Wanted, hopefully alive

My oldest sister just had a baby. Sometimes babies look like aliens. This baby is beautiful. Good job for not looking like an alien straight out the gate beautiful baby. I saw her yesterday. She smiled at me. Thanks for smiling at me beautiful baby. I know giving birth isn’t going to kill me, but it sounds terrible.  The only thing that makes me want to make my own is my interaction with kids in Primary at church and seeing my own adorable nieces and nephews. The picture is actually my younger sister holding her.

Speaking of want, my suitcases want to be packed, even though we don’t leave until Thursday. I like packing early, because then I make believe I won’t forget anything essential for the trip. I started this morning.  Every time I take a vacation, I realize how nonessential clothes are.

I mean, yeah, bring a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt, but don’t bother bringing anything else. You probably won’t wear it. It’s Christmas! Live a little. By that, I mean wear the same clothes over and over until they smell and then change into something clean. It will make you appreciate them more. My husband doesn’t know that part of me yet.

Don’t get me wrong; I change my underwear. I learned from my Dad, at age 10 when I told him a splendid fact about my personal hygiene; that you’re supposed to change undies every day, not every week. Whether you need to or not.

So when we ghost around the Houston house for two weeks, wearing the same stuff, don’t be surprised Charles.

We also plan to run, because it’s warmer there. So let it be written, so let it be done. Then I can eat what I want and not feel guilty.  Besides, I need something to balance out my movie mosies. I want to run regularly through the break.

It's hard to know what people want for Christmas. Most people just say not to buy them anything, that love is enough. It is, but here's a little peek into our list this year.

Needs: Things you should just buy yourself at the store, but think maybe people could buy you for Christmas instead of random stuff you probably don’t need.

Luxuries: Things you like doing/having, but try not to do/have often because you’re budgeting.

Fancies: Things you would never think of yourself, but in hindsight are so grateful for. Like this baby. Not getting one for Christmas, but isn't she fancy?  

Ward! Whatchu want?

1. Needs:  collared Sunday white shirt, baseball cap, running socks, shoes, 2 car smog checks, jeans, sports bras.

2. Luxuries: movie tickets, chipotle/sushi/restaurant gift cards, movies, laptop, ipad, camera, movies, expensive chocolate- with caramel and pecans, cologne, trips, nose hair trimmers.

3. Fancies: You’re on your own people. That’s why they’re fancy. Everyone loves giving others fancies. It’s hard to think of good ones though, so often people get needs instead. Included here: hair accessories, jewelry, personalized gifts, services-vacuumed car, crocodiles.

Weirdies united-

First, I want you to read this article about colonizing Mars: Chumps. The summary: there's a project in the works, planned by a Dutch company, which will cost 6 billion dollars to put 4 earthlings on Mars. Its estimated launch is 2018, would take 3.5 years to arrive, and participants could never come back to earth. 

Ok, now you're ready to read this blog. 

Are you kidding me? 200,000 people applied to be one of the four sent to Mars for the rest of their lives? Here's why I could never ever do that.

1. I like people: I have lived many places and met tons of people. How could I possibly live a planet away from all those people I know and love. Plus, there are so many more people I haven't met yet. This world is full of them. Mars= 0 new people besides my 3 comrades. If you can't stand the three other people you're sent with you will be miserable and lonely for the rest of your life. Have those people never seen Survivor? You'd have to be a +1 max introvert to go on this mission. Like a person who hides in the woods to be alone. 

2. I like warmth: I think to prepare these people, they should send them to Antarctica for 6 months. Everybody knows Antarctica is miserably cold and Mars is a whole heck of a lot further away from the sun than Antarctica. Maybe chuck polar bears at them until they've recovered pieces of their sanity.

3. I love my family: I've been away from relatives for years at a time. It's hard to stay away from everyone you know. Even friends. Can you imagine never seeing anyone again? Ever. Even for science. Don't get me wrong. It could be cool for a little while. 60 years? You'd have to really sell me on that one. Who hates all people and all animals? Send them away. We can't have that kind of person around here.

4. Boredom: If you're going to be away from everything for 60 years, you'd better pack some paperbacks. I'm talking serious games, movies, material, project supplies, and pray nothing essential is forgotten. Someone forgets the scissors and you're screwed for life.

