Graduation

Well I graduated from college about two weeks ago. It was rather uneventful. I did not walk in my graduation, driving 16 hours to walk was not really an option. Although, I am a little sad that I missed out on that opportunity. All that really matters is that I get my diploma in the mail. That little piece of paper cost me thousands or dollars and countless hours in front of the computer.

To celebrate we went to sushi, my favorite thing in the world almost. Orion had just gotten his wisdom teeth removed the day before so he did not really enjoy the food. Don't worry I knew I was pregnant when we got sushi and I only got the cooked rolls. My parents sent me money and that was the extent of celebrating. Until I got a package in the mail.

My Nana and Papa sent me a graduation present. A pearl and gold necklace and bracelet. I was so surprised at the gift. My Nana said she wanted to give me something that I could show my children one day and tell them where I got. I think it is so pretty and much more exciting then walking in a graduation ceremony. Although, I would have loved to wear this necklace and bracelet at my wedding. Maybe my future daughter/s will want to wear it.

I just love this ring. It is so unique and interesting to look at. Also it is my favorite color. Orion did a great job getting me this.

The Box of Shame

I got a little upset at Orion the other day for something. I don't remember what it was about. Being the funny man that he is he put himself in the box of shame.

I could not help but laugh at him. I completely forgot why I was upset with him. It also reminded me that we need to get rid of our TV box. It has been sitting in our spare bedroom since last month.

Christmas!

Oh how I love Christmas for so many reasons! Mostly I love it because it reminds me of how blessed I am to know my Savior. The presents are nice too. Orion surprised me this year with my gifts. That is not something that happens often because I am an expert at ruining surprises without even trying. I got a super soft bath robe, which is not that exciting to look at so no pictures. I got my favorite thing in the world, knee high socks!

They are my favorite and I want to wear them all day long. I also got a super pretty ring. I am having a hard time taking a good picture of it, so that will just have to wait. To go along with the ring I got this really cool holder.

You can put rings on each peddle or have them sit in the middle of it. It is pretty sweet. But the best present I got this year was a BABY! Yep we are pregnant and we are so excited! This present came early. We found out in November and I just could not hold in the news any longer. I am a little over ten weeks pregnant and so far so good. No throwing up, just a huge desire to nap and go to bed early.

Orion also got great presents this year. A brand new big screen TV that he got last month. My favorite gift was his stocking stuffer.

There was coal inside for him. The look on his face was priceless! I told him he did not deserve any other presents. You would have thought I just told him to die or something how sad he looked. I quickly gave him his other presents to assure him that he was not so bad this year. It was the funniest gift ever if you ask me. The surprise for Orion was a movie I found for him .

The Muppet Christmas Carol. He has been wanting this movie for a while now, but it was hard to find. I randomly found it at Best Buy one day and had to be super sneaky to buy it without Orion knowing. To throw him off when opening the present I put the movie in a big shirt box and covered it with random little gifts. He was a little disappointed to see that I only got him gum, candy, and pretzels. Then I told him to look under all of those things. He was so surprised and happy to see the movie. When it comes to Christmas Orion really is a little kid.

Life Changing

I can't believe my life has turned out the way it has. I always planned to get married after college because I thought it would be too hard to do both. Well so much for that one. I have been married for over a 1.5 years and I graduate on the 17th! It's really weird to say that. I will be done with college in a week. What am I going to do now that I reached my goal? Uh good question. Mr. O is getting his wisdom teeth pulled on Wednesday so we can't even go out to dinner to celebrate my graduation. Lame! But I am sure I will survive. If all goes according to plan I will graduate with a 4.0 this semester! I wish I could say I had a 4.0 every semester, but my freshman year of college was ridiculous. I did not spend must time studying and my GPA reflected that. It happens to the best of us.

What do you do once you reach your goal? Make a new one? I think that is what I am going to do.

A real tree

The year we decided to buy a real tree. We bought a real one last year, but it was a tiny little baby one. But this year we went all out. Our tree is taller than me, but not taller than Mr. O. I am in love with it.

Our stockings are just hanging out on our mini bar at the moment. We don't have a fancy hook for them yet. I am hoping to find one at a thrift store or on super sale after Christmas. We went with blue and silver this year. I just love the color combo.

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Teeth

Mr. O will not be happy to know that this picture is online, but I could not help myself. Last week he got some work done on his teeth and as a result could not feel half of his face.

He was eating an ice cream cone and could not feel the pieces sitting on his face. Needless to say he was not happy when I took this picture. I could not help but laugh and then push the food into his mouth. I told him it was like he was my big baby that I needed to help feed. For some reason he did not think this comment was funny.

Happy Christmas!

Christmas came early for my sweet husband. He wanted soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo bad to get a new TV. I wanted to make sure all his dreams come true, it is one of my goals in life, so we searched for a good deal. We search high and low until we found one! It still cost a zillion dollars, at least in my mind, but it is wonderful. Mr. O was so very excited when it was delivered.

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It looks like he has a mustache, but he does not. I think mustaches are gross!

He could not wait to plug it in and turn it on. The only down side was the time the TV was delivered. It showed up a half hour before he needed to leave for work. He did not have enough time to play his new video game before he left. It was the happiest and saddest day of his life. hahaha

Here is our big TV. It is not huge, but it is much bigger than our old one. We gave our old one, that we got from Mr. O's grandma, to his parents. It is currently sitting on their couch. They are apparently not excited to have a big TV like Mr. O. Funny how that worked out.

The only down side to having the TV come so early is that I don't have any surprises left to give Mr. O for Christmas. I will have to think of something. I hear pinterest calling my name, it always gives me great ideas.

I was thinking today how truly blessed I am. My entire marriage, all 1.5 years of it, I have not HAD to work. I of course have worked because I like working. I love working with people and make money. But today I realized that Mr. O has always been able to provide for us on his income alone. That does not mean that we are rich by any means, nor does it mean that he has a high paying job. It simply means that we are able to live within our means and for that I am grateful.

Before we got married I was very worried about how we would even survive. I had just gotten home from school and had no prospects for a job. Mr. O had a job but it only paid $10 a hour and it was not full time. We were doomed to be working a zillion jobs and have no money. At least that is what I thought. My sweet husband taught me a valuable lesson  after we got engaged. He told me not to worry because we were doing the right thing. He said that everything would work out and it did. He got a better job that could support us and I got a job as well. From that time we have moved, lost jobs, gained jobs, quit jobs, bought a car, went on vacations and so much more. In the end money did not matter because we had each other and our faith in the Lord. We knew that as long as we were following the Lord everything would fall into place and it has.

