weird post about a glue gun

Yesterday I hot-glued some flowers and ribbons onto little clips for Lola's hair because I sometimes pretend that I'm a crafty person. I say pretend because whenever I try to do a craft I agonize over making asinine decisions and then end up not liking the decisions I made (in case you didn't notice I changed my blog title and background again). Some people really are crafty. They have a vision that they unflinchingly pursue and the end result is a masterpiece. Truly a beautiful thing to behold.

The flower/bow/hair-thingy project required a trip to the craft store where I wandered around like a zombie picking things up and staring at them for a really long time. Then I headed to my mom's house where I rifled through her things in order to borrow her hot-glue gun. Here she is:



Absolutely caked with dried shiny glue and bits of our crafts over the years:



Even a little piece of ribbon:




That hot-glue gun brought back some great memories of crafty adventures along with some even better memories of crafty misadventures with my mom and the other women in my life that I love. It has been privy to some moments of pure hilarity.

Oh yeah, here is a pic of the flower hair clips:

So, I have this reoccuring dream

where I am new in school and have a Math class that I'm super-worried about but determined to do well in. I make a mental note in my dream to do all my homework and actually learn the concepts. At some point I suddenly realize that I have to be in Math class in a few minutes and I haven't even cracked my book let alone done any of my homework. The dream usually ends with me sitting in class feeling utterly frustrated and overwhelmed.

I decided to do some serious Internet research on a weird dream analysis website. This is how they analyzed my dream about school: The images of school, school work and fear of examinations are dream references to comparable processes in the school of life. The school of life forces man to participate in these learning process for as long as he lives. Boring.

I thought it was much more exciting to learn what it means if you dream about a squirrel: To dream of squirrels denotes that pleasant friends will soon visit you. Do you also have pleasant friends that remind you of squirrels?

Have you ever had a terrible nightmare about spectacles? Let's decode. To dream of spectacles foretells that strangers will change your affairs. You shall suffer from frauds committed by them. What?? I totally don't believe that because last week I had a spectacle dream and the next morning some stranger called me and informed me that I was the last remaining kin to a Persian Prince who recently died and wanted to leave me all of his fortune. I only had to pay him $500.00 to free up the money and give him my social.

Have you ever wondered what those Superman dreams you have been having mean? Usually, the dream [about Superman] is indicating extremely dangerous delusions of grandeur. It can also indicate that intelligence and rationality are being valued too highly. Knocked you off your high horse, didn't it.

And finally we can move along to my personal favorite: To dream of a street foretells that ill-lick and worries shall befall you. You will lose all your hopes of reaching your goal or aim. I only liked that one because of the typo. Ill-lick. I hope I never dream of a street because I don't want ill-lick and worries to befall me.

Do you have a reoccurring dream?

Welcome Back! Welcome Back! Welcome Back!

Two Christmases. Two Thanksgivings. Two Mother's Days. Two Father's Days. Many things can happen in two years. For example, your six-month-old baby turns into a two-and-a-half-year-old boy and the twinkle in your eye turns into a a seven-month-old baby.

I suppose a lot of the Lord's work can be done in two years as well. Especially if you are as industrious as Quinn's folks.

Grandma, meet baby Lola:


Grandpa Forrest, get reacquainted with Little Forrest:



Since we are big-time moochers, our plan is to hang with the in-laws for a while so we can save up a nice, big, juicy down payment for a home of our own. Apparently it's "unreasonable" to expect to find a three bedroom home for rent in the area for around $100.00 per month.

Some things I am hoping to learn from my mother-in-law during our stay:

1. How to make that delicious raspberry freezer jam.
2. How to can peaches and tomatoes.
3. How to cook.
4. How to be less wasteful.

Some things I will most likely teach my mother-in-law:

1. Patience
2. Long-suffering

Not that she isn't already a patient, long-suffering person but living with my family will surely require an increase in these qualities (either that or my family will end up homeless).

Big-time Moochers

Quinn's parents are just about home(hooray!!!!!) from their two-year mission in Vermont. Being so generous (ha!!) Quinn and I agreed to live in and "take care of" their home while they were away. By saying the place was "taken care of" by us I mean that the lawn got mowed a few times and there was a wild frenzy of yardwork done before the first freeze in the fall. As for the house- saying we took care of it is like saying I was just "taking care of" the flip-flops when I wore them everyday last Summer. In other words, there has been a lot of livin' done in the house over the past few years and if trying to keep it clean (be nice people, I said trying) and prevent our toddler from completely destroying it counts as taking care of it, so be it but I would feel more comfortable just saying we have been "totally mooching" rather than "taking care of the house."

I guess I should also mention that Quinn and I lived in and "took care of" his parents' house (or totally mooched) during 2004-2006 while they went on a mission to Australia. So basically we have been brazenly mooching in their house for four of the past five years. Largely because of this Quinn was able to get his degree and as of May 2008, is now a bona-fide Mechanical Engineer (woohoo).

What's next on life's agenda for big-time moochers like us? I guess we need to now look for a place to live...hey, does anyone know of a senior couple in the area leaving on a mission soon and in need of a nice young family to "take care" of their place??

This picture has nothing to do with this post but it was too cute not to share.

A Practical Love Story

I remember the first time I saw Quinn. It was at church. He was 14 years old and I was 12. His blonde hair was shoulder-length and he had a cast on one of his arms (I can't remember which one). He was sassing the young women's president who was showing me where our class was. I was intrigued.

As I got to know him I found him smart, sarcastic, cute, and very, very funny.

By the time we went out on our first "date" he was a senior and I was a sophomore. He was really good friends with a couple of my older brothers so we already knew each other pretty well (what a jerk I was to go after my brothers friends, right??).

Since we were both in the Drama Club (nerd alert) and I had a car and he did not,I asked him if he wanted to go to the Drama Club Social together (can you believe how forward I was???). I didn't really even think if it as a date at the time, I thought we were just going as buddies.

So we ended up roller skating together at the Drama Club Social. Since we made such a cute couple we were chosen along with several other couples to participate in a little game on our skates in which we ended up saran-wrapped together to a support beam in the middle of the skating rink. The contest was to see which couple could free themselves from the saran wrap the fastest. Needless to say we creamed the competition. After our skating adventures we headed over to the park so Quinn could put the moves on me.

We hit it off so well and Quinn was so hilarious that it was clear by the end of the night that "buddies" was not the word to describe our relationship anymore.

That was at least 12 years ago. On my 21st birthday he asked me to be his wife. We were married 7 months later at The Old Meeting House on Highland Drive. In June of 2004 we were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple.

Being married has taught me about patience, oversight, compromise, teamwork, and forgiveness. Marriage has also shown me my own short-sightedness, selfishness, weakness, and unkindness (hey, I'm just being honest).

The reality of marriage is that sometimes it feels like we are still saran-wrapped to that support beam in the center of the roller-skating rink. Ripping, tearing, and gnawing day in and day out. Some days it's easy, almost effortless and it feels as though we have mastered the technique. Other days maybe I just want to wrap my head up in saran wrap.

It is especially on those days that I am so grateful I married Quinn. He wraps me up in his big arms and makes me realize that even on the crappiest days, our life together is so incredible. I hate to get all mushy but the honest truth is that my marriage to Quinn is a quiet, warm, safe sanctuary where I feel secure and fulfilled. Quinn is my capable, considerate, gentle, eternal companion and there is nobody I would rather be saran-wrapped to the support beam of life with...

I love you Quinn. Happy v-day.

I Need Your Help

I am potty training Forrest today. Please lend me your wisdom.