Two Weeks On Two Weeks Off

iheartmonster@iheartmonster.com (I Heart Monster) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 06:13:00 +0000

Happy Birthday to my mom. I can't imagine having another person in the whole wide world as my mother. Probably 'cause she's the only one I've ever had? I kid. I love her. I'm glad she's my mom!

As I type this, Devin's busying himself with getting all of the last-minute things done that he needs to do before he takes off for work in the morning. I'm sad to see him go.

I've got a lot of random stuff to report, so bear with me.

Sweetpea has made a huge breakthrough this week. She's started hanging out with us and she actually purred for me a little bit. That's huge news for our little retarded kitty.

Devin spent the evening fussing with spark plugs. What should have taken 20 minutes - an oil change and spark plug change - took him over three hours. Apparently, the Japanese engineers at Subaru are entirely too retarded and put the spark plugs in an inaccessible place where you actually have to jack up the motor block to get to them. After some choice words, and a lot of time, and a little bit of help from the internet, he finally tackled them.
Every time we tried to hike while he was gone, we got rained out. That sucked. I really wanted to go hiking with him since I'm not allowed to go hiking by myself. So... anyone wanna go hiking?

Our garden is coming along nicely. The snow peas are all up and growing and making me happy. The red romaine is up and looking lovely. The cilantro smells divine. The catnip is burgeoning. The beets got beaten down by hail, but a few survived. Same with the carrots, but there's still more than we'll eat. Spinach is coming along great too. Dev just planted tomatoes, so hopefully we'll have some good plants this spring.

Book signing at Changing Hands on Saturday for THE LIFE OF GLASS by Jillian Cantor which is a YA based in the AZ desert. Picking up Tiffany from the airport on Sunday. Going to a play with my mom in downtown Phoenix a week from Friday called Salem:1692.

Pertaining to the last post I wrote on here, I hate Relief Society. Every time I go, I feel like it's a huge fat slap in the face because I don't have kids. They need to rename it to Parenting Class. I mean, really. Don't get up there and complain about your days because you're a working mother. If you didn't want to be a working mother, then maybe you shouldn't have had children until you could afford them on one income? And then the gall that was the hand that shot up and told her that "All of us have been there." Well, no. Actually, we all haven't been there. And not all of us care to be either. So there. I got up and left about half way through. It was like we had this amazing opportunity to talk about agency and all we talked about was babies. Blah. Bad attitude? That's my middle name. OH! And they tried to have everyone hold hands during the recitation of the RS Theme. Um? This isn't Kumbaya, this is church. We don't touch each other in church. I don't touch people I don't know. AND, it's cold & flu season. Duh. You heard the part about them all having little rugrats right? Okay. Moving along.

I've been working on putting together a MONSTER birthday party for I Heart Monster. I have to say, some authors have been super generous and gifted me some awesome things. I'm grateful, and excited and am kinda overwhelmed by the amount of work I've got to get this thing off of the ground. But totally willing :o) 31 giveaways for 31 days. Make sure you stop by if you're interested... http://www.iheartmonster.com

And with that, here's what we're reading:
Shesten - My So Called Death by Stacey Jay

Devin - Crown of Vengeance by Stephen Zimmer

Oh, and psst. Devin posted a review over at IHM, and the author asked him if he could use quotes from Dev's review for the author's website. super cool, right?

Oh, and I made cupcakes in the toaster oven. *hee*

WARNING: Religious Struggle Talk Ahead... Just Skip It If You're Not Interested

iheartmonster@iheartmonster.com (I Heart Monster) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 19:23:00 +0000

I hesitate to write this in a public forum such as my blog, but, alas, it is truth, or at least my perception thereof, so I'm going for it. I've been a Mormon girl all of my life. I've sought out other religions and learned about them, but always returned to Mormonism. It makes sense to me. It answers some of my questions that other religions ignore. It's the right fit for me in my life. Those of you who know me well will know that I have struggled with my religion since I got married. It hasn't been so much a struggle of faith as a struggle of contexts, affiliations, and surroundings.

When we moved to Apache Junction, they put us in primary. That's a job teaching little kids. I have always hated little kids, never been the girl who was like, "Oo! Look! Babies!" I quit trying to get a degree in Education because I realized how much I hated kids. We were newlyweds, in a place where we knew no one but ourselves (Devin and I had moved from Mesa, where all of our friends still lived), and we were segregated from the general adult population because we spent all of our church time teaching children. We didn't make any friends or meet any people at church. We didn't have the opportunity to attend Sunday School together or to go to Priesthood or Relief Society where we could figure out what we were supposed to be doing as a newly married couple to keep spirituality in our lives. Nope. We were fighting with an autistic child, a child with Aspbergers syndrome, and at least two that had ADHD, oh and like three that were "normal" 8-year-olds. And, the leaders that we reported to didn't help us out at all either. When we needed substitutes, because I was sick, you know having cancer and all that, they told us to call someone, anyone. Well, we didn't know anyone to call because the only people we had met were in Primary too.

The older people in our ward would stop us in the halls and say things to us like, "When are you two going to have kids?" I took to responding, "I hate kids." or "I'm not able to have children." or "None of your stinking business." because no one got a) how rude it was to ask, b) how I really truly couldn't even try for at least 5 years and c) I'm snarky and bitter like that. Imagine the hurt that would have caused me if I was your typical baby-hungry Mormon girl!

We were not welcomed into our ward. We were ostracized and it seemed like no matter how much we tried to do the right thing, we were shunned. After we were released from our Primary duties, and were allowed to learn alongside the adults, Devin started doing fine. Me on the other hand? Not so much. Every time I raised my hand to add something to the discussion or to point out a different way of looking at an issue, I was rebuffed for my contribution. I was apparently perceived as stupid. That only irked me because I am not stupid, and when it comes to the religion I've been raised with, I have a better understanding than most thanks to a diligent mother who tirelessly bombarded us with the most boring Family Home Evening lessons. I've only recently become grateful for them and the knowledge they gave me.

I'm not the most outgoing person in the world. I'm content to sit in the back row on the corner, and leave as soon as Amen leaves the lips of the benediction bearer. So, not feeling welcomed or loved is probably at least half my fault. I'm willing to own that. But I can't tell you how many ward functions I attended alone and was alone throughout, with people avoiding me as much as possible. Like the one RS event on a Saturday that started an hour late when I was on time. I was leaving for St. Louis the next morning, and still had not only work to do for my job, but work to do at home before I left for the week-long 14-hour-a-day-minimum business trip. I had hoped that the little meeting on a Saturday morning would be a spiritual pick-me-up to help sustain me through the week, but it ended up being about parenting and the food they had was stuff I was allergic to or couldn't eat because of dietary restrictions. I'm sure that people thought I was being anti-social when I left as soon as it was over, but the truth was that I was hungry, and I had a lot of stuff to do, and I had just lost at least an hour in the day that I had not anticipated losing.

