Daddy's Day For a New Daddy

No, Gummy Bear isn't here yet. But (s)he exists, so it counts! Happy Fathers Day to Husband Man!

I got him the best gift ever. A tie!!

But not just any tie...

It's a pillow tie!

You can inflate it!
I can see your jealousy through the computer. (Ok, not really. But you have to admit, it's awesome.)

When it comes to his impending fatherhood, Husband Man is all sorts of everything-- he's excited, unless he thinks about it too much, and then he's freaked out and worried and apprehensive and nervous and EVERYTHING.

We went to a birthing class last Saturday, a one-day class 8 hours long that went through the whole she-bang. We came home that night probably with deer-in-the-headlights looks. That class made it real for both of us. This is going to happen. Holy canole. How did Husband Man cope with this reality?

Preparation.

We have an entire hospital bag packed, stuffed with everything imaginable. The car seat is in the car, locked and loaded. Papers are filled out and ready to go. If I try and remove something from the hospital bag (the camera, for example) then it must go right back as soon as possible, no if's, and's, or but's. He has a list on his phone of who to contact if I go into labor, with everyone from parents to the guy in charge of music for church (so he knows I can't play organ on Sunday).

Husband Man's prediction is that Gummy Bear will come on the 20th. This Thursday. There's a lull in his homework this week, which would really make it the perfect time for Gummy Bear to make an entrance. So it really depends on whether Gummy Bear wants to be nice, or wants to be mean to his/her daddy.

Also in our near future is a new desktop computer. Husband Man has been talking about it for a while, since my laptop could drop dead at any time. (I'm convinced it will never die, just to spite me.) With the lull in his homework, however, he's been researching parts and comparing prices and getting advice from other tech people. So he found some of the parts on sale, and ordered everything we need. He's like a kid in a candy store, and is very, very very very VERY excited to put it together! I love him, he's so much fun to watch!

I'm very excited to see Husband Man as a daddy. I think he's going to be a fantastic dad, and I can't wait to see him interact with a mini Yockey. Happy Father's Day, Husband Man!

Husband Man's 3D Millenium Falcon Puzzle

So in my last post I told you that I had the flu, right? Well, Husband Man got it last Wednesday, except he threw up all day. That night I slept on the floor because he was asleep on the couch, and then in the middle of the night I woke up and he was gone so I crawled on the couch. We've had all kinds of wonky sleeping patterns this last week!

Anyways, a couple days after he threw up I begged Husband Man to go to DI with me since he was feeling better. He obliged and we drove to DI. I just like walking around and seeing all the random junk that shows up there, and occasionally we'll find a good book or a CD or something that we like. Husband Man was poking through the games, and next thing I know he's standing next to me holding a giant box with a picture of the Millennium Falcon on it, giving me the same look that a little six year old boy would give me.

"Ashee... can I have this?" he implored bashfully. All I could do is laugh, and when I said "Yes" he grinned and gleefully ran off with his box.

When we got home, he worked on that puzzle for... three or four hours, at least....

Poor Husband Man got a little flustered during parts of it, since the puzzle is made of foam.

He eventually figured it out though...

 ...and now we have a giant Millennium Falcon adorning our puzzle table.

He's happy, and that's all that matters! It really doesn't bother me, I just laugh a little every time I see it. I think the funniest part is that there's a little tiny fishbowl on the table with it now, because we're watching the fish for a friend until she comes back for fall semester.

Watching Husband Man play with his toys is so much fun! I should get him to pull out his legos again...

Husband Man

 I've collected a few photos of Husband Man, and he's such a goober that I need to post them. I love him so much!!

 I forget exactly when I took this picture- it's at least a couple months ago- I was up a little late finishing a homework assignment and he went to to read a book in bed. I found him like this, and while I know guys don't like being called cute, you have to admit- he's pretty cute in this picture.

 This was the last haircut I gave him. (Or half of it, rather.) I fought with him for over a week about getting it- "I don't need one! I don't need one!" he would cry, and finally when I got him to sit in the tub for the haircut I had to snap this picture because I thought it was so funny! His hair grows so fast, and poor silly Husband Man doesn't like haircuts.

