My Accidential Collection

I used to collect bookmarks. Now my books collect whatever can be used as quick makeshift bookmarks.

This has or does include the following:

coupons
receipts
toilet paper
tissues
business cards
things I can't remember because they were so random

Sometimes its a nice surprise to find random things in books I long forgot to finish.

Brittany Murphy

I was in the middle of watching Clueless when I found out Brittany Murphy died. This may not seem too significant but take into consideration that I almost never ever watch the movie. In fact, it was literally only the second time I had ever seen it. It actually felt kind of creepy. We even looked the story up in a second news source just to verify that it was true.

But alas, and sadly, its true.

We Aren't Pet People

Before

After

But we sure can grow pets. You can't really tell by the pictures, but trust me when I say, at least the alligator is much bigger.

These grow your own pets are the product of me at Michaels. They looked like soo much fun and like a great advent bag stuffer and I was right. We love our pets. Now we just need to remember to name them.

Any good ideas?

This is What it Looks Like Outside Right Now

I have not seen this much snow in my area since high school or maybe even middle school. It's great and so pretty but for some reason I still feel a bit sad today. Stupid roller coaster emotions.

My 2nd Love: Red Velvet

One night, before I got married, I searched for an hour and a half for a box of Red Velvet cake mix and could not find one anywhere (you really let me down Safeway and Wegmans). The other day I randomly saw that walmart had them, freaked out, and bought multiple boxes. So now I need to actually bake something. Perhaps I will try this.

Politics

I had decided to keep this blog separated from my other love: politics. I have another blog for that part of my life. No need to make people read about my politic beliefs unless they soo choose by reading my politic blog. But let me share a few things.

I am a bit too lazy for politics, but I do love it when my blood boils because of the idiocy of other people. When my blood boils because people are giving me their opinions when its clear they have no idea what they are talking about. When my blood boils because it's clear politics has become more about following the crowd and being hip than about thinking clearly about whats right and moral.

I love it when I work for a campaign and that candidate wins. When poll results are coming in and the election is tight. When you can feel your heart beating rapidly while you wait to see the results.

But there is a lot about politics I hate. I hate how it makes people mean, rude, and obnoxious. I hate how people disrespect their country. I hate how this country is too lazy to vote. I hate how so many politicians are immoral and corrupt, yet I also hate how we often forget to look past that and remember the good politicians out there. I hate everything that makes my blood boil, even though I love it when my blood boils. I hate how politics and the news can be so depressing that you literally have to stop indulging in it. And I hate when people don't respect or can't be friends with someone just because their social and political views are different.

But the reason this all comes to mind is because of one phrase I read today. It is "Women are not incubators." So to keep this blog still a bit absent from my political views all I'm going to say is that I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE THAT QUOTE!!!! But it makes my blood boil and that part of it I love.

Winter Wonderland

It's going to snow. It will not be worth it unless it means being stuck in our homes all weekend because the roads are too horrible to drive on.

I have to clean on Saturday. Part of me is so excited I have already started.

I have to wrap lots of gifts. Oh how I suck at it.

Oh and I also need to grocery shop by Wednesday, bake cookies and other treats, make Christmas cards because I bought the card making kit, send out more thank you notes, and read my books. This is why I need to get stuck in my house all weekend. So...LET IT SNOW!

Unique

"My mother used to always say...You could never trust a person with a dimple in their chin. I had a tough childhood."

"My dad has a cleft chin....in a very sweet anecdote, my grandmother always used to tell him that that is where the angel poked him to see if he was finished"
-from some random site


I have a cleft chin. I still am working on accepting it. I'm okay with it, but it certainly does not make me feel cute.

I can't figure out why I got so lucky as to get all the random unique features in my family, like the dimples on my shoulders.

I always thought I was under baked, but I found out recently I was over baked. So what happened to me?

Sometimes

I go to the library, check out a bunch of books, and read about half of them. I went tonight and as always its my goal to read all of them. Maybe this time it will happen. Maybe this time positive thinking will help. I can do it...I can do it...I can do it...

My Christmas Project

I decided a few weeks ago that I wanted to make an advent calender but knowing I would not get it done before this week, I decided I would make one for the twelve days before Christmas. The project went as follows

1 - Buy the material you want to use. I decided I wanted two different materials. I've seen this done also with brown shipping paper decorated. I believe the brown shipping paper could be cheaper but would not last as many years.
2 - I choose what size I wanted to make the bags, remembering that I would loose some of the size when I made sewed because of the seams. I actually used a piece of paper folded as my guide. I did not spend the time cutting perfectly and I will explain later why.
3 - I went and used my moms sewing machine. I cut most of the bags on the fold of the material so I only had to sow two sides. You want to pin it inside out and sew it.
4 - Once you are done you can turn it right side out.
5- I did not spend the time cutting it straight and making the sewing perfect because you can not easily notice any issues once you are done. Some of my lines were far from perfect because I did not pay enough attention and sewed really fast but you would never know. I didn't even take the time to make the tops straight because it just does not matter that much. Unless someone takes everything out of it and inspects it closely, they would never know.
6 - The last few days I bought stuff to put in the bags. I filled them up then tied the top off with yarn.
7 - I tied two strands of yarn to the bar that the curtain like things hang off of (sorry can't remember the technical terms right now). I then used clothespins given to me at my bridal shower and pinned the bags to the strands of yarn I hung across.

You could hang them many different ways and in many different locations but I decided to use yarn across the window leading to the patio due to size and accessibility. I was going to originally put it in the bedroom but decided it would be to hard to get to daily and the window was not long enough length wise. Also, yarn is not the strongest material so the bags did pull it down quite a bit. I tied the yarn tight enough to bring it up a bit but did not want to put too much pressure on the yarn and the bar. The yarn is sagging a lot more than I originally planned for it to, but everything still looks great so I am not worried about it. In fact, it probably looks better sagging that much.

I hope to continue to do this every year. If I get tired of it, I will just change the material or get even more creative. One lady made Santa hats and filled them and it was so cute. Now that's an idea for when I start developing my crafting skills a bit more.

