So far, so good

The weather forecast for next Saturday is:

High: 82
Mostly sunny

Not impressed

When I first booked my reception place, I thought it was great that they referred me to a florist and baker so that I wouldn't have to find my own. I could just tell them what flowers and cake I wanted, and they would do it for me. Sounds convenient. However, I wasn't so impressed with either of them. I like to do my homework before I order something so that I know what I'm asking for. I apparently ended up knowing more than the people I worked with.

For example, my florist told me that it would be impossible to get peonies in June, because they would be "out of season." Any website on the internet will tell you that they peak in early June. Hmmm.

She also didn't know what a nerine was when I requested them for my bouquet. According to Brides magazine, they are a bouquet staple.

Then she told me that stock only came in pink and white. Even the BYU Floral Center sells it in purple, yellow, red, white, and pink. And those are natural colors, not dyed.

My cake was supposed to be included in the cost of my reception. First, the cake maker threw a fit about how hard the cake was going to be. (Cheesecake with a topping and a fondant around it doesn't sound that hard.)

Then she decided to charge a $100 fee for having fondant. Brandon and I made fondant last night; it's not that hard.

Then the cost added up to $500 ABOVE what the reception place covered. For three cheesecakes. So, what did I do? I fired her. And I am now making my own wedding cake, with the help of Brandon's sister (a cheesecake pro-- she makes some of the best cheesecakes I've ever had) and little Brandon himself. And I guarantee I will do it for less than $500.

A rude awakening

I used to be the queen of Chinese Checkers. That was until I met Brandon. I played him once and he said, "You'll probably beat me, because I haven't played in years." Well, I lost. And I have lost all of the times except for once since we started playing together. The score now is something like Brandon:11 Lindsey:1. I dethrone myself.

My fabulous birthday

My birthday was great. In the morning Brandon took me to the Provo Bakery and let me get anything I wanted for breakfast. Then he took me shopping at the mall and bought me some very cute shoes. After that, we went and got a marriage license (mom was happy that I did it on my birthday so that it wouldn't say I was 19). For dinner, we had Greek food and then angel food cake for dessert. I even got him to dance with me afterwards, which is a pretty difficult task.

One of my best birthday presents was finding out that my best friend Jennifer could come to my wedding! I will have a maid of honor after all.

One additional announcement:
Sorry mom, but we decided on el Pastorero for our after-temple lunch. We heard that the Trolley recently raised their prices a lot, and it's pretty far out of the way. But fear not; el Pastorero is very good. It's not overwhelmingly Mexican and doesn't make you feel like you just ate a pound of grease.

Attention family

After the temple on Friday the 6th, we are all going out to lunch with Brandon's parents. Here are a few ideas for places to go for lunch:

Mimi's
P.F. Chang's
Pastorero (has real tacos al pastor and good Mexican food, but Mom might be sick of Mexican food)
the Trolley

You can vote on one of these or suggest another place.

Why?

This is the time of year in Utah when babies start making their first appearances. Since I work at an ice cream/doughnut store (food of choice for new moms), I have seen lots of babies lately. They are adorable. Only one thing confuses me: why do babies have to wear such cheesy clothes? I saw one today that was wearing a shirt that said "Property of mom." Honestly, if I were a baby, I would refuse to wear that. I'd poop on it or do anything to prevent my mom from putting that on me. Let's face it, babies are just miniature adults. Why can't they wear miniature versions of what we wear? True, they can get away with wearing ridiculous amounts of pink, blue, and yellow. No other age group can pull off pastels so well. That's perfectly fine with me. But when I have babies, I am boycotting cheesy clothes. I will also get at least one black outfit for it, just to really throw people off.

Things I learned in Idaho

1. How to pick asparagus. Brandon's little brother showed me. Apparently they have wild asparagus growing by their house, so we had some for dinner.
2. Brandon was a very cute baby. So cute that I won't even be sad if all our kids look like him.
3. Little kids are ball hogs and cheaters. Playing a ball game with Brandon's little sister is kind of like watching her hit a ball to herself.
4. Brandon was a pretty talented little boy. He even said so himself in an essay he wrote when he was 8. "My name is Brandon. My hobbies are arts and crafts. I won third place in an art contest against the United States."
5. Size doesn't always matter in a fight. Brandon kicked his little brother's butt in a wrestling match. He is 5'10", his little brother is 6'2".

Thanks, Annie

I would like to formally thank my new neice Annie for postponing my wedding. I had planned on a May wedding, but when I found out she was coming, I pushed it back to June. That was the best thing I could have done. May 3 (the day originally planned) was cold and windy. Today it was in the 40s and it snowed in the mountains. Apparently we need another month before the weather gets nice. Let's hope June is warm!

cake update

I decided on a three-tiered cheesecake version of this cake. Of course, the design will be blue instead of green, but whatever. What do you think? We are also looking for requests for songs to play at our wedding, because we are almost out of ideas.

Fess up

I don't know how I do it. I lose things all the time. Brandon and I bought a shirt for his sister for the wedding, then we bought another one for her because Brandon wanted her to be in a different color than his other sister. We were going to take back the previous shirt, but we couldn't find it anywhere. Then we realized that the other shirt was missing, too. The interesting thing is that these purchases were made on different days at different stores. The other things we bought with the shirts are still in their bags, only the 2 shirts are missing. I find it really weird that we would lose those shirts but not the other shirts that we bought at the same time. The only thing they had in common was that they were size small. My theory is that there is some size small girl walking around Provo with two brand-new shirts. In that case, she owes me lots of money. Luckily, we found a third shirt for Brandon's sister.

