Wednesday, December 31, 2008

2008 reasons I love my wife

I stole this idea from another blog I read, but I took it to a ridiculous extreme, as I usually do.

I love Caitlin because:
1-2-Her two beautiful eyes, that I can stare into all day while I hold...
3-8-The five fingers on her right hand as we walk, when she often says...
9-12-The three words "I love you that come from her...
13-14-Two beautiful lips that are quite, if I may, luscious that I've kissed every day of the...
15-119-Hundred days that we've been married and lived in the...
120-160-Forty square feet of apartment we live in, sleeping on the...
161- One mattres that we share under...
162-164-The three blankets we use to keep ourselves warm in this apartment. I especially love the one that says we got married in the year...
165-373-"208." I also love her...
374-383-Ten toes, it's a secret, but sometimes I kiss them, too. I also am quite fond of the...
384-392-Seven dinners a week we share together, especially the ones she cooks, they're delicious. I'm even more impressed by the...
393-421-Twenty eight words of spanish that she's learned and pronounces so well for the...
422-452-Thirty days we'll spend tramping around Argentina this summer, looking for undiscovered poets, possibly carrying around our...
453-456-Three (SECRET) children in her tummy. Who will be with us for the next...
457-537-Eighty years we'll spend together, loving each other...
538-562-Twenty four hours a day, every day...
563-570-Seven days a week...
571-936-Three hundred and sixty-five days a year. She's so smart she got a...
937-941-Four point oh for a GPA. We have sex...
942-951-Nine times a week, on average. That's also a secret. I love how passionate she is about things and the...
952-983-Thirty-one books on breastfeeding, women's rights and starving children in Africa she has on our bookshelves. I love the...
984-1084-Hundred different things she does a day to make me smile, like talk to me in her silly voice. I love reading the first...
1084-1102-Eighteen pages of the New York Times together at lunch and talking about the happenings in the world. Especially in the...
1103-1150-Forty-seven countries in Africa. We have fun playing games together. Last time we played scrabble she got, or made if you're from South Carolina...
1151-1271-One hundred and twenty points. I loved watching the...
1272-1276-Four episodes of The Office that we just watched together. It reminds me of the...
1277-1300-Twenty-three inside jokes we currently have between us that make me laugh every time. It's so great to see someone who loves to spend so much time with me, especially to go shopping and fill up our...
1301-1305-Four rather large pantry shelves with healthy foodstuffs (except for the cup of noodles that I hide in the back for comfort food). We love watching movies together. We even had Netflix for...
1306-1330-Fourteen days, until our free trial ran out. I love the...
1331-1348-Fifteen different names she has for me, none of which involve Tim, oddly enough. I love that she has...
1349-1361-Eleven pairs of jeans, some many years old, because she refuses to throw or do away with anything, because it would be a waste. I'm excited for our lives in the...
1362-1389-Twenty seven different countries we plan on living in. We have...
1390-1396-Six different cuddling positions that are our favorite. Whenever I see her my heart skips...
1397-1401-Four beats. I love her frugality. The most we've ever spent on a meal together outside of our wedding is...
1402-1420-Eighteen dollars. I also love her tea drinking abilities. She currently has...
1421-1429-Eight different types of tea. I love sending her...
1430-1445-Fifteen text messages a day. Every day she impresses me at least...
1446-1491-Forty five times a day with her intelligence...
1492-1525-Thirty three times a day by her grace...
1526-1573-Forty four times by her beauty...
1573-1652-Seventy-five times by her love for me. She shows this as she reminds me of that love by telling me so at least...
1653-1804-One hundred and fifty times a day. Often I get lost in her eyes for...
1805-1846-Forty-one minutes at a time. She helps me be better in...
1847-1899-Fifty-two different ways, including my posture. She is very concerned about helping others and works at a women's shelter...
1900-1920-Twenty hours a week.
1921-Women's sufferage. Yey!
1922-1934-Twelve times she's let me hold her as she cries. I love the...
1935-1958-Twenty-three years it took me to find her. Definitely worth the wait. We'll have fun spending the last...
1959-1962-Three hours of 2008 together. On our first date we played...
1963-1965-Three rounds of golf in my apartment. I love that she's used the same make-up for...
1966-1971-Five years sraight. It took me about
1972-1995-Twenty-three days to decide to marry her. She's definitely in the top...
1996-2006-Ten list of coolest people of all time. In fact she's number...
2007-One. And there are at least...
2008-One million more reasons why she means everything to me.

That's it.