5. I like comfort: Can you imagine having cancer, a baby, or diabetes on Mars? I know they'd screen for that before everyone left, but sometimes things happen when you're bored. Age happens. You'd have to be a serious scientist nut to go, because excitement will have to pull you along for a long time. Yippee hooray for science.

6. I love Earth: I love flowers, trees, animals, warmth, water, being outside. I love people, wind, the ocean. Mars is a cold desert. There's no ice cream on Mars. I've never been there, but I'm going to assume you're going to be eating lots of powdered, canned, and freeze dried food. Just eat your powdered spinach, you don't want to get Scurvy on Mars. 

7. Life is long: I know I mentioned this previously, but 60-70 years with three people I can't stand does not sound ideal. I suppose if you get along with them, that could work for a while. If I brought my wonderful husband, we could have lots of adventure time. Sorry lovey, I deny your request to move to Mars.

Ok. As long as those volunteers fully understand the huge commitment that no normal person would ever agree to. I might even watch the reality show they made out of it. I don't want them to fail. I just don't want them to go psycho crazy because of the other planet prison they agreed to be sent to. 

Charles, if you applied for us to go to Mars, and we got picked, I would cry every day. I would sure miss you. 

Sweatpants-

It has begun. I wore sweatpants to work today. So did Charles. It was cold outside and jeans are so cold in winter and I didn't want to break the frost off of them this morning. Anyway, I don't match, but I feel cozy today. Woot for soft pants.

For lunch I got orange chicken. Unfortunately, it turned out the place made jello chicken. Or so it seemed, as though the chicken had orange jello poured on and it hadn't hardened yet. I couldn't eat it. Honestly, I'm not a huge Chinese food fan anyway, but this was sub par food. Gross. I had to go to Subway for a meatball sub so I wouldn't starve to death.

Christmas gifts. I will now list what I'm getting everyone for this holiday spectacular. 

1. Owl- suckers. Of course I'm not going to write that list. People actually read this blog, including my husband, who totes thinks he's going to find out what I'm getting him before Christmas. False. 

2. I'm getting a niece. My sister's pretty excited to give birth and get that baby out. I can't say I blame her. Babies are heavy.

3. I've been drinking warm water lately. I know that's weird, but I can't quite bring myself to drinking freezing water when it's so cold outside.

4. Pudding cakes are delicious. I might have one today. Yum.

5. Crafts are pretty cool. I might have to endeavor in some crafting endeavors this week. Surprise!

6.  I have been going through books like magic. I didn't know it was such a breeze to get through books by tape. I always thought books on tape were lame. Now I am a regular book on tape listener toer. 

I LOVE CROCODILES. I love my husband. Sometimes my husband wants to wrestle me and I feel like I'm wrestling a crocodile because of his unwavering strength and agility. He's the youngest in his family and is really good at hassling a person into a brawl. Problem is I always lose in those brawls. I bite my bottom lip and lose with style. Those wrestling moods usually last about 20 minutes. I might get him a wrestle doll for Christmas. Don't tell him. 

Mustache Movember

I'm glad you liked my talk. I enjoyed the research for it, even though I only gave a fraction of it. I always want to tell people all the secrets in the scriptures they never knew about, because their minds will be blown and they'll want to read more. At least that's what I think when I read stuff I didn't realize was there the whole time. It's so crazy how much you can learn and still know nothing of the mysteries of God.

Freddie in my blog post...was Freddie Prince Jr. who is married to Sarah Michelle Gellar. So she must not annoy him because he married her. At least that's my assumption. I don't know how she wouldn't annoy someone, but maybe it's just her acting voice that annoys me.

It's funny you said that about eating and who cares. It's true, who cares. I think it's just because we can now feel our bodies changing. I creak more now. It's very weird. I'm also feeding Charles too, so I feel like it matters more what I eat. Since I'm married I feel I should eat like a grownup. Also, you've met my father. You know where we got weird food/nutritional ideas. 

I have noticed I make food now instead of doing other things- like reading or hanging out with people. It's strange yet feels good because good food takes time. I mostly eat, sleep, read, watch movies, work, and do other random stuff during the week. Since eating is the most popular of my activities, I report on it most often. 

I should be running tonight with my husband. I need to. My body wants to. It's my mental block that restricts me. We did go running. Woot.

