Teenage Girls!!!!!!!

So today is Bethany's 13th birthday. Something good to celebrate with all the sad stuff going on in the world. She is "dictator for the day", as she likes to call it. Just a few quick things...
I was quite proud of my birthday card that Brandon and I picked out for her. I won't explain the story, but it's a good one that Bethany can explain sometime:

How cute.
Bethany is a cute 13 year old, and hopefully she keeps her sweet disposition throughout her teenage years.

Crocheting

Ever since Brandon left me (or I should say I left him, because he's back where we were before), I've been trying to come up with things to do with my time. It's not even that I hate being with my family, because I don't. I like being home. It's just hard to go from being with someone all day every day to only being able to communicate by phone and Skype (Although I did get to see him this week (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) which is my excitement) which i'll post about when I get brandon's camera back). My mom suggested I take up a hobby, which I initially scoffed. I just enjoy being by myself when I'm melancholy, moping around or whatnot. But, I took her advice and took up crocheting. This is my first attempt at it...

By the time I realized it looked bad, it had gone on for long enough that I didn't just want to give it up. So I decided to keep going with it. It's going to be for my hammock that we're hanging up in our study room in the apartment that we SIGNED FOR!!!! Very exciting. At any rate, it's getting quite big, and I am also moving on to other things. Namely, a blanket for our front room.
I'm obsessed. It's really funny, because this is just the thing I would make fun of normally. But now I know I can make baby blankets for when my friends start having children, and stuff for our apartment. Since we're all poor and stuff. I'm also going to make tablecloths, but not by crocheting. Anyway, if anyone has good tips for me I'd love to hear them!

My first temp job

Well, I survived my first temp job... and by survived I really mean survived. It was horrible.
So they called me and told me it was customer service for a company. I would be calling people who had recently bought a product and ask them about their experience.

FALSE.

I get there the first day (it was 1 PM to 5:30 PM originally), and they tell that they're supposed to recruit 240 participants for an auto clinic in New Jersey the weekend of May 6 and May 7. So what am I doing? Cold calls to people from 4 PM to 9 PM East Coast time, calling owners of certain cars to get them to come.
It was pretty interesting, to say the least. I got yelled at a few times, hung up on a LOT, and talked to some pretty interesting people. I was in a room with this girl named Sophie, and she was pretty awesome to talk to. I enjoyed it. For a few days one of the other temps was in our room, and she drove me nuts. She was such a pessimist and a one-upper. One of the other temps was a woman about 65 years old... bless her heart she was so nice but so weird. One time she complimented me on my boat shoes, and then asked me if I was on a boat. I didn't know how to respond, so I said no.
Imagine my joy when the temp agency told me my assignment ended earlier than they had anticipated. Hallelujah!!!!!! It was worth not  getting the extra dough... I am a firm believer that my mental health is much more precious than $10 an hour. And now I'm going to go back to babysitting until i get another job. And I get to visit Brandon next Monday. Yay.

Nothing is going according to plan.

I'll clarify.
Back when Brandon and I started talking about getting married, I had this whole vision in my head. We would either get married July 23 or December 22 (his idea) in the San Diego temple. We would have a gorgeous wedding reception somewhere that is nice but not extravagant, and we would honeymoon somewhere way far away from everyone else... maybe Hawaii? I even had our announcement picture planned out. He would be in a dark gray sweater, wearing his glasses (because I think they make him look very attractive). I would be in a navy blue dress that I bought a year or so ago. We would be standing in front of either a tree with changing colors (obviously if we were getting married in December) or a tree with blossoms everywhere).
Well, obviously that's not happening. But here's the thing. All of this, this is real. I keep telling Brandon that. Those ideas were fantasies, and obviously not realistic. But these pictures, the Newport Beach temple, possibly having our reception at the Bryan building, honeymooning no more than an hour from our families (San Diego and Maine)... that's our real plans. And, I love it!
So why do I keep trying to justify my decisions? No idea. "So where are you getting married?" "The Newport Beach templeBECAUSE we just thought it would be easier that way..." "Where are you thinking about having your reception?" "The Bryan buildingBECAUSE it's free, and if we have a free venue we can spend more money on other things..." "When are you having your reception?" "The night beforeBECAUSE we want to enjoy our reception..."
Seriously. What am i doing? That ends today. It's my wedding gosh dang it and I like how it's going! I don't need to justify anything to anyone.
PS 110 days... I"m counting down. And I am flying up to Idaho in 14 days to see Brandon... I can hardly wait.

A little bit more about Brandon...