December 17

I can't wait till that day. Actually I can't wait till the week that day falls into because I will be DONE with school. I will officially graduate on the 17th of December. I have four weeks left, including this week, until I can say I am a college graduate. I can't wait. I don't want to work on school anymore. I just want to be done. At least for now. I might change my mind in the future. Maybe a Masters is in my future. For now I just want my future to have a college degree and no more homework.

TV

Mr. O wants a new big screen TV real bad. He has been searching online as much as possible. He has even tried to bribe me in order for me to say OK to spending lots of money on a new TV. This crazy kick he is on started with his birthday and the present I got him. Skyrim is this new video game that just came out. He has wanted it for months, 9 do be exact. Well when he finally got it he realized that it was designed for big flat screen TVs. He of course has to have one so he can enjoy his game better. Here I thought I married an adult. Turns out he is just a big kid with a job.

One of my favorite holidays

HALLOWEEN! I know this is two weeks late, but I have been busy.

Meet Bucky our pumpkin. Mr. O named him. When we first bought our pumpkin his name was Jack O because he was going to be a Jack O Lantern, but when we carved him we gave him buck teeth thus his name. I was so excited to carve a pumpkin with Mr. O. Even though we have been married for a year and a half now, this was the first time we bought a pumpkin together. I ended up carving it while Mr. O "supervised", I told him he was mean for not helping.

Our favorite take and bake pizza place had a special last month. A Jack O Lantern pizza! I just had to have one. We went the entire month without one because someone, Mr. O, kept refusing. Finally on Halloween I told him we were getting one and that was that. It was the last day they were offering the pizza.
 It is really cute right? I just love pumpkins. I also love pizza so when the two came together I could not resist.

The Beach

While on our vacation we went to our favorite spot. Morro Strand. I don't think we can visit the SLO area and not go there. I have a love of sand dollars and am always on the look out for them. I can't leave a beach without one, at least that is my goal. This trip did not disappoint.

We found the biggest sand dollar! It is at least three inches big. I have never seen one so big. It now lives in the bowl of sand dollars in my kitchen. It is no longer brown though, it has turned a green color. No matter I love it any ways.

The other night we had the missionaries over for dinner and one of them noticed my collection. He is from Tonga and had never seen one before. At least that is what I think he said. He just learned English a couple months ago. He wondered if we lived near the beach. I was sad to report that we lived hours away. I offered to give him one, but he declined because he thought he would break it.

Vacation

I just love to go on vacation! I don't know anyone who does not look forward to a vacation. Although I am sure there are people like that out there. For my birthday this year Mr. O took me on vacation. We went to my favorite place on the planet! SLO! I love it there and miss it so much. We had so much fun!

We stayed with our brother and sister in law, in their master bedroom I might add. They are currently re doing their house and we were lucky enough to end up there. We had our own bathroom and shower! That meant we did not have to share with our cute but messy nieces and nephews. Talk about a blessing.

My goal was to go to a pumpkin patch while we were there because my birthday is just two days before Halloween. It is not Halloween without a pumpkin patch.

The best part was the fake ghosts. Look how cute little Tobin is. I just love that little boy.

We also went on  a hay ride! My first ever. It was so much fun, mostly because Tobin sat next to me pointing out everything. The world through the eyes of a three year old is amazing.

You can't really tell but I was super excited about the hay ride. We rode by an olive orchard that apparently grows them for martini's. Our driver joked that they were water with vodak.

These were our trusting horses. They are "super strong" according to Tobin. I would have to agree considering all the people they can pull. That is Mr. O chatting it up with our driver.

Going to the pumpkin patch and going on a hay ride was the high light of the trip. Even though I kept sneezing the entire time. I must be allergic to hay or something. It does not matter because I am going on a hay ride next year.

The cutest little boys

This past weekend I went over to SLO all by myself on the train/bus. It was a little nerve racking to go all alone. It was the first time I had ever been away from Mr. O for more than a night. I was gone for three days. I almost cried when the train pulled away. I am such a baby. I went over to be a nanny for the week to my fabulous old boss. I wish will lived closer so I could still work for her. I am in love with sausage and pepperoni (not their real names by the way). While I was there I had them dress up in their Halloween costumes.

I forgot my camera once again, so this is a semi poor picture from my phone. Don't they melt your heart? Pep was a pilot like his grandpa. He was so excited to put on his costume. Sausage was a dragon and was not thrilled to wear his costume. It had a stuff tail, cute little booties, dragon head hat, and dragon gloves. I wanted them to be dressed up for the rest of the night, but Sausage would not have it. He was grumpy from being sick and missing his momma.

I am so grateful I got to watch them this weekend. They make me so excited to be a momma someday. It made being away from Mr. O not so bad. Of course I was over the moon to get back to him. He was pretty excited to see me too.

Moving to the Central Valley from the Central Coast has not been my favorite. In fact there have been many times that I have cried and wished we could move back. I thought about all the great things the Central Coast has to offer. Many my old job with the cutest boys in the world. Not having a job has really taken a toll on my self confidence. So I have pretty much been an unhappy rut since we moved here. But today something really sunk it. I need to be humble and stop wasting my time focusing on things I don't have.

I no longer live in a place where I know lots of people and never got lost. I no longer feel confident going out on my own because I don't know where I am going. I don't have a job right now, but that's OK! There are plenty of things I don't have, but there is SO much that I do have. Mr. O has a job that supports us without me needing to work. We have insurance and money in the bank (not a lot but some). We have a car that runs great and can afford to fill our gas tank up. I have so much yet I have been so stuck on things I no longer have.

I met a lady today who is a single mom with two children. She has no car and no job. She can barely pay her rent and she does not have a phone. I gave her a ride home today so she did not have to walk home with her children. Even though her life is hard she is a very happy lady. It humbled me to see her and her excitement about life and the gospel. I am so blessed with all I have and this woman taught me that without saying a word. Her smile changed my out look on life.

My new obsession

I have recently learned how to make clothe flowers and I am obsessed! I love making them. I am not sure what I think it is so fun but I do. I just excited that I have so many to pin on a shirt/jackets and to clip in my hair. Also I am excited to have a gift I can make my nieces for Christmas. Now I just need to find something that I can make for my nephews. Any suggestions?

The Vineyard

Our church has a welfare vineyard that Mr. O and I were lucky enough to volunteer in. Our church donates all the raisins made from the vineyard (100%) to those in need. If there is a natural disaster somewhere or simply someone does not have enough money for food those raisins are given to them. There are lots of other welfare crops our church grows, but we only live near the vineyard.

