And we're back

So we did it. Brandon and I went camping for 5 days in southern Utah and Colorado. It was fun, but there were definitely points where I wondered what I was thinking when I agreed to spending 5 days outdoors when I'm 4 months pregnant. Oh well, we got through it and it was definitely worth it. Here are some pictures: Bryce Canyon hoodoos. This was the prettiest place we went to, but it was in the 40s for alot of our visit, and I was pretty grumpy.

Okachomo bridge, in Bridges National Monument.

Brandon, cooking dinner over the fire. We camped in La Sal National Forest, and it got into the 20s that night. Again, I was very grumpy.

Canyonlands National Park. This was at the end of our 6-mile hike. I was pretty tired. And this was a waterfall that we found near our campsite in Canyonlands.

Other highlights included:

Almost crying because we had to drive down a really scary cliff (seriously, I was freaked out)

Realizing that Moab is a horrible place to camp because it is crowded and they charge alot for sites

Being kept up all night by a crying toddler in the site next to us

Learning that a 4-year-old girl CAN go down ladders and walk along cliffs as long as she is on a leash

Learning that ooid, loes, and facie really are words

Having so many mood swings that Brandon didn't know what to do with me

Running out of a slot canyon because we were afraid of a flash flood

And many, many more stories.

Yay, spring

Spring is finally here. I am done with all of my finals but one and the weather is nice. Yesterday Brandon and I went hiking and I realized that I will have lots of things to do when I'm not in school. I'm excited about everything I will get to do this summer. I need to:

Learn how to sew
Learn how to take good pictures
Learn how to use photoshop well
Plant tomatoes and maybe a few other things
Move into our new, TWO bedroom apartment
Figure out how to decorate baby's room using only gender-neutral colors
Find a place to keep Brandon's rock collection (it gets 10 lbs bigger every time we go hiking)
Learn how to cook
And lots of other things.

As for this week, Brandon and I are taking advantage of the break to go on a road trip. We will hit Arches, Canyonlands, Mesa Verde, Escalante, and either Capitol Reef or Bryce Canyon. It will be fun, and there will be rocks. Lots of rocks.

Ridiculous

Normally, I'm not a Utah-hater like the rest of my family. There are several things I like about it. I like the mountains, the national parks, getting free food from Grandma, and the ice cream. But waking up to this in the middle of April really makes me want to kick Utah in the face and run back to Texas. I think I will spend the rest of my day shopping for plane tickets.

Our little Easter

I was very excited for Easter this year because it is the first holiday that Brandon and I have been able to celebrate all by ourselves. In the morning we looked for Easter baskets. I must say, I was impressed with what Brandon got me. I tried to pick something out of it to eat and I just didn't know where to start. It all looked so good. After church I started making dinner and put the ham in the oven. To my surprise, Brandon started throwing things together and made a glaze. It made the ham DELICIOUS. I never knew I could like ham so much. I was impressed again. So here is a picture of our baskets: Yesterday I had to walk around with my pants unbuttoned all day because my belly is starting to stick out. So that I don't flash people, today I got a belly band to cover it up. I don't know whether to blame this on the baby or on Brandon and his delicious Easter goodies. Actually, it's probably my fault for wearing super tight jeans. Anyways, Fernash has been asking for a picture so here's one, belly band and all. It doesn't look like much yet.


Brandon went on a field trip on Saturday. When he got back, I found this scandalous picture on the camera: I asked him about it and his response was: I had to put something in there for scale.

I didn't ask who brought their barbie doll on the trip.

Good old Daily Universe

Last week, BYU's trusty newspaper "the Daily Universe" had a typo. It was the issue that covers General Conference, but on the front page, instead of saying something about the LDS church's quorum of the twelve apostles, it called them the quorum of the twelve apostates. It was obviously a mistake, and I thought it was pretty funny.

Apparently, though, the DU did not have a sense of humor about it. As soon as they found out, every single newspaper bin was cleaned out and replaced with a sign that said "paper recalled because of a printing error." I was surprised that no one followed me home to steal and burn the copy that I had from that morning. I was expecting an apology to be issued in the next day's paper, but there was none to be found. I also expected there to be a few Readers Forum letters about the typo the next day, but they didn't publish any of those, either. They sure tried to destroy the evidence.

I did hear, though, that the typo made the evening news in Salt Lake. So much for covering your tracks, DU. I think an apology would have been more effective.

Bouquet

If anyone was wondering what the flowers on my blog are from, that is the bouquet that I made for my bridals on Tuesday. I was so excited to find roses in my colors, then I almost peed my pants when I found ranunculuses, too. I was very proud of this bouquet.




So I had a fun little romp in my wedding dress, but I decided that's the last time I am going to put it on. It is getting pretty tight. At least the pictures turned out well, and Brandon had a fun time staring at me for two hours.

