Descent

My life has suddenly reached a very strange point. There are certain times where my wife has accused me of acting somewhat less than my own age. I wouldn't say silliness runs in my family... No, no... Silliness strolls through, shaking hands, giving hugs, and getting to know every member individually. Such is the burden of my dear, dear wife to be married to one such as me. But tonight a strange conversation with Danielle left me in apoplexy at the weirdness of things in general.

We're snuggling in to bed. The day is done, and sweet dreams await as we finish reading scriptures and I arise to brush my teeth as the last bit of my nightly routine. As I leave the bed my wife burrows deeper into the sheets and comments "I feel like I'm in one of those sleep things."

Me, turning back: "What?"

Danielle: "Like in that movie."

Me: "What movie?"

Danielle: "That movie where the monkey steals the astronaut's sleep pod."

Me: ". . ."

Danielle: "You've never seen that movie?"

Me: "I don't think that's a movie."

Danielle: "No, it totally is! They go to the moon and the monkey takes the guy's sleep thing so he's awake the whole time."

Me: "Sweetheart, I think what you're telling me about is a burrito-induced nightmare you once had."

Danielle: "Seriously, it's a movie! The guy tries to fit in the monkey's pod but doesn't fit so he only sleeps like two days, then he gets up and eats all the food and gets really really bored."

Me: ". . ."

Danielle: "Look it up!"

Me: "What would I even search for? 'Monkey sleeping space movie?'"

Danielle: "Yeah."

Me: "Seriously? Good grief." *Googling... Googling... Googling...* "Oh sweet Baby Buddha..."

Me: "This must be what madness feels like..."

Win

My vocabulary does not include any word to describe the amount of awesome contained in the following video. I grew up watching Bob Ross on PBS, learning about "happy little trees" and marveling that a masterpiece could be created in a half-hour every single week. Please enjoy.

Bonus points if you cried like I did.

My husband is awesome.

You know those days when you remember how awesome your spouse is? Well I had one of those days.

I was on pinterest looking for a desert in my "treats" board to make and I found a pin that I was certain I had not pinned. The caption read,

"Make an egg in a bacon cup, and other incredible bacon-cup based foods." 

I of course texted Jesse asking if he had pinned a "bacon-cup" to my treats board. He quickly responded "Yes. Yes I did."

I literally laughed out loud. 

I show him things on pinterest all the time and he is constantly showing me things he finds on various websites he reads. Some are remarkably awesome and I would like to remember for a future date so I always tell him that he should pin it. He instead likes to use fancy technology magic to make our laptop screens share and will then drag the website URL to my computer and open it up in a new tab so I can pin it. 

Obviously that is SO MUCH easier! Finally after awhile I explained to him the magic behind the Pin It button and I stuck one on his toolbar, telling him to go ahead and pin anything he deems awesome. 

Apparently a bacon-cup matches that description.  

Glad to see my husband is making good use of Pinterest. 

He is awesome.

Little brothers and cameras

I think it is safe to say that little brothers should not be permitted to roam around with your camera. Especially while you take a quick nap on the front lawn.

Inevitably you will end up with 19 pictures that look something like this.

 

 

Lovely huh?! haha. It's a good thing I like him.

Otter-Awesomeness

I have no idea how this picture did not make it into the Dallas World Aquarium post but I stumbled on it today and was reminded of how awesome it is.

(Yes I'm washed out but that's beside the point.)

We watched the otters at the DWA for at least an hour. They swim around lightening fast, pop their heads up in that corner for a split second, and then dart back across the tank to the other end. It makes for a difficult picture, but they were so entertaining!

Now for a little history on why I felt the need to get my picture with the otter. Way back in my EFY Counselor days, I was sitting next to a fellow counselor (ironically enough it was Jesse's best friend and roommate) in class. We were told by the teacher to turn to the person sitting next to us and tell them what animal they reminded us of. My partner turned to me and said, "you remind me of an otter."

Now how would you take that? I wasn't sure either. I asked him why I reminded him of an otter, hoping it wasn't the weasel-like head or strangely shaped body as I knew my fingers aren't webbed and he had never seen me swim. He then redeemed himself by saying "your hair is really sleek and shiny, like an otter."

Phew. He dodged a bullet on that one!

 Jesse and I have found it funny throughout the years though and even have this picture from our EFY Counselors Disneyland Trip back in 2007.

So I guess it seemed fitting to have another picture with an otter. Especially a real otter!

10 things learned in Texas

1. There are bugs EVERYWHERE in Irving. I am constantly finding itty bitty spiders living in our apartment. Lucky for them, they don't scare me, so they can live. That's my rule. I even found a little tiny lizard the other day. Maybe an inch and a half long. It was kind of adorable. Had I been at my house when I saw it, it might have become our pet.

2. People here do not have children. They have dogs. There is even a "Yappy Hour" at our complex  one day this month where they hand out dog treats. The Mormons here still have children though. I'm fairly convinced I'm the only woman in our ward of childbearing age who is childless and not pregnant. It's got to be something in the water because it is crazy how many babies and pregnant ladies are in our ward. (*Update: Since initially typing this up I have discovered that there are at least 4 other couples in the ward sans children. Out of our 300+ person ward I'd say that's not too bad. hahaha!)

3. There are toll roads. Sometimes you have to pay to drive on the road. Who would have guessed!?

4. Apparently freeways can go in directions other than North and South. They can actually go in any direction you could possibly imagine.

5. Water in TX is not good. It tastes like dirt. It is semi-tolerable after going through a Brita filter and sitting in the fridge for several hours but nothing compared to the water straight from the mountains in UT.

6. When there are no mountains to tell you which way is East, it is easy to get lost. I am constantly amazed at where I end up thanks to my GPS. I can have absolutely no idea which direction I am driving or what freeway I am on and then all of the sudden things are familiar. A big thank you to my Garmin GPS (I pronounce it Jarmin. It sounds more like a name that way) He is my best friend.

7. There is a game called Whirlyball. It is a cross between bumper cars, lacrosse, and basketball. (I didn't understand how that worked at first either) It is hilarious. And awesome. And perhaps indigenous to Texas. And a bit difficult actually. But really fun! You can look up videos on youtube.

8. A majority of apartments have wood-burning fireplaces. Why you would need a wood-burning fireplace in a place that can be over 100 degrees for several months out of the year is beyond me. I wonder how many people actually use them...?

9. It is possible to go to the pool and not cool down in the water. It is so hot here for so many hours during the day and doesn't cool off to lower than 80 at night and it makes for really warm pools. Still fun but much less refreshing.

10. There isn't real grass here. There are different types of "ground covering.' Just walking down the path to our apartment you see 3 different kinds. You can see long jungle grass, some clovery intertwined mass of greenery, some pokey sparse somewhat resembles grass stuff.... I wouldn't sit on any of it though.