Calories

Here's a snippet of the conversation that happened on Johnny and I's most recent video chat

Johnny: "So I found out how many calories are in that soup I told you about."
Nani: "Oh? What's in it?"
J: "Just a cup has 1000 calories!"
N: "Well it's a good thing I'm not scared of calories."
J: "..."
N: "I eat calories for breakfast!"
J: "..."
N: "I eat calories for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!"
J: "..."
N: "And then you know what I do with them? I burn them! Hahahahahaha!"
J: "..."
N: "Baby, why aren't you laughing? I'm hilarious!"
J: "You are so sad."

I thought I was pretty funny, I was laughing my head of and Johnny just shook his head. After all my laughing that made me think of Happy Gilmore and one of my favourite lines...

*Warning, this scene contains mild language. But it's still pretty funny.

How to decorate a ghetto Christmas tree

There are three elements to creating a ghetto Christmas tree:

Laziness, stingy-ness with a dash of creativity.

Step 1. Be too lazy to buy a real tree and too stingy to buy a full-size tree. Heck, be too cheap to buy a tree, period. Just pick up a branch from your back alley. I stole mine from my mother and it was even missing one of the stand legs.

Step 2. Be too cheap to buy real decorations. I have two ornaments on my tree that are actual, real ornaments. Everything else is just made up. Don't have garland or lights? That's okay. Do you have long, necklaces? Those will do. Don't have a Christmas star? Do you have yellow construction paper? That'll work.

Voila! A Ghetto Christmas Tree!

This is my tree. I wish I had a proper camera that worked (hint, hint, Santa) so you could see it in its full, ghetto glory. But alas, this will have to do. Is that a candy necklace you spy? It certainly is! Who said your decorations couldn't be edible?

I love it when I laugh so hard I cry.

I'm supposed to be doing homework.

Instead I've been watching Ellen videos on youtube.

If you want to be productive, this is not the way to do it.  

Anyhow I found a video I just had to share.

Enjoy :)

It took several minutes after the video was done for me to stop laughing. And crying. 

It's about time!

Johnny and I just did a video chat for the first time tonight and OH MY GOSH WHAT WERE WE WAITING FOR????

We've been doing a semi-long distance relationship for almost 2 years now and we never got around to trying video chat. Honestly I can't remember what our justification was. I think I just might be too stubborn for my own good when it comes to keeping things old school.

What we used to do was just text each other all day and then have anywhere between a 15 minute to 3 hour phone call at the end of the day before we go to bed. Luckily we get free minutes for calls between our phones so it wasn't hurting the phone bill at all.

But now this has opened up a whole new world for us! One in which for me, it makes it 5 times harder to say goodbye at the end of the call. Tonight I tried talking Johnny into sleeping with our laptops open all night but he didn't go for it. I'll try again tomorrow...

Babies: planning vs fever

Johnny thinks I got the baby fever and he thinks I got it bad.

I would have to disagree with him.

He only thinks I have baby fever because I keep coming up with random baby names and asking him what he thinks of them. For me, this is nothing new. I've been thinking up baby names since I was 12, what girl hasn't??

Last week in my Women and Health class we learned about childbirth and I decided that I wanted to try to have a home birth. Johnny fought me on this saying that something could go wrong and I could die or the baby could die if we weren't in the hospital. Which is exactly what I learned about in my class. Society has made us believe that having babies is dangerous for women when really, having babies is exactly what our bodies were designed to do! Either way, this new learning has only led Johnny to believe that I want a baby so bad right now.

Today I had the random thought about using cloth diapers and asked Johnny what his opinion was on the matter. I think cloth diapers would be a great idea because it would save us money from buying a new bag of diapers every week. And it would save on waste because we wouldn't be throwing the diaper out every time the baby gets it dirty. I think this is a genius idea, but as you can guess, it only makes my husband think that I am desperate to be a momma.

Personally, I think this is all just good planning on my part. We already know we're going to have kids one day, so why not start planning for it before it even happens? Yes, I do want a baby, but not today or within the next 9 months. I want to finish school and I am fine with waiting until I graduate before we take that next big step in our lives. It almost seems like there are tons of people we know having their first babies right now, and I am perfectly content to watch them go through the process and learn from their experiences before we do it for ourselves.

What do you think? Do I have baby fever? Or is this totally normal for a girl in my situation?

Pet Peeve #2

This is the second pet peeve I've talked about on the blog. The first was about white gold vs yellow gold.

Today's pet peeve is about people who can't figure out directions. 

These are the people who you invite to your party via facebook with an address posted and everything and they still ask, "How do I get there??" (I seriously need to start vlogging because the voice that goes along with this question is so important to the peeve because that is how you sound in my head!)

If you are one of these people, please keep reading because I am going to tell you how to eradicate that stupid question. 

The reason I hate when people ask for directions is because today we have a magical invention called google maps. If you want to know how to get anywhere, all you do is simply type in your beginning address and the end address and poof! Google tells you exactly how to get there. 

For those of you who may be computer illiterate, I am going to show how to get directions using google maps. 

Step 1: make your way over to google.ca (if the picture is too small to see, click on it to make it bigger)

Google was lookin fancy today for Bram Stoker's 165th b-day.  If your google doesn't look like this, it's okay! Just make sure it says google and you're good. :)

Step 2: type in [place you are] to [place you want to be].

See? You're so close to getting your directions!

Step 3: Click on the "Driving Directions" link and BAM! You've got your own set of directions along with a map for you visual learners out there!

Holy crap! You can get anywhere now!

You can do this for local directions too. Check it out:

Directions to Pizza Hut? Yes please :D

Now that I've educated you, hopefully you can be more independent and find your way anywhere. I just opened up the world to you! You're welcome :)

Feel the Love

I promised I'd write about something happier, so that's what I'm going to do dang it!

Today I thought I'd write about 5 things I love right now and 1 thing I not so love, because let's face it, this is real life and not a Disney fairy tale.

Thing I love #1: multigrain toast with jam. It's so yummy! I'm eating it as I type.

Thing I love #dos (that's two for you non-spanish speakers): My momma. She loves me enough to let me stay with the family for the weekend to try and give my brain the rest it needs.