I remember vividly the Sunday when I lost it. We had been asked to teach the teens' Sunday School class, a calling that I loved, but Relief Society kept starting at least 5 minutes early, and I was consistently "late" even though I was there before the stated start time. Because we are in a small ward, there was one class for teens. So I was the only woman who wasn't in Sunday School with the adults that would be in Relief Society when that time came. After repeated times of me pointing out that RS was supposed to start at ten after, and not before, because of the freaking time being printed on the Sacrament program if for no other reason, I just got mad.

Then one Sunday, I walked in to RS, found a seat on the front row after they had again started early, and put my belongings on the floor next to my seat. They were handing out surveys about how and what we were interested in learning for Enrichment meeting. The person handing them out deliberately skipped me. That action concreted my feeling that not only was my opinion inconsequential, but my needs and interests irrelevant. I remember the feeling of utter defeat that came over me and felt my will to keep trying to be a part of this ward evaporate. I got up and left right in the middle of whatever they were doing and walked myself out behind the dumpster in the parking lot, where I promptly began to bawl my eyes out. I didn't just lose my composure that day, I lost my respect for the ward altogether, and my desire to be a part of its congregation. The memory of that event still makes me cry. It still hurts very much. And I'm totally not a crier.

After that, I felt so lost. I never did fit in our ward. I was a working girl who had a job with a lot of responsibility, who was tied to her Blackberry and all of the escape to work it offered. So I got lost in my berry when I was around these people who had hurt me so deeply. I tried to just be where I was supposed to be physically and escape to other places mentally. Smile. Nod. Pretend I care. Keep your mouth shut. Keep to yourself. Don't open up. Just be where you are. Text your brother to keep you entertained. Answer work email. Do what you're supposed to do. Be where you're supposed to be, if you can stand it.

Throw in at least four other events that made me feel sucky about myself (including a man in our ward calling me "cunt" and "bitch" who was subsequently assigned to be my home teacher), and I grew to hate my ward. I know I'm weird, different, and opinionated. But I'm okay with that; I like me. I don't need friends everywhere I go. I don't need people to coddle me. I just need people to accept me for who and what I am. Even people with the highest self-esteem don't like to feel shunned.

Now, the whole reason I gave you all of that background...

So I go to Sunday School last week. I feel impressed to raise my hand and share the thoughts that were going through my head. I did. No one told me I was wrong when I was right. No one dismissed me. No one made me feel stupid. For the first time in almost seven years, I felt like a contribution that I had made was not only considered, but accepted. And the teacher said, "Thank you." It felt so nice. It felt like church used to feel like in Barkley Ward. It felt like I was in a place where I could learn. I'm so glad I took off my baseball cap after Sacrament meeting and went back in to Sunday School.

Then this week, I was encouraged to speak up again. It felt nice and brought a smile to my face. People said Hi to me. At least three people! Someone sat down next to me in Sunday School (there are usually at least two seats on each side of me) when there was a whole row of empty seats. I went past the RS room, a place I've been avoiding for a while, and I was given a huge hug and asked how I was doing. I was welcomed. I felt loved. And after seven years of feeling lousy all Sunday long because of either my experience at church or lack thereof because I couldn't bring myself to go, it felt amazing to sort of fit in to my own little spot.

I wrote this entry for a few reasons:

I want to remember how it felt.
I'm not confident that the feeling of acceptance and love will stay. Given my past experiences with this ward, I'm not counting on it, but I am hopeful, so I'm writing a reminder.
I hope that someone else out there can benefit from this. No matter how much you hate the ward you're in, maybe someday, someone will accept you.
I have a tendency to hold grudges. Maybe getting this out there will help me let go a little bit. I dunno, maybe it will exacerbate the problem. Worth a try I suppose.

What We're Reading:

Shesten: The Bride Collector by Ted Dekker

Devin: Demon's Bane by David Douglas

This Is How My Morning Went:

iheartmonster@iheartmonster.com (I Heart Monster) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 15:16:00 +0000

Snapdragyn: Hey, guys, Mom's been sleeping since like midnight and she hasn't even stirred.

Larkspyr: Yeah, so what?

Wynk: Shut up! I'm sleeping.

Snapdragyn: Wait! Wait! Guys. Don't you want some attention? I know I do.

Munchie: Dude, yeah. I'm tired of sleeping. Let's get something going.

Snapdragyn: Hey Sweetpea?

Sweetpea:

Snapdragyn: She's ignoring us again. Forget her. So, Munch, what should we do?

Munchie: I think I might be able to wake her up if I find a piece of paper and crinkle it for like, I dunno, ten minutes?

Snapdragyn: I think you've gotta do something better than that.

Wynk: Hey guys. Shut up! I'm sleeping over here. Or at least I was trying to.

Snapdragyn: Eat it, wussie girl.

Munchie: I've got a plan. Leave this to me.

Wynk: Why do you want to wake Mom up? Sleep is good!

Snapdragyn & Munchie in unison: PETS!

Larkspyr: Pets? Oh, pets! I love pets.

Wynk: Ahhhh. I get it.

Munchie: Follow my lead.

*BANG* *SLAP* *DOOR NOISES* *THUMP* *SLIDE* *CRINKLE* *BANG* *BANG*

Snapdragyn: Meow. Purr. Meow. Purr.

Wynk: *Scratch* Purr. Purr. Purr. Purr. Purr. Purr. Purr.

Larkspyr: Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. Pet me, dang it! MEEEEEOOOOOWWWWWW!

Shesten: *eyes pop open* *reaches for phone and weapon* *listens*

Snapdragyn: *runs to find Munchie* Munchie! Keep it up! It's working! *runs back to Mom*

Wynk: Meow. Let me under the covers, now!

Snapdragyn: Please pet me mom, it's been over four hours since you've pet me.

Wynk: Come on! Let me under the covers!

Larkspyr: Uh, Mom? I'm sitting by your head and you're not paying attention to me, so I'm going to meow louder until you find a hand to pet me with and an arm to keep me warm.

Wynk: COME ON! UNDER COVERS NOW!

Shesten: *lets Wynk under the covers.* *pets Spyrrie*

Wynk: This sucks. You're not nearly as warm as papa. Let me outta the covers now, or I'll scratch you. *gets out of covers*

Munchie: *BANG!* *SKID* *SCRATCH* *SCRATCH* *SCRATCH* *SCRATCH* *SCRATCH* *SCRATCH*

Shesten: *puts down weapon* *turns on light*

Snapdragyn: Hooray! It worked! She's up! Hi Mom. Pet me, won't you? It was my idea after all.

Shesten: *pets Snapdragyn*

Munchie: Hey! I'm missing out on all of the love. *sits on Mom's hips*

Wynk: But it's cold out here. Warm Mom is better than nothing. LET ME UNDER THE COVERS AGAIN. NOW!!!!

Munchie: purr. *stares at Snapdragyn* Don't even think about it be-otch. You already got pets.