Dear Bexar,

I nominate you for Best Blog award. Not only did you title your post about having another baby "Oops, I did it again," but you topped it off by telling everyone that we are trying to populate the world all by ourselves and that's just how we roll. I laughed out loud. Keep up the good work.

Love, Shady

Dear Fernash,

I am not a pushover anymore. In fact, I'm a jerk sometimes. But that's only when people do stupid things. So if you want to see me confront someone, just call me "ghetto booty" or "cankles" one more time, and I'll come all the way to Dallas just to kick your butt.

Fired?

Yesterday I was looking at my bank account and I realized that I hadn't been paid in 7 weeks. I normally get paid every 2 weeks, so this was a little alarming. I talked to my managers about it and they said they would find out what was wrong. Well, they figured it out-- the Cougareat secretary had apparently fired me in January and hadn't told me or anyone else. (I'm assuming this was a mistake. She isn't even in charge of our store.) So, my managers had to re-hire me and have me look at the schedules for the last couple of months and tell them when I had worked. They were very apologetic, even though I wasn't mad at them-- they had no idea I was fired. But if the secretary fires me again without telling me, I am going to have to have a talk with her. That's just rude.

Go Brandon go

I wanted to take another post to brag about how cool Brandon is. He got invited to do research for the geology department this year. He also wrote a paper that was so good, his professor said that if he edited it well, he might publish it. Oh, I can see him becoming more employable every day. It makes me happy.

What doesn't make me happy is that he has a geology field trip this weekend and I will be all alone on Friday and Saturday.

No, stoop dogs, it wasn't an accident

I think I am going to punch the next person who asks if my pregnancy was planned. It bugs me to realize how nosy people are. What difference would it make if it were planned or not? It seems like any time someone finds out that I'm pregnant they say, "Really? Did you plan this?" as if they want to say, "Whoa, this must be an accident. Do you have any idea what you're doing?" Hey, it's my first baby. OF COURSE I don't have any idea what I'm doing.

Redo on the pic

Remember this picture? Well, I kind of lied in my caption. This isn't really how Brandon feels about school. This is the face Brandon made when he found out I was pregnant.



Don't be fooled; he really is excited. He even changed his gmail chat status to say "Brandon is pregnant." He might be sympathizing with me a little too much. His friend saw it and congratulated him. He congratulated her back. Ever since he found out that pregnancy is measured from the first day of a cycle instead of from conception, he has this theory that all women are pregnant all the time. Most girls get pretty mad when he tells them that.

I had my first appointment today and heard the baby's heart beat. So yes, Ashley, I DO have proof that I'm pregnant. I hope you believe me now. As if being sick all the time wasn't proof enough.

Dear Cougareat customers,

We do not accept Bookstore gift cards. If you ask me why we don't accept them, I will look you in the face and say, "Because we're NOT THE BOOKSTORE." This will make you look really stupid in front of your friends. And believe me, I won't feel bad about it. I'm not as nice as the other employees. I won't go check with a supervisor just to make sure you can't use them. I am a supervisor, so that would be a really stupid thing for me to do. So next time you order a dozen brownies, make sure you have an alternate method of payment.

Windy

Today I walked outside and was literally almost blown over by the wind. I had to regain my balance so that I wouldn't fall. I love days like this.

Impulsive

I went to get my hair cut today. With my last ounce of bravery, I told the stylist to give me full-on bangs-- a style I haven't sported since 4th grade. I still have mixed feelings about them, but I think they'll work.

This will make you jealous

I got to see mom and dad this weekend, and I only had to drive to St. George to do it! We took mom to Zion because she had never been before. Here are some pictures.
Brandon always loves to stop and ponder the geology.

Mommy and me on the trail!

And a pretty view.

I had lots of fun!

My hero

Yesterday Brandon and I went grocery shopping. Brandon let me buy a huge jar of pickles, grapefruits, burritos, and all the yogurt I could handle. Sometimes I think he'll never understand how much I love him.

Hearing impaired

I'm not a fan of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Some people might gasp and say that I'm going apostate, but I don't care. The reason I don't like it is that it is SO HUGE, I can never hear the words to the song clearly. They also like to divide themselves into tons of parts and rounds and all sing at the same time. This is not good for me beacuse I have a tendency to hear things wrong (Dad will remember me singing "she's got me on the pretzel.") Here are some things I have heard them sing:

Breakfast, breakfast, buns of salt
He's smart, he's smart, he's veeeeeery smart
Ringing in the cheese, ringing in the cheese
Away thy sheets

I did not find out until relatively recently that they are really singing "bringing in the sheaves" and "and we, like sheep." I still have no idea what the first two really say. Until I can read along when they sing, I'm listening to something that's easier to understand.