Thing I love #three (3): having silly text arguments with Johnny. They're about nothing, but for some reason neither of us wants to let the other have the last word. And then suddenly, they magically stop because one of us finally got too lazy to respond, therefore the other person wins!

Thing I love #3+1: My dog, Bindi. Now that I've been moved out of the house for a while, she misses me enough to follow me around when I'm home. This weekend we've been besties :)

Thing I love #5: A good night's sleep. Something I had all weekend. Awesome!

Thing I not so love: Wednesday assignments. There are so many of them! :(

What are some things you love today?

Bindi+Nani = Best friends!

Everything's fine, I promise

Oh wow, it's been forever since I've written anything. I guess maybe it's about time to give you an update on my life so you know that everything's okay. You know, in case my last post gave you a scare. 

So everything is pretty much back to normal for the most part:

- Except I'm still getting over my concussion. Laaaaaame. 

- And we only have one car now. But that's okay! We were looking for one for a while, but have come to the decision to make do with the car we still have. Which means that Johnny will take my car (even though he hates it) to work when he finally goes back and I will take the bus or borrow the truck from my parents. And that's fine with me. 

-We've started getting regular massages and adjustments from the chiropractor. Which is niiiiiiiiice. Especially because our insurance covers it. 

- Johnny hasn't been to work in almost a month! It's been great having him around, but now I don't know what I'll do when he has to work again because I've gotten used to having him at home. What?? I'm going to have to cook for myself now? Have I ever done that???

- My staples came out 2 weeks ago this Monday and I am pleased to say that my head can hold itself together again. 

- Oh, and I can never sleep on a road trip again. Whether I'm driving or not. And that sucks. 

Aaaaaand, that's about it when it comes to everything related to the accident. I plan to get another post up soon about a more fun topic, but we'll see how that goes depending on my motivation this week. 

counting our many blessings

That's our car, Lupe. We crashed her this weekend and now she is dead. I doubt any of you would consider this to be a blessing and usually nor would I, but really, the car came out looking the worst. 

Here's the story... 

This weekend is Thanksgiving weekend as well as General Conference weekend (GC is a time where members of my church gather to hear the counsels of our prophet). Every year, Conference is held in Salt Lake City where thousands can attend in person and millions worldwide can listen via internet. This year, Johnny and I got tickets to go to Conference and so we made preparations to go down. On Friday we set out on a 12 hour journey down to Salt Lake. But as you can guess, we didn't make it. 

Just after we passed Great Falls Montana, I was at the wheel when I dozed off for a moment. The next thing I knew, the rumble strips jolted me awake and to avoid going into the ditch I over corrected and ended up veering off the other side of the road away from the oncoming traffic (blessing #1). We were travelling at 80 mph (130 km/hr) so that gave us plenty of momentum to tumble and roll about 100 yards into a farmer's field. Thank goodness we didn't hit anyone else on the road (blessing #2)

When we stopped I was pretty dazed and disoriented, but I soon made the connection that we'd crashed and I was the one driving. This part was pretty foggy for me because I'd banged up my head pretty good and had a stream of blood running down my face. But Johnny tells me that one of the witnesses to the crash, as well as one of the first on the scene was a trained nurse and he took really good care of us while emergency responders were on their way (HUGE blessing #3). Lucky for us, we weren't too far from Great Falls, so the ambulance arrived quickly (blessing #4).

Johnny and I were taken separately to the hospital since they were able to get him out of the car before me and they had to use the jaws of life for my door. On the way there I was so scared because I didn't know what was happening with me and especially because I didn't know what was happening with my husband. I'm pretty sure I asked the girl taking care of me how he was doing several times. As for me, I had a large gash on my head and because they were concerned about my neck, they slapped a neck brace on me and strapped me to a board, which was NOT comfortable.

At the hospital they ran a few tests on me and put me through a scanner to determine if there was any internal bleeding and to check on my neck and spine to be sure everything was fine. Once I was deemed healthy, my neck brace was removed and I was released from the board. As they were cleaning my wound to prepare for the staples, Johnny found my room and came to hold my hand. He'd managed to get away with a few abrasions on his face and a banged up forearm. So basically, he's Superman. After my gash had been cleaned and numbed, the doctor came in and stapled my head back together. About a half hour later, my parents were there to pick us up from the hospital. The state troopers had called them to let them know about the accident, so they were there just in time for us. 

There are so many things about our accident that I am grateful for and there are so many ways that the circumstances could have been much worse. God was definitely looking out for us this weekend, and now we get to spend our thanksgiving at home surrounded by our family. We've gained a new appreciation for the things we have, that's for sure!

Even though I doubt these people would be reading this, I'd just like to give the biggest shout out along with my deepest gratitude out to:

- The witnesses who called in the accident and made sure we were okay. 

- The emergency response team who got us out of the car and to the hospital.

- My nurses who took such good care of me despite my whining.

- Johnny's nurses who apparently didn't need to do much, but still saw to his needs. 

- The doctor who stapled me together. 

- The state troopers who called my parents and made the mood a bit brighter with Johnny and I as we joked around about hockey and superstitions. 

- The missionaries who gave me a blessing in my time of need. 

And... last, but certainly not least:

- MY PARENTS who came to our rescue and helped to get the blood out of my clothes. 

I'm a "writer" now.

Watch out world, we did some creative writing exercises in my Exploring Creativity class tonight.

You know what that means!

Clearly, I'm going to be the next Margaret Atwood. Or Stephanie Meyer. Naw, I can write better than Stephanie Meyer.

Either way, watch out! I'm going to write the next best-selling novel about vampires and teenage girls killing each other in a future dystopian society where the winner ends up being a boy with a lightning scar who can talk to snakes.

And this is why I don't blog late at night...

Catch 22

What's this??? It's my birthday today? Well, I should probably write something to celebrate!

Only greatness can be born on October 1st. Look who shares a birthday with me!

Julie Andrews - Musical greatness. Plus she's practically perfect in every way.

Jimmy Carter - 39th president of the United States. You've gotta be pretty awesome to be president. (Except then I don't know how Bush got in...)

Zach Galifianakis - Though I don't appreciate all his movies, you gotta admit, the man's hilarious!

