Good morning, world, and all who inhabit it! (Mow.)

That's what Spongebob (and Gary the snail) just said.

I've been a ton more cheerful since I ran out of birth control (no health insurance yet)...why is that? What a way to start a marriage, easily depressed and grumpy! Last night I was laughing so hard at Plankton, Jason was laughing at me, not the cartoon.

I got a job--so to speak--at Kohl's. I trained for 16 hours last week and got a lot of work done on my nails while the boring-and-smarmy-as-all-get-out training DVDs were playing. They only gave me 13 and a half hours this week, Monday and Saturday, but Terri did warn me they couldn't give me much. I can take another part-time job at a Marriot if I want, and I interviewed at a furniture store yesterday that will be full-time at around $10 an hour if I get it. I'm not confident about the interview, though. I think I might have babbled too much, and Jina lectured me for saying "yeah" in answer to a question. I hate worrying about it, but I really want and need this job; we're practically broke and don't want to borrow any more money. I'll find out Monday or Tuesday. I HATE job searching!

What else is there to say, really? Jason's pool job is over, so we're both bored and feeling rather loserish. There seems to be some kind of mysterious clumsiness vortex at work around his parents' house; I've now broken a salt shaker, a glass (well, the cats broke it, but I left them out when I went to work), and today a casserole dish. Jason says their stuff is old and more breakable (and the glass was Guiness, so it was evil anyway :)), but why do I have to be the unlucky schmoe who finally does the deed? Robert and Cheryl have been so incredibly nice, and I know they won't make me feel bad when they find out about this latest one, but I feel like such a moron! I insisted that we go to Linens 'N Things and get replacements with our leftover wedding gift card money today, whether they want us to or not. (Maybe while we're there we can pick up an ice cream maker...)

Well, I think that's it, really. Still trying to read. Finished Pres. Hinckley's biography. That man is so beyond awesome. Now I'm working on Joseph Smith's, the other end of the prophet spectrum. I'd been wanting to read it, and Cheryl got us the collector's edition. Pretty cool.

Anyone who could include us and our depressing job hunt it their prayers, we'd really appreciate it. But don't worry, I'm in better spirits than I have been in a long time. Maybe I should find alternate means of preventing conception...

On the road agaaaainnn...

Actually, we're done being on the road, we've arrived.

Week before last, we made the decision to give up the sales job and leave Wisconsin. Let me tell you (briefly, because I don't want to think about it too much), it was so hard to leave my plants. Augh, starting to think too much about it! Crap...that's all I'm gonna say.

We packed up, returned things shamefully--television, microwave, and vaccuum, for heaven's sake--so we wouldn't have to transport them and could have extra moolah , bought the kitties a carrier, and headed out. We went down to Nauvoo first since we don't know when we'll ever be that close again. Close, my foot, though; it was supposed to take five or six hours, and it ended up being eight or nine. We got there just as the Pageant was starting, so we got to see that, but the next day was Sunday, so everything was closed! So we walked around for about an hour and a half, saw some cool stuff, but it wasn't the life-changing experience everyone says Nauvoo is. Hopefully we can go back sometime, better prepared, and have a more in-depth experience.

Then we crossed Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada, and visited my family for about five days in Nor Cal. It was so nice. My parents and even Rob spoiled us terribly, which felt great after being afraid to spend money even on groceries. I hadn't gone in three weeks when we decided to leave, which was a very nice blessing, because as it was we gave away probably a couple hundred dollars in food and miscellanious that we couldn't take with us. It SUCKED, but at least it wasn't more.

Now we're living at Jason's parents house, trying to find jobs and sleeping too late. But I do feel ready to work; I just dread the job search terribly. Hate, hate, HATE job searching.

Oh, and I cut my hair real short and got bangs. Not crazy about it, but at least it's different. I also dyed my hair since it was getting kinda faded and the roots were showing, so I feel more presentable.

And I'm on Chapter 21 of Harry Potter 7, afraid to talk to anyone for fear they'll give something away, especially since Samanth DID yesterday when I talked to her! Jason and his brother Justin are both done already. I forgot I was married for awhile yesterday, I saw Jason so litte. I feel like our relationship is unalterably different until I finish the book, too. He knows some "mysteries of life" that I don't.