Pavlovian response

I'm assuming everyone knows about Pavlov's experiment with the bulldogs where he rang a bell when it was feeding time and soon enough they started salivating every time they heard a bell. Well, something similar has happened to me, and it is really annoying. Last semester, I would get home from school every day, take out my keys, go in the house, and go to the bathroom. Apparently I have done this for too long, because now every time I get home from school and take out my keys, I have to pee. Really badly. I am completely fine until I take my keys out, and then it hits me. It doesn't matter what time I get home, either. I don't even notice it until I see my keys. I think I have a pavlovian response to my keys-- they make me have to go to the bathroom because I associate them with the bathroom.

This is problematic because it's February, and our door gets harder to open when it's cold, and I wear snow boots, a scarf, and a huge jacket. It takes me much longer to get into the house, and then shedding all those layers and making it to the bathroom takes even longer. So I am stuck outside my apartment every day doing a "pee pee dance" and trying to get my key in the door. There have been some close calls. This is ridiculous! I am not a bulldog! I shouldn't wet my pants because my keys remind me of the toilet.

I don't know what to do. Should I slap myself every time I see my keys so I associate them with being slapped and not with going to the bathroom? This is annoying.

An update

I went to target and found rugs on sale for $15 each. They were small, so I bought two and put them together to make a big one. It's kind of ghetto, but they are so much prettier than our yucky brownish-gray carpet.

I also found a plane ticket to Houston for $278. I might come the week that Brandon is on his field trip, if we don't drive down before that. I just really don't want to be home alone for 2 weeks in August when Brandon is on his geology outing.

This is how Brandon feels about school right now:

Please help Brandon!

Brandon has a problem. He is double-majoring in civil engineering and geology, but BYU will only award one degree, so when he graduates, he will have a degree in civil engineering with a secondary major in geology. He is worried that any geology company will take one look at his resume, see that he has a degree in civil engineering and not in geology, and throw it out. This would not be good because he doesn't really like engineering and he has done all the requirements for geology, so he should get credit for the major.

I asked him if he could just switch his primary major to geology, and that would be problematic, too. Since geology is a much shorter major than CE, if he switched his primary major to geology, he would have to take a lot of electives to make 120 hours, and he has only taken as many electives as CE requires. In short, he would have to take 2 extra semesters of classes that have nothing to do with either major.

I have now sent myself on a mission to find out how to set up his resume so that geology companies will see that he has the same qualifications as anyone who got a degree in geology. The best format that I have found is this:

B.S. Brigham Young University, April (year)
-Civil Engineering and Geology double major

Would that be good enough? Is it misleading? He is so smart; I would hate to see him not get a job because of a technicality like this. And he loves geology. He even has a blog post about his rock hammer. I need help.

Trying to be healthy

Lately Brandon and I have trying to be healthy. I have been doing a workout video 3 times a week and yesterday I even learned how to make wheat bread. Of course, 1/3 of my workout video consists of standing in one place and putting my arms in different positions. Also, I'm not sure if wheat bread is more healthy because we put a little more sugar and tons of honey in it. But at least we're trying.

Spanish flubs

Yesterday I was editing Brandon's little sister's spanish assignment. I came across something funny that she wrote:

Snowboarding en el infierno es divertido.

For anyone who doesn't know spanish, the word she meant to use was invierno, which means winter. Instead, she had a typo and wrote infierno, which means hell. It reads: Snowboarding in hell is fun.

I corrected that, thankfully.

Everyone that knows me will find this funny:

Brandon once told me that sour cream was the most useless condiment.

Not only is sour cream my favorite condiment, it almost constitutes an entire food group. So I told him the story about how I used to sneak out of FHE and eat sour cream.

He also told me he doesn't like hot dogs. I won't even go into that one.

A good cook

I must preface this by saying that Bexar is awesome. A year ago, she sent me the recipe for the best stir fry EVER. I make it all the time now. But tonight I was especially proud of myself because I made it into a wrap! I put chicken, lettuce, and chow mein noodles on a tortilla and drizzled the stir fry sauce on top (made of soy sauce, peanut butter, and honey). It was delicious. I am slowly getting better!

Vote on my future!

I have been at BYU for two and a half short years now. I am going to graduate in August or December (August if we can find cheap health insurance, otherwise I need to stay in school for another semester to keep milking the cheap insurance). I am at the point where people ask me what I want to do with Spanish. And my answer is this: I have no idea. And they usually respond with "Well, you could teach Spanish." And I say, "Thanks, that's really original." (Sorry, but going through 2 years of being supervised and critiqued on my teaching skills is the last thing I want to do. I have real issues with being supervised.) So, I am letting everyone suggest things that I can do once I graduate. If it's not a real job, (i.e. volunteer work, or something I do at home to make myself feel productive) that is perfectly acceptable. Please, give me a future. Or at least something to tell people so they stop asking.

