I often forget

That this is what Christmas is.  This video brought me to tears this morning. I hope it can help you remember, as it did for me.

Merry Christmas.  

May we always let him in, and let his love fill our hearts
when all the world offers is coldness.

There are more inspiring videos here

Wonder Sauna Hot Pants

I am not usually so upfront in my post titles, but there is no way to embellish or help you anticipate what I stumbled upon during a recent cyberjaunt

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I am fairly certain my life has changed.  

This glorious item targets all of my problem areas.  It says I can slenderize anywhere I want....

I wonder if it will work on my arm flaps...?

  Probably.  I mean, it does have a very official looking crest telling me this product is approved by the AAU.  

I may not know what that means, but this box also promises that I will look better-feel better- and that it will wake up my body.  

 It also holds the promise, "easy to inflate"

So if nothing else, if Ches and I ever have twins, we can just use it for a dual floaty device when we need that outing to the local pool.  

Win Win.

I told you it was true

Disclaimer. I know it is cluttered.  You try putting all of you stuff in a smurf sized hole.

Here they are at last.  The pictures of the hobbit hole.

 Okay.  I know this first picture gives you no view of my apartment aside from my mismatched socks, but look at this rug my mother-in-law made for me! Isn't it fabulous!

I am standing in the middle of the living room, and this is my kitchen.  It is the perfect size considering the amount of cooking I do...not much.

I am standing almost against the cabinets in the kitchen, and this is the living room.  You might note the two hobbit size doors on the right side. Two of the three.

 

This is the door to the bedroom. Go up those little stairs, open the door, and you find....

 

 A hobbit! Cough...I mean, Husband!

He happens to be putting up Christmas lights for me at this moment.

Here I am sitting on my bed. Note how close the ceiling is. I have tried to stand up in fits of excitement, and been promptly shoved to the floor when the ceiling punched me in the head.

 

 This is our little dresser. Three drawers wide, and two high (just so you know the word drawer is hard for me.  I always want to put droor).

  

 I had to leave the room, and stand on the stairs in order to get the whole bed in the frame.  It is a king size, which we don't need because we both sleep right in the middle most of the time anyway.  Ches sleeps in the pillow crack (I know right?).  He says it is because it is closest to me. Cue Awwwwws.

 The ties nearly reach from the ceiling to the floor. These are THE ties.  The wonderfully hideous collection of nothing but polyester.  Husband is quite a snob actually.  He won't wear silk, and it can be no less than 4 inches wide. Yes, he does wear the clip ons.  Note here.

 

 A cute little bookshelf I keep by my bed.  I wish there were more coins in my little green piggy bank.  Then I could go buy an ice cream cone....and eat it.

 

My favorite part is probably how our pile of laundry mounds from floor to ceiling.  I am pretty sure some stuff lives in there, like gnomes and their pet spiders.  It only takes a week to cover up that little love sign you see in the distance.  We can't have our love covered up by dirty clothes now can we? Sigh. 

Bedtime Conversations

Me:(singing heartily) "Who wants a twig when you can have the whoooooooooooooole treeeeeee?" (obviously an exerpt from the fabulous show Hairspray) ....Ches....I'm the whole tree!

Ches: No you're not.

Me: Well, I'm not a twig...

Ches: You're more of a weight bearing branch.

pause....

PAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Backwards

I have complained muchly that husband and my first year of marriage is documented by a depressingly small number of photographs.  My camera is cheap, and takes soooper low quality pictures.  His camera does not respond when you push its buttons.

Happy Anniversary to me! Husband went and bought me a camera.  Let the documentation of our very weird lives begin.

(I HAD to take the picture of the camera with photobooth...I couldn't quite figure out how to make it take a picture of itself...)

Fuzzy Back Teeth

Just about every night about the time that I a quickly fading away into a drool on my pillow state, I decide I should wash my face and brush my teeth, so as to hygienate  myself in an appropriate manner (do you like my new word?).