Well....happy Hanukkah beginning tomorrow :)

Chritmas Time Giveaway

I don't normally blog about the giveaways I enter but I love this one so much so I'm going to share it with you. The item you could win:

Today I’ve got another giveaway for Simple Mom readers, just in time for the holidays. Dayspring, who runs (in)courage, where I’m a monthly columnist, wants to bless someone with one of their best sellers — this beautiful Nativity Hurricane Trio.This is a set of three frosted candle luminaries, each set on a wood base, and backlit with metal silhouettes of shepherds, the three wise men, and the holy family.

Just click here and check it out for yourself. I promise you its worth it.

Oh Tree How I Love Thee

Kind of bad picture of the tree but you get the point. There are less gaps on the tree than the picture shows. Some of the ornaments apparently don't like to be photographed.

We decided to decorate our tree in silver and blue. Thanks to Target and Micheals we were able to complete our tree. Yay for gift cards that helped as well. It turned out more amazing than I could have imagined and really adds a lot to our apartment. Maybe we will leave it up all year round.

Dear Dr. P.,

It has been a while since I have gotten you at the local dessert shop. That is, it's been a while since I have had your lovely bottled version with sugar cane that is imported all that way from Texas. I think its about time I get you again. But the question is, do I just go this week and get a bottle or two of you to enjoy, or do I wait until Christmas and just ask for you as a present? Or how about both? I think you would agree with both, so I might see you soon.

Love Yours Truly,

Elizabeth

P.S. Can you believe there was ever a time when I hated and despised you? I hope you have forgiven me for that. I was a young adolescence with bad taste then.

eBay

I had a dream last night that an earring I had got stepped on and was broken (it was actually quite depressing). I remembered it as I was thinking about all the things I have bought and/or bid for on eBay. The earrings from the dream were used for my wedding. I got them incredibly cheap on eBay from a seller in Asia. Ive gotten other things on eBay including books, ties, and kitchen stuff. Many of these items became presents for birthdays and Christmas. All for incredibly low prices. I love eBay.

My sister buys a lot of jewerly on eBay, also from sellers in Asia, because you can get it way cheap without decreasing the quality.

What do you think about eBay? What have you purchased on there?

Cheers

I just ordered this tie from Cyberoptix for my brother. Its a long overdue birthday present. He asked for it after I made the mistake of showing it to him. It reminds us of a childhood event involving my brother and a bus. I heard good things about these ties, which is good because it was expensive, so hopefully it turns out well.

So i'm caught up on birthday shopping and have already started on my Christmas shopping, so though my bank account is not doing well, I am doing well.

How about you? Have you already started on your Christmas shopping or gift making yet?

Friday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

Friday was my birthday so I did what I love best - Shopping. I got up at 6 with my sister and we went out. We did not get up early to find the best deals but more to avoid the traffic that would occur later on. I got the following :

-Balderdash for half off at Target.
-Some presents which can't be mentioned on here.
-A sweater that wasn't on sale but that I finally had the money for.

This is the sweater I bought. Picture taken on Sunday at Great Falls. We took my sister there so she could take pictures of the waterfalls and she took some of us while waiting for the lighting to get the way she wanted it.

- Cute Christmas stockings on sale at Kohls for 6$ a piece.
-I got a wallflower and refills at Bath & Body Works on sale for way cheap. I had heard good things about the wallflower and wanted to try it out. I love it so far. It makes our kitchen and living room area smell sooo good.
-An apron that was half off at World Market.
-A mug set from World Market. They make perfect soup and cereal bowls. They were not on sale but excited me too much to not buy them. Plus they were cheap anyways. We have used them 3 times already and I adore them each time. If anybody is unsure of what to give their friends for Christmas I think they would make a great gift.



Then Jon and I went out and got him multiple pairs of jeans that were on sale and also got our Christmas tree which I talked about earlier. It was all in all a fun shopping day.

In the evening, I took a break from shopping and we went into D.C. for a birthday celebration. We first went to Ben's Chili Bowl, which if you live around here you have probably heard about, if not already gone to. It was on my list of things to do eventually and it just happened to be right by Lincoln Theater, which was our next destination. Ben's Chili Bowl was really crowded so we got a quick dinner consisting of a Chili Dog and chips, then went again later that night when it was less crowded and got another Chili Dog and some Chili Fries. 3 Chili Dogs in one week, heaven right there! My judgment was that the place does deserve most of the hype it gets. The chili is sooo good. The Chili Fries were the best I have ever had but I have also decided I just don't like Chili Fries. It was certainly a fun experience minus the crowds and I recommend going to Ben's Chili Bowl at least once. Just go late at night when the crowds have thinned.

At Lincoln Theater, we saw The Fantasticks. We were able to get half off tickets thanks go Groupon so we went without knowing anything about the play. But it ended up being so awesome. It was such a funny play. It was soo well done, the actors and actress had amazing voices and were so good in their roles, there were so many cool tricks in the play, and it was also so well written. It was one of the most enjoyable experiences in a while, and that's saying a lot. Too bad though that sitting down so long made me so tired and I kept falling asleep during the second act. It made me sad because I kept missing out on the goodness going on in front of me. Some of my favorite parts of the play were when they did tricks with lights and fire. I am unsure of how they pulled them all off but it made me so giddy to see.

It was a long but fun filled day. Thankfully, Saturday we were able to just sit around, clean, get things done, eat, and watch movies the whole day. There was no where we had to be and nothing we had to do. It was way relaxing. And we watched Hannibal (edited) for the first time. Such a creepy but good movie.

My Thansgiving

Since I unfortunantly don't have any pictures from Thursday, I thought I would post about that day first.

We got a late start on Thanksgiving because we were both tired and after I got out of bed, I moved to the couch and took a nap. Low energy that day from a bad couple nights of sleep. So we didn't get to Jon's families house until around lunch time. After we got there, we sat around for a while trying to decide what to do for lunch. Because it was only Jon's parents and Jon's sister-who- eats- almost- nothing at home that year, they skipped having the traditional meal. We were going to order pizza until we found that the pizza shops were closed. Well, randomly during the discussion I mentioned how 7-11 hotdogs and Slurpee sounded good. Yes, I am disgusting and love hotdogs from 7-11. I didn't mention it thinking anybody would listen or want it. But when we couldn't figure out what to eat or where to go, Jon randomly mentioned that I mentioned it. I was embarrassed but it was only seconds later that it was being considered seriously by everyone. The sister-who-eats-almost-nothing loves the same thing, their dad likes them, Jon likes them, and the mom would be kind enough to go along with it. So, a few minutes later, knowing how crazy we were being, we got into the car to go to Safeway (for drinks and soup) and 7-11. The guy working at 7-11 was soo excited about us being there. He was saying things like "we have the best chilli in town," and "we should have gotten turkey dogs." He was laughing and joking the whole time. We then went home with our dogs (Hot dogs or chili dogs depending on who you were. Three of us put lots of chili and cheese on it and hence had chili dogs.) and Slurpees and ate while watching Star Trek. I do like that movie but I tried to catch up on my sleep during it because I was just that tired. But may I say, MY CHILI DOG WAS AMAZING AND TOTALLY MADE MY THANKSGIVING.

