So.

Sorry about the lack of... well, anything on here lately. All in all, we're good. BUSY. But good. Absolutely can't wait for this semester to be over. This is my last full semester (cue Hallelujah chorus), and next semester, I'm taking 6 credit hours. Awesome? Yes. Most definitely.

So Thanksgiving was nice. I hope you all had good ones too. Chad's family drove up from Arizona to spend the holiday with us, which was nice. I really don't like traveling for holidays (like, really really) so it was nice to be able to stay put and have family visit us for a change :) We divided up the meal between apartments; Katelynn lives nearby and all of her roommates but a cousin (Becca) were gone, so that's where we ate because an almost-empty apartment meant for six girls is bigger than one meant for a married couple. So that was cool. On the Friday after Thanksgiving, we all went to the Carl Bloch exhibit at the Museum of Art (which was really neat), and then on Saturday we went to see "Inception" at the dollar theater. That was Chad's and my third time seeing it, and our dear friend Lindsay's fourth :) Cool, eh? I can't wait to buy that one.

So semi-funny story. Only semi because it's totally at my expense and I'm still a little raw. I can't see for crap in the dark (pardon the salty language). It's pretty bad. Not quite blind, but definitely bad. I've never even really been able to see that stars, except when I'm out in the middle of nowhere and it's impossible not to see the stars, because they're the only light around (which is a really cool experience, I might add; you can even see the Milky Way! I learned that a couple of years ago in Durango, CO on an archaeology field trip, but I digress).

So anyway, because of my night blindness, I usually try not to get up during movies for bathroom breaks, etc. because trying to find my seat when I come back is a nightmare. But this time, I just couldn't hold it. I was fidgety like you wouldn't believe. So I bit the bullet and went. However, upon return, I could see just about nothing but the screen and the little lights along the walkways. So I wandered in, feebly searched for my row for a few seconds, but finally gave up and sat down in between a couple of strangers, one of which was a portly man who, recognizing the signs of one lost in a theater, spent the next moment or two laughing at me. Cool.

I was supremely embarrassed. Mostly because I could hear Chad's family laughing at me but I still couldn't see them. So naturally, I was angry, too. Sometimes, they just go hand in hand. Then Chad comes up to the end of my new row and stage whispers, "Abby!" and motions like crazy at me. Well, I was angry, remember? So I said, "I know!" and waved him off to go sit back down, because I wasn't moving unless my seat was on fire. No thank you to more humiliation; I'd had enough already. So I watched the movie in between the giggly man on my right and weirded-out girl on my left. Oh well.

All in all, it was a good Thanksgiving :) Have a great last day of November!

How It Should Have Ended

And now, a few awesome videos for your viewing pleasure. Sorry if there are ads before the clips start.
Real post coming soon.

Twilight: How it should have ended


Avatar: How it should have ended


Star Trek: How it should have ended

Two videos to make your Wednesday a little brighter

If this doesn't make your day, nothing will:



And check this out too; my sister, Erin, sent it to me today. Now I'm kind of pining for their CD. So cool!

grumblegrumble*Monday*grumble

And now: a few pictures to start your week off right.

This is called unpacking. I'm a pro.

Say hello to our computer desk chair.

If you hear about an exploding apartment complex in Provo, UT on the news, you can be sure it was my fault.

I think Mondays should be a weekly holiday and that three-day weekends should be the norm. Mondays and I... we just don't get along.

Have a great one everybody!

A long-expected party. I mean update.

Heyyy youuu guuuys!
{Goonies reference. If you didn't get it, you should rectify that immediately.}

So... how's life? Remember that I have a blog? Yeah, I kinda forgot too. That's ok. One statement pretty much wraps it up: life is good great. Know what's best of all?

There was/is so much rejoicing. What a great experience. He did great! He was definitely one of the very successful students on the program. And now that he's been home for a while... he's starting to talk about how we (not just he) need to go back sometime. There are things about Egypt that he doesn't miss (things that I'm sure even Egyptians wouldn't miss), but there are definitely some things that he does miss. So, at some point, we'll need to go back.