Snapdragyn: Get off of her. She's mine. I was here first before all of you novices were born in the closet.

Munchie: I was not born in the closet, whore. I was born on the streets. In the ghetto. I WILL cut you.

Snapdragyn: Sorry Munchie. I mean, I really don't want to start a feud with you. You'll go all ninja on my butt. No hard feelings?

Munchie: *stares Snappy down*

Shesten: *gets her phone, starts reading email* *ignores all four cats* *gets out of bed* Sorry, guys, I guess if you wanted attention, you should have waited until I was awake. You can suck it. Stay in bed, get up and play, I don't care, but leave me alone. I'm mad at you, all four of you. Sweetpea? Where are you baby girl? You get treats. *heads to laptop to write down the account before she forgets it*

Lesson learned? They probably didn't learn a thing. They're felines and they generally get what they want. My sole purpose is to fulfill their every whim. I mean, dogs have masters. Cats have minions. It must be hard for five cats to share one minion though. Imagine the drama that goes on that I just can't understand!

What We're Reading:

Shesten - Beautiful Dead Vol. 1 Jonas by Eden Maguire

Devin - Demon's Bane by David Douglas.

Looking Back At My Elementary School Years

iheartmonster@iheartmonster.com (I Heart Monster) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:14:00 +0000

I was talking to my mom on the phone the other day and talking about things I remember from school. She suggested that I write them down so that I don't forget them and add to them as I go along. I thought, hmmm... I'll blog them. At least I'll know where they are that way.

Kindergarten: My teacher was Mrs. Pace. I don't remember much, but I do remember that she broke her ankle and that we all fought over who could help her. I also remember that we drew letters in the sand in stations. I also remember walking into the bathrooms, taking a look at them, and vowing to never use the restroom at school, ever. Guess what? I didn't.

First Grade: Mrs. Brown. I remember that she wrote people's names on the board. Every day that you didn't get your name on the board was a day you got a star and that you got to redeem your stars for prizes at the end of the week.

A coloring assignment. I think it was pilgrims. I thought it was stupid. What a waste of my valuable learning time to be spent coloring. Of all things! So I 'abstracted' it by scribbling all over it. She made me redo it. I made an even bigger mess with the crayons, so she wrote my name on the board. I hated her for that. But overall, I actually really loved her.

I remember "learning" to count change and tell time, both of which I already knew how to do because of the restaurant, and being bored because of it.

I remember creating an insurance policy for my spelling test. I knew all of the words, but was scared I would forget them. So I put them on a slip of paper and taped it inside my desk. I got caught. It was stupid. I knew how to spell them, I did the cheat-sheet from memory, so I was just creating a way for me to get the credit I deserved if I got anxious. Too bad she didn't see it that way.

I remember having pen pals that we did awesome cool creative exchanges with, but sadly, I do not remember mine's name.

I remember getting mono from the drinking fountain (because in first grade, boys were totally gross. I promise it wasn't from kissing. Cross my heart. Hope to die. blah blah blah) and missing school for three weeks. I remember begging my parents to let me go back to school even when I didn't feel 100% because I was the nerdy kid that liked school. Still am.

Second Grade: Mrs. Meldrum. I remember that she had Good Bucks as a reward system. We got them for various things and could redeem them for goodies come prize redemption time.

I remember that we had Me, Myself, and I posters and that everyone got to do one throughout the year. But when it came time for mine, the distributor ran out of the posters and I didn't get to do one. I was heartbroken and bitter, and still am to this day.

Class was in a portable I think.

Third grade: Mrs. Gilbertson. Mrs. Gilbertson had a lot of books in her classroom. I remember thinking, wow, that's a lot of cool books, but never reading them because I was too busy assigning myself extra homework.

Mrs. Gilbertson used to sing with us. She had a ukulele and we sang all kinds of fun stuff while sitting Indian style on the ground in front of her. I remember finding a wart on my knee one time and picking it off. She warned me not to do it again, but I did anyway, and continued to do so all year until it went away. I still have a scar.

I think my very first report was in third grade. I had to give an oral presentation on cacti. My mom and dad helped me get all of the stuff I needed to make the presentation, but I did it on my own, and really loved it. I don't know why I became terrified of public speaking later on.

Fourth Grade: We started the year with this AWFUL substitute that we had for six weeks before Mrs. Tumey got back from having her baby. I HATED her. I sabotaged her every chance I got and disrespected her constantly. I rationalized it by telling myself it wasn't my fault that she was stupid.

I remember that my mom broker her ankle while I had that evil substitute and that she did our class parties sitting down for a couple of them.

This was the year that I somehow obtained a love for the environment and protecting it. I remember using my portion of whatever the time I hated after lunch was called to create presentations for my classmates on why we should save the planet.

Mrs. Tumey

Fifth Grade: Miss Hannum without a doubt was the best teacher I had in elementary school. I learned so much from her. Not just about education, but about life and passion for it. She didn't talk down to us, but expected us to act and behave like adults.

There were three of us in an accelerated reading group led by her student teacher. I think Marissa Dorny was one of them, but am not positive. I can't remember who else was in that group with us when we read Jane Eyre. I HATED Jane Eyre. And to this day, even having read it as an adult, pretty much despise anything written by either Bronte sister.

I remember that Miss Hannum had just gotten back from a huge trip to Europe and that I learned from her that I wanted to go to Europe some day. Some day, I will.

I remember my social studies book too for some reason. It was teal and had a gold foil picture of King Tut's sarcophagus on it.

Sixth Grade: I pretty much remember drama from sixth grade in Mrs. Heckler's class. Her hubbie was an air traffic controller and I wanted to do a project on radar, and so she brought me some materials on it. But then she took them back because she said they were too advanced for me. That pissed me off. I actually understood what the manuals were saying. Who was she to tell me what I understood and what I didn't?

I remember a lot of friend drama too that year with Kristen Hager (who was my next door neighbor) and April Natzke. But yeah, that's about it.

I remember the first principal we had at Lindbergh was Mrs. Hogan. She wasn't very nice. Or at least that was my impression of her. Dr. Streets, however, was the most awesomest principal I'd ever heard of and all of my other principals and deans pale in comparison to him and his knack for getting us to love school and follow the rules at the same time.

That's Elementary for you... I'll probably do another post on Junior High and then another on High School. Feel free to laugh. I know I did as I was writing it! I hope to sit Devin down and do something similar with him for posterity's sake, but only if I'm lucky enough to get him to sit still for long enough and remember school. He hated it soooooo much.

Christmas Cards Are Coming To Town

iheartmonster@iheartmonster.com (I Heart Monster) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:19:00 +0000

Dude, I know it's been a while since I posted. I'm bad at the bloggage apparently. But, I thought I'd let you know that Christmas cards will be coming... they'll just be a little late. If you don't usually get an Xmas card from us, and want to, email me using the button on the side over there. I'll make sure you get one next year. As for this year, you'll have to be content with the copy and paste of our Christmas letter toward the bottom of this post.

