Crazy Socks & Writer's Block

I'm crying inside a little. Spring break is over. Here we go again. It's time to get back into the groove. And record everything from Spring Break. Monday was a pretty productive day. I got thank you cards finished. I got some naps in. I organized my whole closet. And I got in a workout at the gym. That was so rewarding. I felt so powerful and strong. And I impressed Sammy. It was pretty great :) And I actually ran! I never run! The end. :) This has nothing to do with Monday, but I needed some pictures. The dog wearing a t-shirt because she wouldn't stop licking her stitches. The tshirt came off quite quickly because she kept jumping up and down and falling out. Sammy's taco socks. I love them so much!

I really don't do girly things that often. I never wear skirts except on Sundays. My nails are rarely taken care of, and my hair. Ha! I never take time to style it. But the last few weeks, I've been more girly. It's been alright honestly. I wore a skirt to school and that was very freeing, but also not. I had to watch how I sat. Oh well!  I put some nail wraps on. They were pretty for the day while they lasted! They didn't actually fall off, I couldn't stand the bubbles in them. And, I did my hair! It took a few tries for this messy updo, and Sammy was pushing back fly aways all day but I felt pretty. It was an accomplishment. And also a headache.

Last Saturday, I had a virtual bridal shower, conducted via FaceTime. It was, an interesting situation. It was so fun seeing all my family, but weird not being there in person and not seeing what was going on behind the scenes. I wanted to hug everyone and be there, but, it was the second best option and was fun that way too. My favorite part was when my mom and sister came home and I got to read the card. Everyone wrote such sweet things. My little cousins were so cute. One kept jumping in front of the camera and just staring at me, and the other sang Let It Go for me. So cute :) Everyone kept showing off their food to me. Luckily, my dad had just came back from the store with strawberries and we had Nutella. So I improvised and ate with everyone, virtually : )

Last night, I was a complete grumpy ungrateful mess. I was just sitting there fuming at everything that I thought was wrong. I was upset that I didn't feel as happy as I thought I should and how dare people do this and, yeah. It was no fun. I even checked out Lauren's blog to see what the next F word was, because I was catching up on blogging. Fortunate. I was not feeling fortunate and there was no way that I was going to post about it. Who reads this blog anyway? This morning though, I was going through the blogs and read Lauren's post on being fortunate. On just saying a grateful prayer. As I read, the words softened my heart. I immediately felt better and hopeful. I'm not in some depressed slump, I've just been forgetting to be grateful! And there's so many things that I am fortunate to have. Sammy. He is an angel sent down that I get to spend eternity with. He's always there for me and so patient with me. He's always cheering me on. I like to ...

On Wednesday, I went shooting with my dad and sister. I'd really been looking forward to going because honestly in this world, knowing one's way around a gun is a good skill to know. And, it sounds pretty cool to say. So, we went shooting at a range. This wasn't my first time shooting a gun though, I've shot a rifle a few times at my grandpa's house and gone for youth group. It's funny, you can't play laser tag at youth group but they'd let us go shooting. Anyways. When we first got to the range I couldn't stop jumping at the noise, but e ventrally I got used to it. Pulling that trigger the first time in so long was so nerve wracking. But, the bullet flew out and hit somewhere near the target. We had our own with squirrels on it. Pulling the trigger every time after that was only a little less nerve wracking. I have a very vivid imagination. This was my first time shooting a pistol as well, so I didn't know what to expect. I shot both a .22 and...

A few weeks ago, I went to get my wedding dress fitted. I was really nervous about it, I've never had a fitting before and had no idea what to expect. My mom was nervous as well because when she called the woman to make an appointment, she couldn't understand her at all over the phone. We got to the place early and sat outside awkwardly, watching every person who came in through the parking lot, hoping it was her. She finally arrived, a cute blonde woman from Ukraine. She let us in and told me to get into my dress right away. She then went through her mail and showed us all the pictures brides had sent to her. Once in my dress she had me stand in front of the big mirror. She started pinning right away. First, she pinned the shoulders. I was amazed that one little pin completely fixed my problems with the top of the dress. Just having that fixed made me feel much more confident in the dress. She then informed me that it was too long, and that I needed bustles. My mom had no id...

