Yockeyite Banter

While putting groceries away...
Me: Please put the marshmallows with the chocolate chips."
HusbandMan: Are you sure we shouldn't just put them with the regular chips? I mean, you eat them like chips..."


Sitting on the couch...
M: Did you shave today? You're scruffy.
H: ....I'm a real boy! Excuse me while I go drag a razor sharp piece of steel across my face--
M: <laughing> Hooray, you have a five-o-clock shadow!

While traveling in the car... (I must have smacked him or something...)
H: You were like SMITE and I was like SLAIN.... <makes blood spurting noises>

After making a breakfast cake...
M: Look! I only made a tiny mess!
H: What have you done with my wife?

While trying to do homework with Sous Chef (one of my friends up here, she's awesome):
M: Life is strange and unusual.
S: <quietly> punishment...

While talking about particularly bad-for-you desserts...
M: They call it "better than sex cake" but it has coconut in it, and coconut is not better than sex.
S: <horror-stricken>
S and H: <burst out laughing>
M: Did I really just say that?

M: Are we allowed to use the word "sex" on our blog?
H: Well, they have it in the Bible.
S: Usually when it's in the Bible it's called "adultery"...

While Husband Man was trying to kiss attack me, I put my hands up to cover my face...
H: I used to be a lover like you, and then I took a diamond in the teeth...

Sous Chef while cooking bacon...
S: Bacon, bacon, sizzle sizzle, you'd better taste good... for shizzle....??

After looking for something on the top shelf of our closet...
M: My face and my trumpet [case] got in a fight, and my trumpet won.

Texting my baby sister...
S: What if you farted so explosively that the friction from your butt cheeks set your pants on fire?
M (in real life after reading it): . . . . . <evil thought>
M (in text): You should ask [Husband Man] how that goes.
S: He's set his pants on fire? That's so cool!
M: <facepalm>

While waiting for the chiropractor...
M: How's this for my Husband Man muppet face impersonation?
H: You have little wrinkles... frowny dimples...?
M: Frimples!

WOOHOO!!

If anyone knows anything about me, they know that I'm totally done with college and school. I'm still chugging away at it, however, and I'm reaching the end. Husband Man and I are planning on graduating in April.

And I know for a fact that I'll be graduating, because this last Wednesday I stopped by the lead adviser of the Performing Arts and sat down with her for hopefully the last time and figured out what I have to take next semester.

And guess what?

I only have 5 credits of required classes to take next semester.

And it gets better.

Here's the full story:
I go in and sit down with her. When I talked to her last semester, we got everything mapped out and I had about 8 credits to take my final semester. However, to keep from having to take more classes, I wanted to switch to the newest catalog, because it said that my Music History classes could double for World History classes. That wasn't the only change that came with the catalog, however-

It changed the number of total credits that I needed for the degree to 120, and I already have 119 (not including this current semester's credits).

It removed the requirement of a minor/clusters. That meant that I could drop my music cluster without consequence, and the classes I had already accumulated for that cluster were added to the electives for my degree. Those extra classes actually completed my degree, and my adviser turned to me and said in a quiet voice, "You don't have to take any more music classes. ...Did you hear what I just said??" She was just as excited as I am! I've completed my degree! And I don't have to take 7:45AM class if I don't want to!

But I can't graduate quite yet, because I have one last foundation (our gen-ed) class to take. And since that class is required and I'm going to be here anyways, I decided to keep my creative writing cluster since I only had one class left to complete that. I also want to continue organ lessons. That's 6 credits total.

THIS. IS. AWESOME.

I'm seriously considering taking some fun classes. Classes I want to take. The crazy thing is, who ever heard of a music major who got to take extraneous classes? My adviser recommended a basic cooking class, and I'm also considering a basic baking class or another religion class or a sewing class... Or I could take nothing at all besides those 6 credits and just stay part-time. I haven't checked with the financial office, but so long as my adviser is correct I can even still get financial aid- I get half if I take 6 credits, three-quarters if I take 9, and the full thing for 12 credits.