And--big announcement--(nope, there's nothin' in my oven), Chad has officially applied to the Austin Police Department and we're going to Texas in October for two days of testing. Exciting? Yes, most definitely. I haven't written anything about it on here because we didn't know how everything was going to work out/we were still talking about it and trying to get everything together for his application. But it's all in and things are looking good. That was such a blessing. He completed a 50ish-page background packet and submitted it in the two weeks after he came home. And believe you me--that thing was thorough. That whole process was a series of prayers being answered. That was a really cool experience and we're really grateful everything worked out.

We moved!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!! Mitch and Jade graduated in August and moved at the beginning of September. They've finally set off into the real world, and 2nd Lieutenant Mitch is doing real Army stuff now. They're in VA for a few months for training for Mitch, and then stationed in GA for a while. Whoop! That's exciting. When they moved, we took their apartment. Basically, it's a beautiful, well-kept mansion with about twice the space of our old apartment, next to no spiders (yippee!), and very nearly the same price. And two bedrooms. And a great landlord who replaced the carpet before we moved in. I can hardly express just how wonderful this place is.

Pictures (moving in):

The living room isn't blue, but I think I can live with that. That was the hardest part about leaving our old place. That and the fact that it was our first home, which, even for a nasty place like that, does create some sentimentality. But, oh well :) We're still clicking our heels.

We have better jobs! Which means no more 3am work days!!! Chad's an Arabic 201 TA this year, and I still do custodial, but I work at the Bean Museum again, my boss is wonderful, and I don't have to be there until 7am. Outstanding if I do say so myself.

And, to wrap things up, some pictures of what's been going down around here.

 Mitch and Jade's farewell party. Lots of people came because everyone knows how cool Mitch and Jade are.

Torrance wouldn't eat the sausage herself so Katelynn held it for her. Hehe.

 We looked good. End of story. Actual story = first temple trip after Chad came home :D

 I can twist my face all funny.

Chad missed ice cream in Egypt. That was a tender reunion. 

We like bagels.

 Chad likes to pretend he's mean.

 But really he's the nicest boy I know.

 We made peanut butter cookies. I'd never done that before, so it was a picture occasion.

Smashing peanut butter cookies requires concentration and hard work. See that shirt Chad's wearing? I got first place in my age division in the 5K :) That was this summer while Chad was in Egypt.

We don't have a kitchen table or a coffee table, so we're eating picnic-style in our living room until we do.

See? No table :)

Have a lovely Sunday!

Cute 'lil bugger

So something monumental happened today. When Chad and I were about to get off of Skype, I said, "see you Tuesday." Just plain Tuesday. 

Finally.

:D :D :D

Chad's now packing and cleaning and making final souvenir runs for people before he leaves. AHH! :D

Now for a bit of a jump in subject matter, is this not the cutest octopus you've ever seen??

There's some pretty cool stuff in this article/album. You should check it out.

 
Excited? 

      Me too!!

PS. Spider count: two in my hair today. Well, one dangling from my hair and one crawling on my glasses. I have decided that it might be a good idea to start looking up more often. Since making this new goal earlier today, I've killed two more on the ceiling. All of the ones that have ended up on my head so far are the exact same kind and size. Agh! They're multiplying like rabbits! Crawly rabbits with eight legs and pedipalps. Bleh.

Warning: very exciting story to follow

I killed two spiders in my shower today within 5 minutes of each other. Just so you know.

Today was interesting. I nearly got hit by a car. Not just bumped, whoops-pulling-out-and-didn't-see-you-there hit. I mean honest to goodness, smear-on-the-asphalt creamed.

