The weekend before last I went camping at Fort Pulaski with
the priesthood brethren. Despite being
in January it was really good weather for camping. I arrived at sunset and the view back towards
Savannah from the bridge to Fort Pulaski was very pretty. When I got there everyone was gathered around
the fire making hobo dinners. To be
honest, I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t a nicer dinner ready, but
I was surprised when a pulled out my hobo dinner from the fire and it was
delicious. So delicious, in fact, that I
made a second. And I was delighted to
find that there was stuff to make smores with.
After dinner, everyone gathered around to sing a few church
songs and to share a spiritual thought.
It caught me off guard that they were doing this, even though I should
have expected it, but I was glad they were.
It’s not necessarily the type of thing that guys would gather round the
fire to do which is why it was nice that it was a priesthood camp out. We had Ben Clark play the guitar to accompany
us singing and also had a special number on the harmonica. Charles Jensen shared a spiritual thought
relating the battle at Fort Pulaski to the battle in our spiritual lives.
After the spiritual thought and music, a few of the adults and a few of the boys
walked over to the tunnels outside of the fort at night. Some of the leaders had enjoyable time frightening
the boys by throwing rocks into the woods and making them think there something
out there. One of the guys got a coke at
the vending machine with his credit card, at which time some of the boys
started hitting the buttons. Not
understanding that the transaction with the man’s credit card was still open, they started
yelling, “this machine’s giving out free cokes!” when two more cokes came out. I wasn’t there to see it, so I just thought
Daniel really like coke when I saw him with three of them, but when he
explained it I thought that was pretty hilarious.
It had been a while since I’ve been camping, so I was
worried I might not sleep very well, but it turned out I slept pretty well. I woke up a few times early in the morning,
listening for sounds of breakfast being made and debating whether I should get
out of my tent to go to the bathroom.
After drifting in and out of sleep for a little while I decided that
even though I hadn’t heard breakfast being made I should go ahead and get
up. I was really excited about having breakfast
being made without having been asked to contribute. When I finally peered out of my tent, to my
astonishment of the campground was deserted.
They had already left to start the service project without me.
With camping hair I went off to meet them. Luckily I had turned my phone off to save enough battery power for at least one call, but I hadn’t anticipated that it would be a help everyone left me I don’t know where to go call. When I met up with them, there wasn’t much left to do, so I walked with them as they picked trash up on the outer dike surrounding Fort Pulaski. In his spiritual thought the night before, Charles had told us about how the union army had defeated Fort Pulaski we have the newly invented rifle canon. It was very cool to see that the battered wall of the fort that they had destroyed from a mile away on Tybee Island.
I know it's not kosher to make things like this public, but now it's funny to me, and I want to remember it. So I am blogging about it.
All week long I look forward to the weekend, for one reason, and one reason only, because Taylor doesn't have to work on Saturdays and we get to hang out all day.
I suppose since we're going to spend thousands of Saturdays together in our lifetime, I should expect some of them to be a bust. And this Saturday was a bust.
I don't really know what it was but a couple hours after waking up, I found myself snapping at Taylor for no reason.
And it
all went
downhill
from there.
We went to the grocery store and disagreed about pretty much every single thing that went in our cart. And Publix was really busy, so I'm sure the other people in there thought we were nuts. THEN, it got to the point where I would be like, "We need this, let's get this brand of it." and Taylor would be like, "Um, no, we need this brand." and then I would be all, "FINE!! FINE! FINE. JUST GET IT. YOU'RE RIGHT .YOU'RE ALWAYS RIGHT." And I would storm off, but then obviously have to come right back, cause where am I supposed to go?
So, as the day went on it was like that with every single thing that happened. I found that the worse mood I got in, the more it rubbed off onto Taylor. And before I knew it we were both in such rotten moods, and I realized that no matter how hard I tried to convince myself that it was all his fault, I couldn't. Because it was actually my fault. But it was TOO LATE to fix it, because I'm prideful and once I pick an emotion, I stick with it.
Later on, on our way to Stake Conference, I finally told him I was sorry for being so mean. And he also apologized.
Afterwards we went and got ChikFilA and laughed about how we hated each other all day.
Then we went home and made out.
And now we love each other again.
