Texas Roundup

I Can. Not. Believe. that it has been almost 2 years to the day since my last blog post. We arrived in Texas and fell off the face of the blog world, apparently.

Well, we're back! I think something about having my own office space makes me more inclined to write. Look out, world!

BTW, I am totally LOVING having my own home office. For the last two years, the "office" has been a giant desk shoved into a corner of the living room of our apartment. But now that we bought a house, I have my own official place. Which I got to design. It is amazing. Pictures to come when everything is set up. But for now, know that we painted the walls ourselves, got wood flooring, sewed our own curtains, and built custom desks from Ikea components. I am in a bubble of decor serenity in here.

So, fast 2-year summary:

• We moved to TX (obvi) and lived in a happy gated apartment complex, which was just so nice compared to our last Provo housing debacle.
• I have changed jobs twice (but stayed in the same company). I am now an Instructional Designer, working specifically in designing and implementing Quality Assurance measures.
• We bought a dog, Phoebe, to be friends with our cat, Apollo. She adores him with her whole puppy heart. I'm not sure the feeling is mutual.

• We bought a house in May, and just moved in 2 weeks ago. We now live in a surprisingly new and expanding housing development that popped up in a rural town called Venus, and our house backs up to farm land. My backyard view is picturesque.

• Earlier this week, we had some extensive water damage in the home and are learning the joys and sorrows of homeownership. I know my poor living room looks so sad, but we'll get by. 

Over these last 2 years, I have felt so extraordinarily blessed. I love where I live. I love who I live with. I love that I get to be near my parents and really get to know them as an adult.

Today I was really feeling 1st Thessalonians, so I made this desktop wallpaper to remind myself of God's blessings all day long.

And yes, it matches the color scheme in my office, which, did I mention, I love? 

We're Texans!

We moved! To Texas. Home on the range, and all that.

Apollo was not pleased by his car adventure. We drugged him with vet-approved tranqs, but he still escaped his cat barriers in the car and climbed up under my feet to hide from the scary, scary world. We had to stop at Wal-Mart in New Mexico to buy him a better cat cage for the remainder of the journey.

We drove for two days through Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and, finally, Texas. The view was beautiful, and we saw some cool landmarks as we drove.

Forgive the blurry cell phone car window pictures. I was too excited about the milestones to care about the picture quality.

Hole in the Rock:

Unfortunately, the individuals who arranged to have "Hole in the Rock" painted in billboard-size letters on the side of the mountain did not have an editor. If you squint, you can see that the name is spelled creatively as HOLE N" THE ROCK, with a quotation mark after the N. Who here didn't understand how contractions and apostrophes work? ::sigh:: Oh, the undervaluation of my profession.

Chimney Rock:

Texas State Line sign:

Mansfield Next 3 Exits!! Almost There!

Mansfield is such a nice little town. We LOOOOOOOVE our new apartment, and we'll love it even more once our stuff arrives on Wednesday. In the interim, we've been staying with my parents, who are fabulous hosts.

So we're Texans. I may adopt an accent. Or buy cowboy boots. 

Put On My Editing Shoes

I saw this picture while browsing the web the other day:

I thought, "Book shoes! Awesome! I could totally do that."

Project: Use a copy of your favorite book to decoupage a pair of kicks. But what's may favorite book? I couldn't decide. I love so, so many books.

So I looked at my shelves to see what books I had on hand. There, shining at me in all of its orange glory, was my outdated, but much beloved, Chicago Manual of Style.

Now that the 16th edition is published, my old manual was destined for the trash. And considering the frequency with which I consult this book, I could legitimately add it to my "favorites" list. I am always donning my "editing shoes" (or hat, or whichever piece of clothing your idiom prefers) in my professional and private life. Since editing is a big part of my identity, and this book is basically the editing Bible, I decided to make a very literal pair of editing shoes!

Ingredients:
an old pair of comfy flats that have seen better days
some favorite passages from my CMOS
a jar of Mod Podge

Result:
Amazing!!

Let me "walk you through" my favorite aspects:

The Title Page

Chicago's Recommendation for the Use of the Oxford Comma

The Grammar and Usage Chapter Title Page (my most-consulted section) and the Usage Guidelines for Comprise and Compose (a popular grammarian topic)

Uses of the Em Dash (a favorite punctuation mark) and Guidelines for Hyphenation with Adverbs Not Ending in ly (those dastardly adverbs)

Chicago's Description of Mechanical Editing

And there you have them! Real, bona fide editing shoes. I think I'll wear them to our editing meeting next month. All my coworkers will be sooooo jealous.

Scottish Festival

My BFF Melissa came to town, and we painted it red. Or maybe plaid.

While we did lots of fun things while she was in Provo, like drive through the canyon, explore Bickenstaff's toy store, see A Wrinkle in Time (an original play at BYU), and work on our family history, the highlight of our funstravaganza was the 39th Annual Scottish Festival and Highland Games at Thanksgiving Point.

We saw lots of bagpipers.

We watched sheaf tossing, where men and women spear a bag of straw with a pitchfork and grunt as they try to fling it backward over a bar.

He's gonna toss that sheaf!

We also watched caber tossing. Fo' rizzle. They were throwing trees.

 

Cart 'o cabers

Melissa watching caber tossing

People in kilts outnumbered us normal folk significantly.

All kinds of kilts

The only "traditional" kilt ensemble we saw

There were also a few processions of pipers, which I recorded for your auditory delight. (You may want to turn your speakers down. These pipers are a force of nature.)

I got a mild sunburn. It was a glorious day.

Three Short Years

Warning: This post contains sappy romantic notions.

Today marks three years of marriage to my darlingest Seth. To celebrate our anniversary, we wanted to share one of our first stories with you.

The first time Seth knew that he wanted to date Heather:

Heather and I had been friends for about a month or so before we started dating. We would do things like watch movies and hang out, but those were never dates. One weekend I went snowboarding with some friends. I am not a very good snowboarder, and I fall often. On that day I fell on my left knee hard, multiple times. By the time I got home, my knee was swollen to the size of a grapefruit. I didn't really care about the pain, but when the knee was still swollen three days later, I decided it was probably time to get it checked out.

Poor Heather had a terrible cold. She was miserable and sneezing constantly. Regardless, she came to the doctor with me so that I didn't have to go alone. We sat in the BYU Health Center waiting room (Where true romance can blossom?) until I was called back for x-rays. It was there in the back room wearing the stupid pink hospital clothes that I started to realize something—there I was with a busted knee getting an x-ray, and I was having fun because Heather was with me. Not only that, but she wanted to be with me even though she was sick. I knew that if I dated Heather, I would always have someone with me to make things better. I asked her out on our first date that weekend.

Fans

We bought two new stand fans in an effort to use less AC this summer. On their lowest setting, the amount of air they push out has earned them the nickname "The Twin Turbines of the Apocalypse."

Really, it's insane. And loud. But they do a great job of keeping us cool.

Instead of nightly pillow talk, we're reduced to yelling sweet nothings over the roar of hurricane-force winds.

Me: Sleep well.

Seth: What?

Me: I said, sleep well, sweetheart!

Seth: What?! I can't hear you.

Me: *shrieking* SLEEP WELL! I said SLEEP WELL!

Seth: Oh. You too.