History of our relationship

1. where did you meet your husband?
We met in highschool. I'd known his best friend since the 5th grade but never actually met Dave until I was in highschool in 10th grade. I first saw him at a dance, with his then-girlfriend. I remember feeling jealous that this girl had such a sweet boyfriend, and right off I thought Dave was cute. He doesn't remember meeting me until the next year, when I was in 11th grade and he was in 12th. We ended up sitting right next to each other at the front of the class in Seminary. I liked him right away. I thought he was very attractive and we started talking. I really liked him, and I was pretty sure he liked me, too.

2. what was the first thing said?
I don't know the very first thing, but one of the first things we talked about in Seminary was that dance where I first saw him. I hadn't had the greatest time that night, and he had seen the dance pictures (from his friend, who I went to the dance with) and remembered me from them. He told me he thought I had looked sad in the pictures, and I explained why.

3. what was your first date?
Well, after a LOT of "We should hang out some time" crap, we planned a date and pretty much stood each other up. Yeah. I waited until the last minute to call him and at that point he had already left to go to his friend's house because he thought I wasn't going to call. So it turned out quite badly, and we stopped talking. Months later we saw each other at the grocery store randomly and talked. After that we emailed each other often. BUT...our first REAL date was going to a movie. We picked a different movie at the last moment than the one we had planned on, and knew nothing about the movie. It turned out to be so stupid, we left. He drove us around town and we talked. It turned out that we knew a lot of the same people and had interest in many of the same topics, so we had a lot to talk about. We wanted to get ice cream at Cold Stone, but there was such a huge line that we stopped at McDonald's instead and each got a Fruit and Yogurt Parfait. When he dropped me home, he shook my hand on the doorstep. (?!WTF?!)

4. how long did you date?
We dated for about 3 months before he left on his mission. We started to really care for each other after a month or so of hanging out, but I was not willing to become a "couple" at first because he was about to leave. But we decided to after all just before he left...it still sucked to let him go, either way. :( After he got home, we dated more and were engaged in a month.

5. first kiss?
We were in his backyard, by the side of the house. It was very sweet, even though I was nervous about it. It was just a simple kiss. When I first saw him moving his lips to mine, I laughed. Then we tried again, and it was nice :)

6. where did you get engaged?
We had been spending the evening with some friends and it was late at night. We went to the main street near a park of the city where we had grown up. It was very quiet and empty. When we reached the end of the sidewalk and were alone, he turned to me and asked me to marry him. I said, "Right now?" and he laughed. He asked again, and I said yes. :)


7. where did you get married?
We were married in the timp temple on Dec. 28th.

8. how did the reception go?
Eh. We had both been sick, and were kind of out of it still (we had our reception AFTER the honeymoon, where we had contracted the flu). The decorations were taken care of by some nice ladies from the ward and looked very nice. Some close friends of mine made our beautiful and delicious cake. The food situation was taken care of by my mother and some of her friends. I didn't have to worry about a thing. And yet, it had its share of flaws. The dress slip we had rented for the wedding was forgotten in the bustle of things, so I had to wear my dress without it and, in my opinion, I looked frumpy. I had to stand 90% of the time and was hungry, weak, tired and sick. The music I wanted played at the reception didn't get there, but luckily we arranged to have a girl play the piano for us and she was great. I don't know. I look back at my whole wedding now and wish I could have done just about everything differently. I was too caught up in other things at the time to really plan what I wanted. I was too concerned with spending as little money as possible, not with planning my dream wedding. Still, it worked out alright.

9. where did you go on your honeymoon?
Disneyland! This was my dream honeymoon destination. I was so thrilled that we got to go! We stayed for about a week. Unfortunately, we spent at least half of the time with one or the other of us being sick with the flu. Yeah. Not so romantic. We spent much of our time sleeping and feeling gross in the hotel room. We enjoyed DIsneyland and California adventure for the first few days, though...but unfortunately we missed the New Year's celebration with fireworks. Instead we watched a crappy sci-fi movie from the 50's as we lay miserable on the bed in the hotel.