On a slightly related note, here's my book recommendation for wives and future wives:
The only rule is that if you're going to read it, you have to put aside whatever triggers you to be offended by things, and open up your mind. Because otherwise, you're going to be mad and feel like she's saying it's entirely the woman's fault. Which she kind of is, but that's because, if you married a normal, nice guy (like me), it usually IS the woman's fault (just like Saturday being ihateUday, was pretty much my fault.) .. Anyway, you'll have to read and tell me what you think. I don't necessarily agree with everything in the entire book, but I feel like she definitely brings up some good points.
some of you may or may not know that Anthony Green is one of my favorite modern day musical artists.
some of you may not even know who the crap Anthony Green is. Well, I will tell you, Anthony Green is a singer/songwriter. He is the former singer of Saosin. The current singer of Circa Survive, and also a solo artist.
like City and Colour, I introduced Taylor to Anthony Green at the very beginning of the beginning of our relationship. At first I shared with him some Circa Survive, and Taylor wasn't totally into it. I wasn't actually surprised because when I love a musical artist, it's usually because they are weird and different (hence why I hate American Idol so much, because everyone sounds the same), and I don't necessarily expect people to feel the same kind of love and admiration that I have. Anthony Green is weird, his voice is unique, his lyrics don't make sense, and the way he yells in some of his songs will either terrify you, annoy you, or give you the chills (<-- me). BUT, I made a decision to make Taylor listen to Anthony Green's solo album, Avalon. (Because let's be honest, Taylor is just as weird as me, if not more.)
Low and behold, Taylor loved it. And overtime grew to love Circa Survive as well.
ANYWAY, so to finally get to the point. On Wednesday (January 25th), Anthony was playing in Atlanta for his Beautiful Things tour, as he just released a new solo album. For Christmas, Taylor bought us tickets. So we headed out at about 2PM to make the 4 hour drive to Atlanta.
We got to the A around 5:45PM and met up with Jamie [+ the Nef fetus] for dinner. And then she so kindly dropped us off at the corner for the show.
As usual before a show Taylor had an internal (with himself) and external (with me) conflict about whether or not to bring his camera. I do love having awesome pictures but I hate having to worry about holding anything at show. And also, sometimes they don't allow cameras and so you never know when you're going to lose your place in line to take your camera back to the car. So he settled for my crappy little point and shoot and these are the pictures he got with it before the camera died.
standing in line outside.
the dear hunter's keyboard
the singer for The Dear Hunter
And then just like that, the battery was dead. Along with the batteries in our phones. We literally had nothing to capture the memories with, aside from our minds. (imagine that.) It was really unfortunate because we were at the front (to the side, right up against the speaker.) But Tay's DSLR would have got some amazing shots. Probably even some drops of sweat on the lens.
[The strangest part of this show for me, was how everything was exactly on time. They said the doors would open at 7, and they opened exactly at 7. They said the opening band would play at 8, and they started playing exactly at 8. I mean the entire concert was over by 10:30 PM. Which was great for us who had to drive 4 hours home that night.]
When Anthony came on, he was his usual smiley, foul mouthed self. He loves to interact with the crowd and that's part of what makes him so fun to watch. He likes to high five, make eye contact, make jokes, and get everyone to sing along. The other part of what makes him fun to watch is how he moves on stage. I don't think I could ever describe it to you with words. So here.
He's my favorite. and he's a complete weirdo.
Also, in closing, I would like to say that aside from the "show hoes" invading my space, we had an all around good time. It was well worth the drive.
I will leave you with my favorite Anthony Green song ever, which was also the song that Taylor and I had our first dance at our wedding to. "Miracle Sun"
Oh also THIS.
[because I do what I want, and this segment made me cry a little.]
this weekend is our Stake Conference. So, naturally, we made our way over to the stake center in Georgetown tonight for the Saturday evening meeting.
i just wanted to share with everyone a few things i took home from that meeting.
1) Do your family history
2) No seriously, do you your family history.
3) We are not joking, you really have to work on family history.
4) Go to the Temple
5) Clipping your nails in the chapel is not really the best place to do so, ESPECIALLY during a meeting, as the sound really resonates throughout the entire room. It's almost more obnoxious than a cell phone going off.
6) A person can actually clip their nails for 30 minutes +.
7) In 2012, some women still have bowl cuts.
anyway, tomorrow I'll probably blog about the Anthony Green concert in Atlanta last Wednesday.
Just so you know, I'm writing this blog from the car, on my phone. So please excuse any typos in advance.
I've decided to start doing what I have cleverly named, "wifed up Wednesday". In these posts, I will pretend like I'm a real good housewife and share some kind of cleaning tip, delicious recipe, crafting project, etc. Doing this makes me feel kind of lame, BUT I want to somehow contribute to the lives of the people who so kindly waste their time reading this blog. So let's carry on.
For my first wifed up Wednesday, I wanna share with you an item that I just discovered recently.
(This might be something everyone knew about but me. But whatev.)
Drywall sanding screens
Yes, these are used for sanding drywall. But did you know that you can use them for a common dreaded household task?
