Book Crack

That's they only way I can describe the Twilight books. It's seriously like drugs.

I'm an avid reader, so I'm not sure why it took so long to get me into that series. I guess I didn't really want to (I'm not really a vampire person), but after so so many people loved the books I figured they were on to something.

Another problem was that I knew once I started reading them they would take over my life. And indeed, they have!

I got Twilight for Christmas, finished it 2 days later and am now done with the second book that I got from Carla last night. It is over 550 pages, and I read it in less than 1 day. However I've done nothing but read since I got it. And sleep a little. I wake up and want to read. I go to bed and want to read. I want to spend every minute of my time reading.

It's been a while since I've felt this way about a book. I think the last one was The Da Vinci Code, I could not ( seriously, could not) put that book down. I don't think this is Jimmy's favorite time, me in the middle of books I can't put down. I basically pay no attention to him ( or anything else for that matter) until I'm done.

But I love it. This is why I read, books like this that reel you in and don't let go until you've completed the story. Books that have you thinking about them hours after you have stopped reading. Those are my favorite.

I'm hoping to finish the series by the end of the week, and be able to focus on and get back to real life!

Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam

I couldn't believe that we had been in our new ward for nearly 2 months and hadn't been given callings yet.

Well, that changed at last night. Back to primary I go! Except this time, teaching Sunbeams! Yikes! As soon as our Bishop said that I had flashes of being in primary in my old ward. One year, there were like 8 sunbeams ( no joke) and that poor teacher. I remember watching her as she struggled to squish 4 wiggly little kids on her lap because they all wanted to sit with her.

All and all though I think it will be fun. The Bishop said that Jimmy had been requested in primary as well, but he couldn't remember for what class so he hasn't been technically called yet. It will be fun for both of us to be in primary together though.

I think it's funny that I keep getting callings that have to do with working with kids. I'm just really not a kid person, I don't know what to do with them. But I guess that is why I keep getting these callings, to help prepare me for the future.

I helped in Nursery once in our old ward once. Not to toot my own horn, but I was a pretty big smash there! By the end of the hour I had kids wanting to play with me and sit in my lap and everything. Jimmy said that experience gave him hope for our future children!

We'll see how this all goes!

Emotional Rollercoaster

These past few weeks have been a little rough for me (here is a depressing post with what is really going on in my life Jessie!).

On Thursday we had a company meeting to discuss the future of our travel agency. We aren't in real trouble, but we've taken a hit like everybody else due to the crappy economy. So, for the next 90 days everyone is taking a mandatory pay cut. Yay! Isn't that what everyone wants to hear a week before Christmas? They aren't starting it until mid January, but still. It definitely put a dark rain cloud over the office. It's not like travel agents make a ton of money to begin with! I am lucky to even have a job though, and I keep telling myself that.

The weather here has been so cold recently, our heat has been on 24/7. Every time I turn it on I see dollar bills floating away from me! But when it's in the 30's, that's a little much for us to deal with.

Recently I've started to wonder if moving into our new place was the smartest idea for us. Jimmy calls me a worrier, and well I am. I can admit it. I do absolutely love our new set up, but we are paying a lot more than we were before. A lot more. We had a pretty sweet deal in our other house. It was tiny and had no appliances, but it was affordable with money to spare.

Debbie is in town for Christmas and it's always nice to have a friend back. On Saturday night Carla, Debbie and I snuggled up on the couch ( with annoying dogs crawling all over us) and watched a Christmas movie together. We ate cookies, laughed and just had a great time. I miss doing things like that. The Gerbers are an interesting bunch, but I have so much fun with them. It reminds me of the old times before boys and bills where we would just hang out every night and play games.

Jimmy is off for the next 2 weeks. Yep, off from school, off from work ( unless they call him in). Just off. I can't help but be just a little jealous. Just a little. I'm working the day before Christmas, and had to fight tooth and nail to get the day after off. I think I have it off, but we all know what happened with the day after Thanksgiving, so everyone keep your fingers crossed!

And lastly, I saved a blog! Robbie went to delete his ( not like he writes in it anymore anyway) when he saw my post about how I was reading his blog for hours the other day. When he saw that it inspired him to keep it around a little longer.

Misc.

Does anyone else want to dance in the streets when they see the current gas prices? Good grief! I can't believe how low they are, when they were so high just a few months ago.

As someone who drives (a lot), the gas prices really effect me and our budget. So to be able to fill up my tank for less than $20 is truly amazing. In the summer time it was about $50 to fill up my tank. I can't believe I'm paying less than half that now.

