Takin' It Back

This is the handsome face I came home to last night, after a long cruddy night class. Remember how I said we are just not romantic? Proven a whole other kind of wrong. Sorry these pics are so blurry camera phone + surprised + touched + I wanna hug you not take pics of you moment = shaky wobbly bad pics.

For a guy who NEVER cooks, I was impressed with shrimp alfredo and garlic bread :) Also an Amazon gift card (kindle reading crazy girls love these). Chocolate dipped strawberries, chocolate pie, chocolate ice cream...this is how well he knows me. A dinner for Cait requires more chocolatey dessert than food.

Don't forget the yellow brick road of my favorite ever symphony bars...

This leads to the office where a massage table was waiting, I woulda taken pictures, but I was too busy being pampered...I love love my man. He really loves me too :)

So maybe I had a bad attitude about the "day of love", but I'm grateful I have the bestest Valentine for all of eternity. Here's to celebrating love every day forever baby.

Because I Feel Like It :)

I feel a good free-write coming on. It's too late, can't stop me now. You get to hear all of it.

Thoughts of no apparent order or purpose:

1. I am finally ready to throw away the crud and get healthy people. There. I said it. You think a lot more about every bite that goes in ya when it comes out of ya much more violently. Was that hamburger really worth it this weekend? Takes one bout of food poisoning to decide that food should not be fast. Nope. Done.

2. Uhm, Valentine's day is approaching. All you creative people out there are excited and planning. I am dreading. We. Are. Not. A. Romantic. Couple. Lessons learned the hard way. We love each other more and more every day, we always put each other before ourselves...but we don't get the mushy gush. I need a simple and quick meaningful idea so when the relief society sisters talk about their Feb 14th adventures on the Sunday after the heart day I don't feel like a cold heartless loser, or it's not happenin. See why I have a hard time with this holiday? Help.

3. This is the best semester of my life. I am volunteering at an elementary school, get to help with an Opera Club, and uhh I LOVE. LOVE. LOVE IT. It's a blessing to realize you are on the right track, that you really can be what you've always wanted to be (despite people saying the pay sucks and you burn out quicker than a match in rain storm etc.) I had a rather new/old epiphany. Old because I've always known it and new because I've never realized it until now. If that makes sense. I understand, like, appreciate, enjoy, respect, love, admire, feel more comfortable around KIDS than ADULTS. And...that's ok. I don't think I'll ever quit being a kid. And that's ok too :)

4. I have GOT to do the dishes. They are creeping me out.

BLAST

Two people in love + camping + fishing + clay pigeon shooting + BYU game watching+ more fishing = never catching anything, freezing booties off in our tent, realizing I am no longer Annie Oakley, a boring BYU game only cause we were STOMPING poor ISU in the FACE.

This.weekend.was.awesome.

I guess it's a good thing we don't have pictures cause that means we were having too much fun to even think of it or care, but I am kind of bummed. I would have liked to get a picture of Marshall's entire fishing pole swinging from a tree limb like Tarzan (he did it on purpose cause he got bored of trying to untangle his line from the tree), it would have been nice to get a pic of the beautiful lake at sunset, or how cool we looked shooting at the range, whatever just try to picture the awesomeness. I will forever stain the world wide web with my written memory so no one can ever forget that we had fun?!?!? in Logan?!?! Maybe we will start to love living here if we escape our forbidden cave of a house more often and learn to associated this lovely city with things other than school, mental strain, and deathly stress...

Bout Time

Scary how the time zooms by...seems like in a flash we are back into the swing of school, only I don't feel like I'm swinging...more like dangling there holding on for dear life. Whatever.. every now and then it is good healthy to dangle. I think I needed it. All the sudden I am appreciating things a whole lot more. Simple things like, getting into bed before midnight, having dinner
at the table.
from the oven.
not the microwave.
Believe it or not, frozen burritos get old. Super old. This busy schedule has even ruined granola bars and fruit snacks...never thought I'd say that. Basically a thousand tests in a row, a big fat program application, and a gajillion math/stats/physics/psych/geo assignments later...for the first time in weeks I took a breath. I found out that breathing is prrretty important.
I think the big guy on top is trying to tell me something. The past two conferences have had some sort of emphasis about balance in one way or another. Balance isn't as easy as it seems, because sometimes there are a ton of priorities that are unique and important, they all need finished, and it's kinda hard to put them in order of importance.
BLEH...not gonna have some story about a shock of inspiration on how to balance perfectly.
BUT I think I am in the thick of figuring out a life long lesson. This weekend I just chucked school out the window. It was a little bit scary and a lotta bit blissful. I spent time just being a wife. I baked :) cleaned :( and cuddled :) not sure if it was scholastically wise, but when I have my eternal glasses on, it looks like the best decision I have made in a looong time.