Next, we went to my families house for our traditional Thanksgiving dinner that was so oh dilicious (bean casserole and fruit salad are my favorites...oh yum) . And the evening was spent eating, making fun of each other (a huge ongoing family tradition), and visiting our old neighbors who now live a half hour away. Speaking of which, at their house I got the chance to hang out with my old best friend and her boyfriend. I mention this not because I love her so much and miss hanging out with her, which is the case, but because her boyfriend seems like an amazing guy. Evidence being: he took out her families trash with out being asked and he made her a flower arrangment based on a picture he saw in a magazine. What guy does that? I am soo happy for her and hope it all works out for the best.

I am already looking forward to next years Thanksiving and hope it includes a chili dog again...maybe it's the start of a unique family tradition...I am hoping so.

First Things First

I have so much to post about so there will probably be many postings in the next few days.

But, first things first, I want to tell you what my plans are for the coming weeks.

1. Go to New York with my honey and our friends for a few days. It will be cold but just imagine the Christmas spirit that will be felt there. It already makes me giddy.

2. Decorate this fake tree we bought:

Putting the tree together!

Yes we got a fake. Yes, we are a lame newly wed couple.

3. Make a Snowstorm for one or two of the windows

4. Write those thank you cards for the gifts received at the wedding. I wanted them done a lot sooner but with all that has been going on and my health issues it just has not happened.

5. Make a bag advent calendar filled with goodies. Kind of like this one. I am actually only going to do it for the 12 days before Christmas sinse that will probably be about the time I finish it.

Makeovers

I love getting makeovers and in the spirit of that, I am giving my blog a makeover. Changes will be made over time. Going from white to green is change number one. I began to hate the green and white is a welcome relief. I think I will stay white for a very long time.

As for me getting a makeover, I need to do one soon. I need to get a new license and actually want to look decent for the picture that many a stranger sees.

I Am

Watching Are You Afraid of the Dark.

what are you doing right now?

You Know What I Hate?

When my eye twitches from lack of sleep. It's annoying and makes me feel silly.

You know what I love: CHRISTMAS!!!! I am sooo excited. Christmas music is already out. And I told the hubby we can't wait to put up a tree until the week before Christmas like my lazy family does because for once I am actually excited to decorate.


P.S. I think I'm going to do a makeover on my blog soon and possibly a giveaway. Stay tuned....

Reality

Everyday I still have moments where I am shocked and amazed that I am married, almost like I forgot it for a while. I had two of those moments yesterday. First when Jon texted me to see when I would be home and secondly, when we were laying next to each other in bed. Sometimes I feel like I am a bit to immature and lame for this whole marriage thing. But really, I am not, and marriage is fun. I wonder if those moments of remembrance and surprise will ever end....

Kitchen Accessories

I really want an apron for when I cook as I have already had to do laundry multiple times just because I dirtied my clothes while cooking. No Fun!!! Gotta hate grease stains. I randomly did a Google search today and look what I found from one Etsy seller named Sassy Apron:




These almost seem a bit too nice to cook in but I kinda really want one. But which one and how would I ever choose?

And how about these by Boojiboo:

You Know

you have mental issues when you stay up way late having a bathroom related conversation with you husband and when you laugh at jokes and conversations that scroll through your head that you refuse to tell your husband because you know he would be grossed out. You know your even crazier when your tired the next day and you still don't regret staying up late talking about bathroom related things the least bit. You know your husband is awesome when he lets you have this conversation with him even when it grosses him out and hes just wants to sleep. Love you hubby. I don't remember much about the conversation but it was great.

Hey It's That Blogger

I had my first real life spotting of a blogger whose blog I read moment. So random! I was in Ikea, waiting for my hubby to get his wallet from the car so we could pay for our finds. I was just chilling in the section where you pick up the large items of furniture you want, kinda near the cash registers. I saw this guy and within a second my train of thought went as follows:

"I recognize that guy"
"He looks like that bloggers husband"
"She looks like the blogger:
"Shes pregnant"
"Its so that blogger...weird"
"I feel like a stalker"

Jon asked me what I would think if someone came up to me because they recognized me from following my blog. I said it would be cool to which he responded then maybe you should go say something to her. But I didn't see them after that, nor would I have had the guts to say anything.

And I will forgo mentioning what blogger it is because its one of those blogs you follow for no good reason. She is a friend of a friend of a friend or something strange like that whose life just seemed interesting to me. And that's my story and I am a creep.

My Perfect Couch

My perfect couch would be rather large. It would be wide so when I sit it swallows me up and I don't feel like I am slipping off. It would be way comfy and soft. No hard cushions for me. And it would be dark blue or purple.

We bought a couch yesterday. It's soft but perhaps not wide enough for me. Oh and it's dark brown... It was the best we could fine though and I am sure I will learn to love it. And really, I am just so super excited to finally have a couch I can chill on.

What is your perfect couch?

Sophomore year couch. The nastiest most comfortablest thing ever and holds a lot of great napping memories. Doesnt hurt that it holds lots of lovely shopping bags either :)

Last Blog About Honeymoon

I just wanted to do a few reviews of places in Boston before moving on from the Honeymoon.

First, is the Ramada Boston. We choose the Ramada for the last half of the honeymoon because it was a great great price and we knew we didn't need to spoil ourselves the whole time. It ended up being perfect. It wasn't within walking distance to their metro (D.C. term I know but I stick to it) but they had a shuttle that ran constantly. The metro itself was pretty darn cheap and easy to take. They also had breakfast every morning, a shuttle to the airport, and most important, the shuttle would also take you to the hospital. They had a good relationship with Enterprise so when we rented a car it was easy to get a hold of. They dropped the car off then we just had to leave the keys with the hotel when we were done. I give it 5 stars for being cheap, convenient, clean, and friendly. Go Ramada.

