The topic?

Telling everyone how boy crazy I am.

Apparently I was 14 in my dream. (No really, I was 14 in my dream.) And back then I was pretty boy crazy.  At the time I think I thought that every girl was as boy crazy as I was.  Honestly, I probably thought all the boys were girl crazy too.  Now that just a few years older (hello, 20+ years older) I’m starting to realize that not every girl was that boy crazy.  And definitely none of the boys were girl crazy.  (Although some might have been boy crazy too!)  I literally spent the majority of my teen years looking at boys, talking about boys, giggling about boys, dreaming about boys, reading about boys, and even writing in my journal about boys.

I wasted a lot of those years.

They might not of felt as wasted if I would have actually talked to an actual boy during my Golden Teenage Years.  Or if a boy would have actually talked to me.  But I didn’t. And they for sure didn’t.

My hair looked like THIS, for crying out loud.

(Oh my gosh, remember before this pregnancy when I was skinny?  Yeah, me neither.)*

And I had a snaggle tooth that insured no boy would ever want to kiss me.

You don’t need anymore proof as to why no boys were ever crazy about me.

(Go figure how I ended up with this blue-eyed hottie.)

Anyway, you may or may not remember, but I work with the 12-14 year old girls in my congregation at church.  (We refer to them as “Beehives”.  Odd, I know.)  (But still, Mormons Rule!)  The girls that I spend my Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings with are super cute.  They hair cute hair and always look nice.  They don’t cover their faces with too much make-up or talk loudly.  They speak kindly about everyone and seem to be sincerely and genuinely nice people.  And they rarely talk about boys.  They don’t chase after the boys in our congregation or show off in front of them.

What I’m saying is they are about 100% the opposite of how I was at their age.

I know they have crushes and think about boys.  In fact every single one of them as told me, in private, that they have a crush on the same specific boy in our congregation.  I don’t blame them. This kid is adorable.  (Think Zac Efron, but with actual athletic talents and high moral standards.)

I’m in on their secret.  I know they all like him.  They don’t even know that they all like him.  They are around him at every church function. And not a single one of them are making a fool of themselves over him.

If it were me I would have been talking loud, so the object of my affection would notice me.  I would have had my bangs ratted as high as I could, so he would see how beautiful I was.  And, of course, I’d have on my best blue eyeshadow and I’d be wearing my best KMart outfit.

The Mormon Version of a Young Zac Efron might not notice my girls at church.  Not yet, at least.  But if they keep up with the way things are going now, I’m quite confident that one of them will date him at some point.  Not like me, who honestly didn’t get any positive attention from any boys at that age.

It makes me wonder if I was an especially dorky 12 year old, or if things have changed in the 20 years since I was in their shoes.   Maybe these girls are exceptional girls.  Especially when compared to me.

I don’t know what it is.

All I know is that I sit back and watch them and wish I’d known what they know at my age.

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*and in totally non related to being boy crazy news, here is my first (and maybe last?) official Belly Shot. 32 weeks.  Only 8 left.    (Although my top isn’t maternity, the slacks clearly are.  And they might be a little too “wide legged” for the look I was going for.)

The wife is very pretty (The King really thinks so).  She has great hair color and a really sassy cut.  She is always dressed very professionally and put together.  The King and I really like her style.  She’s got a very important job working for a very large firm and I hear she excels at her position there.  The King used to see her from time to time on the bus ride to work.  She would be eating her breakfast and reading her scriptures.  (I would be scared of getting punched if I read my scripture on the bus.)  Rumor has it that she doesn’t like movies or music.  She’s totally an “all business” type of person.  She’s got her head on straight and I like that.

The husband is a nice enough looking fellow.  He usually wears jeans and I’ve seen him in a baseball cap more then once. (He usually wears a nice suit to church.) He’s an actor and works sporadically.  He love all things associated with pop culture and is pretty hip to what’s going on.

While the husband and wife are both very nice people, they do not even sort of seem like they’d make a good couple.

I am not sure how they ended up together.

And yet, they seem very happy and very in love.

The King and I have talked about what an odd pairing they are amongst ourselves.  Yesterday another lady from church mentioned it to me in passing.  Phew – I wasn’t the only one thinking it.

Are most (happy) couples similar to each other?  Is the old adage “opposites attract” true?  I read once, in high school, that the majority of people end up married to a person of comparable attractiveness to themselves.  If both are similar in their attractiveness, does that mean they’re similar in every other way?

My younger brother and his wife are almost spitting images of each other inside and out.  (I’m not saying my SIL looks like a dude…I’m just saying her and my brother could be mistaken for brother and sister.)  My older brother and his boyfriend are pretty much identical on the outside and probably on the inside too.  My younger sister’s husband is almost two feet taller then she is.  He likes to cook and she likes to eat.

My parents are nothing alike.  I take that back; they both like to read.