Last night was our annual Christmas Ornament Exchange. We had fun. This year, Scott and Bethani participated from Texas which was admittedly a little awkward since we had to take pictures of their ornaments and send them to them. Devin & I, Mom & Dad, Rett, Kevin, Seth & Chelsey, Brent & Desiree, and Jen who stood in for Stephen and is totally invited next year, were there. I got a smashing awesome Lenore ornament from my dad. Here are some pictures of the event:

What We're Reading:

Devin's Not Reading A Book Right Now

Shesten: Girl in the Arena by Lise Haines

Website of the Week:

Our Christmas Letter (but cooler 'cause it's hyperlinked to this blog where you can see photos and whatnot):

Well hello there friends, family, and anyone else lucky enough to be reading this letter... yeah, you there, the person reading this on our relatives' wall. It's okay, you can keep reading, we just had to call you out on it. We have survived another year. Devin just turned 30 and Shesten 28, and we are just feeling old. Geez, where did our twenties go? We kinda wish they had been all like this year has been... 'cause we've had way too much legal fun.

In January, we went to Tucson for a weekend using our handy dandy Starwood points leftover from Shesten's Ticketmaster event planning days. We hiked, and hiked, and hiked some more, and bought ourselves a National Parks Pass that we've gotten a lot of use out of (which you will see). We went to Sabino Canyon and hiked to the Seven Falls. We hiked through Saguaro National Park. We visited Kartchner Caverns State Park which is one of the coolest cave systems we've ever seen. We visited the San Xavier del Bac Mission. We had a lot of fun that weekend in Tucson.

In February, Shesten planned a trip to Bryce Canyon, and that's about all that happened of note. Oh, and if you haven't see the way that Shesten plans trips, then you wouldn't realize how much effort she puts into them and why planning a trip can actually be noteworthy...

In March, we went to Bryce Canyon and even though it snowed while we were there, we still did all of the hikes that we could... yeah, in the snow. It was really fun, and we didn't even freeze to death (Shesten thought we might!). We went on through Southern Utah and hit Kodachrome Basin State Park, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and Capitol Reef National Park. We had so much fun on our hike on the Navajo Loop through the snow in Bryce Canyon; it's one of our most memorable events of the year. Oh, and in March, Shesten started her book blog. More about that later, gator.

In April, we took a trip down to Aravaipa Canyon in Southern Arizona. We hiked through the water with our sandals and took all kinds of beautiful pictures. We loved it! We went to the Easter Pageant at the Temple and Shesten got a Dell Mini laptop.

In May, Shesten dyed parts of her hair blue. Yes, blue. You read that right. She went to the salon and had them bleach out some streaks and dye them plain old bold blue. In the middle of the process, when she had blonde streaks that were not blue quite yet, we took a trip to Yosemite National Park. Such a beautiful park. We climbed waterfalls and camped in the National Forest. We also bought a new car for Devin - a Subaru Forester XT (and yes, that XT part is waaaay important, just ask him! {the T stands for Turbo}) for work because the Focus just didn't cut it on the roads he worked on anymore. We still have the Focus, btw, it's in our driveway with expired Wyoming plates. You know you wanna buy it.

In June, we took a megatron roadtrip. Shesten flew to Salt Lake City, where Devin and our friends Kris & Britta picked her up.(Kris & Britta live in Rock Springs, WY, and Devin and Kris have been friends for like ever) We started by visiting Dinosaur National Park on the Utah side and doing some trixy false hobbity things like climbing where we weren't supposed to. Just don't show this letter to a Park Ranger and we're good, mmmkay? We ventured on toward Craig, CO, where we stopped for the night because it got way too late for us. Then we went to Rocky Mountain National Park. Then after getting snowed on at 13,000 feet in the park, we headed to Nebraska. There we stayed the night in Scottsbluff, and hit the Monument the next day that bears the same name. We went to South Dakota next where we did the Rushmore and the Jewel Cave and the Wind Caves. All of those were amazing. Then we went to Wyoming and did Devil's Tower. Then we stopped off in Glenrock, so that Devin could do some training stuff for work. Then, just Devin & Shesten went on to the Tetons, Yellowstone, Glacier, Idaho, Washington and Oregon, and Devin dropped Shesten back off at Salt Lake City for her flight. We had such a great trip, and if you're interested, there are photos on Shesten's Facebook and our blog.

In July, we recovered from our trip in June. No really. We did. In August, Devin got to go up to Tensleep (that's in Wyoming, in case you were wondering, in the Bighorn Mountains) with his family for a kind of reunion. Shesten missed out, but everyone else had a blast. Devin caught about 200 fish, and had a great time catching grasshoppers for Serena, his favorite sis-in-law.

In September, Shesten visited Wyoming for a bit. It was a fun trip and we finally got the Forester registered (yeah, don't buy a car in Arizona and try to register it in Wyoming... the two states do not play nice with each other). We even got to be in the G.Rock (as Shesten affectionately refers to it, but like, no one else does) for Homecoming! It was fun for Devin to see a few people he hadn't seen for a long time. We didn't do much because of the whole car registration thing, but we did spend some quality time with Devin's family, and had a good time doing that.

In October, Shesten got to go with her grandmother and her grandmother's three sisters to Disneyland. Shesten's grandma hadn't ever been to Disneyland before, so it was a really fun experience. Each of the sisters were allowed to bring a daughter and a granddaughter. Shesten is the only granddaughter that went, period, and she felt privileged to be able to have the experiences that she had with them. They did Disneyland and Newport Beach with the sisters, and then some of the cousins went on and did some Hollywood/LA type things. We had so much fun, and built so many memories, the three weeks it took Shesten to recover from the trip were totally worth it. Seriously. Shesten got to build some relationships and even got to meet a cousin (Hi Charlene!) she hadn't ever met before. Fun, fun, fun times. (Oh, and P.S. for those of you that were on the trip, you're so totally FIRED.)

In November, we had Shesten's birthday and celebrated Devin's birthday because he had to be at work for his. Like we said above, we are starting to feel old. This year, Devin has done a lot of work around the house. Yeah, we're still in Arizona (and all of our stuff is in storage in Wyoming!), and we will be for the foreseeable future because the housing market. just. sucks. They're predicting it won't bottom out down here until like 2011, so who knows how much longer we'll be stuck in our cute little house. Shesten has been blogging, a lot. She loves to blog about her books, and has even had publishers start to send her books for review. She reviews mostly YA, but also does some nonfiction and adult stuff too. Yes, she's got recommendations if you need them.