Inside my soul I have grand desires to be creative, artistic, and to make beautiful things. I know I need more practice making my artistic desires a reality. That's another part of me I would like to develop more.

I saw this link about bicycles online. Mom, click on it. 

In other news, I finished the Brother's Karamazof. Finally. I'm also reading a book called Swamplandia- about an alligator farm and  Wicked Lovely- a book about fairies. 

And Charles is growing a mustache for mustache Movember. So if I can keep from laughing every time I see him, we'll send you a picture. He looks like a villain that would tie someone to train tracks. No kidding. Charles has never seen this movie..

I went to the doctor again yesterday, because I didn't know if the antibiotics worked fully. So she tested me for a bladder infection-gone, and gave me a stronger dose for my ultra yeast infection and told me to not to each sugar and starches for a week and a half. 

I may have cried on the ride home. I really don't want to give up sugar and starches forever, so hopefully this abstaining week will reset my body and I can go back to doing what I want. So I was going to make a boston cream pie, but made pepper/mushroom/mozzarella garlic stuffed chicken with butternut squash instead. Vegetables, watch out. I'm coming for you.

Finally, you are great. I love you. Keep working hard. We all know it's hard and totally worth it. The church is true. Love, Mer

We're getting a space heater for our bedroom. Although our apartment is small, the heater in the living room is not very effective at heating our bedroom. We usually close the bathroom and bedroom doors when we turn on the heater, which keeps the heat in a smaller area. Luckily we live in CA, which doesn't get terribly cold.

I also made lentil soup. We boiled the lentils for about two days. I've heard of people undercooking lentils, which is totes bad news. The stew was delicious. I like stew. Stewey is now in our fridge. Note: celery is only good in stew, soup, or chicken sandwiches.

Sarah Michelle Gellar drives me crazy. She annoys me terribly. I don't know why, but she always has. Freddie loves her, but she's probably not as annoying in real life. Hopefully.

This weekend is our primary program. All the kids are pretty full of life. Tonight we're off to the temple. 

The cupcake top right is what is on my table. We've got a couple. Better than turtles, because you can eat them.

Halloween, weird right?

Speaking of weird, I was a genie for Halloween- but nobody could tell. Weird. I know, I'm the worst. I did get to accompany America with Pete and Julia trick-or-treating. It was pretty cute, including Pete's assertions that they were "good guys" and "just kids". I can see now why people would rather give candy to a 5 yr old than a teenager. 

I made some cupcakes this morning for our ward trunk-or-treat tonight. I'm wo-manning the cake walk. I made everything, but just put globs of frosting on each cupcake because it was chilled still and wouldn't spread. They look very unique right now. We also have some extra frosting-I'll find something to do with it.

So when I get home from work, I'll spread that frosting and take the tiny prizes to the trunkers. I guess I need some music. Drat. What am I going to do for that? I wish I had a bell. Wait, I have a timer for the oven, maybe I'll just use that. 

I'm not done with the Brother's Karamazov yet. I still have another 100 pages, even though that was one of my October goals. Maybe I'll finish it tonight. Just to keep being awesome. Underneath is my outfit for tonight. I'll be a boat pusher.

Charles is also out of town this weekend for a school trip. So I'll be by myself at home. That could be a little weird, since I've been married for three months and don't sleep by myself anymore. Well, on nights when Charles has been sleeping, since he's had a lot of homework lately. I'm so glad to be done with school.

Halloween-

Charles just made me a chocolate cake bless his heart. I've been talking about eating a chocolate cake for days, and instead of letting me make it myself, he surprised me by making it before I got home from the temple yesterday. Woot.

Daddy's great. He feeds us chocolate cake. 

We also should probably go food shopping. We currently have a giant bag of tamales in the freezer and a bag of lemons in the fridge. We bought some ketchup the other day. 

Our fridge has all sorts of little knick knacks that could be combined into dinner happiness. Tomorrow night, corned beef and cabbage. 

Why do so many of my emails have to do with food? Probably because my life is so boring. I started a book: Edenbrooke. I still need to finish the Brother's Karamazov- getting closer to the end. However, a couple of my sisters read the Edenbrooke book and highly recommended it. I am enjoying it so far.

I have a talk on Faith Sunday. Charles will also be speaking. I'm glad, because sometimes he doesn't get all the recognition he should for how great he is. I mean, 80% of the time I am with him and am getting brainwashed day in and day out about how wonderful he is. The other 20% I'm at work and watching TV. I obviously have a very full and wonderful life.

