friday the 13th

Friday the 13th turned out to be a very interesting day for us.

Last year, Friday the 13th was an amazing day.  It was in May, and it was the day that I graduated!  Plus, my best friend had her baby that day, so I felt like I was walking on sunshine.

This year, however, was a different story.

But let me rewind a bit.

On Thursday, I walked up the stairs to our apartment after work and noticed two very strange marks on our door.  Upon closer inspection, they looked like puncture marks that might have come from a pocket knife.  I opened the door, mentioned it to Tim, and completely forgot about it.

Then at around 1:00am, right as we were about to fall asleep, we heard a knock at the door.  We looked at each other, completely confused.  Who could that be?  Tim slowly got out of bed and started to walk down the hall.  Suddenly, our doorknob started shaking violently.

Someone was trying to get in our house.  At 1:00 in the morning.

Tim started yelling in his loudest voice.  Then he called to me to dial 911.

I just sat there, confused.  "Right now?" I asked, panicked.

"Yes, right now!"

I dialed the familiar number with tremling fingers.  I'd never called 911 before.  And I'd certainly never had someone try to break into my house.

The dispatcher asked me all kinds of questions until the policeman finally came to our door.  It felt like it took forever, but really, it was only about three or four minutes.

As soon as we opened the door to our uniformed friend, we noticed a third puncture mark.  One that definitely hadn't been there earlier in the evening.  After talking to the policeman for a few minutes, I fully expected him to say something comforting.  Maybe, Don't worry, it probably won't happen again.  Or, I doubt he'll be coming back tonight.

Instead, he said a few things that made us feel worse.  "These marks in your door could be a warning of some kind.  It could be that someone just got out of prison and thinks someone else that they know still lives here and is trying to scare them."  He continued, "I would put up some sort of surveillance system, even if it costs you some money.  And you need to arm yourselves, and then do whatever it takes to protect your family.  Do you understand what I mean?"  We both nodded, momentarily stunned speechless.

Needless to say, we didn't sleep at all that night.

It absolutely petrified me to think that Tim might have to go to work on Friday - my day off.  There was no way I was staying home by myself that day.  Gratefully, his work gave him most of the day off.

And then the next morning, we promptly made the trek over to Harbor Freight to buy a surveillance camera.

Thankfully, we haven't had any more attempts.  But it's incredible how positively violated a break-in attempt makes you feel.  Makes me feel.  Even if they never come back, I'm not sure if I'll ever feel totally safe in my own home again.  And that's a terrible feeling.

But regardless, I already feel like we've been incredibly blessed.  It could have been a lot worse - in so many ways.  And I'm absolutely positive that prayer had something to do with that.

So, my friends, here's to hoping that our lives go back to being completely uneventful in that respect and that next Friday the 13th is more like the last.

the nursery victory

Every Sunday, Tim and I spend two hours in the nursery at church.  And if you're not familiar with that term, let me enlighten you: basically, we take care of approximately eight 2-3 year-olds.  And by "take care of," I mean we run around with, play games with, and eat with them.

It's actually pretty awesome.  I'm not sure why it isn't considered more desirable.

Though perhaps unusual, Tim is especially good with the little goobers.  Like, puts me to shame more often than I care to admit.  Our regulars have become quite attached to Tim.  But mostly, they've become attached to his teasing antics.

For example, during snack time, Tim has established a routine of pretending to take each of the kids' food.  He walks around to each of their plates saying things like, "Hmm...maybe I should take some of Brooklyn's food today!"  And then they all yell out in unison, "Nooo!" and start giggling simultaneously.

This last week, however, we had an especially sensitive little girl who was visiting from another ward.  She watched him uncertainly as he made the rounds at the table, pretending to take each child's food.  As soon as he reached her and said the usually-magic words, "Maybe I'll take some of Rylee's food today!" she burst spontaneously into tears.

Everything - and I do mean everything - Tim said to her made her burst into tears.  Even if he said something like, "Do you want some more cheetos?" she would look at him like he'd just killed her puppy or popped her favorite balloon.

The somewhat redeeming part about all of this is that she actually liked me.  It took some time, of course, but after the first hour, I'd somehow won her over.

I knew I liked nursery.

bananas and bahama bucks

Just last week, my friend Jana [Banana] came to visit.  I lived with Jana my junior year of college, and I love that girl to death.  One of my favorite things about her is that she can see the good in anyone - a skill I'm still striving [read: working my butt off] to perfect.

Something that shocked me, however, was the revelation that Jana had never been to Bahama Bucks.  We'd known each other for how long and we'd never been there together?  What kind of a friend am I, anyway?

I decided to rectify the situation by taking her there ASAP.  It involved a lot of suffering, but someone had to do it.

She, too, was suffering as you can see.

Who am I kidding?  Tim and I go there every chance we get.

Ah yes.  The extra cream has dramatically improved our quality of life.

[I realize this post is somewhat ironic considering my last post, but I had to be a good host, ok?]