We've had a great year, and we hope that you have too. Hopefully next year, we'll be able to take a trip to see Shesten's family in Ohio... we were totally going to do that this year, but things just didn't work out the way we wanted them to. We started a goal this year to hike in the lower 48 states over the next ten years. With almost 1 year down, we've crossed off 8 states. We'd love to hear about how you and your family are doing, and would love to talk to you on the phone or connect with you on Facebook, or whatever. We care enough to send you a Christmas card, so we definitely would love to hear from you. Here are our dets:

We hope your year is filled with joy and not pain. Love, Devin & Shesten, Snapdragyn, Wynk, Larkspyr, Sweetpea, & Munchie

Precipitation & Wind

iheartmonster@iheartmonster.com (I Heart Monster) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:28:00 +0000

Precipitation and wind. That's what we've had lately. In Arizona, there was rain and wind, and kitties and I got hammered a couple of nights. The cats don't like the wind, but they do like the way the birdies sing the morning after it. For Devin, working near Wamsutter, WY has been a frozen ickfest. He's had 30 below several nights, and a lot of their equipment has been freezing up. He's had a couple of really rough nights and he's just looking forward to coming home.

Shesten has been working hard trying to get her house guest-ready since Devin's bff Kris, and his wife Britta may be coming to visit for a couple of weeks. She's looking for furniture on craigslist and not having a ton of luck, but still looking. Shes has been crafting and getting ready for Christmas and all that it entails... and having fun getting into the Christmas spirit!

What We're Reading:

Shesten - Beautiful Creatures (yes, still.)

Devin - nothing

They Say It's Our Birthday!

iheartmonster@iheartmonster.com (I Heart Monster) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 07:51:00 +0000

So my birthday was last week. Devin's is Wednesday. We have 8 days in between our birthdays. Yeah. It's like that. Here are some pics from our birthday celebrations. Devin's isn't until tomorrow, but we had to celebrate his Fake Birthday because he wasn't going to be around. For my bday, we did the Cornish Pasty Co in Mesa. For Dev's we did Rueben sandwiches at my mom and dad's.

Haven't Posted In A While...

iheartmonster@iheartmonster.com (I Heart Monster) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:31:00 +0000

Devin has been back to two weeks on and two weeks off for a few months now. We really do like the 14/14 schedule a lot better because we get to see so much more of each other.

A lot has happened since September, but I haven't blogged about it 'cause I'm a NERD.

I went to Disneyland with my grandmother and her sisters. It was the first time my grandma had gone to Disneyland and I felt so lucky to be able to share the experience with her. I won't go into a lot of details, but I will tell you that we had a lot of laughs and a lot of fun and I got to meet cousins which I didn't even know I had... and got to know ones I knew I had a lot better. I was the only grandchild on the trip, and I loved every single minute of the exhausting trip. We found frat boys at Cal State Fullerton, girls in boys bathrooms at Jack-In-The-Box, a way to get back at Buca di Beppo for not taking all of our coupons, and found out that caravaning across the I-10 can be a little more complicated than previously thought. We found that we could tease and have fun across generations, and that laughing with family can a bond make - even if you do get fired. We hit Downtown Disney, Hollywood, the Los Angeles Temple, Disneyland, the Newport Beach Temple, and Newport Beach on our trip. I wish we would have had another day, but we crammed in a lot of memories, and I seriously adored every second. Here are some pictures from our trip:

I went to Wyoming in the end of September for a couple of weeks and hung out with Devin's family and then drove home with Dev. We went to Glenrock's Homecoming game which was really fun as well. A little weird that they didn't ask the alumni to stand and be recognized, but oh well. And someone needs to pass on a little fashion advice to those teens with those dresses... um. They need rescuing from themselves. Pictures from the game:

We went to Glendo Reservoir to go rockhounding one day, and that was fun, but tiring too. The deer were psychotic and scared the crap outta me a couple of times - seriously the loudest deer on the planet. Here are some pics from that:

Around Halloween, I helped my dad with a Halloween Party for the High Priests Group in their ward. We did all sorts of fun stuff, like carving pumpkins, eating donuts off of strings, and trick-or-treating. I went as an exhausted Read-A-Thon participant because I was in the middle of a Read-A-Thon. Despite my setting up for and running the party for six or seven hours, I still read more than I did the last Read-A-Thon, so I was happy with that. Here are some pics from Halloween.

At the State Fair, we went to get our family pictures taken on the Friday night. The Saturday night we went back for Kelly Clarkson. Kelly was great, and I really enjoyed the show. Here are some pics from the fair:

Now, we're on holiday watch. My birthday is on Tuesday and Dev's is a week from Wednesday and we're still debating what to do for Thanksgiving. I'll be better and fill you in as I go along :o)

What We're Reading:

Devin: just finished listening to Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen.

Shesten: Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Website of the Week:

Amazon Filler Finder lets you put in the amount you need to hit the $25 free shipping mark on Amazon and provides you with a list of products that match that amount. Super cool for those who don't have Amazon Prime.

News...

iheartmonster@iheartmonster.com (I Heart Monster) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 01:58:00 +0000

This just in... seriously, just in, like I just got off of the phone with Dev. He is going back to a two week on, two week off schedule. Woot! We don't know for sure when it starts, but it is starting soon, maybe even this hitch. Thank heavens. The one off one on was killing us. We didn't have any time together.

I was going to head up toward Wyoming next week, but we'll see now, it might depend on his work schedule...

Just a short update, but an update that makes me happy :o) Woot!

Happy Birthday Snapdragyn!!

iheartmonster@iheartmonster.com (I Heart Monster) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 04:30:00 +0000

Snappy Anne is 6 today! Yay for Snappy! She's our oldest cat, and to celebrate everyone got to share some birthday tuna. Snappy didn't like it though, unfortunately!

Devin is back at work, and is still looking forward to the fishing trip with his family that is coming up week after next.

I am here in Arizona, just got back from a quick trip up to Flagstaff/Mormon Lake so that we could all have a little fun and do the seasonal cleanup necessary on the cabin. After an afternoon of raking pine needles, we headed over to the "Cinder Pit" to shoot. We shot water rockets and guns, but I didn't actually pull the trigger on anything, I just shot photos and a few vids.

On the way up I thought I might die, seriously, a couple of times because my brother drives like a maniac. 140 miles an hour on I-17. His limiter actually kicked in. OMG. I'm so glad to be home in one piece.

On the way home, Rett, Kevin & I stopped in Payson for dinner and ate at Cardo's Pizza and Italian. Highly recommend. Awesome food. Exceptional service.

We also made some water rockets this week...

This one was at night:

This one was at the Cinder Pit:

What We're Reading:

Shesten: Oh. My. Gods. by Tera Lynn Childs (loving it!)

Devin: no idea.

Fishing & Racing & Food, oh my!

iheartmonster@iheartmonster.com (I Heart Monster) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 17:59:00 +0000

So Devin made it home yesterday eaaaaaarly morning. I think he rolled in around 4am. I am glad to have him home for a few days!

Exciting news for him is that he gets to go hang out with Damian and go fishing on his next days off. He's really excited about it and is totally looking forward to it. He brought home his fly-tying stuff and has been making flies, a lot of them, since he got home and situated. Their fam is going to Tensleep and that's like Devin's favorite place on the planet, so I am excited that he's gonna get to go. Unfortunately with that whopping 40% pay cut, it's not really feasible for me to go.

