*When the school year got over, I thought to myself, “YES! Weeks and weeks of leisure and relaxation time ahead of me.” Well, although I’ve definitely had more leisure time than usual, this summer has been busy, busy, busy–between youth conference and that family reunion this last weekend and other responsibilities going on, my days have been surprisingly packed with family, friends, genealogy work, housework, hobbies, and hubby. All in all, it’s been fabulous.
*We finally sat down last night for family night and made an Excel spreadsheet of all our movies—the way to tell whether you have an obsession with something (apparently) is to sort and count all the ones you have, and if after you’ve done, you think, “Wow! Let’s go get some more!” then you have a problem. Case in point: we found out we have 258 movies, and both of us immediately felt the hankering to go out and buy more. Likewise, when we were sorting through our books a couple weeks back, we both felt like jumping on Amazon and picking up another load of them. Bad news bears.
*In case you were wondering, we still have yet to make an Excel spreadsheet of our books. Unlike the movies (which only took about an hour to catalogue), the books would probably take the better part of an afternoon. I just don’t think that’s going to happen, summer or not. Especially since I had to practically bribe Matt to help me by telling him I’d make us some of his dad’s famous oatmeal chocolate chip cookies if he did.
*They were positively mouthwatering, thanks for asking.
*So remember how last week I mentioned I had an ear impaction that meant I couldn’t hear anything? Well, it finally got so bad during Youth Conference that I took off for a couple hours to head to the Instacare, where my ear was basically hooked up to the equivalent of a fire hose that made me wonder if I was going to have anything left in my ear at all–hearing parts and all. Have you ever had that done at a doctor’s office before? It’s probably one of the most bizarre sensations I’ve ever experienced.
*Last week, when my day was particularly full of leisurely possibilities, I actually watched the first episode of The Bachelorette (which I’d sworn not to watch since the Emily & Jef season). Yeah, I don’t think I’m going to sail on that boat again…one episode was about all I could take…any of you following this season?
*So I’ve been running 3X a week and taking all my body measurements each Monday, and I want someone to explain something to me: why is it that I lose the inches the quickest from the areas I’m fine with, and the areas I’m most concerned with don’t seem to budge? It’s maddening. My whole adult life, I’ve been shaped like an upside-down triangle (due to my extremely narrow hips), so my goal is always to slim down the top half. So what happens? I lose 1.5″ in from my hips in two weeks. Now, I know some of you would love to take my place right now, but the thing is, my hip size doesn’t even show up on those little clothing measuring charts–it’s always just below the smallest measurement. It’s ridiculous. And now I have even less on them than before. Maddening, really.
*In conclusion, I know this much: I will never be complimented for having “birthing hips.”
*Speaking of weird things to get complimented for, I remember that one of my roommates once got complimented for “looking fertile.” Isn’t that awful? I would have socked the guy in the nose and stomped off.
*(After getting a free dinner off of him, anyway.)
*So some of our best friends up here in Logan are moving at the beginning of August, and we’re starting to freak out a bit–I mean, we spend a night or two playing games and/or eating dinner with this family almost every week, and one semi-well-kept secret of adulthood is that it’s super tough to make close friends after you get married. At least, I think that’s how most people experience it. Or are we just unlikable??
*Anyway, here’s the real question: what are some strategies you use for making friends while married?
*This morning, I had to take one of my young women up to a camp that’s being held for all the junior and senior girls in the area, and I decided that I REALLY should not be allowed to drive to places that I’ve never been to before when there are other people in the car–apparently, I get distracted because I start talking to the person in the passenger seat, and then I miss relatively important things like signs telling you that there’s a construction stop ahead. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a traffic worker look so scared before (not that I can blame him–I practically blitzed through him and his sign, heading at 50 MPH to a car coming in the opposite direction in the same lane). Seriously, though. It’s nothing short of a miracle that I still have a perfect driving record (no tickets, no crashes).
*I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I actually started planning out our weekly dinner menus again (something I haven’t done for months). Two things I’ve discovered: one, I’m apparently getting to be good enough at cooking that I can make some fairly respectable dishes up out of my head (which is NUTS, considering that I’m usually the kind of cook that’s happily chained to the recipe); and two, cheese tortellini (found in the frozen foods aisle) makes a perfectly scrumptious, VERY quick dinner when mixed with some olive oil, fresh tomatoes, garlic, onion, and a little red pepper. Mmm hmmm!
*Are you the kind of cook that’s brave enough to try out your own stuff? Or are you more comfortable chaining yourself to the recipe and not deviating from it?