A least every other night I ask husband if he wants to brush my teeth for me.

He has always politely declined. I always have the most polite reply of sticking my tongue out at him.

Last night the routine, and I dare say my life, changed.

He was brushing his teeth, and I said, "Can I help you?" and he said..nod nod.  So I got off the couch, and proceeded to brush my husbands teeth.  Getting my fat hands in that little mouth was a little difficult.  I think next time I will have him sit on a stool because I will be able to reach the back better.

Then....

I put toothpaste on my beautiful green toothbrush, handed it to him, opened my very large pie-hole, and....HE BRUSHED MY VERY OWN TEETH!  He missed the back completely, so I had to fix it for him, but I hurried and fixed it while he wasn't looking....well he was looking, but I couldn't have fuzzy back teeth in the morning.

I quickly became glad that we live in a basement apartment where no one walks by our one window.  How odd would it bee to walk by a window, look in, and see two grown people brushing eachother's teeth.  Not odd, I argue, INSPIRING.

We Believe

This woman is fantastic.

The End.

An Ode to Marshmallow Martyrdom

Do you know what this is?

 

This is my, "I loooooooooooooooooove Christmas time" mug.

My "I think all of the Thanksgiving Nazi's should be forced to wear Santa Suits" mug

My "It is now time to commence the constant playing of Celtic renditions of magical classical Christmas Songs" mug

My "I need to splurge on boots and festive scarves" mug

My "I should wear jingle bell earings, but only for one day because after that it is irritating" mug

My "Ouch this hot chocolate burns, and I remember that I don't really love hot chocolate mug"

Sigh. 

Bring on the Holidays

Nobody knew

Nobody knew what I was....can you guess?
I mean besides completely adorable, pigeon toes and all...
.......
I am a high fashion Keebler Elf of course! It's the striped cardigan. It makes me edgy.

Nobody knows why.
Not even me. I kept my eyes closed....
But I think this....is what he was going for


I am still having nightmares.....

Hobbits

Are curious creatures, and I am beginning to understand how they feel in their manner of living. That would be because, I am indeed, living in a hobbit house (that sort of roles off of the tongue doesn't it?)

Husband and I recently moved into a rather small apartment. Although Chesley has been know to be compared to hobbits (if you have not seen this reference click here) I had never really fostered my desire to live like them. I am now regretting that negligence.

Someday I will tell my children,"Your father and I once lived in an apartment with three little hobbit doors, and a little hobbit bedroom where we could only kneel on our knees because...well, although we have done many amazing and spectacularly adventurous things that we can only tell you about in stories because it all happened before you came along, we have never been hobbits!" And they will pelt us with questions about this amazing time in our lives, and ask us to tell them the story again and again.

And we will. It will always begin like this....

Your father and I once lived in an apartment with three little hobbit doors.....

Dining with the Donovans at Christmas time...

The broccoli cheese chicken soup sits sputtering happily on the stove. Taquitos, chicken nuggets, and other various foods of frozen goodness start to sizzle on the pan in the oven. The cheese ball of amazingness has been purchased from Kent’s Supermarket because everyone knows that their green onion cheese ball blows all other cheese-balls away. This is the tornado of cheese-balls. Assorted crackers have been beautifully arranged on the very old and underused cracker platter. They look so much more appetizing in a pretty circle than they do coming out of the box.

Mom moves the soup to a hot pad on the table. I have already laid out bowls and spoons, and my stomach gnomes are starting to vehemently protest the fact that they have been neglected for hours now. Family comes. Family sits. We bless the food.

It is as if the next three seconds are three minutes. My little brother sees the bowl in front of his place at the table. He looks at the spoon. He raises his head to the pot of soup sitting innocently next to my mother.

Kade: “NO!”
Mom: “Uh….is there are problem son?”
Kade: “You’ve ruined EVERYTHING! It is CHRISTMAS EVE! We can’t eat soup! It isn’t finger food! How could you ruin our tradition like that!
Mom: “So don’t eat it.”

