope together. We had our difficulties.

We lined ourselves up just so. Derek even pointed out where we were flawed (or maybe he's just checking out bums).

We tried to jump just so. All with no success.

We even decreased our numbers in hopes that our jump roping would get better.

Eventually, we moved to two people jumping rope and that was it. And to be honest, it was impressive.

But was it nearly as impressive as this????

I SUBMIT THAT IT IS NOT!

How we behave toward cats here below determines our status in heaven

2011-10-03T23:06:00.000-04:00

The quote in the title of the blog was by Robert Heinlein. If it's true, I wonder where we'll go for doing this?

A truly wise man never plays leapfrog with a unicorn*

2011-10-03T23:02:00.000-04:00

Saturday was my sister-in-law's birthday. Annie is a big fan of unicorns so I worked hard to create a masterpiece that she would appreciate. And here's the final results.

*Sometimes, I like to put quotes or song lyrics as the titles to my blogs. I looked up quotes about unicorns and this was one of them that made me laugh.

Seats: 1

2011-10-03T22:58:00.000-04:00

The other day, I discovered that the headlights on our car can hold exactly one passenger: a giant grasshopper.

I actually discovered this little (big) guy on our way out of Whole (Paycheck) Foods. He was actually pretty hard to miss. I wanted him to jump off before we made our way home, but he would not budge. Finally, I realized that he was missing a leg. You can see on the left hand side that there is no leg there. He must have crawled all the way up to the headlight, because he sure wasn't jumping. Or maybe he just wasn't scared of me poking him and prodding him with the pen I had in my purse, despite Holland's revulsion.

I was extra surprised when we had gone a few minutes and he was still hanging on to our headlights. I was so surprised that I just HAD TO document him part way through our ride home. When we were at a stop light, after I had checked my surroundings for the PoPo, I took off my seatbelt and zoomed in on our tiny passenger.

I'm proud to say that we safely brought him to our final stop - home.

Haircut

2011-10-03T22:51:00.000-04:00

I was feeling pretty bored with my hair so I decided I needed to make a little bit of change. Unfortunately, I can't make a lot of changes because Holland likes my hair long, and actually, so do I.

After about a little bit of thought regarding whether or not I should go under the scissors, I started researching hair salons in the area. I don't really trust salons in general because I've had so many bad haircuts where the stylist just didn't listen to what I wanted or they cut it poorly (seriously, I've had uneven hair before). I wanted to find a stylist that had a lot of good reviews and was relatively inexpensive. There's no point in spending a ton of $$ on a haircut that isn't a super big change.

So I finally found a stylist that I thought would work for me.

Salon EFX. They had pretty good Yelp ratings and were pretty reasonable in their price. My stylist, Sarina, didn't have as many reviews as the owners, but she had enough that I felt fairly comfortable in trusting her with my luscious locks (haha). When I saw that it was in a little strip mall (as shown above), I was a little apprehensive and almost just went home, but it looked pretty busy, so I sucked it up and went in after I took my before picture.

Please ignore my tired eyes. I basically got out of bed, did a little bit of work on my face (and hair - you don't want the stylists to get too judges on your hair habits), and then rolled out. Sarina was a nice Filipino lady who seemed to know what she was doing from the get-go. I showed her a couple of pictures that I wanted and she gave me advice on how those would look. For one of them, she made sure that I knew that if I layered too much, my hair would be thin. We talked a little bit more about what I wanted and then she got to work.

As I know that all of you would like to know the exact details of my hair cut, I'll go on. First she dry cut my hair so that she could cut off all of the dead/split ends (since I don't cut my hair very often, I usually have a couple. Or a couple thousand...). Then, we washed and conditioned my hair and she layered it while it was wet. She dried it and styled it a little bit and then cut some more of the layers and cut my bangs. Finally, she styled it again and I was on my way with less hair and free samples.

