Believe it or not, I will miss this place

When Kevin was applying to law schools, BYU was not at the top of either of our lists. We had both just spent about 5 years at BYU doing our undergraduate degrees, and we were ready to move on. But then based on the schools Kevin got accepted to and the monetary incentives (scholarships are wonderfully persuasive), he decided to attend BYU, and I decided to stay with him.
We never wanted to stay in Utah permanently, and now it appears that 9 years (on and off) is as permanent as it has gotten. We're moving to Idaho in a couple weeks, and I'm finding that I will actually miss a few things about this place. ;) No, there are many, many, many wonderful people we will miss, but here are a few of the other random things I'll miss.

I will mis my garden. This is a picture of my irises we planted along the driveway. You'll notice that 99% of my irises are of the ugly, brown-and-maroon variety. I think they're disgusting. Then right in the middle, there is this genetic mutation of a gorgeous, white-and-lilac colored iris. It has ruffled petals and will soon be moved to a spot of honor, not just the edge of the driveway.

I will miss having a laundry line. I love to hang out my clothes and especially my sheets, as the dryer just wads them up and pretends to dry them. Boo! This is a picture of some used clothes I got for Penelope, framed by our beautiful blossoming apple tree. I'm going to miss this place!

Just a month ago, Kevin and I took our first hike up Slate Canyon, which starts about 200 yards from our house. I can't believe we've lived here 3 years and haven't made that hike before. Apparently once you get past this area and up into the mountains it's even more gorgeous. But those of you who have been keeping track will remember that I was 6 months pregnant last month, and I did NOT make it further than this up the mountain. And those of you who have ever gone hiking with me before might know that even if I weren't 6 months pregnant, I probably wouldn't have had the desire to hike to the top. I'm just not that into hiking. Sometimes.

We plan on exploring Boise when we get there, and not waiting until a month before we leave.

Memorial Day. I never knew what this holiday was for, except as a day off of school. But in Utah, it is a day when you go decorate the graves of your ancestors and loved ones. We live just up the hill from the Provo cemetary, and it turns from being a grassy field to this: a crazy field where a flower shop must have just unloaded itself. I guess it makes sense in a community that values family and genealogy, but still, it amuses me every year. I have a great-grandfather buried in Orem. This year I thought about going to decorate his grave. But I didn't. Good thought, though.

Packing

We're moving in a couple weeks, and so slowly but surely we are packing up our things. Kevin's not working this month, and he's done a lot of it so far. He packs the things like books and decorations that we don't use very often but still "need" to keep. He's done a really good job so far of packing things that I don't even notice are gone now. I mean, today I felt like reading one of my Harry Potter books, but I couldn't. That's about as bad as it's gotten.
Then enter me.
I decided to pack up some stuff to be helpful too. I packed up my chile ristra, and there was room in the bottom of the box, so I put some of my spices. I put all sorts of labeling on the outside of the box telling people to put it upright, but just to be safe, I only packed the spices that came in plastic bottles.
Unfortunately, that included my chile powder.
I don't know about you guys, especially my fellow New Mexicans, but I can't cook without chile powder! I made fajitas tonight, and while they were good, they were decidedly not spicy. When I make spaghetti, I usually add some just for kick. Everything I make has little red flecks in it because of my love of chile powder.
And now I have to go TWO WEEKS without it! AAgggghhhh! We'll see how long I can take it before I go rip open the box that I'd so carefully taped and labeled.... I'll try to hold out.

And in other exciting news...

I set up a drip system in our yard. I still have lines to connect, but it already waters all the important bits of the yard. I meant to work on it today, which would have been especially nice since the weather is cool and beautiful. But knowing I have Monday off, there was very little I could do to motivate myself to get outside.
No, that's not true. We ate dinner out on the lawn. That's how I know it's such a beautiful day.
There are still 3 more hours of daylight, and there's a possibility I may go work. But not much of one.
What I HAVE been doing today is trying to weed through my fabric collection. Kevin packed (most of) my fabric, and it filled up three huge boxes. In our new, one-room apartment in Boise, we will NOT have room for it all, and I need to go through and weed it. One thing I'm doing is with all the little scraps, I just cut them into squares, either 6" or 3". If it doesn't make a square of those sizes, I toss the rest of it. It's really cool, because when my fabric is in squares, I actually use it. Imagine that! Actually using fabric!
And I have a blanket or two (or like seven) that need to be finished up and given away. I might keep some of them, but I know two of them that are on their way to being given away. And that will clear up some room. I don't know that I'll get it down to the 2-3 small boxes that I've allotted myself. But we'll see.
Either way, with all these squares, I'm excited to start some new projects--once we've moved and gotten settled.
And here's something I'm pretty excited about: I've mentioned (i.e., you're probably sick of hearing about) my friend Aprilynne's book, Wings. Well, I've had so much fun following her book's little journey, and it's exciting to me to hear good news about it. And I can only imagine how exciting it is for Aprilynne, especially when this happens! Um yes, that's the NY Times Bestseller list. And yes, last week it was #6 under "Chapter Books." And um, yes, that's Wings at the NUMBER ONE SPOT!!!
Now, I just think that is so cool! I can only imagine how she must be feeling, how excited and maybe even overwhelmed she must be. It's FREAKING AWESOME!
And with that bombshell, it's time for me to go cut some more fabric squares. :)