P.S. I realize my math was off. But that's the way it goes. And that's another thing I love about her, she's a lot better at math. And Capitlization. Happy new year.

Monday, December 29, 2008

As the Christmas season winds down, I still grasp for stories of love, charity, and service. As individuals and families strive to emulate Christ and his ministry during this month, we see an outpouring of goodwill. On the other side of the world, in a tiny, poverty-stricken country, an airstrike by a century-old vehement political and ideological enemy ends the lives of over 300 and injures thousands more. I ask myself: Why so much hatred in the world? And where does it originate? How can one people have so much animosity towards the other? I cannot comprehend.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

A randomly selected day celebrating the birth of our Best Friend

It's the day that the early Christian church decided would be designated to celebrate Christ's birth, most likely to correspond with Winter solstice to win over some pagans. But even though I realize that this probably isn't anywhere close to celebrating Christ's birth on the day He was born, I also realize that this is the best holiday ever. I never get tired of Christmas, of Christmas songs, of saying "Merry Christmas" or of eating Christmas themed candied items. Christmas themed episodes of TV shoes are always some of the most memorable, even when their political correctness makes them rather empty. The best Christmas movies can be watched every year and never get old. I still cry every time I watch Jimmy Stewart approach the manger in Mr. Kruegers Christmas. I love the season. I think if I had nothing else pulling me on to believe, the feeling I get at Christmas would be enough to get me to church every week. And what's great about the season is that the harder one works to make it special-especially in working to make it special for others-the better it is. This year I've striven to make Christ a bigger part of my Christmas celebration and I have not been disappointed in the least. Cait's been a big help in setting us up to donate to Sub4Santa and a progam to help refugee families in Salt Lake. We've also been working at the
Food and Care Coalition (Unsubtle Plug)
in Provo which is basically a classy food bank. Speaking of which, I'd like to throw in a plug for Sunflower Farmers Market
in Orem (just south of University Mall and in a bunch of places in the west) which donates a lot of the food used there. If you can't donate food or funds yourself, shopping at this eco- and local- friendly food store is a reasonably priced way of making a difference. And the products are just great anyway.

In diary news, we did end up making it to Morgan to visit my family last night, busing most of the way and stopping to see the light on temple square. We opened presents this morning and have just been enjoying a very peaceful holiday. We're excited to spend the rest of the break together and also are getting excited for school to start. We have some cool classes this semester.
That's us Christmas morning.

And here's our present to all our blog readers.

SLEEPY BABY 6

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Merry Christmas Eve!!

We're heading up to Mountain Green to celebrate Christmas with Tim's family. I'm feeling very much in the spirit of Christmas. Although I kind of miss my family, it's nice to not have to worry about traveling and dealing with all that mess. Plus, Utah is nice at Christmastime with all of the snow. And I have really enjoyed working over break.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Nutcracker review

On Saturday night, we went to the Nutcracker put on by the Utah Regional Ballet company in Provo. We were in the balcony but the seats were decent. The company was... young. Very young. I never realized how incredible Carolina Ballet's production of the Nutcracker was until I went to others. This was only my second other, but neither matched Carolina Ballet's. The costumes were all pale pink. Clara had about 24 solos of just her dancing (boring!). The battle scene was disappointingly anti-climatic. The dancers were very talented. The snow scene was beautiful. But the choreography was lacking. Too much boureeing(I don't know how to spell that) and walking and standing and not enough real dancing. But I was there with Tim and I loved it because I love him and being with him and sitting next to him and holding his hand and knowing I would be going home with him. It's a lovely feeling.

A pictography of the night:



Break thusfar

The days and nights are going by way, way too fast. Even though we are doing pretty much nothing compared to non-breaks, I still just want this to last forever. It's our first Christmas as married people. It's our first Christmas knowing the other person existed.


Also, Tim thinks we need more pictures. We don't really take pictures though, but here are a few:


Sometimes... Tim cooks in our kitchlivinbedroom....


...we do this a lot (currently I'm working on Guns, Germs, and Steel. It's awesome. Highly recommended. Tim is working on Hillary Clinton's autobiography, Lord of the Things, Anna Karenina, a book about the apostles, some Orson Scott Card sci-fi, etc, etc. He likes to bounce around)...


...we go on dates sometimes to usually delicious yet sometimes disappointing ethnic restaurants...


our wall furnishing.


The end.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Argentina. Or bust.