If there's a train wreck coming, I'm ignoring it until it gets here. I'm so excited that my last semester could possibly be fun. It's MY semester.

Take that, college!

F.H.E. Monday #1

So I'm going to start doing an Family Home Evening run of posts, but mostly because I really enjoyed what we did last night for ours!

To be honest, we are really awful about doing FHE. We've been married for two years and I can count on one hand the number of times we've had it. We've heard the counsel, I've felt the impressions that it's so important- one of the biggest ones being, if you can't do it when there's two of you then how will you do it in the future when you have kids and even more responsibilities?- but we've just been plain lazy.

A while ago, while at DI, I found this cute little booklet put out in 2002 called "Family Home Evening for Newlyweds" and it has a TON of cute and fun ideas. There are different topics, some for just the couple, some that would work for groups, some for holidays; some that cost a little money or not money, or little preparation or no preparation... it's really cool!

So last night I decided that it was now or never with FHE, and I grabbed the booklet. I got as far as page nine before I'd found a couple ideas that I wanted to do. Husband Man decided on one, and it was called "Alphabet Soup" (they have super cheesy names, btw):

The idea was very simple- You take a piece of paper and write out the alphabet down one side, and then you think of words to describe your spouse. The book's examples were silly, like "Always smiling" for A and we wanted actual descriptions that began with A like "Awesome" or "Annoying" or whatever. (Disclaimer: I didn't call Husband Man "annoying".) Some of mine for Husband Man were "Book-a-holic" and "Logical" and a few silly things like "Yow Maximus" (that's a name he came up with that he wants to bestow up on one of our future children. Don't worry, I said N-O).

The activity doesn't seem like it would take that long, but we tried to be really creative and so it actually took quite a while! And since I finished first I chose a scripture, Genesis 2:24, that I thought could go along with the activity. When we were both done I read the scripture, and then we sat together and took turns reading them- "I put ____ for A, what did you have?" and so on down the alphabet.

It was super fun because it got my brain thinking, and it made me respect and appreciate my husband even more as I tried to think up a ton different and creative ways to describe him and tell him how I appreciate him- in only a word or two.

I love  my goober of a husband!

Homework Ate My Life

You want a blog post? You want a blog post?

This is all you're getting. Sorry.

Oh, ok, fine. Stop pouting. Here-

My siblings are awesome.

This is me all the time.

Oh my- I've resorted to putting internet cat pictures on the blog. I'd better go drag Husband Man out of bed so we can go to the dentist. (That's his most favoritest place on the earth by the way, I'm sure he will just pop out of bed when I mention it.)

I really need to leave now before something else bad happens.

There is a little bit about what's going on if you go here (and maybe here if you're extra bored) and I have a post almost completed of random funny conversations we've had, but otherwise... yes. Night shifts and homework. And the dentist. The end.

Second Anniversary

Hooray! Husband Man and I have been married for two years! (Almost exactly- we were in the temple right about this time!!)

I'm sure we've all had those times when there's a day that we've been looking forward to for forever, and then it doesn't turn out at all the way you wanted it to.

I'm having one of those days. Or couple of days.

I decided to skip organ masterclass yesterday so I could get a bunch of homework done, which sort of backfired on me. I have a large-ish project coming up where I need to harmonize a tune to be arranged and played by a string quintet. This can be tedious, but I forgot we had it because the teacher never announced it in class. So I was going to get a head start on it yesterday, but the piano lab that I needed to do my project was closed for two hours in the name of FHE. While I appreciate the intention, it was not helpful or practical. I tried to get other homework done, and now I have to do the entire thing today after classes.

What makes it worse is that Husband Man has been telling me for the last two weeks he has something planned for our anniversary. Since we got married during the semester and didn't get a honeymoon, this really means a lot to me. He told me yesterday would be a good day to do it, but the homework fiasco prevented it. So we arranged for it to be done today, after I work on my project, but I don't know how long my project will take and I still have other homework. And on top of that I didn't sleep that great last night, so I was zoning out hardcore in my 9AM class this morning, and when I got to my English class I realised that I'd forgotten an assignment.

