Day #28 & 29

And again...

Day #28 - Topic: What is your biggest dream in life (what one great thing do you want to accomplish)? 

I think I've mentioned this before on the blog, but one thing I'd really like to do at some point in my life is have an animal sanctuary. Obviously this is going to take some money, so I could settle for just volunteering for a rescue place, but my ultimate dream would be buying a big piece of land with Chris and creating a sanctuary for cats, much like The Cat House on the Kings: http://www.cathouseonthekings.com/. I don't think anything would make me happier than being able to provide a nice home for a bunch of kitties that might otherwise be put down. Really, I think I feel about cats like most people feel about human kids. Cats don't have the ability to get themselves out of a bad situation either, so that's why I want to help them. Chris may be able to talk me into including dogs in our rescue facility, but I'd be pretty happy with just cats. ;)

Day #29 - Topic: What WAS your biggest dream in life (you wanted to do as a kid but no longer can)?

I guess I'd have to say modeling for this question. They were recently having a plus size model casting call and I looked at the regulations. Apparently I'm too fat and too old to be a plus size model. HA! When I was a kid, Cindy Crawford was my hero and I wanted to model so badly. Then I hit puberty and gained weight and haven't been thin since. As I've said before, when I was at my high school weight, I'd get people telling me I should model, but I haven't heard that in awhile, except maybe from Chris. :) So yes, I do want to lose some weight and get in shape, but even if I do fit into the weight conventions for plus-size modeling, I'm apparently too old now to accomplish much. Oh well!

It's official....I suck...

Ugh...I'm going to be glad when this challenge is over since I am apparently terrible at keeping up with my blog on a daily basis. Here we go again!

Day #25 - Topic: "Discuss something you planned that ended up not being what you expected."

The first thing that popped into my head here was "my honeymoon!" And actually, that could be said of both of them. The ex and I spend our honeymoon in Disneyland. I thought that would be a lot of fun, but it was also August and soooo hot! We flew there so we didn't have a car, which limited our activities. We mostly went between the park and our hotel, only eating in a restaurant once, one right across from Disneyland. The heat and the crowds were also a bit much for me, so I didn't want to spend all day there, which meant kind of squandering the trip. Oh, and I also got some huge bruises on my shins from the dang Matterhorn ride. I regretted not doing something more low-key.

For my honeymoon with Chris, I had the same problem with the heat as we were in Vegas in September. We figured since we were getting married there, it made sense to do the "honeymoon" there as well. Except it didn't turn out as much of a honeymoon. His parents were there with us the whole time, which was fine, but it just meant it wasn't always the two of us alone, as you would think it would be for a honeymoon; it was a bit more like a nice family vacation. Vegas was also a lot more expensive than either of us had anticipated, so by the time it was post-wedding, we were both already sick of spending money. If you don't want to spend money in Vegas, there aren't a lot of options for entertainment. We should have been more adventurous and at least walked around casinos, but again, it was like 100 degrees out and the distance between casinos is much further than you'd think. Another honeymoon of potential adventures squandered.

I think there is a bit too much emphasis put on honeymoons really. Even after two so-so ones, I still think of honeymoons as needing to be this romantic, adventurous journey that you'll never forget. Really, I think you're just tired after months of planning and anticipation. You also need to not be cheap, like me. Everything in Disneyland was too expensive, and same with Vegas! I need to make sure to go somewhere cool and non-touristy for my next honeymoon. (Just kidding Chris! Haha!)

Day #26 - Topic: "How do you handle/deal with both success and failure?"

Well to be honest, I had a little breakdown on Monday and my way of handling it wasn't very productive. I met up with my friend Alex to vent (good) and proceeded to drink a lot (bad). I also read some stuff to purposely make myself feel worse (very bad). Do any of you do that? Sometimes I'm just like "I can't feel much worse so I'm going to do this!" It's like I become a sadist towards myself or something. So yeah, I need to devise a better way of handling my failures. As far as successes, I might also celebrate that with a drink! Haha...but I promise I'm not an alcoholic! ;) Actually, I usually like to just go do something fun with Chris. Go to dinner, or see a movie. Something that will be enjoyable for both of us. I'll admit that sometimes I also spoil myself a little, with shopping or food. It's fun, but probably another habit I should break!

Day #27 - Topic: "What is your vocation (why are you here on earth)?"