We're going to Argentina with Gordon. Check out the plan. It will probably be in August, post Washington DC seminar. But HOW COOL IS HIS IDEA? I'm working on my Spanish. Stat.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Christmas-time. Finally here.

Finals ended today!! Hooray! Mine was early this morning, so I woke up and took the bus at 7 am. It was dumping buckets of snow, which I usually hate, but today it just felt perfect because I remembered the months of good weather we were allotted this year, so now I will embrace the snowy weather. Tim likes it, so I think I'll start liking it as well. I came home after my final and took a little nap and cleaned up the atrocious apartment (weeks of finals=no cleaning for us!) I walked to the Sunflower farmer's market around 4 and bought items for dinner (parsnips, carrots, swiss chard, red potatoes, lima beans, thyme, vegetable broth.... makes for a GREAT stew). It's all cooking up now and smells absolutely divine. We have a little conundrum in our household: I eat super healthy, pretty low-fat food because otherwise I would have skyrocket cholesterol and a pretty rounded belly, and besides I LOVE veggies and don't particularly care for many other foods. Husband, on the other hand, is ridiculously skinny and eats as many calories as he can hold to keep from wasting away. So, we're stuck in this limbo of how we cook/how we need to eat and have yet to find a delicate balance. Tim usually eats whatever I eat, then adds cheese/butter/cup of noodles for a little extra fat. One day, we'll find a perfect compromise. Maybe my metabolism will miraculously speed up after I have a baby. Yeah, right.

Now, I'm just sitting in bed, practicing my Spanish, and listening to the stew simmer. Waiting for my wonderful husband to finish his final already and come home to our little haven. Then we'll watch our Netflix movie (we have Once and Into the Wild). Both look profound. The snow continues to fall. Christmas is in a week. Life=blissful.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

I love Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

From the same woman who proclaimed "Well-behaved women seldom make history", comes this quote:

"My Mormonism and my feminism intersect in a belief in the absolute equality of all of God’s children and in a belief that we have a responsibility to make the world better."

I found it while I was flipping through notes on Soc of Gender for my final tomorrow morning. I love it. That's exactly how I feel. Equality and parity and equal opportunity and improved standard of living for all of humanity and all of God's children.

On a lighter note, our housing situation is dire. Not dire actually, we just only have one more month in our apartment and nowhere to go after that until April. I think we should live as squatters in various locations on campus to make a statement that until everyone can have adequate shelter, we don't want it. And then if BYU gives us grief, we'll just claim to be anthropology students doing an ethnographic research project. Brilliant.

**In the early 1990s, BYU board of trustees "vetoed without comment" a proposal to have Laurel Thatcher Ulrich speak in a forum at BYU because she was "too controversial" (she's a Harvard history professor, Pulitzer Prize winner, married, LDS, mother of many children, and brilliant! Is that controversial?!). That same year, Justice Clarence Thomas (after his controversial sexual harassment case), was brought to BYU to speak. VOICE (Parity's ancestor) protested, and was suspended as a BYU club. CAN YOU IMAGINE? I wish I had been around during the heyday of feminist activism at BYU. We've made strides in the past few decades, but we're not nearly finished.

Monday, December 15, 2008

A relationship of trust

I've developed a relationship of trust with my phone, and I couldn't be happier. My phone is a flat phone, no flip, no twist, no nonsense (see the picture). But that means the keys are exposed. I thought, when I got the phone that meant that I would just have to put up with the keyguard that came up after 5 seconds making it frustrating to work on put protecting me from unnecessary calls. But last night I decided to show some trust in my phone. I gave it it's own pocket in my pants, the right front one if you were wondering. I don't carry many things in my pants as a matter of principle, so giving it its own pocket wasn't that big of a deal. And in response my phone has shown the highest sense of responsibility and cooperation, not dialing a single wrong number or even typing in one key that I didn't type in myself. I think there is a lesson to be learned here, but I'll let you figure it out for yourself. (That's my phone there in the picture, being stolen? or maybe snuck into a pocket? I'm not sure, but I think the story of it adds to the post)
Deseret News published my letter to the editor!

... my mom thinks I'm going to get excommunicated due to my outspoken opinions. I find that hilarious.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

You've GOT to be kidding me....

Remember this one time?

Today, I have lost all faith in the BYU student body (at least that enjoy Randy Bott's mission prep class). Dr. Hudson sent me this article this morning. Highest-rated professor in the nation?? That is so unnerving.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Found it

http://nn.byu.edu/story.cfm/70533

Oh, and I was in the DU TWICE today!!

A reporter interviewed me as part of a Prop 8 article.