King Henry III - He's a king, duh! How much more awesome can you get?

I've turned 22 today, so I decided to share 22 things about me that you probably didn't know.

1. As a child I wanted to marry Raphael the ninja turtle.
2. Even though I'm all grown up and married now, I've contemplated getting a nightlight for our place because sometimes I'm afraid of the dark.
3. I have double-jointed elbows and I think they're gross.
4. I crack my knuckles even though people say it's bad for you.
5. I hate cats. But kittens are cute, so I hate them for trying to make me like them.
6. When I'm eating ice cream with a spoon sometimes I blow on it like I would for a spoonful of hot soup. And then I feel silly because ice cream isn't hot.
7. I have a slightly irrational fear of caterpillars.
8. I like to cut my grilled cheese diagonally.
9. God made georgia mud fudge blizzards just for me.
10. I pick up change on the street as long as it isn't a penny.
11. I have a bad habit of getting parking tickets.
12. Summer is my favourite season for the heat and it's a toss-up between fall and winter for my favourite pretty season.
13. I've recently noticed that I do this weird thing when I'm putting on sweaters or hoodies. As I'm about to put them over my head, I suck in some air and hold my breath until my head pops out the neck hole. I have no idea when this started because I've only noticed that I do it within the past month.
14. I play the violin. Did you know this? If you do, bravo, because I don't share that fact too often with others.
15. I cannot pick a favourite colour because I love all colours. The only requirement I have is that they are vibrant.
16. I hate scary movies. I blame them for making me afraid of the dark.
17. I looooove chocolate. But I don't like white chocolate. I guess I'm racist.
18. I think that men's feet are ugly. I haven't met a man who has nice looking feet.
19. I don't own a brush.
20. I am a very jumpy person and therefore easy to scare. (I probably shouldn't have shared that with some of you)
21. I love listening to classical music. My children will probably hate road trips with me because I listen to lame music. (Unless I raise them to love classical too!)
22. I've lived my whole life thinking I am an american citizen, but my mother has just recently informed that I was wrong. I'm full on Canadian!

Brave

So I saw Brave last night with my mum and my sister and I loved it. My favourite character was by far her father because he reminded me a little of my own father. He's this big brutish guy who can do everything and probably scares most people when they first meet him, but when it comes to his daughter, he's a big softie who supports her in all she does, especially if it involves being awesome and not chasing after boys.

However, I did have one issue with the movie...

Her hair was completely unrealistic! Merida had big, thick, poofy, gorgeous red hair that never tangled and was always bouncy and full of life. The fact that she never got anything stuck in it was a miracle to me. The thing that annoyed me most was the bounce her hair had. It's as if her hair had a life of it's own, and I know she didn't have a blow dryer or mousse to get it to do any of that crap!

I`m just being ridiculous. I really did love the movie and I really did love her hair. Disney seems to be on a kick recently of giving its princesses crazy hair. (liiiiike Tangled for instance??)

If you haven't seen Brave, go see it cause it's awesome! Or don't. You have your agency, make your own decision!

Ew.

I think I just drank sour milk.

I made a protein shake after morning training and I mixed milk and water with my powder, so I couldn't really tell at first. But now I've got a funny taste in my mouth and my stomach doesn't feel too good. Blah.

Anyway, that's not what this post is supposed to be about. I wanted to tell you about my trip to Utah! Since I mentioned it in my post about my summer, I should let you know how it went. And show you some photos. 

This is Johnny's first picture on the blog! I am married to a hunk :D

We shot stuff! We spent a weekend in Logan with Selina and her man and this was one of the things we did with them. It was pretty fun. The last time I shot a gun was 4 years ago, so I enjoyed myself quite a bit. 

We visited Temple Square. This was taken on top of the Conference Center. It's a sand blasted mural which we thought was pretty cool. If you ever visit Salt Lake, you must visit Temple Square and learn a thing or two about us crazy Mormons. 

We ate the most AMAZING cupcakes ever! Down in Provo there's a magical bake shop called the Sweet Tooth Fairy where they make your sweet dreams come true. We also may have brought a dozen cupcakes back up to Canada with us the day we left. Om nom nom! 

We visited the Hogle Zoo. It was fun to walk around and look at all the animals. My favourites were definitely the elephants and the rhinos. Johnny looooved the gorillas. (Naturally. He's practically a gorilla himself).

And we played with my little cousins. We stayed at my Aunt's place once we left Logan and the kids absolutely loved Johnny. Whenever we were there, he'd hardly have a second to himself. I've always told him that if we have a little girl, she would have him wrapped around her little finger but Johnny's always said he'd be able to resist...

 But after spending a week with THIS little cutie, he's discovered that he is an absolute sucker for girls with big, brown adorable eyes. And if our babies get my genes, they're gonna be just like her! (Except a little lighter maybe...)

And that's our trip in a nutshell! We had a blast and I loved seeing my family and exploring the Utah valley with Johnny. We will most certainly go down again in the future. 

Aaaand, We're Back!

Did you miss me?

I hope you didn't. I hope you were all so busy having wonderful summer adventures that you didn't miss me at all. Or, if you live in the southern hemisphere, I hope you were having equally wonderful winter adventures to distract from the lack of me in your blog-life. 

I had a great summer. And I feel all ready to go for school this semester (not really. I've still been making last minute changes to my schedule).

Here's what my summer contained:

• One week in Utah. Complete with time spent with my best friend, Selina as well as a small branch of my brown family. 
• A new job. I work for a wonderful lady named Jo and I can't wait to tell you more about her. 
• One week spent in northern Alberta getting to know my newest nephew.
• A generous helping of the Settlers of Catan. A LOT of Catan. 
• One season of club rugby. It was great going out to practices and games and meeting some new faces. 
• A weekend in Whitefish. Helping my friend Becks photograph a wedding. 
• One week at Kootenay. Camping with the family in the best place on earth! 
• One wedding anniversary celebrated more than a week late. I'll explain why later, but I'm sure those of you who know our situation already know why. 

What did you do this summer? I hope you had a good one!

Closed for the Summer

Hello friends.