Confessions Of A Campfiresmokaholic

There is nothing in the world too darned much better than...
-Crawling into a sleeping bag while smelling like campfire and bug spray
-Eating s'mores til you have a beard made out of melted marshmallow strings on your chin
-Having nothing to do but keep the fire going and pick the dirt out from under your finger nails
-Roasting every candy in sight because you can
-Not giving a living crap that you haven't showered in days, smell like b.o. and have worn the same dirty jeans for too long because nobody else gives a crap either
-Falling asleep to the sound of rustling critters and crickets
-Waking up in a tent
-.....everything about camping basically

So guess why I am ranting so much?! Because Marshall and I went on our very FIRST camping trip together last weekend, and it was sort of amazing. Kinda ironic that it took us so long to do it together since it's one of our favorite things to do. And this is the best part. These cute little deer in the picture were our camp-mates!

These little guys were so nosy! We kinda freaked out about them at first, and took about a thousand pictures...until after a few hours we realized they weren't going anywhere so they just kinda became part of the scenery. Basically we had the most perfect time. All except for when a crow landed in a tree branch above our tent early in the morning. I woke up and said the exact words, "that would suck if it pooped on our tent"...then WAM or...SQUIRT. Talk about Jinxed. But we had an amazing hike, hung out at the lake, swam, and CHILLED OUT. Ate way to much junk, and didn't worry about much. We didn't even have cell phone reception, so even if Marshall WANTED to deal with his managing responsibilities...well...he couldn't! DARN! ;)

Anyways, i just wanted to say, camping changed my life this summer. You need to go. Even if you think you hate it. Try again. It can really be amazing. Promise!

I'm FUN-employed...and my husband is a salesman.

Guess I'll send my venting out into cyber space because I am SOOOO BORED. It's bad this time guys. If you have a spouse looking into being a door-to-door salesman, talk to me first. I'll tell you that the money is great, we love not having to work during the school year...but the summers? Ohhh the summers, they are basically trashed. The sad thing is, Marshall and I live two completely separate lives. He is so busy from Mon-Sat (9a.m.-11p.m.) and I am so cooped up and bored Mon-Sat that any down time we have he wants to sleep and enjoy the A/C I want to get out of the house!

Not too sure how people handled life without cars. Not too sure if my laptop is going to survive all the movies I force it to play for me. Not too sure if I can survive without a microwave for much longer...but I am sure of one thing, my husband has it worse. Let me tell you my latest insecurity. I TRIED doing the door to door thing with Marshall, and guess what? It's about the crappiest thing I have ever done. And I suck at it. And I chose this boring misery over it in a heartbeat. Therefore, I cannot complain much.

It's one thing to be out in the heat, have aching tired feet as you experience the humidity and massive mosquitoes of North Carolina, and it's another to have the door slammed in your face, to have people threaten you, roll their eyes and you, and snap at you door after door after door after DOOR. Ahh!! Ok, ok, so understandably the average salesman is a pest. I used to hang up my phone in mid-sentence and shut the door when I realize who they are too...but guess what? Their job SUCKS! They're chasing after the American dream in the worst kind of way. Give em' a break.

Just remember the next time you ruin a salesman's day, they are going home to a wife that has waited all day for them to come home successful. I'm not saying you gotta spend a DIME on a salesman, but for Pete's sake, be nice! You only have to talk to them nicely for a few minutes, they have to talk to crabby people ALL DAY. Who is it affecting more? Just saying. Being kind never ruined anyone's day.

I'm done.

Humbled...

So remember in my last post how I complained about driving for three days...well after 20 hours of driving (nearly 11:00 p.m.) we found ourselves driving through the place where we would celebrate our (belated) anniversary, the beautiful little Nauvoo, IL. I looked exhaustedly at the cute old buildings, and as we rounded the corner there it was. The temple was glowing and I was shocked at the beauty and the size which no picture could do justice. I felt completely and absolutely humbled.
A distance that took me 20 hours in pleasant air conditioning, with stops for food and restrooms at my convenience was suddenly NOTHING to complain about. There the temple stood, as if it was always there, as if it had never been destroyed. I imagined the feat it must have been without the current resources to construct such a magnificent structure, and I imagined what it must have felt like to leave it all behind. To walk the distance I just drove...even though it was late, I didn't want to leave. It was incredible to see all of the homesteads, and shops, but the best part was the spirit there.
I know the Prophet Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God. I know he sacrificed everything he had, even his life, to bring forth the true word of a loving Heavenly Father. I feel so blessed to be a Latter Day Saint, and I feel honored to be a part of the everlasting gospel men and women sacrificed, lived, and died for....
Humbled.