Sad Sappy Survey

I stole this from my sister-in-law's sister, whom I've never met. Because I'm a stalker.

1. What are your middle names? His is Douglas-- he hates it. I don't have one (apparently my parents thought Siobhan was torture enough) but I'm thinking of changing mine to Douglas so that Scott doesn't feel so bad.

2. How long have you been together? Dating since May of 09, married since April 2010. So, 14 months total, 3 months as murrieds.

3. How long did you know each other before you started dating? Uhh like a few weeks. But Scott wanted me pretty much instantly. (Even though he didn't know how to pronounce my name for like a month.)

4. Who asked who out? Well, we kept saying we wanted to "hang out" under the pretense of swapping music, but I really made the move when he told me he lost his flash drive and I said, "Dang... I was really looking forward to hanging out with you..." We ended up watching Arrested Development and he put his arm around me. *sigh*

5. Who made the first move? Well, I sent the aforementioned flirty text. But he initiated the first smooch.

6. How old are each of you? I'm 24 (as of June), Scott will be 23 as of July... so right now I'm the cougar with the 22-year-old husband.

7. Did you go to the same school? Right now, since we're both still in school, yes.

8. Are you from the same home town? Not even close. He's from Tennessee and I'm from Kansas. God had to bring us both to Seattle to get us to meet.

9. Who is the smartest? Scott wins more games but I read more books. It's hard to tell.

10. Who majored in what? He's graphic design, I'm professional writing. We plan on being starving artists.

11. Who is the most sensitive? I think I'm more sensitive to life's knocks but we're both pretty sensitive when it comes to each other.

12. Where do you eat out most as a couple? Cheap Mexican places around town. The teriyaki trailer. And if we really feel like a special evening, the local Thai restaurant.

13. Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? We went together to visit my family last February in Kansas City.

14. Who has the worst temper? Eh, we're both pretty fiery.

15. How many children do you want? Siobhan = 4 Scott = 2. (But it will be 4.)

16. Who does the cooking? Me mostly but often Scott helps and sometimes he cooks for us.

17. Who is more social? Probably me, I need people around.

18. Who is the neat-freak? I get more stressed out about things being clean normally but Scott is always really good about making the place look nice if we're going to have company.

19. Who is the most stubborn? Ooh both.

20. Who wakes up earlier? Depends. Usually me, out of necessity.

21. Where was your first date? Our first real, real date was at a Thai restaurant in Seattle on the beach. It was beautiful.

22. Who has the bigger family? Scott's.

23. Do you get flowers often? Often, no. BUT. One day while Scott was at work I texted him to let him know I was having a crap day and was super grumpy so that he wouldn't be caught off-guard to come home to a total beast, and he showed up after work with a bouquet of flowers and my favorite ice cream (Ben & Jerry's Chubby Hubby!).

24. How do you spend the holidays? With family.

25. Who is more jealous? Definitely me! I'm married to a super model.

26. How long did it take to get serious? We spent every second together from the start but didn't tell each other we loved each other till July, and then didn't talk about marriage until October.

27. Who eats more? Scott. His stomach is 50% larger than mine.

28. What do you do for a living? School. Which is not a job. Scott works at a call center.

29. Who does/did the laundry? We take turns.

30. Who’s better with the computer? Scott.

31. Who drives when you are together? Scott because I, erm, lost my license... (I really did, I hated the picture so I took it out of my wallet and lost it. All because of vanity...)

32. What is "your" song? "Stand Inside Your Love" by Smashing Pumpkins. It was both of our favorite SP songs and no one either of us had dated ever appreciated its beauty until we met each other!

The end.

4 Signs You're More Than Just Friends

Scott and Siobhan found this website and were wondering if they had any of the signs.

Siobhan: Okay, number one. "Your friends start making very obvious comments."
Scott: Well, people keep saying stuff like, "Where's your wife, Siobhan..." That could count.
Siobhan: Yeah, maybe. Number two: "You find yourself making or receiving a daily call, often right before bedtime." Well sometimes I call if I'm like, at the grocery store and need to find out if we're out of eggs...
Scott: Yeah I wouldn't call you right before bed, I'd just roll over and talk to you. I don't think that's what it means.
Siobhan: All right, forget that one. Number three: "Unplanned, you find you have developed pet names for each other."
Scott: Like "Mrs. Barnes"...
Siobhan: Yeah, where did that come from?
Scott: Read the last one.
Siobhan: Number four: "Pats on the back become arm and hand intertwinings."
Scott: I think a pat on the bottom has a much more significant effect than that.
Siobhan: Yeah but that's not what it's asking.
Scott: I guess... I guess we're just friends then.

Coming Soon...

...as soon as the new power cable for Scott's Mac arrives...

Pictures from Siobhan's birthday and the weekend Siobhan's dad came to visit!

In other news...

• Rexburg has an obnoxious extreme in temperatures. Scott handles this just fine but Siobhan is cursed with voluminous sweating which makes her kind of crabby.

• We received some sad news recently but it made us appreciate each other and the Gospel very much.

• We're preparing our trip to Knoxville in 3 weeks!!! Tips for how to stay sane during a three day road trip?
  

• An Indian man died of a heart attack when he saw his own cremation receipt by accident.

That is all.

Every Tuesday and Thursday I force myself to sit down and write creatively for two hours as part of a school project (and also because if I don't force myself to do things with structure, they never get done).