It was such a uplifting experience to work in the vineyard. Knowing that a couple of hours that I put in was going to help feed thousands of people in need. I did not even mind that my clothes turned brown because of all of the dirt and I was soaking wet from all of the dew.

These are our shoes after we tried to clean them off. Silly me for wearing white shoes. I had no idea just how dirty we would get. The next morning I woke up really sore but happy. I am grateful to know that I can help those in need even if I never meet them.

Group Date!

I have forgotten how much fun a group date can be. When I was single I use to go on group dates all the time! They were the best. Now that I am an old married lady (just kidding I am far from old, almost 22) I have not been on a double date for awhile. Lucky for me an assignment I had for my group dynamics class was to go on a group date. That is even better than a double date in my opinion.

So I planned everything out and invited two married couples over. It was a success. I made home made pizza dough, my favorite thing to make, and each couple made their own pizza. So yummy! Let me know if you want the super easy recipe. I am serious it takes less than five minutes to make and it is delicious!

Mr. O and I went to the store that day to buy a game to play with everyone. We own one board game. I say it is because I get a little intense when it comes to games. I just want to win at all costs. It can get ugly so I try to avoid playing games for that reason. But Mr. O had a great idea about a game to play.

 This is not my picture. I got it from Google images. I pretty sure the website it came from was in a different language.

Catch Phrase! Such a fun game. I did not get overly aggressive either. Go me! Although I did say that the boys were cheating when they started to win points. We played boys against girls. That is the funnest way to play I think and its easier to understand clues from the same sex, at least I think it is. We played best 2 out of 3 to see who the best team was. GIRLS WON! Not that I am bragging or anything. Who knew homework assignments could be fun?

For a class I took about marriage I had to go on a date with Mr. O a couple semesters ago. I love it when my classes help me build my relationships with other people especially my husband. I guess it also helps that I am minoring in Marriage and Family Relations and Communication. Those two have helped my marriage TONS!

Giving

The other day I did something new. It seems like I have been doing a lot of new things lately. It is a good thing I think because it is forcing me to become a better person. I gave blood this week! The first time ever. I even got a sticker to prove it.

They stuck that huge sticker on me so everyone knew I was new. It was kind of scary. I have never been a fan of needles. They have always scared me. I took a speech class a couple of semesters ago that taught me a great thing. I learned that nervousness is a learned response. I think it is true. So I have decided to get over my fears because for the most part they are silly. Being afraid of a needle is silly. When my friend asked me to join he to give blood I said yes. I then felt scared because it meant that I would be willingly having someone stick me with a needle. Then I told myself that it was for a good cause.

I even got a cool color arm wrap. They failed to mention that I would be tired after giving blood. When I got home and tried to work on homework I found it hard to focus. Instead I watched some Mythbusters, because I love all things science related and vegged out. It felt wonderful and Mr. O laughed at me when he got off work. I told him he had to do everything for me because I had to rest.

He did get me water and told me to go to bed. He thought it was cute that I stayed awake till he got home from work even though I was really tired. I did not tell him that I took a nap earlier. I felt great knowing that I was able to help other people out. It only took seven minutes to give my blood and then I got to eat all the sugary foods I wanted. This did not go so well with my attempt at being healthier, but I figured it was for a good cause. I did not want to pass out so I had to eat an ice cream. It is what the people at the blood bank told me to do. :) Have you ever given blood? I think I am going to do it more often because I love knowing that I am helping other people. Plus I got a coupon for a free pumpkin! I also got coupons for other stuff as well.

I made something!

Can I just tell you how excited I was last night. I made something all by myself and it is cute! At least I think it is. I watched a tutorial video how to make and then I did it! I am super proud of myself. I feel like that soon enough I will be crafty. I just have to take baby steps.

It's a flower that you can put in your hair or pin to a shirt. You can't really tell in this picture, but in the far away one you can tell a little better.

I could not wait for Mr. O to come home so I could show him. He of course said it was cute after he asked what it was. It looks better in real life. Maybe I will pin it to a shirt, take a picture, and then post it on here. So you can see it better. I know I am kinda lame for being so excited about this carnation puff flower but I can't help myself.

SLO

The other day I was cleaning on the desk drawer and found this little guy. It is a key to our old apartment in SLO. When we moved in our landlord gave us three keys even though it was just Mr. O and I living there. When we moved out we turned in our keys, but forget about this guy. Apparently our landlord forgot as well because we got our full deposit back. Is it bad that I went to keep this key forever to remind me that I lived in SLO? Maybe you should not answer that.

Just for the record the key is laying on my daily planner I never use. I bought it so I could have something pretty to write my homework in, but I caved and went back to my spiral notebook. I keep the daily planner on my desk because I like to look at it. I wish I could have couch pillows with that pattern on it over even a comforter. Although, I think Mr. O would think its too girly.

My Favorite month

I will have you know that October is my favorite month out of the entire year. In fact when I was little I would say all of the months of the year starting with October. It was simply how the months went in my mind. It was a sad day when I realized that the months started with January. Of course I am biased when it comes to October because its my birthday month! Also it has Halloween and I was 2 days old for my first one. Lets not forget that Fall actually starts in October, at least in my mind.

A most glorious thing happened just a few days ago. IT RAINED! Oh halleluiah! I was so excited I put on my favorite socks. 

They are knee high toe socks. Yes I am almost 22 and still wear toe socks. Some things you simply don't out grow. Plus Mr. O bought them for me for an anniversary present. He bought them at a place in down town SLO called the Sock Drawer. It is such a fun little store to go into. They have a million pairs of socks in as many different varieties. In fact the first pair Mr. O bought me had a whole in them so I went to exchange them. I had my receipt in ready to prove I bought them, but the shop owner saw the whole and told me to just pick out a new pair. No signing anything or proving I bought the socks in a certain period of time. It was lovely and made me want to continue to go there.

Here on the surface of the sun (which is no longer so hot) grapes are turning into raisins. Well that is the plan anyways. Turns out I am suppose to wait to pray for rain until after the raisins are dried and ready to ship. I will have to remember that for next time. Speaking of grapes I found a huge one and attempted to take a picture. If you had not noticed my camera is not so great and neither or my picture taking skills.

It was bigger than a quarter. I even saved it to show Mr. O when he came home from work.

Can you tell that it is bigger round than it is high? Just take my word for it that it was a huge grape. It took a lot for me to not eat it at the time because I heart grapes. My mom never bought them growing up because she thought they were too pricey. One of the perks of living on the surface of the sun is that grapes are grown here so they are relatively cheap! Where I use to live plenty of grapes were grown, but they were for the wineries.

