WOPS

The Natural Mommy has started a little bloggy group, titled WOPS. It stands for Wives of Perpetual Students. Boy do we fit in there!

Josh just decided last week that he will be pursuing a Master's Degree, and then we'll move back East to get his PhD. This means a little over two more years here, and then four (possibly five) years back East going to school.

He'll be just barely thirty when we're done, and by then I'm willing to bet we'll have four kids. Lots of student loans, although hopefully not too many. And if all goes well, with a job as a professor we'll have them paid off within a year or two of graduation. Or do they call it matriculation? I don't even know!

At any rate, it means that to stay home with my baby (and any future babies) I do a lot of economizing.

Enchanting

So Friday night we went on a real date! And it was so much fun.

We went out with Josh's school group and their dates/wives to see a dollar movie.



Then we went out to dinner! And had pie! It was really a magical night.

My favorite part was after the movie, sitting at the restaurant beaming at each other while we discussed the finer points of the evening's entertainment. We decided that it was a good reminder of the fine balance between optimism and so-called "realism" as well as the importance of continued courtship (and FUN!) in a marriage.

We spent more on dinner than I would have liked, but the price of the movie was great. $3 for the two of us to see a film. I love the dollar theatre.

Sick, Sick, Sick

I'm really struggling with the sinus headache from hades today. I've done pretty well, all things considered. I got up and dressed, fed the baby, had my visiting teachers over (who luckily didn't bring their children--no use in other people getting sick), fed the baby again, washed some dishes, fed the baby, dozed on the couch, fed the baby, and washed some more dishes. Guy's finally fed and down for a nap. I have an hour until he wakes up and I have to go to the Community Aide meeting.

But dinner last night was a success. Thank you, America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. My absolute favorite cookbook ever, right up there with the Ultimate Mormon Cookbook and Dining on a Dime. We had chili and cornbread. I made one batch of cornbread from a mix, and the other from this recipe. I think it'd be better without the two TBSP of sugar, and two TBSP of honey, instead. Honey is a bit sweeter ounce for ounce, and I like the flavor better.

The goal this week is to work more raw food into our diet. We've done pretty well the last few days. Yesterday and Tuesday we had raw lunches, and this morning I had a raw breakfast. Josh isn't yet home, so I'm guessing he bought something on campus.

Thanks to Mutti, we have a new and fun way of making salads. The food processor! I use the slicing blade for lettuce and grape or cherry tomatoes, and then grate cucumber, pickles, olives, mushrooms, and whatever else sounds good. Throw a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar on top and it's delightful. It's a much denser salad, requires less spearing and chewing and leaves you feeling more full than with your standard salad.

Saturday's Warrior

"The Circle of our love extends beyond the reach of ti-i-ime. . . "

I saw about thirty seconds of that on KBYU today. Now I've got the song stuck in my head. Woo-hoo. Or not.

So Josh is feeling better. Which is great. But now Guy and I are coming down with some kind of respiratory infection. I'm loading up on the vitamin C and E and the fluids to try to keep it at bay, but I don't know how well that will work.

In other news, after a Priesthood blessing last week, Josh and I decided he needed to quit his job (which he did) and that he needed to get a Master's degree here to prepare him for his Ph.D. So we stopped looking at graduate schools for now.

It's exciting. I like BYU, and I won't mind being here another two years. To think that we've got another four years after that is a mite daunting, but it means he'll graduate when he's 30 and I'm 28. Guy will be six, and we'll probably have two more kids. Probably several tens of thousands in student loans, but we'll just try and do what some of his professors did--pay them off in your first year of a real salary.

I feel like there's so much in my head that I can't readily commit to paper. I've been really moody the last few days. Odd, because when I should have been PMS-ing like mad, I was really cheerful. And now that I should be more normal, I'm a roller-coaster of emotions. Go figure.

Today I had ice cream for lunch. And I spent exactly as much on groceries as I said I would. And I bought more than I thought I'd be able to. That's about all I have to say for the evening.

Influenza

Nothing strikes fear into my heart quite like that word.

And Josh just tested positive.

Suck.

Looking up, and looking forward

The times, they are a-changing.

Big things afoot. No, not bigfoot. Just big things.

I ran more than a mile last night! And walked another mile! I'm going to totally kick this 5K's behind.

Guy is teething with a vengeance. He's hungry, but won't eat anything.

Josh was up most of last night with an awful fever, the shakes, and lots of pain. So nobody slept so great in this household last night.

But today I'm feeling really grateful. I look around me, and I am so blessed. I live in this awesome apartment, in a great community, with people who know and love me. Our car is back, and working, and we even have the money to cover all the repairs.

There is lots of good food in my fridge, money in a bank account, and I have a husband who works his tail off getting a great education. Life is good.

*yawn* even if I'm really tired today.

Boo

I have good things happening in my life. And things that make me ridiculously depressed.

Examples:

Guy took a two-hour nap today!
My upstairs neighbors let me use their dishwasher, saving me roughly an hour's worth of dish-washing after Wednesday's elaborate dinner cooked for eight people.
Josh is done with midterms and is now back to his regularly scheduled stressful life.

And the depressing stuff?
I've gained four pounds in two weeks. Instead of losing four, as I had hoped.
The car is broken. The key literally will not move in the ignition. And it's stuck in park facing in, so I'm not terribly hopeful about getting it towed. And fixing things costs money, just as we're starting to get our savings built up again.

I still have plenty of dishes to wash. I made strawberry-pineapple bread, and it turned out weird. My house is a mess. I need to do laundry, and give Guy a bath, and Josh and I had wanted to go to the temple tonight.

You'll never guess how much I feel like doing laundry, dishes, and cooking dinner.

Quote of the day: "You're about as romantic as a dead fish."

And no, it's not from a movie, it's from my life. I debated sharing that, but I think that's one of the reasons I'm feeling blue. Apparently, romance isn't my strong point.