Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Do you know what else today is? One of my Facebook friends had something up about it. I was glad for the reminder.

More Weekend

I think I've just been talking about weekends lately - and that's what I'm going to do again tonight. Don't be too bored. Things should become more varied soon because in one week (fanfare, please) NaBloPoMo starts, and I will try to do it again. And I guess I've just had some pretty awesome weekends lately, so I just keep writing about them. This weekend was no different.

It started with me taking Friday off of work, so I could drive to another city and spend way too much money at a Brazilian steakhouse in celebration of the birthday of a former roommate. The food was good, and it was nice to be able to celebrate with a friend. (P.S. It was also my brother's and cousin's birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!) From there, a roommate took me to the temple, where I met up with the Boy. After our time there, we went to his brother's house, where we were going to connect with the family and go to a trunk-or-treat together. We beat them to their own house, but they soon showed up. Boy's brother has a big family - 7 KIDS!! Can you believe it? And there's another one on the way. So chaos commenced as the kids and parents got dressed up. Eventually, everyone was mostly ready and we left. After a yummy meal of chili and corn bread/rolls, sister-in-law suggested we divide up the kids amongst us and conquer, which is what we did. That night, with most of the kids in bed, the adults played Settlers of Catan - not my fave, but it was pretty laid back and nice. Boy and I read the next chapter in The Horse and His Boy, and I went to bed - they made one of the nephews give up his room for me ("If you smell anything in there, it will probably be Axe and deodorant. He's in that phase right now.") - how nice of him, yes?

What with there being so many children, I figured I wasn't going to get many hours of sleep before the noise recommenced in the all-too-soon-to-come morning. However, I managed to stay in bed until 8:00-ish. Not bad. When I went downstairs, I found breakfast and children, and Boy making bread (he's domestic like that). After the kids did their chores, we went to a festival thing at some gardens, which was fun. Part of the festivities involved a hay (or no hay, depending on the vehicle) ride to a pumpkin patch (which was really a field they put a bunch of pumpkins in and then pretended like it was a patch). It was a lot of fun. I really like the family. They were nice, and it was easy to feel comfortable with them.

After that, we went to my sister's place and visited with her and her husband for a little bit. Then we all went to my other sister's place, where I got to see that sister and her husband briefly (they had a date that night). And I got to see my niece! Besides the two that left, the rest of us went and picked up pizza and fruit and went to the park. My niece was mostly interested in the strawberries. After dinner, we let her slide and swing, and then we went back to her place, and Boy and I drove home and read another couple of chapters of the book. What a terrific weekend! Now I have to deal with AIMS this week - uggh!

30th Birthday!

Well, if anyone thought that The Spinster Chronicles wasn't quite an appropriate title for my blog before, they couldn't deny it now because I just had my 30th birthday. And what a lovely birthday it was. I had a bunch of girls over - did I already tell you this? - and we DANCED. It was so much fun, and I was totally sore a couple of days later, which means I should probably do that more often. It was mostly a girl party, which is not like me, but it was great. A few, select boys came later, and they were very welcome. My roommate made my traditional German chocolate cake, which was delicious. Since then, my coworker brought in a red velvet cake for me, which was also scrumptious!
Then came the more planned part to my birthday - a cruise! A roommate suggested it several months back, we planned it, and four of us girls took off a week ago Saturday. We spent a couple of nights at my uncle's. He dropped us off at the Long Beach Pier on Monday, and after slowly making our way through the security line, we finally made it on the boat. We spent the week sleeping a lot (glorious!), eating a lot, dancing, watching the ocean, and just relaxing. We walked around Catalina Island, which was beautiful. We went to La Bufadora in Ensenada, Mexico, and spent money at the flea market. It was great! My aunt picked us up on Friday. Then we made our way to San Diego and Balboa Park, which is one of my most favorite places on earth. We spent the night with my parents and came back home on Saturday. It was a terrific week, and now it's back to reality - what a great opportunity to relax and celebrate, eh?

Communication Between the Sexes

First of all, the earth-shattering news is that I'm dating someone. I guess I have been, but I just didn't know it, which leads to the title of the post. A couple of Wednesdays ago, I met up with the boy for a little DTR. Boy tells me, "I'm just trying to get to know you right now," which was slightly exasperating because I felt like we'd been on enough dates to kind of figure out if we were going to date - and to continue to get to know each other - or not. However, I had been on the I-don't-want-to-date-him page only days before, so I figured it was fair and I would just have to be patient and wait for him to decide if he wanted to date me or not. Not only that, but not dating was kind of convenient because a good friend of mine had asked if he could take me on a real date sometime, and since Boy told me he might go out with this girl that some people are trying to set him up with, I was at total liberty to go out with my friend (which I did). Since that time, we've spent a ton of time with each other, and I feel like he's treated me like he's dating me. I mean, he bought me a tree for my birthday - doesn't that mean something?? :)
This evening I was talking to him on the phone, and something comes up about him not being able to invite girls over or something, and so I replied something like, "Why not? We're not dating." To which he replies that he thinks we are, or something. What?? So we had a fun conversation about how he's not dating anybody else, and he tells people we're dating. I don't know how I was supposed to get that out of what he had said before, but oh well. I know now. Communicating with boys - good times.

General Conference Weekend

General Conference is the best! I love it! I love that I can watch it at home - the only problem is that I seem to forget that my laptop will inevitably be unable to connect to the internet when I first try on Saturday morning, and thus I never give myself enough time to connect. This means that we missed Pres. Monson's opening address; I'm glad that I can still watch it online or read it in the Ensign. The other usual problem didn't happen this time, for which I am very grateful. My laptop usually overheats - at least, I think that's the problem. Therefore, we have learned to hook up Roommate's laptop to the t.v. and not mine. However, her laptop isn't working at the moment. So, I stuck an ice pack under my laptop, hoping it would keep it cool enough - I don't know if that's what did it, but lappy didn't fail, so we did get to watch the 7 hours and 45 minutes of Conference that it was connected for - YES!!

It's just great knowing that we have a prophet today who receives revelation from God. It's great knowing that God does not change. We can trust Him, as Elder Eyring discussed today. He is not who we create Him to be, rather He created us, and when we follow His plan for us we are blessed.