Well, that's about as much typing as my wrists can handle. Wish I could do more than just the news, but it'll have to do for now.

Go Brewers! Brew that...beer...?

Yesterday was something out of the ordinary--I actually got to spend most of the day with

my husband, and we could go out and do something without breaking the Sabbath! The Milwaukee and Madison offices are apparently the top sellers in the company, and they won an incentive to be taken in limos to a Brewers baseball game at Miller Park. (Milwaukee is so all about beer. It's really kind of disgusting. Notice the guy selling it on the top right.) So two Expedition limos rolled up and picked us up (the wives who could make it were invited along), and I rode in a limo for the first time. It was very cool, but not worth paying for. They took us to a ritzy mall where we pretty much only had time to eat lunch, then they dropped us off at the game. It was fun seeing everyone outside staring, probably wondering what famous/rich people were high-rollin, and then to see their faces when a bunch of rowdy 20-somethings piled out. We definitely had fun playing with the radio and complaining that there was ice and goblets but no beverages, talking about non-existent stocks, etc. Why does rap music in a limo make you feel like a high-roller? "The Humpty-Hump" is such a bad song, but it has the best beat, and I just felt cool listening to it.

The game was cool...but not literally. It was SO FREAKIN muggy for awhile, we all splurged on frozen soft lemonades and Jason fanned us both with a Pinnacle sign he had in his binder. He's so sweet like that. It did cool down after a little while, but this guy with the grey hair right in front of us was eating peanuts, and what happens from eating protein kept happening every so often and wafting right up our noses. GROSS. What can you do but point the fan at him and laugh though. Hopefully he doesn't see this. :)

One sad thing was how raggedy and unkempt a lot of the people looked, and the sheer amount of alcohol that was being consumed at that game. Do you really have to have a beer or a hard lemonade to have a good time? Not to mention all the disgusting nachos and...actually, I need to stop, there's no point in worrying about things you can't control. I do that too much.

Not much else to report. The garden's doing pretty well. The cherry tomato plant is monstrous. It's awesome. Can't wait for all of the tomatoes to actually turn red. My latest scheme is to try to learn enough about floral design to work in flower shops for awhile, then with the experience I get, do flowers for weddings. So far, not a lot of luck, but I'm not giving up yet. I talked to Brother Lang who owns the flower shops (was SO scared to do it, didn't want to bug him again), told him what I have in mind, and he said that although things are really slow for florists in general in this area right now, he'll try to find opportunities to help me. I want to try to get a job at Michaels, namely in the floral design dept. Dang temp agency is doing squat for me, except making me look stupid and lazy because while I wait for them to call me, I still have no job.

Oh well. Whatever will be will be.

How can the world be bad when there are an aqua-blue towel and a ripe cherry tomato in it?

Things have been good, but still a little hard. Sales have not been plentiful, the temp agency has not found a job for me. I'm trying harder to make up for my lack of job (and lack of desire for one, to be quite frank) by being a better housekeeper, and my garden is doing well. The first cherry tomato will probably be ripe enough to pick by tomorrow, though I'm not sure I want to pick it. Two months of willing it to grow and turn red, just to pop it in my mouth for two seconds of rapture before it gets mixed up with all the acids in my stomach? I wish I could frame it. And I think there might be actual tiny pods forming on the snap pea plants! Plus I have sixteen snapdragons growing, and one tall cornflower that should bloom soon. So it may not be worth the investment financially, paying for seeds, soil, pots, and cages, but I love my new hobby. I could hang out there with my plants all day. (Don't worry, though. I don't talk to them or anything. Much.)

That's really what I wanted to say--what I have to be grateful for. Yeah, this is not the miracle job we thought it would be, where you earn oodles of money right off. Maybe that can still happen before the summer's over. But we're doing okay. We pay our tithing, we try to be very frugal, and everything always comes out okay. We have so much to be grateful for.

