acting out irrationally

My body has been very confused these past couple of weeks.

Aches and pains and tiredness and fevers and other nonsense...

...which lead me to go to the doctor and get some antibiotics and other prescriptions...

...which may or may not be related to the continued fatigue and minor residual symptoms and conflicting emotions.

[Because you know, when you feel like crying one second and then laughing hysterically the next, you hope it isn't normal.  And that you can blame it on prescription drugs.]

Thankfully, I am done with said prescriptions as of today.  And hopefully, the emotional craziness will go away with the drugs.  [Because otherwise I have to blame myself, and I try to avoid that kind of thing.]

But you'll be happy to know that I have been eating [mostly] healthy food this week.  Lots of fresh fruits and veggies.  Mmm.  [And even though my body tries to hide it by acting out irrationally, I know that it is secretly pleased that I have been treating it so nicely.]

Tim mostly avoids the fruits, but is strangely addicted to pineapple.  Which I am more than willing to blame on Psych.

Maybe someday I'll get my Wedding Day story done - if not for you, for my future posterity.  I'm just afraid if I wrote it right now, I would misrepresent my perfect day as a mess of conflicting emotions.  [Dang prescriptions.]

p.s.  Did I tell you that for Christmas, in addition to this present, Tim also secretly turned my blog into a hardcover book?  That means that now my blog really will be for posterity.  Win-win.  [A win for the book, and a win for the husband.]

the common cold shoulder

You may have been wondering why I haven't been writing lately.

You may also not have been wondering why I haven't been writing lately.

In which case, I forgive you.

I didn't really care about any of you this week either.

Actually, that's not quite true.  I just didn't read your blogs as avidly.  Because, as they say, the Common Cold hath overtaken my body.  [You know...all those people who say that.]

Oh yes.  It's true.

But it did make my life very simple for a few days.  And by that I mean that all I did every day was take a shower and watch tv.  [And shower-taking was considered optional.]

And Tim made all the dinners and did all the dishes every day.  Aaaand I may have talked him into making some brownies tonight.  He [very enthusiastically] used our KitchenAid to mix the batter, and I realized that he might be the only person who loves our KitchenAid more than me.  [But it would be weird if someone else liked our KitchenAid more than us...stalkers.]

What I'm trying to say is that a few positive things came out of this experience.  [Not to mention the hours on end I spent watching some tv shows I'd never seen before: namely Lost and Terra Nova.  And Monk.  But I've seen that one before.]

Am I rambling?  [Fever?  Are you back?]

Ah well.  If it is, I'll just take some Nyquil again tonight.  [I took half the recommended dosage last night and slept like a baby.  It was a wonderful contrast to the previous night.]

Moral of the story?  Colds aren't all kicks and giggles, but husbands and tv shows and brownies are.

wedding day [part 1]

Remember that time I got engaged?  [You can read about it here, here, and here.]

That was a pretty good time.

But what was an even better time was that day I actually got married.

I told you about the day before I got married.

But I haven't told you very much about the day of, have I?

In truth, writing about it scares me a little bit.  I don't want to leave anything out or get anything wrong or do a bad job writing about it.  But there is a higher chance of that happening the longer I wait, I suppose...

August 5, 2011: The Wedding Day

In theory, sleeping by myself in our new apartment the night before our wedding seemed like a good idea.  But in actuality, it would have been way nicer to have other people there.  For one thing, my nerves were far beyond what I wanted to deal with on my own.  And for another thing, trying to fix a hot water heater by yourself is way harder than it sounds.

Wait...what?

Ok, let's back up a little.

My eyes flew open as my 6:00am alarm sounded, and I realized immediately that I wouldn't even need the other two alarms I'd set.  I took a minute just to soak it all in.  A fresh bought of nerves and excitement hit me and I immediately wished I'd taken Katie's offer to spend the night with me.  Or that my parents had gotten to Mesa early enough for me to spend the night with them.

Promptly at 6:05am, the phone rang.  I smiled.  Tim is always right on time.

"Hello?" I said, knowing full well who it was.

"Hey babe," said a sleepy voice.  "Happy Wedding Day!  Were you asleep?"

"Hey," I said, my smile growing larger by the second.  "No, I actually wasn't.  But thank you for the wake-up call just the same.  I'm so excited!  I love you."

"I love you, too.  I'll let you go so you can get ready.  But I'll see you soon, ok?"

We ended the call, and I walked into the bathroom.  There was a note from Tim.  Of course, I should have known, I thought.  He'd been sneakily leaving me notes in random places, sometimes accompanied by presents, for the past nine days.  Today it was just a sweet note telling me how excited he was to marry me and how much he loved me and couldn't wait to see me.