Hmmm

I've had a lot of boring things to write about lately, but thankfully you didn't get to hear about them.
I was going to tell you about Cranford, this BBC series I've been watching and enjoying. Kevin thinks it's boring, but I think it's cute. And the books were probably written with about as much compelling plot as Middlemarch (read: things happen but nothing actually does), but since I am watching it on a movie instead of reading it, Cranford is quite fun.
It has a cast of all my favorite BBC folks, including the guy who played Willoughby in Sense and Sensibility. However, since that movie is now like 15 years old (!), he's all wrinkly and greying at the temples. So... not as dashing. But he's not supposed to be, so it's okay.
And that's my update on Cranford.
In more recent news, I read this article today that made me cry I was laughing so hard. Well, technically I was sitting in work trying to be quiet and not laugh, which made it even funnier.
See, there was this guy at BYU who must have been majoring in some sort of humanities-related field. I like to imagine it was something kooky like Eastern European Languages or Sci-Fi novel writing. Either way, he fit the stereotype. No matter what time of day or time of year, I would see him in the Humanities building wearing sandals, shorts, big glasses, and one of three wolf T-shirts. One was blue, one was purple, and there was probably another one. They had these really naturey, pastoral (well, as pastoral as you can get with wolves) scenes of nature and wolves, and that's what he ALWAYS wore!
And so this article made my day!

Psarkles

My niece, Rachel, just turned 4, and for her birthday she got a new black kitten. We went over to celebrate with her family last night, and I spent the whole time holding her cat, who she named Psarkles.
That's how Rachel deals with these darned compound consonants. She's kind of ksared of psiders, and when I make cookies, she asks if she can help tsir it. It's really fun to try and figure out what she's saying.
She's really nice to her kitten. Well, as nice as a 4-year-old is. She picks it up a bit too much by the neck sometimes, and she makes it kiss her dollies, whether it wants to or not. Poor little thing! I love kittens, and if we weren't having a new baby in July, and if we weren't moving into an apartment where two cats might be a bit of a problem anyway, and if I didn't think two cats is PLENTY, I might just want to keep her.

More apartment stuff

Since I know everyone is FASCINATED, I want to put a bit more info about my new apartment.
I was saying it was in a really nice area of town, and this is some info I found about our neighborhood (well, the main street by our apartment-ville).
"Warm Springs is centered around the tree-lined Warm Springs Avenue and contains some of Boise's largest and most expensive homes (many of which were erected by wealthy miners and businessmen around the turn of the 20th century; Victorian styles feature prominently). The area gets its name from the natural hot springs that flow from Boise's fault line and warm many of the homes in the area."
Thank you, Wikipedia.
Kevin's work is only a mile from our house, and the hospital is about halfway between our house and Kevin's work. While this doesn't mean I'll be walking there when the big moment comes, it does mean instead of a 15-minute grueling drive across town, stopping at traffic lights and generally being uncomfortable and impatient, it will be a 2-minute drive of the same nature. Kevin might still like me by the end of it. (I am not the most patient passenger anyway.)
And about our apartment: if I can get a doctor's note, we can keep our cats. I'm not sure what this note is supposed to say, but I'm willing to admit that it would be emotionally traumatizing at this delicate time in my life to be parted from them. I could also say that since I am leaving everything and everyone I know, it will benefit my emotional health to have these companion animals. Basically, the apartment manager doesn't care; I just need a note from a doctor. And I think almost everyone in the complex had pets anyway.
And everyone that comes to Boise better come see me. As I just mentioned, I really don't know anyone up there, and I'll love seeing my friends. And keeping my cats. But I find I can have more intellectual conversations with my friends than my cats, so I really hope you'll remember to come visit me!
Now that I'm sure you're sick of hearing about my new future apartment and my pets, I'd like some of your thoughts. Kevin and I keep vacillating between liking the upstairs apartment and the downstairs apartment, both of which will be available in the beginning of June. I know we'd like either one, and there are small inconveniences about each one. So what are your thoughts?
We may just leave it up to chance, saying we'll be happy to move into whichever one is open first.

