The Invasion of the Little Black Bugs Otherwise Known As...

TICKS.

My house is infested with engorged ticks at the present time. Anyone want to guess what engorged is referring to? Well I will tell you...it means they're full of blood. They've already had their Thanksgiving feast and are just chillin' in their food coma which means that technically they're not supposed to be a problem as far as biting goes (thank goodness), but they are horribly annoying, pesky things that keep crawling up my wall and filling my head with thoughts of ticks all over my body causing me to itch and inspect myself, my husband, and my dogs, over and over again. The past two nights, my husband and I have shared a twin bed (wow...I am SO grateful for my bed) because they made their first appearance in our bedroom...on our bed. So I lysol-ed that sucker and now our room is clean. But alas, the pesky little buggers followed us into the guest room that was going to be S & J's room when they came to visit.

Luckily, my hubba bubba has connections. His cousin actually runs a pest control company and so we'll be able to take care of the problem quick. They are coming at 7 in the morning tomorrow to get rid of them. We already checked our dogs and "Frontline-d" them so we should be good to go by tomorrow evening!

Thanks to a friend of mine, I learned that to kill ticks you put them in rubbing alcohol and then flush them down the toilet. I have found that I am a very vindictive person. Those little guys don't stand a chance anymore.
I was put in a really bad mood because of all this, but we went to sacrament today and the talks were on Joseph B. Wirthlin's talk "Come What May, and Love It." Wow...hahaha...so now my attitude is, "Now I know what to do if I am ever invaded by these alien-ish creatures again, and at least I have a house to be infested with ticks and a husband with constant vigilance to take care of the problem."

The Twilight Lost Script and Other Upcoming Adventures...

For all of you "Twilighters" out there, you need to read this and go through the slide show because, well...it's HILARIOUS!!! I laughed for hours. I am still laughing actually! Bahahaha...anyways...here is the link:

Twilight: The Lost Script

We are going to the movie tonight, and I've heard mixed reviews, so I am keeping my expectations low and hopefully I will be pleasantly surprised! I hope it's good because I am dragging my husband to it, and I want him to like it. Actually, I just don't want him to think I like reading books that are stupid because I spend a lot of time reading and I love these books.

For all you who have not read them, I haven't met one person who didn't like them once they read them, so maybe that's some food for thought for future reading...It's an easy read, geared toward young adults, so you can get through them fairly fast. For me, they were a "can't put down" read, so I finished the first 3 in about 2 days...you may want to allow a healthy chunk of time for reading these puppies.

I am SO excited for Thanksgiving! My sister-in-law and her family are coming on Sunday to spend the week with us and I am so excited! We are going to have a blast! She is extremely crafty so I am hoping she can give me some fun pointers on decorating my house! She has already given me some cute ideas for crafts, but I have to get my butt in gear and actually do them!

I will post pictures of Thanksgiving in a later post (hahaha...because it hasn't happened yet)! Speaking of pictures...

Jason and I decided that our Christmas present for each other would be a new camera! We are SO excited! We got a Canon EOS Rebel XSI (I think that's the official name) and with this camera, I feel magical. Like, I feel extremely professional because the camera is extremely professional. I can't wait to take pictures of all the fun stuff we haven't been able to take pictures of because we haven't had a decent camera! J is WAY excited too! He LOVES taking pictures, so I am really happy we were able to do this because I love seeing him so excited about it!

Sushi for a sweater...

On Tuesday night, my wonderful hubby and I went to dinner with our dear friends Jenna and Curt! Can anyone guess where we went?? By the title of my post you could probably infer that we went for sushi at Kona Grill (Happy Hour=half price sushi, pizza, and appetizers). I do not like sushi, and yes, I've tried it. Previous to this dinner outing, I had tried sushi 6 times and each time was a different type of sushi, so all of you who use the line, "Don't knock it till you try it," I can knock it all I want because I think 6 times is a fair amount of trying.