On another note, we got our Christmas tree last night and it looks amazing! Since we have these high vaulted ceilings in our house, we got a 7-8 footer instead of the normal 5-6 footer. It is pretty big. So big the garland that we have only wrapped around it twice! It is set up by the window, so when people walk by the see the twinkling lights. I've always always wanted to do that.

We even got Robbie to help put up some ornaments. He pretends that he doesn't care about Christmas trees and such, but I know better! He is just as excited to have our house looking festive as I am.

No offense to those who have fake trees, but I don't know how you do it. I love my real tree. I know they are pain in the but ( there are needles everywhere already), but I think they are so so worth it. I'll have a real tree until I'm physically too old to go get one!

And lastly, in baseball news people are going all over the place! So far I'm not too upset/excited about any of the trades, but that could all change quickly. There are talks of Manny Ramirez going to the Yankees. If that were to happen, I would just die. Literally. I know the Red Sox chose to let him go ( and can anyone blame them?), but the last thing I want is an all star player like that going to my most hated team. Ugh. The thought of Manny and Crap Rod ( otherwise known as A Rod) batting back to back makes me physically ill. Everyone cross your fingers that this one doesn't come to fruition!

If you Don't use it, you Loose it

Well, I think it's safe to say that my geography skills have plummeted significantly since the end of my schooling. Plummeted so much that it's gotten embarrassing to tell people what my major was.

In my quest to remain entertained at work, I found a geography game on Trip Advisor. There were some questions I was so far off on it's insane. I can only make it to the "medium" level. For the average Joe that might be acceptable, but for someone who poured tons of time and effort to graduate with a degree in geography it's just plain sad.

Perhaps it's me being paranoid, but I used to have an excellent memory. I've noticed with my aging that I'm not recalling things as easily as I used to. Maybe it's my fear of getting older and I'm psyching myself out? Or maybe my memory is really diminishing. Is your memory supposed to start going down hill at age 24? At this rate I wont' even be able to remember my own name at 50!

So, my mid December/ New Years resolution will be to by an atlas and get cracking. Hopefully this will make me feel like my college education wasn't completely in vain. If nothing else it will help me win when I play trivia games.

The Grass is Always Greener

I consider myself pretty good at being able to see my own faults. Not to toot my own horn here, but I can kinda step out of my body and see that some of the stuff I do and the way I think is plain stupid!

So I'm able to admit that I have a serious grass is always greener complex. I'm not sure where I picked that up, but it is here for sure.

It's been so so slow at work recently that I just want to die. I've googled everyone I know, I've made lists of things to do, I've played geography games on the internet. I'm just about ready to start writing a book or something. Today, I was reading old posts on Robbie's Blog from like January just to pass the time. That right there shows my desperation for something to do (just kidding Robbie! I loved reading your blog...when you actually wrote in it).

But wasn't it just a few months ago when I was complaining that work was so nuts I thought I was going to die? I'd go to work every day and pray for a free minute to catch my breath. Or even run to the bathroom!

When it's winter, I miss summer. When it's summer I miss winter.

I'm thinking this is a normal thing. People with straight hair want curly hair, people with curly hair want straight hair. Maybe it's just human nature to always want what you don't have.

It sure is irritating though! Why can't I ever just be satisfied with how things are in the present?

On a different note, Craig's family is coming out for Christmas and will be staying with us a couple of days before they can get into a hotel. Call me crazy, but I'm excited about this. Growing up, we never had people stay at our house for Holidays or anything. Maybe that's because no one in my family ever came to visit! I think having family in town staying with you will just add to the whole Christmas experience.

It's also nice to have room for people at our house. In our old house we could barely move, otherwise fit more people in there. I love that when someone comes to visit, we can set them up.

Christmas Drain

I'm sure we like everyone else we decided we wouldn't spend a lot on Christmas this year. Well, I'm not too sure that idea is still on the table anymore. I've been a shopping fiend recently. I'm spending money left and right. Today I spent $13 on stuff to wrap presents with. As I walked out the store I thought about it. $13 on wrapping paper and bows? It's nuts! No one pays attention to it and it just gets ripped off anyways!

I've found I don't feel so bad about spending money when I shop in increments. $20 here, $30 there. It requires more trips, but doesn't hurt as much when I'm at the register.