He also brought some other things home which I am super excited about:

DISHES!! Woot! (I now have plates, and bowls, and even a casserole dish that will fit in the toaster oven!)
Flatware
My Kitchen Aid mixer
The blender and food processor (it's one unit)
A whole box of DVDs (was hoping for exercise ones, but no luck)
Wii

He also brought home some food from work this time. At the end of the hitch (the guys call each set of days they work a "hitch") the guys just throw away all of their extra food and stuff that they've brought for lunch from the man camp. Devin was the one to clean out the refrigerator this time, so instead of throwing it in the garbage, he brought it home. So we got a whole drawer full of individually wrapped condiments, a whole cabinet full of shelf-stable milk and gatorade, and a whole basket full of snacks.

My mom and dad are on vacation, so I have been spending a lot of time over at their house, hanging out with Rett (my bro), Kevin, and Stephen. Kevin lives with my family in my room, and Stephen is a really good friend to both Rett and Kev. They took pity on my in all my lonliness and let me go to the drag races with them on Friday night. Basically, you get to drag race your own car down the strip at Firebird. It was really fun. I even raced Stephen one time. Here are some pictures from our event...

The last little bit of news I have to share is that with Devin and I tag-teaming it, we finally got our wireless router working and woot! we've got wifi again.

What We're Reading:

Shesten - Don't Judge A Girl By Her Cover by Ally Carter

Devin - Maximum Ride book 4 by James Patterson

Website of the Week: Invite Share allows you to connect with others who have invitations to private betas that you want in on... super cool. Check it out. I was tempted to keep it to myself 'cause I want the invites, but that would be greedy and uncool, so I overcame that temptation and am sharing it with you now!

Roadtrip: Leg 4 (Devin and I)

iheartmonster@iheartmonster.com (I Heart Monster) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 19:09:00 +0000

After wasting a whole lotta time with the county treasurers in Converse County, Devin and I headed off on the second part of our trip, alone. We had so much fun with Kris & Britta, and hope that we get to go on a trip with them again some day!

We started out in the Grand Teton National Park. Oh my gorgeous. There was still snow on the mountains because of all of the moisture that the area had been getting. While Devin was at work, he went for two weeks straight with rain each day. Usually Wyoming is kinda a brown golden color when I visit this time of year, but it wasn't this time. It was green and lush and gorgeous. That extra moisture really made the Tetons a lot more fun. You may remember that we went to the Tetons in October with Kris (of the aforementioned Kris & Britta), but we only got to spend a bit of time there because we got a late start in the day.

Thanks to the whole sun being up until like 9pm thing (weird!), we were able to do everything that we wanted to do in the Tetons in a day this time. We went on a hike around the Moose Ponds and saw a whole bunch of Moose tracks, the places where Moose rubbed on the trees, but no Moose, boo. I really wanted Moose... it ended up being the only animal that I wanted to see on our trip but didn't get to. Notice Moose is capitalized? It's on purpose, I'm not a grammatical idiot. It is now the elusive Moose to me, and I want to show it the proper noun respect it deserves... call me crazy.

What We're Reading

Shesten - The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong

Devin - Graceling by Kristin Cashore

And, now I have the option alive for you to receive an email when I update this blog... click here to subscribe via email, and then confirm your subscription, and you will get an email when I post something new (which I try to do at least once a week).

Change

iheartmonster@iheartmonster.com (I Heart Monster) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 19:04:00 +0000

Changes abound in the Melder house.

Devin has now moved to a one week on, one week off schedule, which impacts the amount of time and travel he has to do and gives us 2 days less together per month, which sucks. It also

sucks because the wonderful, insightful, well-prepared, and sadly still Fortune 500 he works for cut his pay by 40%. So, I get to get a job now. Fun stuff.

My stuff still lives in Wyoming, and I'm plotting ways to get it back. If I have to live at home alone for more than half of the month, then I at least want my stuff here. When Christmas comes, I want my stuff here. When Halloween comes, I want to decorate. But, alas, I do believe this will not happen.

I think I will need to buy dishes again. I don't need pots and pans yet though because guess what I don't have? You guessed it, a stove!

Sorry, I've been trying to think now for a while on how to add a positive spin on this, but I can't think of a way to make it positive. I just can't. Maybe in ten years I'll look back and see that there was some good that came from it, but for now, I'm thinking I'm just going to stay in my little cave-house without a cieling in my kitchen or kitchen counters and half-painted walls/ceilings, broken windows, and well, what I affectionately call my hell-

hole forever. At least there's sunshine here, and gorgeous cacti and gorgeous mountains. And in October, I can start hiking again. There's my salvation. If I can hang on 'til Halloween, I can hike. Devin though, I'm not sure how long he'll be able to make the twice monthly 1600 mile roundtrip...

What We're Reading:

Devin - is between books right now, I think.

Shesten - Emily the Strange: the Lost Days

Fun Picture... Wynk reading The Stolen One by Suzanne Crowley.

Leg 3: Roadtrip (yeah, so what if I'm behind?!?)

iheartmonster@iheartmonster.com (I Heart Monster) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 21:29:00 +0000

Leg Three of our roadtrip began in the morning with gray skies and rain. We decided to leave our tents up and head over to Mt. Rushmore in hopes that the little bits of blue sky that we could see would multiply and that our stuff would dry out by the time we got back. Rushmore is about 30 minutes from where we camped. We drove on over and had blue skies the whole way!

Then we went back to the camp and packed it up, headed over to Jewel Cave National

Monument, where we took the historical tour. It was awesome. Our tour guide pretended that it was the early 30s and we all carried kerousene lamps as our only source of light. We went into the cave to "The Dungeon" which was the longer of the two routes. It was a lot of ducking and duck walking, but no crawling. It was caving with a group, so slow, but still fun. Both Devin & I had a great time scuffing up our heads because we didn't have on hard hats.

Jewel Cave National Monument on PhotoPeach

Then we headed over to Devil's Tower in Wyoming. We got there right before they were

supposed to close, but the boogers had closed up early. Not fair, no fun. We camped there for the night, and then spent the next day at the Tower and driving home. Kris & Britta were lifesavers and drove our car back to Rock Springs, so that Devin didn't have to make the drive late at night to get back in time to go to training the next morning.

That concludes Leg 3, and if I'm feeling like it, I'll add an update in the next few days of what's been going on since we got home off of our awesome trip.

What We're Reading:

Devin: Maximum Ride #4, The Final Warning by James Patterson

Shesten: Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr (sequel to Wicked Lovely)

Congratulations on your release Lisa!

iheartmonster@iheartmonster.com (I Heart Monster) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:31:00 +0000

Since I've been pimping Eyes Like Stars all week over at I Heart Monster, I thought I'd do it here too, 'cause I really really really love this book. If you haven't heard me talking about it already, you and I must (unfortunately) not speak too often.