The other day I was in the store with my sister-in-law, April and she picked some up and she told me that drywall sanding screen can be used to get rid of the ring around your toilet.
And it works! If you're like me and ended up in a super old slightly run down home, you may have inherited a unsightly ring in your toilet bowl(s).
All you have to do is go buy a pack of drywall screens (they're only like 2 or 3 bucks), and cut them up into about 4ths (give or take depending on the size). Get some gloves (I prefer the serious yellow dish gloves) and get up in that toilet and scrub away. It comes off super easy and I didn't use any cleaner.
I should have taken before and after pics but that's gross and I didn't think about it.
If you're immaculate and you have a squeaky clean pee bowl, fear not, the use for drywall screens doesn't stop there. My mother-in-law also shared with us a couple of weekends ago that she used it to remove dead and rough skin from her feet. She said it worked even better than a ped egg. I mean, the price is right so you don't have much to lose do ya?
Anyway I hope this was beneficial to you in some way, if it wasn't I hope it least didn't take you too long to read. Also, sorry I have no cool pictures.
recently we watched this movie (it's available on netflix and huluplus)
And needless to say, we were inspired. not only were WE inspired, but the entire Giddens clan was inspired. some pulled out and dusted off their old juicers and others bought brand new ones. We wanted to get our juice on.
this weekend while we were in Valdosta celebrating Kendall & Laney's first birthdays, we tried out some juicing as a family.
here's some testimonials:
April: "It's actually pretty delicious."
Nana: "I think you could just blend and it would be just as good."
Pop: "Can I juice a honey glazed ham?"
Thomas: "No way, I'm not juicing. I don't eat food!"
Jamie: "I'm pregnant. Where's the bacon?"
John: "I'm going full force on a juice fast. Next stop, total health transformation."
Angie: "John, get me a Dr. Pepper. STAT."
Alex: "Taylor bribed me with money to drink some mean green juice. I would have done it for free."
As for Taylor and I, we're trying it out. Slowly. We borrowed nana and pop's Jack Lalane juicer and Taylor tried it out last night. I actually, really don't mind the juice, but it always comes out warm and I like my beverages to be icy cold. So I went ahead and tried out this smoothie recipe (which I found on, of course, PINTEREST) in the blender which proved to be satisfying and delicious:
1/2 Cup Frozen Peaches
1/2 cup frozen mango
2 bananas
a couple of handfuls of fresh spinach
Ice
a little bit of water to help blend
Blend, and enjoy.
Super easy, super delicious.
Anyway, back to the juicing. Juicing is fun, and it's super good for you. The guy in the movie went on 60 day juice fast and did nothing but juice. He lost 80 pounds and was able to completely wean himself off of his autoimmune disease meds. I'm not sure that we will ever get to the point where we go total juice, but I would really like to see us get into juicing regularly. we only get this one body and i want to start taking better care of it.
FRESH BEETz
I'm not totally loving the juice yet though, but I feel like there are so many options out there that maybe I will find something that I like, or maybe it's like beer and I will eventually acquire the taste for it. I know Taylor is pretty excited about juicing and I think it's important to support him. It would probably be really hard for him if i was eating bacon and chocolate while he's trying to be healthy.
if you are interested in trying out some of the juice recipes that we're all trying, you can click HERE!
apparently this little thang is going around. my cute friend Sarah Averett tagged me! this could be the most self centered blog post i have posted on our blog. but it was pretty fun. cause i like talking about myself and also seeing what other people said. you can actually do it if i didn't tag you and you want to. i just made that rule. here are more rules:
1 - you must post the rules.
2 - post eleven fun facts about yourself on the blog post.
3 - answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then create eleven new questions to ask the people you've tagged.
4 - tag eleven people and link them on your post
5 - let them know you've tagged them!