Ghetto booty

Everyone knows that Ashley loves to remind me that I have a "ghetto booty." But apparently, she forgot over Christmas and sent me some tiny jeans. The only problem is that I LOVE the jeans. They were not something I was about to take back/exchange. So, for a few days I tried sucking in and pretending I didn't have a butt to get them on. It worked, but after walking around in them for a few hours, my legs started hurting because they pinched the nerves in my hips. Then Brandon came up with a great solution-- he unstitched the button (which was off to the side like on most trouser jeans) and put it back on in the middle, giving me an extra inch. Now my zipper won't close all the way, but I have enough room to squeeze in my "ghetto booty." I just wear long shirts so I don't flash people. It works so well. Thanks, Brandon and Ashley.

Good news!

Valentine's day is on a Saturday this year, meaning Brandon and I actually get to celebrate it on Valentine's day. I'm so excited, I even made my blog festive. Yaaaaaay!

Things my teachers said that made me like them

My spanish teacher:
"Nothing I teach is offensive to normal people. Unfortunately, this is BYU, and we don't have normal people."
"I don't believe in censoring, so if there are any crazy nut-jobs in here who are going to get offended and complain about what I have them read, they should leave now."
"If you come across a four-letter word when reading, just move on. It's probably nothing you won't hear me say in class."
My religion teacher:
"Theologians are a bunch of religious prostitutes."
"I'm an equal-opportunity offender."
"Does BYU still have it written in their handbook that women must wear bras?"
"I speak fluent Catholic."

Picutres

I really wanted to post pictures from Mexico on my blog. Brandon and I got some good ones. However, our computer is really slow. So everyone will have to wait until I go back to school and use the computers there.

Bargain shoppers

Since we had some Christmas money, Brandon and I decided to splurge today. We spent a whole $100. We went to Lowes, Target, and DI and got:
2 huge picture frames (one is 2'x4')
a golf bag
4 pillows for the couches
new sweat pants for Brandon (thank goodness)
WARM gloves for me
a coat rack
superglue (to fix one of the frames)

I think we got a pretty good deal.

Then he gave to his siblings...

Lots of things. Brandon's sister wanted him to paint her snowboard for Christmas, so we spent the morning doing that. He actually got the design from our bedspread and made it very purple.

On the first day of Christmas, my Brandon gave to me

Snow boots that are warm for my feet. I got the black ones. He said he didn't want to carry them all the way to Mexico so that I could open them on Christmas. And it was snowing like crazy this morning.

Another reason I love Brandon

We were watching a home improvement show on Saturday (I think those shows are pretty cool) and Brandon already knew how to do everything they did on the show. He even made fun of them for using fancy tools for easy work. Wow, I am going to have a cool house when I grow up.

There goes my incentive

It is no longer beneficial for me to work a closing shift at work. The Cougareat changed their policies and employees are no longer allowed to take home leftover food after closing. This officially sucks.

pictures from Thanksgiving

Opening presents-- Brandon tried on the hat his mom made for him, but she realized it made him look like a girl.

Mia had fun decorating the little castle I made for her.

And here is the house Brandon and I made.

Hauling in the enormous Christmas tree--that thing barely fit on the Suburban.

And here I wanted to show Mom how my would-be wedding dress turned out.

6 whole months

I had a startling realization while I was at church today: Brandon and I have been married for 6 months. Then I realized that this time had gone by so fast that soon I would be graduating, having kids, getting old, and wishing I was once again a newlywed. So now I am going to list all the reasons I am glad to be married to Brandon.
- He lets me take naps whenever I want to.
- He doesn't make me make dinner every night, he loves to help me.
- He doesn't care that I'm not a very good cook.
- He cuddles with me every morning when he wakes up.
- He makes me take calcium pills every day because he doesn't want me to break myself when I'm old.
- He takes me on dates.
- He gets me to tell him what's bothering me when I'm grumpy.
- He doesn't care that I have a useless major.
- He encourages me and tells me that I can finish things, even if it takes me a long time. Like the 10-mile hike that took me all day-- he was so proud of me just for making it to the top.
- He is good at everything that I'm not.
- He is thrifty to a degree that I never thought possible.
- He helps me through my frequent attacks of self-doubt.
- He loves me even when I'm weird.

Things I learned in Idaho (in no particular order)

1. Brandon is exactly like the rest of his family--none of Brandon's family can make decisions. It's starting to worry me, because eventually someone will have to wear the pants in this relationship, and neither of us want to.
2. One of my pet peeves is being woken up in the morning. I haven't realized this because I have gotten up on my own since I was about 10 years old and I know exactly how long it takes me to get ready. Somehow, even though I'm 20 and married now, Brandon's siblings still think they need to be my personal alarm clock.
3. Brandon and I make awesome graham cracker houses.
4. Brandon was Elvis in his 6th grade school play. He sang and danced and combed his hair for all the world to see.
5. Nature is not very good at growing Christmas trees. I never knew how hard it was to find a full, teardrop shaped pine tree in the wild. It takes hours.
6. No one should ever eat anything that Brandon's dad and brother cook. They made jalapeno poppers for me and gave one to me last night. However, they hadn't taken the seeds out, they made it with an extra-hot red one, and I'm convinced they dipped it in hydrochloric acid. I took one bite and had to drink about a gallon of water and run to the bathroom because I thought I was going to throw up. It was by far the hottest thing I had ever tasted. Bryce and McKay thought it was really funny.

