ABC Tag

Well, I've been tagged by Michelle (unless she knows more than one Erin)! I've done a similar tag, so to mix it up, I'm including Chris's answers to each one too. His will be in blue. So here it goes:

A- Attached or single: VERY Attached. Ditto

B- Best Friends: Chris; my mom; Barbs, Renee, Katie are all up there as well. My wifey and Sammie the dog; Joey, Matty, Matt Mer, B-Rad, Andy, MTC bros.

C- Cake or Pie: I actually can't eat either!--We'll go for Coldstone Ice Cream. Pie--Banana Cream

D- Day of choice: Saturday--it was Sunday until about 3 weeks ago;-). Friday.

E- Essential item: My cell phone; I'm not a constant texting-talking-phone-girl, but I like to be able to text my husband or mom in the middle of the day. Cubs hat

F- Favorite color: lavender; also like red, which you'd know if you've ever seen my couches and kitchen! Blue.

G- Gummy bears or worms: Worms; bears are harder to chew. Bears

H- Hometown: Pocatello, ID. Lafayette, IN

I- Indulgences: Snickers bars, Costa Vida, BYU Creamery Cookies N' Cream Milk, Celebrity gossip magazines, long naps. Cheeseburgers, Papa Johns Pizza, Pringles

J- January or July: Can I take May? No comment.

K- Kids: Not yet; one of these days . . . Love them.

L- Life is not complete without: Chris, The Gospel, family, chocolate, and bunnies. My beautiful redhead; a good dog at your side.

M- Marriage Date: June 24, 2006. June 24, 2006

N- Number of Siblings: 3 brothers + 4 sisters-in-law (1 being a wife of a brother, the other 3 being Chris's sisters). 3+2

O-Oranges or apples: Love apples, hate apple juice; Love orange juice, hate oranges. Apples--with peanut butter.

P- Phobias or fears: Fire. When I was a little girl I'd get up in the middle of the night and go around checking the green lights on the smoke detectors to make sure they were working (did you know that, mom?). Spiders--my wife kills the spiders in our home.

Q- Quotes: “Where does the family start? It starts with a young man falling in love with a girl - no superior alternative has yet been found.” --Sir Winston Churchill

"Hey is this heaven?"

"No. Its Iowa." -Field of Dreams

"Just do your best . . . just make sure its your very best" -Pres Hinckley

R- Reason to smile: The semester is almost over--its supposed to reach 70 degrees this weekend--Chris--ER returns tonight. Baseball season started again.

S- Season: Spring and early summer--its warm, but not hot. Fall.

T- Tag four friends: Becky, Lauren (both of them!), and Rashelle. She can do that.

U- Unknown fact about me: I have the ability to insta-sleep! Chris is always amazed by how quickly I can fall into DEEP sleep. Chris won't say this but he is an amazing cook! He cooks probably 90% of our meals, and they are delicious!

V- Very favorite store: Tie bewteen Roberts Craft and Papaya. Hat World--I don't know.

W- Worst habit: I bite my nails really bad--thats why I try to keep them painted; I also pick scabs (I know, gross) and Chris gets mad when I complain about it hurting after I pick it off! Yelling at drivers when they don't use a turn signal.

X- X-ray or Ultrasound: Ultrasounds have a happier connotation;-) Ultrasound

Y- Your favorite food: Corn chowder a la Chris; Sweet Pork Enchiladas a la Costa Vida. Wienerschnitzel and German potato salad.

Z- Zodiac: Libra (I think). Taurus the Bull.

FAILURE

Since our ward is a student ward, we (Relief Society presidency) try to visit new girls that move in to make them feel welcome (there is a lot of moving in and out). Today was the first time we had one of these visits. It was at 5. I went to sleep at 4, figuring I had 45 minutes. Then I woke up at 5:30.

FAILURE.

Who is Your Christian Bale?

As a happily married woman, I don't find anyone 'attractive' other than my husband. He is my dream guy. Chris and I both, however, do what we call "nice looking recognition". This is where we consider someone 'nice-looking', but not "attractive". Ha ha. Since no attraction is involved, you can have nice-looking recognition for both the same and opposite sex as yourself. Chris always asks me if this actor is good looking or that actor. He's usually surprised by my answers. He, however, rarely finds anyone 'nice-looking'.

