It is possible that the two yutes...*

Hello – long time no blog.

I’m going to be one of those people with a general update in case there is anyone who still reads this.

I don’t even know where to begin. Let’s see. Right after Matt and I got back from the honeymoon (seriously, within 24 hours) I was called to be the first counselor in the Young Women’s Presidency. I am the counselor over the 14-15 year old girls (Mia-Maids). Can we talk for a second about what 14 and 15 were like for me?

No…we can’t. I can’t say I really remember it, I just know that I was the weird kid who didn’t fit in. It’s safe to assume that I was overweight, wore thick glasses, didn’t know how to get my hair to behave but didn’t want to wear it in a ponytail, and wore giant tweety bird shirts. Oh – and I had braces. I think we can all imagine my self-esteem wasn’t exactly burgeoning back then.

Let’s add to the mix that I haven’t really been in a family ward since 2001, with brief visits the summer of 2002, 2004- 2006 before joining the singles ward. Point being – I’m not used to being around the youth, much less being a leader.

So it’s been two months and I’m still trying to get used to not only being a leader (and therefore being called “Sister” rather than “Jessica”), but also to my new last name. I’m also not sure how to behave around them. Be their friend but be a good example. I haven’t thought about being an example in so long I’m not sure what constitutes a good one. I would hope my natural actions would suffice but then I still worry sometimes.

I have to say though, after each encounter, I enjoy my calling more and more.

On a different note – have I ever mentioned that I don’t mind hand-me-downs? I really don’t. I’ve heard some people who were the younger siblings complain about having to wear their sister’s old clothes/shoes but I’ve always been all about the free stuff. Love it.

With that being said – it seems my family (and by “my family” I now include the in-laws) keeps giving us stuff (and this girl doesn't complain). Chewy’s sister loaded up her parents’ car with baby gear (note to readers: said baby gear was offered to us to have for when we are ready – there is no immediate need for it if you catch my drift). My sister (and Chewy’s brother) gave us a brand new couch.

I realized today that I have never bought a couch, nor a television. The house I bought came with a couch and then my sister gave me an old one of hers when she moved back to Virginia. Then I got a new roommate so we chucked the house couch and used hers. Then Chewy and I have just been using the giant chair until yesterday, when we got a couch. Also – all my TVs have been gifted to me. Now I’m wondering what else I've never bought but have owned multiples of.

Have I mentioned I've been scatterbrained lately?

I have signed up for a writing conference in October. (Eek!) The conference itself isn't that scary, what’s scary is that I also signed up to meet with an agent for 7 minutes and pitch my story idea to them. My writing group still meets once a month and we have changed the way we do our submissions. Usually the four of us would submit a chapter each. This month I submitted a chapter and one of the women submitted the rest of her story. Next month I won’t submit anything and the following month I’ll submit the rest of my story. It’s good in a way, it’s given me a deadline to finish and the conference gives me a deadline to finish edits. Anyone want to be a beta reader?

OH - let's not forget Easters.  I'm still working on my photography skills - so Easter was a fun time to take some photos:  

Selfies count for photography skills too

Again, I'm sorry for the long break - I hope I'll be better about blogging moving forward.  Also - I'm still waiting on the wedding photos from the photographer - but I hope to have them in the next week or so and I'll be sure to post some then.

Is there sugar in syrup? Then yes!*

I feel like I have been M.I.A. lately.  Not just in the Blognation, but it real life too.  Oh...sorry if that offended anyone - you are real life as well, just...different. 

My sister, Martha, flew in to town on the 17th of December and I think that is pretty much when it happened.  It was good timing though, I mean, a lot of my friends went home for the holidays that week and are just beginning to come back now.  So maybe I didn't go M.I.A...maybe they did.

So a recap of my life since December 17th. 

I got sick.  Yup.  I wasn't too worried about it - I mean, I am apparently to live out the rest of my life with a weakened immune system - either from old age or lack of veggies - it's a toss up.  I went to the doctor after three or so days and he couldn't tell me what it was, but he gave me antibiotics - so I can't really complain.

I ate way too much.  Not just homemade stuff, but eating out as well.  If I never see another restaurant I think I'll be just fine.  I'm thoroughly disgusted with my body right now, I feel like I've packed on a 60 pounds and just can't shake it.  Then I panic and think that this is what old age is - easy to pack it on, difficult to take it off.

I played a lot of games.  We played Ticket to Ride almost every night! I absolutely love that game.  I picked up Christian from the airport last night and it turns out that he played Ticket to Ride almost every night too.  It's always nice to realize that there is at least one other person with the same unhealthy addiction.  Strength in numbers.

I went to the Temple twice (okay - the first time was the 15th so technically NOT included in the "since December 17th" list - but it didn't make the blog cause I got so busy). 

Partied it up in a hotel with my fam - eating pizza and playing games. 

Spent TONS of time with my family (and guess what? I still love them!)

