Pumpkin Carving Part-ay!

Well, originally I think this blog was supposed to mainly Matt's. Mostly because he's better at words than I, but he's been so busy and I have not, well, you get it.

(AND... I know I promised pics of the Wonderful Disney World, but we have two memory cards of pics & movies so I'll need more time to sort through.)

About two weeks ago Matt and I decided (well, I decided to include Matt) that we would carve jack-o-lanterns for Halloween. For those of you who don't know, since Matt and I have been married we've been living in an apartment which does not allow for the proper displaying of Jack-O-Lanterns. So, this is a positive to living with Matt's parents (which reminds me that I also need to post pics of our house- it's really coming along). ANYWAY... so Saturday night we went to WalMart and got enough pumpkins for all of us (Matt's parents and siblings included) to each carve a pumpkin.

I know I keep getting side tracked, and that this part is irrelevant, but I'm so proud that I had to post it. Matt and I have recently been called to teach Sunday School for the 16-17 year olds in our ward. So to appeal to them, and utilizing my talents, I made an edible plan of salvation. Teenagers like food. And yes, the sprinkles on the 3rd one represents spirit paradise (so hope ya love sprinkles).

Okay, now that we've got that out of the way.... (yeah, they were delicious) onto our pumpkin carving FHE. Now, for those of you who have ever met, read about, or heard about Matt, you may know that he likes tools. a lot. Also, he doesn't get to use tools on a regular basis or really at all, so he takes advantage of EVERY opportunity he gets.

Now this next one is a photo of me trying to take my top off. Heh, that's right. And I have been deemed (sp?) the master pumpkin carver. I also have to note, that in the ABOVE picture Matt is about to try carve the lid of his pumpkin off with that nifty tool.... I did mine faster manually.

Now this next part is my favorite. Apparently it's everyone else's least favorite.

It's weird, I know.

There's just something about the feeling of the pumpkin goo and seeds between my fingers that I like. So Matt was oh so generous enough to use this as an opportunity to get me to de-seed-ify his pumpkin.

Also, I feel it necessary to give kudos to Mary for emptying her pumpkin, especially since Sean told her that she had to because it was part of the pumpkin carving experience. He then proceeded to ask me to empty out his goop. It's okay Sean, I'll forgive you.

Now this is Matt trying again to make his power tools work better than my talent. He's carving a ghost, I'm making a cute face!

Needless to say, his carving tool was WAY messier than mine!

The follow picture should require parental approval (if I could figure out how to block it from kiddos I would). This is Sean's. I am showing you a picture in the light because you can't see the knife in the dark.

Now you haven't seen any pics of Mary's yet. Her's was the most complicated. It's super cool, and probably least expected from Mary. But with her big brother's help (the only time it was beneficial to use power tools), she was able to display a scary pumpkin.

(Left to Right: Matt-Mary-Sean-Linds)

Well that's my first blog with pictures. It wasn't as difficult as I had anticipated, but it is very late, so I must retire to bed. Well, Happy Halloween, and to all a good night. ... wait a minute... i mixed those up. ... TRICK OR TREAT!

see? cute face, right?

The Real World

Well as much as I'd LOVE to continue living in a wonderful Fantasy Land, it's time to get on with life. Our "honeymoon" was so much fun!! I'd never been to Disneyworld, and if you haven't, I highly recommend it. Although.... it is a work out. We did a lot of really neat things, but towards the end (besides the fact that I got sick) I was ready to be home.

We took a lot of pics and video, but Matt's the expert at all of that, so we'll have to wait for him to load all of them up.

Also, Matt's great! I know I say that like every time, but he really is. He put up with a lot from me this week, including but not limited to me getting whatever it is that I wanted. And also, on the way home we spent well over an hour at baggage claim hoping to go home soon, but some how Matt's luggage didn't come in until 5pm. He's a trooper. I, on the other hand, would've been freaking out.

Anyway, as for the real world, they've done SO much to our house that I hardly recognized it. It looks like it might be big enough, at least for a while. lol. They've got the solar board decking on the roof and the insulation on the exterior walls. It's starting to resemble a liveable space. We've got some pics of that as well.

Oh! and more importantly, Matt's brother, Sean, got his mission call. *Drum rolls, please* Elder Sean Cobb was called to serve in the Idaho-Boise Mission. (yes, just like the movie, Singles Ward).

I think that's about all that needs catching up on, I should probably start to work today and get back in the groove. Have a Happy Day!

