dr. pepper

I find it ironic that every time we make a trip to the grocery store, we always end up eating out.  I think it's because we are thinking almost exclusively about food, so we don't have the patience to wait until we get home to actually make something for dinner.

Yesterday we decided on going through the drive-through at Taco Bell.  Tim has a habit of forgetting what I want immediately after I tell him, so I repeated several times:

"I want two hard tacos and a small Dr. Pepper."

"I want two hard tacos and a small Dr. Pepper."

"I want two hard tacos and a small Dr. Pepper."

The woman over the intercom asked what we wanted.

"Two hard tacos and a small Dr. Pepper," I reminded him gently.

"We would like," he began, "A number four combo with Dr. Pepper, two hard tacos..."

He gave me a wicked grin.

"...and a water."

My jaw dropped.

"Tim!" I squealed in my loudest whisper.

He started laughing and pulled forward to the window.

I couldn't believe it.  Did he not want me to have a Dr. Pepper?

Suddenly understanding dawned.

He was going to give me his Dr. Pepper and let me think I was only going to get a water.

I started laughing as well.

"That was mean!"

"You should have seen your face!  You were so offended!"

"You know how important Dr. Pepper is to me."

And then for the rest of the night, he may or may not have mocked my jaw-dropped, offended face every 15-20 minutes.

What can I say?

A girl's gotta have her Dr. Pepper.

herman cain: bad lip reading

This probably makes my list of the top ten stupidest videos I've ever seen.

And yet, somehow, it gets funnier every single time I watch it.  Every. Single. Time.

Tim and I watch it probably at least once a day.

Here are some of my favorite quotes:

• "This is my juice.  And i'm hungryyy."
• "And i'll sing sing sing about it."
• "Achoo!"
• "That's five."
• "Half of me swole in two days.  I had to fire a man.  He was flippin'.  He was prob'ly sufferin."
• "It's gooood."
• "Hahaha...My phone's broken."
• "Let's go parachutin' on Tuesday."
• "I'm gonna teach you an expression.  'I quit.'"
• "Happy Hoops Day!"

After class today, I noticed that I had a voicemail from Tim.  I was expecting something lovey-dovey, which was why what he said took me completely by surprise.

"...Ricky?"

The message ended abruptly with the onset of my immediate and completely startled laughter.

And I haven't stopped laughing about it since.

morning routine

I used to have every morning timed perfectly.

I knew exactly how long it would take me to get ready.

20 minutes to shower.
12 minutes to get dressed.  [Aka figure out what I wanted to wear.]
8 minutes to put on my make-up.
10 minutes to do my hair.
10 minutes to figure out what to take for lunch and fix my breakfast.

One hour total.

I needed one hour to get ready to go anywhere.

But then gradually I started noticing that I was late to everything.

I couldn't understand.  I had everything timed perfectly.  How could this happen?

So I decided to time everything again, and realized that it didn't take me 10 minutes to do my hair.  No, it took me 20.  20 minutes.  And I wasn't doing anything differently.

I mentioned this dilemma to Tim one morning, and he immediately noticed that there was a buildup of lint in the back of my hair dryer.  He speculated that this might be the cause of my abnormally long morning routine.

When I got home that night, he'd cleaned it out for me.

The next morning, it was right back to the 10 minutes to do my hair.

And it's back to the perfect timing.

Moral of the story?  Clean out the back of your hair dryer.  You might just get to sleep an extra ten minutes.

[Second moral of the story?  If you marry a nice guy, he just might do it for you.]

i love...

...his love of food storage.  [Freeze-dried pineapple, folks, let me tell you.]

...his deep appreciation for a good product display in a store.

...his constant analysis of advertisements of any kind.

...his random outbursts of dancing to make me laugh.

Tim and his sister, Melissa.

...his denial of said outbursts after they occur.

...his "punny" jokes.

...his desire to fix things around the house [that sometimes don't need fixing].

...his determination that our breadmaker will be used [by him] at least once a week.

...his [sometimes unnecessary] use of the KitchenAid.

Note the flour in his ear.

...his constant desire to always be cuddling [no matter where we are or what we're doing].

...his unhealthy love for Bahama Bucks.

...his love for Filiberto's [which rivals my own].

...his need to always be coming up with new innovations.

...his ability to quickly forgive and forget.

...his ability to take everything in stride and rarely get anxious.  [They do say opposites attract, you know...]

...his deep and abiding belief in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

...his extremely optimistic nature, no matter the circumstance.

...his talent for being around kids and the joy on his face when he is.

...his inability to be selfish [especially when it comes to my selfishness].

...his love for electronics [especially of the brand-new variety].

...his incessant desire to go to Costco [whether we need to or not].

...his inevitably turning our daughters into "daddy's girls" [as evidenced by his quickly giving in to his sister and to me].

...his love of humor [in all situations].

...his desire to spend time in the outdoors.

...his love of his marriage and of the fact that he is married.

...his need to always have juice in the refrigerator.

...his need to always be the one driving.

...his putting up with driving my girly car.  [It gets better gas mileage than his manly truck.]

...his quick [and heart-stopping] smile.

...his big dreams for life.

And I love...

him.

granny

This past weekend we made a [very] quick trip up to Utah for a funeral.

Tim's grandma's funeral, to be exact.

Or as I always knew her, Granny.

