pillow talk

brendan and i aren't the type of couple who can just lie down and fall asleep in a heart beat. we also aren't the type of couple who can cuddle ourselves to sleep. we can cuddle and then separate and THEN fall asleep, but we CAN'T sleep within a foot of each other. in the first week of marriage, these are some things that we immediately discovered:

we both:
A. toss and turn in our sleep
B. swing our elbows and knees (as we toss and turn)
C. need to be in control of the blanket
D. like to spread out on the bed

any one of these could be a problem when trying to share a bed with someone else. but take two people with all these habits and then throw into the mix that our bed for our first month of marriage was a full size. not a king size. not a queen size. but a full size bed. that's barely a step up from a twin! having a full size bed meant we started drawing imaginary lines on the sheets to keep our sides separate. it wasn't just to make sure that neither of us was getting jipped out of our "fair share" of the bed space, it was a matter of safety. if one of us strayed too close to the other, you couldn't be sure if you would accidentally get a kick in the middle of the night. i remember waking up in the middle of the night one time wondering what was pressing on my face, only to realize it was brendan's elbow. and in the morning he'd tell me about the elbows and knees i sent flying during the night. FORTUNATELY, most of these situations have been resolved. the biggest fix in this case was:

A. getting a king size bed - we can finally toss and turn without injuring each other, and spread out enough to be comfortable
B. brendan's genius brought along this second change - we each have our own separate sheet to sleep with (it's too hot here for blankets, but sheets are perfect). that way we can pull and twist and turn all we like, without stealing them from each other. we used to have mini-battles over them in our sleep, but now it's all better.

now we can actually sleep... minus incidents with the dogs during the night. the dogs are upstairs during the night with my mother-in-law, while we are downstairs.
sometimes during the night the dogs:

A. bark - what dogs don't? - but even worse, if one dog goes downstairs for a drink or to use the bathroom outside, the other dogs bark like mad whenever anything is on the stairs. so any movement in the house, the dogs bark. good for safety, but annoying if it's only other dogs roaming.
B. if my mother-in-law isn't home, the dogs just whine because they miss her. one night they barged into our room - yes, one of the dogs literally knows how to open the closed door to our room. so annoying when ur in a REM cycle at 4am and then 3 dogs come in whining and wanting attention. we had to lock the door after the second time it happened so they wouldn't come in again.
C. early every thursday morning the dogs go crazy because it's landscape day and they freakout with having people so close to the house. early morning wake-up calls. no need for an alarm clock on thursdays mornings.

update on the last few days, but mostly today

A. on the driving front... with brendan in the passenger seat of our truck, i've driven to and from walgreens twice, and today i drove to and from church! woo hoo. driving to and from walgreens i had no idea how to get there, especially because we took side streets the whole time so i was even more clueless on where i was. but getting to church was easy! i made it there and back with like no directions!

B. today was my first day of my new calling in church. they haven't officially sustained me or set me apart, but they asked me to do the job last week, and today was my first day. i am the new sunday school teacher for the 11-12 year old kids, but there was only one girl in class today. i was nervous going in today, but it went really well i think. our lesson was on 'the parable of the talents' in matthew 25:14-30. it was the perfect lesson for a new class, because it let me start to get to know the girl i had in class. when they asked me to be a primary teacher it almost made me laugh because my mom has had callings in primary for as long as i can remember. i think this year is the first year my mom ISN'T in primary. we'll see if this becomes a trend, like mother like daughter? haha

C. today brendan taught the lesson in priesthood, and apparently everyone loved it. he's gotten asked to teach several times, but this was the first time in this ward. he seems to really have a knack for teaching, and people can see it. :)

D. i feel bad for missing friends and family. i feel as though i must not be trying hard enough to make friends, but then i have to stop and remind myself that it takes a lot longer to make solid friends than just a month or so of church (i was out of town for 3 weeks, so i've really only been here for a month and a half-ish). it isn't like college or high school where you see people every day, so it will take more time to build friendships. the ward is wonderful, though, and everyone is so kind and sweet. i'm excited for enrichment activities to start soon because hopefully i will be able to make some more friends out here.

E. it's a lightening storm outside! crazy.... no rain, just wind and lightening and stuff. weird.

ok well that's all for now. have a lovely day!

being a housewife

my hubby and i are living with my mother-in-law and her three dogs. having three black dogs means lots of dog hair to clean up. even though two of the dogs are older, they still bark at anything outside, and the younger one likes to get into the trash and eat any food we leave out. so today i came home from the MVD and discovered kali had gotten into the trash. there was food remains all over the kitchen floor.

in the first several weeks living here i discovered that the chores i did most often were laundry and sweeping the floors. the downstairs floor is all tile, and with all the dog hair, it seemed to take forever when i wanted to do a thorough job. so today, coming home to the kitchen floor being a mess, when i'd worked on the floors so intensely just the other day, i started a new system for my household chores:

i set a timer and work fast for ten minutes on a chore around the house. after that, i take a 50 minute break. so it's a total of a one hour when you add it all up. so every hour, you spend only ten minutes. so easy. but the trick is that once you get into your groove during that ten minutes, you HAVE to stop when the timer rings. and when the timer goes off to get back up, you HAVE to get back up and start again (i'm taking a break to write my blog. yes, i know. fail #1: inconsistency). but so far today, i've accomplished tons. the thing i like about it is that i get a quick burst of accomplishment every so often, without burning out by doing too much at once. it keeps me feeling productive and keeps things getting done. plus, that way i can get other things done. like hang out with my hubby, eat, blog, etc etc. there you have it: my new plan for chores and daily life. 