Vacation Mode

G'Mornin' all! Can I just tell you HOW ready I am for our vacay? This morning I'm working in the drive thru (I work at a bank) waiting for my part-time teller to arrive and it's SO slow. I'm left to blog surfing and thinking about going to DisneyWorld. My weekend's pretty busy already, tonight I'm helping Mary get ready for her Super Sweet 16 party, and then at some point I need to do laundry, clean our room and pack everything. And by everything I mean for both Matt and me. Matt's gotta work tonight and tomorrow, which leaves me alone for packing. I'm okay with it. In fact, it's almost better like this, now he's not in my way. Also, as a good wife, I can ensure that he has everything he needs (y'know, guys forget little things that are still very important, i.e. toothbrush, deodorant... stuff like that).

However, I'm going to miss my Millie Bear dearly! A few weeks ago we took her to the vet with a suspiscion of a bladder infection or a urinary tract infection. Turns out she did have a UTI, so they put her on antibiotics and finished the extensive urinalysis. Well we heard back from them a couple of days ago and she happens to have an extremely resistant string of bacteria. I'm glad we had the urinalysis done so that she can be properly medicated and properly heal, I just feel so bad for her. Being sick is no es bueno, and being sick without your mommy is even more no es bueno.

But I am going to try to not worry about her, and I'm sure I'll be fine next week without her, I'm going to DISNEY WORLD.

As for the rest of our lives, Matt is working his butt off saving some moola for our trip/house. He's having a better time now that he's finally got his bike out of the shop (which, by the way, is SUPER FUN). He'll also be testing in a couple of weeks to advance belts in Tae Kwon Do. I'm very proud of him!

Also, for those of you who don't know (or haven't seen our facebooks) they poured the foundation for our home! The house looks itty bitty, but it'll be all ours (or at least after 30 years). And we got a phone call from the builder with more information as well. They'll start framing it like this weekend. So most likely, by the time we come back we'll have a frame on our home. That's also exciting. Oh, and the estimated date is January 7. This works out well. I REALLY didn't want to move in right before Christmas and not be able to get in spirit by decorating. This way we'll have time to have shindigs at our house next holiday season.

Well I should really get back to work. I just wanted to give y'all an update on our lives. Matt's been so busy lately, I don't think he's even had a chance to think about blogging. Thanks for reading!

It's Linds again!

Well, I'm a little bit bored at work right now, and Matt's so good about posting, so I figured I'd put my two cents in. My main excitement is our Honeymoon!! I know, we've been married for just over three years, but I'm FINALLY getting my honeymoon.

When Matt and I were getting married, his dad was really sick. The doctors were very much certain that he had pancreatic cancer. He went in for surgery the Monday after our wedding. He was in surgery for about 7-8 hours and the procedure wasn't a cure for pancreatic cancer. It would extend his life, at most, seven years. Matt and I thought it best to stick around in case something happened. Also, we didn't really think we could afford it at the time (which is true).

We'd had plans to do fun things around the metroplex that we didn't normally do. Palace of Wax, Fort Worth Zoo, Rangers game, Dallas world aquarium. Things we would do if we were coming to Fort Worth to honeymoon.

We did go to the zoo, and then out to eat at chili's. .....

Well, with a long surgery, comes much monitoring and recovering. Cheryl (Matt's mom) was up at the hospital like every day. She really needed our help at this time. Sean and Mary needed someone responsible to be with them through all of this, not to mention, they needed help moving.

Matt's parents were separated for several months before our wedding. They were moving back together but wanted to wait until the wedding schedule calmed down. So all of their things were being moved back up the street from their rent house, but before much of that was done, we painted Mary's room.

Well, let's just say, it wasn't something that I minded... so much... just not really ideal for a honeymoon.

Matt's a sweetheart. Valentines day of '07 he tried so hard to make it all better. We celebrated Valentine's at home the weekend after. I left to go get my meal of choice (you guessed it- Spaghetti) while Matt finished his surprise for me. I came home to see something covered up sitting on the coffee table. That was the first thing that Matt unveiled. He removed a towel and I saw 2 goldfish (Cosmo & Wanda) swimming in a bowl.

"Cute!" I exclaimed.

