Easy Money?

I love being married. I love my husband. And I think our life is pretty darn awesome.

However, I do not love being poor.

Conversation of the Week:

Wife: "Hey do you think if we have any extra money I could buy a new shirt for school or something?"

Husband: "Not unless you get a second job."

End of conversation.

Later that day in French class I witnessed a miracle. Yes, a true and everlasting miracle.

My professor passed around a sign up sheet to take French tests for money.

I didn't even read the fine print before I signed up.

But I should have.

Tuesday-Friday of this week from 5:00 PM - 9:00 PM I'm taking voluntary French tests. So far it's been awful working 8-5 everyday and going straight to testing for FOUR hours every night, but I'm keeping my eye on the prize.

THE PRIZE: $275 cold, hard, buy-a-new-shirt-for-school-when-you're-poor cash.

Sure I have to listen to a monotone French woman talk my ear off endlessly each night, but my friend Fifi can't stop me from taking that money and running - not driving or taking the bus. But running to the last day of the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale (August 3) to get the cheaper prices.

And by the way, all my suffering is worth way more than a stinkin' shirt. So I found a coat.

My black winter coat from my sophomore year of high school died last year. It had a good life, but when the fashion wears out and so do the armpits, you've got to find love in the arms of new black, cuter than cute, complete with ruffles and huge buttons, black winter coat.

Here she is:

So I've really been wanting to do some home projects to make our apartment a little more personal. Plus we needed some color so I decided to make some shelves (with Nick's help obviously) and some picture frames.

So I found brackets for the shelves and then we went to Lowe's and bought wood, paint, and screws and went home and made our shelves. I have some different colored brackets but they aren't here yet, so we've only made one shelf. It looks a little lonely on the wall, but hopefully in a couple weeks it will look nice with both of them up there.

I also made some picture frames this weekend to match our living room/family room/dining room/den. Its all one room, but Nick and I have divided it all into four parts to make our apartment "feel" bigger... so far it seems to be working.

Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen

I'm dramatic. Its an obvious trait of mine since...forever, or so I'm told. I have often thought if there were anyone else more dramatic than me. I can think of one person.
My sister Darel.
Darel, my cousin Sam, and Haley Curtis all stayed at my house this weekend and I'd like to share what I learned.
1. Teenage girls only eat after midnight. It's like they aren't hungry all day and then once twelve o' clock hits they are starving.
2. I have horrible taste in snacks.
3. Three teenage girls in Utah for one week = 12 suitcases, 17 pairs of shoes, 3 hair straighteners, and more clothes than I've ever seen in my life. (I'm not complaining about the last one, I know I've got my own shopping addiction to combat)
4. Never trust the directions of your sister who says "I looked online and I know where you are supposed to take me for EFY." She will always be wrong and you will be late for work.
5. If you are the married older sister you will always be "not cool and a total loser."
6. 9 AM is extremely early and it takes more than 2 hours to pick out "EFY outfits."
7. When you are almost 22 years old, do NOT take your sister and cousin to EFY. The EFY counselors will think you are sixteen and will try to a) take your temperature to see if you have swine flu, b) try to slap a wristband on you, or c) ask if you are lost and point you towards the dorms.

Darel and Sam "accidently" told me to take them to Shipp Hall where all the boys at EFY are staying. Coincidence? I think not. Once I finally got them to EFY they were much too happy to get out of my car. However, I know they will both have a great time and I can't wait to spend time with them next weekend! I hope they stay with me more often! Nick however may have some different opinions about 16 year old girls.

Accio Harry!

You better believe this invitation was addressed to the Jordans! Well, one half of the Jordans. Nick received this email at work and thanks to our marital status I can mooch off my husband.

I wish I could explain how completely excited I am for this opportunity.

If only the cast were going to be there I could hug Ronald Weasley myself.

I have often dreamt of being a witch. Chanting spells and flying on broomsticks. I feel at times I could have out-smarted Snape better than Harry himself. And now I finally get the chance to live all my daydreams at a private showing of Harry Potter!

Thank goodness for awesome husbands.

Patron of the TUNES

My wonderful husband who works so dilligently to provide for our family recently asked me a question that went something like this:
Nick: "Hey, can you burn me a CD for work tonight?"
Me: "I would love to. What kind of music do you want?"
Nick: "Anything, as long as its not any of your weird stuff. You have a lot of weird music."
Me: "Uh...sure."

I must confess I was at first very hurt and slighty disturbed by my dear spouse's comment. I have often taken pride in my excellent and innovative music selection. A patron of the tunes if you will. I have everything from Bach to Beck! How could I be one of those "weird music listeners?"

I thought the initial shock of my husband's comment would wear off, but unfortunately it did not. I decided to go through my itunes and see if what he claimed was true. The A's and B's looked great - awesome in fact. Except for the Ace of Base CD. My content did not last long - for I reached the unthinkable C's. I came across Celine Dion, who in my opinion is probably in the top ten greatest artists of all-time. As I came across Celine Dion, I realized that I had to scroll down to view all my "favorite songs." Despite my better judgement, I counted my Celine Dion songs.

A Whopping 37.
Nope - missed one. That would be a whopping 38.
I bet most of you didn't know that Celine Dion even had 38 songs.
Well she does. Many in French as well.

I wondered if this was the root of my husband's "issues" with my music. I continued on and realized that Celine Dion was by far my most popular artist and 3 of her songs were in my top 25. I guess walking to work listening to "I'm Alive" everyday has taken its toll on my playlists. Close behind however was James Taylor at 25 and Enya at 22.

A part of me wants to forget my Celine obsession never happened. But as a true patron of the tunes (FYI patron means "boss" in french) I feel it would be against everything I have been taught by Celine's words. She has helped me make many a decision in my life - especially in the department of dating. My husband might shudder at this comment, but even he must admit - he fell for the Celine Dion anticts.

I sat in my bed pondering at my music selections, wondering if my husband was truly mistaken.

I decided this:

Celine Dion is so great in fact - that she is her own genre. The Celine Dion genre includes basically all Celine Dion (Except "My Heart will go on." Even that is too corny for a C.D. lover like me) anything Whitney Houston (Minus the Preacher's Wife Soundtrack), and "Take my Breath Away" by Berlin. While many may argue that this is not, in fact a genre of music - they are wrong. And I'm sure those people listen to any assortment of the C.D. genre on their way to work, jogging, or perhaps even cooking dinner.

So in response to my sweet husband's most honest comment, I will accept my roll as ultimate Patron of the tunes in order to promote great quality music for the rest of my life.