a few things i love

5 random things i love:

A: crossword puzzles - i have several books full of them, and i do them while watching tv, before bedtime, and on airplanes. i love the challenge of trying to figure them out, and the triumph of finishing one. plus, it makes me feel smart. haha
B. cheese flavored ruffles chips - um, the most delicious snack EVER. i can open a bag of those chips and then look down a few minutes later and BOOM half the bag is gone... whoops.
C. p!nk - i adore her voice. it's so rich. i think she's gorgeous but not only that, she manages to be absolutely beautiful through her crazy hairstyles and in-your-face style. she has an attitude that shows that she really doesn't care what you think about her, but she has strong opinions. one song that cracks me up by her is called "stupid girl" and it is all about how "i don't wanna be a stupid girl". the song just makes fun of girls who are so caught up in the media's perception of beauty that they will go under the knife, fake tan, and cover themselves in tons of makeup to be considered attractive. p!nk fights back against this idea by talking about not wanting to be a stupid girl, the "dream of a girl president" and stuff like that. i like it. not only that stuff, but i adore her voice. her music is my guilty pleasure.
D. stumbleupon.com - best time waster out there. great way to find new recipes too! just plug in a bunch of your interests (from their master list) and then click "stumble" and voila!
E. palm trees - i changed my blog background today to palm trees. pretty much everywhere i've lived has had palm trees. they kind of signify home to me. california, hawaii, and now arizona. i love those palm trees. they make me smile.

well there are 5 mini-addictions of mine. the end. :)

blue stop signs

on oahu's famous north shore, there is a resort called turtle bay. turtle bay is a popular location for tourists, but since i was a college student several miles down kamehameha highway, i never had the luxury of staying there. however what i will always remember about turtle bay is the blue stop signs they used. i'd never seen a blue stop sign. i'd always just assumed that stop signs were universally red. apparently some are blue. WHYYYYYYY
well i have no idea but you know what? i decided talking about traffic signs was the perfect segway into talking about driving. i'm FINALLY on the path to get my drivers license. (yeah i know).
i actually got my permit in CA once before i left for college... but i was a little late in the game there. but i'm taking a driver's training class (a wedding present, courtesy of my wonderful aunts and uncles). i already aced the AZ permit test and now i just have to go pick it up from the DMV today. then i have to schedule my first behind the wheel class and ohhhh nelly am i terrified. i'm excited to finally have my license but i can't seem to shake the nerves. here are my thoughts on why:

A. i didn't just step over this little hurdle when i was 15 or 16. instead, i waited until i was 20 to finally commit to this. that gave the little molehill nearly 5 years to grow into a mountain. so now, instead of just running the stupid patch of dirt over, my mind has built a huge rock fortress that i'm gonna need some TNT to blast through.... ok maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. this isn't actually the scary part for me. the actually scary parts are B and C...
B. i've driven before. but WITH people and in driveways, on backroads, or in very secure environments... etc. i felt safe. but the scary part about having a license is now i will have to drive all alone. no safety net.
C. ok i think this is the worst one. i have NO idea where i live in AZ. i know my city. i know my address. i just barely learned my cross streets two days ago. but i have NO idea where i am at any given moment. i think if i was back in CA, or even in laie (HI) i would feel so much more secure, just because i would know the places and the landmarks. here, everything looks the same to me. the entire state practically is on one color scheme. mind, it makes for a beautiful state, but it makes it impossible for someone who's new to know where she is!

i know it just takes time to get comfortable behind the wheel. so my goal is to practice as much as possible, without driving our gas expenses through the roof, and without doing anything stupid like driving places that are too crowded before i'm ready.

WHY am i starting a blog?

A. it officially started when i realized that pretty much all the young, trendy, cute married girls i knew were blogging. i wasn't exactly stalking their blogs or anything, but i'd see status post updates and links to their blogs on facebook, and i knew that my aunts had been blogging for years. so it had a certain appeal in the idea that - if you want to be a cool married person, you'd better start blogging. otherwise you'll just turn into an old married lady with your arm fat dangling in the wind whenever you start waving your knitting needles around... right? 

B. next step to kick my butt into gear was when all my best friends posted in a row on my facebook wall. aside from saying they missed me (which was sweet, because i miss them all terribly), they asked for pictures and my favorite line was: "Please document your married life. cause i tried to stalk you and there was nothing i havent stalked already".... i found it rather funny, and i realized she was right. 

C. HOWEVER, i don't like the idea of stamping my newlywed life all over facebook. lets face it, i'm not especially close with all of my "friends" on facebook. i have fond memories of most of them, or at least know them. but even so, i don't feel like being that obnoxious newlywed with the million status updates saying "OH I LOVE MY HUSBAND SO MUCH" and "oh the hubby is just the greatest... he just cooked me dinner and then we made a pazooki and cuddled up in front of a movie." because you know, that would just be mean to rub it in everyones faces how happy i am and how much i love him. so... if anyone actually feels like reading my random ramblings, thennnn feel free to read or ignore whatever you like.