"You have a small mouth, but such a powerful tongue!"

I went to the dentist today, which is visit #2 of 5 I have to look forward to in the next couple months. I hadn't been to the dentist since right before Josh and I got married, and the only reason I went even then was because I had a broken tooth and jaw pain (which turned out to be stress-related, which I guess was a no-brainer since I was about to get married).

I honestly have wanted to go to the dentist, there were just some factors that kept getting in the way. But last week I went to my dentist (at Perfect Smile in Beaverton), who I think is very nice and so far would recommend her to others, for a teeth cleaning and x-rays. It was no surprise when she found that my mouth is riddled with multiple cavities.

So to fill in all my cavities, we are doing one quadrant at a time, which means that the ladies at Perfect Smile will get to know me well in the next couple months. It reminds me of when I decided to paint the centerpieces (bowls) for my reception, and I went to a pottery painting place for months. I was so familiar with it, and the ladies who worked there were so familiar with me, it was weird when I was finally done.

I hate going to the dentist, though. The drill is the worst part, but then having my face numb for most of the day is also pretty bad.

Though, in this picture it's not so bad, I couldn't feel my lips at all. I put lipgloss on, but then couldn't rub my lips together. Josh went to give me a kiss, but I couldn't even pucker.

P.S. The title from the post is an exact quote from my dentist. About me. It made me laugh.

The Closet: An Update

Remember when this happened?

Well, we are finally getting a new closet (yay!) Tonight we had our FHE in the closet. Right now our lessons are coming from the book Mesoamerica and the Book of Mormon: Is this the place? by Dr. John Lund. Josh pulled out nails and I read out loud, then we spackled together.

But we're left with a dilemma. We have all this wire shelving for which we have absolutely no use. I would like to recycle it or reuse it or something. Does anyone have any use for wire shelving? We would gladly give away everything we have, which includes the metal arms and screws, though all of the dry wall anchors are broken.

Here are some of the shelves:

We have two really long shelves, too, but those are in the garage. We would love it if someone wanted them, because we really, really, really don't, and I worry that we'll just end up dropping them off at the dump.

There were so many holes in our walls, but we spackled them all. Our next goal (Saturday) is to repaint the whole closet, but we haven't decided on a color yet. It depends on what leftover paint we have in the garage.

The pink spots are spackle-- where there used to be holes

In the meantime, all of our clothes are in the Cloud Room. It's extremely frustrating. 

Josh also has a ridiculous amount of clothing, so next FHE will be devoted to sorting things out for the DI trailer. Somewhere some lucky XL guy will get to be the recipient of Josh's 500 t-shirts.

The Smallest Thing Has Derailed My Day

I've been corresponding with a professor by e-mail for a little bit, and today I got an e-mail back from her saying that it was nice to see me the other day. The thing is, I don't think I saw her "the other day" or, really, for months, so  it made me wonder who she thinks I am.

Not in a snarky "WHO DOES SHE THINK SHE'S DEALING WITH?!" kind of way, but in a seriously confused who does she think I am? Who does she think she's been talking to this entire time?

It's possible that I did see her at some point in time and just don't remember. Since starting graduate school my memory retention has decreased to that of a new puppy or goldfish. But I strongly suspect that this isn't the case. I strongly suspect that she just, genuinely, doesn't know who I am.

**sigh**

It made me feel forgettable, and that made me sad.

Spooky Little Girl

When Josh and I were dating for awhile, we started reading together. We have differing accounts about how this happened and which book was first, but we would read books by Laurie Notaro and laugh so hard we nearly peed. It is one of my many fun memories from before we were married. She is most well-known for her Idiot Girl's books, which are essays about her life.

Tonight we got to go to a book reading for Laurie Notaro's most recent book Spooky Little Girl, which I haven't read yet, but am looking forward to. I didn't get to see her on her last book tour, for there's a (slight) chance i might be going to hell, which was her first work of fiction and strongly influenced by her move to Eugene from Phoenix, because I was really sick, but Josh and I made sure to be at Powell's for this book tour (the last stop!)

