10 Happenings

Things that have happened since my last blog post:

1. Harry Potter's birthday party was on Saturday night. As always, it was full of tasty treats and a few people in costumes and more people NOT in costumes. But it was fun, and the ability of my friends to answer HP book trivia was somewhat amazing.

2. I went berry-picking with Lana, but forgot to bring money and so I only got 2$ worth of berries. But that was still a pound of berries.
We used some (along with the apricots we picked off a big free tree) to make raspberry-apricot lemonade which I would highly recommend.

3. Oh, Lana has become engaged.

4. I have had several freak-out incidents concerning the fact that my best friend is now engaged. Many of which are highly selfish. They deal with the following facts (lettered, not numbered - to prevent confusion)
a. I now have a best friend with whom I can discuss all things martial, because she will be married and understand all my gushing and loving, and wantings and snugglings and my want to cook the best dinner for him every night because I love him, and how I love to make a schedule like Ma Ingalls like "Wash on Monday, Iron on Tuesday, Bake on Wednesday" and how I want a baby but am "being unrealistic" and how I want a garden but am lazy and allergic to plants and don't like to get dirty. And she might think I'm silly, but she's silly too and so we understand each other. Which I like.
b. Travis actually likes Matt, which means that he will not complain when I hang out with Lana and be like "I'm a boy, I need friends who are boys. I don't just want to hang out around girls all day." So now when Lana AND Matt come over and Lana and I are like "blah blah blah girl stuff."
They can be like "Cars, hunting, hiking, we are manly and discuss many manly things. Muscles, pooping, sex."
(Boys are gross.)
c. I get to go to California! For the first time in my memory, although I have apparently been there before. (Nobody in my family remembers the trip to Disneyland, but we have pictures. I think they were forged by the FBI after erasing our memories of a sensitive incident. What could have happened on that trip to California that the government SO wanted us to forget?)
Anyway, I get to go to Lana's wedding and Travis and I get to be their photographers. Huzzah!
d. I get to go through the temple with Lana. (I said before I am excited for selfish reasons and this is one especially selfish reason.) Being that Lana is a convert to the church and her Mom is not a member, she needs a best friend who can go to the temple with her the first time she goes... and that person is ME!
e. My other married best friends Cole and Suzie have left me and never ever call me or pretend to remember me. So I shall replace them.
Just kidding.
Lana and Matt have a new married place in my marriage-biased heart. They are not taking the Nielsen's place. I still have the Nielsen's in my heart.... for the time being. They should call me and secure their place more firmly, though.

(moving on)

5. I have practically become an expert at my baby photographing job which is the best job in the world. The only problems?
a. I cannot go in the patients room unless they sign the consents first.
b. The patients do not sign the consents until after the nurses give them to their patients to sign.
c. The nurses do not hand the consents to their patients until after I have harassed them for many hours.
d. I spend many hours waiting at the nurses stations saying things like "What does the mom in room 413 want?" and getting responses like "Oh, I forgot to ask her."

6. I got seriously rained upon.
Those raindrops yesterday were like little bullets!

7. We reinstated dessert-night Wednesdays. So last night Sienna and Amalia came over and I learned the best way to make pudding EVER. Do it like this:
Mix one packet of pudding mix with a can of sweetened condensed milk and 1 1/2 cups of water, and 2 cups of whipped cream.
Gah! You might have a seizure from sugary goodness. Mmmm. Then put it in a bowl and top with sliced bananas and Nilla Wafers. You will not be disappointed.

8. I slept awesomely last night and the reason why is this: It was thunderstormy and chilly. So I snuggled up in a real blanket and Travis let me curl up against his warm body and touch him with out going like this "Nnnnooooo... *moaning sound* It's too hot. Don't touch me. Stop touching me. It's too hot. Turn the fan up more and don't touch me again."
He's quite the bully at night time in the summer time past bed time, when it's so hot that we both nearly die.
But I hate sleeping when I'm hot.
And I hate sleeping without blankets (but one must, in the summer heat.)
And most of all, I hate sleeping over on my side of the bed and not being allowed to snuggle, touch, or remotely harass my husband while he sleeps.

It is my main reason for sleeping poorly.

9. I learned that we are just as broke as we ever were. Amazingly, this came as a shock to me. Here's why:
a. Travis lets me buys things like several cookbooks when I say "Hey, can I buy this cookbook?" (I have to ask for permission, not because he's really bossy or controlling. But because he's the only one who ever looks at our bank account and is the decider of what to buy and not to buy. Maybe I have learned my lesson and will look at my bank account for once.)
b. When Travis said, "Do you want to go out to eat every week for the rest of the month for Friday's date night or get 7 Peaks Passes?" and I yelled "7 Peaks! I hate date night!" (not true, of course. I LOVE date night) he just BOUGHT them. Despite the fact that they were pricey.
c. When he said "Hey can I buy a 300$ lens for my camera that I really want, which is a 28mm, so I know you also really want it?" and said "Umm, I don't know. Can we afford it?" and he said "YES!" so I said "YES!" and so we bought it, and I thought "Can we afford it?" meant "Do we have several bazillion dollars?" but he didn't know that I meant that. So I should be more specific with my questions. But I do love that lens, and it was quite an amazing deal.
d. We can still pay our bills and buy expensive groceries since I have high tastes and lots of "food morals" concerning how my food is made and where it comes from. And when we went to the store to buy me a plain black t-shirt for work and I became distracted by all of the very very many things that I want but do not need Travis said "We'll come back soon and go shopping."
So I was maybe mislead concerning our money.
I mislead myself by not totally understanding money (at all), and believing that two good, nice people like us probably had endless supplies of cash lying around. Despite the fact that we just went on a very expensive trip to Africa and were not paid to go.

10. The tenth happening. The one you've all been waiting for.
I have learned that Travis Pitcher my tall, blond-haired, blue-eyed, handsome, manly, too hot to let me touch him at night, protective, eater of lots of food, and maker of cool documentaries and slam dunker extraordinaire (although he did tell me that its embarrassing to him when I say Slam Dunk because I sound like an 8-year old boy after watching Space Jam and I should just say dunk. Like, "so last night I dunked the ball twelve times in a row.") super extra the best ever husband is... leaving.
Not permanently. But as you may know from previous evenings when he has gone off on film-related business trips (sketchy, right?) I have melt-downs and cryings and cannot fall asleep and am afraid of being home alone without him.
So I am sad because he's leaving tomorrow WAY too early in the morning, so I don't want to take him to the airport, but even if I did want to... we don't have a car. And even if we did I am needlessly afraid of driving from the city by myself.
And he'll be gone all day Friday. And all that night and all day Saturday.
But then he will be home.
So he's only gone one night but Lauren and maybe Lana will spend the night at my house in my bed and I will snuggle with them if they let me because I am a snuggler. I cannot change who I am based on whether or not we are married.
And we will go see Letters to Juliet at the theater because Travis was like "That's a girl movie. Have fun with your girl friends at that movie. I'm bored but I don' t want to see it even though it's only a dollar. I want to eat red meat because I'm a manly man and hate girl movies."

So good riddance to him.
(I am already sad and miss him and he's just at work.)