Tim says I sounded like I was scared to get beat up [which at some point, I think I was afraid of that]

I didn't mean for it to sound like I was going to be physically abused, just emotionally...

I can't find that one online yet, but she e-mailed it to me and this is what my section said:

"Senior Caitlin Carroll from South Carolina had a different experience. As someone who is against Proposition 8, Carroll began the interview for this article by saying, "I will not share with you all of the things that I am passionate about for fear of further attacks and threats against my personal being."

This fear, she said, was based on the response she received after publishing her opposing thoughts on the issue in a "Letter to the Editor" in The Daily Universe which included "threats and vicious e-mails from fellow students that I could not believe."

"I listen to my leaders, but I also pray and ask God for confirmation to know that what my leaders are saying is what I need to be doing," Carroll said. "On this issue, I received no divine answer but decided through my own experiences and research into the matter my position on it."

In the end, Carroll thought the way in which the campus dealt with the issue was harsh.

"I have so many friends here at BYU that are gay that mean so much to me, and I hated the way the students promoted Prop. 8 like it was a fun game with the plastering of posters and the telephone banks right in front of their faces," she said. "I don't think they realized the hurt they were inflicting upon the gay community both at BYU and throughout the Church.""


Haha... it does sound like I was scared.

We're a "top story"!!

Check it out here.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

My Spanish phrase of the day

No me gusta ir a casa de mi suegra porque ella es muy antipática.

Monday, December 8, 2008

A cool little Christmas site

Here's a step back to the past, with a website that has gathered all of the decent videos that youtube has of Christmas movies, tv specials, christmas episodes of shows and commercials. It's a nice trip down memory lane. Personally I love this sort of stuff. Nothing is too cheesy in my book when it comes to Christmas. They have a TV guide in the corner that tells you when stuff is coming on, though it doesn't seem to be super accurate. It does play two or three things at once, so there's usually something good on. I've promised myself not to spend much time on here til after finals, but BYU's computers block it anyway because of the utube ban, so that wont be much problem. And you can even tune the antennas to remove fuzz. Just like the good old days.

hattip: http://www.boingboing.net/

Friday, December 5, 2008

Happy birthday to me.

Strep throat. No insurance. Hundreds of dollars. No place to live come January. Going to class on my deathbed. I think I may faint any minute.

BUT on the bright side:

Wonderful husband. Secondary education. Access to health care (even if it costs hundreds of dollars). Free lunch at the Pennyroyal courtesy of Cecilia. Wearing PJs all day long because I can. Plans tonight? Maybe.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

My least favorite poet


I'm doing a project for my introduction to middle east studies class, and we're doing it on Saudi Arabian poetry. Under the topic of Saudi Arabian poetry on Wikipedia there are four names. The second name on the list is Osama bin Laden. That's right. According to Wikipedia one of the four most noteworthy poets from Saudi Arabia is Osama bin Laden. Here's a sampling of his poetry:

Tomorrow, William, you will discover which young man [will] confront your brethren, who have been deceived by [their own] leaders.

A youth, who plunges into the smoke of war, smiling
He hunches forth, staining the blades of lances red
May God not let my eye stray from the most eminent
Humans, should they fall, Djinn, should they ride
[And] lions of the jungle, whose only fangs
[Are their] lances and short Indian swords
As the stallion bears my witness that I hold them back
[My] stabbing is like the cinders of fire that explode into flame
On the day of the stallions’ expulsion, how the war-cries attest to me
As do stabbing, striking, pens, and books.

Corollary to last post

Please do not imply that I think being a suburban housewife is a negative thing. It is just not me. That is all.
Do you ever wake up in the morning and realize that your life has happened and you did not even realize what was going on at the time but then you look around and think and it all sinks in? That happens to me at least once a week. Sometimes, I wake up and look over and there is a boy in my bed and a little tiny part of me freaks out until I quizzically peer up at the wall and see our wedding picture and then I quickly recall that he isn't a boy he's my husband and it's totally appropriate that he is in my bed. I still find it hard to comprehend how much my life has been altered in six short months. That long ago, Tim was not even a figment of my imagination, let alone my husband who I will be with for eternity (and how freakishly long is that!?) My life happens to me like this though. I wake up one morning and it all hits me and sinks in. Nothing ever occurs to me while it is occurring--it always takes some time to become reality for me. I am so afraid that I will be one of those highly-motivated and intelligent college women who wakes up in 15 years and is a desperate, suburban housewife who is without an idea about why or how she ended up where she did but just knows she is not happy. I tell Tim on a regular basis to not let me end up somewhere in my life just because I am lazy or complacent or seeking an easy way. There are so many goals and aspirations and dreams wrapped up in this convoluted brain of mine that I want and NEED to accomplish. But I am certain of the need to take the time to counsel with my Heavenly Father and think things over thoroughly and live my life a little more deliberately.