10. do you have a song?
Yes, we do, but I won't divulge it because I might be judged :)

More tag

What were you doing 10 years ago?
This is a very jolting question. 10 years used to seem like a very long time, but 10 years ago today I was 13 years old. That just doesn't seem like so much time has passed since then, but it has. I was in Jr. High, in 7th grade. That year, I was busy hating school, keeping up with homework, wishing a boy would send me a Valentine's Day sucker at school, being involved in youth church activities, and having various crushes. I would switch from glasses to contacts the next year, which pretty much changed my life from that point onward. Jr. High was tough...man. Strange that this question would be asked now, because currently I'm typing up an old journal from EXACTLY 10 years ago. :)

5 things on my to-do list today:
1. Go to work.
2. Work on math homework.
3. Play video games with Dave.
4. Figure out what the crap to make for dinner, and make it.
5. Figure out the whole "graduation application" thing.

Things I would do if I were suddenly made a a billionaire:
Buy a house in another state/country where the weather is warm, or start a farm, or something awesome like that. I would donate some of it, and blah blaaaah.

2 of my bad habits:
1. Biting my fingernails.
2. Interrupting, or generally being socially awkward sometimes.

5 places I have lived:
1. Seattle, WA
2. Redmond, WA
3. Phoenix, AZ
4. San Mateo, CA
5. Utah

5 Jobs I have had:
1. Summer Sno
2. Call Center
3. Kneaders
4. Cleaning (a lot of these jobs...)
5. Shipping Department


5 Things people don't know about me:
1. I'm pretty selfish (although I'm sure everyone knows this by now)
2. Lately I have been awful about making spelling mistakes...and I'm an English Major!
3. That said, I also know very little about English.
4. I am AWFUL about accepting criticism, and I stew over anything negative people have said about me.
5. I don't know how to drive a manual transmission.

Incredibly exciting UPDATE time!

We've been without the internet for more than a week, so in case you were wondering that is why I fell off the face of the internet-earth for the past little while.

It's still winter. I have the hope that because it is almost not January anymore, it will be spring time. I know, that's being a little too hopeful. But I am so ready to be rid of the snow and ice. Yesterday was so warm and bright until the storm rolled in, causing a chaos of ice and snow. Where is my warm sun? Where are the happy birds and flowers of spring?

Okay. School. It's going pretty well. Dave has like 10 education classes as usual, which I can scarcely relate to since I have a lowly two this semester. But he enjoys them, and he doesn't have the burden of holding the main "breadwinning" job in our family anymore, giving him more time to focus on studying. In fact, his current job is so laid back that he can do reading and homework DURING work sometimes, a luxury I could only dream of.

I am doing better than could be expected in math (which isn't saying a whole lot) so I am thinking I can handle the class and pass it. That means I have to apply for graduation. If that works out, I'll be a college graduate this spring...even if it is only an associates degree. I am also taking a Creative Writing class, which is thus far disappointing. The professor is just not compatible with me somehow. Plus the class seems too easy, like a high school course. Regardless, I like the class because it adds little stress to my life while still building up credits toward my future Bachelors degree.

My job has been working out well. I enjoy working there most of the time. The worst thing about it is this fear I have of something happening to take it away from me. Doesn't make sense...It's just that I'm afraid it's too good to be true. It's not that the work itself is extremely rewarding or anything, but I mean it is so perfect for our current situation. The money, the location, the type of work...it is perfect. It's a good company. I worry that somehow it won't work out, because when things are too good to be true they can't last. Man, what a stupid thing to ramble about. But I'm grateful for this job because it allows me to take the bulk of financial responsibility for our family while still being able to go to school, and it works with our schedules.

Oh, and one more thing. The toads! Yes, I said toads. We got another one so the first wouldn't be lonely :) Their names are Edgar and Squall, and they are remarkably entertaining considering the fact that most of what they do involves sitting on a rock and doing nothing. We love them!

(This is Edgar, who is very fat, struggling to climb up the waterfall.)

(Our beloved and handsome Squall, loafing around on a rock.)

"Toad-"ally.