Had 25 too many conversations about being single...for a grand total of 25 conversations. 

I cleaned the boys' house.  Originally I just wanted to clean the guest bathroom - since that was the one I use, but I decided to clean the whole thing (minus bedrooms).  Chris was home so he helped out, but the other boys were gone for Christmas so I wanted to do something nice for them to come home to.  Merry Christmas Boys.

Went shopping a couple of times - Spent too much money.

Saw the Hobbit...I think I overall liked it.  I kept leaning over to my roommate and saying, "that's not in the book!" but it didn't make me too mad like some movies made from books do.  King's to you Peter Jackson.



We celebrated all the January birthdays (I think there are 6).

I got a lot more Penguin items including a night light, Penguinopoly, a penguin cookies cutter, and Viv's parents bought me a little penguin stuffed animal with a Santa hat on...oh yeah and I got a little learning kit about penguins...


I deep cleaned my bedroom - and by deep clean I mean that I went through all the papers that I keep shoving into boxes, bowls (yes, bowls), folders, books, drawers, etc. and threw away A TON of stuff.  2013 is going to start out clean dangit!

Watched 1408 with my family the last night Martha and Jeff were in town and the ending was different, and the movie somehow scarier than the first time...I had trouble falling asleep that night.

I met up with some old friends at the Chick-fil-a.  It was great - I think I need to do that more often!

My roommate, Vivienne, got the flu and Chris was sick....so I spent New Years with the two of them and we made a ham that finished at the exact same time that 2012 did...is it sad that I found that exciting?  We didn't even eat the ham - which I'm okay with because of the risk of brain worms.

And last night Thursday night we had a basketball game.  I don't know how I feel about it - I think I liked it.  I was nervous at the beginning and then the beginning of each quarter.  Then still kind of had that nervous feeling last night as I fell asleep.  I'm beginning to think this anxiety is turning in to a real problem. (note: I figured it out - I was coming down with another bug...so I wasn't nervous, I was sick). 

That's kind of it - actually, it's probably not.  I feel like I am forgetting something big, I'm just not sure what it is.

P.S. I intended to post this earlier but I GOT SICK AGAIN! This time a fever and a barking cough (gross).  But it seems to have been a 24 hour bug - I'm not 100% but I am feeling better - and I can sit up now...and walk...and I only see one of everything now. Oh yeah - and thanks to Martha for some of the pictures! She was much better about taking photos over the last few weeks.

Weweas the secwet weapon!*

Pics from New Years Eve

We had played Frisbee in the morning and then people kept asking what the plan was for New Years. Finally we just decided to have some people over to the house. (p.s. this was the first day I started to notice I wasn't feeling well).

It's always a good time when Jim is there.

We all realized that we were wearing red - so why not take a photo?

That Face!

Ryan got in trouble for making that face!

As the night went on, things started to get a little crazy.

We watched the ball drop online since I don't have cable. We had some sparkling cider and toasted to the new year!

But in case you guys were really wondering the type of stuff I did right before the end of 2011....here's a video.

Here's to 2012!

Fight the good fight, precious!*

I'm a little/lot behind on post. In December, a group of us went to D.C. to see the lights at the Temple. It's not like Salt Lake's, but it's ours.
Brittany likes to think that she is tall. She is standing UP on the curb and the boys are standing off the curb...and on of them might be bending their knees.Then we ran into Jesse (he had been all over interviewing for schools and he was at the train station so he came to meet us to get a ride home).

...See how excited he is to be back?

We didn't just go see the lights though, the Richmond Chorale was also up there performing. So we got (free) tickets and waited for the doors to open. We all went in as a group but at the bottom of the stairs Jesse broke off to use the facilities. I told him we'd save him a seat. They had Sister Missionaries there directing traffic and as we got into our row I said to the person behind me to leave a spot for Jesse and the Sister Missionary at the end of our row said, "No saving seats." I said, "Oh, he had his ticket he just ran to the bathroom." and she repeated, "No savings seats." and I looked at my friend and said more quietly, just leave a seat, he'll be back in a second. I didn't think he should have to sit by himself because he had to go to the bathroom. So I kept looking for him because the mean missionary was still at the end of our row. I got distracted by something but looked back just in time to see the sister missionary telling Jesse that he had to find a seat further back and I threw up my hand and told him we had a seat for him. She relented and let him pass. It was crazy, we almost lost him.

Aside from the that, the performance was great. Then we hung out in the lobby waiting for the rest of our group to get there.I just love this picture of Tia and Jesse, I don't know why, it makes me think they are on a talk show.
Then we all went to the parking lot to decide where to eat dinner.

That didn't work too well, we split up into two groups. Group A went to Cafe Rio and Group B went to Cheeburger, Cheeburger. Guess which group I was in?

(This picture was taken to show the difference in the sizes of our burgers).

The Cheeburger gang.