It's not super different, but I did get shorter bangs and some layers in it. And I no longer have tired eyes.

A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

2011-10-03T00:15:00.000-04:00

When we lived in Seattle, one Friday of the month, the Seattle Institute put on a married students forum. We weren't able to go to many, but one of the ones I remember, the speaker was talking about dreams. He said that one day, he had decided to record the dreams that he had. Every time he woke up from a dream, he would take a moment to jot a few notes down about it and then (if necessary), he would go back to sleep. He said that he knew that some people had visions through their dreams, but he thought that maybe that wasn't the case for him. He then proceeded to read us a dream from his journal about Snoopy (if I am remembering correctly. Regardless, it was something truly NOT prophecy).

Lately, I've been having a lot of dreams. And while I don't write them down as soon as I wake up, I sometimes ponder them. Sure, a lot of them are crazy; for instance, Buttons attacking a crow that had gotten into our apartment somehow and me being so worried that the crow's beak would do some serious damage to our poor cat.

Sidenote: Do crows creep anyone else out?

She'd have to be a super cat to take on one of those nasty birds. And I think they're mean. I know from experience. But that's a whole separate story.

But I've also had a couple dreams lately with things that have been on my mind. Worries that I have - work, for instance - and a couple different issues that I've been having with friends (of which it would not be prudent of me to mention details). And in my dreams, I totally am a bad-A and call those out who have been insensitive or not-so-friendly as of late.

I guess I don't really have a point to this post. Perhaps it would be best if my dreams stayed dreams. I mean, who really wants nasty germ-infested crows in their house? But then I look to those other dreams, and I think maybe, just maybe, my dreams have a point.

Miscellaneous Pictures

2011-09-18T23:36:00.000-04:00

When I was uploading pictures from my point and shoot camera, I found a couple that I had never posted from our trip to Seattle.

Pike Place. A place I love.

One of the things I love most about Pike Place is the flowers. I would buy them every day if I could.

And this is where we got engaged. Really romantic, I know. :)

Sunday with O-Dawgg

2011-09-18T23:32:00.000-04:00

Sunday was a pretty low-key day. We went to church in the morning, where Holland decided to take this picty of me with our nursery class. Aren't they cute??

Afterwards, we headed over to the temple. We checked out both the temple and the visitor center to look at a couple of the exhibits they have on display.

We wanted to check out the National Cathedral that day too. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot to see. The earthquake we had a little bit ago caused a little bit of structural damage, so they were doing repairs for that. Also, while they were working on those repairs, a crane fell over and caused more damage. So it was entirely closed down when we got there.

Saturday with O-Dawgg

2011-09-18T23:24:00.000-04:00

Saturday, we decided we would go to Arlington National Cemetery. Holland and I had never been, so we figured it would be a good time to go and see it.

It was really incredible seeing ALL of the graves there. I mean, I know how many there are there, but ACTUALLY seeing them was really awe-inspiring.

President Kennedy's gravesite. And the eternal flame.

View of the city.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. There is constant guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. During the summer, they change the guard every half hour. Here's what Wikipedia had to say about the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers.

It is considered one of the highest honors to serve as a ceremonial guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns. Fewer than 20 percent of all volunteers are accepted for training and of those only a fraction pass training to become full-fledged Tomb Guards. The sentinels do not wear rank insignia on their uniforms so that they do not outrank the Unknowns, whatever their rank may have been.

A little more from Wikipedia:

The guard change is very symbolic, but also conducted in accordance with Army regulations. The relief commander or assistant relief commander, along with the oncoming guard, are both required for a guard change to take place. The guard being relieved will say to the oncoming guard, "Post and orders remain as directed." The oncoming guard's response is always, "Orders acknowledged."

We headed downtown afterwards and stopped at Ollie's Trolley for lunch.

Not bad, but not great. It's kind of just one of those little eye-sores that you have to try once.

Here's a couple pictures of O-Dawgg from the restaurant.