Found

I know that you all were worried about Orion's missing pay check. Wait, that was just me? Dang! I have good news the paycheck was found in a locked box in a locked room at work. Weird I know but what can you do. I was so excited when he brought it home I almost took a picture of it to post here. Then I realized that would be a little weird.

I got online so I could work on homework. Then I decided I would just check out pinterest.com. The next thing I knew it was almost 11 o'clock. I got on at 10 something to do a little reading before Orion got home, but I got so caught up in looking at recipes and DIY projects. I really want to be crafty, but I am not really creative at all. At least pinterest helps me think I am crafty. Maybe it will come some day.

I made a friend in my ward that is crafty. She introduced me to pinterest. I am hoping she can teach me how to be more creative. Although, it might not help me focus on my last semester of college. Curse you senoritas!

Missing

Orion's pay check is missing. MISSING!!!! I tell you it is MISSING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Where did it go? Great question. Did we spend it already? Nope! It is missing. Your guess is as good as mine as to where it currently is. We signed up for direct deposit through his work. That way we get (should) paid a day earlier than getting an actual check. Well payday comes and no deposit. Ok, I thought maybe they have not set direct deposit up yet. They told us it would take a month. Orion has worked there for two months now so we figured it would be set by now. NOPE! I was not thrilled, but figured he could just pick the check up at work the next day. Turns out there was not even a pay stub waiting for Orion. NOTHING! No check, no pay stub, no money!

I am a little bit upset. Thank goodness we have money in the bank or else we would not be able to pay the bills. I like having a place to live, food to eat, and gas in my car. Call me selfish, but if you work for an entire month you expect to get paid by the end of it. But here I sit 3 days after pay day with no pay check (well Orion's pay check). That brings me to my plea to all of you readers. I need a job. It seems like everybody needs a job these days. I just want some ideas of places to work or even ideas of starting my own little business. That is my dream to one day own a business. The sound of being my own boss is magical I think. I am open for ideas, suggestions, tips, donations (just kidding), anything really. So what do you think I should do?

I am pretty much brilliant

Finishing your degree online can be pretty lonely. It also requires lots of papers to be written. I hate writing papers late at night because it is so quiet and I am such a chicken when I am home alone. I don't want to turn on music or a movie because I would get distracted. But then I got a brilliant idea! Listen to your wedding mix! I made the soundtrack to my reception like a month after I got engaged. Music is important to me because it connects my thoughts and my feelings into something beautiful. I did not do much planning for my wedding/reception because I did not really care. All I wanted to do was marry my best friend. But when it came to the music that was going to be played I was all over that. I am so glad I did. I don't think it really mattered to anyone at my reception, but it meant so much to me.

Now I can listen to the music and be reminded about that wonderful day that I married my sweet husband. I don't even care that the day of our reception was a day from hell. (Do you remember all the horrible things that happened that day? Showing up five minutes before it started without make up, hair, or anything done. It did not matter because I was married forever to my best friend.) I can't help but smile when I hear the music we danced to and all the wonderful people who were there. I realized that I can whip up a paper at super speed when I listen to my wedding play list. I am in such a good mood I can do anything, even write a paper about something that seems silly. Have you ever made a play list for a special occasion?

My least favorite thing about Orion's new job = 16 hour shifts. I hate sleeping by myself! It's the worst. Orion worked another double shift last night, I cried. It was mostly because he had worked a double just two days before and I was feeling lonely. When he works doubles he comes home takes a shower goes to bed. When he wakes up he goes to work and when he gets home from work he goes to bed. It's lonely. But today he woke up at 11 so we had some time to spend together. I have no idea how he is even functioning on only four hours of sleep after staying up all night long. I am just grateful that I have him.

When we lived in SLO sometimes Orion would bring up flowers for me or chocolate covered pretzels. He did sometimes for no reason and sometimes when I told him I was having a bad day. Well a couple months ago he brought home some sunflowers (my favorite flowers in the world) when I was having a bad day. He told that I had to take a picture and put it on our blog. That way people would know that he is a good husband. I took the picture and forgot to post it. Does that make me a bad wife? I am going with no. Better late than never right?

It's not a very good picture, but it gets the point across. My husband loves me especially on my bad days. On a side note Orion has a 3 day weekend starting tomorrow. It's super lame that his weekends are actually during the week, but I will take what I can get. Yay for having an extra long weekend because of Furloughs. Boo for having to take a Furlough day every other week because it means less pay. Furloughs are another love/hate relationship I have. Ever since moving to the surface of the sun I have developed multiple love/hate relationships.

It's It

Have you ever had one of these bad boys? If you answered no I think you should go out and get yourself one. That is if they sell them in your store. I don't know if it is just a California thing. Anyways these guys are so delicious! They also hold a special place in my heart. The night Orion proposed to me we drove over to Fresno to tell his family. Afterwards I wanted some ice cream and decided to try this out. I had never heard of it before and figured it was worth a shot. Best decision ever! Ok second best because saying yes to Orion's proposal was the first best decision ever.


The best part about this ice cream sandwich is the oatmeal cookies! How many ice cream sandwiches are made with oatmeal cookies? I can't think of any. It makes me feel like it is a tiny bit healthy for me. It is lightly covered in dark chocolate. Now wait before you roll your eyes and say "gross dark chocolate" hear me out. I dislike dark chocolate a lot, but this lovely like guy does not taste like dark chocolate at all. It just takes like pure goodness.

Orion and I bought a pack the other night when we went to the grocery store at midnight. He gets off work at 11 so going to the store at midnight is not that weird for us. What is weird is that only three sandwiches come in a box. I either beg Orion to let me have the second one for another time or we share it later. Whenever I feel like reliving the day Orion proposed to me I buy a box of these ice cream sandwiches and smile at how lucky I am.

I survived

You would think after spending twenty or so years sleeping by myself that I would have no problem doing it now. Turns out I have a horrible time sleeping without Orion next to me. I have never been able to do on my own. I need my trusty friend Melatonin to get me to sleep. Last night Orion had to work a double, which meant he had to work over night. He went in at 3 pm and got home at 7 am. Talk about a long day!

I am happy to report I survived the night and slept through most of it. Of course I stayed up as last as possible to make me really tired and I took some Melatonin. It was not as bad as I thought it would be. The down side is that Orion is currently sleeping right now and when he wakes up he will have to go to work. Boo for having to hang out by myself for pretty much two days.