 A friend of mine went to Alaska this summer, and her boyfriend doesn't know what to with himself except work and come over to our house. Husband Man doesn't mind because they play games together (they're playing Smash Brothers in this picture) and I don't mind because they let me play with them (when I'm not doing homework) and because he'll help cook in the evenings. (He taught me how to make friend rice the other evening!)

 Their latest thing is that they're trying to set up a server to run Minecraft on. Husband Man runs one off of his laptop, but it gets wonky sometimes and he can't leave it running all the time. They bought an old pc from DI to gut and use some of its parts for their server, and inside they found a prize!

(And for anyone that missed it, I got a haircut. As in, they removed another six inches from my head.)

Flowers!

Did I mention that Husband Man got me flowers the other day? He wanted to get them for me over finals week of last semester (to celebrate my last 18 credit semester!) but we were going to Utah right after finals so I wouldn't get to enjoy them. So he got them for me after we got back!

By the way- the flowers had a sticker that said "NOT EDIBLE" on them. That was weird. But also made sense, because they have dye in them so that they turn colors.

Easter was really fun! In the last post I told you we took pictures, (and if you want to see a goofy movie of us you can go to the sister blog,) and I got to see all of my family and Husband Man's parents too!

And I got my Easter basket from my mommy! Only one of the boxes of peeps came in the basket, though- the rest came from other people who were given peeps and they don't like them. Husband Man eats them, though. I don't like that they put granulated sugar on the outside- blech. No peeps for me.

In other news, I'm watching a few plants for a couple of friends. The cactus belongs to one gal, and the orchid and the bush belong to another. I'm not sure why they asked me to because if I inherited my mom's green thumb then I haven't discovered it yet!
But... at the same time I'm thinking of getting a plant for myself! Hm....
I'm not sure if the plant from last year will grow again, but the irises by the steps are coming up. Hopefully they put out flowers soon!

This semester is going well so far... to be honest, I really just want to be done with school! I'm so sick of it! I honestly don't think I'll be like those people who graduate and then say, "Well now I miss it!" I'll be super excited to be graduated.

Husband Man's older sister and her family are visiting this weekend and I'm so happy! I love it when family visits!! Woohoo!!

Christmas!

(Warning! This post contains lots of pictures! It is Christmas after all!)

On Christmas Eve Husband Man, his dad, and I all started a game of Age of Empires. (We played the three of us against five opponents. That's always a little crazy.) When that stopped working (the connection got messed up) we lost the game, so we went and read the Christmas story. Then we played an entire game of AoE. (Those take a couple of hours...) Then we went to sleep. (At about 2 in the morning...)


On Christmas Day Husband Man was a teensy bit excited and was awake at 6:30. At 7 he ran upstairs, and a little later he dragged me out of bed. We sat at the table, ate waffles, and then Husband wanted to look at his stocking. So we went and sat on the couch, and his parents decided that since church wasn't until 10 and it was only 8:30, we could start opening presents and see how long it took.

Obviously one of the best parts of Christmas is giving gifts to other people. We just happened to find a painting that Husband Man's dad has wanted for a while, so we talked with Dan's sisters, split the cost...

...and had a very surprised father for Christmas this year!

I also had a few tricks up my sleeve...

What is Husband Man opening? Is that a box of ammunition??

Hooray! Husband Man got a gun!
I had been skulking around talking with my dad about getting him this for a few months. Husband Man is smart, so he kind of sort of figured out that that was what I was getting him for Christmas. I was bound to confuse him, though! He told me later that he was pretty sure he was getting a gun, and he was so very very very very very very very very very very very very(etc) excited!!! And then I told him that I put all the presents under the tree at his parents' house, and he looked and looked and there was no gun box... and then he was sad. He was so very sad. And then on Christmas Day he was handed a gift and it was very very heavy and it felt and sounded like ammo, and when he opened it it really was ammo, and then he was very very very confused because now he had ammo but no gun... and then I got up and left and he thought 'Maybe she's getting the gun?' and he looked under the couches but there was still no gun box, and then I came up the stairs with a gun-box-shaped present and he was so very very very very very very very very very very very very(etc) excited again!!! And so he had a very good Christmas, and I had a very good time hiding everything from him!

Husband Man's parents splurged to give us a big gift (since it's easier for them to get one big one rather than a bunch of little ones)-

I'm not sure if that will fit in our entertainment center or not!
Don't worry, I was spoiled as well! I was given many, many wonderful things by my husband!