It comes down to this: I absolutely love our new toad!
I think I have been pet-less for too long, because I am kind of freaking out about the toad. He is so cool! I love staring into the tank and watching him, even if he's just sitting there--his little throat moves and he's too adorable! I've even come to enjoy feeding him, because it's so fun to watch him eat. You put a cricket in the tank, and as soon as the toad sees it, that thing is TOAST in a fraction of a second. He's a very sharp little toad indeed. Sadly, if he isn't paying attention, the cricket will have the chance to leap into the water and drown its stupid self, at which point the toad will have nothing to do with it. Alas. I'm thinking we'll try feeding him meal- or wax-worms too, just because they would be less stressful than crickets to feed to the toad.

Still not sure what to name him... I don't even know if he...er, it is male or female.

Tha art of owning pets in a no-pets-allowed apartment

Dave and I have really been wanting to get a dog. So, naturally, we got a toad instead.

Our apartment complex, lovely as it is, absolutely does not allow pets of the furry variety (or most varieties, really). We were told upon moving in that fish were okay, which was good since we already had some. No one counts fish as pets, right? Well, we have been fishless for a long time now, and lately the urge to own a pet has been too much to eschew any longer. When we were casually strolling through Petsmart one day, we saw just what we wanted: Fire Bellied Toads. I did a ton of research on the little fellows and we found that they would be a great pet for us--they can live in a fish tank with a land and water source, so the management shouldn't have a cow that we are keeping them ("Oh, that? It's just a fish tank...").

When the idea to get a toad came to us a couple weeks ago, I began a new venture: creating the perfect semi-aquatic vivarium for them to live in. I have been loving this project! The possibilities are endless when it comes to setup, and I have been inspired to try many things with it. Our first attempt failed. We wanted to install a glass divider in the tank with sealant, but every time we tested it there were holes. It proved impossible to patch them all, so we scrapped that idea.

After a little more trial and error, I was happy with the tank that i had been working on for nearly 2 weeks. It was time to add toads! We dropped by Petsmart the other night (since their toads look better by far than those at any other pet store) and brought one home, along with 4 crickets to feed to him over the next few days (the live food part was the most off-setting thing about getting an amphibian, but I'm getting used to the idea now).

So, without further ado...my masterpiece! (and a toad):

(the final set-up.)

(our amphibious friend.)

(check out the red belly on this guy!)

Someday we'll get a dog, but until then...

"Ch-ch-changes!"

Things were too comfortable for us for too long, I guess, so a huge shuffle in our lives makes sense enough.

First, I must express how amazingly awesome the holiday break was for Dave and me. We were able to just relax and spend a lot of time with family and friends. I am really missing that break from school and work.

But as things tend to be, the vacation was only temporary :( This semester, things are kind of crazy. Both of us are in school again, with new classes. Dave is taking his block of education classes (I couldn't name them all...there are, like, 10 of them) and I am taking 2 classes myself, Quantitative Reasoning and Creative Writing. This math class is the final class required for my Associates degree, so I am expecting (assuming all goes well, aka, I don't fail) to "graduate" with an AS in English after this semester! I won't be done, though. I'm going on to get my Bachelors after that. But you know...it's still kind of cool to say I'm graduating ;)

But the reason I am only taking 2 classes is because I have started a new job. I work in the shipping department of an internet computer-parts company. It took a few days to get into it, but now I like it there. I have more hours than my last job and get paid a LOT more. It took me a while to get over missing my last job, though. I really liked the people there, and the work was so easy that I never had to worry about anything. But change is good. This new job will really make a difference for us. Dave will continue to work in the Testing Center, which he really enjoys, but he won't have to work many hours because of my job. This should help him focus on his schoolwork.

Basically, all of this means that we won't have as much time together. I know--whine, whine, whine. Most couples don't get to see each other as much as they would like. But the fact remains that it sucks. All of these changes--school starting again, new classes, new job, different schedules--are hard to adjust to but I suppose they are all worth adjusting to. Still, we will be keeping very busy this semester, so everyone will probably be seeing a lot less of us.