Lucky Me

Look at this handsome man I found in my apartment.  I'm a lucky woman.

That's all.  Have a great day!

Lately...

Hello everyone!  I (Michelle) have realized that we have not written much about our life the past couple weeks except that we are still growing a baby and finishing getting settled.  Here's the top 3 things that have happened recently.

1. The earthquake and the hurricane.  Ok, yes, Ty did mention that these happened and that we were relatively unaffected by either of them.  And I must say, the earthquake was a lot more to speak of than the hurricane.  But one thing that was awesome about the hurricane was that we had our weekly date at the house.  We decided to copy Ty's sister Cali and her husband Ray, and date our way through the alphabet.  Obviously we JUST started, because hurricane weekend was our "A" date and Ty was in charge.

One thing I really love about Ty is that he gets really EXCITED.  For our date, we did Apple Art.  We had to create some sort of carving out of an apple that personified the apple -- AND it, of course, had to start with the letter A.  I started by thinking that an abnormally-faced person would be a good way to go.  After the first minute or so of jack-o-lanternizing my apple, I realized that was a silly idea.  It's an apple -- of course it's going to look a bit abnormal.  Oh well, I pressed on, and of course Ty never guessed it.  He, however, did an Absolutely Amazing job by creating a sculpture of Johnny Appleseed.  I have a brilliant husband.

A closer side-profile look at my husband's amazing work.

We had a lot of fun that rainy afternoon, equipped with Apple Art as well as Apples to dip in caramel sauce and eat while we whittled away at our masterpieces.

2.  We added another state to our list of states we've been to together!

If you didn't know, Ty and I took pictures at every state line as we zig-zagged from Colorado to Washington DC.  We wish we would have started sooner and photographed all the way from Washington state, but sometimes inspiration comes a little late for me.

 

The reason for this new addition to our list is because I have some family (Uncle Jeff, Aunt Karla, and some cousins) who were out at Fenwick Island for a couple weeks, and invited us to join them for a couple days.  We had a lot of fun!  We didn't take hardly any pictures though, sorry.  But here's a picture of us with Uncle Jeff, Aunt Karla, and my cousin Alisa's little girl Lucy.  She LOVED Ty.  But really, what little kid doesn't?  I'm so grateful I can tell so easily that Ty is going to be a fantastic father.

3.  Ty and I got new callings.  Well, "new" as in we didn't have them before, but not "new" as in replacing the ones we already had.  We've been called to be the Stake Seminary Supervisors, which means we keep tabs on the seminaries throughout the stake, and lend them our support and encouragement.  We are also called to be the Home Study Seminary Teachers -- this, I can't really give a strong definition of because we're not really too sure ourselves how it's all going to work.  Due to issues with transportation, different school start times, etc., early-morning seminary has been really tough in our ward.  So we're supposedly trying to teach seminary over internet-conferencing to give students class-time in addition to their home-study program.  We'll see how it goes.  No one's ever done this before so we're excited but a bit nervous to pave some new ground. 

Anyways, this year's unit in seminary is the Old Testament.  So, for FHE this week, Ty had us each share a favorite story from the Old Testament.  Then, his face lit up, he started to fidget a bit, and he nearly jumped off of the sofa when he announced that we would then be building an ark out of K'NEX.  Did I mention I have a fun, creative, and excited husband?  I'm so grateful for him.

Oh, and by the way, he started school last week.  He's completed two full weeks now, and that means he has attended a total of 8 class periods.  Wait, don't jump to any conclusions.  Those 8 class periods were each TWO AND A HALF HOURS long.  I've decided he must have nerves of steel -- either that or he'll have nerves of steel by the end of the semester.  I'm proud of him and all that he does.  He is such a great husband and does so much to put up with and take care of me and make me happy.  He's a great friend and example to me.





Anyways, I guess that's about it.  Life is good!

The Natural and the Disaster

I would like to say one thing about myself.  I am thorough….sometimes.  While this is often a virtue, I think I have taken it too far and have thus stamped over the ‘rtu’ with a big, fat ‘c’.

One of the things I am most thorough about is packing and unpacking.  My mom has commented that whenever I pack, I take up the entire house.  I start by taking everything out, putting a little bit here and a little bit there.  Next, I start to sort what needs to be kept and what doesn’t need to be kept.  In doing this, I will go through every notebook and journal and take out unnecessary pages, little frillies included.  I create several ‘trash’ piles, several ‘donate’ piles, and several ‘organized’ piles.  After the sorting, I can begin to organize everything in boxes or containers.  Usually things are packed several times before I find the perfect combination.  My desire to organize by space and my desire to organize by category have a royal battle and I never know which one will win.  Often I let things stew for a while until I know what I want to do and sometimes it has to stew for several days.  It really shouldn't be a surprise that when I finally get down to the last few items, I am out of time and therefore end up throwing everything together into whatever I can find.  I make a mess, I take forever, and the product really isn’t that great in the end.

In the last few weeks I have discovered I unpack in a similar way.  I take out several items and spread them all over the house.  Next, I begin re-sorting everything.  This time I have ‘trash’ piles, ‘donate’ piles (even though I just did this), ‘bedroom’ piles, ‘bathroom’ piles, ‘office’ piles, and any other kind of pile you can think of.  After the sorting, I begin trying to fit everything into the room, the desk, the drawer, etc. that it belongs in.  This rarely works the first time and the second isn’t much better.  Then, I have to figure out what goes into storage.  Each item has to be processed through several questions such as:

1.      Does this need to be in storage?

2.      How accessible does it need to be?

3.      What other items are similar to it?

4.      Where should it be stored?

5.      How often will I get it out?

Once these things are organized and put away, I am finally done!  Whew!  Did I mention if I find a favorite toy in this process it needs to be played with?  Did I mention I often re-read old journals as I go through this process?  Did I mention that I re-look at nearly every photograph I come across?  Now instead of asking yourself, "Why aren't they done moving in yet?" you are asking, “How can they already be done?”

If you are, I will tell you how.  I HAVE AN AMAZING WIFE!  While I am busy making a mess, she is busy cleaning it up.  While I am busy playing with toys, she is decorating our home.  While I am reminiscing as I look over old journals, she is talking to me and making lunch.  While I am re-organizing for the fifth time, she growing a babyJ.  While I am making a DISASTER, she is making a home.  I have the most wonderful wife and I am so grateful she is strong in so many areas where I am weak.  I am glad that she is a NATURAL homemaker.

We have also lived through two recent natural disasters.  Not too much to report on the earthquake or the hurricane other than we experienced them and are grateful we weren’t more heavily affected by either one.