My most recent read. I started it at work on a Saturday, and was able to finish it by the next Thursday by reading when things got slow. Such an amazing read! It's easy to follow, not super stressful or scary even though it's a mystery. Reconstructing Amelia is about a mother who gets a phone call that she needs to pick her daughter up from school because she's been suspended for cheating. By the time Kate gets to her daughters school though, she finds that her daughter has allegedly jumped off the roof of the building and is dead. Amelia's death is ruled a suicide.  A month later Kate gets a text from a blocked number saying Amelia didn't jump. This starts her off on a journey to find out what really happened. She finds a world full of secrets, lies, a club gone wrong. The rest of the book is constructed with texts, pieces written by Amelia herself, and the investigation. The book kept me guessing. I didn't know who dunnit or if anyone had until ...

Last Wednesday I had the opportunity to go to a poetry reading after school. It was part of a new memorial in honor of Jake Adam York, a poet I have so much respect for. I wrote a post all about him  HERE . What I didn't know but found out at the poetry reading was that Jake Adam York is the one who actually set up the Creative Writing program at my school. That's one of the biggest reasons I have stayed at my school is that program and the way that it's structured here, differently than all other campuses. How cool that this man that I respect so much is the one who made it possible? Eduardo C. Corral So, this was the first reading. Part of the memorial was the writer had to be writing about aspects of history or social issues. Eduardo c. Corral sure fit that bracket. He writes about borders. The Mexico America border. The borders of love. The borders of language. The borders of identity. It really reminded me a lot of my class last semester about Migration and all th...

Last Wednesday I was waiting for Sammy to get out of class. I had a poetry meeting later that night, so I bought myself a nice yogurt parfait to hold me over for the rest of the night. Sammy headed off to class and I ate my yogurt while reading a book. A few minutes later, I was thrown forward and yogurt went everywhere. Sammy's class had been cancelled and in his excitement at more time to hang out, he ran up and threw his jacket at the back of my head, knocking the yogurt in my hands everywhere. I kind of sat there in shock for a bit, said Sammy! really loud, and then. Started laughing. And laughing. Sammy started apologizing profusely and stood there in horror. I remember him saying, Please don't yell at me. I didn't though because sometimes, you just have to laugh. Which I did. And then while Sammy went to get napkins, I ate yogurt off my pants because I'd paid three dollars dang it and I was hungry. Then I kept laughing. And laughing. Sammy helped me clean up...

This last week I have spent entirely with men. It's been awesome and I haven't laughed this hard in awhile. And very interesting. Lets just say, you don't want to come in our house right now because it smells bad. We forgot that when you dump week old leftovers in the trash that you should immediately take the trash outside. Ha! Friday I got to spend all day with my dad. We went out for bbq, made the wedding invitations, and watched Catching Fire. I love watching movies of books with him because I get to answer all his questions afterwards and I feel so smart. Saturday I had to work all day, spent the night with Sammy. I got a text telling me there was Pizza Hut at home. I later found out that my mom is the one who actually ordered said pizza for us, all the way in Utah. Classic. Sunday we all didn't feel good so we just took it easy. I made spaghetti for dinner and was lectured by my brother on the proper amount of sauce for spaghetti. He poured the rest of the c...

Sammy and I saw Divergent last night. I have had constant crazy happy butterflies all night and today. It was soooo good! I can't stop listening to the soundtrack on repeat right now. Or watching the videos and knowing exactly where all the little clips fit in with the movie. It was amazing. It was inspiring. It was, I'm so happy. Divergent is my favorite book of all time and it was amazing seeing it on the screen with such amazing (and pretty) actors. All of those Shailene Woodley haters, need to be quite now. She absolutely killed it. **SPOILER ALERT** I was a little miffed that they changed some things. As I'd watch something unfold differently than the book, I'd be like, hey! but then, not even two seconds later they would save the scene. Yeah, some things were different but they stuck with the plot and idea of the book and added things that Veronica elaborated on later, so it was perfection. I loved where Tris is running to catch the train after getting beate...

I want my kids to come look at this blog and get to know me. Know who I am as a person, and all the little things I like to do. And that their parents really love each other and had such a good time going to school right now. a I'd want them to know how we wait outside classes for each other in rocking chairs and that feeling of excitement when we walk out and see each other! How we love to sit in the rocking chairs, take baby naps on couches, take turns laying on each others laps. How good Sammy dresses every day for school and work. How we walk to the bust stop every night hand in hand and laugh at how our footsteps are always the same length. How I spend hours bouncing story ideas off him, and how he shows me funny videos. How exciting it is when he comes and visits me at work. How much we giggle every single day. Like, on Tuesday when we were walking in the parking lot and were almost to the car when Sammy stopped walking suddenly. I yelled, "Sammy! I'm cold!" t...