Whilst Jana was here, we spent a little time talking.  And then we, oh you know, talked some more.  And when we got tired of that, we talked a little more.

And ok, ok...we did watch a little Merlin on Netflix here and there.  [A little glimpse into my inner nerd.]

I love how comfortable I am around Jana, and how I can be "me" to the fullest extent and she still loves me in spite of myself.

You can read more about our visit here.

Tim and I also went to the Devey Family Reunion this last weekend, and I will write more about that within the next few days.  But suffice it to say, we had a blast, and I love that family!

And I know, I know...I still need to write the rest of "our story," and I will.  I've just felt a little distracted lately.

Speaking of love stories, remember how I told you I had some news regarding temples and wedding dresses and parties? Well guess what!  Tim's sister, Melissa, is getting married on August 3rd!  Woot woot!  And it's even essentially the same day as we got married last year, since it's the first Friday in August.  We are so happy for them!

At the family reunion!

And an engagement picture, just for fun.

Oh and I start my new job tomorrow!  Eeek!  Wish me luck!

Tangentially, I'm sure this all made perfect sense.  [Or maybe not any at all.  I don't wanna talk about it.]

And I think that's it for now.

Kthxloveyoubye.

health nut wannabe

In general, I am not a very healthy eater.  In fact, if you've read any of my posts that ramble on about how much I love Dr. Pepper, you probably realized that my consumption of the beverage goes well over the "healthy" limit. The same might be said for how often Tim and I make Bahama Bucks runs.  Or for how often we've been making homemade ice cream in a bag.  [Read: too much.]

Lately, however, I've been making a concerted effort to try to eat healthier throughout the day.  I still don't write down everything I eat most of the time, but I have been checking the nutritional information on each package.  And let me tell you, some of the information has come as quite a shock.

For example, recently I have become somewhat addicted to cheddar cheese.  But tonight I looked at the nutritional information and almost had a heart attack on the spot.  Can you believe 110 calories per one one square inch cube?  Whatduheck?  Does that seem like a lot to anyone else?  That means that in one snack, I might have eaten 1/10 of my daily caloric intake.  [Or more.  Don't judge.]

Due to this newfound awareness, I have been eating a lot of salads at lunchtime.  And I am not usually a salad-eating kind of girl.  I have been experimenting around with different ingredients and have even come to [mostly] enjoy this almost-daily ritual.  But again, did you know that avocados are high in fat and that pecans are high in calories?  A painful betrayal from two of my favorite ingredients.  The tricky thing is that those two facts don't necessarily mean "bad for you."  It just means, "limit your intake."  Am I right?

One of my experiments.  Before I found out about the traitor, Pecans.

This nutrition stuff is tricky, I tell you.

I think I almost liked it better when I wasn't so aware.  But I'm hoping my body will thank me for it later.

Do any of you have any suggestions for me?  I would love to hear them.

tim's birthday

I never got around to writing about Tim's birthday, did I?

In fact, did I even tell you it was Tim's birthday on Tuesday?

I don't think I did.  For shame.  #badwifeaward

Well, it was.  And he turned 25!  That's right.  My husband is now a quarter of a century old.  Or young.  Depending on whether or not you're a glass quarter full kind of person.

Tim got the morning off work, but do you know what he did with his morning?  He woke up early and drove me to my interview at MCC.

I really love that guy.

After the interview, I had some suspicions that he was going to pass out at any second from exhaustion, so in the interest of my husband's health, we went home so he could take a nap.  After he woke up a little less zombie-ish, he decided it was time for a free birthday grand slam breakfast from Denny's:

I call the next picture "Tim's Thug Life."  It just cracks me up.  I took it on the way to get our free culture passes to the Phoenix Zoo.  [Remember I wrote about these before?]

Then I decided to steal his hat for a few minutes.  [Which was originally his sister's hat.  Now I guess it's just the Devey Family Hat.]

We got to the zoo around 12:00pm.  If you're not from around here, let me give you a translation: it was hot.  Like, probably 110 degrees hot.  But we both grew up in Arizona, so we knew we could handle it and have fun at the same time.  Talent, I tell you.

The next picture made me a little jealous...

But I became buds with it, too, so my jealousy was assuaged somewhat.

Tim and I like a little meditation and yoga now and then...

And I really liked that rhino.

My aunt commented on this next picture on facebook, "What???!  You're out of fries?!!"  Which I thought was pretty funny.  [After Tim explained it to me.]

In regards to this next picture, I would just like to tell you that I once wrote a fictional story about how giraffes got their long necks.  I was a very insightful fifth grader.

Isn't he a stud?  Twenty-five looks good on you, babe.

Doesn't he look just like the flamingos?

I felt fairly certain that given the opportunity, this fish from the Amazon could have eaten our heads.  We decided to not give it that opportunity.

