Thurm and I had a great weekend. Saturday morning we went on a walk, which was supposed to be a run, but we ended up having a 45 minute argument about topics such as “is it healthy to discuss every mood swing the other person has or could we just ignore some and hope it goes away,” “does everyone have a conscience?”, etc. You’d think quiet, polite, easy going Thurm wouldn’t like to argue, but occasionally he indulges. The rest of the day was just running errands, cleaning, we planted some herbs, played with the little girl who lives upstairs, played a round of croquet in the yard with Thurm’s family, etc. It was just a nice, sunny, relaxed day. It felt like a day I’d spend with my mom in the summer. It felt like home.
Church on Sunday was one of those days where I teared up over everything in sacrament meeting and felt really grateful for my life and the people in my life. I just couldn’t get over my husband all day—He is such a good man. Good like how you feel about your dad or grandpa (not that I think of Thurm like my I think of my dad). He has values, principals, morals, he’s kind, and he treats me like a queen. If I wasn’t such a prideful person, this whole blog would be me gushing about how lucky I am and what an amazing husband I have. But I roll my eyes at those kind of girls : )
We went to a choir concert Sunday night and I was inspired to work on any musical talents I might have hiding. I watched the chorister almost the whole concert, mostly because she was really entertaining because she was so animated, but also because I have a new interest in leading music. It made me more excited about leading my primary kids.
Today we had a reorganization meeting at work. Our boss is reorganizing how our work is distributed. As of right now, we just have a big pool of work and whoever has the skills and/or the time completes the project. But soon we will be on client teams so I (ideally, but it’ll never happen) will only do the work for my team. This could potentially be good for me because it could foster working my up to a higher position. However, it could be frustrating because of who I’ll be working with. In the past, it was a rocky relationship, but hopefully this won’t be a problem this time around. Regardless, it might shake up my work life, which is good, because I’m not terribly happy here.

I’m not sure why Thurm and I are so popular, but we have had lots of house guests in the last couple months: Thurm’s brother-in-law, my sister-in-law and her kids, my mom, Thurm’s brother Ben, Thurm’s brother Anthony and his two kids, Ben again, Thurm’s parents are coming this weekend, Ben still, my mom is coming again next weekend…I know we are cool, but I’m wondering if it happens to be our central location and not our engaging personalities.

I butchered my husband last night. He wanted his hair cut, just a trim. And I just went crazy and cut off all his hair. He has a very bad missionary hair cut now. I almost cried when I realized I had cut off all his beautiful curls. I don’t know how it happened, it was like I couldn’t see the forest through the trees. He won’t need a haircut for a year : ( Why is it the wifely duty to cut her husbands hair once they get married? I don’t expect Thurm to cut my hair.

"Tying the knot often leads to weight gain, a two-year study of 2,528 men and women confirms. People who married during the study gained an average of 6-8 pounds, reports Robert Jeffery, Ph.D., a researcher at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health in Minneapolis. He speculates that a combination of factors is to blame for marital weight gain: the comfort of being in a secure relationship, less frequent exercise and the regular sit-down meals married couples eat.
There are many reasons why marriage can lead to weight gain, but the most common include:
We are no longer trying to attract a partner
Pregnancy occurs
We cook for gratification
We eat as much as our partner
We put our family's eating preferences above our own
We become the family's garbage disposal
Our partner sabotages us
We are in an unhappy marriage and turn to food for solace
We have unresolved issues
Birth control causes weight gain"

Weekend Highlights

* We bought a silver 2002 Toyota Camry. I think we got a good deal on a good car.
*Batman showed up at our door in the form of Ben, Thurm's bro, Friday night. He proceeded to literally bounce around our walls until we figured out who the masked man was.
*My little brother has a girlfriend!!! I probably feel about the same as he did when he found out that I had a boyfriend a year ago. Very weird.
*Thurm and I were asked for the 3rd time when we were going to start having kids. We will be having our six MONTH anniversary in six days. I guess when you are old it doesn't matter how long you've been married. They are doing the math and counting backwards from when I can't have kids anymore.
*We played croquet twice this weekend and I am NOT very good at it. Which is disappointing because its a cool game.
*We watched "The Decent," a horror movie about caving. I vow to never enter a cave that doesn't have hand rails and a tour guide.
*I found out that I have three Sundays to prepare my Primary choir to sing three songs in sacrament for Mother's Day.
*We ate brownies and peach cobbler for Sunday dinner : ) mm mm