I’m pretty sure they are all happy and in love.

So this got me to thinking.  I wonder if people look at The King and me and think we’re an odd couple?  He is such a hard worker and is dependable and reliable.  He’s handsome, smart, funny, self-less, and a snappy dresser.  He doesn’t like to read, and he enjoys watching “true crime” shows on TV.

Me?

Yeah, not so much.

Okay, so The King and I both dislike sports.  Whether playing or watching, we do not like sports.  That it. That’s our one thing we have in common.

It doesn’t really matter if people The King and I are an odd couple.  Heck, it doesn’t matter if we are.  But it has got me thinking about all the couples out there and how everyone has ended up with the person they’re in a relationship with.

So tell me, do you think you’re one half of an odd couple?

I’ve realized that I haven’t updated the interweb (or people I know IRL) that The King got a job. Oh yes, a real live job that pays him to show up and work. Okay, it’s 3 month contract job doing the same thing he did before for a different agency. But we’re pretty sure he’ll be able to stay on as long as he wants. He’s still looking for a job, but he’s not going to say no to the one he’s currently rocking.

Months ago, before The King lost his job back in July, we made a deal with Babboo. We told him that if he’d quit biting his nails that we’d buy him The Big Pirate Ship. We really weren’t sure this was going to work. But yeah, the kid quit biting his nails right away. And right before the losing of the job. So then we had to tell Babboo that we’d buy him The Big Pirate Ship once The King found a new job.

The day after The King got the job we bought The Big Pirate ship. My Sweet Babboo hasn’t quit playing with it ever since. It maybe only intensified his already intense love for Playmobil pirates.

(He prefers to play with it in our bedroom. He says the “ocean” is better in there.)

I maybe also forgot to mention that for Christmas my parents bought us all plane tickets to come and visit them in January! I’m always happy anytime they offer money towards plane tickets to Utah. Babboo is over two and is now required to have his own seat. Flying is a lot of money, yo! (How do people with more then one kid afford it. Seriously, what do the Duggers pay when they fly?) (Speaking of the Duggers, you now how they’ve named all their kids “J” names? Yeah, so did my parents. It’s the one thing we have in common with them. Well, except for our love of God.)

What was I talking about? Oh yeah, our trip to visit my family.

So yeah, we headed to Utah a few weeks ago and while it was snowy and pretty cold, we still had fun. We talked my parents into geocaching for the first time. It was our first time geocaching in the snow. And let me tell you, it’s even harder to find a cache when it’s under three feet of snow. I think my parents liked it. I think.

We also had the opportunity to drive up to Salt Lake City for a few hours. The King and I had never taken Babboo to visit Temple Square, so we went. It’s always so special to be around such a beautiful building. (The SLC temple was the first temple I attended at the ripe old young age of 22.)

After walking around the temple grounds we decided to check out one of the many museums there. Babboo particularly enjoyed seeing the original pulpit from the old Tabernacle. (You can just barely see his little head peeking up over the top. He seriously stood up there on his own and began talking about Jesus. It was pretty sweet.)

Oh yeah, he also got to play with my younger brother’s real lightsaber. It makes the “whoose” noise and everything. (Check me out, I even knew that it was Darth Vader’s lightsaber because he has the red one. NERD!)

Right after returning from our little trip to Utah, I headed to Oklahoma City for an entire week for work. Just like Utah OKC was cold and snowy. BTW, I had to work outside for part of the day everyday. It was cold and wet and I wasn’t happy.

The low point of the week was when my coworker tricked me into visiting the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. I did not want to go. I already had a tender heart that week and I knew going there would only intensify those feelings. Plus, I didn’t want to cry in front of my coworker.

I’m not lying when I saw he tricked me to go there. Him doing that left a very bad taste in my mouth. I allowed him to snap a few pics and then I got the h-e double toothpicks outta there.

The low point of the week was, thankfully, quickly followed by the high point. The lovely Carrisa drove all the way from her home in Tulsa to come stay the night in OKC and hang out with me.

And it only got better as the night progressed…..

The always awesome and hilarious Shana from over at GorillaBuns came and had BBQ with us.

(This picture was totally staged. I can assure you that Shana ate her ribs with much more dignity and grace!)

Shanne and Carrisa gave me a lot of grief for the following things I’m going to tell you. You have to swear that you won’t give me grief too.

Say “I swear”.

Okay.

I had never eaten ribs before. NEVER. It wasn’t that I was against the idea of ribs, it just had never been offered to me before. I ate ribs. I liked ribs. I wasn’t sure why I had never had them before.

The next thing you can’t give me grief for is that I’ve never had fried okra. Honestly, I’m not even sure what okra is, let alone fried okra. This floored Carrisa and Shana. Seriously floored them. The promptly requested some friend okra from the waitress. Who promptly told us they were fresh out of okra.