Oh Fresno

I kind of have a love hate relationship with Fresno. I hate it because its way too huge, the population is something over 400,000. That is too many people in my book. I love it because it has museums, which my little heart is set on going to (the upside of having a huge population is more people have a desire to have a great museum or plays to go to). Do you see how this love hate relationship works? I hate (I am really not a fan of the word hate so lets change it to dislike) I dislike Fresno because it is full of smog. I can't see the mountains because there is way too much smog that only goes away when it rains and even then it is only gone for a little while. I love Fresno because it has a Temple!

                                                  (This picture is not mine I stole it off of Google)
Fresno having a Temple pretty much makes up for all the things that I don't like about. It even makes me forget that I am now 2.5 hours from the beach. Orion and I went to the Temple today and it was so wondering. It was great to be able to spend some time away from our regular lives to just sit and think about what is truly important. It really gives you perspective when you enter into the house of the Lord. I wish I could have stayed there all day long. It is so quiet and peaceful there. There is nothing that could be more beautiful yet so simple.

So I love living so close to the Temple, but I dislike living so far away from everything that I am use to. I love knowing that Orion is at a job that is an actual career job, but I dislike that I don't have a job (I miss pepperoni and sausage! I have their picture up on my fridge). I love that I have a semi huge (compared to the shoe) apartment to live in, but I dislike vacuuming it. I am always trying to con Orion into doing it. I have gotten so lazy about cleaning since we moved here. I think it is because I have been in such a rut. I am working on getting over myself and being happy that I am so blessed. It's going to take some time, but living so close to the Temple will help me get my act together. If nothing else it will help me do more service for others. I figure that is better than nothing.

First Week

The first week of my last semester has ended! I can't believe that in 13 weeks I will be a college graduate. I still have no idea what I am going to do after I graduate. That part of the plan was never really thought about. I just always thought about how I wanted to say I graduated college. I figured everything else would simply fall into place. So here I am waiting....

Red Lobster!

Let me tell you a little secret, I love sea food. I think it is so yummy and I would eat it everyday if I could. No wonder Orion calls me a fish!

So on Monday after I worked all day long on classes because I finally started them! I am so excited about my classes by the way. Orion decided he wanted to go see a movie in Fresno. The only movie I would agree to watch was Captain America and it was pretty good. After the movie I was starving so I insisted that Orion take me to dinner. (I know what you are thinking, hey they are poor how do they have money to go to a movie and dinner?) Answer we sold our second car and I got my grant which means we are not so poor at the moment. I wanted sushi really really bad but we could not find one/Orion remember where one was near by that he liked and was not overly priced. As you have guessed by the title of the post we went to Red Lobster, which was second on my list of places to go to eat.

They had a special going where you could buy all you can eat shrimp for 16 bucks a person. What a deal! Our waitress was amazing and kept bringing us food.

That is just the plates of the food she brought us after we were stuffed. It was all so delicious! Even after we got our to go boxes she brought another two plates of grilled shrimp. Oh man those little guys were OUTSTANDING!

I told Orion to smile but he is not very good at taking pictures. Silly guy. Good thing I love him so much.

This was just my to go box and shrimp that I decided to leave. Orion's to go box looked the same! We ended up having the left overs for lunch the next day. I was in heaven. As much shrimp as my heart could take and cheesy bread rolls. Best date night if you ask me. As we were leaving I thought about how this was not going with my goal of eating healthier. OOPS! I did order a salad and broccoli to go with the pasta and bread shrimp. That counts a little right?

Oh Happy Day

We sold the Cop Car! I was so very very excited to see it go. I was not in love with that car and it is cheaper for us to have one car right now. We are saving over forty dollars a month on our insurance by having only one car. At the moment we need to save as much money as possible. We sold it to a guy named Tim who is getting married soon. He is Mormon too! Oh craigslist you are constantly showing me how small the world really is. Thanks Tim for buying our car, I hope it is wonderful to you and you love it more than I ever did.

The next day I got my grant money from school! I am so excited! Since we moved here I have been stressing out about money. Orion is making more an hour but a billion dollars is being taken out for health care, retirement, and taxes so we are not bringing home as much as we thought we would. Needless to say we needed to be extra careful when it comes to money. But then we sold our car and got my grant money. It is so wonderful to know that Heavenly Father is always looking out for us. It seems that whenever we get into tight financial situations, as long as we are faithful and pay our tithing, the Lord ALWAYS blesses us. Seriously! We ALWAYS find a way to make it through. Whether it be selling my parents fish tanks they did not want (we got to keep the money and my parents even paid us to get rid of them), driving to Oakland to help out Orion's brother (everything was paid for and we got paid to go up there), or getting a call to babysit out of the blue. When it comes down to the wire I know that God is always there to help us out. The answers or help might not come when we think they should, but they come when it is the right time.

Fish

Do you know about fish? Well I know a little something about them. I had a break through the other day. I was talking to Orion and I realized something. The words spilled out of my mouth and I was shocked to hear myself. I am like a fish. If you put a fish in a small tank they will stay the same size. There is no need for them to grow because they are already big enough for the tank. But, if you take that same fish and put it in a bigger tank it will grow. It will get bigger because it is necessary to survive. (On a side note this only works over a long period of time and it's different for every fish). Well I was the perfect size for my little tank in SLO. I was so comfortable I had no reason to grow or challenge myself. Now that I live on the surface of the sun the tank is huge! I am not use to being surrounded by so many fish that I don't know. I need to grow in order to survive. With that attitude I am happy to announce that I am no longer looking at living here as something that I have to endure, but as something that will help me better myself. I now have the opportunity to grow and become even stronger. I guess the surface of the sun is not that bad.

Dear Future Job

Please come find me like you did the last couple of times. All I am asking for is a part time job because graduating is more important than working. (On a side note I have a problem remembering which then/than to use in sentences. A little help would be great. My 8th grade English teacher would be ashamed of me if she ever found out about my little problem.) Last time I needed a job it just fell into my lap. A lady came up to me in church and asked if I wanted to be a nanny. Seeing as how I just finished a summer nanny job it worked out perfectly. The summer nanny job was just handed to me as well. So if that could happen again it would be great. Part time nanny job for someone (hopefully in my church so they won't want me to work on Sunday) is all I am asking for. Would it be too much to pray that it happens a third time? Well I am asking because it never hurts to ask for blessings. Don't worry I am looking for other jobs too, but to be honest I don't want to work retail again. Here's hoping that I can find a job I love other than/then being a full time student.

Morro Bay

Orion and I met in Morro Bay. We we first saw each other out side a friend's house, but we did not officially meet until Morro Bay. It was Morro Strand at sunset where we first started talking. My friend had invited me along so I could meet Orion's friend because they thought I would hit it off with him. Turns out that I did, but Orion had other plans. He was smitten right from the beginning, well that is how I tell the story anyways.