11 fun facts about me: 1 - i love Georgia 1,000,000x more than my home state. [Utah] 2 - i love coke. not diet coke. 3 - i've never broken a bone. and i just knocked on wood to ensure that continues. 4 - to me, there is nothing more gross than boogers. not even poop. 5 - once i was going through some of my early high school paraphernalia and i found a bunch of notebooks and papers that I had doodled, "I love Me." and "Kynslie Rulez!" and, "I <3 Kyns". It made me feel good that I didn't waste all that ink on some idiot boy. 6 - i like video games. 7- as a child, my favorite toy was BARBIE. I played with barbies until I was like 10. i used to try to guess if my birthday/Christmas presents were shoes or Barbies, cause the boxes were the same. 8 - as of, today actually, I have lived outside of Utah for 2 years. best decision ever. 9 - my favorite artist is Anthony Green. 10 - the only girl i ever physically beat up was one of my best friends when i was 18. we're still friends. if you love your friend, kick their azz, if they come back to you, they're yours. 11 - back in the day [june 2009], before I ever met Taylor in real life, his sister Jamie told me to add him on facebook to look at some pictures he had taken of her. i told her i didn't want him to think i was a creep and she said, "Just tell him you want to see his Photography skills." so, as I added him I was on the phone with my friend making jokes about porn while typing the message and this was the first message I ever sent him (direct copy and paste) "Jamie said she wants me to look at your pornography skills, so I thought I'd do just that. I'm not a freak, but I am a little freaky. ohh snap. did I just say that? yeah. i did." I can't remember when i realized that this happened, but once I sent it, I couldn't undo it. Plus, I added that freaky part on the end which made it even worse! Luckily this potentially embarrassing mistake just lured him right in.
questions from Sarah:
1. what is your favorite holiday and why? this is really hard for me to answer. I really love Halloween, but it's hard for me to love a holiday when it's not the season for the holiday. i used to hate Christmas because it just meant snow and cold and driving all over Utah to see all 60 sides of my family. but this warm southern winter made me like Christmas . anyway, i guess I'll just go ahead and say the 4th of July is my favorite because I love freedom and bbqs and it's also my best friend forever and ever's birthday. 2. if you had to pick between having hair all over your back that you couldn't shave or being bald and not being able to do anything about it, which would you pick? hair all over my back, cause as a Mormon, i wouldn't be able to dress slutty, so people couldn't see it any how. and i think i married the kinda guy that would would brush my back hair. 3. what is your best memory of high school and why? i have so many, i loved high school because i pretty much did whatever i wanted at all times. but i guess my favorite memory is senior year when Tim Dalene and I and our group, crashed the junior prom and went dressed like we time traveled from the 70's. some people were outraged and we didn't care. we made the DJ played Stairway to Heaven and we slow danced/rocked out so hard. i love time travel. and causing controversy.
4. if you won the lottery, what would be the very first thing you would buy? first, we would pay off all of our debt. then we would build our dream home that would be on the river and we'd have our own private dock, and boat.
5. how old were you when you got your first real kiss? {12 and under doesn't count} 15.
6. what is your biggest regret in life? not being a better sister to my little brothers after my mom died.
7. what's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to you?
i think it's really nice when people laugh at my jokes. also to be cheesy: when Taylor said, "I do."
8. what is something you are looking forward to?
continuing to live my normal life with my wonderful husband. OH, and the Anthony Green concert on Wednesday in Atlanta.
9. if you could visit any country for free, which would it be? Well, in real life, I got to go to England for free. which was awesome. i don't think i'll get that lucky again twice in a lifetime, but if I did, probably Australia, or Greece.
10. if you could eat as much as you wanted of one food and you would never gain weight, what would it be?
probably coke, and fried pickles.
11. in your eyes, what is the perfect date?
usually when Taylor and I go on dates, we go to dinner and a movie and then we run errands. and it's perfect to me. I like doing all three things, oddly enough. Because we usually have fun even doing mundane stuff. also I loooove going to the movies.
my questions: 1. What's your dream job? 2. Where's your favorite place in the world? 3. What do you think the definition of "love" really is? 4. If you could only listen to one album for the rest of your life, what would it be? 5. What do you wish you were better at? 6. What's your favorite mode of transportation? 7. Finish this sentence, "I hate when people......" 8. What's your bedtime? What time do you actually go to bed? 9. What's your favorite way to get exercise? 10. What book(s) are you reading/intending to read right now? 11. What's your favorite AS SEEN ON TV product/commercial?
here's who i would like to see answer these. now go forth and please me... when you have time.:
But for Christmas Taylor got me a super sweet gift.
He got our blog printed into a book. Which is seriously awesome, cause I am terrible at writing in my journal, and I feel like that is just as good, if not better. Anyway, it motivates me to continue to keep up with the blog and write seemingly mundane things because I like to think, if the world doesn't end in December, one day my Great Great Grandchildren will like to read about what our lives were like before they existed on this earth. I myself am kind of a sucker for family history. I used to find myself locked in the closet under the stairs at my great-grandma's house rifling through old pictures and letters.
I'm also really good at getting off track, apparently.
Eh, I'm probably not gonna write anymore. Here are some cute pictures from Christmas.
April's new wheels
Angie and Kendall the Elf
Logan's pants are off the chain.
If you look closely you can see that Curtis ruined the only photo where everyone was looking.
We love Christmas..