Our adopted family

For Christmas this year, we decided to adopt a family from the International Rescue Committee to buy presents for them instead of each other and our families. I am so excited about the family they gave us-- they are Burmese refugees with a 3-month-old baby girl. I have an excuse to buy baby things! I am deliriously happy. And we get to help a family in desperate need who just arrived to the US four months ago. I hope that our little contribution will help.

We are also adopting a Utah County child as well, but have not been assigned yet. I have been needing to do something good in the community recently. There are so many people in need and I couldn't be happier to help.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

"Lucy Stoners"


Since exercising my right to vote last month, I have been reflecting upon the work and sacrifices of the early suffragettes. The first wave of suffragists in the mid-19th century paved the way for the more radical movement in the 20th century that ultimately resulted in the 19th amendment.

I was reading today about Lucy Stone, a prominent suffragette who was present at the Seneca Falls Convention with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Lucy Stone was the first woman to graduate from college in Massachusetts, having been inspired to receive an education by Mary Lyon (the founder of Mount Holyoke) while sitting in a sewing circle of all places. After graduating, Lucy married Henry Brown Blackwell, a prominent abolitionist and brother to Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female doctor in the US. Let's just talk about what a progressive feminist family: Another Blackwell brother married Antoinette Brown, the first female minister and another prominent feminist in the early women's rights movement. Those Blackwells must have had fantastic parents (father was a sugar refiner from England, mother bore 9 children, nothing too unique except that they were adamant about education for their daughters).

But what I learned today that I really wanted to share: Lucy Stone is the first known woman in the United States to have kept her last name after marriage-- "Women who continue to use their birth names after marriage are still occasionally known as "Lucy Stoners" in the U.S."

I'm a Lucy Stoner! That sounds so cool!

Good choice Barack

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Wedding Presents


On a whim, while we were preparing for our wedding, Caitlin and I decided to send a wedding invitation to Orson Scott Card. I've been reading his books for a long time and still haven't found one that I didn't really enjoy, and Cait has read a few and enjoyed them. We were having our reception in South Carolina and he lives in North Carolina, so we looked up his address and sent him an invite. He didn't show up, but that wasn't too much of a surprise. Our reception wasn't exactly pulling in a lot of big named celebrities. But we were surprised when, a few days ago, Caitlin's mom called and said that we got a present from him. He sent us a personalized copy of one of his newer books, Zana's Gift: A Life in Christmases. That was pretty cool. I was a fan before, but Mr. Card taking some of his time to send a present to someone he doesn't really know makes me an even bigger fan.

On a mostly unrelated note: Target sent us an e-mail telling us that they would give us a $25 dollar gift card if we gave up our claim on the super cheap car seat that didn't really exist. Cait says she wont be bought for a quarter of a Century of dollars. But I'm not so Sure. I think I like putting making random Words capitolized.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

You must read this book...

...if you've ever had the desire to know everything there is to know about breastfeeding.

The Politics of Breastfeeding

It was out of print for a while, I got a copy on half.com. I read passages from it for a class last semester, but decided to do my final research paper on the relationship between breastfeeding and feminism so I bought my own copy. It is awe-inspiring. You will never want to buy Nestle products again. You will want to bust out your breasts (no pun intended) and feed your child in public as backlash against all of the cultural norms telling you how wrong it is to expose your "sexual" parts in public. I love the quote that jeans commercials show more breast than a woman feeding her child, but that's perfectly acceptable. You'll want to shun all that is wrong and backward in the world (regarding the hindrances to breastfeeding).

Did you know that last year 4 million babies died as a result of not being breastfed? (UNICEF). Did you know that formula companies went to developing nations, dressed as nurses, handed out samples, convinced poor women that they needed to bottlefeed because it was healthy and "Western", and then millions of babies died as mothers scrounged for formula and diluted what they found in an effort to keep their babies alive when their milk dried up? Did you know in most cultures breasts aren't even sexual, and some men just see them as baby bottles hanging off a woman's chest?

