I'm Being Overrun!

Most of the time, I am oblivious of what goes on in our house. Messy kitchen? Smelly cats? It usually doesn't bother me. However, every so often I actually pay attention, and that's when I notice things like this:

When we moved into our house nearly two years ago, I made Josh put all of his toys in bins so that they wouldn't be all over the place all the time because I absolutely hate clutter. (This is something few people know about me, but I hate, hate, HATE owning things that are nonfunctional, whereas Josh refuses to get rid of anything). In the past two years, it seems that Josh's toys have reproduced. I generally don't spend much time in the bonus room because it's so messy and it smells like cat, but the other day I was printing out some articles for my behavioral neuroscience project, and saw that the computer desk is now COVERED in collectibles. Josh is obsessed with these Star Wars Galactic Heroes and explained to me that he needed the whole set in order to be authentic. Huge eye roll!

One thing I've learned about marriage is to pick my battles, which is why I let Josh keep his collectibles in a room I barely visit, but then a couple days ago I came home to find this in the hallway:

I think Josh's dad gave this to him for Christmas, so I can't complain that Josh is spending his money on ridiculous things. And perhaps I should applaud Josh for finally unpacking his bag of Christmas presents. But I don't know whether I should put my foot down. I don't know whether in two weeks I will walk into the hall to see a whole set of these things. (About my disgust, Josh replied, "Remember that you love me!" and then folded his arms and tapped his foot impatiently).

I suppose there are worse things. I could have married someone who was less awesome.

In other news, this is what became of the clothes from our closet:

Thankfully, we had a room we weren't using. (That was sarcastic. I am in fact very sad about this whole thing).

Also, I found out this week that I will be working at Lewis & Clark as a mental health counselor during the next school year. It was by far my first choice for a practicum experience, and the only place at which I interviewed. At the time, I thought my interview went well, but of course as I was leaving I had all sorts of regrets about what I said and I thought of all sorts of things that I should have said. But it worked out in the end. My favorite part about L&C is that it reminds me of my first alma mater, which I love and miss. The campus is so beautiful, it makes me jealous of all the people who are able to go there.

Disaster Strikes the ShepAlder Closet

This happened last night:

If you are not sure what you're looking at, this is our closet (or what's left of it). Last night I was sitting happily in bed, and heard this huge CRASH. I thought at first it was the cats because they were being naughty earlier in the evening, but, no, it was our closet falling apart.

A closer view:

 

Before we moved into our house nearly two years ago, I told Josh that we needed to do something about the closet, but it was so low on the list of things to do with our lives I never pursued it further. And now... ugh. 

The shelves didn't pull out of the wall or anything. They just broke off. So now our wall is covered in screws, and we have nowhere to hang our clothes.

Josh said that the whole thing would be funny some day in the future, but I have to admit that it's pretty funny right now. I mean, our entire closet fell down!

One more picture:

Cutest. Baby. Ever.

Josh and I went to Washington Square Mall yesterday to get some frozen yogurt and saw this:

I mean, seriously? Babies wearing sunglasses? Double awesome.

My Addiction

So, I have an admission to make: I am absolutely, irrevocably, irreplaceably addicted to Crystal Light lemonade, which I like to refer to as "juice" (just because demanding, "Where is my Crystal Light lemonade?!" does not seem to get the same kind of quick results), but Josh refuses to acknowledge its juice-like properties. He in fact claimed that if you looked at the packaging it would say "This is NOT juice" but the packaging only detailed that it was not for individual sale.

There are only two problems with this addiction.

#1 I need to recognize the unfortunate loss of a Nalgene water bottle to my Crystal Light love because I was drinking it in my Nalgene over the summer, and then the Nalgene was lost (to be found later, wedged underneath our bed) and the Crystal Light had molded and was gross.

#2 I drink so much of this stuff (with the added help of huge, reusable plastic cups we have stolen from Cirque du Soleil shows we've seen in Vegas and bendy straws), my bladder is constantly full. Josh took a nap today, but my bladder was so full I could never get comfortable! But, on the upside, I'm very well hydrated.

Just One of Those Weeks

I find myself being really annoyed when the people whose blogs I check regularly don't post every day, and yet there are some months that go by where I don't post at all. I don't even have the excuse that nothing is happening! Though this week, it seems, has been the week for professor to be snarky with me, and I can't even claim not to deserve it. I got a particularly snarky e-mail, and my first instinct was to reply in an equally snarky way, but I refrained. Because, quite frankly, I deserved it, and I can't go around feeling self-righteous or indignant when I could have avoided the whole thing.

In other news, I suffered a harrowing half hour when I received an e-mail from The Powers That Be telling me that I had been given the wrong Practicum II placement information. I had initiated e-mail contact with the person I thought would be interviewing me, only to be told this was wrong, which wouldn't have been so bad except that if I interviewed at the replacement site I had been given, I woud be competing with a friend for the placement. Thankfully, though annoyingly, I got another e-mail telling me to disregard the other e-mail, so I am back to interviewing at my original placement. There is no guarantee that I will get it, even though I've only been given the one option (and it's my number one choice), but at least that momentary freak-out had a positive ending.

In even more news, Josh and I have finally seen all of the Best Picture nominees, so we're looking forward to Oscar night!

Ladies' Night In

Josh went up to Hoodoo this weekend to camp and ski with the scouts, so my friend Heather planned a fun get-together at my house last night for some of the other women in our ward. This is the second major party Heather has organized to be held at our house, but I wish we did it more often! My least favorite part about parties is the organizing, and my favorite part is the having people come over, so in my opinion it was perfect.

Heather had the yummy idea to put together different types of fondue. Unfortunately, my day really got the better of me, so Heather wasn't able to come over ahead of time like she had planned to get everything ready. But I think it worked out well because then everyone was able to pitch in and help out cutting, mixing, and stirring.

Here is (mostly) everyone, before we dug in:

 

It was so good! And it was nice to put our fondue pot to work for the third time since we got it for our wedding. We also watched "The Time Traveler's Wife," which was better than I thought it would be. I was glad I read the book long enough ago so that I couldn't remember all of the details, so I wasn't too disappointed with the things that were left out.

It was definitely a great way to spend some of my Joshless time! Thanks, Heather, for all of your preparation and for the great idea of a Ladies' Night!

Jammify!

I got new jammy pants! Mostly it's because my jammy pants with the hearts on them finally ripped (I've been wearing them since the first time I was in college, so it was probably time for them to go), but also because I haven't bought new pajama pants for. . . well, I can't remember. Lately I've resorted to wearing my sweatpants to bed, which just isn't as comfortable.

Plus, these jammy pants have tvs on them, which I feel is fitting.

Here is Mr. F, showing her approval by shedding on me: