July in a Nutshell

. . . minus the nuts.

Sometimes things happen that are exciting, but I don’t really think they’re worthy of having their own blog post. But all the little things add up, so eventually I just need to write a post like this with a list of all those little things. Really I should just master the art of short blog posts. We’d all be better off. Big Gulps, huh? Welp, here’s July:

• After 2+ months of not being able to answer my phone, I called T-Mobile, listened to the automated troubleshooting suggestions, tried the most obvious one (the one I should have known to do the day my phone stopped working properly), and now I'm a phone-answerer again!

• Joshua and I saw Oedipus on campus. We were both way impressed with the set. I thought the guy who played Oedipus looked really funny when he was trying to make angry faces, but he did a great job at sounding angry, so I guess that made up for it.

• I got to go to the temple with some of my favorite people!! Kristy, Heidi, Carly, and I were planning on going. Carly didn’t make it, but Kristy brought me a surprise in the form of a Jenna!! I love that I got to see her and go to the temple with her before she leaves on her mission. And I love that I finally got to go with Kristy and Heidi! The temple is incredible, and it’s even better when you get to share the experience with people you love!

• After the temple, I got to hang out with Heidi! I really, really like her. I could (and did) easily talk with her for hours at a time.

• With all this talk about roommates, let’s not forget my most favoritest and loved roommate ever . . . Joshua read a lot of textbooks and articles.

• I went to a couple baby showers. I left both feeling like I want to be a craftier person.

• I cleaned our apartment. Our kitchen still is nearly spotless! It makes my unbelievably happy. Truly, I had no idea having such a clean kitchen could make me so happy.

• Joshua wrote a ton of papers.

• I read some really good books. And a boring one.

• The Leavitts visited Rexburg for a night! Tami is one of Joshua’s “moms” from his mission. We love their family! They brought us a few different kinds of homemade jam. (Can’t wait to try them!) And they took us out to dinner at Craigo’s. (Side story . . . Joshua and I hadn’t been there since December 2009. It’s a pizza/pasta buffet, and the last time we went we both stuffed ourselves and felt soo sick afterwards that we made a family pact not to go there unless other people invited us to go with them.) It was delicious. And neither of us ate too much. We hung out with the Leavitts at their hotel room for a few hours. Abigail is getting so grown up! She kept us entertained. We really enjoyed getting to see and spend some time with all of them.

• Joshua studied A LOT!!

• I got to visit Bree before she and her family moved to Washington. I really like her too. (I just got lucky with lots of super awesome roommates over the years!) I finally met her newest little man, and her kids are both so cute.

• Joshua wrote some more papers.

• Joshua and I went to Craigo’s again!! (Twice in one week! It was like a feast after a famine.) His friend Justin is graduating, so we went to lunch with him, his family, and Brother Baron. I consumed pizza while they had stimulating discussions, and then sat back and laughed at some entertaining stories. It was fun for both of us.

Independence Day

I'm pretty sure it's one of the best holidays. I love the feeling of unity within communities. Our country is a wonderful place to live, and I have a deep appreciation for all the men and women that have sacrificed to make it what it is today.

We started off the day at the Rexburg parade with the Barrons. We ended up sitting with Carissa's cousin's in-laws family. Funny sounding, but they were really nice people! They'd gone early to reserve good seats. He was telling us that some people said they'd gotten there as early as 5 a.m. I think that's crazy absurd for a parade that started at 10. . .in Rexburg, but at least they probably got the best seats (in the shade). We were fine in the sun though because we remembered to wear sunscreen! Happy day.

Apparently Rexburg is inundated with dance studios, and their floats full of scantily clad children took up at least half of the parade. Lame. But the rest of the parade had lots of really old cars and firetrucks, cool floats for local businesses, and just some random things. Overall, we had fun at the parade! Here are some of our favorites:

This was so cool! They were riding with one foot on each horse.

The Broulim's cart. It's a classic.

This float was a long trampoline. 

People were doing gymnastics while the float was driving!!

Watching the parade while wearing some sweet shades.

Random much?

Some military vehicle. 

We're not exactly sure what it's for, but it looks cool.

We had hamburgers for lunch. I know I always say it, but we make very toothsome hamburgers. (I recently learned that word and have been wanting to use it! Go look it up.) We had a little picnic outside in the shade. Rexburg summers do have really nice weather going for them . . . sometimes. We might have been super hot at the parade, but eating lunch in the shade was perfect! It's too bad Joshua's got allergies because we could have taken a long nap outside. Poor guy.

I snuck in a baby nap before we had to go back inside.

This picture was supposed to be of me sleeping, but it caught me waking up. :/

Our friend's friend's friend's sister (got that?) works for Melaleuca, and she could get us in to the Melaleuca thingy to watch the fireworks. (Really we went with all the same people we watched the parade with. We were just joking about how funny that relation sounds.)
largest fireworks display west of the Mississippi.

Farmer's Market

Today Joshua and I went to the Farmer's Market in town. The weather was beautiful! I love Rexburg in the summer. . .when it's playing along and giving us summer weather. So we took a side trip and walked to Broulim's so we could get cash back to buy some food at the Farmer's Market.

Joshua got a bratwurst from some German guy. It smelled heavenly, and Joshua says it tasted good too. I got a ginormous scone. It was so big and delicious!