Once we found out that Orion was getting his new job on the surface of the sun I made a list of things we had to do before we moved. If I had to give up my little slice of Heaven for the surface of the sun I wanted to make sure I did all the things I loved before we moved. Like a good husband he made sure we did all the things on my list. The first thing was go to the beach. I was ok with just going once before we moved because we had three weeks till we left for vacation and we going to have to move before that. Well my sweet man took me to the beach multiple times! Our favorite beach in Morro Bay (to be honest I think he should have proposed there instead of Montanna De Orro, but a girl can't complain when she has a great husband). He bought me my favorite thing in the world (other than him) a red velvet cup cake!

As you can see it was huge. I am guessing the size of my head. Normally I say everything is that size, but this was honestly really huge. I loved every part of it. The best part about my love of red velvet cake is the cream cheese frosting. Orion hates cream cheese so I get to eat it all! I knew I married that man for a reason.

This picture makes the cupcake look smaller than it actually is, but it does show you how must frosting it has. Seriously the place we bought it from must have an unlimited about of sugar because I almost went into a sugar comma after eating this bad boy. That cute little flower on the top was the first thing I ate. It was not as good as it looked.

Any ways I have been missing Morro Bay and walking along the beach where I met my best friend. Hopefully for my birthday we will go back to visit and I can make another list of things I want to do and Orion can work on making it all happen. I think I might skip this particular red velvet cupcake thought going into a sugar comma again does not sound like fun and it was after I scooped off a quarter of the frosting. It was still super yummy but it would get in the way of my current goal for myself. Some of the ladies in my family have formed a club called the "Biggest Winners" and we are working on being a little bit healthier. We put in 10 bucks a month and whoever loses the most weight at the end of the month gets the money. I am pretty excited mostly because I think I have an edge on my Nana, mom, and aunts because I am much younger than them. I have more energy so I hoping to stomp them and when 60 bucks a month. I will keep you posted.

School

I am going to be honest I miss school. I miss homework and deadlines. I miss learning and being fascinated everyday. Well I learn something new everyday where I am in school or not but I really like, no I would say love, learning things from my classes. In Orion's words I am a forever student. I plan on taking classes at the local community college after I graduate in December. One because I am so in love with learning and two because as long as I am a part time student interest does not starting accumulating on my student loans. Its a win win situation if you ask me. I am also crazy about school shopping. I have this thing with spiral notebooks. I use them all the time. I always have one on my desk to write notes in to help me not forget anything. Plus it helps me when I want to make a list of things I want/need to do. Let me tell you that making a list is second on my list of things I love to do. There is something so amazing about making a list and then working really hard to get things accomplished on that list. It's also nice to know that I am probably not forgetting something important because I have my list to remind me. I can't wait for September to get here well 12th to be exact because it means I get to start school again. I am so happy I just can't wait! (It also means that I get my grant money which means extra money in the bank account that is currently on its last leg, who knew going a month and a half without a pay check would kill a bank account?)

A Gift

Yesterday was my brother-in-law's birthday. His wife called and asked if I could watch the kids so they could go out. I of course said yes because I kind of in love with children in general. When it comes to my nieces and nephews I am just over the moon about them. Well their children take a while to warm up to anyone. In fact when I first met them they would run away screaming bloody murder. If I looked at them they would start crying for their mom. SO to get to a point where I could watch them and they don't scream for their mom the entire time was AMAZING! I felt very accomplished. Orion came with me to watch their children because after all it was a gift for his brother.

We had a pretty easy night watching them. They have three kids and they are watching Bekah's sisters three kids. So Orion and I were watching six kids. I think it was good practice for us. My favorite part of the night was when Owen decided to put on his sisters light up shoes. Normally Owen is not my biggest fan because I am clearly not his mom. But as of the last week or so he has decided that I am not infected with the plague and that I am actually fun to play with. It only took two years but he finally likes me. I could not help but take pictures because it was so cute.

Those are the shoes. They are princess and light up when you walk. I said that I wanted to take a picture of him so he climbed up on a cube/storage thing so I could get a better picture. I knew he liked me. Then I told him to smile but instead he just looked at the shoes while they would light up.

I thought it was precious and a little bit like Tom Cruise walking around in undies and a white T shirt. We had fun last night but we were really tired when we got home. We slept in until 9:30 this morning. I guess that is why you start out with one kid at a time so you can build up to dealing with six children.

A simple answer to my prayer

So since moving to the surface of the sun I have been having a difficult time. I don't really know anyone (other than Orion's parents and his brother and wife), it is really hot, I had to leave my favorite job ever, we have to go forever before we have money coming in, we had to pay a million dollars for his uniforms and a bunch of other things. It has been hard on me and I have been a bit of a mess. A couple of nights I just broke down and cried because I felt like I could not handle it. Lucky for me Orion is really understanding and very comforting. Even luckier for me I have the big guy upstairs on my side. So I prayed for help to get through this difficult time and I prayed for a friend. I felt a little silly, but I know that my Heavenly Father will always be there to listen and help me out. Then came my favorite day of the week Sunday.

I witnessed a miracle. A lady came up to me that apparently use to live in Paso Robles (right by where I use to live) and started talking to me. She asked me how I was doing and was genuinely interested in me. It was so wonderful! Normally whenever people come up to us in church (or even just me) they ask me why we moved here, how we are liking it, where Orion works, where we are from, etc. I guess I just liked that it was questions about me instead of we (as in Orion and I). I am my own person outside of Orion. She invited me to a cooking class and gave me the book for book club next month. It was amazing! We even exchanged numbers. I felt so grateful that Heavenly Father was listening to my prayers and answered them in such a simple way. It made me realize that miracles happen every day, but we might miss them because they are not huge. This little miracle made a huge difference in my life. I felt so much better about myself and living here because one person was interested in me. I have decided that this is one of the friendliest ward I have ever been apart of. It does not even bother me much that most of the ladies are much older than me. We have the gospel in common and that is the best place to start a friendship off of.  

A little bit surprising

Today Orion picked out a show on Netflix that relates to his work. It was about kids who are breaking the law and don't think they are doing anything bad. It was so sad! In fact one of the girls on the show is from the town I currently live it. Talk about hitting close to home! I cried because I felt so sorry for those girls. I felt sorry that they were so misguided and confused as to what they should be doing with their lives. I am not going to lie it made me a little nervous about my children. A lot of the girls on the show did not have father figures and their mothers had little control over them. It made me so grateful for Orion who will be a wonderful father to our children. Well first we have to have children but I am confident that he will be amazing.

On a side note I was feeling sick this weekend, I blaming it on it being so ridiculously hot here on the surface of the sun. I missed plans that I made and spent the day in front of the fan. My sister-in-law asked me the next day if I was feeling better and what was wrong with me. She asked me if it was morning sickness. I of course told her no. Then one of my friends asked me if I was pregnant. When I was in Utah my brother gave me a bottle of pre natal vitamins and said "just in case". Seriously why is everyone thinking I am pregnant? Just to let you know as far as I know there is no baby in my tummy. Some day there will be. But not yet!

Cars

I love love love our new Nissan, Nessy. She is just so cute and loveable. She cost us a bijillion dollars so I think it is one of the reasons I love that car. On the other hand our beast is not a love of mine.

Look how big it is. I am just not in love with this car. Granted it is an ex cop car so it has a great history, but I don't really care. Orion and I are trying to sell it and so far we still own it. I am a little sad. I would rather have money than this car. Silly right? Once we sell this car, which will hopefully be soon, we will only have one car. That means that I am pretty much stuck at home while Orion goes to work unless I drive him. You would think that I would want to have a car for myself so I can leave every once in a while. Turns out I am a little bit crazy and would rather be stuck at home than have to drive the beast around. When school starts up again next month I will be too consumed with homework to even have time to leave the house. This is my last semester and I want to make sure I keep up my 4.0 GPA like I did the last couple of semesters.

To be honest I don't live driving around on the surface of the sun. This town is so much bigger than I am use to and the drivers are not that attentive. I am always a little worried that someone is going to hit me or side swipe my car while they are talking on their phone. Plus the streets here are funky. Like one intersection has six streets coming together and a rail road track! Whoever thought of that intersection was not the brightest person. Some day I am hoping to love the surface of the sun because we are going to be living in this area for at least the next couple of years. I am praying that my heart will be softened to this place, but I am not sure it could ever compare to SLO.

Love and Top Ramen

I told my Nana that we are living off of love and top ramen at the moment. It is pretty much a true statement. Orion's new job only pays once a month. That was something we did not know until after he started, so we did not plan for it. After moving, going on vacation, and paying rent and deposit for our new apartment we are a little low on money. Silly us thought Orion would get paid every other week like every other job he has ever had. Sometimes it sucks to be wrong. The good news is that top ramen is cheap and we actually like it, for the most part. We have money for other types of food, but you can't beat a meal that only cost twenty cents when you have to go an entire month before you get any income.

When I told my Nana that we were pretty must dirt poor until Orion gets his first pay check she laughed. She told me that this is the best time of my life. I thought she might have lost her mind a little bit. But the more I think about it the more I agree with her. Yes we have less money than we are use too, but we have each other. It just means we have to be more creative with the things that we do. Today Orion took me to the town he pretty much grew up in. He graduated from high school there and talks about it often. I got to know my sweet husband more and I got to get out of the house. We did not have to spend any money, just gas which thank goodness is a little cheaper on the surface of the sun. I am grateful that we have the opportunity to live off of love and top ramen for the time being. But at the end of the month when Orion gets his first pay check I am going grocery shopping and making him take me to sushi! Did I tell you that his new job is a career job with great benefits and all that jazz? We have a retirement plan and everything. I feel old now, like I am almost a real adult. WEIRD!

All Moved In!

I am so excited that Orion and I have a place of our own now. Don't get me wrong I am grateful that his parents let us stay with them for a week, but I am much happier to have an apartment of my own. The last couple of weeks has been CRAZY for us. Orion quit his job in SLO on a Wednesday and we moved the next day. Then on Saturday (of that same week we went on vacation). When we came back a week later he started his new job. So here we are a couple of weeks later hundreds of dollars poorer, but with an apartment of our own. It is huge compared to our old place, which I lovingly call the shoe. We have TWO bedrooms (perfect for when we start having babies), a washer and dryer (no more going to the laundry mat! we are living the high life), and my personal favorite a linen closet. I have a place for extra blankets, towels and pillows. It almost makes moving to the surface of the sun worth it. ALMOST....

Now I am jobless (I miss my sweet pep and sausage) and out of school for the time being. I have so much time on my hands and not enough motivation to do much. I am hoping and praying for another part time nanny job. I am just crazy about little kids and a tad bit baby hungry. So being a nanny is the perfect job for me, at least at the moment. My last job just fell into my lap so I am hoping that it will happen again. So pray for me? My last semester starts in September and come December I will be a graduate! Then I will have to get a real job or start having babies. I am secretly hoping for the second option, but I have some student loans to pay off from before we got married. School should be free or it should have a payment plan that is affordable, I am just saying. If I get some more motivation I will post pictures of our apartment. I think it is the best decorated of any apartment we have had. 

Months in the making

So I have something to share. It is pretty life changing. At least I think so. It has been months in the making. I have wanted to share ever since we found out what was happening, but I simply had to wait. I had to make sure that it was for sure and that we were well on our way. But today is the day I decided to share!





















I AM PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!












Ok that was a lie. I bet I got you for a little bit though. Sorry I just had to do it. Everyone is always asking me when I am going to start on having babies. I say right now, but Orion says in a little while. Here is the real news.









WE ARE MOVING to the armpit of California :( Orion got a new job as a correctional officer in Madera! Yeah for him getting a great job! BOO for having to move to the valley :( Remember when I said that Fresno=Death well I still feel a little bit like that, but we are moving there to start a new life. A better life one where Orion makes more money and works less. So here I am eating my words and kind of looking forward to moving. Here is the best part we are moving in two weeks and after we move we are going on vacation! Well we are moving all of our stuff into a garage/storage unit and the next day leaving for Utah! Yay family reunion and visiting my nana and papa! Boo having to move before we leave. Life is crazy here and I might lose my mind if I was actually pregnant. 

A cute little story

Yesterday Orion and I went up to Paso to work on our beast, you know the cop car that hates us. Well we thought the started went out. It was upsetting because Orion but a brand spanking new one in a little over a year ago. With the direction of Orion's older brother and use of his shop we figured out what was wrong. We needed to get new connector's to the battery. I don't remember what they are really called, I just know they only cost 6 bucks. Sweet! The cheapest car fix ever!