I was out for a run, and about three quarters of a mile into my usual route, there's an intersection of two busy roads in Provo: Center Street and 900 East. So I was waiting patiently (albeit a little distractedly) for my turn to cross. I was on the southwest corner of the intersection, just so you have an image in your mind. When it came time for me to cross, I glanced back over my shoulder to make sure of any turn-lane cars that might be there. But at seeing none, I went ahead and ran out into the street. Not five strides into it, I glimpsed in my peripheral vision a car at my left coming right for me. It was the kind of situation where you really don't have much time to react. I had enough time to see the car, and promptly swear under my breath. There wasn't even enough time for an adrenaline shot to help me speed up, much less jump out of the way. Right at the last second, the guy--who had totally destroyed that red light--swerved out of the way and narrowly missed me. So of course I did the only sensible thing to do. Still running, I turned around, threw up my arms, and yelled at him (swearing again... hope Mom isn't reading this) as he drove by, making a nice scene in the middle of the intersection. I was pretty livid. But then a little ways down 9th, it finally dawned on me that I had narrowly missed being killed by a distracted driver who streaked through a very red light at full speed. If he hadn't woken up at the last second, I probably would have died, as fast as he was going and not paying attention at all. So with this realization, I can tell you that crying and hyperventilating are hard things to do (and bring with them quite a bit of nausea) while you're running. Needless to say, I turned off my music and said a very, very grateful prayer in my head.

Heavenly Father took care of me, and I am extremely grateful. I don't want to think about what would have happened if that driver hadn't snapped to, I'm sure at Heavenly Father's prompting. I'm so grateful for His watchful care.

And I definitely won't take red lights for granted any more.

Oh, you know... spiders and stuff.

First off:

But who's counting?

Chad's totally done with class now, and he has three more tests to go! Really just one to study, then two online evaluations. After that, he'll have about 6 days to run around Cairo with friends and chill, and then it's back to the US with him. The poor boy's going to be traveling for 20 hours starting Monday night. Goodness.


In other news, I think I have a serious spider problem.

Last night, I was watching a movie with all the lights off except the lamp in our living room. I watched enthralled and practically biting my nails as Mac, Dal, and Jesse hatched plans to rescue their kidnapped sisters from the renegade band of Rebs who had just lost the Civil War and weren't going to go quietly. However, my attention was unglued from the TV as a black blur about the size of a quarter streaked across the living room floor and disappeared beneath my running shoes. I squealed involuntarily and swore a little bit under my breath as I crept to my tennis shoes, readying myself for the battle. After a deep breath, I lifted them up and brought them crashing back down again on a big, black wolf spider. Shudder.

This morning, I was brushing my teeth when I kept seeing this little dark shape out of the corner of my eye. It looked like a floater, but something was off. As I leaned over the bathroom sink to spit, my eyes finally focused on a teeny little spider hanging by its string from my hair, just a couple of inches from my face. I pinched him off and washed him down the drain. Poor fella.

During sacrament, I had my notebook on my lap. I glanced down as a little black spider ran up the edge of my pages. Getting a little ridiculous? Yes, most definitely. So I killed the poor thing right in the middle of learning about provident living.

After the home teachers left this afternoon, I went into my bathroom to find a good-sized and less-than-friendly-looking spider IN MY TRASHCAN. It had actually spun a web in there! Smart little twerp! And this was just since this morning, unless I managed to totally miss his web with all the junk I'd been throwing in there. He probably knew that while all the other spiders I caught usually ended up wadded in toilet paper in the trash, there was no way I could catch him if he was already in the trash. Bugger. I tried, but he just ran for cover deeper down. Time to empty that one I think.

Crazy! I definitely don't like spiders, but for goodness sakes, it seems I'm getting cozy with them whether I like it or not. For a while, I had been letting a daddy longs legs live in the corner of my bathroom because I saw him munching on a much scarier looking spider one afternoon. Shoot, if the daddy longs'll earn their keep, they can stay. They're not the scary ones.  

Bleh. Chad and I are planning on moving at the beginning of September. I really, really, really hope that happens. Stinking spiders.