Kade stares at his plate, and eats only with his fingers. He keeps a frown on his face, and doesn't raise his head. He is showing his extreme disgust at all of our willingness to forsake our traditions without a second thought

I try to make the situation seem less tragic to him by explaining that it could indeed be counted as finger-food because you do, in fact, hold the spoon with your fingers, but alas, it gave him zilcho, zip, nada, yes , zero comfort.

Traditions have been rudely disregarded, and the day has been ruined for him....Until we get out treats, and his smile slowly returns. Then somebody farts and his brothers and father burst into laughter, while Kim and I try not to laugh, but fail as the laugh bubbles find their way out of our throats, and mom is says something about having grown up in a high class family.

Composure....yeah. I have that.

9:24 am: I walk innocently and intently toward the Library at Logan High School to meet with my professor concerning my Teaching English Methods class. The floor is slick. The bottom of my right shoe is slick. It is a good thing I am flexible. I am pretty sure those high school students were really amazed to see a teacher doing the splits in the hallway laughing hysterically. I did not appear insane at all.

11:24 am: I walk into the Taggart Student Center listening in a very concentrated way to how one of my heels clicks on a distinctly different tone than the other one does. I open the door to the employee entrance of the bookstore forgetting the slippery nature of my right shoe's belly. I do a slick little dance with a grand wave of my arms for those, my comrades, in the hallway.

11:29 am: I hold a bowl of steaming chicken fried rice in one hand, and walk heavily to my office. The cement floors should be safe and not slippery. I reach to open the door and my mischievous little shoe slips and I see all of my rice fly up into the air. Luckily, my much more reliable and highly favored left shoe kept me on course, and I caught all the rice again in the bowl in an extremely ninja like fashion.

Needless to say my good left shoe walked the rest of the day heel toe heel toe proudly and sturdily. My right, rather naughty shoe was punished with heelTOE heelTOE heelTOE. I may or may not have received pitiful looks from passersby pitying the fact that I clearly have one leg shorter than the other, but I am pretty sure that darn dirty shoe learned its lesson.

Letters

Dear Hannah and Lacy

Thank you for letting me copy you. I like you.



Dear Bangs
Please stop blowing apart in the middle so that I look like I have drawn back curtain on my face.


Dear Gym
Will you stop being so unappealing please? Right now the couch is totally beating you.

Dear Favorite Yellow Shoes
I am sorry I had to leave you outside. If you had been more conducive to sock-wearing I might be able to keep you in my closet.



Dear Internet
You should reach just a tiny bit farther into my front room, so I can preserve my toosh from this unfriendly cement slab that is my front step.


Dear Pinky Toe
I am so sorry that half of your nail came off. The edge of that couch was closer than I calculated.

Dear Sunshine on My Face
You feel nice.



Dear Freezer
I am so glad that you are holding some pecan caramel ice cream for me. How nice.

Dear Chenyl and Mark Sam
I miss you. But mostly Chenyl. But I guess Mark Sam too....



because although I don't particularly miss this....


I miss this


And this.....VERY much



Dear Helicopter
Please be good while husband is flying you. I am rather fond of him, and would like him to be around long enough to see me become a good cook, so...a long time. And besides...


He's so....spectacular

My Sugar Free Day

Oh, those tootie fruties are so small that it doesn't even count as sugar

...even after I've eaten 43 of them.

Its my BIRTHDAY cake. I HAVE to finish it. It really doesn't count against my sugar points because it was for my birthday. You can't gain pounds or inches from something that came from your birthday. It would be immoral.

That last nectarine really needed to be slathered in whipped cream while I ate it. It was a little mushy, plus the positive fruit-ness of the nectarine TOTALLY canceled out the sweet in the whipped cream. It's practically all air anyway. All the substance came from the fruit.

I clearly needed the fruit to counteract the cheese that was in my quesadilla , and I really couldn't have eaten the fruit alone because it was mushy, so really.... the whipped cream was completely necessary.