I got a lot of fun things. And my mom made us this beautiful cross-stitch about love and our wedding day! With all of our wedding colors!!

I'm not sure if you can see it in the picture very well or not, but it's very pretty!
Overall our Christmas was fun! We've played Age of Empires every day, and eaten a TON of brownies and cookies and candy. Tomorrow we're going back to my parents' house to visit for half a day again, and then we're on to see Husband Man's older sister before going home! It was my first Christmas away from home so I missed the traditions that I'm used to, but experiencing new traditions is a lot of fun too!

(P.S.- Opening presents took about 45 minutes. That is nowhere close to the time it takes my family to open presents!)

The Undercover Novelists

Most people know me as a music nerd (see previous post), and I count myself as one. What a lot of people don't know is that I'm a creative writer as well. I love writing. And yes, I'm a fantasy writer. I have a huge, sometimes over-active imagination (which can sometimes cause problems when watching certain movies in the theater).

Husband Man is a writer too. He's more of the science-fiction than I am, though, but we still like to read each other's works and critique them. There's something about sharing our stories with each other that makes us enjoy writing even more, even though revision is a hard thing to deal with. So even though Husband Man can't sing a note to save his life, I'm grateful that I got someone who can understand the mechanics of writing a story.


This semester I took a creative writing class that talked about the basic functions of stories and that was a lot of fun. We talked about things like putting images together to make a scene and dialogue and tension and Campbell's Monomyth, and knowing all of those things has given me new insight into my story and my writing in general. Husband Man is going to take that class next semester and I can't wait!


There's something about creating things that really appeals to me. Writing music, playing music, writing stories, taking pictures... I really like the artistic side of life. I think that's why I like random shows like Project Runway and, yes, America's Next Top Model. I like seeing the clothes they come up with, the pictures that they take, what they can do with their talent. I really only tolerate all the stupid drama just so I can see that stuff. 

I know it sounds weird, but that's how I am. But it goes the same for writing. I like seeing what I can come up with out of my imagination. My characters are real to me. I don't dictate what they do, they do it on their own and I just record it as best I can. And I love every minute of it. I'm a nerd and I don't care!


There's only one problem: When you're a writer and a full-time college student there isn't a lot of time for writing... and then you go crazy.

If You Give Your Husband A Haircut... (Part 2)

Once upon a time, there was a wife and her husband. The husband had really thick hair that stuck out at funny angles and looked like wings above his ears if he didn't get regular haircuts. Seeing the wisdom in learning to cut his hair herself to save money, the wife bought a razor and a pair of scissors. She learned rather quickly, and every three weeks or so the husband receives a haircut.


A few weeks ago, the husband really needed a haircut. His sister's wedding was coming up, so it was a very important haircut, so he wouldn't look weird in all her wedding pictures. The wife had lots of homework, so the haircut got pushed from a Tuesday to a Saturday. On said Saturday the husband went shooting with his Elder's Quorum from church, and during target practice he scoped himself in the face. He cut himself so badly that he almost needed stitches! As a result, the doctor told him to be very careful and not get it wet for a few days. This meant that the husband wouldn't get a haircut before the wedding.


This also meant that the husband wouldn't get a haircut for quite a few more weeks. Finally, the other day, the wife and the husband agreed that going to the temple looking like the husband did wasn't a good idea, so they sat down to give him a haircut. (FINALLY!) The wife must have been very excited because the first swipe with the razor turned out like this: 

(I told you his hair was long!)

I don't know bout you, but that looks just a liiiiittle too short. There's a little patch just to the right of the stripe where the wife tried to see how bad it would look if she finished the back of his head with the 1/4" razor guard like she usually does, and that looked so awful. So she resorted to using the 1/8" guard and letting the stripe blend in with the rest of his super-short haircut...

It sort of worked. The poor wife just couldn't bring herself to buzz his entire head with no guard on the razor, so the husband now has a landing stripe/racing stripe up the back of his head.


Tomorrow they go to visit family in Thanksgiving. The wife is sure this will be a great topic for conversation.