Oh the Ramada also owns, or has a good relationship with (not exactly sure if they own all the places around them), a few restaurants right beside it. We tried their main restaurant, don't know the name of it, but it was pretty good. Better than I expected. About a 3.5 out of 5. Their fun center, with bowling, an arcade, and lots of food, was soo fun. One night when we wanted to relax and have some fun so we just went over, got an ice, and bowled a few games. I won and for those of you who know me well, know that that's a good thing. The one thing in life I hate to lose at is bowling.

Finally, I wanted to write a quick review about the Italian restaurant we ate at after seeing the USS Constitution. We randomly chose it and did not know what to expect. It's name was Filippo Ristorante, with the owner being Filippo Frattaroli. Jon and I, for the first time ever, ordered the same exact thing. The Spezzatino all'Abruzzese. It was Chicken in a butter and cheese sauce with penne. Jon ate all of his but I could not. It was way to salty for me. Not only was it just salty, but I had been basically living off of Saltine Crackers for a few days and did not need more salt. I ate a side salad instead which was really delicious as the dressing was soo good. The problem with the food could have just been with our particular dish, as we did not try any others so I do not hold it against them too much. The waiter was very friendly and talkative and we got some of our best service at this restaurant (at many other places the service blew hard core). She also, knowing we were on a trip, gave us a copy of the menu to take home with us. Lucky for her, or I never would have been able to write this review. Haha. I would have never remembered the name of the restaurant. Anyways, I give this place a 4 out of a 5 and would consider going back if we went to Boston again.

P.S. The tour we took in Boston was called the Haunted Boston Ghost Tours. I highly recommend it. One guy on the tour, from North or South Carolina, had been on it multiple times.

Jon and I tried to use one of those photobooths. This was the outcome. Not exactly what we meant to do, we are amatures at such things, but it still makes me laugh with joy.

I Have Become A Cry Baby

Tomorrow I will try and do my last post about my honeymoon but for now I have a random thought. Sometimes I feel like I am going to cry during really lame things. For example, I am watching Ghost Whisperer right now, and I keep feeling like I'm going to cry my eyes out. Who cries during Ghost Whisperer? Anyways, I can usually stop myself from doing it, but I can't stop myself from feeling lame.

Do you ever have that problem?

Blast From the Past: I am what??

Because I am now sharing an apartment with another person, my hubby of course, I have finally been forced to go through papers. Papers meaning years and years of papers and stuff I have collected, either because I thought it was important or that it contained a memory. It has and will continue to be a long and painful process.

But the point of this post is the following quote I found, which I assume was written down by someone at church:

Liz is great at making everyone feel better with her silly anecdotes. Although everyone says she's annoying but we all love it, despite the denial. She has the most stories EVER :)

How am I suppose to take that? Should I be happy I don't remember who wrote that?

Boston Visit

We went back to Boston on Wednesday and left on Sunday. Because this time including our health issues, like I have said previously, we didn't do as much as we would have liked. We spent a lot of time resting and chilling. But we loved what we did do.

On Thursday, we chilled near Beacon Hill. We went to the Boston Commons and the Boston Public Gardens and it was all very pretty. After dinner, we went on another ghost tour. This one was a little more ghost focused than the one in Salem and very enjoyable. I will try and find out the name of the group that does it later. I have no idea who did it because Jon made the reservations. One of my favorite stories on the ghost tour was the following :

James Allen was your basic early 19th-century burglar and highwayman. In 1833, he tried robbing John Fenno, Jr. of Springfield on the Salem Turnpike. Fenno resisted and Allen shot him - but Fenno lived because the bullet was deflected by a suspender buckle.

Allen was eventually caught and sent to jail, where he wrote an account of his life called ''The Highwayman.'' Allen admired Fenno's bravery in standing up to him and decided that on his death, Fenno should get a copy - bound in his skin. When Allen died in 1837, his body was brought to Massachusetts General Hospital, where enough skin to cover a book was cut off and then delivered to a bookbinder, who died it gray and added some gilding before shipping it to Fenno. Later, a Fenno descendant donated the volume to the Athenaeum.

Friday, we walked across the bridge to see the USS Constitution. It was really cold and a long walk so that's all we did. Kind of a mistake because of how much time it took but not really a mistake because it felt cool standing on the oldest commissioned ship in the world.

Saturday, we rented a car and drove to the coast. I recommend doing this because it was gorgeous, even on a rainy day. We wanted to go see Nantucket but it was pretty expensive and timely to do that so we just drove around. During the drive, we ran into the Korean War memorial and the JFK memorial. They were small and only short stops but still nice to see. After that, we went to the Arnold Arboretum. I give this a thousand thumbs up, especially in the fall. Its a really big park where you can go on long walks and it was sooo beautiful. So many pretty trees. The visitor center closes around 4 p.m. but the park itself stays open into the night. It's not too far from Boston and well worth the visit.

Sunday, before we flew home, we went back into the city. Our first stop was the New England Aquarium. Anyone from VA/MD knows that one of the best aquariums is in Baltimore, but the New England one wasn't too bad. I actually really enjoyed it. I got to see penguins and lots of cool creatures that the Baltimore one does not have. It wasn't quite as big but I still loved it. We then went and tried to find food. Somehow we didn't realize that all the open restaurants were just around the corner to our right and we just started walking and walking and walking. We ended up settling for Japanese which was good but not exactly what we wanted. We later found out how dumb we were.

We walked around the city randomly after that and ended up visiting the Old South Meeting House. It is sort of where the Boston Tea Party started. I enjoyed the visit, the building is gorgeous and alive with history, but after that we were museumed out so we didn't go into any of the other old buildings on the Freedom Trail. After wondering around some more and getting donuts, we randomly ran into the alive part of town called Faneuil Hall Marketplace. This is the part of town where the good shops are, the street performers, and ahhhh the restaurants. The sad part was we only had about 20 minuets to enjoy it before we had to leave. It was one of our biggest regrets as it all looked fun, and of course, I love my shopping. If you ever go to Boston, remember the Marketplace and the Aquarium are right across the street from each other.