....maybe I'll do better tomorrow

This is a fear causer that frequents my life

I know, KNOW, and am certain, positive and certain that if I use the handicap stall in the bathroom, a person in a wheelchair is going to come in, have to go super bad, and not have anywhere to go because I am manning the stall. They will sit there, and when I walk out they will stare at me, then look at all the other empty regular stalls, and look back and forth and back and forth, getting angrier and angrier (meanwhile I just stand there with an awkward look on my face, really just concentrating on trying to remember if I zipped up my fly), and then they will yell at me about how insensitive I am, and proceed to beat me with a cane.

I honestly have this visual every time I consider using the handicap stall, whether it be because the others are taken, or because their previous occupants forgot to do jumping jacks in the stall before they left to trigger the motion sensor flusher thingies.

So I wait, or flush first.

Then, during my stay in my stall, I ALWAYS contemplate the fact that people in wheel chairs do not in fact carry canes.

Everything Smells....no really, it does.

Have you ever noticed that your cousins family has their own smell? And that cousin smells different from the other cousin on the same side, but also different from the cousin on the other side. Grandparents have their own smell too.

Schools have a learning smell.

Stores have a new smell.

My church has that old churchy smell, like the gym floor has been varnished over and over and over and over.

I always wondered what my families smell was when I was growing up, but of course it is my own smell, so I couldn't ever smell it. It drove me nuts. So I stuck my nose deep into one of the clean sheets that had been sitting in the sheet cubby for a while now, and after consulting with a cousin, decided that must be my families smell. Not too bad.

Fall has a crispy smell.

Spring smells wet.

I have never smelled winter because every time I try, it just freezes my snot up into my brain. I stopped trying that one after a while.

The beginning of my marriage smells like varnished wood.

Cows smell like home.

Mosquito spray smells like relief.

A swimming pool smells like hot.

Reason for this post.....big news.....
Kimee says Ches and I already have our smell! She says it is good :) I don't think our sheets have been in the closet long enough for me to know what it is yet...

Jelly Beans

Usually almost always consistently just about at least once a day I get to feel like this



What does this feel like you ask? I will tell you.

Like I am the most delicious, hilarious, wonderful, beautiful, desirable, spontaneous, voluptuous woman in the entire world.

All of those are good things.

I am SO lucky that even if it is for 5 seconds, husband makes me feel like this at least once every day.

If your husband doesn't do this, sick a jelly bean up his nose. (Mike N' Ike's work as a decent substitute).

Denial

I have been in a state of denial for the past 3 or 4 weeks. I told myself EVERY time I put on my shorts or jeans that they were tight because they must have just come out of the wash. I told myself that I wasn't eating THAT much sugar. I looked in the mirror and sucked in just enough to make the roll that has appeared around my middle to disappear long enough for me to forget its there before I leave the mirror....

But I jumped on the scale today. I have gained some marriage weight. I almost decided to have a breakdown, but then decided that would be rather dumb and dramatic. I like the decision.

However, I need to do something about it now. I don't like how I feel. I don't like that I weigh quite a bit more than my husband. I don't like that I don't feel pretty standing next to him.

So instead of whining, I am going to do something about it. I am going to give up the sugar that I love so much (The Otter Pops will be rationed to 1 or 2 a day. I just CAN'T give those up completely). I am going to start a routine of exercising. I am hoping to put a schedule together alternating yoga and running. I am going to drink many waters.

But most of all

I am not going to let 20 pounds get the better of my self esteem, and I am NOT going to let those pounds be the boss of me. I am the boss, and they are getting the boot.

Otter Pops. Sigh.

Last summer I wrote a post about Otter Pops,....

and then yesterday I ate twelve of them. TWELVE! I can't HELP myself.

They never make me sick, and they NEVER stop tasting delicious and feeling refreshing!

I am worried that this addiction that I have is what will send me spiraling down to the fiery depths of Hades realm for actively and willing participating in one of the seven deadly sins. GLUTTONY.