Fetus
Nom Nom Nom
Jammie Time
More Jammie Time
nana time
The Cutest present
In other news, I can't bring myself to take down our tree. So it's still up. Is that bad?
Jamie suggested I leave it up til Valentines, I'm considering it.
For the first week after Christmas it was up because of emotional attachment. But now I'm just being lazy, I know this because I'm clear sick of Christmas.
First of all, I'm not totally sure how I feel about this new blog layout. It's a little too girly or something. So I apologize for THAT.
Second of all, I wanted to give you a little peek into what life is like here in Savannah. Without pictures. Yes, sorry you're going to have to actually READ. (A BLOG YOU HAVE TO READ? Gasp.)
For starters, we live in the ghetto. I mean, it's really not the ghettoest of ghettos, and our particular block of street is decent. But, you have to tread through the more run down part of the street to get to us. It probably frightens all of our visitors. Could it really be THAT bad you ask? Well not to brag, but our neighbors told us that some drug dealer from Florida got shot and killed down the street. So.
Anyway, it's been okay. My life hasn't felt particularly threatened in anyway since we've been here. Except the morning that I was sound asleep and Taylor had to wake up at like 5 AM to go to work but forgot his keys and locked himself out so he had to pound on our bedroom window. I am not totally certain but I felt like I may have went into cardiac arrest. The dog went absolutely bonkers, once I realized what was going on and let him in she ran outside and ran around the entire perimeter of the house barking. She's a very good, protective watch dog, but due to her size and under bite, she would be totally useless in a for real emergency.
Like I said, I haven't felt threatened in any way, especially during the day. But lets just say, when I am out running errands I sometimes I feel like Will Smith in I Am Legend, making sure to get home before the sunlight runs out. (But just so we're clear, it's not because of zombies...)
On the lighter side of living here, to keep myself entertained while I am out and about I started a little game I like to call, "Spot the SCAD student"
For those of you who are unaware, SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) is a very prestigious art school here in Savannah. I got a small taste of what SCAD students were like in Atlanta, as they have a campus there too.
A lot of SCAD students are exactly alike in the sense that they are all hipsters who have a strong desire to be different, artsy, and stylish. So technically, no, they aren't EXACTLY the same, but they aren't usually very hard to point out and I typically run into them EVERYWHERE I go. Where I see them the most is at craft stores, goodwill, and home depot.
Usually they are wearing Toms, texting or holding their cell phone (usually an iPhone), and some have a strange odor.
Anyway, these are the rules of "Spot the SCAD student."
1) See the SCAD student.
2) When you spot them, you don't say, "I see you, SCAD student." You have to make up some back story about their art class and mock them.
Let me give you an example.
Honestly, I usually don't drag it out that long but you get the idea.
The most hilarious thing happened during a typical game of STSS. I was at Joann's getting some fabric and in front of me in the cutting table line, I spotted the student. In my head, I was about to start mocking her when suddenly, it happened.
The fabric cutter asked the girl what the fabric was for, and the girl replied, "I have to make a costume for my art class." and the fabric cutter replied, "Oh, are you a teacher?" to which the girl replied, "No. I go to SCAD."
It was at that moment that I knew I would never feel guilty for playing this game. Because almost 99% of the time, I am totally right.
i know that technically, as a married blogger i am supposed to update on the holiday happenings. but this isn't it. maybe tomorrow.
i love Taylor's beard. seriously, i love it. it's multi colored and a little gingery, but i just think he is so cute with a beard. i love him without it too. but i really feel like he is personalizing his face specifically for me when he sports his technicolor dream beard.
but sometimes, he has to shave it. i don't really understand why, but i guess it's probably good to let your face breathe once in awhile
at first i would get really sad when he would shave it. but it grows back pretty fast, so it's fine. but we've (Tay) has gotten into this new thing where he shaves it but he likes to take multiple hours to do so.
he'll shave it into weird designs and hang out like that before he shaves it all off and then try to make out with me and it upsets me. he'll do mutton chops, Hitler stache, goatee, chinstraps etc., but today he did the worst thing ever, he did a Fred Durst-esque kind of thing and it was extremely unsettling.
April is visiting us and she encourages his exploration of facial hair design, as she finds it humorous or cool. i am definitely an advocate for comedic and/or ironic facial hair but not when it comes to the man that i share my home and bed with.
it's harder for me to love him when he looks like he belongs in a limp bizkit video.
don't worry though, i bartered some kisses to get him to shave it off and it's gone now.
for my husband, i prefer a nice manly mustache. or a well trimmed beard. but legally i am obligated to love him, even when he looks like trash and takes pictures of himself in the mirror to amplify the trashiness.