We went to a few museums after that before we headed home for the evening.

That night, we rented a movie and watched it at home. Unluckily for me, I was outvoted and we watched Priest.

Why, yes, it was as bad as the movie poster makes it look. Thank you for asking.

O-Dawgg!

2011-09-18T22:50:00.000-04:00

Last Thursday, Owen came to visit us for a whole week. He got in late Thursday after work. When he got to our house, we had dinner and then tried to plan the rest of his trip. I took Friday off and Holland took half a day so that we could spend time with Owen.

Owen had scheduled tours with both the White House and Congress for the morning, so I ran a couple of errands before I went downtown to meet with him.

I met him at the Capitol. It was kind of gray and drizzly when I got there. I texted Owen and he said, "Meet me on the stairs." So I went to the stairs. No Owen. So I started to walking around the Capitol. And I walked, and walked, and walked. Do you know how many stairs are around the Capitol? A lot. And Owen was at none of them. I texted him, told him to find me, and then took a couple pictures of the gray, Seattle-like day.

Capitol Building. Doesn't it look like it's in Seattle with all the gray skies?

The Washington Monument form the Capitol building.

They had this cute little sitting area surrounded by fences. I really liked it. Plus, the sun came out so I was dying in my rain boots, so I stuck my hands in the little pool in the center.

First we went to a little sandwich shop for lunch. Actually, I don't really remember what it was called, but it was pretty good. Holland met up with us there. Then we walked over to the Supreme Court. Listened to the little spiel about the Supreme Court, and took a few pictys.

I think this is their sexy stair picture. I think. But who knows. I asked Holland and he said, really meekly, "I don't know. Showing off our bums??"

Just a normal picture on these stairs.

This is me. My hair's jacked up because of the rain (and heat). But here I am, nonetheless.

From the Supreme Court.

Owen loves to put his leg up like that.

We went to the Library of Congress after the Supreme Court. We took some pictures there, but none of them were that great because of the low-lighting. One day, we'll learn how to take low-light pictures. One day...

Since the sun came out and it was so hot, we decided we would walk over to Good Stuff Eatery for milkshakes. We had heard really good things about them, and they did not disappoint. Holland got a Milky Way milkshake and I got a Toasted Marshmallow milkshake.

Why, yes, that IS an ACTUAL toasted marshmallow.

We took a walk around the block after milkshakes where I got a few mosquito bites. Then, we stopped at We, The Pizza (which just happens to be right next to Good Stuff Eatery (and owned by the same people). Also really good. We definitely will go back. Also, the burgers at Good Stuff Eatery sounded pretty good. Derek, this is where I want to take you when you come back to visit.

After dinner, Holland was really tired. He had been walking around in dress shoes all day, so his feet were hurting him. He headed home and Owen and I went on to see the monuments at night.

Another shot of the Capitol, later in the evening.

Sunrise shot of the Washington Monument.

Capitol. Getting sick of seeing it, yet?

Washington Monument at night.

WW2 Monument.

WW2 Monument. I really like the WW2 monument both at day and night.

From the WW2 Monument.

Owen under the Washington pillar.

Lincoln Memorial and the "reflecting pool." I put that in quotes because right now, there is no reflecting pool right now. It's still being renovated. But because it had rained so much, there was some muddy water in the place of the pool that gave a reflection. So classy.

Lincoln was really busy at night, surprisingly.

I don't think the pictures do the Korean Monument justice.

We also went to the Vietnam Memorial, but there was almost no lighting there, so I didn't even bother trying to take a picture.

Stay tuned for our Saturday adventures. :)

Anniversary - Year Two

2011-09-18T21:32:00.000-04:00

A few days after my birthday, we got to celebrate our anniversary. Normally, I would have done a really sappy post about how in love we are (which we are) and how much I love Holland (which I do) and all the things I love about Holland (of which there are many), but since we didn't have internet that day, it just didn't happen. So you'll have to settle for the recap. Don't drown in your tears.