This almost seems like two different questions to me. Are any of us really in a vocation that we feel is the reason we are here on earth? You're really lucky if that's the case. 

To answer the first part of the question, I currently work at a local community college in the Boise area. I recently was promoted to an Enrollment Specialist over curriculum management, meaning I oversee catalog production and the maintenance of our courses. 

To answer the second part...well, I'm here because my parents wanted another child. :P I'm not really sure how to respond to that, as I'm not sure I really feel a specific purpose to my life yet. I enjoy being a wife to Chris, hopefully a good one. And I love being a kitty momma to my three wonderful girls...Charly, Phoebe, and Lucy. At one point I thought maybe my purpose was to be a writer, but I'm not so sure about that anymore. Maybe my purpose is to act as Chris' unofficial editor, since he has much more talent than I do. :) I'm basically just planning on him providing us with riches from his talent!

Only three more days to go! It's been an interesting process and I've definitely had some moments of contemplation with these topics. I'm hoping I'll be able to keep up the momentum to blog more regularly but it will be nice to not have it as a "mandatory" thing that I feel guilty about skipping. 

Until tomorrow! 

Day #24

Topic: Discuss a spontaneous moment in your life that turned out to be fantastic.

It's been a long day and unfortunately I'm not in the mood for reminiscing right now, so I'm just going to give the obvious answer of sending an email to Chris. At a certain point I just got sick of seeing all the same guys from Boise on OkCupid so I expanded my dating area to wherever. That's when I found Chris' profile. He was cute and I loved what he had to say. So I sent him a wink and a question..."I'm curious what exactly the difference is between a pub and a bar. You mentioned both in the Friday night question. :)"

This was his response: "Well, a pub is place for solitary contemplation or philosophical discussions with comrades, with a fine selection of real ales and no cocktails. A bar is a place for getting hammered and going 'Ahahaha, you're my best mate, you are' to random strangers. They have no real ales and solitary contemplation is an impossibility. What's LDS anyway? The only thing I can think of is that it's the three letter code for Leeds railway station, but I'd be surprised if anyone grew up there."

And the rest, as they say, is history. :)

Day #23

Topic: "Describe a truly spiritual moment in your life."

I honestly have no idea how to answer this question. I've had experiences that I considered spiritual at the time, but I don't anymore. I think if we believe in something, we can put emphasis on an event that maybe isn't actually there. I also think we are much more in tune with ourselves and have good instincts that we sometimes interpret as spiritual promptings. I'm not saying I don't necessarily believe in a god, but I'm not sure I believe he interacts with us in the way many religions say he does. I know this will come off a little controversial to some of my friends who blog about spiritual things happening to them all the time, so I'll just say I don't mean it to be insulting. I'm glad they find comfort in that kind of thing, I just don't anymore. And I'm not saying that like "I'm better than you" either, if it sounded condescending. Blerg...maybe I should just stop while I'm ahead here.


My sister and her boyfriend and daughter have been here this weekend so we've been having a nice visit. I really do love my niece to death so don't take this the wrong way, but being around her always just reinforces my decision to at least postpone kids, if not rule them out all together. It's a relief that the bulk of responsibility with her falls on Rikki. It just reminds me of how much you have to put in with kids and it exhausts me to see it. She really is the best little girl though...and so super cute. :)


That's all for now! I'm off to bed.

Ugh.....Catch Up!

Yes, I've missed four days of posting now. I have no excuse other than I didn't feel like it. :) So today is catch up day....here we go!

Day #19 - Topic: Something that shook your belief system to its core (a big disappointment in your life).

Since I think I've talked enough about my divorce on here, I decided to talk about my brother for this post. As many of you may know, my brother Zack passed away from an accidental drug overdose at the age of 21. This was a big shock, and the timing was pretty terrible as his girlfriend had found out she was pregnant just a few weeks earlier. I actually came close to leaving the church at that point, but was pulled back in when I went to BYU-Idaho several months later. Zack always caused heartache in our family with the choices he made in life, but we each loved him very much and he was a good person. I still think about him most days and will always miss him. I am especially sad to not get to see him as a father to his wonderful son, who was named Zack in his dad's honor. But Little Zack has a great mom and a  great new step-dad. I think my brother would be happy with how that turned out. 

Day #20 - Topic: Discuss your favorite movie and why it's so special to you.