At work the other day, I was extremely bored. And cranky. So, I found myself something to do. See, every year there's this group of people handing out free books that come with cd's all over campus. These books are about 400 pages long with NICE glossy covers with flaps on both sides. Last year I read a little bit of the book and I just couldn't do it. Eww creepy weird. Gross. And ok, how on earth can this author afford to hand out free copies of his books? And why doesn't anything about him show up on the internet? It's weird and I don't understand. On this fateful day at work I found a copy of this hanging around. So, I got to work. I decided I was going to rewrite it and make it about the bookstore. I redid the cover and put the authors picture on the front being attacked by his creepy miner god. Then I added some holes for texture. It's still a work in progress, but I think it's funny. So do my co-workers. 

Sammy and I love to go out to eat. I always thought going out to a restaurant was a typical boring date, but, it's not. It's so fun! It's so fun to try something new and just hang out in a different atmosphere and eat good food! But, there's something that always happens when we go out… Food envy. Sammy is pretty adventurous. He'll order new things all the time. Me, not so much. If I know I like something, I'm getting that. I'm not going to spend $11 on something I might not like and then feel guilty about not eating. But, without fail, whenever we eat, Sammy gives me a bite of what he ordered and it's always amazing. Super amazing. And then I want what he got! And I keep stealing bites and staring at his delicious food. Of course, he doesn't like what I got cause I always go the boring route.  So, the next time we go out to the same restaurant, I'll order whatever it was that he got the first time. And he'll get something different. A...

Like Dr. House? Here's a real life case. This was an amazing read that I finished in a couple of hours. I don't usually like non-fiction but I absolutely loved this book and everyone I've told about it has been intrigued as well. I would write a summary of what it's about, but Susannah herself does a much better job. One day, I woke up in a strange hospital room, strapped to my bed, under guard, and unable to move or speak. My medical records—from a month-long hospital stay of which I have no memory—showed psychosis, violence, and dangerous instability. Yet, only weeks earlier I had been a healthy twenty-four year old, six months into my first serious relationship and beginning a career as a cub reporter at the New York Post. My memoir  Brain on Fire  chronicles the swift path of my illness and the lucky, last-minute intervention led by one of the few doctors capable of saving my life. As weeks ticked by and I moved inexplicably from violence to catato...

I've really been appreciating the little things this week. Like, watching a movie with Sammy and not being wiggly the whole time. We watched Now You See Me last week and loved it! We were both sucked in. My grandparents came for a short visit and it was fun just talking with them and listening to their stories. I did end up missing two classes to talk with them but it was so worth it. Because I was extremely late for my second class and it would be rude to just walk in, Sammy and I took a mini date to our favorite bookstore. He waited patiently while I looked at alllll the books and then said he would even get me one. There were three that I couldn't choose from, so he chose for me. Oh. Man. Such a great book! Then we sat and ate and read magazines. Afterwards, we took advantage of the random sunny day and walked down 16th street mall, just because. We didn't go in any stores and there were some pretty scary people but it was fun. It was just the two of us on a little d...

Todays F word is the future. Oh boy, I spend a lot of my time thinking about the future, which probably isn't healthy. I've been trying to think more about the here and now. But, that doesn't mean I can't think about the future. : ) Five years ago, when I thought about my life, I'd probably picture myself exactly where I am which is pretty funny. Three years ago, no way. It'll be funny to see how my views change over time. Right here, right now, these are my goals for the next five years 1. Be sealed to Senor Sammy for time and all eternity. Right now, there's a lot that needs to happen to get there and I know it's going to be a tough path. But, it'll be so worth it. 2. Get published. Oh, I want this so so so bad, I was crying last night again because at times it seems so attainable but at others, it seems so far. This is going to be so much work but I want it so bad. I WILL be an author. 3. See Sammy and I graduate college. 4. Get off ...