I smiled again.  [You'll notice this trend throughout the day.]

I went to turn on the water to the shower.  Huh, that's weird, I thought.  The water isn't heating up.  Maybe I'll turn the knob the other way.  Nope, that isn't working, either.  Uhhh...I don't really want to take a cold shower...

I called my dad in a panic.

"How do you fix a water heater?"

My dad groggily tried to explain what to do, but it's pretty hard to explain such a thing over the phone, especially when the receiver knows as little about appliances as I do.  Eventually, I gave up and resigned myself to a cold shower.  [At least it was invigorating?]

After I'd done my make-up and dried by hair, I headed over to the house where I was getting my hair done by the lovely Ashtyn.  [That's right.  She took our engagement and pre-wedding photos and did my hair.  Talent, I tell you.]  I showed up late, but I figured Ashtyn was probably used to my tardiness by now.  She welcomed me graciously and got my hair done with twenty minutes to spare.

During the drive to the temple, I wished for the hundredth time that I wasn't by myself.  I called my mom and begged her to get there as fast as possible.  Once I got there, I sat in the parking lot and tried to be patient.  I called my mom again to see where she was.  I organized everything in sight.  I made sure I had my temple recommend.  I made sure my dress wasn't being squished.  Then I called my mom again.

After what seemed like an hour, my family drove into the parking lot.  [It was probably more like 15 minutes.]  I got out and excitedly hugged my mom and practically screamed "hello" to my brothers and dad.  They told me I looked beautiful, and I smiled.  I felt beautiful today.

"Umm...I can't find my recommend."

I stared at my mom.  "What?"  I said, dumbfounded.

"I hope I didn't leave it in Prescott."

"What?" I said.  [Stress brings out the eloquence in me, obviously.]

If my mom didn't find her temple recommend, that would mean that she wouldn't be able to go into the temple with us.

Which would mean she'd be waiting outside.

Which would mean that my mom wouldn't be able to see me get married.

Continue to Part 2.

christmas catch-up

I know some of these pictures are a little behind [ok, a lot behind], but I thought I'd show you some pictures from Christmastime.

My new niece, Brynn, and me during our visit to Yuma.

Tim's parents.  We were taking pictures for their Christmas cards and...

...Tim decided he wanted in on the fun.  

[We didn't send this out in our Christmas cards.  In fact, we didn't send any Christmas cards at all.  Bad, bad wife.]

My grandma's dog, Cody.  I love all 130 pounds of him to pieces.

This is Casey.  He is my baby.  

[And that picture should give you some kind of indication of what our Christmas was like: messy, fun, and very early.  Even Casey was tuckered out.]

This is in my grandma's backyard.  

[And I mostly like this picture because Cody decided to be part of it.]

My beautiful family.  [Where Tim and I are the short ones.]

Tim's sister Melissa and me chillin' in the massage chairs in Brookstone at Chandler Mall.

Melissa and Kiley.  

[Kiley is a new niece, too.  What the.  I went from having no nieces and nephews to having over 20, I think.  And some of them are my age!  Gotta love big families.]

And there you have it.  Christmas Catch-up.

canyon lake day trip

Monday was a very special day for Tim and me.

It was a day we both had work off.

It was also a day in which we decided we would make use of three very special gifts that Tim had gotten from Santa: a small charcoal grill, an ice chest, and a fishing license.

And it was a day in which I could make use of my very special gift from Santa: a picnic basket.

I bet you can see where I'm going with this.

We went to Disneyland.

Jk...hahaha

We drove about 50 minutes outside of Phoenix to get to a place called Canyon Lake, where we hiked, fished, and barbecued.  [Well, technically, Tim fished since I don't have a fishing license, but I read instead.  Equal amounts of pleasure involved.]

This picture from our hike cracks me up:

It looks like I'm doing some sort of strange model pose, but really it's just that my feet are positioned perfectly so that I won't fall down the side of the mountain mid-shot.

The above picture is actually Tim's model pose.

And he loves it when I take candid pictures:

I just had one rule during our little day trip: no live worms in our cooler.  [I know, I am one tough wife.]

Our picnic table all decked out:

Tim has only used gas grills throughout his life, and I had only watched my dad use a charcoal grill.  Thus, our conversation getting it started went something like this:

Tim:  How much charcoal do I put in there?

Me:  Uhh...that looks good.  I think.  I don't really know.

Tim:  Wow, are the flames supposed to be that big?

Me:  I think so.  Maybe it's because it's so windy.

Tim:  Do you think I should pour some water on it?

Me:  No, don't do that.  Do you want me to call my dad to make sure it's ok?

Tim:  Maybe.  It's just making me nervous.