Upstairs:
Pros:
Better view of trees and gardens outside
Railing to put tomato plants against
Fewer neighbors
Cons:
Stairs to climb while pregnant and then again with baby.
Will need lots of help getting piano up-- or professional piano movers ($$).

Downstairs:
Pros:
Not as many stairs to climb trying to get baby, laundry, groceries, and/or piano upstairs.
Still get decent view of gardens
Cons:
Noise from upstairs neighbors
Neighbors on every side who get to hear baby cry
Not as much light

Boise, there we were!

Ever since I've started telling people we were moving to Boise (last year sometime), all I've ever heard about the place was pretty positive: It's a great city, you'll love it; the winters and summers are milder than Utah's; there is a lot to do and great bike paths. I had pretty high expectations going in...


And I loved it! Absolutely and entirely!


Here's the weekend rundown;


Kevin had done a ton of research about apartment complexes, narrowing down our choices to a few spots. We went to Idaho on Friday and looked at the 5 apartments Kevin had chosen. They were all pretty close to downtown where Kevin will be working, but some were lovely and some weren't. After going to all 5, we decided to go with the 2nd place we visited. It was initially recommended to us by a friend in our Provo ward, whose parents live in that area.


This apartment complex is a mile from Kevin's work, meaning he can ride his bike-- or even walk-- whenever he wants. It's right by downtown, but the area is residential and pretty quiet. There are several apartment complexes around, but just around one corner is a street full of classy, old homes. And around another corner is a big park. We're pretty close to the river, and it's just very beautiful in that part of town.


The actual apartment is pretty much average. It's smaller and more apartment-like than our idyllic cottage we're currently living in, but we knew that would be the case. It's a 1-bedroom, so we'll have to pare down our things. But we have a lot of things that we don't use, and a few things (fabric, books) are becoming so plentiful they're becoming clutter. So it will be a good exercise in simplified living.


I'm putting up the pictures we took. It's kind of hard to get a good picture of what a room looks like when all you have is empty floors and empty walls and no reference points. But here is what we have. Feel free to tell me how lovely it is-- or will be once we've moved in.

This is the tiny kitchen that actually has a dishwasher. Yay! And a dining area (the only one we looked at that did.

And I think this next one is the bedroom with one of the closets open and then a view into the bathroom. These pictures really give no reference to how big or small the place is. They just show a corner here and there. But I was really taking the pictures so I could compare the apartments as we looked at them throughout the day, and they worked well for that.

And they say this handsome, pensive fellow comes with the place-- but only as a move-in incentive specially for me. I think I'll take it!



The following picture is the outdoor view of our apartment. I think we've decided to take the upper corner one. It's quieter, with no upstairs neighbors and really only 2 neighbors total, instead of 3 like a middle apartment would have. We also have a better view of the yard and garden area, which is awesome.



This is a view of part of the yard/garden area. I can totally see myself bringing Penelope outside to hang out and chill under a tree or something. I can't say that about any of the other places we looked at.

This little fellow and I are going to become great friends, as I plan on spending all my time soaking in the pool trying to keep cool as a big pregnant lady in June and July.


And that's some of the cool parts about our new place.

Boise, here we come!

In a few weeks, Kevin and I are moving to Boise, ID. We are both really excited to be moving forward and taking the next step(s) in our lives, even if Boise is not the most exotic place in the world. ;)
And since we are moving there, we thought it might be a good idea to go visit before we just show up with a moving truck at the end of the month.
Kevin's been spending a lot of time finding apartments that fit our every need: finding websites, comparing areas and prices, calling landlords and companies, etc. I'm so glad he has the time to do this, because he's found some really nice places with really reasonable prices. Some sound like pretty good deals!
So this weekend we'll head up to Boise and stay with my awesome friend, Jaylee, who I went to China and taught English with back in 2002. It will be great to visit with her and catch up on what's going on.
Tonight we're having the missionaries over to dinner, and from the time I get off work and when they come an hour after that, I have to run by the grocery store, drive home, and make food. It will be a tight squeeze. But thankfully, large as I am, I'm getting used to these tight squeeze situations.
And does anyone (Sarah) want to take care of my cats this weekend? You'd just have to come once or twice. Let me know, or I'll call you. (That's a threat!)