This isn't a real post. I just want you all to know that I am not dead. And in case you haven't noticed, I am taking a break from blogging for the summer. The break is for 2 reasons:

1. My house doesn't have internet. It's difficult to blog without internet.

2. I am actually enjoying my break from the digital world. I like to go outside and do real live things with my time, which is nice. This will most likely result in plenty of stories for you once I get back to blogging.

Hopefully you are all doing well and don't worry, I promise I will be back in the fall. Oh and Johnny says hi.

TOP SECRET

I know a secret! It's a wonderful secret! 

I'm not allowed to tell anyone what it is so I'm not.

 I was told I'm allowed to tell Johnny so I did. 

Johnny likes the secret too. When I learned this secret it made my day.

There's nothing like a good, happy secret... You know, when you say the word secret over and over again it starts to sound like a funny word. 

ssssseeeeeeeeeeeecret.

Don't worry, when I'm allowed to tell the secret I will tell you. And I'm sure you will understand why it is such a good secret. 

Yesterday

was such a good day, I don't know why I didn't blog.

One of the best things of yesterday was that I wrote my first final already. That's one down and three to go. I can do this.

Another awesome of yesterday was my nap. Oh my word, it was glorious. I had no idea I could still nap for a solid 2 hours!

And the cherry on top of my yesterday cupcake was that it was Johnny and I's 8-month anniversary! I am only making a big deal out of it because 8 is one of my favourite numbers and I have to wait far too long for our 8 year anniversary to make a big deal out of that one. Next month will be our 9 month anniversary which is 3 quarters of a year. I'm even more excited for that number because 3/4 is my favourite fraction.

I told Johnny about this on the phone last night and he said that since 13 is his favourite number he claims our 13th anniversary as his anniversary. He is going to treat me like a princess on all the other anniversaries, but for the 13th I have to treat him. To be honest, I'm scared I'm going to forget all about it. Should I start planning now so I don't have to worry about it down the road? I'm sure we'll have at least a couple children by then, so life will probably be more hectic. It'd be better if I just saved myself all the stress in the future and planned it now.

I seriously cannot wait for us to grow old together. I can't wait to see what life has in store for us and the things we will experience together. I once heard that you know you're in love when you imagine yourself spending forever with that person and it doesn't seem long enough. I must have it bad for Johnny, because to imagine an eternity with him only seems like the beginning...

Oh the irony

I am positive - absolutely certain - that once I wrote my post about why I don't have a car, the universe set itself to conspire against me and make me eat my words. Then I wrote another post whining about how Johnny won't be home for the rest of April; and I am gladly eating my words on that one too.

So yes, that means that Johnny and I have bought another car. I was completely opposed to the idea at first, trust me, but I had to break down because so did the clutch on our first baby.

Here's the story:

Johnny came home this week for an unexpected week off. And with him he brought our car, Lupe (pronounced LOOP-ay). Turns out the clutch had been acting up on him all the way home so we talked to a mechanic to diagnose the problem.

The mechanic told us she could be fixed for a resonable price and we were relieved until we discovered she couldn't be fixed until next week. Johnny had to leave for work before then so we weren't sure what we should do.

We weighed our options, explored our avenues, toyed with ideas, and in the end, decided to buy another car.

So we've bought ourselves a 2007 Nissan Versa. She's been good so far, and will earn her stars once she survives her trip up to Grande Prairie with Johnny this month. I've decided to name her Ronnie - short for Veronica.

As for Lupe, she's staying home with me for now and will be going into the shop on Tuesday. I still don't know how I feel about having a car, but I must admit, it's nice to be able to go out for groceries whenever I want and to have the freedom to go where I want without having to mooch a ride off someone first.

just keep smiling...

This next month is going to be a challenge. Classes are ending, finals are coming and I am struggling to find the motivation to get myself through it all. And the fact that Johnny's not going to be home at all  this month doesn't help things.

But you know what, moping isn't going to help anything. It's always nice to have something to make you smile when you're stressing, so here is where my smile came from today:



Are you surprised?

5 excellent reasons why I don't have a car

Within the past two days, this topic has been brought up by a couple people so I figure that means I should blog about it.

In case you don't already know, Johnny and I have one car between us. And while he's gone at work that leaves me at home with no car. If I didn't have my way, Johnny probably would have bought me a car months ago. This is why I'm still car-less:

1. I am perfectly capable of taking the bus. As a girl who is chronically late to everything, the bus is nice because it gets me to where I need to go with time to spare. As long as I don't miss the bus, that is ;)

2. I own a bike. And during the 6 months of the year when it isn't snowing, I can ride anywhere I need to. Except the west side. I haven't gotten up the nerve to take on Whoop Up yet...

3. My parents live in town. And they love me. So if I'm in a pickle, they are pretty willing to help me out.

4. We have other plans for our money. We want to take a couple trips, we've been thinking of buying a house and Johnny has a good chunk of his student loans left to pay and I still have a bit of school left to finish. If we drop 6000 on a little car for me, that's 6000 less for the loan, for a trip and a down payment on a house.

5. I'm cheap. If I was ranking these in order of most influential, this is reason number 1. My motto is, "If we can live without it, we don't need it." The cave men got along fine without cars and so will I.

For now, these reasons work for me so I will continue to get along without a car. If we were to move to a strange city hours away from my family, we would buy another car. If we had a kid, we'd have a car. And if we had a million dollars, we'd have another car. And a private jet.

Missing Narm

I don't think everyone knows this, but I am an avid White Collar Redneck blog reader. It's written by a guy named Narm and he is a funny, clever writer. He is your typical man-guy, guy-man (what am i quoting!!) who loves to write tongue-in-cheek type stuff.

Anyway, the reason I bring up him and his blog is because I can't find it! Anywhere! I type in whitecollarredneck.com and all I find is some stupid Go Daddy site. What the deuce! I don't even know where to go to complain about this type of thing. You guys can't even go to the site to see how awesome his blog is. Is there an internet commissioner or something? Some sort of dude who sits there and keeps track of allllllll the websites on the entire internet? 

If there were someone like this, I'd shoot him an email and be like, "Dude, where'd the 'Neck go?"

Then he'd be like, "Oh sorry about that, we've moved him to another site, here's the link."