I've made a new policy: I try to go out of the apartment (in the car, anyway) as little as possible, and I try to stay completely away from places where I want to spend money unnecessarily. I try not to even drive by them. Why bother going to Target, Kohl's, or even Wal-Mart except when I really need to? I just get discouraged at all the stuff that I see and can't buy. At first I was trying to be super wife, making a nice meal every night. But it's really not so terrible to have just a can of chili for dinner, or a grilled cheese sandwich, and have a nicer dinner maybe 2-3 times a week. I haven't been grocery shopping in maybe two weeks, but before I was always "needing" something else, some ingredient to some new dish I wanted to make, or some snack food it just seemed natural to have, and it sure added up.

Yesterday I worked out with Jason before he went to work. That was awesome. Then I talked to my mom for an hour and a half, took care of my garden (yay!), put on my swimsuit, and went to the pool. I even took a small, healthy lunch with me. There's something about eating outdoors. I have a pretty aqua-blue towel that I bought for swimming (about the color of this font, in case you missed the connection), and just looking at it, and sitting in the warm sunshine with a good book from the library made me happy. Yeah, eventually we'll need more if we want to start a family, but for now, so much in life is good. Most especially Jason. I never in my life thought I would land such a wonderful, caring, loving husband. How can I be truly unhappy, knowing I have him?

I really need to start a gratitude journal. I spend too much time worrying, and not enough time counting my blessings. I think this was my first entry.

I feel like such a poser.

I hope this works. Yeah, it was kinda fun.

You all knew I would copy eventually. Take my quiz! Take This Quiz See Scores Make Own Quiz

Max and Sam

Sometimes I call Max "Maxey," and then I have to call him "Maxi Pad."

Aren't they so cute? We got them on Wednesday. On the way home from the Humane Society, we had to stop to get some bloodwork done for Jason, so I stayed in the car with them and let them out to explore. They're so chill a lot of the time though, they wandered a bit and then just settled on the floor of the car by my feet.

Max is the adventurous, extra nosey one. He's tried about ten million times to get onto my nightstand because I don't want him on it, and today he came out of the bathroom half-soaked because he was exploring the bathtub, where I'd just washed out their litterbox. He's always wanting to escape the room we're keeping them in--that is, if we're trying to keep him in there. If the door is wide open for awhile, it's not as exciting to make a jail break, so he doesn't bother. But he's also very affectionate; he doesn't rub against us or lick us, but he likes being near us. From day one, he would climb right on top of one of us and go to sleep.

Sammy is the more timid one, though he's coming out of his shell. He's whiny, too. He's still more distant, a little less likely than Max to go to sleep on one of us, but he's warming up. On the first night, we made a box with a blanket in it for them, which they sniffed and ignored before jumping up on our bed and snuggling down with us. They've slept with us each night, on top of the covers and under. We're both scared we're going to wake up to kitten pancakes one morning.

By the way, the creeping phlox is suddenly flowering and looking almost healthy again. Don't ask me why, but I'm happy I didn't completely kill it.

Ooh! And the professional wedding pics are done!!!! We should be getting them soon, and she already sent us a few previews that look nice. I just wish I had put some more freaking lipstick on, I'll have to live with those pale lips for the rest of my life...

"Rope. Like string, but manlier."

So the flower shop job rocked. I didn't have to do any deliveries, thank goodness. I picked up an order for them at a greenhouse and then went out to the shop. They had me and the girl I took with me (she's nice, but so quiet, and such a copycat of everything I did, I wanted to kill her a few times) clean roses first, taking the thorns and lower leaves off with a gizmo, then taking off the ugly petals and cutting them all a certain length. When we had done three hundred of those, they taught us how to make these little flower arrangements (just one rose, some "pit" foliage, and wax flower each) that were going to be at each place setting for some banquet. We made about 230 of those, us with two other people. It was way fun at first, but we stood for hours doing it, and I got really tired of it. I would choose that over calling people to get them to do a survey (for minimum wage) any day, though.

Saturday, we went back at 8:30 and finished that order. Then they sent us to their other location where we met new people (there was a girl from my ward there helping out for Mother's Day too, and she was so fun and SUCH a sweetheart!), filled up those little water tubes they stick on the ends of flowers, and cleaned lots more roses. I am now an expert rose cleaner. They said so. And I even got to step in and make a cute little flower arrangement when they were making a bunch for a baby's baptism: short square glass vase, two blue hydrangea blooms, with short white tulips stuck in them at random. It was so simple, but so pretty. And one of the girls there said I did mine perfectly! (I'm like a little kid bragging to mommy about the nice things my teacher said about my crayon scribble of nothing.)

