Late-Night Ramblings

For some reason I like to blog late at night. I guess it's the night owl in me. I just don't like going to bed. Once I'm there I love it, and the rational part of me knows I should go to bed...but it doesn't always happen at a reasonable time. I blame genetics.

Tonight we went out to dinner and a movie with a friend from college. It was really fun! Good food, good conversation, good movie. We saw How to Train Your Dragon in 2D (I'm not a fan of movies in 3D). I won't give anything away, but I will say that it is definitely worth seeing. It's a solid story with the perfect amount of humor mixed in.

I'm excited about Easter coming up on Sunday (I guess that's tomorrow, technically). I love Easter - it's my favorite holiday. Sadly, I won't get to attend the sunrise service and have french toast served to me by teenagers this year, but I did get to help fill Easter eggs and paint the backdrop for pictures earlier this week, and tomorrow I'll get to help pick up garbage and put sandwich board signs together. Plus, on Sunday, I get to help hide Easter eggs, assist with the toddlers and set up/tear down for church. I really like helping, which I've been having fun with. 

As much fun as I have with the annual activities, it's the meaning behind it that I really love. Easter comes but once a year, I wish it could be more. Maybe then we'd have more time to think of what it's for...wait, something about that doesn't seem quite right. Haha. Anyway...I think about the sacrifice Jesus made, and that he's alive and conquered death throughout the year, but I love taking time to recognize it once a year, too. It's really easy to get caught up with everything that needs doing to prepare, but I hope this weekend provides time to really think about why we celebrate, and time and energy to celebrate.

On that note, I really need to get to sleep. If I don't have a chance to blog again within the next few days, have a wonderful Easter - he is risen!

A Much-Needed Update

I know I've been completely ignoring my blog lately and it's been over two months. I've been meaning to post for weeks, but unfortunately haven't found the time. Here are a few quick updates, until I have a chance to really expand on my thoughts:

Matt and I got cell phones! I now have an HTC Driod Eris and completely love it. Last night I finally personalized a bit and made the Firefly theme my ringtone =D I missed having a cell phone during those months we didn't have them. Now with my smart phone I can use Twitter, Facebook, Gmail and Google Calendar right from my phone. I've also gotten into Foursquare and Yelp, too! My new challenge: creating boundaries for embracing social media and being connected online vs shutting it off and being connected with people face-to-face. The good part about that is Matt has no problem telling me it's time to put the phone down.

Side note on Yelp: it's been especially useful in discovering local places to check out. Last week we found a Mediterranean restaurant with Delicious gyros and reasonable prices. Win!

My new favorite board game = Talisman. Our friend Josh introduced us to it, and it's really fun! It's kind of like Dungeons & Dragons, but it's a board game and limited to a few hours (I don't have the attention span to actually play D&D, although I'm not opposed to the concept). We've played it twice so far, and both times were great - except for that part where I was turned into a toad...

It's fun using work skills for personal interests. I'm really excited that I get to help out with marketing at church and use skills I've learned for work to get the word out about Life Pointe. As with all marketing, it takes time, so we've put together a strategy that uses more of a slow and steady approach, but I've been having fun exploring options, and am excited to see how everything unfolds over the next year.

Okay, I know there is a lot more to say, but I also know it's getting late and I should start thinking about going to sleep...I'll try to update more regularly, though, and will include more in my next post.

Puzzle, Pizza and Playing

I finished the jigsaw puzzle! After I'd given up, I wasn't ready to put what I'd done away and Matt started working on it. His progress inspired me to give it another shot and, after a couple of days, we placed the final pieces. Yay for teamwork =) Sadly there was a piece missing even though it was brand new. Oh well, if we'd had it, we would have known where to put it. Here's the completed puzzle:

Every once in a while I crave BLT pizza from Peppe's Pizza (a restaurant I thouroughly enjoyed in Norway). This afternoon we ate at Brewery City Pizza, and I was delighted to discover that their Cool Ranch Chicken was reminiscent of the delicious flavor. Plus the crust on their pizza is amazing. I could really go for some more...