More like Bethy, less like a wimp

Today before work I was heading to the dressing room to change into my work clothes. When I got there, I noticed that it had been closed off and there were three maintenance workers standing around. I stopped and read the sign posted on the door which said "Closed for repairs" and walked away a little irritated.
When I got to my locker, I heard one of the workers say, "Did you see her just standing there staring at the sign? How long does it take to figure out it's closed?"
So, I stood up and said, "I can hear you. You know, if you're going to say things about people behind their back, you should at least wait until they're out of earshot, otherwise people might think you're a big jerk."

The only problem with this story is that it is a lie. Yes, the maintenance guy was a jerk and yes, I heard him, but I didn't say anything. I just walked to another bathroom to change. Then I thought about the time when we were in the Newark airport and the flight attendant was yelling at everyone, so Bethany told her that she didn't have to be so rude. And I decided that I need to be more like Bethany and less like a wimp.

Back

Brandon and I had a delightful time in Midway this weekend. We got in on Friday and went out to a Mexican restaurant that served at least 12 different types of salsa. Sadly, every one we tried was completely flavorless. Of course, there are only 2 restaurants in Midway, so it was either that or some expensive-looking one.The next morning we went on a drive and I found this little stream that I fell in love with. Something about green moss and yellow grass is really exciting for me. So here's a picture for those who haven't seen me in awhile and another of just the stream.

We tried driving the alpine loop but it was closed for the winter. Instead, we walked around the back of Timpanogos for about 5 minutes until I got too cold. Anyways, here is little Brandon.

After that we had a picnic. We made sandwiches and I was excited to have spicy brown mustard on mine. Anyone who knows how much I love mustard will understand. I have to thank Bexar for force-feeding me mustard when I was little-- it has grown into quite a love affair.

For the rest of the day, we watched movies in the condo. Even though we didn't do much it was way better than being stuck in our little apartment. I had tons of fun with Brandon.

Question...

Who wants to see Brandon in a skirt? If you said yes, go here.

Exercise

Lately Brandon has been encouraging me to exercise. No, he doesn't think I'm fat, he just knows that I feel much better about myself when I do, and he is all about self-esteem. Last night he was coming up with suggestions of things I could do (he even offered to work out with me), but nothing seemed to work. It gets dark at no later than 5:00 this time of year and rains all the time, so that eliminates anything outdoors. And our apartment is too small for just about anything-- I was going to have him teach me ju jitsu (he took a class last semester) but we don't have any open floor space. In fact, we hardly have enough space for me to lie down to do crunches. And anything involving running or jumping would make our neighbors downstairs really hate us. I told Brandon that if he got me a dog, I would happily take it on walks for hours a day, rain or shine. But that's out of the question, too. So I'm going to ask Bexar, since she seems to be the queen of working out, how do you do it? Because I can't seem to do anything.

Thanks, mommy, I fixed my spelling errors.

Okay...

Can you see it now?

Halloween, and the previous weekend

Here is a picture of little Brandon working hard on our false wall. It was supposed to be gold but turned out to be about the color of the couch. Bummer. We can at least re-paint it.

I decided that I couldn't go the entire day without wearing a costume, so I dressed up as a "shady lady" before going to a friend's house for soup.

Last week I got to stay in Salt Lake while Brandon took his FE test. Since it started at 7:45 AM and I had nowhere to go, I went and took pictures of the temple because it's generally pretty in the fall. Can anyone spot the big dipper in the vertical picture of the temple? The people who built the Salt Lake temple actually put the big dipper on the west side and the stars align and point directly to the north star. It's very faint, but it's there, in the blank space on the center pillar.

And here it is with the pretty fall colors. I actually wan't too bored in Salt Lake- I went to the gateway and got a skirt for $2, visited a friend, and visited grandma and grandpa. After the test Brandon and I went out to Cheesecake factory to celebrate. Brandon got the crunchy cashew chicken and it turned out being one of the best things I've had there. Yum.

Dear people who can't read Fernash's blog,

Have you tried using Internet Explorer to view it instead of Mozilla? I always have problems seeing it on Mozilla but it's just fine on IE.