But even the prospect of that will not stop me because well.....it's really HOT down there, and even thinking about it makes my legs grow a mind of their own and walk straight to the freezer.

...THEN I have to throw my wrapper away, and the freezer is conveniently located just an arms length away from the garbage can. It's called feng shui people!

They EVEN crept into my engagement pictures!



* Three Otter Pops were consumed during the writing of this post. A Pink one, Blue one, and a green one. However, no otters were harmed in the making of this production.

Um.....not

This will be a short post, but it is long overdue.

Husband and I have been married for about 7 months. I swear, if one more person asks me when I am going to have a baby....

Or exclaims that I am probably pregnant when I feel the slightest bit less than 100%

I might....implode.

I truly do want children. I anticipate motherhood as the most glorious thing I will do. But really.

I do feel slightly guilty when my mother-in-law starts talking about how badly she wants grandchildren....Or when my own wonderful father talks about how awesome he will be as a grandfather.....poop.

Sorry. I'm not pregnant.

No Sidewalks

I have always had this thing for poetry. I love to read it, and I love write what I can. I am going to start posting a poem every once in a while. Here is my first attempt.

I grew up in a small town, a town with no sidewalks. I once had a friend who told me he never wanted to live in a place that was big enough to have paved sidewalks. "That's when people stop waving to eachother when they drive by," he said. It made me stop and think about what I love about living in a rural place, and this poem came out of it. It has a lot of revision to go, and I would love input from all of you.

No Sidewalks

I live in a town with no sidewalks,
And my bones have grown there as the trees.
There is a road that wobbles and winds
And stretches into infinite distance.
My feet have never found its end.

I walk on the road where broken
Asphalt meets weed; I can see
Mountain to mountain to mountain
To sky. A cradle of dirt and rock
Open up to bright swaggering blue.

I stop on the road to let a
Gurgling stream greet my thoughts. I lay
to look out of the mouth of the cradle.
On the horizon, cows and grass give
Way to pavement and glass.

The sky strains too heavy
With smearing, fading smog.
It rolls closer to my road
Every year. Closer
to my road, and my Feet.

Smog, sidewalks, and lifeless steel.

I. Love. Thunder.

and so these huge and dark thunder clouds pleased me greatly. Don't mind my grotesque face, and awkwardly stanced body. And also please disregard the fact that Ashley is enviably tan and adorable. We were the only people for miles, and these huge clouds were rolling in, and we were jumping off of pumice mountains. It was one of the best days ever of all time.

There is just something soul stirring about being in the open where there are no people, and heaven seems to reach down and tell you it is there. This was one of those days.

Awesome

I may or may not have blinded my brother-in-law's left eye with one of these last night. The dart that hit the aforementioned eyeball may or may not have been tipped with Velcro. The battle may or may not have gone on between four grown people for more than an hour. There may or may not be darts lost in every open crevice of my and husbands apartment. I may or may not wish I was 7 years old so I could carry one of these around in a holster at all times.

The Weekend

that was really five days, so it was more of a week...but that's beside the point. My kick butt weekend started on Thursday night, and when clear to Tuesday night. I did many marvelous things, but two of them are epic, and possibly life changing.

#1 I got a new brother! He is the second handsome one on the left of the most handsome one, and on the right of the one that is in the awkward stage of life, but will one day grow to handsomeness like his brothers. (Love you Tanner) Good thing Abbie and I finish of the ends to make the family look REALLY good.

He came home from a mission in Africa, which is why I am disappointed in his lack of tan. Isn't it sunny there? And also, I was not impressed when he shoved a ketchup laden corn dog, that I happened to be enjoying, forcefully into the right side of my face, therefore making me a ketchup face.

But I am so nice that I really liked him anyway. Plus I beat him soundly in all attempted video games, so he's pretty cool.