At the park in the city

Arnold Arboretum

The Coast

At the aquarium

My Love

Unforeseen Circumstances

So what were the unforeseen circumstances that I have been alluding to in the previous posts. Well I will tell you in this post so you don't have to wonder anymore.

Tuesday morning, our last full day in Salem, Jon wakes up with a cold. I then get into the shower and find a rather large bump on my butt (or rather in my crack. sorry not sure how else to put it). Rather large meaning most likely not a zit. This worried me so I called my mom. She said we should probably go into the doctors. So then we called Jon's brother who is a eye surgeon. He said its most likely an abscess. We could either let it take its course, or take care of it ourselves, but our best bet would be to see a doctor so they could take care of it and ease the pain. Well it wasn't too painful yet so we decided to wait a day. Later that day we ended up having to come back to the Inn for a nap as I was also starting to feel sick and got really tired and Jon was also exhausted and sick. Needless to say I was catching Jon's cold.

The next day I wake up hurting and a bit sick. By the time we make it to the bus stop, take the ride to Boston, and get to our hotel, I am exhausted and we take another nap. By then everything was painful to do. So upon waking up, we make the decision that I need to see a doctor. It was too late then to make an appointment with a family practice so we take the gamble with my insurance and the cost of it and go to the ER. Thankfully we did not have to wait too long to be seen but we waited a long time after getting in. By the end 3-4 people saw me, including the head surgeon. They even considered taking me to the surgery floor because of where the abscess was and how much it was hurting me. And they wanted to try and decrease the chances of me having side effects from the surgery. Well the head surgeon said to just do it where I was at. They cut it open and drained it. The needle in the butt was the worst part honestly. Ouch!!! I were given prescriptions to get pain killers and they made an check up appointment that was optional and which we did not go through. I was then released.

The pain wasn't too bad when I kept up on my pills and after about 3 days I didn't need to take the pain killers anymore. Only the next night did I have problems. We went touring Boston and went on a Ghost Tour and by the end of it, it was hard to walk and my butt was in pain. After that all was good, we just had to wait for it to heal. The only other issue I had was nauseousness. I felt soo nauseous the night of and the next morning. Luckily, when the nauseousness came back the next few days, it wasn't as bad as the first few times. Not sure if this was due to lack of food or the medication or both but it was noo fun. Oh well!!

Overall, a very unpleasant and unexpected experience. We thought, after taking pictures in the rain on our wedding day and being around sick people, we might end up sick. And we did. But I never expected having to get quick surgery to drain an abscess. No fun at all on a honeymoon. Poor hubby. Being tested so soon in a marriage. But he passed. He was great. He stayed with me and helped me out a lot. And was sooo patient with me. He let me take my time in the morning and usually into the afternoon and never pushed me out the door to do things. Thank you Jon.

The hospital visit was rather interesting. The secretaries were not nice or patient at all. The doctors were nice but I felt like they thought the thing was rather funny. Here we are on our honeymoon and I have an abscess. Okay it was rather funny actually. We laughed about it a lot. I just wish they had not taken so long, passed me around so much, taken so long to make a decision about what to do, but at least it was done and the pain eased.

I think something bad happens to almost every couple on their honeymoon. If nothing bad happened to you, you are lucky. But to all out there planning a honeymoon: don't expect everything to go perfectly. If it does, awesome. If it doesn't, do not let the bad bog you down. Take everything in stride and make the best of all circumstances. You are with your hubby, that is all that matters. This trip won't go down in our book as the most amazing trip ever but it was certainly memorable and still fun and for that I am thankful.

SALEM

After spending one night in Boston, we took the bus to Salem. We stayed at The Inn On Washington Square because supposedly its haunted and well....me and Jon are creeps. I enjoyed our stay there but am not sure if I would recommend it for anyone on their honeymoon if you want a place that feels romantic and we weren't sure it was worth the price. Also, the rooms were a bit more crowded with stuff then I would have liked, with no central theme, and the bathroom was pretty small.

As for the haunted part, we often heard really strange strange noises that would go on through out the night. Are they from ghosts? I can't say they are, they could just have been normal house noises. But they creeped Jon out sufficiently enough that he couldn't sleep sometimes. So the Inn definitely had the right effect. And they would leave us orange juice and muffins for breakfast. Best muffins I have ever had. So delicious. And the Inn felt pretty exclusive to me. We never ran into any of the other guests that were staying there. um maybe there were no other guests... or none that were alive.....????

We thought Salem was awesome. In October, Halloween is its focus. Halloween and everything Halloween related like ghosts, witches, pirates (not sure how this fits exactly). Apparently the day of Halloween is going to be crazzzzyyy there and I believe it. Two weeks before it, and its already feeling up with strange people in costumes. I quite enjoyed seeing it all though. We didn't do as much in Boston as we would have liked, due to unforeseen issues, but what we did do, we quite enjoyed.

Things we loved:

- Count Orlok's Nightmare Gallery was all about monsters from horror movies. I haven't seen so many of the old horror movies but I still really enjoyed this museum and it has made me want to watch more of the classics.
- 3d haunted house. This was short, maybe not worth the cost, but still really fun.
- Witches Brew Cafe : this was one of our better meals of the trip. It's a simple but delicious menu and good service. I actually miss it. Its kinda off the beating path but a guy who was associated with the ghost tours guided us there.
- At the small mall they have there, they have one of those photo places where they dress you up in costumes and take pictures. I, unfortunately, can only make 2 faces on command and thus ruined half the pictures but it was still really fun.
-We did the Salem Night Tour one night. I think Jon didn't like how much history it included, he wants the ghost, the action, but it was still really quite enjoyable. It taught us a lot about the Salem Witch Trial history, which we sadly did not have time to do more of while in Salem.



What we didn't like as much:
-Rockefellers : Some of our food was pretty good but not all of it and the services was horrible.
- We went to some random haunted house. It was okay but not worth the price. I find a lot of things in Salem are expensive considering how long the activity actually takes, but you just have to get past the cost and enjoy yourself.

The greatest thing about Salem is how small it is. Its very intimate and its so easy to walk everywhere. So whether you take the bus there, or drive there, you won't need much transportation after you get there. Another thing I loved is all the history there. I wish we had had more time for it as I did not quite realize before going there, how gruesome the Salem Witch History really is. It made me and Jon want to study up on it more and see what they didn't teach us in school.