The things I learn about Brandon

I learn new things about Brandon every day. Yesterday we were shopping at Wal-mart and stocking up on food (we returned so many wedding presents there that we had plenty of money for groceries.) We were in the "Oriental foods" aisle and Brandon asked me if I wanted to get anything else. I told him that I would like to make sweet and sour pork and I reached for a bottle of sweet and sour sauce. Then he stopped me and said, "Shady, don't get that, we can make it." Confused, I said, "You can't just make this stuff--you have to buy it. Like the sweet and sour pork that I had at your house. Where did you get the sauce for that?" "We made it," he said. "It's nothing more than vinegar, sugar, and a little bit of ketchup." Needless to say, I kept saying "Really? Seriously?" for about 10 minutes. I mean, I knew his family always made their own bread and syrup and pickles and window cleaner, but, sweet and sour sauce? You have to draw the line somewhere. I had always assumed that there were certain things that everyone just bought.

Another thing I learned about Brandon that day struck me when I dropped him off for his FE review. He asked me if I wanted to come see the sandbox. I said okay and he took me into his lab where I saw just that-- a giant sandbox. I told him that I always thought that he did work for his classes, not play in a giant sandbox. I said that if this is what geologists do then I should be a geologist. He said that they didn't play in it, they just observed it. Then I pointed to a muscular little figurine standing in it and said, "That looks like a toy to me."

That's okay. Brandon does more work in his classes than I do, even if it involves a giant sandbox. And now I get to learn how to make sweet and sour sauce so that I can likewise confuse little girls like me who thought that everything came from stores.

Sick day

I had a sick day on Tuesday. Normally I think sick days aren't that bad-- I get to stay home and sleep all day, and Brandon gives me a hug about every 30 seconds and asks if I'm ok. The not-so-fun part is the throbbing head and the fact that it came during midterms. (Brandon is also a little sick.)

But we both need to be better by Saturday, because Brandon has his FE (Fundamentals of Engineering) test in Salt Lake. It's one of those tests that sounds huge and scary. I just can't wait until it's over and he doesn't have to go to any more reviews.

10 easy steps to make your blog cute

This is mainly for Mom, because she asked, but anyone else can use this too.

What I did for MTB's blog is:
1. go to thecutestblogontheblock.com.
2. sign into your blog in another window.
3. pick out a background that you want on said website.
4. go to "layout" on your blog.
5. in "add and arrange page elements," go to "add gadget" (at the side of the page).
6. click on "add Javascript/html"
7. at thecutestblogontheblock.com, click on the background you want. There will be an html code below the instructions. Highlight and copy the html code.
8. paste the html code on the "add Javascript/html" window.
9. click "save."
10. now you have a new background for your blog!

Note: before you do this you need to make sure that the template for your blog (under Layout--> pick new template) is Minima. These steps also won't guarantee you a cute header-- I make those in Photoshop.

Why Brandon hates cats

Aren't these little faces just adorable? Well, they're nothing but trouble, according to Brandon. He has gone through no less than 50 cats in his life (the big cat has 4-5 kittens in each litter, and she gives birth about every 6 months.) His family manages to give away most of the kittens, but as you will soon see, they have a much worse track record with animals (not just cats) than we do. If you think that every pet's dream is living on a big open farm, you're wrong. They live on 2.5 fenceless acres and most of their pets suffer very violent deaths.

One of his cats and one of his dogs died by "bleeding out their butts." Brandon was supposed to shoot the cat but it got away and ended up dead on their porch a few days later. A few of his dogs either ran away or were run over. One puppy was run over by the lawn mower (luckily it was the tire, not the blade.) Two kittens crawled into the sawdust vaccuum tube and got stuck there. They came sliding out a couple of months later. One kitten had its leg bitten almost off by a dog-- Cameron and Mia had fun picking out the maggots after that happened. Gross. But Brandon's favorite story is about his cousin's puppy Fluffy. It was stupid and liked to chase cars. It got caught under the wheel of a car it was chasing and was tossed up in the air by the motion of the wheel. On its way down it was hit again by an oncoming car.

Any animal lucky enough to escape death then has to face Mia-- at least until they're too old to be cute.

And if Brother thinks that Alice's peeing in his suitcase is bad, imagine having your cat give birth on the foot of your bed. That happened to Cameron a few months ago. Brandon was lucky enough to have the cats give birth under his bed. He also had to rescue a couple of litters out of the attic.

Their cats could be unusually generous, though. One Christmas morning they went outside to find that their cat had killed about 50 mice and placed them ont he floor by the car. Apparently it kept it up for about a week, so they would find a new peace offering every morning. It also used to disembowel mice and neatly line up the entrails on the doorstep.

Don't feel bad, mom. Any of these animals would have loved to stay at our house. With this said, I think I can guess that Brandon and I will never own any cats. He has had a few too many give birth on his watch.

Why Brandon's family is cool:

They had extra condo points so they booked us a condo in Midway for a weekend in November.