I've got to go back to my roots here and say Scream is my favorite movie! It's somewhat hard to explain why. It was one of the first scary movies I'd seen. I loved the surprises and thrills, and the laughs! When I was a teenager, everyone knew I loved that movie. I own Scream 1-3 on both VHS and DVD (I don't claim the recent release of Scream 4 =P). I also dressed up like Sidney Prescott (the main character) for 2 or 3 Halloweens. Oh, and the horror screenplay I have? It started out as a script for Scream 3, to try to see how close I could get it to how the movie actually turned out. But my mom and sister liked my opening scene and said I should keep on going with those characters and right something unique.

Day #21 - Topic: Write about your best friend (not significant other) and what makes them special.

I decided to write about two of them for this entry. The first is my best friend Cheri. I met her at BYU-Idaho. We were roommates our very first semester at college. We immediately bonded. She was my sister from another mister, as I like to say. :) We made up our own language (the LOSAC, which I still have a record of) and had our own traditions (like watching Felicity!). Some of my best memories from college were when we lived together our second year and went out on "stalking missions" for boys we had crushes on. After Cheri started dated one of the guys we had stalked, we decided to kidnap some of his stuff and hold them for ransom. We got all elaborate and made a bunch of notes of stuff he had to do at this park in order to get his stuff back. We both laid in the grass in the dark and watched him. He had to jump off a swing, bark like a dog, and do cartwheels. Well, as he was doing his cartwheels, right near my secret location, he ran straight into this big metal slide. It was pretty damn hilarious. :) In the end, he got his stuff and we both got candy bars. This is us after our mission (I had already changed my pants...they were all stealthy and black):

Cheri is special because she understands me. She knows all my flaws, all the things I've done, and she still loves me. :) She's one of the best examples to me of an LDS person. She never judged me for leaving the church and was always there for me, with open arms and total acceptance. She was also the most understanding person about Chris. I told her about him the first time by basically saying "I met this guy, he lives in England, but he's my soul mate and we're going to be together forever." She didn't laugh, and didn't doubt me (at least not to my face ;))...she was just excited for me and wanted to know everything. She will always be one of my best friends.

My other bestie that I wanted to write about today is Alex. I met her through my friend Greg, when the two began dating. It wasn't until Greg had a party at his house that we really started talking, and we became fast friends after that. She's another gal that I can just relate to and understand. We enjoy a lot of the same things and she's a great buddy to go dancing downtown with. She's a lot of fun to be around and never minds hearing me complain. :) I've been so grateful that I've gotten to know her. We even have a weekly girls night where we watch shows, have dinner, and vent about life. I look forward to it every week! Here we are a couple of weeks ago before hitting up BoDo:

Day #22 - Topic: Describe a dark/turbulent moment in your life.  

I think this topic has all been covered in other posts I've done throughout this 30 day challenge. Take your pick!  I don't really feel like drudging up any more dark memories right now...it's Friday and time to be positive about life!!

So instead...I will share some news! After going round and round and round for about a month, Chris and I have officially decided we are moving! Before you get too nervous/excited, I'll tell you we are moving about 15 minutes away from where we currently are. I've been in my current apartment for two years and they are raising the rent on us now, so I didn't really want to stay but couldn't find anywhere else that was good. Our max rent we wanted to pay a month was $700, but we decided to just go see these place called The Birches in Nampa whose rent was $750 because it seemed really nice. It is less than 2 miles from my work and has a pool, gym, tanning bed, clubhouse, hot tub, and a nice big pond right in the center of the complex. Oh, and the apartment itself is bigger than our current one. It was a gorgeous place and we really liked it. The lady who showed it to us asked what our price range was and I told her we didn't want to pay more than $700 a month. So before we left, she said she'd be willing to sign a year contract with us for a 2/bed, 2/bath for $700 a month! It was awesome. But once we got home, we decided we wouldn't be able to afford the deposit, as it was $350 for the security deposit and $400 per pet!! That would have made it $1150. I emailed her the next day to let her know that would be an issue and we'd have to stay where we were. Well, she responded and said she could waive one of the cat deposits, so it would only be a $750 deposit, which is actually cheaper than my current place. Because of that, we decided to go for it last night! We have put down part of the deposit and set up a moving date of June 16th. That should give Chris plenty of time to pack and clean (with me helping, of course!). We are both very excited! This will be our first place we've gotten TOGETHER and we can set it up and decorate it as we both please. It's also awesome that I will be able to ride my bike to work while the weather is nice. Get some exercise and save some gas!