Letter to Christian-

Well hello. I would give you a rundown of my week, but it hasn't been terribly exciting. We fed the sister missionaries. We ate chicken with stuffing for dinner. Then we had frosting on graham crackers for dessert. It was nice, we didn't have to make anything for dessert. 

We inherited 6 opened jars of frosting from Charles' brothers fridge and two from Hayley moving away. That's a lot of frosting. We should totes make a cake and frost it half chocolate, half vanilla. I love cake. I bet they don't have cake in Taiwan. Or the same kind of cake. They didn't really in Guatemala. 

I've been slowly packing up my stuff. Luckily, I don't have a lot of stuff to pack. It seems like I live in such a way that I haven't really needed to unpack. Maybe I will when I get married, because it won't matter if it gets mixed in with someone else's stuff. That will be weird. 

Also, because of the house fire, all my stuff is here, with me. That means I'm responsible for getting rid of all the stuff I don't use (often).  So I need to make fancy animals or do something artsy with all that dead weight lace trim I picked up six months ago. Get ready for some gifting amigos.

My dress is at the dry cleaners: $75. That's actually a relief, since the first place I took it to quoted me $180 and the second place said they'd do it for $120. Since some of the lace is glued on though, they could only clean the inner lining- which means it was a lot cheaper than they originally thought. Thank goodness for that. 

Luckily, that dry cleaning estimate didn't give me a heart attack. I also went to the doctor last week. When trying to donate blood two months ago, I was rejected and told I had an arrhythmia, so I went to the doctor to get it inspected. 

After an exercise test, a 24 hour monitor, and a movie taken of my heart, I was informed my heart rate is pretty slow, even after exercising for a while. The doctor also said 1/3 of my heartbeats were irregular- which is kind of a lot. Instead of giving me heart medicine to slow my heart-which would be bad for my already slow heart, she said they'd just redo the 24 hour monitor is 6 months to see how I'm doing. 

She said it's not a problem now, but could cause problems with my heart later. Very strange, since I've never heard anything about an irregular heart beat before this incident, and I've given blood before and had a couple physicals. She said my heart beat is normal when I exercise though, so I should exercise as much as possible. 

I guess the one downside is I can't give blood anymore- an easy service to give usually. Bother. Did you know the first time I tried giving blood they rejected me? It was in high school and I was too nervous. My heart rate was racing too fast. I left the donation room without even taking a cookie. I felt like such a failure. Now I know you can eat the cookies even if you don't give blood. 

I'll find other ways to contribute to society. You are a great example to me. I love you brother! Love, Merilee

P.S. I'm getting married a week from today. Pretty crazy. 

Yes way

I've never been a very good rapper. Than can be a wonderful tool one can utilize in daily living. Nor can I beat box. Pity. I can, however, talk. I can talk for hours. I can and have. 

I bought a 21 lb. watermelon last week. What was I thinking? I was thinking I'd drink a lot of watermelon juice this week. Did it happen? No, but I did incorporate it into many smoothies. I didn't like those to the same degree as the orange juice smoothies I have been drinking, but they were surprisingly nice. 

That said, I still have 33.33 percent of a watermelon leftover. I think it's going bad. I think it has gone bad. Sadly. That was a short run Cap'n Watermelon. Maybe next time you'll let me make you into watermelon jam and watermelon cookies before you go bad. Thanks. 

Yesterday was a beautiful day. It was nice outside, we ate chicken broccoli for dinner and had brownies for dessert- with fruit. I love that stuff. 

I want you all to know I'm marrying an incredible guy. He's so nice to me all the time. He does the dishes. He makes me food. He rubs my feet. According to the peanut gallery, it will end in 11 days. Can't wait. 

Still, my expectations are all sorts of high for a healthy married relationship. I guess the hope of a great relationship is what keeps me on track. If I didn't have that hope, I'd be out. I've always been a runner. Obviously Charles knows that, or he wouldn't be so good to me, and I wouldn't be 11 days from marrying his lovely, wonderful self. 

I've been watching this show on Hulu called Perfect Couples. I actually enjoy it quite a bit. It has three couples and the dichotomy of each couple just kills me. 

Chocolate post-its

I'm getting married in three weeks. The funny thing, is I feel the same. Nothing really has changed. Charles and I had a discussion about it yesterday. Nothing changes when you're engaged except the level of difficulty in not kissing too much and grabbing as many friends to accompany you as possible for chaperoning. 

Your relationship doesn't change until the night of your marriage. Then someone takes your pillow and kicks your face in the middle of the night, unintentionally of course, because you are in love. 

Honestly, I can't wait to get kicked in the face by Charles' hairy monkey foot. However, I did tell him if he talks in his sleep like my lovely former roomie Julene, I will move to the couch. That stuff freaks me out to the max. 

Besides that, I'm set to begin. Seems like Charles is a nice guy and I'm only crazy 89 % of the time. That adds up to a match made in heaven. 

Unfortunately for Charles, I don't like his favorite food- Chinese. Fortunately for Charles, he likes icecream way more than I do, so if he buys a quart, I'll probably only eat 1/7 of it. 

Now, to the real stuffing- like being an awesome couple, I think we're off to a good start. We haven't been avoiding our friends like the plague and we still talk to each other. That's good. We still plan to be in existence after we get married.

Dude, I just spent $2500 on getting my car fixed. I know what you're saying, fixing the plum was a waste. You should have bought a new car. Well, if you said that you would be right. However, I didn't do it. I just fixed it and what was I thinking? I was thinking I'm getting married in three weeks and don't want to worry about buying and selling a car right now.

I tried turning my lights on this morning and I couldn't do it. So either I'm an idiot and haven't been turning car headlights on for 13 years or they're just not working. So I have to take my purple terror back to the car place. BOOOOOOOOO.

I love brownies. You can always use one more. Brownie. Soft. Lustrous. Delicious.