Massachusetts

Before I go on about the things we did on our trip, and what events occurred, I would like to make a list of the good and bad about Massachusetts.

Good
1. Gorgeous in the fall.
2. Unpredictable weather and strangely I liked that.
3. History is alive. So much history occurred there its almost overwhelming.
4. Not home of the Yankees :)
5. I saw lots of Carmel Apples and got to have one. Not quote Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, but it will do.
6. Northern Accents. They were cool for at least a day.
7. Easy drive to coastline. And amazingly gorgeous coastline.
8. Home of the XV Beacon. Need I say more.
9. Unlike popular belief, not everybody likes Obama up there.
10. So many beautiful gardens and parks for me to visit.
11. Love your aquarium. Take good care of those penguins.
12. They think everything is haunted and that makes for good times for me.
13. They have almost got mass transit perfected and for that I applaud them.

Bad
1. CVS on every corner. Love you CVS but not that much, though you were conveniently everywhere we were at when we needed you.
2. Dunken Donuts on every corner. We enjoyed your hot chocolate and donuts but we didn't need to see you every five min.
3. Not many good places to eat :( or did we just have bad luck.
4. Most towns are kinda old and ghetto looking. I think it was the style of the buildings and the fact that they were so old. Oh well. Still loved the place.
5. It is wayyy too expensive to visit some of your islands.
6. People are not very nice in Boston. I almost believe the guy when he said their license plate said Massachusetts because they were all Mass holes. k bad joke on his part but he was an interesting guy and he will make a good story for another time. Point is, we met more strange, wierd, annoying, and not nice people, than nice people. It was sad.
7. Either everybody needs to follow the road signs or nobody needs to. There can be none of this half and half. I need to know how safe I am going to be, if I need to follow the road signs, etc. Please make a decisions.
8. Did the fact that smoking can kill, miss the state of Massachusetts. I have never seen so many people smoke in my life. It was actually rather disgusting. And if you are 12 you probably really shouldn't be smoking. And if your standing in a crowd of people, please don't light up. At least have the decency to go off to the side. Though you may not know it, not everybody smokes or wants to inhale your smoke.
9. Even the secretaries in the hospitals are mean. Nobody likes to visit the hospital, can they at least act pleasant towards us.
10. They have signs for everything. Signs on every corner repeating everything. Even a million signs saying that 200 kids live in the area so be careful when you drive. Never a bad thing, but they just need to remember that the most important signs are those signs identifying location so I know what road I am on and where the road I need to turn down is at.

XV BEACON

15 Beacon Hotel is a luxury boutique hotel on Beacon Street. Beacon street being an old street in Boston with cobble stone walkways and beautiful buildings. We wanted to spend 1 night in a really nice hotel and after much searching online, we had narrowed it down to a few nice looking ones. We called all and said that we were going on our honeymoon and what could they do for us. We ended up choosing 15 Beacon because they offered us a room upgrade. Basically, we choose any room we wanted and they upgraded us to the next most expensive one for free. I believe we ended up with a corner studio. We had no clue what to expect but as soon as I walked out of the taxi I was in love.

Why? Because someone stood over me with an umbrella while I walked to the canopy so that I wouldn't get wet. Then we were informed at the desk that we could check out cars for free if we needed on. Then our room was amazing. It included the following:

Bathroom: phone, tv, rainforest shower and whirlpool tub, heated towel rack - the sink was right outside the door, with large mirrors and storage space.
Closet: safe, bathrobes (one of my requirements. loved them), hangers, umbrellas
Room: sound system that even reached bathroom, nice television, two phones, nice desk and couch, fireplace, great adjustable lighting, lots of windows for a great view of the city, etc. etc.
Hallway: a bowl of oranges to eat. yum!

Soon after we got there they dropped by with chocolate covered strawberries and a note to congratulate us. Yummy strawberries.

We enjoyed the room so much we only went outside for a short walk to find dinner. It was cold, rainy, snowy, so we didn't even end up finding dinner, and turned around and ate at the hotels restaurant Mooo. Mooo is a steakhouse connected to the hotel. We enjoyed it for the most part. The clam chowder was amazingggggg. Jon orders it a lot and it was the first time we got it with whole clams. So good. Their rolls were also exquisite. The salmon Jon ordered was delicious though I didn't eat too much of it. I only ordered asparagus and these koby beef dumplings. The asparagus was sooooo yummy. I love asparagus a lot. The dumplings though were expensive and not that good to me. They lacked a real flavor in my opinion. That was a bit of a dissapointment but it could be my fault for getting so used to strong flavors by putting hot sauce on everything. I left before dessert so I didn't get to try it but it was a brownie with vanilla ice cream on top with carmel I believe. Jon approved. Overall, more money then I would have liked to spend on what we got, and the service was a bit slow because they were busy, but a good meal and great atmosphere.

But back to the hotel. Not everything was perfect. My short list of complaints are as follows:

The faucets were too hard to turn off
The tv wasn't working correctly and the problem never got solved
Too many pillows - one was enough because they were so fluffy (wierd complaint and really shouldn't even count but im struggling here for complaints)
When we asked about dinner the guy pointed us to the right and we couldn't find anything fast enough. Come to find out later that there were restaurants on the left. Woops!

I feel like I had more complaints but I guess not. If I remember any more I will let you know.

When we left the hotel we were almost home sick within minutes. It was the nicest place either one of us had stayed in to date, and we knew it would be a while before we experienced that type of life again. It was soo enjoyable. I would 100% recommend this hotel to anybody, especially if they are going on their honeymoon so pass the word along. We plan to try and stay there again sometime in the future for our anniversary but until then, I love you XV Beacon and miss you.

INSIDE THE ROOM

THE VIEW

THE BATH ROBES I LOVED

Blah Blah Blah

So now that the wedding and honeymoon are all over and I have to start my new life, I think its time to blog about all that happened. I think I will start with the honeymoon just because I can.

For my first post I just want to write about how great it was to take a week vacation away from life. Unfortunately, all did not go as planned. But it was still amazing. Just to relax, not worry about anything from our real lives, and to just get to know each other on a new level was an awesome opportunity. The experiences that we went through made me love Jon even more than before, appreciate him more than before, and want him more than before. Even when things go bad, your relationship and love goes up.