Congratulations on your release, Lisa! When our book gets here (should be tomorrow, we'll snap a pic of it with a saguaro!)

I'm holding a contest over at I Heart Monster for some fun stuff as well as a copy of Eyes Like Stars, so head over there and participate today!

That Whole Iran Thing...

iheartmonster@iheartmonster.com (I Heart Monster) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 02:09:00 +0000

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Jason Jones: Behind the Veil - The Kids Are Allah Right

thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Economic Crisis

While I realize that Jon Stewart isn't the go to guy for real news, I haven't seen anything this real in a long time. Thank you to Kelly at Writing and Ruminating for sharing it, 'cause I wouldn't have seen it otherwise.

I feel horrible for those who were arrested because they wanted freedom, something that you and I take for granted every day. They just want democracy, and they're risking their lives for it. I've never seen anything about Iran this real, and agree that there should be an award of some sort given for it.

Leg Two: ROADTRIP!

iheartmonster@iheartmonster.com (I Heart Monster) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:12:00 +0000

Morning Three, we awaken in Scottsbluff, Nebraska in our Super 8 Motel. We head downstairs to go to a pretty nice breakfast too. Then we pack up the car and head over to Scottsbluff National Monument. We promptly drive to the top of Scottsbluff, and take some goofy pictures, and then go to the visitor center and then walk on the Oregon Trail a little bit and get on the road.

Then we drove North to the Agate Fossil Beds National Monument in Nebraska. We walked around the Deamonelix Trail and a little on the Fossil trail. There were beautiful yellow wild irises in bloom, but there wasn't much there. Wouldn't recommend taking the time to do it if I were you, not bad if you need to stretch your legs though. That counts as our hike in Nebraska 'cause it was over a mile long.

Then we drove on up into South Dakota near Custer and went to Wind Cave National Park. Wind Cave National Park contains 95% of the boxwork cave formations in the world. It's really cool, and it's not strenuous as it may seem. We went on the Fairgrounds Tour. Devin kept showing up our tour guide's flashlight with his Surefire though, it was kinda funny. Then we drove around for what seemed like ever and finally found a campground in the National Forest, the Black Hills National Forest to be precise, where Britta & I sat in the car while the boys set up camp and then we all roasted marshmallows in the rain. It was fun :o)

How The Heck Did I Forget?

iheartmonster@iheartmonster.com (I Heart Monster) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:29:00 +0000

I wrote the Leg One Post and totally forgot about one of the destinations we hit on Leg One. Um. Duh Shesten. Geeeeeeeez.

On our way to Craig, we hit Dinosaur National Monument (the Utah side) and saw a ton of petroglyphs and an old ranch house. Here are pictures from that beautiful journey!

ROADTRIP! Leg One: Salt Lake City to Rocky Mountain National Park

iheartmonster@iheartmonster.com (I Heart Monster) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:09:00 +0000

Well, if I were going to sum up our trip into ONE word, I'd have to pick RAIN. It was raining when I got picked up by Devin, Kris, & Britta in Salt Lake. We spent a little more time in SLC than we had originally intended, so we only made it to Craig the first night instead of all the way to camping at Rocky Mountain National Park. We had fun driving around trying to find a hotel in Craig, but after some stealthy negotiating on my part, we got a room at a reasonable-ish rate at the Candlewood Suites. Poor B&K had to sleep on their air mattress on the floor 'cause we only had a one bed room. Looking back, we should have all tried to fit on the same bed, it would've been silly and fun.

The next morning we woke up on time and got out on the road to RMNP. When we got there, the road through was closed due to snow the night before. So, we headed over to Adams Falls and hiked up to those and hung out at the meadows just beyond them for a bit and then we went back through Grand Lake, Colorado and ate at the Fat Cat Cafe (which was totally fab by the way, totally recommend). By the time we were done there, they had opened the road through and we started driving on through. On our way through, we climbed to above 12,000 feet which gave Britta and I a great headache. 12k feet also provided snow for us. Yeah, snow in June. But, we had fun. Then we headed on toward Nebraska, where we settled in for the night at the Super 8 with TWO beds.

Buffy vs. Edward

iheartmonster@iheartmonster.com (I Heart Monster) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:02:00 +0000

While I'm getting my thoughts together about our vacation and getting caught up in various other aspects of life, I thought I'd share this with you. I found it quite worth the six minutes it took to watch it. Tell me what you think...

Source

Hello From The Road

iheartmonster@iheartmonster.com (I Heart Monster) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:16:00 +0000

Well, we'll see how this posts up. I'm trying out Blogger Mobile for the first time. You see, I'm writing this post as an email from my Blackberry as we drive along on I-90 in Western Montana.

Right now, we're in Lolo National Forest. It's a really pretty forest and has a lot of trees that we don't get to see at home.

I just wanted to check in a little 'cause a) I wanted to see if this method of posting would work, b) I wanted to see how painful it would be to compose a post on the berry, and c) I haven't checked in for the entirety of out trip.

So, a quick rundown. I flew to SLC back on the 11th (I think!) And Devin, along with our friends Kris and Britta, picked me up from the airport. We then proceeded to Colorado where we went to Dinosaur National Monument (the Utah side). After we were done there, we headed to Craig, CO where we stayed the night. Then we woke up and got on off to Rocky Mountain National Park, and drove to Scottsbluff, NE. Then we woke up, did Scottsbluff NM, drove to the Agate Fossil Beds NM, and went on to Wind Cave NP in South Dakota. We camped out that bnight, where it rained and rained and we even made s'mores inb the rain. We woke up, got our stuff ready to dry out, and went up to Mt. Rushmore. Fun times. Then we wnt back and packed up camp and went to Jewel Cave NM, then drove toi Devil's Tower. Then we got a campsite there too, where it decided it had to rain again, but quit so that we could still have some fun. Woke up the next morning... And I'll keep you in suspense as to what happened next 'cause typing on the berry is killing my thumbs.

Hi!!
Sent from Shesten's BlackBerry

Suckage.

iheartmonster@iheartmonster.com (I Heart Monster) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:03:00 +0000

Well, we got news this week that Devin will be changing to a one week on, one week off schedule, but we don't know when. Seriously, that sucks. We're kind of upset because it gives us at least 2 less days together per month, 'cause it adds 2 travel days. This economy stinks.

Good news is that we're going to ROADTRIP this coming week. I fly to Salt Lake City on Thursday morning and Devin will pick me up and we'll head off on a trip. I think we'll probably go through Colorado and Nebraska and maybe loop back through South Dakota and Wyoming before he has to go to training in the middle of the week. Boo. Then we may head out toward Oregon and Idaho and Montana and maybe California. Fun stuff.

I don't have much else to say, so I'm just gonna wrap it.

What We're Reading:

Shesten - Carpe Corpus by Rachel Caine

Devin - I have no idea.