Once we figured out what the problem was I left to go hang out with my sister-in-law and family. Little Tobin whom I just love with all my heart, always makes me laugh. He is two wait maybe he is three. Man I am a bad aunt. I feel pretty good about saying he is two, but I could be wrong. Anyways, as soon as I walk in Tobin runs up to me to show me that he has things on his fingers. They are lego things for trees I think. He then asks me to play trains with him, in broken English because he has not mastered full sentences yet. We play for a little bit and then have dinner. Orion calls to tell me the car is fixed and ready to go. So I say good bye to everyone and give sweet little Tobin a kiss on the forehead. He runs in front of me to the front door. He puts his hands in front of him and says "NO! Don't go Kayde!" Seriously how cute is he? Then he spreads his arms across the front door blocking my way out. I love this little boy. I then had to tell him that I would come back later and that we are going on vacation together at the end of the month. This made him happy and I told him I might go to see dead dinosaur bones with him. There is a dinosaur museum in Utah that he and his family are going to and the end of the month. He was thrilled and I was a little sad to leave him.

Would you like to see what my sweet little nephew looks like? I would have taken a picture of him last night blocking my exit, but he was in his big boy undies and T shirt and I thought that he would one day thank me for not taking a picture of that.

That is Tobin at our wedding up in a tree. He is half monkey I tell you. He just loves to climb.

SO I don't normally do this like ever....

But it is a chance to win a trip to Paris France not Texas! This would be the best thing in the world. I know my chances of winning are one in like a billion, but there is still a chance. Anyways, go here and enter your self! If the link does not work here is the address. http://ohhappyday.com/2011/06/goes-to-paris Orion and I did not have the chance to go on an official honeymoon seeing as how we paid for our entire wedding ourselves and we were, oh wait we still are! Ha! I think I might die of happiness if by some amazing miracle we won.

Adventures with Peperoni and Sausage

I am not talking about the meat, but nick names for the little boys I get to play with every week. The best part about it is that I get paid to play with them. Let me just tell you that it is the BEST job ever! I am fairly confident that being a mom will be even better than being nanny. Ok it might be worse at times because I don't hand the children off to anyone else at the end of the day.

Last Friday my dear friend Peperoni decided we should go on a bear hunt. Seriously this three year old amazes every time I am with him. When I was three I don't think I wanted to go looking for bears. Before our hunt even started we found a baby bird. It was so cute and little and trying desperately to get back to his mom. The bird was stuck on the ground because it fell off the side walk. I helped it up and prayed it would live to find its mom. Who knows if that happen. This inspired Peperoni to look for other animals. Namely Belu, you know the bear from the Jungle book. Well we did not find him, but another animal found us. A cat which Sausage wanted to play with. I had a horrible vision of little one year old Sausage "playing" with the cat and the cat scratching him to death. Let's get real for a second when young children "play" with animals they treat them like their stuffed bear which equals straggling aka cuddling, pinching aka picking the animal up, pulling on the tail aka bringing the animal along, etc. I convince Peperoni that we needed to go home because I was having an allergic reaction to the grass we played in (my arms were turning red and itching a lot).

With much objection we headed home. Peperoni kept asking about the home for the cat and I kept telling him that it lived in the woods. Then a stroke of genius came over me. I told him that the cat and Belu were probably playing together. To this my sweet little friend agreed and decided to play inside because it was FREEZING outside (really it was just windy and he refused to wear a jacket). It is days like this that get me excited about being a mom some day.

The Best Husband Award Goes to...

Orion! Ok I guess I am biased, but I think Orion is the best husband for me. I simply love him to pieces. Now here is why I think he is the best. Maybe, just maybe you will agree with me. Yesterday (Saturday) is our normal date night. We have to have a day set apart for date night or else we forget or plan other things. A little lame right? Yes, but it works for us. So Orion had to work Saturday morning because he works a million hours a week, but I told him to pick up some orange juice on his way home. My throat has been hurting and I have been coughing up stuff, so GROSS! He being a good husband stopped at the store and decided to get me a little something extra. I normally lock the door when I am home alone because lets face it I am a chicken. Orion knocked because he is lazy and does not want to unlock the door himself. Orange juice in hand I welcome him in, but he says he has to get his jacket from the car. As he picks up his jacket he reveals a bouquet of flowers that he got me. He is so so wonderful.

Then we went on a double date with some good friends of ours. We went to Sushi my absolute favorite food. We tried out this place called Shin's in downtown and it was GREAT! It was inexpensive and yummy. We bought three rolls for 21 bucks! If anyone is a sushi eater they know that good sushi does not come that cheap. Well at Shin's it does! In fact they have a half price menu where you can get a roll for three bucks! AMAZING! I think I have found my new favorite place to eat. My favorite food plus not costing that much equals best thing ever. Then it was on to another favorite thing of mine X MEN! I have loved X Men since I was little at watched the cartoons every morning with my older brothers. After the newest X Men movie we topped off the date with frozen yogurt. I was the best date with the best husband.

Sunday

This Sunday was the day after the "rapture" and we were all still here. I have to tell you that I was a little bit sad. Orion and I were asked to give talks this Sunday and if the rapture actually happened we would have gotten out of giving talks. Well that guy from Oakland was wrong. SHOOT! So we had to give our talks.

We were asked to talk on the Atonement and let me tell you I cried like a baby. Well it was just a short cry, but it was one of those where you can't talk for a little bit and mascara runs down your face. I recovered don't worry and continued on with my talk. Little did I know I still had some mascara on my cheek when I finished. Orion told me about it once I sat down. I felt a little embarrassed. But I felt great that I could share my testimony of how wonderful the Atonement is and the many applications it has in our lives. Orion talked about the doctrine of the Atonement and did not cry at all. Lucky!

I don't like to talk in public, it scares me. When I was a youth I gave one talk in sacrament and started it out with a statistic. That statistic was that most people fear public speaking more than death. That was true for me at the time! I was a nervous mess and probably talked way to fast and jumbled my words. Who knows! But last semester I took a speech class online. I know what you are thinking how can you take a speech class online? Easy I have a web cam and a microphone. Although it was less scary because I was talking to a camera and not an audience of a hundred plus people. It helped me get over being super nervous about giving talks though. In fact I learned that nervousness is a learned habit. I don't know if I totally believe that, but I want to and it has made it much easier to give talks. I even gave a 17 minute one in my last ward. WOW! GO ME! From being super nervous and speeding through a 3 minute talk as a teenager to giving an understandable 17 minute talk as an adult. I feel like I have accomplished something. The talk I gave on Sunday was less than 17 but that is simply because I could not keep it together for any longer than I did. The atonement is such a powerful topic and I can't help but cry when I think of all the suffering Jesus Christ went through to make up for all the bad things I have done. He really is the best big brother anyone could have.