So this is my pity party post. I got turned down for the promotion that I had been expressing interest in for about 8 months today via letter. So I'm in a self-pitying mood.
I can't get a hold of Brandon for most of the day on weekends now, because he took up a job of which I am so proud. He is working from 7 PM to 7 AM in a nursing home/ assisted living home, making the resident's lives easier. It's not a pretty job, as he helps them bathe and get ready and go to the bathroom, if needed. It's something that I would have a hard time doing, but he loves it. He just told me stories when we were on the phone about how nice the residents were, and how much fun he had doing it. I'm not a person who stays up all hours of the night (anymore), so the fact that he could be so cheerful while doing something that unpleasant is amazing to me. He was actually excited to go to work tonight, because there are 3 residents who go to bed at about 11 PM, and so for the first 4 hours of his shift (after he gets the other residents to bed) he will just make them snacks and cook for the next day while chatting with them. That takes a very special person, and I'm glad that I get to marry someone who is that genuinely nice. He enjoyed talking with an old man who has autism, and an old woman who suffers from Alzheimer's and dementia was sad that she was "too old for him". He genuinely enjoys these people, and has already had one pass away since he started on Wednesday. It just amazes me how kind he is to everyone, and not just to me.
So yes, I know I've blogged a lot about Brandon lately. It's pretty hard to be away from him, especially as it is likely that I won't see him until the wedding. It was rough to go from spending many hours every day with him, to only being able to talk to him via phone and texting. (and skype but we haven't done that yet.)  I can't even talk about it too much, because then I tear up and get a lump in my throat. I know I'm somewhat emotionally open, but I've never been this attached to someone. Which is probably a good thing.
However, I've decided to pick up hobbies that I hadn't done before. My new one? Crocheting. Which is amusing, but I'm hooked now. My goal is to be able to make an afghan, but I've only learned one stitch so we'll see how that goes.

23

There are some things you should know about the number 23.
- the Human biorhythm is 23 days
- William Wallace was executed on August 23
- December 23, 2012 was the day the Mayans said the world would end
- John Forbes Nash, the subject of "A Beautiful Mind", became obsessed with the number 23 after seeing a picture of Pop John XXIII and believing it to be himself
- Michael Jordan. David Beckham and LeBron James all have worn the number 23
- Most quoted psalm? 23
- Each parent contributes 23 chromosomes to their child
-  It takes 23 seconds to blood to circulate through the human body.
 - Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times
- The first Morse Code transmission was "What hath God wrought?"-- Numbers 23:23
- There are two movies based on the number 23, and both main characters were obsessed with the number
- There are exactly 23 characters, numbers and letters on the faces of all U.S. Currency
- The axis of the Earth is tilted 23 degrees








Why does this matter?
Because Brandon Giullian, my BFF, fiance, and soon to be husband is turning 23 tomorrow. I sent him some lists like this about the number 23 in a lame attempt to give him a good birthday present, because he's 1,000 miles away and I wish I was there. I'll save that for another time that I'm feeling like a pity party. But for now, I hope he has a good birthday (he never reads my blog anyways haha), and I'll get to see him soon.

He would not be too happy if he saw that picture up... good thing he doesn't check my blog eh?

Happy Anniversary!

 but HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD! Just think, in 24 years you've had 6 kids (in the first 14 years), you're about to have a third child graduate from high school and a second wedding. Lots more to come in the next few years... I think you guys have done just fine with raising us.

Yes I know I've been blogging a lot. I'll explain soon.

The theme for the reception...

So I'm not going to give away all the details for the wedding, because I want people to still be excited for it. but the theme of the reception is going to be based off of:

And for the colors it will be navy blue and yellow... with a silver accent. Thus, my shoes couldn't be anything other than this:

I'm so excited.

Singles' housing = Over.

So I moved out of my apartment on Friday, and I have mixed feelings about not going back to live in BYU-Idaho Approved Singles Housing. The things I will miss...
- Erin walking around at all hours of the night in her towel.
- Watching stupid white trash TV shows and wondering who would ever like those shows... then realizing that was us.
- Having long talks late at night when we should have been asleep.
- The random and slightly inappropriate things that would always happen


Some things I won't miss?
- The delegation of the jobs. (I was assigned to clean the kitchen for two white gloves in a row because I wasn't there when the packet got there.
- The sharing of fridges.
- The drama drama drama of living with 5 girls (because I did that 2 years in a row.)
- Not being able to say anything when they do something that drives you nuts




Well, now that Brandon and I are going to be living with each other in the fall, we know we can avoid this stuff. Except sharing fridges, but that's ok because we'll share bank accounts too. And when we do something that bothers the other person, we can tell each other. It will be a lot less dramatic... but I will miss the good times I had in Barnes Hall 265, Tuscany 424, and Legacy Ridge 312. For the most part, the times were good. And that's how I'll look at it in the future!

Am I Stressed?

Nah, I have all of 4 days to:
Take 3 tests (two of them are 2 parts)
Finish 1 10-page paper
Write a proficient fact sheet on a child development issue
Clean the kitchen
Clean the bathroom
Pack up
Find a place to put the storage that I can't fit in my car
Say goodbye to everyone
Pointedly ignore those who I will not miss
Make up assignments
Get the heck out of Rexburg



Nah... let the madness begin.