I woke up a little earlier than Holland so I could make it the grocery store and back before he woke up. I started breakfast just as he woke up, so I made him slave in the kitchen with me. This was our breakfast:

On the menu was crepes with strawberries, bananas, nutella, and whip cream (in whatever combo, you'd like), bacon, hash browns, and chocolate milk.

We got ready and then headed downtown. To be honest, I'm not sure if we got downtown that early because I can't remember what we did between breakfast and lunch. Maybe it just took me that long to get ready, which is entirely possible.

We had a late lunch at Fogo de Chao. If you've never heard of it (which I hadn't before Holland mentioned it), here's what it says on its home page:

Welcome to Fogo de Chão^® (fo-go dèe shoun), an authentic Brazilian steakhouse. In 1979, Fogo^® began sharing the gaucho way of preparing meat in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Today, our gaucho chefs still expertly grill each of our 15 cuts of meat and offer you continuous tableside service.

We invite you to enjoy the delicious preparations of our gaucho chefs along with our gourmet salad bar, authentic Brazilian side dishes, and award-winning wine list. Welcome to Fogo de Chão.

Perhaps your reading comprehension isn't that great, so I'll repeat: 15 cuts of meat with continuous table side service! They had all sorts of steak, chicken, and pork. The salad bar was really delicious and the sides were amazing as well. We were more than a little full by the time we left.

Cute husband.

Sides. These are garlic mashed potatoes (upper left), caramelized bananas (upper right), fried polenta* (lower). They also had pão de queijo (warm cheese bread) which is always good.

For dessert, we had this mousse cake, which was really good. An added bonus are the hearts that they put in the chocolate sauce. So cute.

After lunch, we went and watched One Day at the theaters. Based on the previews, I thought it would be this cute little lovey dovey movie. And it was. Until it wasn't anymore. That's all I'll say.

Year Two. And the bangs are still a little crazy. Love you, cute HK.

*Polenta is made from corn meal. Also, not to be confused with placenta, which I sometimes do in my head.

Birthday (Day Two)

2011-09-18T21:06:00.000-04:00

Since Friday was a work day and work+birthday=lame, we extended my birthday adventures to Saturday too. Maybe some of you (coughlisacough) think that I was cheated and I should have gotten a whole birthday month, but I was happy with my two day celebration.

We woke up fairly early Saturday to drive down to Baltimore to go to the aquarium. We had heard really great things about it so we were waiting for an opportune time to go and visit. Being a (twenty) four year old now, I was really into it.

To be honest, we spent a lot of time trying to get the settings right for the aquarium on our camera. There's a lot of low-light settings and we're not exactly professionals, so if some of these pictures aren't that great, that's why. Regardless...

The entrance of the aquarium has a 'local' section where they have a waterfall and these big fish. But I just chose this picture because I think Holland is cute in it.

They have great white shark teeth. How scared would you be if these jaws came up behind you? One bite and you're toast.

We came just in time for feeding of the manta rays, sting rays, tiger sharks, and this giant turtle. I'm not sure if you can tell in this picture, but this turtle only has three fins. She was a rescue-turtle and when they found her, apparently, she had a lot of infection in one of her front fins, so they amputated it and nursed her back to full health. She just swims around with all the other fish in this tank happy as can be. Plus, she really liked feeding time and stayed right near her feeders while they were in the tank with her.

I always love finding Nemo when I go to aquariums.

I like finding Dory too. Cuz, like I said, I'm (twenty) four.

Why are jellyfish so cool? Probs because they look so flimsy, but guarantee if you see one in the ocean, you'll be keeping clear of it.

Holland captured a picture of me while I was listening to my voicemail. The way my hair is covering my face makes it look like I have a REALLY lazy eye. Which makes me laugh.

Methinks this is a scarlet ibis. But I might be wrong.