My top 'nice-looking' choice on the male side is Christian Bale (aka, the reason I won't mind watching the newest Batman when it comes out this summer):

My female: Heidi Klum


Chris is not very good at choosing his 'nice-looking' people. His male is Vin Diesel (ha ha, he's not going to like this post very much), but mostly because he aspires to have muscles like that someday:


Then a couple weeks ago we were watching the Celebrity Apprentice. I was in the kitchen and he came in and said "So, I think I found my Christian Bale." I laughed. Who was it? U.S. softball player Jenny Finch:
I'm so glad he found her;-)

Missing President Hinckley

Shortly after President Hinckley died, I had a conversation with Chris:

Me: You know, it doesn't really even seem like he died. He's been here my whole life, as long as I can really remember anyway. It doesn't seem like he is really not going to be here anymore.

Chris: Yeah, thats true. It probably won't sink in until Conference.

Well, its Conference today, and its starting to sink in. President Hinckley is the only prophet I've ever known. He had such a profound impact on my life and the lives of so many young people (and older people too, of course). It is strange to me that he won't be there today. It will be sad to me, I'm sure. This months Ensign was a little sad to me too; bittersweet really. I think I'll always think of President Hinckley as 'my' prophet. I am, however, grateful that the church has a living prophet and I do know President Monson is called of God--and he is so great too! So it all works out in the end.

In memory of President Hinckley, I thought I'd post this story. Its a conversation between my aunt and 4-yr-old cousin that occurred shortly after President Hinckley passed away, and I just thought it was so sweet (hopefully you don't mind me sharing this, Dore):

We were lying in bed talking and she said, “I don’t want to die.”

“Most people don’t die until they are really, really, really old.” I replied

“Am I almost really old?” she asked.

“No, it will take a long, long, long, long, long, long time for you to be that old.” I answered.

She then asked, “Are you that old? Are you going to die?”

“No, I have a long, long, long, long, time until I am that old. Everyone has to die, but it is not scary or sad, it is really happy because you get to go to heaven.” I said.

Novalie’s eyes got really big and she said enthusiastically, “And then I can see President Hinckley again.”

“Yes, you will see him and Joseph Smith and all the other prophets. But, you have to make good choices in order to go to heaven.” I said.

She responded, “I have to try to be like Jesus if I want to go to heaven. What happens to the people who are bad?”

“They go to hell.” I answered.

“Oh, mommy, don’t say that word, I don’t like it.” she said.

“Me neither, so we better try to make good choices.” I said.

“I will because I want to go to heaven with President Hinckley because I miss him.” she said so sweetly.

(Erin again) No wonder the scriptures teach us to be as little children!

Spontaneous Regret . . . Almost

I am probably one of the least spontaneous people on earth. I like a plan. I like to know where we are going, what we are doing. Should I wear comfortable shoes, or does it not matter? Will I need a coat? When it came down to our honeymoon, there was no way I was letting Chris surprise me; I needed to be prepared.

Well, Chris and I went to Roberts Craft tonight (I could spend hundreds of dollars in that store) to get some things we needed to our History of Creativity projects. When we were done, we had about 45 minutes until I had to be at a RS presidency meeting, and I was starving. Unfortunately, there is a Chuck-a-Rama down by Roberts. For those of you unfamiliar with Chuck-a-Rama it is one of those huge buffet places, like Golden Corral, but I think its much better. I told Chris we should go. He asked if I was serious. I said I wasn't sure. Finally, we decided to try out "spontaneous" and we randomly went to Chuck-a-Rama. Now, this isn't the most exciting way to be spontaneous, but I'm a rookie. It was delicious, but when I walked out I regretted it. Chris and I aren't exactly rich these days (is any college student?) and dinner out was not in the budget. That $23 dollars could have gone toward a decent amount of groceries. Needless to say, I'm a pretty miserable spontaneous person.

There were, however, wonderful things that came from our spontaneity. I finally let go of all my stress. I think I was really in denial, but today I completed 2 of the 4 huge assignments I needed to (the next 2 are due Friday and Saturday) and I felt like I should be done. So I sat and talked to my husband. It felt like it had been a while, and we have so much to talk about. We talked about Tennessee or BYU or Utah, and about my future career (hopefully someday as a mother), and he made me laugh really, really hard. It had been a while. Sometimes when you get all tied up in yourself you forget how good you really have it. Chris makes everything happy, everything perfect, everything work out somehow. He has a funny way of healing me, regardless of how I am broken. And thinking back, 45 minutes at Chuck-a-Rama with my wonderful husband was what I needed tonight more than anything else, and I really don't regret it at all.

A Surprisingly Good Day

This week is by far the craziest week of the entire semester, a meaningful distinction given some of the weeks we have already experienced. Two nights ago we managed to make it to bed as early at 2 am, then got up at 7 for class. Last night I made it to bed by 4 am and got 4 good hours of sleep; Chris . . . well, Chris took a 15 minute nap. Yep, he pulled an all-nighter then had to be at work at the MTC by 7:45. Poor guy. So needless to say I expected today to be pretty horrible (I'm speaking for myself here, I actually haven't seen Chris since 4 am this morning). However, I have been pleasantly surprised that there have been a few things that have made today a surprisingly good day (so far).