Snow and Scopes

So today has been interesting. First of all, we didn't sleep until noon... in fact, we were up before 9 AM because Dan wanted to go to the Elder's Quorum activity. They were going out of city limits to go shooting somewhere. So he bounced out of bed this morning and had breakfast. As I meandered out of the bedroom he pointed to the crack in the blinds where it doesn't meet the edge of the window and said those dreaded words:

"It snowed last night."

Laaaame. Yesterday we went to Walmart without a coat. Today it's snowing.

So I'm sitting at home watching Tom and Jerry cartoons on YouTube and doing homework (because Husband Man said that if I did homework we could both work on NaNoWriMo so I was trying to be good) and waiting for Husband Man to come home when I get a text message from him that said, "Guess what?"


I hate guessing, so I just said, "What?"
"That's not a guess, but I'll tell you anyways. I scoped myself."
"...you scoped yourself? What does that mean?"
"I put my face too close to the scope. Recoil shoved said scope into my face. I have a nice cut just above my right eyebrow. Perfect semi-circle, they said. Not stitches bad, but close. And the worst part? I missed what I was aiming for."

(Yes, that is blood running down his face.)

My goober husband smacked himself in the face with the scope of a gun.

He did go to the clinic after the guys were all done shooting, but fortunately he didn't need stitches. Whoever put the bandaids on his face did it in such a way that it saved him from stitches, and all he got was glue.


And then we went to Coldstone for ice cream.

NaNoWriMo

Yes, it's that time of year again, where every wanna-be author sits their backside in a chair and cranks out 1,667 words a day for thirty days until they sit back and have a fledgling novel in front of them.


And yes, I'm one of those wanna-be authors.


I've "participated" in National Novel Writing Month for a couple of years, officially and unofficially, but I never really got anywhere. Last year I even cheated and started off the marathon with a three chapter lead, but I still didn't get that many words written. I'll probably cheat again this year... <cough cough>


But here's the deal, it's not about who cheated and who finished and who wrote the best... it's about getting yourself out there, about sitting down and cranking out as many words as you can, as many sentences and paragraphs and pages and chapters as you can, in thirty days. It's a sense of accomplishment. It's a reason to actually do what you've said you're going to do, and that's get a hearty chunk of your imagination down on paper (physically or virtually).


It's almost a sort of release, a way to let your imagination explode with all the ideas that you get between times to actually write something... and for some of us who are busy and have homework up to the ceiling, there's a lot of time for pent-up ideas to bounce around upstairs.


It'll be nice to have some of that brain space back again. I'm so committed! It will be the greatest test of endurance ever! I shall have to maintain my homework AND 1,667 words a day for a solid MONTH! Woohoo!


Dan the Husband Man is so doing this too. We'll be each other's support groups... (Plus he's not in school right now and his job is super not hard, so he'd better finish his story!)


I know my friend Cannwin is considering it... anyone else out there considering or committed or even just tentatively contemplating it?

(PS- I'm tentatively thinking of starting another blog to post sections of my story as well as my progress with NaNoWriMo... Opinions?)

Cookies, NES, and Vacuuming People

I wasn't going to post this because I usually don't post things late at night, but I'm mad at my Music Literature homework so I wrote this to feel better. I'll probably rant about my expensive un-edited textbooks tomorrow.

So in an earlier post I mentioned that I made chocolate chocolate chip cookies with peanut butter chips. You should know that they are A-MAZING!

Dan's even here to tell you that, yes, they are amazing, and he eats at least half a dozen of them a day.

Doesn't that make you want one?


I'm always amazed at how quickly cookies can disappear in this house. In order to concoct this specific type of cookie, I had to make a double batch. This means that instead of having three dozen cookies to be consumed in less than a week, we had about six dozen cookies. Now, logically, one would think that if two people could eat three dozen cookies in one week, six dozen cookies should last two weeks, right?


Wrong. I made these on Sunday. There's about a dozen or so left.


Another thing I want to talk about also involves my goofy husband.
Once upon a time Dan had an old-school Nintendo when he was little. A few months into our marriage, said Nintendo box found a place on top of our Blu-Ray player, and has just sat there. Poor husband wanted to play it, but he couldn't because he didn't have a power cord, and he was too cheap to pay $25 for it on Ebay (I'm totally like that too) so it just sat there, collecting dust. And then last week he found an ad on Craigslist for a guy who was selling his old NES for $25. I wasn't about to crush his hopes and dreams so yesterday he picked it up.