Today is going to be difficult. Someday I hope I can celebrate my anniversary...

Yockeyites Are Getting Healthier

I couldn't think of a better title. This is totally going to turn people away. BUT DON'T! This is so cool!

So we've been married for almost two years, and we aren't very good at doing things we probably should. Cleaning the house? We vacuum before people come over... Which isn't often. Fruits and veggies? Here and there. Exercise? Not really. We're even really bad at drinking water!

Well, I got sick of this. I wanted us to get into better habits. Yeah, we're college students, we can't do everything, but we knew we could do something. And I really felt like if we tried hard to do better then we would be blessed.

So I sat down with Husband Man and we made a chart. We started with a list of things that we need to do daily, such was waking up on time, reading scriptures, morning prayer, how much water we drank, one fruit and one veggie, exercising, tidying up the house, brushing your teeth, doing homework, and going to bed on time. Then we made a list of things we wanted to do weekly, such as going to the temple, FHE, washing the dishes (3x a week), vacuuming, and sweeping. The next list was for things that could be done twice a month, which for us was doing laundry and washing the sheets. The last list we did were things we felt we could do once a month, which included things like dusting, deep cleaning the bathroom (instead of just wiping down surfaces), and mopping.

By the time we completed the lists we felt it was something we could do, even with our busy schedules. So now we write our first initials on the line, and every day we fill out what we got done. Some days are better than others, but it's become kind of fun to try and see how much I can get done that day. It looks like a lot, but most of them don't take that long. It reminds us to add veggies to meals, to grab a banana on the way out, to keep hydrated, and to get up on time.

The best part is that I can tell the difference. I haven't dozed off in class, even though some nights I don't sleep well because Dan's gone on night shifts all the time. I'm alert and feel like I'm absorbing more information. I feel better about myself, I feel like I have enough energy to get through my day. It's just better in general!

SO! Challenge yourself! You probably don't need something as detailed as we have- or maybe you do- but just take a moment and sit back and analyze your life. What are you struggling with? What goals can you set? Try to get a friend or a spouse in on it too, and do it together. Hold yourself accountable to someone else- my mom and I have been texting each other every day to ask if we exercised that day. If I can do it, so can you!

And if you want to know how you can make your own chart on excel, comment or message me or whatever and I'll have Husband Man write out how he did it. I know it wasn't difficult. Same thing if you want to see ours as an example.

(I know what you're thinking. "This isn't what we thought we were going to get! You promised summer photos and stupid song lyrics!"
Yeah, I know. Get over it. Those posts are coming. I was just so excited about this! I'm making my life better!)

Behold... The Power of Music

First of all, Happy Labor Day!

Secondly...

I was in middle school when I joined the music program and learned to play the trumpet (among other instruments). I remember going door-to-door selling junk out of a catalog so that our band could raise money to buy things like chairs and rental instruments so that everyone who wanted to could participate. In middle school, the school administration built (another) gym off of the building. When I was in high school, they renovated (or something) the current gym when we could really have used an actual theater for the fine arts department to use. I was part of the fight to keep music in schools- I wore homemade buttons, I went to meetings and wrote letters to administrators. It seems to have worked thus far...

But had I known about this wonderful clip, I bet I could have convinced any administration about the importance of (good) music in our society. Here is about what my presentation would have been (in my special, non-eloquent way):

Hello, administrators. It has come to my attention that you have been considering the possibility of removing the music programs from your schools. Let me ask you this- Do you watch movies? Surely you've gone to the theaters and been surrounded by the noise that makes up a movie, that penetrates into your center and draws you in to the action, the emotions, the drama! Part of that noise is the music that goes with it. The music helps to shape the movie, is an inseparable part of it.

If you still aren't convinced, perhaps this clip will help...

If you still aren't convinced, please review my presentation before you go to bed tonight. Thank you.

 To be fair, I suppose this clip more supports media, but music is an integral part of it, so I say it works.

I know we haven't been around during our seven-week summer, but don't leave me! I have a bunch of good posts pending, including one about what we did during the summer and one about ridiculous song lyrics in today's pop culture....