Today was fun! After pizza we hung out at the apartment with a couple of new friends and played Nine Card, a version of Skip-Bo (I won twice, thrice if you count our warm up), and Munchkin, a card game that "captures the essence of the dungeon experience...with none of that roleplaying stuff." I have to say, I personally have nothing against Dungeons & Dragons...it's just not my cup of tea. This game was really fun, though! It took me a while to get the hang of it so I'm eager to give it another try sometime soon. It reminded Matt and me a bit of Quelf, though - especially with the random cards that were really funny.

All in all, we both feel like we're settling into Lacey very nicely. It was fun to connect with a couple of people from church this afternoon, and they live pretty close - that will be nice. I'm also really excited about everything in our apartment being set up, including the pictures on the walls and all our stuff having a home. It's crazy how much more relaxed I feel when there aren't boxes all over and I don't see things that need doing as I look around. Now Matt's Xbox just needs to return from it's journey to Texas and we can enjoy watching DVDs and playing Rock Band again!

Puzzles, Pillsbury and Pictures

I'm not a jigsaw puzzle person. Amazingly enough, I felt like doing a puzzle earlier tonight so I pulled the one I hadn't done yet out of the closet to put it together. It actually entertained me for about 2 hours...and then I couldn't handle it anymore. It didn't help that one of the side pieces is missing. Don't you hate that? It was a brand new puzzle out of the box and there was one side piece missing. Grrr. Anyway, 500 pieces is too much for me...I should stick to the puzzles with bigger and fewer pieces.

You know what I do find relaxing? Baking. After going to the gym 5 days in a row, I felt like I was able to justify baking cookies, so I mixed up the Pillsbury funfetti cookie mix I received for Christmas - which was done much more easily with my brand new hand mixer (also a Christmas present). This was especially nice because my arms were already tired from the gym, so I really didn't need the extra workout for my right arm. I thought we did a good job of spacing the cookie-eating out over a couple of days, too, so we didn't gorge ourselves too much. We should probably reinstate the "no baked goods unless we have someone to share it with" rule, but as we don't know many people in our new town, I have no idea when I would get to bake again...and it's just so fun! If only I had self-cleaning mixing bowls and baking pans, too...

I must say, now that our apartment is 95% complete (all we have left is hanging a couple pictures in the bedroom, although we did put some up in the living and dining room), I feel very accomplished. Within a week, we made more progress than we did in Bremerton (we never got around to hanging our pictures up). It's amazing how a little extra space and a better laid-out floor plan can help. It's kind of fun to move into a new place and reorganize everything again...although I'd like to hold off on moving again for at least a year or two if possible =)

Christmas, New Year's and the Move

It’s been a super-long time since I’ve posted anything. Things have been busy! We decided to move to Lacey on November 30 and got our new apartment December 1. After two weeks of shuttling our smaller stuff down to our new place, we rented a truck for our bigger furniture and loaded/unloaded it (with a HUGE thanks to those that were able to help). The day after we moved the big stuff down, Comcast came to set up our Internet and phone, and we drove down to California for three weeks.

While we were in California, we had a great time celebrating Christmas and New Year’s with family and a few friends. I have a lot to say about the last month, so I’ll break it into chunks for your skimming convenience ;)

Dead Laptop
Isbjorn, my most recent laptop, died this past month. Apparently computers don’t work when they can’t find the hard drive. Despite the frustration, a part of him lives on in Matt’s laptop as the battery was able to replace his broken energy source.

Joe’s Crab Shack
If you have a chance to go to a Joe's Crab Shack, I definitely recommend it! We went to the one in San Francisco with a few friends even though I can’t eat crab or shellfish. Their burger was good, though, and the servers dance. Ours even got up on the table to get her groove on! She also convinced half our table to get up and dance with her (and the other servers).