(Man, I really wish I knew how to work this camera...)

You'll never guess what he did for about three hours last night. While I was slaving away over my piano proficiency exam, he was playing Mario. (Notice the laptop discarded behind him. That is a rare sight!)

PS- In case anyone is wondering, I suck at Mario. After dying about a dozen times at the first bad guy, I gave up and took a shower.

And to end this random post, here's a picture of one of my good friends vacuuming her fiance on the porch.

I gave him a haircut once, and last night she asked if she could come over and borrow my hair clippers to give him a haircut herself. The Yockey way is that after a haircut, you vacuum the hair off of you. It makes you (a little) less itchy, and then you don't shed all over everything until you can shower. I highly recommend it. I vacuum Dan after a haircut even though he showers right after I clip his hair. It's awesome.

(If you look closely, she was super nice and used her hand as a shield so the hose didn't leave marks on him. Also, he's not entirely naked. He's just shirtless. His younger brother and I had a good laugh about this potential problem.)

One-Year Anniversary!

 (This is Dan eating a "man meal"- an entire box of Hamburger Helper, and drinking right out of the pitcher!)

This last Sunday Dan and I celebrated our first year of marriage. A whole year! It's so crazy to think about. Looking back, it's been a year of interesting things, but nothing super eventful, I don't think. Let's see...


We got married on Saturday.
We had Sunday to ourselves.
Dan was back in classes the following Monday.
Dan stayed in class until Thanksgiving. Then we drove and saw both of our families, and had Thanksgiving dinner with Dan's family.
Back to classes.
Drove back home for Christmas. Saw both families again, and spent Christmas Eve with my family. Drove home for New Years.
I started classes as well, so now both of us were going to school.
More classes.
I went to Canada for two weeks with the Symphony Band while Dan stayed at home and worked. (And cried.)
Dan started classes again.
I came home, and resumed classes as well. 
I turned 20 in May, and my family came to visit for my birthday.
Still more classes. 
Helped his older sister move in to her new house in Montana over July 4th weekend; celebrated by throwing poppers in the street.
More classes.
The semester ended. Dan started working full-time instead of part-time while I stayed at home. 
Dan's family came to visit. His younger sister got engaged and went wedding dress shopping while she was here.
Dan works some more.
We spend a week visiting family and friends.
Dan works some more.
Dan turned 25 in August.
I start classes, and Dan starts his working internship.


That's really about it. Not very eventful. Note that there wasn't a spot there that said "Honeymoon in ________." I'm super bummed that we never got a honeymoon! But because the wedding was during the semester, we never really got a chance to go anywhere. It was my dream (besides getting married in the temple)! ...but that's a lament for later (maybe- I haven't decided whether I'll post that blog entry or not).


However, for our anniversary, we had SO much fun! We drove down to the temple, only to find it was closed that day- no sealings for us. We also got curtains for the front window! Nothing super fancy, just something to add some color and homey-ness to the boring blinds. (That's a new word, "homey-ness".) Then we ate dinner at TGI Friday's. It was so yummy! At home again we put up the curtains while listening to the General Relief Society Broadcast (during which Elder Uchtdorf gave a BEAUTIFUL talk, it should still be on the front page of lds.org). Sunday Dan had to spend a good chunk of time at the church doing his ward clerk duties, so I waited for him and made dinner. We had pork and rice, and I had made Oreo truffles the day before so that was dessert.


Now, I know what you're thinking- usually people give gifts on anniversaries, right? Don't worry, we did that too!


Saturday Dan snuck off in the morning and brought home two colors of snapdragons for me!

I love to gently squeeze them and make sound effects like they're talking in little squeaky voices. I've been talking about possibly trying to put snappies in the same pot with Plant, but I don't know if they'll get along.


Sunday afternoon he also revealed another surprise he'd gotten me: A bundt pan!

I'd wanted one because I think that's why the sticky buns I make have come out half doughy and half overcooked. And he got one!


And what did I get him?