Here I am waiting for the whole thing to start (we were apparently 30 minutes early):

Things filled up later. Josh remarked that it was a lot like the time when we went to a taping of "The Ellen Show"-- a lot of ladies out on the town. A lot of saving seats with purses, talking about how many seats needed to be saved, shouting across the room at each other, and cacklaughing. Also, a lot of back tattoos.

As predicted, Laurie Notaro was hilarious. She read a bit from Spooky Little Girl and something from her not-yet-published book about how she and a friend dressed up like characters from Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? for Halloween and she "saved" her friend from "choking." I can't recreate it, but it was funny stuff.

My only complaint is that, though we were in the second row, we somehow ended up toward the back of the book-signing line. There were a fair amount of people there, and Laurie Notaro talked to everyone, so it took awhile. Josh and I got a little nuts.

Here we are standing in line:

As time wore on, we started goofing around/reading books.

Our devil pictures:

There were some other pictures, which I've decided not to share. 

An interesting thing, and if you've been to readings at Powell's you may have already been aware of this, is that the lectern for readings looks like a stack of books. 

The books in the top part are actual books by writer Bret Harte. I found that interesting.

Finally we got to the front and got to talk with Laurie Notaro (Josh invited her to Hoodoo, and I just rolled my eyes), and we got to take a couple pictures.

The first one was the result of the woman taking the picture telling us to "say menopause!"

So we had to take another:

Totally worth it! If you're looking for a funny book to read, Laurie Notaro has now published 8 of them, so you have a lot to choose from.

Also, Josh bought this pin for me, which I'm going to wear to my next book club meeting:

It's MY Turn!

This past week, I introduced Josh to the glory that is "My Turn on Earth," the wildly popular LDS musical. He had never seen it, though I periodically break into songs from the show, so I made him watch it. We have a long-standing argument in our house about whether "My Turn on Earth" or "Saturday's Warrior" is better, and I think I finally may have tipped him to my side.

However, Josh is still adamant that the production value on the "Saturday's Warrior" film is much better, but I don't think it's fair when "My Turn on Earth" was filmed as a stage play in 1986.

Watching the movie again, I was reminded of how many times I've seen it before. It's been years since I've listened to the music, but I still remember nearly every word of every song (and a lot of the choreography too. . . did I mention I used to re-enact it?)

What do YOU think? "My Turn on Earth" or "Saturday's Warrior"?

And then THIS happened

Josh and I have been in California visiting my brother and, because they were also visiting my brother, one of my sisters and her family. Unfortunately, my brother hasn't been feeling well, so Josh and I went to Disneyland on Tuesday on our own. Supposedly Disneyland in April on a Tuesday is supposed to be next-to-empty, and while that wasn't exactly the case (we did still have to wait for 20 minutes to ride Space Mountain), we were able to have THIS experience:

We rode Splash Mountain 4 times in a row, and the third time the cast member asked us whether we just wanted to go through again (and the ShepAlders never say no to not standing in a line). The couple sitting in front of us were apparently done, and got out after a little fight, but Josh and I were able to get a picture with just us, ShepAldering it up on Splash Mountain. Awesome,

Also awesome? Josh and I are totally in the picture of some family who also mugged it up for the camera. We saw them buying the picture, so we are now a part of their everlasting memories, Josh making an "O" and me waving my arms around, smiling while simultaneously trying to avoid getting water on my face.

I'm in love with a dress

I love this dress:

And I'm thinking of buying it, except that I'm currently on a diet and hoping to be a bit smaller in a few months. So do I buy a smaller size and hope? I'm thinking this dress might be my prize for losing weight. 

Another question: t-shirt underneath or sweater over? Sometimes t-shirts bunch up and make me look middle-heavy (though, in all fairness, I can look pretty middle-heavy on my own), though sometimes it's too hot for a sweater (and sweaters don't always cover the scoopneck).