The experience made me realize why its not necessary to go on a long planned out trip for your honeymoon. Really, it does end up being about just being with each other. For us, we loved where we went to and what we did, but those were not our favorite moments. Was it fun? Yes! But would it have probably been just as amazing had we gone somewhere else? Yes! Even some where local? Probably so. Your can chill, relax, and get to know each other just about anywhere. Honeymoons, especially for people who have not lived together previously, are about being with each other, not about the things you did or saw.

But with that said, I did love Boston and I am so grateful we had the opportunity to go there. I enjoyed many of the activities we did, and will try and blog about them soon.

Jon is an amazing man. I could not have asked for more. I am so grateful for him and I am beyond ready to spend eternity with him.

Update

I told myself I would not facebook or blogg on my honeymoon but due to the amount of time we have spent in our hotel room chilling, I am breaking that promise. I just wanted to write a very short post to let you know what I will be writing about when I get back from my honeymoon.

-a water main break in our marriage "venue." Thankfully, as we got married in my church's temple, this had a happy outcome.

-a visit to the hospital while on the honeymoon. Needles, blades, blood anyone? Gotta love painkillers.

-rain on wedding day+cold+stress = being sick on honeymoon

-a reception the night before. Fun but didn't exactly get us to our hotel that much sooner on our wedding day.

- an amazing and beautiful reception and wedding day. So there is some positive in all of this.

So most of this sounds negative but it just means that I have some awesome stories to share. And while everything has been hard, and may just get harder for a bit, I do not regret anything and am excited for what's to come.

Hopefully I can post pictures soon too.

We Got Our Apartment

So its onto finding ways to store all our stuff in a small apartment, making the best use of space, and figuring out how to decorate.

Some of my favorite solutions Ive found as of yet:

Pretty cool but would not work for me and Jon. Plus I don't usually collect magazines.

This is one problem we don't have to solve, at least not at this point, but I love the idea.

"I've updated this classic look with storage units, cable-suspended glass shelving, a glass-front cabinet, patio lighting, and that ultimate bathroom luxury: small speakers hooked up to the living-room stereo."
- Daniel P. Simmons.
Amazing, though we can only do so much as we are renting our apartment!

So, none of these solutions work for us, but its a good start.

Anyone out there have any great ideas? Things they have done or seen?

My Goal

I am an open book to many. I don't hold stuff in very well.
Many a people heard much about me. Probably too much.
But I am also a mystery. Though some may not catch on.
Very few people actually know the real fears and insecurities I have.
Many catch glimpses but few really notice or get it.
I have not accepted myself yet. I know what I am.
But I also know what I am not. How do I get past that?
I don't know but I need to and I must.

HELP ME

I am posting way too much today. Please forgive me. But I couldn't help posting about this when I thought about it while on Youtube.

I NEED NEW MUSIC TO LISTEN TO.

I like to cycle through bands over and over and throw new bands in along the way. I am in a new music mood. And I don't follow music as well as I used to so I don't know what to start listening to. I love all types of music, indie, blue grass, pop punk...you name it I probably listen to it.

Any advice? What are you listening to right now?

One I Did a While Ago

I love each of these items and want. Though I could never pull off those sunglasses and the bracelet would be way too big for my wrist.

Maybe when I go shopping again my obsession with making outfits will stop. Probably not.

Learning to Shop for Guys

I am gaining a husband soon and thus need to learn how to shop for guys. He would hate the following outfit but I've gotta practice somehow and what better way than to put together outfits I love on Polyvore. First attempt. Not sure about the shirt but did my best based on the selection.

Oh Happy Day

This picture reminds me of my family. I may be making it up, but if i'm not "Oh Happy Day" has been said in my house many a time. And if I am making it up, well then dismiss me as crazy and all will still be good. I love this picture every time I see it. I kinda wish I thought of it. Or had the guts to copy it for my reception.

Its The Little Moments Like These

This is what I probably look like when I am laughing. My mouth would just be 10x wider.

Its little, random, quite inconsequential moments like the ones that follows, that makes me really appreciate my mom. And it shows how lame my humor is.

Me and my mom went to Costco last night to get paper goods for the wedding. We just left the car and walked around another car. All of a sudden I heard her grunt and say "jeeze" in a shock and annoyed manor. I though she just turned too sharply and ran into the car. Until she walks up and has the following conversation with me (though because of my bad memory I should say, something along the lines of this)

"All these guys were checking you out. Doesn't it ever bother you"
"Whose checking me out?"
"Oh I think it was the guy ahead of us (not ahead of us the whole time) in the blue shirt, and the guys behind us at the car."
"Oh. Well I never even notice when I get checked out. And well Jon loves it."*

*Jon probably really doesn't love it. But I tend to think he should. Cause they are checking out the girl that he has got. K, I have a twisted mind. And in all honestly he just says he has gotten used to it.

I am not telling you this story to let you know that I get checked out. In fact, sometimes I think my friends make it up to make me feel good and important. I tell you this because I love random moments like this with my mom. Where she pulls something completely unexpected out of the hat, that probably isn't meant to be funny, but because of its randomness makes me laugh inside, and sometimes out-loud, for many hours. I hope my kids can laugh with me, and at me, like I do my mom. Because I love my mom a little bit more everytime she makes me laugh. And lots more when she comforts me when I am crying, something that has happened a lot since I got engaged. Oh the stresses of a wedding. Oh the stresses on my wallet. Stupid paper goods. At least I still have things to laugh about.

Secret Menu Items

I think this article is pretty good, even if you don't eat tons of fast food, or don't care about ordering their secret items. The funniest one is Fatburger (#3). The one I wish I could have is In-N-OUT (#7). The most useful might be Chipotle (#4), though I think I already sort of knew it. And I am almost positive I've also already heard about Jamba Juice (#2), as I has a friend that worked there and always talked about the secret flavors. I kinda want to test the green chili sauce out at Taco Bell (#9), only problem is that I can't think of the last time I ate there or if I see a trip there in my near future. Perhaps I will have to plan a special trip there just to test it.