We decided to be adventurous and tried a strawberry colada boba drink. I don't even know how to describe the boba thingys at the bottom. I should google it. Anyway, you have a fat straw so it can suck up the boba things along with the drink. Then you can pop them in your mouth, and you get a burst of flavor. So the strawberry colada was scrumptious, but we both thought the boba things were a little weird.


So after the drink was gone I started shooting the boba things from the straw. (We'd left most of them at the bottom.) It kinda turned into a game, and we were probably acting a little bit like 14 year olds. We sort of had a contest going on, and Joshua can shoot them a bajillion times farther than I can. It was pretty funny. Great for cheap Friday night entertainment.

Joshua might or might not have been aiming his bobas at that tree. . .
It's alright, they're biodegradable.

First Prize for Longest Receipt

That's right. I've been saving this receipt for months just to take a picture before throwing it away. That's how amazing it is. Look at how long this receipt is and guess how many items we bought at K-Mart in this shopping trip. . . .

If you guessed one item, you were correct!

Impressive, huh? We spent $1.06 at K-Mart and got a 23" receipt. I'm thinking their new online receipt idea is a keeper.

Looking for a Daddy

Today at church, some little girl tried to claim Joshua as her daddy. It was hilarious!! And totally awkward for Joshua.

So while I was waiting for Joshua to come out of the bathroom, this little girl and her mom came out of the women's bathroom. The girl ran to the men's door and started knocking on it and calling out for her daddy. The mom kept trying to pull the girl back, but she was pretty insistent. So when Joshua opens the door to come out the little girl kinda falls into the bathroom and excitedly yells, "Daddy!" The mom told her it wasn't her daddy, and Joshua and I started to walk away. So we're walking down the hall when I notice the little girl running after Joshua. She's holding up her arms and yelling, "Daddy! Daddy!" the whole way, still so excited. She catches up to us right as I stop Joshua. He looks at her (I can tell he has no idea what to do) and leans down to tell her that her mom is over there and her daddy will be back there too (pointing down the hall). Finally, the mom catches up to the daughter, tells her that's not her daddy, and tries to pick her up. The little girl flings herself on the floor and starts to scream, still calling out for her daddy. The mom looks apologetically at us, but I was honestly trying so hard not to laugh. Oh man. We walked away (as she's still screaming after Joshua), and as soon as we turned the corner I busted up. We laughed so hard all the way down the hall and into class. Poor little girl thought her daddy was just walking away from her.

The girl did have beautiful, perfect ringlets. And she had on a polka dot dress. Totally could have been our child. We should have just taken her with us.

Laundry

Something that I'm good at. Actually, not gonna lie. . .I'm awesome. I may not be the best housekeeper in any other areas, but I've got super awesome laundry doing skills.

While I was in school our laundry got washed regularly (only out of necessity). But since graduating I'm like Laundry Superwoman. Our laundry gets washed every single week. Our laundry gets put away every week. A lot of times I'm even so incredible that I fold it straight out of the dryer. I'm especially pleased with my laundry skills on those weeks. My laundry baskets don't even participate in laundry then. And to top it all off. . .I love to iron! That's right. I'm a little obsessive about it. Joshua gets good looking shirts to wear to church and school. I get good looking shirts and skirts to wear. And I resist the temptation to iron our sheets. Seriously. It's tempting sometimes, especially the pillowcases.

Basically, Joshua and I are both very pleased
that our hamper never looks like this:

So Joshua never runs out of clean clothes,
and I never have to say things like this:

Except that if our hamper ever looked that bad, I wouldn't look as happy as that lady does.

Sunburns

The last day of school was the only day the weather was decent that week. And by decent, I mean it was actually a glorious day! We were pretty lucky since we'd essentially planned a field day. After being outside for about 10 minutes I had thought, "Oh, I should have put on sunscreen." But I couldn't leave my group to go put on sunscreen so I forgot about it.

After spending all morning in the sun for our end of the year celebration, the teachers pulled everything out of the bully barn to clean and organize. Basically I spent the majority of the day out in the sun. At some point I realized my neck felt really, really hot. So I went and put some sunscreen on it. Later, I realized, "Wow, I should have put sunscreen on my face and arms too." So I did. No matter though. By the end of the day I was bright red. And had a really funny line on my arm since my shirt sleeves came to just above my elbows. It lasted (and peeled) for a few weeks.

Today Carissa and I got Subway for lunch then went to sit at Porter Park to eat and enjoy the sunshine. We sat there chatting for 3 hours! We watched Carissa tan the entire time, and when it was time to leave we were both laughing about how I didn't even have so much as a tiny line from my shorts. It's totally ridiculous that I believed the sun did absolutely nothing to me. I should have learned my lesson from the sun already this year. Hours later I was so excited that my legs were a little pink! Joshua just laughed because normally when people say they got color they don't mean they turned pink. I'm not so excited about it anymore. . . .


This picture doesn't quite do it justice. The top/inside quarter of both of my legs got BURNED! Luckily my arms were saved by the fact that I wore a jacket the majority of the time. Seriously, it hurts to let my legs touch each other. And they're a tiny bit prickly so it's even worse.

Consider my lesson learned. Joshua suggested I carry a little sunscreen in my purse for days that I don't think to put it on before going out. I think that's a brilliant idea!