Me:  *checks phone*  Oh just kidding, I don't have any service.  We're on our own.  Don't worry.  I think it's normal.

Me:  Ahhh!  Now it's making me nervous, too!

Thankfully, the flames did eventually die down and everything went smoothly after that.  And we had some mean hamburgers.

In addition to being uncertain about the grill, it took us forever to figure out where to buy the recreation pass for the day.  [And that ended up involving driving into a very small town, listening to some very loud motorcycles, and trying to walk through some very oblivious people.  And some Mennonite people.  Which doesn't really have to do with anything. But it was kinda cool.]

It just makes me wonder: did our parents go through the same things or did they just somehow inherently know everything right away?

I'm hoping it's the former.

It's much more fun figuring everything out together.

matchmaking

This past weekend, two of my favorite people got married:

Cassie and Joe.

Aren't they lovely?

I take credit for this auspicious occasion.

Every chance I get.

And I'm going to hold it over their heads until the day I die.

And they will give me their firstborn child.

And they will get sick of telling the story about how I set them up and changed their lives forever.

But I won't.

Would you like to hear the story?

At some point shortly before Tim and I got married, I caught the matchmaking bug.  [This phenomenon occurs with approximately 94.6% of seriously dating or engaged couples.  The etiology is uncertain, and the results are somewhat unclear, as there are mixed results within and between couples.]

But as a result of the dreaded matchmaking bug, I started forming couples in my head with every single person I had ever met in my life.

Joe was my home teacher at the time, and he was a dang good one at that.  In addition to visiting me, he would also check up on me at church and at every activity.  Additionally, Tim had worked with him before.  Thus, I knew from first and secondhand experience that he was a pretty good guy.

I had known Cassie since I was a little girl [though not very well - I moved away before we could really get to know each other], and somehow she ended up in my singles ward about 10 years later.  [This happened with Tim, too; those Yumans - they hang on like the plague.]  She is best friends with Tim's sister, Melissa, and even though we hadn't talked much, I knew she was funny and smart.

Consequently, one day as I was going through the permutations and combinations of possible couples in my head, I had an epiphany.

Joe and Cassie.

It just made so much sense to me.

I talked to Tim about it, and he felt good about it.  Then I talked to Melissa about it, since she is Cassie's best friend.  She immediately became excited - apparently she and her roommates had already thought of this and knew it was a good idea.  [In fact, they had even drawn up a marriage plan one day during Sunday School.  And they didn't even know him.  Destiny, I tell you.]

So, I set my plan into action.

One day at church, I cornered Joe and said, "Joe, I have someone I think you should ask on a date!"

He hesitantly replied, "Ok, I'm open to suggestions."

I proceeded to tell him about this beautiful, smart girl named Cassie.  He asked how he could get ahold of her.  I said I'd get her phone number for him.

Well, there was no need for that.  By the time I'd obtained her phone number, he'd already been friends with her on Facebook and asked her himself.  [Talk about proactive.]

And now they're married!

Ah, love.

Moral of the story?  Even if you don't know two people that well, you can change their lives forever and hold it over their heads for the rest of that forever-changed life.

It's a great system, really.

I'm so proud.

new years

December 31st, 2011 at 11:59pm until January 1, 2012 at 12:00am didn't really feel any different.  I mean, don't get me wrong, there was a great [and I do mean great] kiss involved, but my life didn't really feel different.

However, if I'd known at the beginning of 2011 that my life would have been changed so drastically as to have been married for almost five months by the end of 2011, I might have peed my pants.

Heck, Tim and I had only been dating for 2 1/2 months.

And despite the fact that Tim knew by the end of the first month of dating that he wanted to marry me, it took me another seven months to figure out what I wanted.

But figure it out I did, and it was the best decision I've ever made.  And it's been the best year of my life.

Ok, enough with the mushy gushy.

This New Years Eve, we decided to stay home and drink Welch's Sparkling Grape Juice together.

Best decision ever.  [You know...second to...getting married...ahem.]

There may have also been socks-that-felt-like-fluffy-clouds and Bones involved.

Oh and QT.  [A night just isn't a good time without a QT run.]

That's right.  We had QT and Sparkling Grape Juice.

This picture is a result of my failure to properly set the 10 second self-timer:

Makes me giggle every time.  ["I've got two pina coladas...one for each hand..."]

On New Years Day, we ate these:

Which I discovered, last New Years hanging out with Tim's family, are not just a singing group.  [And thank goodness they're not, because they're extremely tasty and are believed to bring luck for the New Year.  Win-win.]

I've got lots of other adventures to catch you up on, but lest I overload you with pictures, I think I'd better stop there for now.

Don't you worry, I'm [slowly] regaining motivation.