Family Events
We had a great time seeing family for a variety of Christmas activities including:

• Christmas Breakfast at the Claremont Hotel with Matt’s family.
• Decorating Matt’s parent’s Christmas tree to the Oak Ridge Boys.
• Christmas Eve with my family.
• Christmas day with Matt’s family.
• Indonesian Chicken Curry in Woodland with my family.
• Disneyland with my family.
• Traveling through Redding and Portland to see Matt’s grandparents and Moses (our nephew), Cara and Dustin (his parents). Okay, that’s not really Christmas...but it was fun.

Other Fun Stuff
Here are the other exciting activities we were able to experience while we were in California:

• We had a chance to see a few friends in the area that timing worked out with. Activities included Spades (yay team Women!), hanging out in San Francisco, various dinners and watching movies.
• We saw Avatar and Sherlock Holmes. I really liked Avatar, even though I’m not a huge fan of 3-D. I actually forgot it was 3-D while I was watching it. Sherlock Holmes was fun, too, although it wasn’t the best movie ever. I would recommend renting it instead of spending the money on a movie ticket.
• The Browns won the last four games of the season! Even though it was a rough year, ending on a good note was nice.
• We got a free cake for our 1st anniversary! The baker that made our wedding cake included one free cake for the first anniversary, and she agreed that it would be easier to pick it up a month late instead of shipping it to Washington. As we expected, it tasted delicious =)
  

Disneyland
Just for the record, Disneyland is really busy on New Year’s Eve. I’ve never seen lines that long. Especially in the ladies’ room. I really appreciated that Disney knows how to handle crowds, so we were able to get where we wanted to go. That was very convenient. A few more comments about this trip to Disneyland:

• The new dragon in Fantasmic! looks really cool. WAY better than the first one.
• Certain foods just taste better at Disneyland. Like churros. And corn dogs. I’m pretty sure Dole Whip tastes good everywhere, but I’ve only had it at Disneyland so I can’t be sure.
• If you lose an Indiana Jones hat on Grizzly River Run, there is a chance you’ll get it back. It just might not look the same. Chris’ hat decided our raft wasn’t good enough for it and jumped out on a drop...and then sat in the water for a while before Disney mailed it back. Sadly I haven’t seen the recovered hat, but I can’t wait for pictures (hint, hint Chris)!
• Disney’s merchandise this year is really cute! I was very proud of myself for not giving in to temptation and buying something.
• I won a Dumbo! The boardwalk area of California Adventure was completely re-themed to include Disney prizes. We played the clowns running up the ladder game (where the water shoots out of the cannon and you hit the target to make them go) and I won =)

Our New Apartment
We love it! Not only is it bigger than our last place and include a pool, hot tub, gym, sauna, etc...the rent is the same price! As much as I love that there’s a gym on-site, that also means I have no excuses not to use the gym on site. We’ve been really good about going over the past week. Hopefully we’ll be able to keep it up!

We’re also almost completely set up. We have a few more pictures to hang up and need to find spots for a few more items, but all in all it’s starting to feel like home. It’s nice how quickly we were able to get settled. So far the only thing I don’t like about the apartment is the lack of counter space – both for cooking and for stacking dirty dishes. Haha.

Of course, I can't possibly include an entire 3 weeks that were full of activities into one blog post, but that's pretty much the gist of what's been going on in our lives lately.

The Issues I Have With Twilight

It doesn't take much for me to admit this, but I would consider myself slightly obsessed with Twilight. I'm totally Team Edward after reading the books, although I think a lot of his appeal lost in the movies. Some things just don't translate well on screen, and despite the voiceovers, I just don't think there's any way to convey Edward's full appeal...which is why I think I'd be Team Jacob if I'd only seen the movies.