6 random things about Brandon

Since Brandon won't post 6 random things about himself, I'm doing it for him. I'll forgo posting the rules and tagging people since he doesn't even have 3 blogger friends to tag. Here goes:

1. He played soccer in high school and his nickname was "the destroyer" because he sent more players off the field than anyone else on the team. He got a yellow card for kicking another player in the face, and another for kicking a kid in the stomach (they were in the way of the ball).

2. His favorite food is shrimp. He once went to the Sizzler and got the steak and shrimp combo which comes with endless shrimp. He ate the entire steak plus more than 100 shrimp.

3. He loves to correct people. He has already corrected me numerous times on this post. He claims that I tell his stories wrong. Now he is saying, "Claims? I think it's a pretty fair claim."

4. He is a great artist. He is the only person in his school's history to have gotten two 5's on the AP art exams. He draws pretty weird things too, such as a woman in a crocodile costume, his cousin in a sombrero and poncho shooting a rifle, and a menacing blue face.

5. He hates buying things for himself, but he doesn't mind spending money on me. Yesterday we went shopping and he told me to buy just about everything I looked at. He once convinced me to buy a dress just so that I could wear it on a date with him. The summer before we were engaged we went out to eat at least three times a week. It was awesome.

6. He also loves to snowboard. When I was in Mexico he sent me a video of him doing jumps. He claims it was a terrible video, but he looked extremely crazy in it. He even used to go snowboarding in shorts occasionally.

Lucky day

Apparently yesterday was my lucky day. Every once in awhile I have those, and they're awesome. First, work was really slow and Brandon came to visit me, so I got to do nothing but talk to him and scoop honey butter for 30 minutes. Then, the guy that usually comes in late and makes me stay late for work came in on time and told me that he would just try to "hold it" until his shift was over so that I could go home. (He has OCD, so his bathroom breaks are about 45 minutes long. I would have had to stay 45 minutes over my shift.) Then, I found out that my new generic perscription is $47 cheaper than my old one, so now Brandon and I can afford to go on dates. And finally I stumbled upon a cute way to do my hair that's really easy. I love lucky days.

Tagged again! How fun.

Rules:
Link to the person who tagged you: Poodle
Post the rules on your blog
Write six random things about yourself
Let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I dye the underside of my hair brown to add contrast to my hair.

2. I sleep much better since I've been married, except when Brandon talks in his sleep. Then I try to stay awake and listen to him because it's funny.

3. I am convinced that my kids will be the most photographed people in the world, because I LOVE my camera.

4. I want lots of pets. I almost took home one of Brandon's cats. He convinced me that it wasn't a good idea. Thanks, frontal lobes.

5. When I was a teenager, I went through a phase where I was mad at everything and sulked in my room most of the time.

6. I worry that when Brandon starts making money, I will spend it all. I've already started a mental list of things we need to get when he gets a real job. I could go crazy.

I tag Brandon, Landon Wiest, and BROTHER!!!

Ashley, the sweet spirit

I had forgotten about how nice Ashley is until she came back to BYU last week. The first thing she said to me when she saw me was this:
Wow, you look so skinny. I thought you'd get fat after you got married.

She is also so accepting of everone she meets. She would never stereotype anyone. Like when she met Meagan's boyfriend for the first time and we had this conversation:
Ashley: You're a lot cooler than I thought you'd be. I figured you'd be a dorky BYU boy. You know, one of those overly perky returned missionaries.
Me: Ummm... he doesn't even go to BYU.

Or this conversation:
Me (seeing a commercial on TV) : That girl looks like the Cougareat secretary.
Ashley: Yeah she does.
Me: You've never even met the cougareat secretary.
Ashley: I know, but that girl looks like a BYU girl, so she has to look like the Cougareat secretary.
Me: So now all short girls with brown hair are "BYU girls?"

I know a short girl with brown hair that went to BYU. She's very perky, and she's a returned missionary. Ashley, you're a BYU girl. You might say that you don't miss BYU, but you sure fit the part. You dug this hole on your own.

I tagged myself

Your High School's full name: Ronald Reagan High School
mascot: rattlesnake. Although the bronze one outside always got its head and tail cut off so it looked more like a rope.
Did you date anyone from your school? Apparently a lot of guys thought they were dating me; I only admitted to dating 2.
What kind of car did you drive? red dented Corolla. I still drive it, and love it.
It's Friday night, where are you? Traipsing around, or grounded, or hanging out with mom.
Were you a party animal? No.
Were you considered a flirt? Yeah, hence the handful of guys that thought I was their girlfriend.
Were you in any clubs? Oh yeah. Art club, film club, JETS, Acedemic UIL, Spanish honors society, TSA, NHS (until they kicked me out for not attending meetings)
Did you ever get suspended or expelled? No, but I skipped a lot my senior year.
Can you still sing the fight song? I never could
Who were your favorite teachers? Sra. Frye (spanish), Mr. Ricketts (art), and Mr. Valderrama (history)
Where did you sit during lunch? Carrie or Jennifer. I sat with other people but I didn't like it.
With whom did you go to Homecoming? Jr. year- Matt, Sr. year- Marques
If you could go back and re-do High School, what would you do? I would have ditched most of my superficial friends and hung out with my mom more.
What do you remember about graduation? My friend from my government class yelled out "FEMA" when he saw me, because we once both yelled it out at the same time in class. After graduation mom, dad, brother, and I went out to Alexander's to eat and dad and brother talked about economics.
Do you plan on going to your 10 year reunion? No, that's what Facebook is for.

