love.

only thing i ever could need

only one good thing worth trying to be

and it's love.

- sara barellis

you know school is drowning you when...

...the coolest thing you can think of to blog about is your new printer.

(although it is kind of awesome.)

=)

ever felt like this?

i sure have.

I was feeling like this today in fact, when I placed my backpack on the passenger's seat to drive to school.

Apparently it weighs as much as a small child.

It set off the seatbelt sensor.

happy halloween!

happy halloween!

love, m

the mad scientist...

Just in time for Halloween, I thought I'd share a creepy story I heard the other day.

Keith was an old man when he moved into Apartment 15, but he'd never been married or had a real job. He didn't have time for all that. He was far too busy taking the bus to the Marriott Library to do research for his latest "experiments." You see, Keith was a scientist. In fact, he was a mad scientist in every sense of the word. He was old, had crazy white hair, drank strange potions, and owned enough books to be considered for an episode of Hoarders. And all of these books were crammed floor-to-ceiling into Apartment 15.

Keith was a little paranoid, too. He had fastened 6 extra deadbolts onto his front door so nobody could get in. He also didn't own a car, but would never, ever, let anyone drive him anywhere. Not even to church. Yes, Keith did go to church. Although Keith was a mad scientist, he was also LDS, and he walked to his ward building every Sunday. But he would never, ever, ever, ever, accept a ride. Instead, Keith would leave about 2 hours before church started in order to make it there in time. With his age, you see, he moved quite slowly. He was still about a half hour late to church every Sunday. And then he walked home.

The building Keith went to wasn't too far away from Apartment 15 - maybe about a quarter-mile or so - but it's a long walk when you move as slowly as Keith did. Witnesses claim that Keith was so slow it took him an entire 5 minutes to board a UTA bus. This is evidenced by the fact that Keith routinely got "sideswiped" by cars while he was crossing Highland Drive. He just wasn't quite able to make it across the crosswalk while the light was still green. And, of course, he always wore dark clothing. It was thought that these repeated run-ins with cars could have contributed to how slowly Keith moved.

One of the most interesting things about Keith was that he was blue. I don't mean the "depressed" kind of blue, I mean Keith's skin was dyed blue. According to those who knew him, Keith had re-discovered a tonic that people drank in the 1950's to "stay healthy." He also discovered that, apparently, overuse of this tonic would cause one's skin to turn blue. He obviously didn't test his products on animals. Probably because there were no pets allowed in his apartment complex.

Perhaps you're wondering how I know that there were no pets allowed in Keith's apartment complex. Well, that's because I happen to live in that apartment complex. In fact, I happen to live in the very same, infamous Apartment 15 that was once home to a mad scientist.

Keith has since moved on. Somewhat against his will, he was eventually transferred to an "assisted living facility" (aka mental treatment center). After he had been moved out, the apartment managers had a lot of work to do. Apparently the entire apartment had to be stripped - from sheet rock to carpet. It was remodeled, re-painted, and received all-new appliances and fixtures. It was all nice and squeaky clean, ready for the next tenants to move in. However, it took about a year to finally rent Apartment 15 since the entire neighborhood was well aware of the legend of Keith.

Daniel and I moved into Apartment 15 without any knowledge of this legend. It was the members of our Bishopric that finally relayed the story to us when they stopped by to visit - mainly because they couldn't stop staring at everything in our apartment. They kept telling us how nice it looked, and asking us if we had painted the walls or added the new tile ourselves. They seemed absolutely amazed. They admitted to us that they had wondered why two nice-looking young people would move into an apartment that was in such an awful state. After hearing the story, I wasn't surprised. The last time they had seen the apartment, it was pretty much condemned.

And that's the true story of the mad scientist who used to live in the apartment that Daniel and I call home. =)

the halloween spirit...

Quite possibly my favorite holiday.

the case of the missing pizza pan....

No joke, this just happened.

Sometimes Daniel and I like to make those pizzas in the oven that you buy in the freezer section (don't judge me). So tonight, I was tutoring and Daniel wanted to make one for us. I get a text asking me where the pizza pan is. Thinking my husband was too lazy to try and find it, I replied with a few places that he could look. He texted back shortly after telling me that the pan wasn't there. "Hmmm..." I thought. But I was still absolutely certain that he had missed something and that I would find it when I got home. After all, it's not like our kitchen is big enough to even echo, let alone actually lose something in.

So I walk in the door to find the pizza cooking on the oven rack with no pan - he still hadn't found it! (But he had gotten so desperate that he cooked the pizza anyway...which I thought was funny...). But he bottom line was, we still had a missing pizza pan. I proceeded to check the usual places, and I was kind of surprised when I didn't see it. I expanded my search as Daniel stood there with his arms folded and a smug look on his face. After I had scanned the entire kitchen to no avail, I started taking everything out of the cabinets. It HAD to be there! Who on earth loses a pizza pan?!

But no. There was no pizza pan. It was gone. Absolutely gone. So I did what any other normal person would do after 20 minutes of searching an itty bitty room - I sat on the kitchen floor with all of the cabinets open and sulked. However, as I was sulking, I noticed something. You know that drawer that's under some ovens? Well, we have one of those. The drawer was wide open because of my search, and I could kind of see the area under the oven and behind the drawer. And guess what I saw? That's right, the PIZZA PAN! It had somehow slipped behind the drawer and under the oven. How on earth I saw that, I do not know. But I'm so glad we were able to solve the case of the missing pizza pan. I don't think Daniel and I had even been so confused in our lives.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, you can totally cook pizzas on the rack of the oven. They turn out just fine! I guess you don't even need a pizza pan after all.

Cereal and Conference

Okay.

So as I was driving to work today, eating my cereal out of a mug as usual, I had this thought. It's so weird that we eat cereal! The more I thought about it, the more I began to realize that cereal is essentially kibble for humans.

Don't get the wrong idea about me - I love ceral. I eat it almost every day (and now that I'm married, sometimes even twice a day...). But that is beside the point. I seriously can't get over the fact that it looks like something I could feed to Fido. Think about it. Cereal is dry, it comes in little pieces, and we pour it out of bags and into bowls. Just like kibble. And the manufacturers even pack all these "essential vitamins and nutrients" into the mix just like they do for pets!

See?!? Kibble for humans!!

But enough about that.

I'm also very, very, very excited for Conference Weekend!

Why do I love General Conference? Well, what could be better than church in PJs? I love having a big, yummy breakfast, and getting caught up on a few chores while I'm listening. But most of all, I love being inspired. I love our apostles, prophets, and leaders, and I love their quotes and stories. I'm excited to hear from them.

And I absolutely love this quote by President Hinkley:

"I invite you to listen, listen if you will by the power of the Spirit to the speakers who will address you today and tomorrow as well as this evening. If you do so, I do not heasitate to promise you that you will be uplifted, your resolution to do what is right will be stronger, you will find solutions to your problems and your needs, and you will be led to thank the Lord for what you have heard."

That's why I love General Conference.