My Effort To Be Happy

In an effort to be happy right now I am going to list 10 things I am thankful for:

1. The Gospel
2. Fall weather
3. Jon and his patience with me
4. Chocolate chip cookies
5. Times when I feel incredibly happy
6. That I have 500$ more dollars than I thought I did
7. Clothes and Shopping: Oh how I miss thee
8. crying cause as much as it sucks sometimes it just eases the mind
9. How there is always something to learn and improve upon
10. Good music

IM AN AUNT

At 11:16 EST my sister in law gave birth to a boy (not named yet) weighing 8.5 lbs and 20 inches long. I am an finally an aunt! Got 3 weeks to practice until I gain more nieces and nephews by marriage.

Why I LOVE The FALL

1. pretty colors
2. yummy smells like pie and pumpkin and spices
3. means birthday season for me, my fiance, my best friend, my brother, and my dad, and the birthdays of some future family
4. lots of good food
5. corn mazes
6. haunted houses
7. presents
8. my wedding that's coming in just three weeks. HOLY SMOKES.....
9. Halloween, Thanksgiving
10. good weather
11. happy people

In Celebration of Fall

One Outfit I Will Never Be Able To Afford

My First Experiment with Polyvore

Beginning of My Want List For Upcoming Holidays

1. the most amazing tweezers ever. not sure exactly what those are yet but want them.
2. new earrings in lots of cool colors.

I Don't Believe There Is a Monster In My Closet

but sometimes I get these other random fears. Sometimes, when going over a long bridge, I fear it will collapse and I will drown. Perhaps its a side effect of watching the Butterfly Effect. Sometimes I fear that the bridge being built above me will fall onto my car and can't wait for the light to change to green so I can get out from under it. Sometimes I fear that a shark will eat me or I still get stung by a jellyfish, when I am swimming in the Ocean. Sometimes I fear the ladder or piece of wood on the guys truck in front of me will come crashing through my windshield and kill me. It's my punishment for ever allowing someone to show me Final Destination, which certainly made it on my list of stupidest movies ever. Sometimes I fear I will crash into the road barriers or a fence, and once again die a gruesome and painful death. Sometimes, upon climbing up on something, I fear I will fall and hurt myself while getting down, and I get stuck up where I am at. Sometimes I fear a green blob will come out of the tub faucet, a side effect of Ghost Busters, but I've almost completely outgrown that one. Sometimes I fear I will fall to my death but somehow it doesn't stop me from doing whatever it is I am doing. Somehow my fears never stop be from doing anything, but inside I'm having a hard attack and trying not to panic.

What do you fear?

LOVE THIS VIDEO:

Speaking of which I AM GETTING MARRIED IN A MONTH!!! EEEK!!! I'm sort of excited but two of my fears just keep getting stronger. They are...TMI PEOPLE TMI if you want to stop reading right now...They are: what if I am too hairy for him and what if I can't keep my hair under control. I was born with some hairy genes or a hormonal embalance or something. Hate it. Maybe I am making it sound worse then it is, but as a girl, any hair is bad if its not on my head. AH!!! And What if I fart in my sleep. I know I know. Nasty. But I read horror storys about this all the time and Jon is kinda bathroom prude. Oh man! I'm kinda scared.

I NEED MORE SPACE...EEK

My house is crowded. And now its being even more crowded with wedding stuff. I can't wait to get our apartment next month so I can start moving stuff over and uncrowd (is that a word) this place. The craziest part is, we sent out invites last week and we are already getting presents. I'm not complaining about the gifts. Yes I am surprised but I do love them. I just don't have room for them yet. Ah!

Thanks Bed Bath and Beyond for delivering them crazy fast. Too bad you never delivered the registry cards I called about multiple times. Speaking of which, I thought it was the registry cards in the boxes when I saw them, and it about annoyed me. I no longer needed them, and now I have two boxes of them. Blah! But like I said above, I was completely surprised when there were wedding gifts inside instead. I guess Bed Bath and Beyond really step up their game when it counts.

And yes we did stick registry cards in our invites. GASP! I know! Trust me! But as a majority of the people we sent to were Mormon, as we are both Mormon, we had to cater to them. I did, though, leave it out of a few peoples card, taking their feelings into consideration, as technically it is a big social fopa to send registry information in the invitation. Why is it such a big tradition to put the registry card in the invitation in the LDS culture? I am not really sure. We are either way lazy, way smart, way too busy to think about searching for a gift, or well...as you can tell I lack theories big time. If I find out, or come up with a good theory, I will get back to you.

Tired Of Hearing About It

Here is my list of things I am tired of hearing about on Facebook:

Football
BYU's Football Team's greatness
The VMA's
School
About People's Kids They Babysit

Here is my list of things I am just plain tired off:

Peoples use of explicit language in their status
Peoples use of explicit language on other people's wall
Peoples use of explicit language
Applications for games like the Petshop

Just Some Pictures!

My sister and I were bored so we went to the park and took some pictures after my sort of make up trial. The Bare Mineral lady did it so basically I bought the products to recreate the look. I have confidence that it can be recreated because she didn't do anything too hard. I just needed the right colors and products. And I have an awesome gal helping me out. But the question is...how was I bored in the midst of wedding planning? Is it possible?

Money...I Used To Have It

Until I bought the makeup for my wedding day!!! Do you like the look? Its a horrible picture, I might take a better one later, but you can see the point. I promise it looks better in person though. Yay! Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully, I can recreate it later.

My Body Is No Wonderland

And if I can't stop taking these meds. and having to eat so many times a day to take them, all my weight is going to come back before I get married :(. My stupid body.

On happy grounds, I beat Jon at bowling tonight. I hate loosing in bowling. It's hard for me to handle. But it was very apparent that I had not been bowling in a long time. We most definitely need to go more often.

Even happier news: the invites are out. We might send more out just because we can but the majority of them are out. So if you think you deserve one, and you don't get it soon, let me know. I have this major fear that they wont get where they need to go. But I might just be crazy. I love how they turned out though and I hope other people like them too, or at least enough not to talk bad about them. They cost us a total of 70$ minus postage. Not bad.

Here are some pictures I have been hiding for a long time. I was hiding them because some of them will be going in a book for our wedding day, but just in honor of Jon and I and getting those invites out, I will give you a glimpse of them.

My personal favorite from the day. Synchronized swimming. Except for look at that looser one on the right. Way to ruin it!!!

I really should not have the guts to show this in public. But I am because its such a bad picture I laugh everytime I see it. Please don't kill me Jon for putting it up.