#2 I also drew a mustache on a stick with antlers out of sidewalk chalk, and was not smart enough to know how to flip the picture the right direction without my beautiful macbook. This is by far the most epic moment of my weekend...maybe my fortnight.


ciao.
karlie jean

When I walk home

I see this
and this

And when I walk up on cold days....
I look like this


Good thing the summer makes it worth the frigid winter. I think I'll go get a slurpee.

Remembering

The word remember is one that has great significance to me in my life for different reasons, but today I want to write about remembering people.


Yesterday was memorial day. Death is not something that I have had a lot of experience dealing with on a directly personal level. Only once. Only when my young grandpa of 65 died suddenly while at work doing a remodel of an old house. I remember the disbelief, and the denial, until I remembered that families are eternal, and we are all bound together, and the separation is temporary. It gave me such peace. I don't think any other knowledge would make watching my sweet grandmother on her lonely days bearable.

I have seen several good friends deal with death at an even closer proximity. Three of my best friends in the worlds have lost parents. Two to cancer, and one to a horrible accident. These three friends dealt with it in such an incredible way. They clung to the knowledge of the Gospel, and the fact that the rest of the time in this life without them will be less than a pinprick in the line of eternity.

I have often wondered what death would feel like without this knowledge. What if I had to question whether or not I would see my precious family again? My mind doesn't wrap around it. Every feeling in my body rejects the very thought or possibility. The pain is enough with the truth. I can truly understand people who never fully recover emotionally who don't know it. I can not express the gratitude I feel for my faith, and the knowledge it brings of eternal families. I need that eternity. I have a husband that I need to spend an eternity loving and knowing. A lifetime does not yield enough time to know a person completely.

So Grandpa, today I'm thinking about you. I'm thinking about how on that last day I saw you, you woke me from my nap with one of my favorite whisker kisses. I remember your flannel shirts, and your hats that barely sat on your head. I remember how you could never tell a satisfactory joke because you would start laughing so hard before the punch line that you couldn't finish it. I remember everything. I love you. I will see you soon.
karlie jean

More often than not sometimes I....

Get back in bed with husband after my morning run instead of doing my crunches, stretches, and push-ups

Think that person riding their bike up the hill in my direction has two heads, until they pass me and I realize it was their backpack protruding from behind their real head.

Tell myself I will only eat one Popsicle, then proceed to eat two or three, and not even feel guilty about it.

I have cravings to eat out, and I know we shouldn't because money is tight, but somehow I make myself think we'll be fine, so go out we do.

I pretend to be grown up when I don't feel good, but in all reality I just want my mom (sorry husband).

I say I am going to be a good wife and cook good meals, but when I get home from campus after 9-10 hours, baked potatoes or frozen burritos via the microwave are as gourmet as I'm gonna get.

I want my life to seem as cool as hers or maybe hers, but then I remember that mine is already the bomb.

Sometimes

Sometimes wife actually tries to cook dinner for husband, and sometimes it happens to be that she has enough ground beef to cook both sloppy joe AND taco meat. Sometimes she decides that they will eat the sloppy joes tonight, and save the taco meat for tomorrow. Sometimes wife sends husband to the store to get potatoes so they can have homemade fries with the aforementioned sloppy joe sandwiches of joy, and he is quick and compliant. Sometimes when wife does this she bites into her carefully and lovingly prepared sloppy joe, only to find that the meat is freezer burned and tastes of yak buttock. So sometimes wife doesn't finish her sandwich, and eats a half a bag of frozen corn instead. Usually husband doesn't even notice the icky taste, so he eats all of his sandwiches anyway. Sometimes wife wonders if he eats this ground yak posterior only to make her feel better. Wife throws away the meat. Wife does the dishes. Wife is very glad husband also bought ice cream at the grocery store, so they can have butterfinger shakes after he is done at helicopter school.

Yeah. Try to make THAT sound appetizing.
Its impossible.

Beauty. So far to go.

My life changed a minute ago. I simply clicked here.