I haven't started my talk yet, but it's sure to be interesting and vivacious and will hopefully help some people with their faith struggles- everyone has them.

This has been a good week for us. Uneventful, we haven't seen any people. Our weirdo, under the bridge status, has continued. Next week, Halloween. We can't be anti-social next week. Trick-or-treat! 

I also watched a sweet show a couple weeks ago: Tv series: The Last Enemy. Very good. 4.5 stars. I don't think I mentioned it. It has Benedict Cumberbatch. He seems to be in everything these days. I liked it.

We have a pumpkin at our house. Still empty. Can't put it outside, the cats will pee on it. This is a picture of our new bedding set. I know, we are now fancy people. 

Love, Merilee

Shepherd's Pie

Charles and I had that for dinner yesterday with taco meat we'd made out of the hamburger. It was what we already had. It was delicious. The great thing about having two people in your house, is you can make food one time, and eat it for the next three days. Or, if you get sick of it, you can freeze it. 

Another nice thing about having two people, is you can make sure there's always room in the freezer for the stuff you want to freeze. Charles things I'm kind of a crazy person because, well, I freeze everything. 

It's better not to freeze things for a long amount of time, because they gradually become unrecognizable blobs of substance. However, if you keep track of what you have, it's a wonderful thing, a freezer. 

Speaking of preservation, Amy, I had a beautiful red leaf I was pressing to send to you and now it's brown. So I tried, but unfortunately, if I send you leaves, I trow they will be brown by the time they reach you. Sorry.

Oh, I saw World War Z this weekend. Don't worry, America, we can watch it next week. It does have parts that will startle you. I am also easily startled, so maybe it was just me, but overall I enjoyed it. 

Rachel- Thanks for reading and always commenting. It's nice to hear from you, even though you live far away and don't have Facebook. 

Emily and Amanda, thank you for your positive affirmation. It's so lovely to hear from such great friends.

I got some Christmas gifts at a flea market I worked at Saturday. I was helping America sell her games, scarves, and yarn. She has quite a few boxes, and would like to have less of those things and mo problems (mo money).

I've been watching some new, and some old, shows. I would recommend the following, in no particular order:

1. Blacklist

2. Parenthood

3. Modern Family

4. The Middle 

5. Scandal

6. Nashville

7. Chicago Fire

8. Graceland

9. Marvel: Agents of SHIELD

10. Once Upon a Time in Neverland

11. Michael J. Fox Show

I'm still on the fence about #9 & 11. #10 has not yet started. However, I do want to give those last three a chance. 

Things I need to do this week:

1. Finish the Brother's Karamazov (Goal reminder: End of October)

2. Study up and get my drivers' license changed

3. Run/Exercise

4. Do my hair.

5. Wake up earlier. Strike that. Get up earlier. 

You're the greatest. Love, Mer

Squirrels-

I don't like candy as much as I used to. And well, sometimes you just want it because you can't have it. So now I have some on my desk and supposedly one day I will eat it. It's the good stuff, peanut m&m's and twix. I'll probably give the peanut m&m's to Charles. 

I don't know if I told you this, but I got a haircut a couple weeks ago. Now I have a couple more layers in the front and the back is cut straight across, though you care little of such things.

Tonight we're doing a RS fellowshipping activity. We're going out to eat at BJ's. Whatever that is. So hopefully we'll all bond and stuff.

This weekend is General Conference. I'm pretty psyched. You should check it out if you're curious. It's a twice yearly world conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It's prophets telling us how to feel our Heavenly Father's love in our lives. It's my fav. 

We made banana bread last night with fajitas. They're like bbq fajitas. Weird, but still good. They just had smoky spices in the package. It was unexpected. Charles got a flat and had to get 3 new tires, but luckily he had some coupon and got them all 3 for the price of 1. I don't know how that happened. 

I took my coworker to Best Buy and he bought World War Z. I heard that was good. I have not seen it. He gave me the DVD copy since he just wanted the Blue-Ray version. Woot. I hope I like it. 

I'm reading City of Bones- Sarah's right, it's not my fav. Kind of dumb. Whatever. Just another teen monster book. I'm almost done with the Brother's Karamazof. 

These are the fancy Friday cookies our boss got for us today.