I did not know that the reason hospitals are designed with the babies on one end and the mothers on the other end was because formula companies donated money to some hospitals during building and convinced the architects that this was the ideal set-up. Although, many hospitals are getting more progressive (or is it regressive since technically it's the way it was always done before the multinational corporations stepped in...) with rooming-in and early initiation of breastfeeding.

My next book on the list is Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care. I hear it's a good one from many friends. I learned the other day that childbirth accounts for 66% of hospital revenue every year. And it's not even a disease. And most of the interventions are completely unnecessary. Elective c-sections? Pitocin because you are a day overdue? 95% epidural rate? I was watching this clip the other day from a new movie coming out, and it had this Swedish woman birthing at home (I think like 60% of women birth at home there) and she was like "painkillers? for childbirth? silly Americans..." And laying flat on the back?? A bunch of male OB/GYNs decided in the 1900s that the lithotomy position was ideal for birthing children, though you have gravity working against you, thus longer labor and more of a chance of tearing (bring out the knife for that episiotomy!).

* Before everyone jumps on me about individual circumstances, I am talking about a societal problem as a whole, not your personal experience with childbirth (though I do love learning about that as well). I'm saying these pervasive views regarding birthing and caring for children are not natural, and are very recent inventions of the past 50 years or so. Also, should we trust doctors so implicitly when it comes to our own bodies and their well-being when performing a very natural function? Dr. Hudson tells this great story about being forced to lie flat on her back, but just wanting to get up and squat during the labor of her first child. They let her get up, but forced her to squat ON THE BED. She said it was traumatic, and after that, every baby was born at home where she had complete control over the situation. And before you balk at the idea of having a baby away from a hospital, the statistics actually prove that home births have better outcomes (higher Apgar scores) than un-complicated hospital births, and as long as you are 15 minutes away from an equipped hospital, there is little risk of dying during the birth.

And if you were curious, yes, I plan on birthing my babies at home, barring any foreseen complications.

For further reading, I like these articles:

The NYT put out this last week. I think it's fairly unbiased.

And the Illegal Home birth story. This one cracks me up. I can imagine me being this person (what DO we do with the placenta?)

Monday, November 24, 2008

My last night with Austin/why my husband rocks

On the eve of Austin's much-anticipated MTC entry, we decided to have one more sleepover. You see, when Austin and I lived together (and sometimes when we didn't), we shared a bed. One of those tiny, twin-sized, dorm beds. I think it was a comfort thing. I have a weird thing where I can't sleep alone. I still have yet to figure it out... it only started in college. One night, Melissa wasn't home, and so I went to sleep with Austin and Heather in their room. I think that night I may have slept in a sleeping bag. A few nights later, I went to sleep in their room again (perhaps by accident, I'm known to fall asleep in every place but my bed). After that, Austin and I started our tradition of co-bedding. When we moved out of Liberty Square and into separate apartments, we still would have sleepovers and share a bed, often falling asleep to an episode of Gilmore Girls or Juno played on her little Apple laptop. On the eve of my wedding, I shared a bed yet again (though we thought then perhaps for the last time) with my dear friend Austin (and my dear friend Kaitlyn as well.... this was a king-sized bed). Sharing a bed with my husband is great, but it is different. I missed Austin.

She came to spend the night with me as a set-apart sister missionary (we still are not sure as to the appropriateness of this since Tim was also there and we live in a studio apartment, but oh well). We shared a bed yet again, and it's sad to think maybe it is for the last time (at least for 18 months, that is).




That's right. Austin read the entire Stuff White People Like to get in her fill before the 18 month drought of hilarious and satirical commentary on the urban, eco-aware life of the 20-something white people with liberal arts degrees.


The best part:



Tim not only allowed us to have a sleepover, he encouraged it. How many husbands would be kicked out of their beds by their wife's best friend and not show an ounce of bitterness?



I love coming home to this.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Hm?

To anyone on BYU campus:

Stand south of the Indian statue that is west of the library. You'll see what we're talking about.

I'm going to take a picture if I get a chance.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Ode to Austin

Austin is a big deal in my life. She is really the only friend that I've kept in college. We get along great, and she is more like me than anyone else. You know when people just GET you? That's Austin for me. She understands me better than anyone.

A brief history of Austin & Caitlin:
We met in Liberty Square apartments our sophomore year. We both moved in with our former freshman year roommates, and by the end, we were best friends, and our other roommates were pretty much out of the picture (sorry Heather and Melissa. We still love you both dearly though).




Junior year is when we really were inseparable though. Even though we didn't live together (Austin had more money than me, because she had a real job by this point), I pretty much spent the night with her all the time. Last summer, we hung constantly, again. I was putting in my papers to serve a mission, and Austin was planning on another year of teaching.