I've realized two things:

1. I have to write while my favorite sitcoms are on in the background or I get too morose. (And if I opt for music, it has to be Bob Dylan.)

2. I relish distraction.

Today's distraction: my dad is coming tomorrow. To stay with us. For the entire weekend. We've cleared our our second bedroom and acquired a blow-up mattress and I'm convinced that if I cook him fantastic meals all weekend he'll think I'm adult and mature enough to handle the responsibilities of marriage (which has previously been up for debate).

So here's what I'm thinking:

Saturday Morning: Breakfast Burritos
Boiled potatoes, cheddar cheese, crispy bacon, sauteed onions and green peppers, and scrambled eggs all wrapped up in a warm tortilla. Green chili salsa optional (although he'll take it because he's a New Mexican). Yum!!

Saturday Picnic Lunch: Panini Sandwiches with Herbed Potato Salad and fresh fruit.
I'm thinking steak sandwiches with grilled veggies and mozzarella cheese.

Sunday Morning: French Toast
...with strawberries and a creamy brown sugar topping!

Okay, so most likely this will all end up a disaster-- the mattress will explode (I hope not; it's borrowed), he'll notice that we're paying too much for rent, and my meals will be awful and burnt and taste bad (because I've never made them before). And we'll have this moment where he says "I'll always be your dad and you'll always need me" and I'll say "I know, you should have been cooking this whole time" (because he's terrific at it) and then we'll all go out for ice cream.

Two Months of Marriage

Well, almost. Tomorrow it will be two months.
TWO MONTHS!

To be honest, this isn't what I thought marriage would be like. It's better than what I thought marriage would be like. It's like having the best of childhood and adulthood all at once. For example, yesterday we rode a carousel.And then later, when we wanted hamburgers, since we're adults, we made them ourselves.


Isn't that a beautiful hamburger? I remember when I was a kid, whenever I wanted hamburgers we'd end up having like stroganoff, but whenever I wasn't into it, we'd have hamburgers.
Now I get to decide.
Because I can cook. Sort of.

School's going well. I'm learning a lot. For example, the other day I learned that you're supposed to say you feel nauseated instead of nauseous because if you say you feel nauseous you're saying that you make other people want to puke. Which is funny.

And work is going well for Scott. The other day he called a guy with a thick Southern accent who put the phone down randomly and Scott heard him muttering to himself, "C'mon man, I don't care 'bout you or nuttin' yous got tuh say, Ima just lay that phone rightcher n letchew talk tuh yurself..."

And, in gloriously wonderful news, my dad is coming to visit. Yep, my dad. He's going to fly to Salt Lake, rent a car, and drive four hours to Rexburg for the weekend before my birthday. I've never been in a social situation that involved my dad without my mom, and definitely not that was in any sort of visiting format, but I'm determined to show him what a grown-up I am by having a clean apartment and cooking us good meals. I'm also desperately searching for some way to entertain him while he's here; Rexburg isn't exactly a happening place for 45-year-old men. Wish us luck.

Our Home.

So we're finally getting around to adding some pictures of our home, which we have thoroughly enjoyed putting together. In fact, we cut our honeymoon a little short just so we could get everything moved in and start decorating. It's nothing fancy, but it's definitely us and we love it.


The strange white blob next to the TV is a tall paper lamp. It's cool, I wish it had shown up in the picture better.

There's another white blob in the corner over there. We tried to get a picture of that lamp because we like it a lot, but it didn't turn out much better...

The lamp.

The couch.

The bathroom.

That's all! Except for this, this is us on the day we took the pictures:

Hope you enjoyed.

Disclaimer: Have been sitting on the couch with a fever for five hours.

I'm sick.

Like I woke up for class with a sore throat and during the course of class sunk lower and lower onto my desk with misery. By the time I made it home I had a fever.

I've been sitting on the couch watching The Office all day. Obviously I'm grumpy about it. I hate being sick. I just want to sleep until it's over.

Scott's been great though-- he made me soup and cuddled with me at the risk of his own health.

We've been married almost a month. As in, tomorrow it will be a month. I suppose that means we should probably post pictures of our apartment (the decoration of which we are very proud of) and of recent activities that we actually photo-documented.

Marriage is terrific. School has been hard to focus on though; I think it's because I'm taking classes and Scott isn't and he doesn't work till later in the day so it's like I got a new puppy and I just want to go home and play with it all day. Not that grammar and global climate change aren't fascinating.

We typically do things like go rock climbing (once), play frisbee at the park (once), play Monopoly (once-- Scott creamed me, my pride has never been so hurt)... Okay so we're trying to get out more but mostly we just watch movies. But it's nice. I could do anything with Scott. (Aw.)

Last weekend we went with some friends to this ice cave... except it sort of became a geology expedition to find hidden caves/ shooting things.It was fun, except that I -HATE-GUNS. I had never shot one before, and I thought, Okay, maybe this will be fun. No. And my husband and future sons will hate me for it, but no guns. They can wait until I've passed from this world and am glaring at them from the other side.

That night I had a dream that I shot a girl in the face. She was a bad guy, but still. Okay probably also all the ultra-violent movies I've been watching aren't helping either. I want a Clear Play DVD player.

All right, that's probably enough from the cynical sick girl. The ol' better half will post pictures soon.