what do you want on your tombstone?

Remember those old TV commericals for Tombstone Pizza? You know the ones: the hero would always been in some perious predicament where death was imminent. Right before the final blow, the bad guy would ask him, "What do you want on your tombstone?" Thinking the hero was going to give an epitath to then be put on this tombstone when he died, our hero would instead give a list of the toppings he wanted on his pizza. They always made me laugh and the phrase: "What do you want on your tombstone?" became part of pop-culture. Yesterday, I took Katy down to Tombstone. Yes, THE Tombstone. I love it down there! It's like stepping back in time. There are actors that walk the streets and sit on the boardwalk dressed up like they would have been in the 1880's. The Legendary shootout at the OK Corral is reenacted every day. You can walk around and go into all the old buildings and see left over artifacts of days gone by. And for a day I can pretend that I live back in the Old West. I don't know what it is that fascinates me so much about that place, but I could spend all day every day there and never get tired of it. Every time I go I discover some new little place that I love and there is always stuff that I want to see that I either run out of time or money (sometimes both!) to see and I always have to tell myself, "next time." Luckily, it's only a couple hours away and I can go back whenever I want. We decided next time it has to be an overnight trip becuase there are a couple different ghosts walks and tours that take place later in the evening. I can't wait!! Good old fashioned Sasparilla:Bill Clanton and the McLaury brothers that were killed at the shootout at the OK Corral, now buried in Boothill:

Wyatt Earp and his brother Morgan (actors) walking down the street with a baddie on their heels. Luckily, guns weren't drawn. Tom (I think that was the other guy's name) was drunk and just looking for trouble:

Doc Holliday waxing poetic at the beginning of the shootout:

Morgan and Virgil Earp:

stalking a warewolf

So...there's this guy....

And I think he might be a warewolf.

I saw him for the frist time the other day in the breakroom and the first thought I had was, "I'm pretty sure this guy is a warewolf." Can't really put my finger on WHY it is he's a warewolf. There's just something..."wolfy" about him. He's kind of scruffy, and gives off that vibe.

Did I mention he's cute?

Also, he sits on my floor a few rows down.

I did some reconissance today. On my way to the bathroom, I was sneaky and checked out what his name plate said. Jeffrey.

We're going to get married and have three kids and live happily ever after.

numbers

1 Test Drive. I went and test drove a VW Tiguan on Wednesday. LOVE it. That is going to be my next car. However, I can't get it right now due to how upside down I am in my Jetta. So, my new goal: pay off the Jetta as soon as possible so I can get out from underneath it and get into a lease on a Tiguan.

2 Red Velvet Cakes. Katy's birthday was on Tuesday. Her favorite cake is red velvet, so we ended up with two of them in the house all week. One was from Costco and one was made by my mom. Verdict: mom's wins :)

3 Trips to Home Depot. It's possible I've become addicted. When I was little I would go to Home Depot with my parents and it was okay, but now that I have my own house I LOVE it. I could go there every day and look at stuff and get ideas for different things I want to do. However, the more times I am there the more ideas I do get and the more money I spend. I've spent about $300 there over this last week but my backyard looks AWESOME!!

4 Bowties. There were at least four guys wearing bowties at church today. Are bowties making a comback? Apparantly in the 70th ward, they are.

5 Azalea Bushes. I bought and planted five azalea bushes along the east wall in the backyard. They have added some much needed color back there and they remind me of Oregon. I love them and I'm praying that they survive this first summer. I will be watering them A LOT to ensure that they do.

