"I don't want that spider in my house!"

I HATE spiders!!! I have often been quoted as saying, "I don't want THAT spider in my house." After which Joseph usually says, "what spider do you want in your house?" Today as I sat in my living room, happily working on my computer I glance over my shoulder out the window only to see this:

I immediately jumped up and ran to Joseph begging him to take care of the problem clinging to my window. He said he would take care of it in a while so I sat back down at my table and tried to work. Have you ever tried to work next to a black widow spider? Now granted the spider was on the outside of the window and I was on the inside, but "I don't want THAT spider in my house!" After about 30 seconds this wild beast's long black legs started to move and I began to pester Joseph again to take care of the problem. After about 10 minutes of me following him around the house ranting and raving that no work could be done until such problem was dead and shriveled upon it's ugly black and red self he took this:

outside to spray down our window wells until they were bug free. I pulled up the blinds and coached him on where to spray and how much to spray, while being protected behind the single pane of glass separating me from THAT spider. Once the spider was deceased I motioned through the window that Joseph could return inside.

Ahhhhhh, problem solved, work is now getting done. (Special sorry to Joseph for having to brave the wild beast alone. Next time I'll try to help you.)

What to Blog

I read my friend's blogs on almost a daily basis and laugh my guts out at their funny adventures. And then I sit quietly and think. . . ."I wish I had something exciting that I could blog about." And then I think over the last few months of my life and realize that if I just would sit down everyday and think about what I'd done I could come up with some pretty funny things:

Spilling stain in the back of my in-law's Tahoe and then spending 3 hours cleaning it out and 4 weeks trying to air out the smell.

In-laws cat pooping in the house and burying it with shoes (it's what cats do, they bury their doo)

Fist fight breaking out at work (intramural flag football - I was supposed to call campus police but I just stood there with my mouth open and drool dripping from my chin. . . oops!)

Leaning out the car windows on I-15 trying to get the attention of Bobby Bowden (FSU's football coach) with no success and then calling everyone we know to tell them that we saw Bobby Bowden.

The list could go on and on. I guess what I'm trying to say is my new resolve is to blog at least once a week. It's kinda like flossing. . . it hurts the first time you do it, it might even bleed a little, but over time it gets better and better and soon you actually start liking it.

Pead Out!!

This year our garden has exploded!! We planted 2 small rows of peas and they took over everything. Today we decided to pick all of the peas that remained and tear out the plants so that our poor tomato plants could have some room to breath. We picked so many peas we didn't know what to do with them all, and we are so sick of eating peas that we decided we be good homemakers and freeze what remained of the peas. Here is a photo shoot of my peas.

Peas!!

Blanching the peas!

Almost done blanching!

Bagged and ready to freeze!

And a lovely red cabbage we grew!

Silicone. . . yes please!

Tonight I made some banana bread, using some silicone bakeware I got for my wedding 2 years ago. Sadly it was the first time I've used it. . . but not the last! It is amazing.

We have once again been screwed over by the UVU parking services morons. Allow me to elaborate. Just before the end of school Jen and I received a letter in the mail kindly stating that the school that we had just finished paying $10,000 in tuition to was requiring more money from us in the form of a parking ticket. This is strange for multiple reasons.

A. The letter in the mail was the first we had heard of this as we had received no prior notification of a parking infraction such as a slip of paper under our wiper or a notice on our window.

B. We had tried to avoid this very thing by buying a parking pass for $85 at the beginning of the semester assuming that this allowed us to park in the parking lot.

Not only were we being charged for parking but we were being charged a LATE FEE for this phantom ticket we had never heard about. Needless to say Jen's eyes blazed in that way they do right before I know I should make myself scarce and she grabbed me by the arm and up to the school we went. After stopping outside the door to slap shoulder pads and butt helmets we entered like a whirlwind daring anyone to look at us sideways. After we "explained" our case to the girl at the front desk in the obscenely low cut shirt and burned through acres of bureaucratic red tape we were finally seated in front of a corpulent woman with the worn look of a woman that has had to listen to copious amounts of complaints about a school bent on gleaning every ounce of monetary substance from their hardworking students. We lit into her about as nicely as the confederates on Fort Sumter. After hearing our complaint she stuttered over her keyboard evidently trying to find the reason we had been ticketed. After researching out the cause of our distress she unwisely said, "What I am seeing here is that your parking pass was put too high up on your windshield." Since the full weight of this statement can not be put into words I have drawn a picture.

Now I think you can see why that statement caused us to become further incensed. We exploded. She said that her poor parking cronies had had to look ALL OVER OUR WINDSHIELD to find our parking pass. We accused her of hiring blind idiots. She told us that her people shouldn't have to search all over everyone's windshield to find a parking pass. We accused her of hiring lazy idiots. We threw everything we had at the fat lady but evidently she had been trained by Satan and was unyielding so being powerless to alter our situation we paid the ticket and left in a flurry of swear words and idle threats.

Today is Thursday June 25th 2009. We have just barely gotten over this nefarious confrontation. We decided it would be good idea to check up on our classes to make sure we are all signed up the way we're supposed to be. I logged on with very little trouble and found that my classes are ready to go. Jen on the other hand found a hold on her transcript which has caused one of her classes to be dropped. A class that is now full that she registered for a month ago. Guess what caused the hold. Yep an unpaid parking ticket. The same parking ticket unjustly distributed to us before. Part of me is hoping that a less sane person than I would burn the parking services building to ashes and the other part of me is hoping that the parking services building is not burned down because in the event of arson I have now written a blog that would make me the primary suspect, however, all of me is hiding in the back room of my apartment until Jen stops throwing things.

Two years. . .

Well two years have come and gone. I must admit the second year has been a lot more fun than the first. Here is a glimpse into our last two years together. . .

Our honeymoon in South Carolina!

Frozen after snowboarding.

Trick-or-treating (with Whitney of course).

Cheering on BYU at the Las Vegas Bowl (thanks for taking the picture Joseph).

Being silly.

Babysitting the in-laws cat, a whole different story in itself.

Mountain biking trip in Fruita Colorado (this is when I finally started enjoying mtn. biking).

Getting ready for the Clemson game.

For those who had a vested interest

Well so you have it. The long locks have bit the dust. Tis a sad day.

This is 2 weeks before i cut it. Jen thought it would be funny to dress me up like a little dutch girl. At least she thought it was funny.

And this is what it looks like now. Hope you're happy mom!