Website of the Week:

RunPee.com, helping your bladder enjoy the movies as much as you do. Basically it lists the best time for you to leave the movie to go pee if you see it at the theatre. This is a one man show - he doesn't get very much money for it, so be patient and appreciative with him. But I think it's a brilliant idea!

You Talk To Obama, I Talk To YOU

iheartmonster@iheartmonster.com (I Heart Monster) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 22:24:00 +0000

I hate to go all political on my personal blog. Wait, no I don't. I'm all about politics. Ha.

I just wanted to list a response to this video...

1) Obama may speak for America, but not for the American people.

Amazingly enough, the fact that this video was posted on CNN, should show that our government does not have complete control of our brains. We think for ourselves, well most of us do.

No matter what my government has said or will say, I am not afraid of Muslims. I do not think that a person's religion has any bearing on whether or not I am scared of them. I remember being scared of the IRA when I read about them in the 80s. (Yah, so what if I followed politics even when I was young?) They were Christians. Am I scared of terrorists? Obviously. It would be foolish of me not to be. But, I'm not scared of them based on what religion they are. We have domestic terrorists; there are Christian terrorists too. I'm not sure about the Eastern religions 'cause honestly I don't follow too closely, but I seem to remember some Sarin gas being released in Japan on a subway... so I just want to make it clear that I am not scared of someone because they are Muslim or because they look Middle Eastern.

That said, I also think it would be foolish to not be extra careful around suspicious people. It is not Shinto extremists or Hindi extremists that have launched attacks on my country and my people in the recent past. Muslim extremists did that. So, naturally when I see someone of Middle Eastern descent, (even though I realize that doesn't even automatically make them Muslim) I am suspicious. Islam is the prevailing religion in that part of the world. They share a physical attribute with a group of people that have sworn war against me and my country, so how could I not be at the very least be aware of them and their movements while they are in proximity to me? Would I have been pre-9/11? No. But I am now, just the same as I am aware of "skinheads" that are around me; people that in my mind and my perspective pose a greater risk to me than others. And that won't change. I am more aware of these people, but I don't discriminate against them at all. I still smile at them the same as I would smile at any stranger. I am still polite to them. I still afford them the common courtesies that I do every human being, but I watch. And if they are rude to someone or cut someone off while they are walking, they get the same glare from me that anyone would.

And, I know that you know that we are not the enemy. You get to think for yourself too. Imagine that.

2) I agree. Obama needs to do more than just prepare for speeches.

I realize that speeches are what got him to where he is, but he should take a page out of JFK's book and realize that it takes more than speeches to run a country. Words may boost morale and get you elected, but now those words are pretty much irrelevant to the task you have at hand. It is clear that he didn't really understand what was going on fully while he was running. He didn't see the whole picture and now that he does, he's acting very much in the same way that Bush did. Hmm... yet I haven't heard any apologies to Bush.

3) "Please resolve the issues with justice." What do you think we are doing?

That is precisely what our military has set out to do. It was clear that the countries that we invaded had no intent to punish the people who attacked us. No intent to carry out justice for the lives that they took. Afghanistan couldn't and wouldn't. Iraq was happy. So, they met with the might of American justice, and lost. And no, I don't feel sorry for the oppressed people who got caught up in it all. If you'll remember, Americans were oppressed by the Brits, that's why we revolted and formed a new government. So, if you don't like it, change it. Am I sad that lives were lost? Yes. But I'm glad it wasn't mine or my brother's. Saudis have been pretty darn helpful to us in our war on terror. If they thought that we hated all Muslims, they wouldn't aid us, but they continue to do so.

Do I like war? Do I like that America's sons and daughters are losing their lives on foreign soil? No. But I know that if we could pull out and keep our country safe by keeping the troops domestically, we would. Especially now that Obama's in charge. It sucks, but it must be finished. The only way to peacefully impart justice would be for those offenders to turn themselves in, but there's no way they'll do that. So, we have war. Otherwise, justice can not be satisfied.

4) There're no reasons we can't be friends. None at all.

I'm not a Blueneck, or am I?

iheartmonster@iheartmonster.com (I Heart Monster) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 04:39:00 +0000

redneck, n. coll.

1. Used as a disparaging term for a member of the white rural laboring class, especially in the southern United States.
2. A white person regarded as having a provincial, conservative, often bigoted attitude.

Source: urbandictionary.com

We've all heard of Jeff Foxworthy's redneck jokes. You know, the ones that start out with, "You might be a redneck if..."

I posted my Facebook status today about how my new blue hair (yes! I have blue highlights!) has turned my neck blue. One of my friends asked what the qualities of a blueneck might be... I've decided to define it.

blueneck, n. coll.

1. A person who thinks that we should all think alike and thinks that their way is the only way to think.

2. A redneck who votes for the Democratic party.

3. A person who dyed the bottom of their hair blue and it rubbed off.

4. A vampire.

5. A working-class smurf.

Happy Sixth Anniversary To Us

iheartmonster@iheartmonster.com (I Heart Monster) — Sun, 31 May 2009 03:28:00 +0000

I can't believe we've been married six years. OMG. I feel so old.

We celebrated on Tuesday, the night before Devin left to go to work. While we were dating, Devin and I used to go out to the desert in his 1987 GMC truck and lay in the back and look at the stars. Everyone thought that we were making out or doing something *gasp* worse, but MOST of the time (ok I'll admit to a *little* making out) we were really looking into the vast universe in the most un-light-polluted way we knew how and talking. That's how we got to know each other so well.

So, after a dinner at Texas Roadhouse so that I could eat steak since I'm only allowed one twice a year, we went to see Wolverine. After Wolverine, we went to Bahama Bucks for shaved ice. I got Watermelon and he got Sugar Cookie and we both got Tropic Creme. Then we were headed up Idaho on our way home and Devin didn't turn left onto Southern. I immediately questioned if he'd lost his mind 'cause our house is the other way. He promptly tells me that we're not going home yet. I object because it's getting late and he has a long drive in the morning. He says we're going, and it's final.

So, where do we end up? We end up in the very first place that we looked at stars together in the desert. Now, before you go ooo-ing and ahhh-ing about how romantic it is, let me finish. After we opened the enormous sunroof in our new Forester, so that we could see the stars all reclined in our captains seats, he lets me look for a while. Then, he comes over and gets me out of the car. I'm like, "huh?" and he leans in and starts a playlist so that we can dance together under the stars in the first place we ever looked at them together. Hold it! Not done yet. The best part is the song that starts to play, it's Vitamin String Quartet's version of Head Over Feet by Alanis Morrisette, which I'll have you know is the song I walked down the aisle to.

My hubbie is such an awesome man and I love him with all of my heart.

This will definitely be an anniversary celebration to remember.

I remember our first, our fourth, our fifth, but somehow my memory has lost our second and third, but all of the time he gives me an incredible and amazing experience just with him. (Last year we went to see Ozomatli at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas).

Wedding Pictures on PhotoPeach