Us

Us

4.19.2009

For the Love of Kate.

One of my old roommates, Katie Jackson, tagged me in her post "10 Things I Love About My Life". Due to the craziness of Paul taking the GMAT (he did great by the way), and me starting a new job (which is fine), and both of us working on the house to get it ready to sell, I didn't read her blog until Sunday morning, and I didn't have time to blog until tonight. I've never done one of these 'tag' things before. But here goes.

Ten Things I Love About My Life (Not Top Ten, just ten):
1 - I love that I have a house filled with plants; they have been making me happy all winter. I love living things.
2 - I love that Ella is a crazy crawling baby who loves to be on her own, but that she is still not too independent to climb onto my lap and cuddle with me for a while.
3 - I love that my husband is done studying for the GMAT! We actually get to interact on a regular basis!
4 - I love the Sun.
5 - I love watching Dancing with the Stars with Paul, because we spend the whole episode critiquing the performances and theorizing about what will happen next. It's the best show to talk through.
6 - I love that we showed the house to a perspective buyer tonight. Life is exciting.
7 - I love the smell of chlorine... it reminds me of summer and swimming.
8 - I love having such a spotless house. I told Paul we should put our house on the market at least once a year, that way we have to throw out all the stuff we think we need but we don't. :)
9 - I love Reed's Dairy ice cream, and the Farmer's Market, and walking to the Library on Saturdays, and all of the other summer activities that we can start doing again.
10 - I love my bed. I have the most comfortable bed ever. In fact, I think I will go there.

Thank you and good night.

4.17.2009

Our Sunshine Celebration.

We had a picnic. We cleaned out the garage. We laid on the hammock. We put the indoor plants out for a "spa day".

We live a sweet life.

Our Budding Musician.

Ella has always enjoyed sitting on our laps and "playing" the piano. She now has figured out that she can experience the pure joy of music all by herself. What a precocious child!

4.10.2009

I feel so used.

I have been religiously unplugging my cellphone charger while not in use as of late. This behavior is a result of a very convincing commercial I saw on TV while staying in a hotel (since we don't have TV, hotels and the internet are my main source of commercials). I trusted those energy savvy children who informed me that cellphone chargers continue to use electicity while waiting to be used to renew your cell phone. And I have been feeling like a champion of the enery-concious cause as of late, because I am doing my part by unplugging my cellphone charger. I even surreptitiously unplug others' chargers when the opportunity presents itself. It's for the greater good, right? Well, Paul did a little research, which is probably a smart move when you're getting your facts from television commercials, and guess how much energy we are saving a year. Four kWh. Which means that due to my vigilance in unplugging our cellphone chargers, we are saving twenty cents a year! Twenty cents! A year! This is ridiculous!

Why are we making commercials about this!?! Why are we not making commercials about walking more, or growing gardens, or buying locally grown foods, or purchasing used items, or any number of things that by doing only ONCE in a year would save more energy than unplugging our cell phone chargers in that same year! Now these are things that I already do, but for the other folks out there who are looking for a low-hanging fruit kind-of way to celebrate Earth Day, I feel like we're giving them a false sense of security. I can save the planet just by unplugging my cell phone charger? Done!

So, basically, I'm going to continue doing my part for Mother Earth, which I believe includes constantly looking for new ways to cut back, but I'm going to stop being a cell phone charger vigilante. Even if it is out of spite for that TV commercial.

4.09.2009

A quick update on life.

It is 11:05pm and way past my bedtime, but I have not been able to wrestle the computer away from my husband for a week and a half. In his defense, he is using it for noble purposes. Paul has decided to attend graduate school in the Fall, so he is studying like crazy to take the GMAT next week. It's kind of a long and insane story, but he quit his job a week and a half ago and has been making a big push to be ready to apply before he misses all the deadlines for the good schools. (I checked out Sam Houston State, and we have until August to apply... let's just call that our back-up. Really really far back.) We have one application in to Arizona State University (they have agreed to accept a late GMAT score). And several more schools in the works: University of California Davis (where I spent 9 months of my mission, that was my idea) (but it has an excellent MBA program as well), Texas A&M, BYU (sigh, I really don't want to go back to Provo), Idaho State University (in case our house doesn't sell), and Oklahoma State (Go Sooners!) (Another back-up). So, I am still at home with Ella full time while Paul prepare to sit his exam, and then on Wednesday, April 15, I begin full time work, and Paul will get to be the full-time dad for a while. So we are still reeling from the last minute decision, but feeling really confident and positive about the whole thing. Paul and I have agreed that we are not really sad about leaving Idaho, but we will dearly miss the wonderful friends we have made here, and our cute little house with its beautiful yard. But there will be other yards, and hopefully our next yard won't have snow on it for six months out of the year. Now it's 11:20pm and I am getting desperate. I need to sleep. I'll post again when I can lure Paul out of the office and commandeer the computer for my own selfish purposes.