I know I'm too detailed and long-winded, but I LOVED working there. I've been itching to go back since I left. I've never enjoyed a job this much, but it was just for the Mother's Day rush, to my disappointment. I told Brother Lang and his daughter (owner & manager respectively) each that I loved working there, am looking for a job, and would LOVE to learn more, so if they ever need anyone... They both said they'd certainly keep me in mind. I sure hope they let me have a chance. I watched the people who actually worked there getting to make these beautiful arrangements, wrap things all pretty, make corsages and boutinerres (sp), play with ribbon and pretty paper and FLOWERS all day! What more could you ask?? Seriously, I want to work there so bad, I ache. Even if they don't pay me much. I'd be learning such cool things! Lol why did I get a psychology degree again??

Oh, one other piece of news. I found a cute white skirt today, after decades of searching! YAAAAAY!!!

Anyone who reads this, please pray that I can work at Welke's House of Roses. Thanks.

WisCANsin. (This one is forever long.)

I know it's more common to put a pic a of the bride and groom, but we only have one, and I've been using that for everything, so this is another of my favorites. I've been married for a little over two months now. I'm writing because I feel guilty for doing that thing--the thing where something big happens, you write about it, and then you never write again because you were too busy with the big thing.

We're in Wisconsin, and people really do talk with an accent here, it's so hilarious to us Californians. It's so green here! The first day we got here, I was depressed, because there was a layer of snow, totally bare trees, icky gray skies, not-so-great-compared-to-Idaho apartment, and ghetto neighborhood. Oh, and our rented bed reeked of cancer stick smoke. But we seem to have arrived at the tail end of winter, thank goodness. The change is incredible. Jason and I are sure that Idaho will look like a dead wasteland compared to this. But I wonder if I'll miss all the black folks--there are more black folks here than I've ever seen in my life, and I grew up in Dova, right next to Sac-town, so that's saying something. I'm finding myself talking ghetto more often, too. Probably not smart for a puny white girl, but I can't seem to help it.

Being married is cool. I've never had to be so frugal in my life (as Christy and Crystal can attest to--they witnessed my carefree buy-whatever-at-Target days and will probably feel some maniacal triumph, knowing I can't do that anymore :)), but I don't mind so much. It's good for me to not have everything I want. I've always been careful with money, never going into debt, not paying too much for anything I've bought, but I admit, I've never been totally on my own with it before, paying every one of my own bills. Bout time, I guess.

I do miss Jason, though. He's gone from about 11-9 six days a week, and it really does suck, but hopefully he'll make a ton of money from it.

Today I'm starting my--is it even a job? One of the other wives with Pinnacle is working for the 2nd counselor in our bishopric, at his flower shop, since she's a floral design major. (I'm jealous. It sounds so fun, and the job just dropped right into her lap. Meanwhile, I wait for the temp agency to call me back.) But she called me and said Brother Lang needed someone to do deliveries on Fridays and Saturdays, and that another Pinnacle wife could ride with me, read the maps, and tell me where to go, and we'll split the money. So it will probably pay dirt, but it's something interesting to do until I can find a real job.

By the way, why do employers always wait so long to contact you after you apply? Don't they realize that people apply for jobs because they need money, and sometimes that need is urgent? I really hate that. I hate sitting around waiting.

One last note: my garden is still doing well. I may be watering a little pot of weeds instead of Snapdragons, since I have no idea what they're supposed to look like when they germinate, but other than that it's all looking good, especially the Roma Tomatoes. I just hope I don't kill them when I try to transplant them. Oh, and I think I killed the Big Blue Lily Turf and Creeping Phlox; I'm just not sure how. But the snap peas, cornflowers, broccoli, and cherry tomatoes all seem to be doing well. I just wish all three of my tulips would bloom instead of just one. I somehow feel guilty for bumping off plants, even when I've honestly tried my best and have no idea what I did to cause their demise.

If I can't even keep some simple plants alive, it's going to be interesting trying to keep track of kids. You get in a lot more trouble if you bump them off.