I think another part of my problem is that I'm a procrastinator when it comes to Christmas shopping ( is anyone surprised at this?). So on Dec 23rd when there are people on my list I need to get done I just buy the first thing I see that could be useful to them, regardless of cost. Each year I vow to be like Carla, who has her shopping done by Nov 1st. But sure enough I end up wandering desperately through Target the weekend before Christmas ready to buy anything I see.

I guess it is all part of the Christmas experience though!

Married, Yet Still a Woman

This might be a bit of a controversial post, but I'm ok with that. I've gotta get something out there and see if I'm the only one who thinks this way.

This weekend was my company holiday party. So, Ashley and I (Jimmy basically didn't want to come, which I'm ok with)drove to the Country Club dressed to the 9's in our cocktail attire ready for some free food and a good time.

The receptionist for my building came into the party accompanied by her son. Her son happens to be good looking, 27 ish and a marine to boot. They didn't sit at our table, but they sat at one near us. I looked over and caught the good looking marine man looking at us, so I smiled at him and just shrugged it off.

Today, back at work the office is a buzz about the Christmas Party. When I walked in, the receptionist told me that her son thought I was "absolutely breathe taking" and was very disappointed when she told him I'm married.

This information totally made my day. Is it just me or is it really nice to hear that other men (especially good looking ones) think you are attractive? I think it might just be me, because anyone I've shared info like this in the past quickly proceeds to tell me that I'm married. I am? No way, thanks for the info!

Just because I'm married doesn't mean I'm dead. I am after all still a woman. And what woman doesn't like to hear that someone thinks she is " breathe taking" ?

This doesn't mean that my husband doesn't tell me nice things, but can you ever be given too many compliments? This also doesn't mean that I don't think my husband is totally hot, because he is. Hotter than the marine man in my opinion. It just means that I like to be told someone thinks I'm attractive just as much as the next person.

I see no wrong in being excited about my compliment. Am I alone on this one? Other married women out there, what do you think?

Husband Tag ( thanks Meg!)

1.Where did I meet my husband? At a young adult ward activity (see it pays to go to those things!)

2.How long did you date before getting married? Approximately 1 year and 3 months

3.How long have you been married? 3 years next month

4.What does he do that surprises you? He jumps out of places and scares me.IE the other day when he hopped out of our closet. It took me like 5 min to catch my breath.

5.What is your favorite feature of his? His eyes. The color, the shape,the eyelashes. The whole thing.

6.What is his best quality? Hard to pick just one... I like that he's a goofball. Like even though he looks like a total white boy when he dances, that doesn't stop him!

7.Does he have a nickname for you? Peach, pootie, pootie chop... I could go on for a while on this one. He only calls me Liz when he is mad at me.

8.What is his favorite food? BBQ chicken pizza from CPK and orange rolls to name a few.

9.What is his favorite sport? I think to play, baseball ( or softball), but to watch football

10.When did you first kiss? On like our second date infront of Carla's old house.

11.What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? We don't do a whole lot, but I like it when we go shopping together. Or go to dinner together.

12.Do you have any children? Not yet

13.Does he have any hidden talents? Yes he does an amazing voice impression of Forrest Gump. And he can play video games for like 7 hours without eating or going to the bathroom.

14.How old is he? 28

15.What is his favorite music? Anything on KROQ. That is always the station he goes to first.

16.What do you admire about him? I admire his ability to put it all out there. If he thinks he is being wronged by someone, he will let them know!

17.What is his favorite color? I think blue

18.Will he read this? Probably not. He hates my blog! :)

19.Who said "I love you" First? He said it first but I think I felt it first. I was just waiting for him to say it so I could say it back.

20.Who do you tag? whoever wants to take the time to do it and have it in their blurb book!!!

A Little Perspective

Well, I'm done PMS'ing, and things don't seem as bad as they did in my post about my bad day.

I did work on Friday, and I didn't do a single thing. I read my book the whole time. There wasn't a single thing to do. So I read my book for 5 hours, but got paid for working for 8. Not really a bad deal when you think about it. I probably would've been just sitting around doing nothing at home anyways.

When it comes down to it, at least I have a job. Yes I hate it 90% of the time, but I could have no job at all like so many people right now.

There is nothing like Thanksgiving to make you realize how much you truly do have. As bad as life seems sometimes, it could always be worse.

And the fact that I'm thinking this on a Monday, by far my most hated day of the week is really something.

On a different note I got Jimmy to help me with Christmas decorations last night, so our house is looking fun and festive! Yay!