Friday Greetings

Hey peops. How's it going? Things here are pretty dang good. First of all, may I just say:

until my Chadly comes home. Today exactly, it has been three months since he left for Egypt. 13 weeks. 11 days suddenly doesn't seem so impossible. Just very, very slow sometimes. I just have to think about it in a chunk. If I think 11 individual days that I have to fill by myself... I don't like that as much.

He took his OPI today! OPI = Oral Proficiency Interview. All the students had one at the beginning of the program to measure their starting abilities, and now at the end of the program, they all have to take another to measure their proficiency after having lived in Egypt for 3 months and studied and interacted with actual native Arabic speakers. From what I understand, it went really well :) The interviews this summer are with a nice older Egyptian man living in San Francisco, so they were over the phone. I think that might be the way it always is, actually--over the phone. Anyway, we are both very glad to have that out of the way. That was the big, stressful, looming-over-his-head task to culminate the study abroad. He has two more finals, two classes, then a few days off, then he's home. Yippee!!

Things in Provo have been good too. Funny moment at work this morning (which is going to turn into a big, verbose story, just to give you fair warning): so I work with this kid who's in between high school and his mission (he just finished his papers), and he's allowed to work on campus (even though he's not a student and that's technically not allowed) #1 because it's summertime and rules slide a little, and #2 because his dad is the equivalent of my boss, just over a different crew. So this morning, Ben and I were teamed up to clean the floors of the Bookstore's second level. We were talking (something Ben has a great propensity for) about musicals. But first, you need to understand something. Ben is an interesting mix of young man. He loves to hunt. He's good enough that farmers pay him to shoot rabbits on their farms. I have never seen him in any shoes other than his hunting boots. He almost always wears a ratty old baseball cap; he's from a place called Juab (Jew-ab), Utah; and he's tall and skinny enough to have so much room in the seat of his Wranglers that he usually carries a bottle of Dr. Pepper in his back pocket. However, this hunter/Utah-red-neck loves (I mean loves) musicals and all things theater. Including acting. Wouldn't he make a great character in a book? I think I might have to use him.

I on the other hand, am not a great fan of musicals. "Singing in the Rain", while I adore that movie, is about all I can handle. Ben was absolutely astonished at this, and privily went on to discuss in detail the virtues and ins and outs of several other musicals, including most especially "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" (which I haven't seen). This is where the funny part comes in. As he's recounting the storyline in full for me, he gets to... Nelly? Adam's wife... I think that's her name. Anyways, apparently Nelly is "really small... she's about your height... only skinny."

Soak that in....

Hhah! Hahaha! Double take? Yes. You and I both.

He didn't mean anything by it. He truly just wasn't thinking. I could only chuckle to myself with an "uh-huh," keep going, Ben. And he never picked up on it.

Really nice boy. Means well, just doesn't always think about what he's saying before he says it. Anyways. I got a good laugh out of that.

Speaking of laughs, I hope you get a chuckle out of this too:

I definitely did. More like a guffaw followed by some hearty snickering. I have no idea as to credit, but if I did, I think I'd send this sign-poster some cookies.

RIP Field School 2010

Well, it has finally come to a close. All too soon, actually. All in all, I had a great time at field school, and I learned so much about archaeology. So much so that I think I would be a fairly competent and payable field worker now. A few favorite pics from the experience:

And you can see the whole field school album here. 

Monster Update

Hey folks. Sorry I've kind of abandoned blogging lately. I'll try to not do that again.

Things have been good. We have less than a month before Chad comes home!! Yay!!! It's finally starting to feel like this thing isn't going to last forever.