I got a speeding ticket on March 21st while trying to make it to the airport on time to pick up my sister-in-law and nieces. And the reason I was late was I was helping my husband with some finance stuff. I was trying to be a good person and I got charged $97 for it. But whatever, I'm over that. The thing that kills me is the Justice Court! They COULDN'T make it any more inconvenient to deal with tickets. First of all, they don't put an amount owed on the ticket. I'm still unclear as to how I was supposed to find this information out. I assumed I was supposed to get something in the mail, but when I didn't get anything about a week later, I called. I was transferred to a million different people who finally told me that I wasn't in the system and to just wait until I get something in the mail. Yesterday I got a "FINAL LETTER" in the mail telling me that if I didn't pay $148 that I would be arrested and would have to show up in court, blah, blah. REALLY? Over an three week overdue speeding ticket!? It was too late to deal with it last night, so I woke up an hour earlier than normal thinking about it. I thought about it till I was so mad I couldn't sleep anymore. I had all sorts of righteous arguments and rants that I was going to lay on the "justice" court person. I'm not paying for THEIR MISTAKE! I'm not taking off work to go into court to defend my case! This is JUSTICE? So I got out of bed and called. While I was on hold a recording came on that told everyone they don't have parking at the justice court, so you'll either have to walk or pay in a public parking lot. That's how inconvenient we try to make this for you. Oh and by the way, we are only open for 7 hours a day while you are at work.
I got through after a minute and the woman told me it was their mistake, was very nice, and took care of it and it was all over with in 5 minutes. What a waste of all that self-righteous anger.

A few days ago some co-workers were gossiping about two different affairs that were going on in the office. My comment was “That’s horrible, I can’t believe people really do that!” My co-worker’s comment was “even if you think you aren’t that type of person, you can’t say that you would NEVER fall into that. It could easily happen to anyone.” I didn’t respond because I don’t like to argue with this particular person. She is very “Type A” and would argue her opinion to the death. I think the girls at work think I’m dumb because I don’t add comments to the conversation very often and when I do and someone (which invariably happens because they are all very argumentative) argues with me, I don’t argue back. I drop the subject. I think this is viewed as weak or like I don’t have any opinions. But the truth is it’s a really arrogant thing to do. (I think I’ve learned it from Thurm : ) I have a million opinions and I usually disagree with the girls at work, but I don’t want to waste my time trying to convince someone that won’t be convinced. And I’m afraid I’ll say something mean and I want to have a nice working relationship with my co-workers.
Back to my original thoughts… I can say with 100% confidence that I would NEVER have an affair. I have very strong feelings about adultery. I wouldn’t have an affair on principal alone. Doesn’t anyone have integrity anymore? The world has become so “open minded” and politically correct about everything that people are losing their values and morals. I believe in having an open mind, accepting people who aren’t like me, etc. But I think I can do that without giving up my values and principals. I can still hold beliefs and love someone that contradicts my beliefs. We should all be able to do that… that’s exactly what Christ showed us. I’m not perfect of course. It’s just been bothering me that horrible things are becoming acceptable because no one wants to be thought of as close-minded.
In other news, Thurm and I drove three cars last night and will probably make an offer on two of them. One is a 2002 Toyota Camry 57,000 miles on it for $11,000. The other is a 2000 Subaru Legacy 100,000 miles on it for $8,500. They both have pros and cons… and it’s a hard decision to make, so I think we’ll offer about a $1,000 less on both and see if our decision is made for us.
And tonight our realtor is showing us three different homes. While all of these new purchases are fun, I can’t help but stress about the commitment, debt, and potential of making the wrong decision. It’s nice that Thurm doesn’t stress too much in life. I love his happy attitude.

Irrational International Disposition

I’ve been wanting another adventure as of late. While we have been looking for a new car and a house, I’ve been looking for an exciting international job with the government!... or something along those lines. Ideally, it would be a company where Thurm and I could both work, based in Europe, have amazing benefits, allow me a year off to have a baby and after that let me work from our villa on the coast. Every few years they would move us to another exotic location and, of course, buy us a home in each new local. Does anyone know of a job like this? Where do I send my resume?
We didn’t tell our families (uh oh!) but we applied for the Peace Corps before we got married. We had our interview and were accepted the week between our wedding and honeymoon. The problem was they couldn’t place us until Spring 2008, which meant we wouldn’t get home till Summer 2010, which meant I would be 31 when we got home, which meant Thurm would be JUST starting a career and I would be JUST starting to have babies. It just seemed like too big of a commitment.
So my new plan is to have an adventure and get paid. That or buy a house.

I forgot to mention that Thurm is borrowing his uncle's car for a few weeks until we find a new one. It's a Cadillac Deville with (here's my favorite part) a license plate that says "LARUE." It just makes me smile to think of Thurm driving that down the freeway : ) haha.

I took a 3-day weekend to attend the Sissy Reunion 2007. They got the party started Wednesday night, but I couldn't attend until Thursday afternoon. I met up with them for manicures and pedicures. After that was making dinner, playing games, and talking late into the night. The next day we went to the Joseph Smith movie on temple square, ate at Olive Garden, went to "Little Women" the musical, ate at El Ferroll, got waxed by Lynette, watched "Miss Congeniality".
In the middle of all that I talked to Thurm and he told me his car broke. His engine seized up and its $2,000 to replace it. Needless to say, we will be purchasing a new car soon. It put a damper on my mood. But we just both recently paid off our cars, so at least we don't have any other car payments. So if anyone has a good deal on a Toyota or Subaru, let me know.
It was fun spending time with Thurm's family. It gave me more insight into "why Thurm is the way he is." I'm sure he feels the same when he spends time with my family. We are a product of our surroundings. It made me miss him, being with people like him, but not him.