Then Tim headed to work for a few hours.  It felt like the longest few hours of my life!  After he [finally] got home, we headed over to Joe's Real BBQ in Gilbert.  Neither of us had ever been there before, but we had heard endless accolades about their free birthday dinner.  And it didn't disappoint.

Exhibit 1, the delicious pulled pork BBQ sandwiches and cheesy potatoes:

Exhibit 2, the happy husband:

Exhibit 3, the happy couple:

Exhibit 4...ok no, I take that back.  They left out Prescott and Yuma on this little "map" of theirs, so this is not Exhibit 4.  So let it be written, so let it be done.

Exhibit 4, the scrumptious pecan brownie:

Exhibit 5, the fake flowers.  I liked them.

And if I had taken a picture of it, the big green tractor inside the restaurant would have been Exhibit 6.

He told me it was his best birthday yet.

news

I have some good news and some bad news.  Actually, that's not quite true.  I have one piece of couldhavebeenbad news.  And a few pieces of good news.

Which would you like to hear first?

The couldhavebeenbad news it is.

My "little" brother, Eric, woke up to some very severe back pain the other night.  After throwing up a few times and taking a trip to the hospital, they gave him some morphine and told him that he had a kidney stone.  Long story short, the stone is too big to pass, but he doesn't have to have surgery!  Woot!  They're going to use an instrument that involves sonic waves to break it up.  Or something like that.

However it works, I'm totally relieved.  A reallyreallystrong big sister instinct kicked in as soon as I heard, and I was prepared to drop everything just to be with him in the hospital if necessary.  It turned out not to be necessary, but I was almost disappointed that I didn't have a good enough excuse to drive up and see him and be certain that he was really ok.

Eric is the freakishly tall one on the right.

Now for the good news.

I am now officially a volunteer at Banner Desert Medical Center!

I am a tiny bit concerned to be volunteering at a hospital whose spelling is so bad [can you imagine what would happen if the doctor misspelled a prescription??  ...go in for heart problems, come out with colon cancer meds...], but I am excited nonetheless!  I'm going to work at an information desk in the children's wing!

[And what the heck?!  Today was the one day I didn't do diddly squat with my hair, and they just had to take  the picture today.  Doesn't it always happen that way?]

And on to another piece of good news: next week is the Devey Family Reunion!  I'm so excited.  I went last year, too, right after I went through the temple for the first time, and it was a blast.  But this time, Tim and I are married!  What what!  [Aka basically the only thing that will really change is that we'll be able to sleep in the same bed this time.  And Tim will be stealing all the covers.]

AND, one of my best friends just found out that she is having a BOY!  I totally called it.  And now Tim owes me a foot rub, because he guessed a girl.

via

And finally, I got a new job!  I'm going to be working at Mesa Community College, at least temporarily.  I'm so excited!  Nervous, but excited.  It's going to be so fun!

I do actually have one more bit of news, but I'm not going to tell you yet!  Ha!  But it might involve temples and a wedding dress and a PARTY!  I love parties.

Ok...ok I think that's it.  Kloveyoubye.

wedding day [part 5]

Read Part 4 here.

Looking back on the reception now, it all seems such a blur.  But a very, very happy blur.

I loved all the beautiful decorations.  [You can see most of them in Part 4.]

I loved that we served Italian food and Italian sodas.

I loved that there was a chocolate fountain.

I loved the slideshow that Tim put together of the two of us growing up.

I loved that my very first sunday school teacher made our amazing cake:

...which happens to have misplaced its top layer in this picture.

More than all the little details, however, I loved seeing all of the people.  People we know and love.  Part of me wants to go back and relive every single interaction with every single person, because it all meant so much to me.  And it still does.

I also loved that the receiving line was so important to my mom, and then she never actually came and stood in it with us because she was so busy coordinating everything else.

And in her place, I loved that my beloved bridesmaids came and stood with us in the line even though I'm sure they would have rather been doing something else.

I loved that my dad danced with me to "I Loved Her First" by Heartland even though he hates being the center of attention.  [Perks of being a daddy's girl.]

I loved dancing with Tim to "Then" by Brad Paisley and laughing with him about how everyone was staring at us.

I loved cutting the cake with my lover [and his oldest brother - who was our MC - telling him that he was "weak" for not smashing the cake into my face]:

I loved dancing with Tim and with anybody else who would [which mainly consisted of Tim's nieces and nephews] to all kinds of fun songs [including the YMCA, which our MC claimed was Tim's favorite song].

I loved running through the tunnel at the end to our amazingly decorated car.

And I loved driving to In-N-Out directly after our reception.

Wait...what?

Yes, we definitely did that.  We didn't get that much to eat or drink at the reception itself, so we decided to go through the drive-thru at In-N-Out.  The girl saw our wedding attire through the window and screamed, "Did you guys just get married?!"  After which a bunch of employees started screaming excitedly for us.

That was pretty funny.

And most of all, I loved celebrating the fact that I had just married my best friend.

Because now, our love story won't ever end.