New apartment

Today Brandon and I got the keys to our first apartment. It is HUGE! It's bigger than the entire apartment I share with 4 other girls right now. It has a great big living room, kitchen, and breakfast area, 2 big bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. And it's cheaper than a 1-bedroom apartment at Wymount. It will be hard to move out in the fall. Too bad it's only a spring and summer contract.

For now, Brandon gets to live there all by himself while I am still stuck in this dump. I can't wait to leave.

Rings

Little Brandon and I went ring shopping today. Not for me, but for him. I think there are few concrete objects in the world that shows our personalities more than our rings do. Brandon picked out a black one. It's very him.

Then I was talking to him, and I asked him if he knows about the pictures people take of their rings together. Then I said, "We're not going to do one of those."

Our rings won't match at all. That's okay. I can't wait to show everyone what Brandon chose for himself.

$4.00

This summer I am working 8-hour shifts at Sugar 'n' Spice. It's not as bad as it seems, and here's why. For every 8-hour shift I work, I get a $4.00 meal coupon. Combined with my employee discount ($3 value), I can get anything up to $7.00 for free. This might not sound impressive, but at a store where the majority of the items are under $1, it's great. Today it got me:
2 Minute maid juices
1 mini-loaf of wheat bread
1 honey butter
1 bismarck, although I was stupid and pointed to the lemon one and not the raspberry one
1 strawberry cream cheese croissant
and my favorite, one cup of Graham Canyon ice cream. Yes, it's back, and I'm excited.

Little Brandon and I shared this and we couldn't even finish it together. It was beautiful.

Thanks, Bexar

I would like to thank my wonderful sister Bexar for being the only sibling of mine to RSVP to my wedding. To the rest of you who think you can bypass the system just because you're family, shame on you.

May help reduce the risk

I hate this phrase. It is a rhetorical nightmare. It appears on cereal boxes, advertisements, and many other places. The reason I hate it is that every word in the phrase "may help reduce the risk" diminishes the impact of the argument. If you analyze it word by word, it essentially means nothing:

May: or may not. I'm assuming the word "may" means that you have about a 50% chance that something will happen.
Help: well, this one means that it's not the only contributing factor. If there are just three other factors of equal importance, this one only carries 25% of the weight.
Reduce: this just says that it won't totally eliminate what you don't want, it will just "reduce" it. I'm guessing a good reduction would be something like 30%? Sure.
the risk: Take the risk of heart disease, for example. Various sources on the internet say it affects one in three people, so you already have a 66% chance that nothing will happen to you anyways.

Okay, I'm pretty bad at math, but if you multiply these percentage guestimations, it gives you a 1.24% chance that eating cherrios or wheat thins or what have you will directly affect your heart disease. But of course, the box says to combine it with a healthy diet and excersise anyways. Like I said, this phrase means nothing. It's simply the new catch phrase of the food industry designed to make dumb consumers think their mediocre product is actually healthy. That's why I hate it.

something that made my day

Today little Brandon came up to me and said, "Can we call our first child Baby of the Shady? Because that would be funny."

be prepared to hate me

Two things happened recently:
1. The weather got warmer and I realized how hot it will be in June and
2. I realized that I really don't like my wedding colors.

So, I decided to change them and used the excuse that everyone will be more comfortable in short-sleeved shirts. Don't worry; I was able to return everything I bought before.

And here they are:

Bethany, Bexar, and Fernash get the top; Poodle and Brianna get the bottom. People in the same size can trade. Mom will be in the same dress I already got for her, just a different color.

I know it's a change but these shirts are much cuter. And less hot.

I was seriously considering not telling anyone about the change until they got here. That would have been tons of fun.

a dilemma

There is one decision that I can't seem to make about my wedding. That is my hair color. Two years ago, my hair was this pretty blonde color: Now it's a nondescript light brown (see picture of Brandon and me kissing on the car). I like the blonde more. But, I figure that if I highlight my hair, I will pretty much doom myself to a lifetime of fake hair color. The highlights will grow out and leave roots that I will be tempted to cover up with yet another fake color. What do I do? Do I embrace my dull natural color or commit to being a faker? I need serious advice on this.

Although, if I got any of Dad's genes at all, I will have to start coloring in a few years anyways.

Since you asked so nicely

Brandon, by Lindsey
Lindsey, by Brandon

I thought we should put them out to welcome our guests at our wedding. Then we wouldn't have to stand in a stupid line.

cookbooks

Let me start off by saying that Brandon is a wonderful person for marrying me. Why? I can't cook, and he knows it.

That's not to say that I don't try. I have had a few successes, but it seems that most of my efforts in making a good meal for him fail. I never know what to cook. I get frustrated with the lack of food and the lack of ideas, and he usually ends up making pizza for me.

I feel like this could be remedied with a few good cookbooks. Then I would just have to open a book and find something that looked good. I could get food in advance so that we would actually have things to eat. However, it's been hard to find cookbooks that fit my following stipulations:

1. Lots of pictures. It may be unadventurous, but if I can't see something, it usually doesn't appeal to me.

2. Ingredients that I actually buy. Do you ever find a recipe that looks perfect only to find that it calls for cornish game hen or veal or fennel or brie? I don't even know what half of those things are! Let's stick to chicken and beef, please.

3. Recipes that don't use every dish in my kitchen. I love making pasteis, but they require a pot to boil the milk, a bowl to mix the dough, flour all over my table, a rolling pin, a pot to fry them, a plate to cool them, and a billion paper towels to soak up all the grease. It takes longer to clean up than it does to make them.

If you know of any cookbooks like this, please let me know. I'm really looking for a good main dish book and a breakfast book. Others would be appreciated, too. Bexar, you know you want to help!