I loved Granny from the moment I met her, but I never got to know her very well.

Until this weekend.

This weekend, I got to hear all about her.

How she was one of twelve children.
How she had seven children [including one child who died very young]. 
How she had grandchildren and great-grandchildren and even one great-great-grandchild.
How much her family was a priority to her.
How loved she was by all who knew her.
How much she loved the gospel of Jesus Christ.
How she always told people about the Book of Mormon because she had such faith in it.
How everyone knew she believed in God, Jesus Christ, the Book of Mormon, and eternal families.
How everyone there considered her to be an example of faith and courage.

I wonder if she realized what an impact she had on everyone around her.  It was incredible to me to think that all of her family, who drove such distances to honor this incredible woman, were there because Granny and Papa made a decision many years ago to get married and have children and be so active in their religion.  I'm sure when they got married it was difficult to imagine how many lives they would be bringing into the world and how many lives would be touched by that.  But they know now.  And someday, we'll have the chance to thank them.

This weekend was one of those experiences that brings tears to your eyes, makes your chest burn, and encourages you to be a better person.  It was one of those experiences that makes you decide to rearrange some priorities in your life to make room for the better.  And it was one of those experiences that reaffirms your testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ and of how important it is to live it.

And I think that's just how Granny would have wanted it.

yesterday was the kind of day

...that makes you want to crawl in a hole and hibernate for about a year.

...that makes you question yourself about every five minutes.

...that makes you wish your parents lived closer so your mom could give you a hug.

But it was also the kind of day...

...that makes you grateful to have a sweet husband who gives amazing hugs.

...that makes you grateful that you don't have homework due the next day so you can vedge out on the couch for awhile watching something brainless on tv.

...that makes you grateful that you have some much-needed brownie mix hiding in your cupboards.

via

...that makes you grateful that even though you don't have the needed vegetable oil for said brownie mix, you can improvise and still have them turn out great.  [However crumbly they may be.]

...that makes you grateful that you still have leftovers from Saturday so you don't have to cook anything for dinner.

...that makes you grateful to be going out of town this weekend.

...that makes you grateful for Priesthood blessings to remind you that you are a child of God.

...that makes you grateful for quotes like this:

"Finish each day and be done with it.  You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can.  Tomorrow is a new day."  -Ralph Waldo Emerson

And so it is.

books, cookies, and sophistication

For those of you interested in turning your blog into a book, I asked Tim how he did it, and he said he used this website.  I guess there's another website that does it called Blurb, but he talked to his sister-in-law and she recommended Blog2Print.  [Plus Blurb is a weird word.  Totally relevant.]

front

back

inside

And I'm completely in love with it.  I have a very creative, thoughtful husband.  To say the very least.

But sometimes, when we're making cookies, he unexpectedly throws flour in my hair:

Which obviously means I have to get him back:

And I obviously got him way better than he got me.  There may have even been a smudge of flour on his ear for the remainder of the evening [that I conveniently neglected to tell him about].

We did, however, manage to get some flour in the cookies and they turned out delicious.  [Deliciously?  Meh.  Whatever.]

In closing, I would just like to show you these pictures because they make me giggle.

Trying to post like mannequins.  Naturally.

We occasionally try to be sophisticated museum people, but the truth inevitably comes out.

wedding day [part 2]

*If you haven't read Part 1, go here.*

My heart stopped for what felt like an eternity.

As my mom checked her purse again for her recommend, I wondered if there really was a possibility that she might not be able to see me get married today.

She checked her suitcase.  Looked through her purse again.  And then started tearing apart the car.

My heart started pleading a prayer that my head couldn't verbalize.  Please...

"I found it!"

I let out a sigh of relief and almost started crying.

"Let's go," she smiled.

We walked together towards the temple doors that I'd only been through twice before.  Soon after entering them, I saw him.  He smiled, and I thought for the millionth time today that I might start crying.  My heart felt like it might burst with happiness.

We were quickly ushered away to take care of some paperwork, and then we were separated so we could change.  After changing, we were lead to a hallway where we could wait for our sealer.  We held hands and giggled quietly with anticipation.  Despite my nerves, I'd never felt so happy in my entire life.

Finally, our sealer came to talk with us.  He made some small talk at first, then delved into more personal things.  Then he asked if we were ready.  We nodded, not quite trusting ourselves to speak.

He lead us into the sealing room.  My breath caught in my chest; this was the most beautiful sight I'd ever seen.  Family and friends were packed into this tiny room, all glowing and all smiling.  I'd never felt such a strong spirit.  It felt as though angels were right there with us.

It was a simple ceremony.  Simple, but beautiful.  It took every ounce of willpower I had not to cry through the entire thing.

Afterward, everyone lined up and gave us each a hug.  I was tempted to cry again as so many of the people we loved congratulated us quietly.  We spent a few more moments with the sealer and with our parents in front of the mirrors.  The eternal nature of this relationship became very apparent as there was a distinct feeling that those in our family who had already passed on and those who had yet to come to this earth were very aware of this day.

We separated once again to change.  In the bride's room, my mom helped me smooth out my dress and my hair [only giving me a mild heart attack when she left me alone in the room for a few minutes to look for something].  Finally, I was lead back to Tim at the front entrance of the temple.

He took my hand and smiled his heart-stopping smile.

"You ready?"

Continue on to Part 3.