We are annoying.

That's right, Brandon and I are annoying. I wouldn't want to be our friend. Last night when we were watching the History channel, the narrator was talking about boulders deposited in Central Park during the ice age. He said that they had remained there for "eons." I looked at Brandon and said, "How long is an eon? I hear the term all the time but I doubt that anyone knows what it means." Apparently Brandon was wondering the same thing, so he looked it up. We found out that an eon covers a span of at least 500 million years (there have only been 4 eons in the history of the earth). Since the last ice age ended about 13,000 years ago, the narrator was way off. So we will probably never again let someone use the word "eon" without correcting them, because 95% of the time, it's not used correctly.

I wouldn't want to be our teacher, either. Well, we don't really give our teacher a hard time, we just make fun of her behind her back. She had us read an article about a geologist who dated the Sphinx to about 5,000 BC. Archaeologists, an opinionated bunch, think that it was built no earlier than 2,500 BC because they haven't found evidence for an earlier culture capable of building it. So our archaeology teacher ripped this article apart, saying that he failed to take the archaeological record into account and even telling us that the article was published in a science fiction magazine. But what she failed to take into account was the fact that all of his observations of erosion were pretty convincing, and since he's a geologist, basing his case on the archaeological record would have been pretty dumb. She also didn't tell us that he published the same case in a peer-reviewed science magazine. Instead of saying, "We haven't found enough arcaeological evidence for this, so he must be wrong," she should have said, "Erosion patterns indicate that it was built earlier, so the archaeological record must be incomplete. " As for me, I'll agree with the field that has the lesser amount of BS inherent, and that's geology.

Great classes

I really like my classes this semester. I'm only taking one Spanish class, and it's the Spanish-American Novel. What we do is read books, come to class, and talk about them. It's like book club in Spanish.

In my Mesoamerican Archaeology class, we're learning about the Olmecs. They were pretty weird. They liked carving statues of ugly human-jaguar babies.

My Astronomy class is just about the easiest class I've taken in college. Our final project is "our interpretation of astronomy." My teacher says he's had drawings, songs, and interpretive dances about the universe, and they all got A's. I'm going to paint some nebulas. The one above is Lagoon Nebula--it's my favorite one. I'm excited to do it, I just need to decide on a medium. Brandon's helping me with that.

Our marriage

For Sunday school Brandon and I have been going to the newlyweds class. Yesterday we were supposed to write down things that each of us brought to the relationship. I looked at Brandon's paper and he had written, "I bring the frontal lobes to the relationship. Shady brings the amygdala." I think he's been listening to Mom too much.

And for those who are wondering, Brandon does call me Shady-- quite possibly more often than he calls me Lindsey.

Dear Utah,

I couldn't be more happy with you this year. I was sorely disappointed last year when you selfishly withheld the entire fall season and went directly from summer into winter. You have done much better this year. The leaves are already beautiful. I'm looking forward to more cool weather.
Love, Shady

weird story

I have a weird story to tell. On Tuesday when I came into work, there was a Brick Oven bag on top of the pastry holder. A co-worker told me that it was for me; a wedding present. Someone had dropped it off at the office. I opened the bag and found a sushi kit, a book, and a card from Fern and Reed Peterson. It was a great gift. What I can't understand, though, is how Fern and Reed Peterson got the present to my work. Were they visiting? Did they have someone else drop it off? Had they recently been to Brick Oven? How did they know that I work there? How did they find the office? It confused me for the rest of the day.

I guess it's one of those stories that I'll never have an explanation for. Kind of like when I found a crab in my bathroom. But that's a story for another day.

wedding album, a few pages

Correction

Okay, fine. I only took one of those pictures, and only a couple more of them were actually my idea (although Brandon had the same idea so he would have taken them anyways). Most of my pictures only made it to the semi-finals. As for the editing, Brandon did it and asked for my advice once in awhile. So I won't try to steal any more of Brandon's thunder. I am officially the less artistic one. But I still take credit for the idea for the project.

More, for Bethy.

Bethany,
These pictures are all on snapfish. You can get them in 11x14, 12x18, 16x20, and 20x30. Just let me know and I will crop them to the right dimensions. If not, then Snapfish crops them for you, and it sometimes messes up the picture.

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