One thing lead to another, and I ended up married and she ended up missioned. It's been an interesting few months.





I cried like a baby at the MTC family-goodbye thing. Austin just looked at me, and said "see ya later!" as she skipped away to her alternate reality. It was rough for me though. I couldn't help but think that could've been me a few months ago. But I've settled for a pretty great husband, so no worries, I'll be fine. But.... I will miss Austin dearly! She is going to be a phenomenal missionary.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Just a quick followup

I'll keep my political posts minimalistic: http://rightwingnews.com/mt331/2008/11/rightofcenter_bloggers_select_10.php Shows the 25 most loved people on the right by the right. Number 1? Sarah Palin followed closely by Rush Limbaugh. Dick Cheney at number 20. No comment.

Only in Utah

On the way to Church, Tim and I like to listen to 100.3 religious music. Well, he likes to. I just play along. This Sunday, a song about waiting came on. The premise of the song: There's a girl, she's 15 and waiting to date until she's 16. There's a boy, he's 19 and waiting on his mission call. Three years later, they are dating and waiting to get married to have sex. Hello, singer/songwriter, do the math. This girl is 18! And getting married! Sheesh. Is it really appropriate to advocate teen marriage? Especially considering the divorce rate if you marry before you turn 20 is double that of those marry after 20? Let's just advocate divorce.

A confession

I'm already listening to Christmas music. It makes me sick. Usually I'm all for restraining Christmas joy 'til after Thanksgiving, for fear that it will take over Halloween. But this year I am not doing so well.

I think part of the blame would have to go to Pandora (quick note: Pandora is the bomb, even if I had lots of money I would still listen to my free, commercial free radio on Pandora.com rather than buy itunes. It has an endless variety and gives me indie cred when I find new bands). I created all my stations over a year ago, but the last one that I created was a Christmas station. Now the way Pandora is set up, whenever you log on on a new computer where you haven't adjusted the setting, the first station that plays is the newest one you've created, which in my case happens to be my Christmas station. Now usually I just change stations, but lately I've been drawn to the music. Some would say that I should just create a new station to play first. My stations are a work of art tightly refined over years of work. They are very near sacred and will not be touched. On the Christmas station the music that comes up most often is Josh Groban christmas music (is Josh Groban still cool? he was cool in highschool, I'm not sure if he is anymore), which always pulls me in to listen to 'just one song' which leads to many others. It's an addiction.

I'm ashamed. To alleviate my shame I think I will place the blame on the credit crises and faulty sup-prime loans. Curse you International Paper Market! Or on a lack of Thanksgiving music. Why is Christmas the only holiday with a soundtrack?

Sunday, November 16, 2008

I have a confession

I just bought this. It was totally a steal. Tim says it's like buying a coffin that's on sale before you are even dead. But come ON. How cute is that??

Saturday, November 15, 2008

But I'm a FEMINIST!

People! I am SO baby hungry. I do not know what is up with me lately. It is consuming all of my waking thoughts. At the sight of any baby, cute or ugly, I get a little teary-eyed. I love baby things. I love looking at baby clothes, toys, cribs, bottles, etc. and fantasizing about what I want to get when we decide to make the leap. I am constantly reading about homebirths, breastfeeding, cloth diapering, and I've even been researching midwives in the Utah County area and figuring out how much it will cost to have a baby right now. Austin got me the book, Green Baby, for my wedding, and I devour it about once a week. I want to have a reason to buy things like this.

On the other hand.... I've been married TWO MONTHS! It's not time yet. We are loving this stage of our lives. I love being able to get out and do whatever I need to without the hassle of lugging around a newborn. I love being with Tim and only with Tim. We're loving the newlywed stage. We're going to Washington DC in the summer so I can do an internship. I'm not done with college yet. I can't have a baby so young! I'm a feminist!

Please. Help me to get my mind off these little creatures! Moms. Tell me how I should wait and it's not that great, and sure babies are cute until they keep you up all night, and you stop having sex, etc. etc.

Friday, November 14, 2008

We finally picked up our wedding pictures

Yayyyy! I've done nothing today but look at our wedding pictures over and over again and re-live that day.

I think this is the ultimate wedding picture of all time and it makes me so happy:



That's right. We did not just take a picture next to the eternity pool. We had to wade in. We're so weird :)

I also love the bookstore pictures:






Sorry Becca. I hate that book.