After that Shana suggested I just buy some frozen fried okra at my local Seattle grocery store and give it a try.

She was even more floored when I assured her that my local grocery store wouldn’t carry fried okra in their frozen food section. She didn’t believe me. But yeah, they wouldn’t have it.

Now remember, you swore that you wouldn’t give me any grief for this. YOU SWORE!

Thanks to Shana and Carrisa for making my week away from my little family bearable. I’ll see you the next time I’m in OKC. (Which might be in March, BTW. I’ll keep you posted on my schedule!)

The King hated this idea.  He didn’t think it was any “fun”. When I told my mother-in-law that I would like some type of food storage shelfing system for our garage, he quickly thwarted the idea.

“You can’t get food storage items for Christmas.  I’ll just build some shelves.”

I held firm.  (And honestly, I just couldn’t come up with any “fun” gift ideas for myself.)  (I eventually agreed with The King that a new messenger bag for work would be a good gift for me.)  (I got the messenger bag.  It’s green and I like it.)

The King held true to his word and began work on some shelves in our garage.  He also started buying cases of water when he went shopping.  (He also bought a few other canned goods.)

My younger sister drew my name for Christmas.  When she asked what I wanted I simple said, “FOOD STORAGE!”  It was that simple.  When my mom asked me, I told her the same thing.  (She ended up buying us all plane tickets to visit them in Utah next week.  I was happy to receive that gift.)

Christmas morning I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be opening any type of food storage items from The King, Babboo or my in-laws.  Thankfully, I knew my sister would come though.

And come through she did.

Included in the Starter Kit:

• Two #10 cans of red winter wheat (I’m not sure what that is or what I’m supposed to do with it.)
• Two #10 cans of white rice
• One #10 can of pinto beans
• One #10 can of quick oats

Even though The King told her not to, my sweet mother-in-law did get me something related to food storage.  The King even put the little shelf together and installed it above our refrigerator.  While it isn’t as full as it can be, it’s a start.  (The King continues to buy extra cans of food every time he shops.)

So now the garage has selves, our kitchen has shelves and our basement spare bedroom even has some shelves.

But, for some reason, the spare bedroom seems to only be holding the cleaning supplies and diapers we’re hoarding.  (gDiapers keeps sending us awesome coupons to use.  Unfortunately they all expired at the end of 2009.  Meaning that although we didn’t have any need for diapers, we stocked up so we could use the coupons.)

I admit my food storage supply isn’t as awesome as it could be.  But I am happy that we’re making improvements and working towards the goal of having our food storage.

So tell me, what Christmas gift got you excited?

I don’t think the End Of The World is happening any time soon. I don’t believe in “The Rapture” or something similar to that.

For Christmas this year I’ve requested only food storage items as gifts. I talking about 25lbs bags of flour and wheat and cases of soup and Mac & Cheese. I’m talking about enough toilet paper to keep our butts clean for months and powder milk.

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints have long been advised to have some food and money stored. The official word from the Church says; “We encourage members world-wide to prepare for adversity in life by having a basic supply of food and water and some money in savings.” I’ve been a member of this church my entire life. I’ve watched my mom and aunts and grandma keep a supply of food storage in their basements, garages or pantries. The first thing my dad did upon moving into a new house was to build shelves for our food storage in the basement.

My dad was hurt on the job when I was a kid and thus unable to work for about a year. No income means no money for food. During that time we were all thankful for the food storage supply my mom had built up for us in our basement. My uncle was also hurt on the job and decided to totally change careers. He went to college and during that time his family enjoyed the fruits of my aunt’s food storage labors.

The King and I have been married almost ten years now and we have absolutely no food storage. We made a recent run to Costco, so we’re set for the next week as far as fruit and tortillas go. But try as you might, you can not survive on strawberry burritos for long. We have this lovely (and empty) garage just screaming to have shelves built and filled with cans of beans and potato flakes.

So I asked The King to build me shelves and I asked our families to buy me cases of food for Christmas.

(This is what I hope my garage looks like soon!)

I’d like to start my food storage small and work towards something a little more “long term”. The church suggests you start with a three-month supply; “Build a small supply of food that is part of your normal, daily diet. One way to do this is to purchase a few extra items each week to build a one-week supply of food. Then you can gradually increase your supply until it is sufficient for three months. These items should be rotated regularly to avoid spoilage.”

I guess that means I need to keep track of food items we typically use and then just buy more of them. Slowly. We’re also going to have to find a way to store drinking water so we won’t have to drink the water in our toilets.

Come Christmas morning I hope to be happily opening cases of canned goods and placing them on my new garage shelves. And then next time* The King is laid off, we can continue to eat like kings from our food storage.

So tell me, do any of you have food storage?  Any suggestions for someone like me who is just starting out?

*God forbid this happens again