Holland went to great lengths to get a picty of this little guy.

Porcupine fish.

Lizzy.

One of the coolest part of the aquariums (and only $5 more, which is a steal in my humble opinion) was the dolphin show.

Cute, right?

This is the dolphins splashing everyone in the splash zone (which we did not partake in. Even though I wanted to).

I have to say it again. So cute. This show made me love dolphins a lot.

Oh, just jumping over a ball. NBD.

Money shot from the iPhone. Yep.

Just talkin' to the audience a little bit.

Waving to the audience.

You cannot tell me that there is a cooler job than swimming with dolphins, can you? Seriously. Picture this. You're on a first date. Your date tells you she swims with dolphins for a living. SWIMS. WITH. DOLPHINS. You're sold, right?

And the finale! By far, this was THE COOLEST part of the aquarium. We were told the Baltimore Aquarium was one of the best. Without the dolphin show, I'm not sure I would agree. Vancouver was better, but they had no dolphins. So I'm conflicted.

They had these old submarines outside of the aquarium. We didn't go on (because we didn't want to pay for it), but it looks pretty cool, no?

This is our obligatory outside-of-the-aquarium picture. I don't know what we're both looking at, but it sure isn't the camera. I'll blame it on the sun, but I doubt it.

If you've read this far, congratulations. If you JUST looked at the pictures, shame on you. Go back to beginning. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.

Birthday (Day One)

2011-09-18T20:09:00.000-04:00

Since we didn't have internet for 10ish days, I'm really behind on blogging. One of the first things you guys missed was my birthday.

I woke up on that Friday and got ready like any other day. My supervisor, Suzanne, texted me and let me know that she brought me in a bagel and (really delicious) veggie cream cheese for breakfast since it was my birthday.

That week of work was actually really rough, so I was glad when my birthday came that it had calmed down a little bit. Plus, we had cake to look forward to, and who could be mad about that?

My supervisor brought in cupcakes for everyone and then got me a red velvet roll which was super delicious.

It was more delicious-looking than this picture I found on the Internet.

Holland had let me know that when I got home, I should just relax until he got home and maybe take a nap (since that's one of my hobbies. And I'm real good at it.). Since Holland wouldn't take no for an answer, I did as I was told. I heard him come in, but didn't get up because I figured he would get me when he was ready.

When I woke up again, the smell of bacon was drifting through the house. As Derek would be quick to tell you, there is no better smell in the world to wake up to. I got up to see what Holland was up to. He had made me breakfast for dinner. And it was delicious. On the menu for the night was: pumpkin waffles with caramel syrup, bacon, hash browns, and orange juice. Trust me, even though you don't have a picture to drool over, it was good.

Then we snuggled up on the couch and watched a movie. We watched Jane Eyre, which was actually not exactly as I imagined it would be. And kind of dark. But no bother.

After that, our friends Ryan and Tiffany came over and brought me cupcakes from Hello Cupcake. They brought four different flavors: chocolate chocolate (which was very rich, I'm told), coconut (which was really delicious), Nutella (Delish), and Carrot Cake (also delish, although I wasn't a fan of the walnuts).

Although I didn't mention it last year, Tiffany was with me on my last birthday too, even though we didn't know each other that well. She took me to Ikea and bought me dinner and cake. I think that was the start to a wonderful friendship. It really meant a lot to me that they came over to help me celebrate. Thank you SO MUCH, guys!

Catching Up

2011-09-18T19:32:00.000-04:00

Does it seem like I always fail to blog for a really long time and then all of a sudden, a rush of blogs come from me? And does it bother you?

Well, if the answer to both of those questions are yes, then you had best read my blog no further tonight because there should be quite a few coming your way.

On my line up:

Birthday (Day of)
Birthday (Day After)
Anniversary
Owen comes to visit (perhaps in more than one post)
Miscellaneous, old pictures found on my point and shoot

And maybe more...