To view all of the happiness, go here.

Harold B. Lee would not approve

Three things I wish to do in the Harlold B. Lee library, but probably wont because I'm scared of getting into trouble even though I've specifically planned on how not to get into trouble:

1-Drop my old cellphone from the railing right inside the door and watch it explode in the basement. I would probably have someone down on the bottom floor to make sure no one got hit and make it seem like I tripped and dropped my phone, or that it dropped out of my hand, so as not to get into trouble.

2-Use the 'tattle tape' that I use in my job at the Law Library to cause people trouble at the book stealing sensors. This tape is magnetic and designed to make someone go beep whenever they go through the large scanners by the security desks on the way out. I would steal a few from work and then sneak them onto unsuspecting backpacks in the library. Watch that person until they leave (which would also be interesting) and then watch them get stopped at security, even when they've emptied out their entire backpack. Then I would probably try to follow the person and take the tape off because I felt bad.

3- I actually only had two things that I wanted to do, but two didn't seem to be enough to blog about. Let's see, what other hood-winks could I finagle. I think I would rearrange books maybe? I don't know.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

No blame on Palin

I'm hesitant to make my second post political, but it's something I talk about a lot, so there's probably not much avoiding it.

I follow Right Wing News, an obviously and self proclaimed right wing leaning political blog. The recently released their most hated people on the right. So basically, a little self hate going on. This is healthy sometimes, I feel. One name that amazed me that was left off of the list was Sarah Palin. Now I'm trying really hard, since the election, to be honest, not to hate Sarah Palin. I think she is a good woman who was over her head. So I don't want to hate her for doing what she feels is right. But certainly, in my mind, she did a lot to spoil the election and generally make life harder for John Mccain. Could he have won if Sarah didn't alienate so many in the center? Probably not. He was quickly becoming irrelevant as Obama-mania grew. But she certainly did not help. But does anyone on the far right blame her? Apparently not. She is not in the top 10:
10) Arnold Schwarzenegger (12)
7) Mike Huckabee (13)
7) Pat Buchanan (13)
7) Ron Paul (13)
6) Chuck Hagel (14)
5) Arlen Specter (15)
4) Colin Powell (17)
3) Peggy Noonan (18)
2) Ted Stevens (19)
1) John McCain (25)

nor in the top 25. This of anything I have read shows me that Sarah Palin is the direction the GOP is heading. Peggy Noonan ends up at number three, mainly, I would suppose for her criticism of Sarah Palin. John McCain, the centrist is more hated then anyone apparently, even more than the man who took bribes from big oil. Other centrists including Hagel and Arnold make the top 10 too. Maybe they wont go as far as Ron Paul to reverse direction, but Sarah Palin I think is looking like the best option in their opinion.

Really?

Our Blog

So this is our new blog, it is kind of boring. But it will be awesome. I swear it. Hopefully I'll be able to post as much as my prolific wife, but don't bet on it. In fact don't bet at all. It's a degrading habit.

Blogger gives some suggestions for labels for posts down at the bottom of the edit page. The three suggestions are 'scooter, vacation, fall.'

I will address scooters. I'm talking about like the Razor scooters. Are they still popular? They sure had a boom a little while ago, but it seems to have died off. But will they die off completely or just find their place in the non-motorized vehicle world, like rollerblades. Rollerblades used to be the shiz, but then their popularity lessened. But they did not die out and have subsequently found their place, with long haired people or people on the beach. Will scooters be the same? I doubt it. First off, they're just not as cool as other forms of transportation. Can you imagine scooters in the x-games? I don't think so. They're like blue-tooth, cool for a while, but then everyone realized how silly you look with one of those, so the only people who kept them are those who need them, like really busy people in suits, or moms who talk in the car a lot. But nobody needs scooters bad enough to keep them alive. They just don't add that much convenience, unless they are motorized. But BYU still has no scooter signs posted in a lot of places. I think that is their best hope. Only if scooters are outlawed somewhere will they give enough street cred to their riders to make them worth riding. That's how I feel.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Initiatory Post


Good evening. Welcome to our official married blog.

Explanation of our last names:
Due to Caitlin's rampant feminism, she refuses to take Tim's last name. This gets very confusing, especially at the temple (those poor old workers can't keep it straight!) We're thinking of just combining the two and creating a whole new name altogether (which will probably be confusing for the genealogists to follow). Herhauser is our latest choice though; it's a combination of both of our mom's maiden names. Progressive? We think so.

Enjoy!

Tim & Cait