Then I'd say, "Why thank you my good man, you have yourself a nice day." That'd be awkward if it was a woman... 

And that would be the end of it. But no! As far as I know there is no internet commissioner! If any of you know of one, you'd let me know, right? So how am I supposed to find out what happened?? 

Maybe I'll just ask google. That's pretty much the king of internet, right?

All Talk and No Walk (down the aisle, that is!)

Okay, maybe it's just cause I'm Mormon that I don't understand, but help me out with something...

I don't get how people can get engaged... and not set a date! 

I once talked to a girl who'd just gotten engaged and I asked, "So when's the wedding!"
Her response: "Um... I don't know. We haven't really set a date yet. It'll be in the next 5 years at least."

Excuse me? The NEXT 5 YEARS? Getting married isn't like getting a degree. It doesn't take 5 years to plan a wedding! If you know you want to be married to someone, marry them!

Being engaged without a date for the wedding is like making a vague new year's resolution. It's not gonna happen if you don't have a plan! Mind you, that's not the case for everyone. But still - gah! C'mon people, get your crap together!

The only Disney princess I can think of who didn't marry her sweetheart right away was Jasmine. At the end of the first movie it looks like they've gotten married, but then they make a second movie and surprise! Aladdin and Jasmine still aren't married. And then in the third movie it opens on the day of their wedding and you think "At last! They're finally getting married!" But nope, Al's dad crashes the party with the 40 thieves and the next thing you know, Aladdin is off on another adventure - without Jasmine. They do eventually find their happily ever after and finally get married at the end though (oops, hope I didn't spoil that for anyone).

Do You Remember?

I have far too many things I have to do, so naturally I'm putting them off to blog instead.

I read an awesome post at 1000 Awesome Things where he talked about his favourite TV shows from his childhood. This is probably one of the best topics you can talk about when you're getting to know someone. I was working an Operation Red Nose shift this year and as we waited for the calls to come in we all just sat around the table getting to know each other. When someone brought up the question of what was the best TV show you watched as a kid, everybody lit up. We were humming theme songs, debating favourite characters and trying to remember the name of vague shows in our memories.

So here are my favourites, in no particular order because I loved them all for one reason or another.

Little Bear - My mom taped a few episodes of Little Bear for me and I used to watch them over and over and over again. My favourite character was Duck because she was crazy.



Recess - Seriously, who didn't watch Recess as a kid? TJ and the gang were the kind of kids we all wanted to be. Spinelli was my fave, nobody messed with her. Fun fact- I know the tuba part of the theme song off by heart. Best opening theme music EVER.



Sailor Moon - We didn't have cable at my house, so I couldn't watch this show at home. But my Gramma had cable so whenever we went over, you could always find me glued to the TV watching my shows. I loved Sailor Moon, my favourite part was when she changed into her sailor costume. Me and my friend used to act that part out twirling around in the background pretending to change from our little girl clothes into magical sailor costumes!



Arthur - I'm pretty sure I can still sing the theme song for this one. There is one episode I will always remember where they sing about their favourite books and Brain sings about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. "Jekyll, jekyll, hyde, jekyll, hyde, hyde, jekyll!"



Gargoyles - There are so many shows I watched as a kid that I absolutely loved at the time, but as an adult I realize just how corny they were. Not Gargoyles. This show is just pure awesome. Brooklyn was such a stud, Goliath such a beast, Hudson so legit and how could you not love Bronx? A couple summers ago I relived the awesomeness by watching the entire 2nd season of Gargoyles on the Youtube. Best decision ever.



There are tons more shows I could have mentioned, but there just isn't enough time. Maybe I'll bring them up again later.

Audiobooks FTW*

This weekend Johnny and I had a buttload of driving to do and I was not looking forward to it. We were helping his parents move from Tiny Town number one 6 hours north-east of us to tiny town number two 4 hours west of them. Then we drove 6 hours south west from Tiny Town number two to get home on Sunday.

(sidenote: I would like to point out that I did ALL the driving. Boo yah.)

I would have gone crazy from all the driving had it not been for the wonderful purchase we made just before the journey. We bought the first half of the Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites series (there are 11 books total with more on the way) on cd and it saved our lives. We listened to it pretty much the whole time and got through book 1, book 2 and a chunk of book 3.

Seriously, if you have a big drive ahead of you and you don't have the luxury of a travelling dvd player, get some books on cd. It's like a movie for your mind! Awesome!

(* Gramma, I know you probably don't know what FTW means so here it is: FTW = for the win)

Amen!

Go read this post right now. Whether you suffer from same-sex attraction or not, this guy is inspiring.

And now I'm off to study.

It's a Leap Year!

It's not very often that February 29th happens so I figured I should get a post up to commemorate the occasion. Except... I don't really know what to write about... So I'll tell you a joke.

What do you call a bear with no teeth? (answer at the end of this post, I just thought of something to say)

You know what I'm really excited about??

Johnny and I want to take a trip at the end of my semester and we want to go down to Utah to pay a visit to my sister from another mister, Selina. We just need to get our passport applications in and we should be good to go.

Selina suggested we go down to Zion National Park for a day or two to do some hiking because her boy-toy has a cabin down there. I went to Zion with my family a few years ago and it was so awesome, I just know Johnny will love it.

Here are some photos of what I'm looking forward to!

Isn't it gorgeous?? I am so excited! And now for the answer to my joke, what do you call a bear with no teeth?