Then he brought down an arrangement of our decorative candles with pictures of celebrities taped to them. This is where I was pretty sure he was crazy. Next I saw several stuffed animals displayed almost like a kid thinks. For example- A monkey hanging from the wall, a tiger behind a kiddy/doggy gate, and a penguin on a blue and white "icy" looking blanket. He then turned on a Wii (which he'd borrowed) and turned it to the baseball game. Last but not least, he brought down this poster that he'd colored. It was a picture of paint buckets and brushes with a big red "no smoking" time circle over it.

He then looked at me and it really was THE sweetest thing, he said, "I wanted to do everything with you that we didn't get to do on our honeymoon."

As much as I really appreciated all of it, and like I said, it's the sweetest thing anyone's ever done for me, I had for so long been excited about going to DisneyWorld on our honeymoon.

So in two weeks, that's where we'll be. I appreciate my sweet sweet husband for making ALL of my wishes come true. I'll be sure to post pictures. And for those of you who have been and know some cool little quirks that Matt may not, feel free to post so we can look for them!

Love you all!!!!
-Linds

Just another Saturday

I don't really have anything super fun to talk about today. But just so that I don't get out of the habit in updating I'll bring everyone up to speed.

Construction on the house began last week. It's not major or anything but it's a start. As much as I want to have my own space again, staying with my parents hasn't been too bad, and I'd kinda like them to build slowly so that we can save up more money. As it is we'll barely make the minimum downpayment. Our plan was to triple that. Oh well... it is what it is. On another note, our builder is not very considerate of other people's schedules. He called me at work yesterday and said that he needs to meet with us on Tue, Wed, or Thur (and I was thinking, well those days are all horrible for me, but maybe I can make it work somehow. Then he said, either 10am or 1pm. What kind of ghetto time frames are those? Either way you're looking at having to take almost a full half day off of work. Shouldn't a home builder assume that you're busy MAKING MONEY during those hours so that you can afford their overpriced houses?! Okay that's all on that subject.

My grand scheme for saving money by selling my car and buying a motorcycle has backfired and actually cost us WAY more than it would have saved. The bike broke down a week before I took my training class, and it is STILL in the shop (I should be getting it back Tuesday), the repairs have been expensive and I had to appoligize to Lindsey for making such a poor finicial decision. After beating myself up over it for 2-3 weeks she finally told me that she is glad I bought the bike. She's noticed that over the past 3 years, I VERY rarely spend money on things I want, and that this was a perfect opportunity to go do something because I wanted it, and not because it made sense. Apparently there are entire groups of people who use their paychecks to go out and do fun things and buy toys.... who knew? ;-) So all is well on that front and I'm just anxiously awaiting a phone call to tell me the bike is ready for pickup.

I picked up a second job which is a decent commute away. I work there 3 nights a week editing video. The other 2 nights of the week I go to my martial arts classes. So I usually get home between 9:30 and 11:00 most days. The money is good and they're already talking about finding a position for me full-time. That would be very nice considering my current work envioronment is hostile at it's best. They've hired in a "consultant" which I have decided comes from a latin word "poopooface" meaning: ignorant manipulator. Enough said.

It wouldn't be correct to say that Lindsey and I had a pregnancy "scare". Even though a baby would be a big challenge at this point in our lives, I don't think fear entered into the equation. It might be more accurate to say that we had the possibility of an "untimely parental suprise". But everything worked out there too, and we get to maintain our DINK status for a little while longer.

Lindsey has REALLY settled in to her supervisory position now. It was a challenge at first, but we are so glad that she got the job. Plus she's awesome at it. Loving what you do for a living is so critical, and I think she really really loves what she's doing now.


That's really about it for now. Hope everyone is well.

Lindsey Posting

Well, wow. Matt's always asking me why it is that I don't post like he does on here. I told him that it was because I kept a journal of things that were perhaps a little more personal to me, but I suppose a bigger reason is actually that he's a MUCH better writer than I.

I've VERY recently had an experience that has taught me SO much in such a short amount of time, AND since Matt's working at his other job, I figured I'd make a post. So if you're used to Matt's humor then maybe you can grin and bear this.

After staying up way too late last night, when I got home and ate dinner I decided to take a nap so that I could be awake when Matt got home (which is like 10:30-11:00pm). Very shortly in my nap I got a call from my dad. He and my mom were at the vet with my cat. He told me that he didn't know how it happened, but that she had a hole in her side and that he was at the vet if I wanted to go up there. Being half asleep I told him okay and that I was almost napping. I didn't end up going up there.