Watch how her husband treats her. How he holds her hand, and keeps his arms around her. One of the reasons this hit me so hard, and made me emotional, was because I have a man who loves me to that same degree, and who would do no less than stand by my side through anything. I want to have the courage of this woman so I can be worthy of the love that I receive so much of. What if I lost my pretty face? It wouldn't matter to him, and we could still accomplish incredible things, but would I be able to just move on? Am I too concerned with what the facade looks like?

I am. I want to change that.

I know that my Father in Heaven and my Redeemer are my reason for living. Jesus Christ lives, and is real. Sometimes I let myself get distracted from my purpose by things that are SO unimportant. Sometimes I get distracted from being kind to someone because I am too concerned about the way they speak, or look, or carry themselves. Sometimes I forget to treat people like they are children of God because they happen to be wearing something less fashionable than me , or they don't have my sense of humor, or they need to wash their hair.

What a waist of the breath that has been lent to me to accomplish good.
What abuse of the trust that has been placed on me in representing my faith and my God.
What missed opportunities to know people for what they are BEYOND their appearance.
What a disappointment I must have been at times. I don't want to disappoint Him anymore.

Copy Cat: Then and Now

My fantastic friend Amanda wrote an inspiring post on the journey she and her husband have had together. I am totally stealing this from her. Chesley and I did not meet when we were young teenagers, having hand holding sessions on choir trip buses, but I think we have come a long way regardless.

Then...I thought you were stuck up, and had no desire to talk to you
Now... I think you are the funniest person in the world, and I make you turn the radio off in the car just so we can talk.

Then...I reluctantly went out with you. I tried to unload you on a friend.
Now....I gleefully go anywhere and everywhere with you, and feel rather smug when I notice other women noticing how handsome you are.

Then...I compared you to other men I knew and respected.
Now....I compare everyone to you. No one measures up. You're so weird. It's awesome.

Then...I had a little crush on you, and when you held my hand it made me blush.
Now....I am am pretty much in love with you, and live with constant blushing.

Then...you did things like take me off roading, and show off your frisbee skills to impress me.
Now...all you have to do to impress me is do the laundry. I've been permanently impressed.

Then...I would stay up until 1:00 a.m. so I could see you for five minutes after you got off of work
Now...I got to bed at 10:30 p.m. so the time will go faster, and you can kiss on the temple when you crawl into bed.

Then...I had to pray about you every night. Such anxiety in the decision.
Now...I pray with you every night, and it is much more anxiety free.

Then...I had no idea what was coming.
Now....I still don't, but you're coming, so it'll be neat

We are sorry...

we are going through some major cosmetic difficulties at this time. Please stay with us.
Sincerely,
Dufi

Fingers

It is absolutely heavenly outside. I'm actually there now. Outside. The sun is soaking in to my sadly pale, and shaved too long ago legs. Mmmmmmm. I have really learned to be thankful for the cold, miserable winter months, because they make days like this so much better. Just think, if the weather was a perfect 74 degrees, with the most delectable amount of breeze everyday, I would not appreciate it, and would expect it. That would be stupid. I can now officially begin my quest for killer good ring tan lines. I figure that since I've married since last tanning season, this lifelong dream may actually be realized. I was never a diligent enough ring-bearer before to gain the coveted white wrings in the middle of a pleasently darkened finger.

I want

A Pinata (I don't know how to do the squiggle thing above the n)

That is all. End.

Why?

I have shared these photographs with a few, close, kindred spirits. I feel their impact needs to be conveyed to a wider audience.

I opened my car door, eager to enter Deseret Industries, and partake of all that awaited me there. This is what met my gaze, and stopped me in the middle of my thoughts concerning old lady dresses, and skinny suspenders.

I turned in horror, trying to find the former peace of mind I had been enjoying, when I saw the final piece placed under the wheel of the car parked ahead of us.

I was shocked, horrified, and was forced to mourn for this poor, little, smiling, decapitated boy in his disassemblation and soiled liederhaussen.