That's right. Velveeta. He LOVES the stuff, (no really, he raves about it!) but it's so much cheaper to buy generic macaroni and cheese! So I sneakily purchased a box of it while we were shopping (that's right, I ninja'd that sucker right under his nose!) and that was his gift. He loved it! (And that right there is the difference between men and women. Women get baking pans or jewelry; men get food and desserts.)


We've had a FANTASTIC year together, and we've already learned so much! The only bad thing is that we still haven't sent out thank-you cards from our wedding! Oops! But we'll get them out soon.


I love you SO MUCH, Dan, and I can't wait for another wonderful year together (and many more to come)!

Happy Birthday, Husband!

Yesterday was Dan's birthday! Whenever people in my family have birthdays, we make sure they have what they want for dinner, and there are presents, and cake, and every relative who's nearby shows up. So for Dan's birthday I had a few gifts, and he'd told me he wanted lasagna for dinner and a yellow cake with chocolate frosting.


So I made Deliciousness (oreo truffles) and mixed up his cake, and then turned the oven on to bake said cake... and when I opened it to put the cake in, smoke came out.

I figured it was caused by this mess, which showed up after I baked him sticky buns. So I let the oven cool off, and then I scrubbed and scraped it off with paper towels and a spoon and a washcloth. When it was as clean as I could get it, I let it dry, and then turned it on again.


And it smoked again. So I let it cool, wiped down EVERYTHING, and turned it on again... and it still smoked. So I gave up! And then Dan came home, and I was in tears because I'd battled this oven all afternoon and I didn't have his dinner and his cake made!


BUT... we figured out what to do instead! We gave up on the oven, and rode our bikes down to Little Caesars and got a pizza and breadsticks and a bottle of soda, and balanced it as we rode back. Then we grabbed some card games and a couple of the deliciousnesses for 'cake' and his presents and we went and sat in the park! It was really fun! I still owe him lasagna and cake, but first we have to wait for the maintenance man to come and look at the oven.


I'm glad it worked out! And I hope you enjoy your Nerf gun, since so far I'm your only target... Haha!

Happy Birthday Dan! I love you!

If You Give Your Husband a Haircut...

(It must be summer- he hasn't shaved since before church on Sunday)

...then you're bound to make a mistake here or there. And they're usually large. And very noticeable. Like a shaved spot the size of... Alaska.


Ok, it's not that big, but I'm absolutely mortified.


I don't use scissors when I cut hair... I always cut myself with said scissors, and it takes me over an hour to cut hair that way. Since Dan's hair doesn't sit like a normal person's hair, (it sticks straight up and parting it is out of the question, period,) I just use the razor. I'll use a shorter guard for the back of his head, and a guard that's about a half in longer for the top of his head. Then I'll blend together so it doesn't look like I gave him a bowl cut. Last night I was struggling to get the sides of his head to match (that's how wacky his hair is) and I guess I took the guard off because I was done with it (when I really wasn't) and I saw that I'd missed a spot so I reached around his head and buzz-buzz! I fixed it!


.....until I turned his head back around.........


I wouldn't even feel as bad, not even close, because it's summer and all, but I gave him the haircut because his family is coming to visit on Friday, and I didn't want him to look like a shaggy dog... So now his parents and sister will walk through the door and they'll see him with shorter hair than normal and a shaved spot. A large one. And his hair is very dark and his skin is very white, and so the picture doesn't show that in the light the spot like glows or something...


I'm so embarrassed.....

The Age of the Yockeyites

I have to begin by saying I'm not a native Yockeyite... I married into the family. (Or, as Husband puts it, they imported talent into the family...) While the Yockeyites and my people are different, they are also very similar, being that we are both LDS families and both have a great sense of humor. How Husband and I even ended up together is still a mystery to me... He's crazy smart and a complete computer nerd, and I'm a bit of a dork and a complete music nerd, which goes to show that personality really does hold a lot of importance in a relationship. He's tone-deaf; I'm computer-illiterate (at least by his standards- after all, I figured out how to run a decent-looking blog, no?) So somehow, while we are separated for 8-10 hours a day dutifully studying in our respective fields, we manage to fall in love with each other more and more every day.


So this is the record of the Yockeyites, beginning about 7 months after marriage; their random thoughts, some of my crafts, maybe a thought from Husband here and there, and, ok yeah, a spiritual thought or two. If nothing else, perhaps you can get a good laugh now and then.