I got my cat, Nicki, for Christmas when I was eight years old. I loved her very much. She was my baby. Well as time went on, I was engaged to the love of my life who was allergic to cats. So Nicki stayed at my parents house. Within the past year she also had to go to the vet because she was very sick and she has some sort of thyroid problem. I know that she may have been a burden on my family because I was not or could not always be there to take care of Nicki.

Matt finally called me and told me that my parents were trying to get a hold of me to ask me what I wanted to do. I know I am weak. I wasn't trying to cop-out when I asked Matt to call my parents back and to assess the situation and to make a decision that he thought was best. I knew that I would get emotionally involved and could make a decision that was purely selfish.

The neat thing is that just a few weeks ago, Matt and I had a conversation about pets and quality of life. Matt called me back and told me the bad news. He told me that Nicki was 16 years old and had lived a good life. She's had a lot of love in her life and brought much joy to my family. She's still dealing with her thyroid issue. They could perform surgery for a considerably large sum of money and even then it was no gaurantee. Matt and I both realized that it would be more inhumane to put Nicki through surgery when her chances of continuing on a good and happy life were very slim. Please don't get me wrong. I loved Nicki very very much. And yes, had she been my daughter I would obviously have done the surgery. But that's the difference. Nicki is a pet. Her job was to make me happy. It would have been selfish to put her through a series of operations to keep her alive just for me.

Now to the point (sorry, i can't summarize things very well).

I've learned a lot in the past 2 hours of this. Once I got off the phone with Matt I, naturally, was in tears. This was my learning experience. I learned that I'm extremely thankful for my parents who are still there for me and love me very much. I couldn't have done that on my own, I don't think. Also, that this was a very difficult time for and My Savior is ALWAYS there for me. After a bit of crying to myself and hugging Millie and hurting inside I realized that I don't need to hurt. My Savior already hurt for me and it was now my opportunity to take advantage of the atonement. I could be comforted and relieved of my pain with a just a few words to my Heavenly Father. And it worked. My faith in the miracles that my Father in Heaven can perform has been so strengthened.

So, that's my blog, sorry it was REALLY long. Feel free to comment if you'd like.

The greys are seaping in

I don't have a lot of time today, but my mind's been heavy as of late and I wanted to share.

We have become a nation of know-it-alls. And for the most part we're right. I have become more and more aware of the fact that facts, are becoming a thing of the past. Used to, if you had statistics to back you up, people believed you. If you were an expert on a subject, your conclusions were respected. So whether we're wrong on a subject or not, we can always appear right, if you know how to. This society of a... let's call it "subject to interpretation" mentality, wears thin for people who hold strong convictions.

I was discussing politics with a friend of mine, and I was explaining how a reduction in taxes during the Bush administration actually increased the federal tax revenue. I was going to go find some stats on the matter to illustrate and I realized that even statistics can be argued over. No matter how cut and dry, how obvious it is, or how many people agree with you, there's always an "expert" that will interpret the same data differently.

Bear with me, I promise I have a point...

The same thing applies to science. There is more disagreement in science than ever before. To the point where people are more concerned with taking sides of a theory, then actually testing that theory. Case and point: Global Warming. Half the scientist say it's our fault, half think it's natural, and ANOTHER half (that's right... 3 halves) don't even think it's warming at all.


We no longer live in a world where you can trust what a person can "prove". We're asked to judge the personalities and intentions of our leaders, of whom we know more about than their closest friends, and at the same time, don't know them at all. And everyone's got to have an opinion or you're not "plugged in". Well I'm definitely plugged in and it's becoming more and more apparent that my opinion means squat... EXCEPT...

There still is one subject that I consider NOT up to interpretation. The gospel is my safe haven. Our church leaders are wise beyond my comprehension and I am thankful that they have always advised us not to argue or debate the elements of our faith. It is because of that wisdom that I can lean on my faith that I have a loving Heavenly Father, and that I am his son.

When others look at issue like drug use, abortion, and gay marriage and get caught up in the "interpretation" of those principles (this includes many mainstream Christians as well) I can look to modern day revelation and know with a surety that these things are wrong.

I had someone ask me once, "What makes you so special that you can judge what's right and wrong for everyone else?" and I'm glad to say that I don't have to. The judgment has been made regarding our time here on Earth and what we are to do with it. All I have to do is let the Spirit guide me and the truth of right and wrong will always be made clear.

So here's to black and white. May it withstand all the greys of the world.