Wingses

So a while back I blogged about this book and how I was excited to read it. At that point I wanted to tell everyone to go out and read it because I knew it would be awesome, but since that would be an empty promise (as I hadn't read it myself), I just talked about how excited I was.
Ok.
Now fast-forward to today. Kevin and I went out to buy it (it doesn't officially come out until the 5th, but Border's released it a few days early), and Kevin let me read it first.
Oh. My. Gosh. It was so good! I don't even know where to start!!
From reading reviews and stuff, I knew it would be a "new type of faerie tale," but it wasn't at all what I expected. It wasn't a retold faerie tale in the sense of Ella Enchanted or anything. It was much more just real people in a real-world life who just happen to have very ethereal things happen to them. I loved the characters, the plot, and the pacing. More than that, though, the writing was very earthy and natural, which is absolutely appropriate, since faeries and nature are a big part of the story. It's beautifully written without being over-written or forcedly poetic, which I can't stand.
The only frustrating part is that I got really into the plot in the last half of the book, and I read it too fast. Now I'll have to go back and reread it to make sure I didn't miss anything!
One of the characters' names is Chelsea. That is awesome. She is a fun character, and while she is not exactly like me, I felt a connection with her because she is Chelsea. :)
Another one of the characters, Tamani, was very mysterious throughout the book, and I knew I wanted to know more about him. By the end, I was crying, and it was all his fault. And not the fact that I am pregnant. Really. No, really.
Laurel is the main character, and I love that even though it's written in the 3rd person, you can still follow her thoughts and feelings as if you're hearing her think. She is such a real person, and it's easy to empathize with her. Her concerns, stresses, joys, and thoughts all make you feel like she's... I don't know... a real person instead of just a character on pages.
I don't want to write too much more, since I recommend you all go out and read this. You can buy it on Amazon for less than I paid for it (:S), but then you'll have to wait to get it. Or you can request for your library to purchase it. They totally should.
And let me know if you read it, because then we can talk about it!

Confession

I have a sitemeter that lets me know what the stats are for my blog. I average about 25 hits per day.
I know at least half of them are from me.

Giving up

I just finished reading Pretties, by Scott Westerfield. This, of course, means that just earlier this week I read Uglies, which is the first in the trilogy. I won't be reading the third book, though, which reflects entirely on the merit of the second book (or lack thereof).
Uglies was actually pretty fun! It's a story set in a future Earth society, and the whole premise was kind of interesting. Teenagers are "uglies" until their 16th birthdays, where they get this surgery and become "pretties." And they do nothing but party and carouse for a few years. Yeah, it was a bit preachy about our society and societal expectations, but whatever. You get a couple characters who decide to rebel and join the other runaways who have a camp society outside of the ugly/pretty city. The plot was a little bit predictable (read: it was entirely too predictable if Chelsea was able to pick up on it!), but it was still adventury and fun. In some ways it had the same sort of feeling as Stephenie Meyer's The Host, although The Host was much better.
So once I finished the first book, it had a little bit of a cliff-hanger, and I wanted to know how things got resolved. Unfortunately, that's not what the second book was about. Uglies followed the same main character, but the rest of the entire cast and entire plot of the first book was dropped until the very VERY end of the book. There was a plot in between, but instead of being a plot I was interest in, it felt like just a series of events that kept me from finding out what happened to the rest of the characters I cared about from the first book. Anyone can write a series of events, but that doesn't necessarily make a plot.
Then the end of the book didn't even adequately fill me in on what happened with the characters I liked. It got really formulaic too: every single chapter ended with an overly-dramatic "cliffhanger," which worked a few times in the first book but got really old in the second book.
They tried to make another twist at the end to get me hooked for the third book, but unfortunately it didn't work. I usually start what I finish; even if it's a crappy book, I'll still finish it. I intended to finish this series, but considering how much I skipped of the second book, I doubt I'd actually read any of the third one.
Final word: Uglies was fun and a good little read. Pretties was a disappointment. I won't be reading Specials.