The one where they learn about camera remotes.

While we ripped out the carpet on my parents' stairs, Anna and Emma learned about camera remotes.

Poor Georgie got dragged into modeling too.

Cuties :)

Guilty Pleasures

Let's be friends.
NOT the "oh you have a happy life and cute pictures" friends. (Although, I love you too! Trust me, I do.)
I mean the you-know-what-gets-me, I-know-what-gets-you, we-can-talk-about-ridiculous-things-together kind of friends.

Let's start with stuff we like to hide: guilty pleasures. You can judge me all you want (feel free, but I KNOW you have some too).
Then we can get past that and talk about all our ridiculousness for hours and it will be glorious.
Here we go.

1. Celebrity gossip.
  Why yes, I do read People magazine/people.com. And very often. (usually every day) You guys, I'm way past the whole "they look perfect" issue people have with magazines. I read them because I like feeling normal and seeing gorgeous dresses/outfits, and for the GOSSIP. Seriously. Celebrity gossip is quite possibly the BEST non-committal, non-serious conversation topic ever. Why talk about weather when you can talk about so-and-so's divorce/who dumped whom/who said what?

2. Sleep
I regularly sleep in. No, I don't get up early to exercise, read my scriptures, breathe in the quiet silent world. All that quiet makes me sleepy. So  I go back to sleep until 10, 11, noon..... No regrets, people.  I love days when I am up early and get lots of things done and feel accomplished and superwoman-ly. But folks, my days are OPEN right now. I can sleep in and still get every thing done by the time David comes home. People, I AM A BETTER PERSON. Trust me. Mean Nattie comes out when not enough sleep is in the equation. Some days I'm in pajamas until 4. Comfiest days ever.
(*Disclaimer: I know this will all change when I have kids/start working. Which I'm okay with - why else would I be willing to have them? - but until that happens and nothing requires me to get up, I'm sleeping in.)

3. TV shows
I watch lots of them and enjoy the ridiculous-ness of them all (gasp!). Ridiculous/cheesy/awful plot lines? Perfect. I'll take them all. I'll even think about them as I wash my face or make dinner. Let's see - any cop show is great any time, comedy-dramedy makes for great laughs (and sometimes ugly cries, ahem, Parenthood), reality TV makes me realize I'm not as crazy as I think, and any tension-filled love story gets me hooked. Clear eyes, full hearts, CAN'T LOSE.

4. Target
I'm addicted. It is really, really, really hard for me to not buy anything every time I walk in there. They have things on clearance I never knew I needed! I can spend hours walking around this store picking things up and putting them back down. I pretty much love everything they have in their store. I also try to hide things I buy. But David is unusually good at noticing new/different things. So sometimes I hide them and then don't use them for a couple weeks to try to ease them in --- doesn't usually work, FYI.

5. Baby 
No, I do not have a baby nor am I pregnant. However, that has not/will not stop me from consuming birth stories from everyone and anyone and bawling over them, reading every "things I wished I'd known" list known to Pinterest, shopping the baby section at Target, making a list of things to buy when we do have a baby bean.  Just planning ahead, people.... right?

6.  Pop Music
I like the "dumb stuff". There I said it. Most recently, the mash-ups from Pitch Perfect. But I also love the stuff by One Direction, Selena Gomez, blah, blah, blah. I like the other "cool" stuff too, but man, dumb upbeat cheesy songs make me sing along and dance in the car like an idiot and who doesn't want to do that?

via

7. Sugar binges
 Sour gummi worms, black jelly beans, red vines, peachies, tootie frootie tootsie rolls, etc. Sometimes on my work break, I would go buy a bag of [fill in from above list] and EAT IT ALL. In the car. By myself. Wouldn't look at the calories or ingredients. And sometimes I'd get a stomach ache afterwards. Oh well. Live in the moment, right? And those moments are just so good. (Ice cream is also an acceptable substitute.)


Seven is enough right? If you're completely overwhelmed by my openness and don't want to talk to me again, that's okay. Come talk to me when the new season of the Bachelor starts. I'll just be over here debating whether or not to get some high-calorie sugar item but knowing that means I probably have to get dressed for the day.

What are your guilty pleasures??
You know you want to tell me. Getting it off your chest will feel GREAT, I just know it!

Tomorrow is the month mark for us moving into our apartment, so I guess it is about time for an update. :)

Sometimes we look around and do not really believe that we are actually here. There are so many things we love about being here. Fall and everything that comes with it has been great. The leaves are so gorgeous and I keep seeing things that look like they exist only in paintings. 

We are loving our apartment. We decided to go with an apartment in a quieter area instead of one in the more popular urban area and it is a great fit for us. We ended up living right on the bus line, so David takes that to work every day. It is 4 miles from his work to our apartment so it is a really quick ride.

David started work on the 8th. He is enjoying it a lot more now that the basic training stuff is over. They have been kind of busy working on a project with a deadline. He is taking another actuary test next Tuesday(!) so he has been putting in lots of hours studying after he gets home from work. One perk of his job was him being able to work from home during Hurricane Sandy. It was not so bad for us up here - mostly just a lot of really strong winds and rain. There are some trees down but we never lost power. (As I write this, my parents still do not have power. They are expecting it some time next week. I am even more aware of how lucky we were up here.) Halloween was not cancelled in our town, but we still did not have any trick-or-treaters. Lucky us, we get the whole bag of Snickers to ourselves!

In the time we do get to spend together, we have been watching lots of sports  - between BYU football/basketball, RSL soccer, and the Jazz games starting - and Netflix. We also like to go drive around and explore the neighboring towns. The picturesque scenes seem to be everywhere we go.

I have been trying to find ways to keep myself busy. Trying to buy some things we needed for our apartment.  Looking for jobs. Sleeping in. Going to the movies by myself. Going to mother's group/play group without a child. Teaching myself photoshop. Teaching myself the real way to take pictures in manual. Making lots of Thai food. Registering the car and changing my license - the DMV is just so fun.

 The biggest thing I have been having a hard time with is not being able to find a job/have anything to do that I really care about (that does not involve spending money). I am at the point where I sleep in a lot, because hey what's the point of getting out of bed just to go sit on the couch and be on the computer. I did get called to be the Primary pianist, so that will be exciting. Primary is always so fun.  But our life is really great and we really are so, so blessed to be where we are at.

And because we all know how much better blog posts are with pictures, here are some I took recently. 

Top one is just of an area by a shopping mall.

Bottom two are from Wethersfield Cove. 

Maybe next time I will finally be able to convince David to let me take pictures of him.....