1. Time slowed down for once. I skipped class this morning (oops) to work on my big research paper and I was actually very productive and am now almost done. Time went by slowly, which was a real blessing considering time usually speeds up when you are in a crunch.


2. Warmer weather. The last few days have been a return to January here in Provo. On Wednesdays I have to ride my bike to campus (due to Chris going to work at 7:45--I can't be ready to leave by then!) and I've been dreading this Wednesday in fear of snow. So I bundled up and walked outside at 11:45 and it was warm(ish). I had to put my gloves away and take off my coat. It was actually a beautiful ride.


3. Happy Boss. My boss is a lot like me: when he is stressed he gets very quiet. So when we are both stressed, the office is dead silent. Today, however, he was in a great mood--this isn't a rare occurance, but it was nice that it happened today. He laughed and joked and chatted. It was a nice day at work, which is always a plus.


4. Paper surprise. This is a long story, but to cut to the chase I've been under the impression that I had to write 5 papers (short, but still take 2 hours each) by next week. This has been stressful to worry about on top of all the big projects going on now. However, today I looked at my grades online and found I had already written 3 more than I thought I had (we have to write 10 throughout the semester; I thought I had only written 5, turns out I have written 8). So I only have 2 more to worry about!


5. I'm having a good hair and face day. I don't do my hair very often due to early classes, but since I stayed home this morning (oops again) I let it air dry and actually straightened it (that is doing it, in my book). And it actually turned out looking nice. As for the good face day: you might think I'm crazy but I actually think I have good and bad face days. Some days my face just looks bad; not just smeared eyeliner and baggy eyes, but my face itself looks different and worse. Its hard to explain. Anyway, today's face looked good to me, shocking after my 4-hour night's rest. (PS if anyone actually saw me today and would like to disagree, please keep it to yourself, ha ha).


The Lord does bless you in the littlest ways when you need it the most.

Proof: Bad Face Day

Good Face Day

Staying Positive

I've been thinking that between waiting on grad school, school being insane (don't get me started on this week), and an extreme lack of sleep over the last, well, 3 years really, I have kind of negative and overly stressed. It's really a waste, because there are so many little things that make me happy if I stop for a minute to think about them:

First, the Cubbies are back! They were on ESPN2 today, which was great because we usually don't get to see them out in Utah. Last summer we were in Indiana so we got EVERY game, it was amazing. They lost today, which is sad, but only after Fukudome hit a 3 run homerun in the bottom of the ninth to tie it up and send the game to extra innings. Gotta love baseball.

Scaring Chris. This sounds insane, but Chris and I like to jump out of random places and scream to scare each other. For some reason its so funny when I do it to him, but less funny when he does it to me. Either way, it makes me laugh really hard. I must still be 10 years old.

The end of the semester is so close! Oh, I cannot wait. I'm going to Spring term and taking 9 credits, which is a little crazy, but Spring term is so much better than Fall/Winter. I love how Campus and Provo empty out as student leave for the summer. Its warm and sunny and EMPTY and relaxed. And this semester has been so busy, I'm ready to be done and never look back, ha ha. Its weird though, because if we go to Tennessee this will be my last full semester at BYU (after this Spring, I'd just finish my last two minor classes Independent Study).

Laughing with Chris. Luckily, Chris has the capability to make me laugh regardless of the mood I'm in. He has a genuine sense of humor; it is so different than mine, which is more sarcasitic and ironic. Its refreshing.

Accidental naps. Sometimes I think I'm going to lie down for a minute and end up sleeping for 2 hours. While this always makes me 'mad' because I just lost precious homework time, I really love it because I catch up on the sleep I've been missing so desperately.

Little puppy. This is ridiculous, but Chris got me this stuffed animal puppy for Valentine's Day and I think she is so cute. "Little Puppy" was the best name I could come up with, but for some reason I have a tendency to become attached to stuffed animals. So does my little brother--my mom worries she didn't get us enough stuffed animals as kids so now its backfiring.

Laughing out loud to jokes in political science that no one else seems to catch. My poli sci professor has my kind of sense of humor: dry wit. Sometimes he makes jokes about political things, really subtle dry jokes that sometimes sound serious. And I laugh, loudly. And often I'm the only one who does. The other day I laughed out loud at a joke he make about introducing Adam Smith to the Soviet Union. I was the only one.