We took some more photos with Sammy's neighbor/pretty much aunt Miss Olga a few weeks ago. I absolutely loved, loved, loved the pictures my mom took back in October, but, with my big hair cut I look very different than I do in those pictures and wanted some updated ones to put on invitations. We also changed the date a few times so the shots with the date in them were no longer relevant. Here's a few of my favorite shots from that day. It was incredibly windy, cold, and the sun was going down, but we still got some good pictures! I wore my great grandma's necklace for the pictures, although you can barely see it. She and my great grandpa were married over seventy years so I felt like it was good luck : ) There's something in this picture that's not in the others. She photoshopped Sammy's eyebrows! He was not happy about this! We couldn't come up with any idea why she would do such a thing, Sammy's eyebrows are perfect just the way ...

For a class assignment, I had to go to the Art Museum and find a piece of art that inspired me, stare at it for forty five minutes, and then write a poem about it. I was really dreading this assignment until my mom volunteered to go with me. It was a blast! The most stressful part was finding parking, and my mom's a dork because when we went into the parking garage she'd scoot down in her seat as if that would make the car smaller as well. First we hit up the gift shop. The gift shop is a necessary part of any adventure. There were so many beautiful doodads and gizmos in there. I found a beautiful mermaid notebook that made me want to work on my mermaid story, but it was expensive! At one point we were looking at scarves that were $85. Naturally that's when I knocked over the mannequin it was displayed on. We quickly got out of there, not feeling fancy enough to look. Or rich enough. Man. Since we didn't have all day, we glanced at the Western art then went straight...

On 2/19 I had my first workshop in my Fiction class. I was so nervous going in. Workshops can be either really helpful, or, they can rip your soul out and leave you in tears. I was in the third group to go so I still don't have a great sense of which group my classmates fall into. So far, all the stories this semester have been about suicide. Very graphic sucides, disturbing suicides, not disturbing but about suicide suicides and yeah. My little soul was getting worn down from reading all the sadness every week. Like I've said, there's something about literature that seems like it always has to be sad and not inspiring….. Anyways. I was nervous because my story was not about suicide. It wasn't sad. And, it takes place in the Mayan times. But, we aren't supposed to do any genre fiction (sci fi, fantasy, historical) so, I didn't clearly specify what time period my story took place in. Also, this wasn't just some short story. This is an idea that I hope to ...

So many Wedding updates. First off, we moved the date. For about the sixth time. But this time, it is staying and is not moving and gosh dang it I'm going to be a married woman on June 7th no matter what! Unlike all the other dates, Sammy's family is actually on board for this one which makes a HUGE difference. I no longer feel like crying every day or get scared every time I get a message from him that it's going to be some other horrible thing that's been said. Also, 7 is my favorite number and I really want to get married on a date that just, feels right numerically. 6/7/14 is very, very, very numerically pleasing to me. Haha! Other good things that come with June 7th I don't have to worry about going to school the day after my wedding. I don't have any homework to deal with. We can go on a baby honeymoon right afterwards like normal people. (Look where I convinced Sammy we should stay one night! I am soooo stinking excited!) There's the numbe...

Bachelorette meets Hunger Games. That's all I have to say and you're in, right? Actually, as Sammy pointed out after I talked and talked and talked about the plot to him, it's more Bachelorette meets Divergent. Well, actually, it's Bachelor meets Divergent because it's technically only one guy. What book am I talking about? The Selection by Kiera Cass. Actually, I'm recommending the entire series because, it's that good! I'm so upset that the third book isn't out yet, but it will be soon. And those covers! They make me want to go dress up. I picked up The Selection at work because I was extremely bored one day and it looked like my best option. 183 pages later, I didn't want my shift to end because I needed to keep reading. The Selection is a book about a girl named America Singer who is being pressured by her family to enter the selection. The selection happens every time a prince comes of age and is a drawing of 35 girls from all ove...

On the 15th Sammy and I went out ourselves for a date. I had so much fun shopping for him this year. Instead of my usual gift of food, I went clothes shopping! I hit up the clearance section at Target and had a blast. I bought Sammy an entire outfit. A nice plaid shirt (that turns out had a huge rip in it so we need to return it.) An undershirt with Mr. Rogers on it about cardigans. A belt. Some long johns to count as pants. With all this below zero weather lately, he needs them! I also found a tie with ducks on it, socks with tacos on them, some awesome striped socks, and some man panties ;) Hahaha I've always wanted to buy him underwear just for the heck of it and it went with my entire outfit theme. I had so much fun shopping in the mens section for Sammy, I can only imagine what it's like to pick out outfits for babies later on :) I wrapped all of Sammy's presents in a Victoria's Secret bag, he was so confused when I handed it to him! Which made me even happier. :...