FHE

So, James recently came up with an idea that I really like, and we put it into action for the first time tonight. We decided that when we save up to buy things that are sort of frivolous, or fun, or basically just things we don't actually need, we will save up an extra 25% of the cost of that thing and spend it to help someone else somehow.

So, this weekend, being the undying BYU fans that we are, we bought the horrendously more-expensive-than-last-year All Sports Passes, even with the annoying extra fees. So, we spent a proportionate amount of money buying school supplies for children in an orphanage in Mexico.

We decided to make an FHE activity of it, and we walked down to K-mart (about 20 minutes from our house) and just grabbed a cart and went crazy. Let me just say that throwing school supplies willy nilly into a shopping cart is lots of fun. We went a bit over our budget, but it was totally worth it. I would recommend it to anyone.

And the bonus to it all, I think taking walks with my husband is one of my favorite things that we do together (you know, besides spending money). We have some of the best discussions. Like today, we planned what we would do with a billion dollars. Good news for all of you, if you're related to us you get a million even. If we like you, you might get a couple thousand. And if you make me cupcakes, I will buy you a house.

Weekend Update

Well, we're back from our weekend trip to the cabin.

Highlights:

The drive was absolutely gorgeous. Beautiful mountains and a green, lush valley thanks to the river running through it.

Pizza at ... oh shoot, I don't even know the name of the place. But it was good pizza.

Getting all six of us together again. Klarissa (cabin inviter) and Shelly (other cabin invitee) have been two of my best friends since our DT days of freshman year. We've all been friends with each other and each other's spouses for a long time, but don't get to see each other as often as we like. It was fun to get everyone together.

Church. We went to the local ward and there was this parade of kids that all wanted to share their testimonies. It was awesome to see them all so eager, and of course what came out of their mouths was enlightening and often quite funny. One was telling us all about his dog and how he's a good boy and that his family eats dinner and probably would have continued saying everything that came to his mind if he hadn't been stopped by a loving leader.

Rambling walk before church. We didn't know what time it started, so we got there a bit early and decided to take a walk around the town. It's a fairly small, rural area, so there was lots to see - horses, giant crickets, and about a million kittens. I was so tempted to take one home (the cats, not the crickets), but respect for my landlords stopped me. We really do have awesome landlords.

Coming home. It's always nice to come home, even when the vacation was lovely. It was even nicer because we took the time to clean the house before we left, so we came home to a calm and welcoming house instead of a disaster. So nice!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend!

New Goals

(Left to right: Brittany Stevens, Me, Natalie Puckett, Natalie's friend Cami, who was really cool, nice, and French)

So my friend Tracie and I made a goal that we would write every day in August. As you can see, today is the second and there was no entry on the first, so the goal is going well! :P Seriously, though I am going to try hard, starting today, to post something every single day. Lucky for me, today already has something notable about it and it's only 1pm!

So my friend Vicky Sanchez, whom I met while serving a mission in California, was here last weekend, and she reminded me that I hadn't seen my companion Sister Puckett in forever. So we decided to stalk good ol' Natalie using the handy internet, and within days I had found her and made plans to see her. As luck would have it, she is actually here in Utah for the summer doing an internship with the city of Salt Lake (she's studying to be a civil engineer - the girl get seriously psyched about roads... and road surveying... and construction. And she looks darn good in a hard hat.) So anyway, today she and another companion Britney Stevens came down to Provo to have breakfast and a mini reunion. It was so incredibly delightful. We shared stories about the charming old German lady we lived with and some of the escapades we had (like when she pulled us out of bed in the middle of the night to investigate a crazed animal rampaging through her yard... which turned out to be a balloon).

Yay for happy mission reunions. I'm also grateful for a husband who willingly sat through that and at least pretended to enjoy himself. Natalie doesn't know it, but she's the one person I'm ok with James marrying if I happen to die an untimely death.

Pictures to come. For now, I have to go get ready to teach English, and also pack a bit because we're going to a friend's cabin this afternoon to spend the night. So if you can't reach us it's because we're in remote reaches of eastern Utah. Have a great weekend!

Tagged

I got this in an email, but thought I'd post it on here. If you want to do it, too --copy/paste away my friend.

TAG--YOU'RE IT!
IF YOU OPENED IT, YOU HAVE TO DO IT!

WHEN YOU'RE DONE, SEND IT BACK TO THE PERSON WHO SENT IT TO YOU AND FORWARD IT TO THE REST OF YOUR FRIENDS

*TWO NAMES YOU GO BY:
1. Char
2. Wife (wee-fee)

*TWO THINGS YOU'RE WEARING RIGHT NOW:
1. a blanket
2. my underwear (I know, I know, I should be dressed, but I work from home. It's half the fun)

*TWO THINGS YOU WANT VERY BADLY AT THE MOMENT:
1. to see all three new babies that have come/are coming into the family soon
2. cheesecake (I blame it on the Friends episode I watched yesterday)

*TWO THINGS YOU DID LAST NIGHT:
1. attempted to make reusable grocery bags out of old t-shirts and began an apron made out of a skirt
2. invited our neighbor over for dinner and games