Anyways, Jenna and I had a moderate amount of food to satiate our appetites sufficiently, but our husbands gorged themselves. My husband in particular, cannot control himself whilst around sushi. He gets this look in his eye that says, "I am a king, and I will stuff myself like a king because it's half price sushi and I can have as many Atlantic Rolls as I want!" Curt, I believe is the same way because he, after eating about 3 rolls and an appetizer of pot stickers, ordered 3 more rolls for him and his wife, even though she clearly said, "I'm good," when asked if she would like more. The 3 rolls come and Curt is so full he nearly split his pants, so he makes a deal with his wife, the basic terms being, "You eat 7 pieces, I buy you a sweater." Being inspired by this little deal I decided to try and strike up a deal with my hubby. So I pipe up, "I will eat one piece of sushi J if you buy me a sweater," and I was completely serious. You must understand, my husband loves sushi and naturally wants me to love it so we can go eat it more. This deal appealed to that sense and he considered it. Then Jenna decided to sweeten the deal for him a bit by saying, "She'll eat THREE pieces of sushi for a sweater." Immediately, he agreed, and I was on yet another quest to successfully devour THREE pieces of sushi. One time during a past sushi-trying endeavor, I actually started gagging because I didn't chew enough and the seaweed was one big long piece trailing all the way down my throat, so now...I chew. A lot. So in goes the first piece followed by about 2 minutes of chewing. Down goes the first piece. I finished the other two (surprisingly without gagging).
Having earned my sweater and Jenna having earned hers, and being so conveniently close to a shopping center, we went on our quest for some sweaters/sweatshirts, but the ironic thing about shopping is when you aren't looking you find exactly what you want, and when you are looking, there's nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. So THREE pieces of sushi later and I still don't have my sweater. I don't think I'll hold him to it though. I thought that was really sweet of him to agree to such a one-sided deal and honestly, I know he would've bought me a sweater anyways, even without eating the THREE pieces of sushi. He would bend over backwards just to make me happy. He is just really selfless like that, and I realized (for like the gajillionth time since we've been married) that I married the best man in the world.

Happy Birthday, Elder Natertot!

It's my brother's birthday today! He is 21 and is a stud, basically.


This is him showing off his awesome new tie for us. Anyways...Nate is one of the best brothers in the world. When we were younger, we were tight. People thought we were twins, but not only were we tight in physical features, but he was my best friend. He is an amazing skateboarder. He likes to have everything clean except his room which got him the nickname of Mr. Clean. He is one of the hardest working people I know. He can be quiet, but he is really funny once you start talking to him. He will climb anything and everything.


This is him being a monkey man, yet again. The palm tree is really tall...don't let the picture deceive you.
And here he is again, in a tree, I am assuming getting breakfast or something.


From the white shirt, tie, and name tag, you can probably guess he is currently on a mission. He is serving in the West Indies Mission. He spent the first 6 months (I think) in St. Lucia, a beautiful island in the West Indies. Since those first six months he has served in Guyana in a couple of different areas and is now a Zone Leader for one of the zones there. He is an amazing missionary who is working hard to bring the gospel to those who have not been able to receive of its blessings yet. I am grateful for his example and for being such an awesome missionary. He gets home around April 2nd and I am SO EXCITED to see him!


LOVE YOU ELDER! Happy Birthday!

YAY!

Yay for prop 8 and prop 102!!! :D

The day after...

So I was in the depths of despair last night. Overcome with grief for this country that I love so dearly and the people who chose the instrument of its demise. Thankfully, we received the Conference edition of the Ensign last night and I decided to read it to try and console me. I love the leaders of this church. They said exactly what I needed to hear. As I was reading, I got 3 main impressions:

1. "Fear not little flock," it's in the Lord's hands and all will work out the way it's supposed to. It may be hard, but it will make us stronger, and no matter what, we have the Savior always.

2. Enjoy the journey! Learn to laugh in the midst of trials and appreciate this life for all it has because it's short, and when it's done, you'll want to look back and say, "Man, that was hard! But I did it, I did it with a smile, and to tell you the truth, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be."

3. Missionary work is one of our greatest callings. We need to share the Gospel with our Brothers and Sisters. We need to share that inner peace that comes when we rely solely on the Lord and his counsel. We need to build up the Kingdom of God and do so by missionary work, and by service.

I love this Gospel. I am glad that in these troubled times, and the much more troubled times to come that I have an anchor to keep me grounded. I have a shelter to protect me from the storm. I love my Heavenly Father who loves me and knows me to my very core. I love my Savior. I cannot express in words the deep gratitude I feel for His sacrifice for me. I know the power of the Priesthood is real and has blessed my life in countless ways. I am grateful for my trials. They make me stronger and they draw me closer to my Heavenly Father. I am grateful for the prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, that he leads us the way our Heavenly Father has directed him to lead us. He is the mouthpiece of the Lord. I am grateful for his diligence and his love for me and for all. I am grateful for the Book of Mormon and I know it to be true. I know Joseph Smith was key in restoring the only true gospel on the Earth today and I love him for that, and for the sacrifices he made and the trials he went through. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

A Prayer for Election Day...

Please don't let Obama get elected.
Please don't let Obama get elected.
Please watch over and protect our country.
Please don't let Obama get elected.
Please don't let Obama get elected.
Please let the people of our country realize he would be the downfall of it.
Please don't let Obama get elected.
Please don't let Obama get elected.
Please protect our constitution...the very document that good men died to protect.
Please don't let Obama get elected.
Please don't let Obama get elected.
Please don't let my very intuitive 5-year-old nephew's fears be realized.
Please don't let Obama get elected.
Please don't let Obama get elected.

...Amen.