Updates:

1 Year Anniversary!

As of June 24, Chad and I have been married for a whole year. I know that a solitary tear probably just slipped from your eye and is rolling--with dignity--down your cheek when you realized that Chad and I weren't even on the same continent for our first anniversary ;) But it really was good. Chad's teachers pretty much told him to do whatever he needed to that day, class or not (but, being the good boy that he is, he went to class. I would have taken the offer and run). And I was so well taken care of that day. Hooray for loving and thoughtful friends. To start the day, my dear friend and visiting teacher Rachel brought over a pan of brownies and stayed to chat for a while. She brought her cute baby to play too. Then Chad and I had a Skype date at 1:30pm, and a little into that my old roommate Rachel stopped by with her husband and these:



Isn't that so incredibly sweet?! It was their first anniversary too. Yay for us!!! We chatted for a couple minutes, they got to say hi to Chad, and then Rachel and Danny took off to do their own celebrating.

So Chad and I got back to our Skype date, and then about forty five minutes later, I got another knock on my door. There was a nice little delivery man standing on my front step with these:



It was pretty much the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. And there was a sweet little card with them from Chad. Aren't they gorgeous?? I love daisies :) They're my favorite. Oh man. What a great husband.

Our Skype date went for about five and a half hours. I know, I know... But it was our first anniversary for goodness sakes! I think we earned it, all things considered.

Mitch's Commissioning and Jones Family Visit

So Mom and Dad Jones, Katelynn, Devery, and Natalie came to Provo for a visit, and all but Devery came to see Mitch commission. He's now 2nd Lieutenant Jones! Woohoo!! Go Mitch! That was really cool to see. Devery would have liked to be there, but schedules conflicted and she flew in the next day.


Family shot minus Devery, who flew in a little later.

The Joneses stayed for about a week and a half, and we got to spend some time together. We went to Salt Lake and ran around there for a bit. That was fun. Mom and Dad Jones took me out to dinner to The Olive Garden for Chad's and my anniversary. That was really cool, and very thoughtful :)

No More Field School

It's officially over, and I'm quite sad about that. But that's another post in itself. Lots of pictures and stuff :)

Haircut

It was definitely time.

From the awful mullety before, to the oh-so-much-better after:



So overall, life's been just fine. Chad's doing well. It's getting a little bit harder for the both of us the closer we get to being done with his study abroad. We're starting to feel a little "frayed at the edges" as Chad put it. But, we're hanging in there alright. Things are still going great for him in Maadi. He's doing really well in his classes, things are fine with his roommates, and he's doing well in speaking to locals :) I'll give more specific updates as things happen.

Anyways, hope you're all doing well! Have a great day!

My Saturday was full of Scottish awesomeness. How 'bout yours?

Guess what I did today!



Ahhh!! SO much fun! More on that coming soon :) And heck yes I took that video myself!

Ouch.

I did something really stupid today.

So... here it is:





Misery, thy name is really, really bad sunburn.

I'm pretty sure this is the worst one I've ever had. The pictures really don't do it justice. It's actually kind of scary. And it's making me feel sick; I have a headache and don't feel so good.

Anyways... that's gonna feel great tomorrow ;)

So I stole some pictures of Chad from a Facebook album that belongs to one of his friends. I think it's alright considering he's going to give Chad the originals anyways. This guy is SUCH a good photographer! These pictures aren't nearly as artsy as he gets, but looking at all of his pictures makes me pine for my photography days. I haven't done it since high school, and I really miss working in a dark room with actual film and developing chemicals, and being halfway decent at it. But anyways, here are some pictures of our favorite blue-eyed boy:










(The guy on the right is the photographer)


This last one makes me laugh :D Such a cutie.

They went to an Ottoman mansion for a tour. I'm not sure about details of the place, but it was really cool. Chad had a great time, and some of that architecture is just gorgeous.

Anyways, hope you all are doing well. Things are going well for us. Chad's been gone six weeks tomorrow, and my dig ends on June 17 I think. We have about eight more days to dig before we have to back-fill everything. That's going to be a sad day. There's a survey job with the National Forest Service I'm thinking about taking, but I'm not sure. If it carries into August, then probably not. I'd be in the Moab area 4 days of 7 every week. That's the only drawback. I definitely don't want to be out of town for the better part of the first month Chad comes home. So we'll see what happens with that.

Have a splendid day! Go do something fun :)