A gummy bear. 

between the batches

before i get too deep into this entry, you should know - i'm eating cookie dough while i type; hence i type with one hand; hence the lack of capitals. also, i am baking cookies - be jealous.

want to know something stupid i did? of course you do, why else do you read my blog?

johnny went back to work yesterday, but before he left he had to go to ama to renew his car registration. since he was taking me to my parents' house, i came along to ama. as we were getting out of the car, johnny had to rummage in the glovebox to get his insurance out. as he rummaged he found my wallet in there and offered for me to take it. i declined because i didn't need it to accompany him to ama, so i told him i'd get it out of the car when we got to my parents' house.

guess what happened.

i never took my wallet out of the glovebox.

so it ended up travelling with johnny all the way to his sister's house where he stayed the night. his sister lives 6 hours away.

i had a minor panic attack when i realized what had happened. without my wallet, there are a lot of things i can't do. my debit card is in my wallet - without my debit card, i can't buy anything. my credit card is in my wallet too - without my credit card, i can't buy anything online. without my driver's license i can't drive or get into any clubs or bars (because i go there so often... not). without my school id i can't print any assignments or get into the gym. without my bus pass i can't get to school unless i borrow a vehicle from my parents' which i can't drive anyway because i don't have my license.

do you see the problem?

luckily, it's reading week so i don't have school. and i'm staying at my parents' house for a couple of days while they're in calgary. so really, this was the best time for me to have left my wallet in johnny's car. and now i won't do it again because i've learned my lesson.

so this morning johnny left the wallet at his sister's house and because she is an awesome sister-in-law, she sent it off right away. soon i will be reunited with my wallet and life will be peachy.

the end.

Love Vomit

I am so incredibly ineloquent it's ridiculous. I am so ineloquent it's like- like- gah! You know what I mean.

Feelings? I have them, but I suck at expressing them.

Today is our 6 month anniversary. I have a thing for celebrating halfway marks (like half birthdays - awesome!), so this is a big deal to me. I want to say all these cute things about us, but it's all getting so jumbled up in my brain it can't even come out right when I type it. This is why I'm a hand talker, folks. And sound effects? I thrive with those.

Anyway, just know that the past 6 months (or 3 if you count the amount of time he's actually been home) have been absolutely wonderful. Johnny treats me so well and I have love, love, loved the time we've had together. There have been times when I can't wait for us to have kids, or I can't wait for us to have our own house. But if I spend my time looking forward to what's going to happen, I'll miss out on the good times we're having now.

Who needs Valentine's Day when you've got a 6 month anniversary? (V-day was awesome by the way, I'll blog about it later)

News Flash

Has anyone watched the news lately? Have you noticed how it only ever talks about tragedies, disasters, politics and the weather with a small segment about how someone's dog saving their life.

I was watching the news tonight with my parents and I could only handle the depressing stories for 15 minutes before I walked out. I just wasn't in the mood for it.

So here is my response. A list of 10 awesome things off the top of my head. Ready, go:

10. Sneezing. Who doesn't love a good sneeze every once in a while? It always feels so rejuvenating. Unless you're sick and all you ever do is sneeze - then it gets old.

9. Fuzzy slippers, One of the ultimate symbols of comfort - these are great for a chilly day in the house.

8. Stuff that kids say. Whether you own them or not, they come up with the cutest things. Just watch the video. Precious.

7. A good hair day. Lately I've fallen into a rut of ponytails and french braids because I rarely have the time to tame my crazy curls, but every once in a while my hair decides to look good on it's own so I can leave it down. Thanks, hair!

6. Finding someone you know (and like) on the bus. Bus rides can be pretty awkward sometimes with the amount of weirdos characters you can find. But every once in a while there's an old friend there who you are generally happy to see and catch up with to make your bus ride a little more enjoyable.

5. Old couples who "still got it". My grandparents are the epitome of this one. It is the sweetest thing to see them my gramma tease my grampa only to turn around and give him a big hug and a poke to show she still loves him. And they still hold hands! Precious. That'll totally be me and Johnny in 50 years.

4. Having milk in the fridge when you've got a fresh batch of cookies. I just made a batch for my family, but when I brought it over they were out of milk! Talk about a let down!

3. Adjustment. Getting married and moving into a new family ward are some pretty big changes, but I think I'm starting to adjust. I feel like I'm making a place for myself at church and I feel like I'm learning to cope with Johnny's work schedule as a wife.

2. Princess and the Frog. Yes, the new one by Disney. I just absolutely love how Tiana and Naveen fall in love. Precious. And I'll tell you a secret - the song Ray sings about Evangeline melts my heart every time and I felt like Johnny saw me the way Ray sees Evangeline. I've always secretly hoped he'd sing that song for me. AND! Tiana and Naveen's love story reminds me of mine and Johnny's - like Tiana, I've got a lot of big dreams and Johnny only wants to help me make them come true. Gah, I could gush forever, but I won't.

1. Sundays. It's a day of rest where I get to go to church and feel the spirit and then hang out with family and have dinner with them. Two of the best things in life combine on Sunday. Awesome.

** I wonder how many of you will watch the videos I posted... 

because I gushed. =3
courtesy of: http://altaira7vn.deviantart.com/art/Ray-and-Evangeline-191448997 

Worried to death

Am I crazy?

While Johnny's gone we generally text all the time. Unless he's on night shift because he sleeps during the day so we only get to talk for a bit before he goes to bed and I go to school, and again in the evening when he wakes up and I'm having dinner. 

Anyway, sometimes I'll send him a text in the morning and then I won't hear from him for ages. There have been times where I don't hear a peep from him until the evening. When this happens there are equally probable 3 scenarios that could cause this:

a) He's busy at work. Let him do his job.

b) They're working in the middle of nowhere, so he probably doesn't have service.

c) He probably left his phone at the hotel again. 

Deep down I know everything's fine. I know I'm just being paranoid. Just because I'm his wife doesn't mean I need to know where he is at all times. But there is still always that tiny little nagging thought in the back of my head:

Or maybe he's dead.

I'm not crazy, am I?

So far every time there's a long text silence from him, the tiny voice in my head has been wrong - Johnny's never died. But of course, with my crazy imagination, every time I feel the tiny thought I always wonder just what would happen if I became a widow at 21. I've imagined it many different ways and every single one is the same: they all suck! 

I've tried not to worry about Johnny while he's at work, but it happens. I'm a wife now and worrying about my husband has become a part of my life. No wonder married women are so stressed out! Just wait til we throw kids in the mix... 

Sorry, wrong number

Okay, story time.

This is one of things that you'd totally read about in the embarrassing story sections of all the teen magazines you used to read. Except Johnny doesn't get embarrassed over anything. Oh and this story happened to Johnny. Not me. Cause I'd never make such a silly mistake (pfft, okay I might be lying).

Anyway, on to the story...