*TWO THINGS YOU ATE TODAY:
1. two chocolate chip cookies
2. one more chocolate chip cookie

*TWO PEOPLE YOU LAST SPOKE TO:
1. James
2. Duane (our neighbor)

*TWO THINGS YOU'RE DOING TOMORROW:
1. going in to the office
2. tutoring a friend in English

*TWO LONGEST CAR RIDES:
1. California to Virginia (coast to coast, baby!)
2. Utah to North Carolina

*TWO FAVORITE BEVERAGES:?
1. I have a weakness for cola, especially dr. pepper (is dr. pepper a cola?)
2. hot chocolate, mexican style mmmmmmm

Too Much Fun

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Some Recent Activities

Here are some pictures from some of the fun things we've done lately.

First is the baseball game we went to with James's awesome cousins and their equally awesome spouses. (Elliot, Jessica, Valerie and Jacob). We went to see the Orem Owlz play last Wednesday, cuz we could get $1 tickets, $1 hotdog, $1 popcorn, and $1 drink. Pretty good deal, and a fun time. The Owlz won 2-1 and we had a lot of fun (thanks especially to the old man hooting enthusiastically from the back row).



Next, last Friday my friend Shelly and I threw a baby shower for my dear friend Klarissa who will be having a darling baby boy near the end of next month. We had a lot of fun discussing all things baby and playing the cheesiest baby shower games we could come up with (melting chocolate bars in diapers and having everyone guess what was what, cutting up pictures from magazines to make what we imagined to be Klarissa and Chris's offspring, and other such silliness). I made a fondant cake almost all by myself and we just basically had a lot of fun. Pictures:

Only the Best Thing Ever

Ok, so my friend Tracie found the absolute, most awesome thing on the internet today, and I just have to share it with all of you. In fact I wish I had ten more blogs so I could promote it on all of them. It's Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog! I mean, the title tells you just how amazing it must be, and then you watch it and you're even more bowled over by the amazing amazingness. Like a bowling pin, seriously, you know, the one in the middle when you've bowled the most perfect bowl of your life and the ball hits the pin just barely to the right side so that all the pins scatter like frightened chickens? (How's that for a mixed metaphor?) Anway, go, watch, win. I promise you will enjoy it. And if you don't, we can't be friends anymore. At least, your friendship will be revoked and you'll have to reapply.

Happy Fourth, on the Fourteenth

Ever wonder what would happen if you used a language-translation program to translate a phrase back and forth between English and five other languages? Well, someone did, and they came up with this really fun site where you can play with language to your heart's content. Here's mine, in special tribute to the fourth of July holiday:

Can the word of the OH consider it of the first light of the shovel,
of which what many we it hailed ferocious this with the buttock to the
lustrum of the dawn?

Can you guess what that phrase originally said? While you're thinking about it, here are the pictures of our July 4th festivities that I've long promised myself I would post:

First thing in the morning on the 4th, James, Allison, Anthony, Baby George, and Big George, along with Sterling and his wife, ran the 5k. I was doing the all important job of Photographing.












Next, we watched the parade:

Here's Max showing his patriotism by eating the flag.
Mom and Anthony cheesing for the camera. And sporting very patriotic colors, I might add.
Dad and James. Come on, everyone. You love that hat.
Later that night, after a delicious BBQ at James's Uncle Greg and Aunt Mary's house, we lit fireworks at Diane and Jeff's.









And, in closing:

The collapse assured that the test and of the system to ignite in the
thing and the aeronautics, that one that is our place of the symbol,
he had always red the material rocket here he with the use at night
what collapse of the force.

Happy Birthday Grandpa Wilde!

I've got a bunch of fun pictures to post of the fourth of July festivities, but I can't find the little hookup thing for the camera, so I'll do things a bit backwards and post the pictures I took tonight on my cell phone camera.

We had a surprise birthday party for James's Grandpa Wilde tonight. James and I made this cake, as Grandpa is a big baseball fan:


Here's Grandpa blowing out the candles:


Here's James's little cousin Mia - she just loved those flowers, kept picking them up and dragging them all over the yard. Cute, cute girl.


And lastly, here are Grandma Wilde's night bloomers: we waited very patiently to watch them bloom before our eyes. It was an amazing sight, and then when they were open they smelled so beautiful. Just gorgeous:

Tagged!

3 Joys:
Reading on the porch on a warm day with a light breeze
Kisses from my husband when he gets home from school
The fact that my new sewing machine works!

3 Fears:
Getting in a wreck
Getting into debt
Getting kicked in the head by a rabid llama

3 Goals:
Daily exercise
Daily scripture study
Learn new sewing skills

3 Current Obsessions:
Getting my kitchen floor clean

Reconstructing clothing

Being environmentally friendly

3 Random/Surprising facts:
I'm starting to like some of James's names for our future children: Octavian, for example
I really like painting - not artistic painting, just painting, like a fence or a wall.
Our floor-cleaning robot doesn't have a name. Any suggestions?