I know Twilight is a total guilty pleasure, and I know it's not realistic. Obviously, the whole vampire/wolf thing isn't exactly true to life, but that's not what I'm talking about. As much as I love the story of Bella, Edward and Jacob, I think it builds unreasonable expectations, especially in younger girls that haven't experienced a healthy relationship. Here are a few things off the top of my head that would concern me if I had a daughter that was a Twilight fan:

• First of all, sexual safety: Edward appears to be a 17-year-old, but he's really over 100 years old. As a generalization, 17-year-old guys don't have the self-control Edward does (not only does he not eat Bella, but he also controls sexual desires). Having a guy in your bedroom (especially overnight) is not okay - and if you're living with your parents, they better know about it...even if it begins innocently, it wouldn't take much for things to get out of hand and go further than planned.
  
• Bella has two guys making dangerous promises: "I'll never hurt you," "I'll never leave you." Maybe I'm just cynical, but I would be skeptical of someone telling me that. How can they know they won't ever hurt me? What if there was some sort of accident they didn't survive...wouldn't that be leaving and hurting me? Isn't it enough for a guy to say things like he loves you and wants to spend the rest of his life/existence with you?
  
• Lack of communication on Bella's part: Without intending to, she totally leads Jacob on. When they do "talk about it," she doesn't explain things very clearly and is very cryptic...which doesn't do much to reverse her leading him on.
• An unrealistic view of love: I get that a relationship with a vampire is more than any of us humans could ever experience, but it paints love as this glorious feeling that always remains with one other person (as do a lot of love stories). Being in love is great - I know that. But there isn't always going to be a glorious feeling. Sometimes you're going to need to do things you don't want to do at all and that feeling won't be there to make you eager to comply. You just have to do it because you made that commitment. I strongly believe that love is a choice - a choice to put someone else before you, regardless of how you feel. Feelings and emotions change so often they aren't reliable and can't be trusted. Making choices "because it feels right" is such a bad reason...it feels right for me to sit around watching TV and eating junk food all day, but that doesn't make it good for me. My concern is that girls will expect some amazing, glorious feeling and probably mistake it for infatuation...and once that fades, will they think they've fallen out of love?

Despite these concerns, I think Twilight is a fun love story - as long as the reader/viewer remembers that vampires and wolves aren't the only part of the story that's made up. The characters were written by a woman to give a woman everything she wants - something that isn't going to happen in reality. Don't get me wrong, as a happily married woman, I know you can have expectations exceeded and get even more than you knew you wanted...but men are men, and a man written by a woman isn't going to give you a realistic picture of a good, healthy relationship. Besides, it takes the fun and surprise out of a relationship with a real man.

We're Moving!

That's right, we're moving again. It's kind of funny, I've lived in 4 different cities within 13 months. Haha. So the scoop is that there is a church in the Olympia area that said they'd be happy to have Matt help out, and while we were trying to decide whether or not this was God guiding us to move, Matt found an apartment in the area that was having a great deal on a complex that was much nicer than we expected to find. We applied a couple of days ago (on our way back up from Thanksgiving in Portland) and just found out that as of today the apartment is ours. We took that, in addition to a couple of other instances of convenient timing, as God making his direction a little more clear for us. We have a little bit overlap with our current place which will make moving a bit easier, too.

Thanksgiving was great! We headed down to Portland where Matt's sister and brother-in-law live with their son - the cutest nephew I've ever had and my current favorite (above with Matt, below with Matt's parents). Matt's parents and brother also drove up from California, so it was fun to get to see them, too. The food was delicious, and we had a great time hanging out, shopping, playing Apples to Apples and watching The Fantastic Mr. Fox. 

And, just for fun, here are couple of links. Enjoy!

• The Geekiest Wedding Cakes EVER - http://is.gd/59GHU (my favorites are the TaunTaun Cake and the Star Trek Cake).
• The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody - http://bit.ly/800ulO.
• A cool way of making music - http://tinyurl.com/cqkc8l.