6 Doves. There are currently six doves outside at the bird feeders we put out back yesterday, along with various other birds. Our backyard has become the happenin' place to be if you're a bird and it makes me happy.

unexpected visitor

So, I was sitting on the couch last night watching some episodes of "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" (I have a HUGE crush on Bruce Boxleitner, but that's another blog post...) when all of the sudden the doorbell rang. Katy and I looked at each other, then I looked at the time. Almost nine o'clock. Who would be coming over to my house at this time? I don't have any friends (no really, I don't) and I hadn't gotten a text from anyone in my family alerting me to the fact that they were coming over. Weird. But, since it's my house and I can't ignore when someone's at the door like I do when I'm at other people's houses, I got up and went to go answer it. I looked out the front window first, but no one was there. Weird. Pulled open the door and started laughing. Justin Timberlake came to visit me! Seriously. He really did! Okay, so it was just his bobblehead, but how many of you can say that Justin Timberlake mysteriously showed up on your doorstep on a Friday night? That's what I thought. Katy and I had a good laugh over it (the thing is actually *really* creepy. It sits there and looks at you. We had to turn it around so it wasn't facing us on the coffee table...). I'm pretty sure it was one of my brothers who found it at Goodwill or something, but that has yet to be confirmed.

this morning

I am eating this for breakfast:

And looking out the window at this (the work we did outside yesterday):

hurts so good

Currently I am sitting on my couch watching The Bourne Supremacy.

My feet, neck, back, arms, and legs are killing me.

Why? Because Katy and I spent all afternoon/early evening kicking the backyard's butt! I'm not sure I'm going to be able to move in the morning, but I feel good. This kind of hurt feels good. It's always satisfying to have something to show for all your hard work. Here are the before pictures:





The after pictures will be coming in the morning. By the time we were done it was too dark!

lessons learned

*Be faithful 100% like Horton the Elephant.

*Have a plan. If you don't have a plan, you are planning not to do anything.

*Don't ignore the small and simple acts required by God.

*Feast on the scriptures.

*Put the Lord first (Matthew 6:33).

*Slow down. "There is more to life than increasing it's speed." -Pres. Uchtdorf

*Go to the scriptures when faced with trials.

*Priorities. Focus on what matters most.

*"Pray night and day, read scriptures for 5 minutes or more each day, and smile."

*"Face the temple...always have it in view."

*Christ's invitation to come is an invitation to become like Him.

*Forgive. Don't let a wedge of bitterness weaken your heart.

*Missionary Work. Lift up your eyes and look.

*Beware of how much you are drifting.

beginnings

This week marked the beginning of a few things in my life.

#1. Using mouthwash. While watching the Oscar's last Sunday I saw a commercial for Listerne that highlighted a problem that, apparantly, nobody knows about because nobody has told us: biofilm. Totally grossed me out and made me buy mouthwash the next day. I have been using it every night in the hopes of combatting it.

#2. Waking up at 5am to read my scriptures. Last Sunday I had Stake Conference (for those of you who are non-LDS, each congregation, or ward, belongs to a stake which is a group of about 6 or 7 wards lead by a Stake President. Twice a year, instead of meeting with our ward on Sunday we have a meeting as a whole stake). Scripture reading has been something I have struggled with my whole life and I've never been able to find something that works for me that sticks. However, almost every speaker on Sunday talked about reading the scriptures, the need to not neglect the simple things (like reading the scriptures), and about how we should be feasting from the words of the scriputres. Obviously, somebody was trying to tell me something. So, I decided, the only way I'm going to get them read every day is to set my alarm 30 minutes earlier and read frist thing, before I do anything and get going for the day. It's been rough, and I'm not sure how much I'm really retaining, but I've done it every day this week which is a big accomplishment!

#3. Becoming a transcriptionist. My student loan is coming due in a couple months (June to be exact) and I'm starting to kind of stress out about it. I was talking to my mom last weekend and she asked if I wanted her to pass on my information to a friend of hers who got her a job working as a transcriptionist. I said sure, and was then promptly contacted by this friend of my mom's and asked if I wanted to help her with some of the files she was working on. I said yes, and thus began my job as a part-time transcriptionist. I've done three hours of audio this week (which equals about 10-11 hours of typing) and I have two more hours of audio that I will be working on tomorrow. After working at my regular job all day, I come home, go walking with Katy for about 30 minutes, then sit down and type until bedtime. My brain is tired but this has been a blessing because it has allowed me to earn some extra income that will help me to start building my savings back up in anticipation of June.