As you know, Johnny works out of town a lot. So we'll often start the day off right by sending a text to each other in the morning. You know just the standard, "I love you, have a good day <3 xoxo". But sometimes we'll get creative and come up with barfy pet names for each other like cuddle monkey, snuggle bear, pookie bean, etc. and throw those in there. Aaaand we may or may not have had an I-love-you war via text once. But you get the picture.

Well, this morning Johnny must have been feeling particularly barftastic because he sent me quite the barfalicious text. It was super cute and made me smile and giggle and all that girly stuff you see on the chick flicks. However, not only did he send the text to me, but he sent it to his boss as well. Have I mentioned that he works on the rigs?

So you can imagine the reaction. The boss bursts out laughing (luckily, Johnny was right there when he sent it - oops!) and shows it to all the other guys. Now they're all calling him "love monkey" over the radios and having a real hoot about it.

Of all the texts meant for me that he could have sent to his boss, it had to be this one. Don't get me wrong, it was totally cute. But to anyone else it's just funny.

The only story that might top that would be one where your best friend's wife accidentally sends you a text that reads, "I'm ovulating! You need to come home now!"

But I'll save that for another post ;)

I'm cute... Cause I'm Batman!

Does this not just melt your heart? When I saw this I immediately thought of mine husband because he loves batman. And I think he has a thing for pugs... I'm not sure. But I just had to share. If you wanna see more adorableness you should check out this website.

On a side note...

I don't know if you know this but it's February. And I live in Canada. Canada is generally pretty frozen in February, but today I went for a bike ride wearing a t-shirt and capris! It is gorgeous outside!

Tickets! Tickets, please!

I don’t know if everyone knows this, but I am a wanted criminal with Parking Lot Officers everywhere – particularly in the University parking lot. It usually happens when Johnny is home and I get to drive the car to school. I’m usually too lazy (or running too late) to park in the free parking spots that are a 10 minute walk from the school so I just park illegally in the school parking lot with a month-old Pay-n-Park pass displayed on the dashboard. Sometimes this tactic works... but more often than not it doesn’t. I bet I’ve paid over 100 dollars worth in parking ticket fines since last January.

This past week that Johnny was home I didn’t have to worry about parking because I got a ride with a friend to school on most of the days. But on Tuesday I was on my own for a ride and I asked Johnny to take me to school. He was still sleeping at the time so he groggily told me to drive myself. I explained to him that I didn’t want to worry about parking so he should just take me. Again, he told me to take myself. “I’ll get a ticket,” I told him. “No you won’t, now go.” He mumbled into the pillow.

Not wanting to waste anymore time arguing with him, I grabbed the keys and drove to school. I found a parking spot, adjusted the old Pay-n-Park pass and went to class. 2 and a half hours later I returned to find a lovely gift stuck to my windshield from the friendly Parking Officer. Yup, a ticket. Yesterday I went downtown to pay it off and I made a vow. I vowed to never get another parking ticket ever again. I’m going to be smart when I drive and I will plan ahead so I can park in the free spots far away from school.

With the internet as my witness, I swear that this past ticket will be my last or so help me.

lonely, but loved

It's ranting time!

This is something that has bothered me since I got married. Actually no, it's bothered me since Johnny got his job with Halliburton, but it's bothered me more since we got married.

I hate it when people ask how I like living alone while Johnny's off at work.

Seriously, people do that.

Yes, my husband works out of town for two weeks at a time. Yes, it sucks but it is just a fact of life because this is how we are surviving right now as newlyweds. Yes, it is a sacrifice but it won't last forever so don't pity me. I grew up with my father working the rigs, so I knew precisely what I was getting into, yet I still chose it.

I am actually grateful that Johnny has the job he does. Even though it can be really tough to say goodbye to him and to have to handle the house on my own while he's gone, it really makes us appreciate the time we do have together. Because of this, I can proudly say we've never had a fight because our time is too short together not to enjoy it.

So for the people who want to know how I like living alone while Johnny's gone, know that I love it. I love it because it means I am married to a man who is sensible enough to stick with his well paying job to provide for our little family, and for that I am so grateful.  Even though the time apart can be really tough, there's enough love between us to make it all worth while.

Unforgettable

K, funny story.

You remember how Johnny proposed? We hurled ourselves off a plane and he proposed when I got to the bottom. Cute story, huh? Something you'd never forget, right? Especially if it happened to you, right?

That's what you'd think!

The other day in my Biomechanics class we were talking about the forces acting on a person as they're falling through the sky, so my professor asked if anyone's been skydiving. Two guys raised their hands. And I just sat there.

I just sat there!

It took me almost a full minute or two before I realized, hey wait a minute! I've been skydiving! You'd think that the magical moment where you start a whole new exciting chapter in your life would really stick with you, but nope!

I guess I lead such an exciting life that jumping out a plane is really no big deal for me.

Brr!

Oh Jack Johnson, you can always make my day a little brighter, warmer and happier.

Today is freezing! It's so cold it hurts to breathe. It's so cold that if you were to walk outside immediately after a hard work-out, all of your sweat would instantly freeze, turning you into a human popsicle. It's so cold that Jack Frost stepped out his door this morning and said, "Forget work, I'm staying in today."

Another artist who will always leave a smile on my face is Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. If you don't know who he is you need to check him out right now! His most popular song would definitely be his Over The Rainbow/What a Wonderful World song. Le sigh.



What sort of music is your go-to for a rainy (or snowy) day?

2 years and counting...

Upon writing the first post in January I realized that I've been blogging for two years. Two years of me ranting on about the stupidest topics sometimes! Some folks have actually stuck around since the beginning and for them I am grateful. It's always nice to have someone bring up your blog so they can rant to you about the stupid rant you gave on the blog.

 So to commemorate my 2 years of blog-hood and to reminisce about 2011, I'm going to fill out the same quiz I filled out in my first entry.

1. Did you keep your New Year's Resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I didn't make any resolutions last year except to "be a better person" which was really just a cop out. I don't have any resolutions for this year, but there are a couple goals Johnny and I are working on together.

 2. Did anyone close to you give birth?
It's funny because the first time I filled this out, two of my cousins had babies and now this time, the same two cousins have had babies again. A boy and a girl - again.

 3. Did anyone close to you die?
No one super close, but there were a few people that died that I knew at one point or another.

4. What countries did you visit?
No where too exciting, but I did go down to Utah in May to visit my aunt and gramma who was up visiting from Australia. That was when I bought my wedding dress :D

 5. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
That's a tough one cause I don't really feel like a lacked anything in 2011. C'mon, I got married!

 6. What dates from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory and why?
January 10th - That's the day Johnny first left to go work for Halliburton. His decision to work for them eventually led to our decision to get married.
August 16th - Duh, my wedding day.

 7. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I'd say finding a husband is a pretty big one. Next to that there's getting my belay certification. I dunno, tough choice.

 8. What was your biggest failure?
The stupid anatomy final. I passed the class though so that's all that matters.

 9. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I got the flu just after Christmas and I had the odd bump or bruise in rugby. Buggered up my shoulder for a bit. Strained my back on and off. Nothing major.

 10. What was the best thing someone bought you?
A wedding ring. And someone got me this awesome pampered chef liquid measure which I LOVE. I use it for almost all my baking.

11. Where did most of your money go?
School, the wedding and rugby.

 12. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
I got excited when we went sky diving and Johnny proposed. And I got really excited about finding a house. And my dress was a fairly exciting purchase. If it had to do with the wedding and it wasn't stressing me out, I was excited about it. Oh! And EFY! I was so excited to be a counselor.

 13. What song will always remind you of 2011?
Party Rock Anthem - by LMFAO.

 14. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? happier
b) fatter or skinnier? The same?
c) richer or poorer? Richer. I didn't have a husband working for Halliburton last year.

 15. What do you wich you'd done more of? 
I wish I didn't get so lazy with my workouts during the summer. I wish we could have played more grounders!

16. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Postponing important things that needed to be done.

17. Did you fall in love in 2011?
What has been the theme of all my answers thus far? Yes I did.

18. What was your favorite TV program?
How I Met Your Mother, Big Bang Theory, So You Think You Can Dance.

19. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Nope. I did a good job of avoiding conflict.

20. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Camillle Saint-Saens. He's the composer I researched for my Music in Recital class and I fell in love with his work. He is awesome. 

21. What was your favorite film of this year?
Rango. I watched that a lot this fall - it's not the most amazing movie in the world, but I really like it. Rise of the Planet of the Apes. It inspired us to buy both versions of the original movie and we love them all, except the one with Mark Wahlberg. X MEN FIRST CLASS!!!! Best. Movie. Ever. 

22. What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?
My birthday was pretty small this year. I just had cake at my parents and then I played a rugby game the next day. I turned 21.

23. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
I wish Johnny didn't have to be gone at work so much last year. 

24. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?
Comfortable. My favourite things to wear were my old man sweaters. 

25. What kept you sane?
Johnny, running, Amy and ice cream. And my mother. 

26. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Probably the guy who played magneto in X men First Class.

27. Who do you miss?
Selina. She is such a good friend. And Johnny. It stinks that he's gone all the time. 

28. Who was the best new person you met?
In my Intro to Biomechanics class we had to do a group project and one of the girls I worked with has turned out to be pretty awesome and now we're doing the real Biomechanics class together and I look forward to it.  

29. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011:
Basement suites suck when there is a small child living above you.  

Christmas = Awesome

H'okay, so holidays. Mine was awesome. Naturally, because I am awesome. And Johnny was home for the whole thing so that made it even awesomer.

It was the big dreaded first Christmas with the in-laws, but I've got some pretty good in-laws, so there was really nothing to worry about. We chilled with Johnny's family for Christmas eve and Christmas day. We watched movies, ate good food, had good times, it was great. My favourite present would have to be the booties Johnny got me. They are warm and fuzzy and wonderful. And they have grippies on the bottom! Awesome!

There was only one small downside to my holidays and that would be the part where I got the stomach flu while Johnny and I were visiting our friend on her family ranch. We were supposed to do all these awesome ranchey activities like quadding, riding horses, playing with cows, you know, all the sort of stuff farm kids do for fun. But instead I head to go spewing my brains out and doing you-know-what out the other end - it was not a pretty sight. So we ended up watching most of the first season of Heroes pretty much the whole time while we waited for my disease to pass. Our hosts were so great though. I was babied just like I would have been had I been home with my own parents. Johnny was great through the whole thing too. Every time I barfed he was right there holding my hair back and wiping the remnants off my face when I was done. How romantic.

New Years was pretty rad. We went to the YSA New Year's dance incognito because we weren't technically supposed to be there because we are no longer single. We're real rebels. The dance was pretty fun. We went over to our friend's house after to play some games and drink some radioactive kool-aid and we ended staying up way too late to be functional at church the next day.

All in all, Christmas was awesome, New Years was good, and what really made my holidays great was the fact that Johnny had 19 days off of work to spend with me. Now it's back to the grind stone and I am all ready to go for another semester.

Sorry to disappoint

You thought I was gone forever, didn't you? Ha! You can't get rid of me that easily.

I don't know if I've explained it in the blog before, but I'll do it again just in case.

At my house, we're too cheap to pay for internet. Or TV. So I live under a rock. But there is hope! I go to school. And school has internet. Allow me illustrate with an equation.

Let n represent me, Nani, s represent school and i represent internet. Since we know that when I go to school I get internet, we can represent the relationship with the equation n + s = i. The equation can also be manipulated as follows to represent the my relationship with the internet when there is no school: n - s = -i. In other words, when I am not at school I get no internet.

Let b represent my blogging activity. Since my blogging activity is directly correlated to internet access, we can therefore assume that school is needed in order for blogging to exist. Over the Christmas holidays I wasn't required to go to school, so I didn't. There fore my holiday situation went as follows: n - s = -i. Since i = b, we can assume the equality holds true for the inverse; therefore, -i = -b. Now to substitute i for b, we get: n - s = -b.


In a nutshell:

I wasn't at school, so I didn't blog.

Have I ever mentioned that I LOVED my high school calculus class?

Oh and Happy New Year, everyone. Do you think this will really be the year the world ends? Personally, I doubt it. There will be a holiday blog up later.