Casper the friendly ghost...I mean town

So, I have decided to move to Casper, Wyoming. My parents are moving there and I feel that I need to move there with them. This should be interesting.

Tropical Temple

I took this over Thanksgiving weekend. I am quite proud of it. If truth be told, this picture was an accident. I was on the back side of the temple and was trying to get a picture of the hibiscus, I had already taken and deleted 3 pictures because they were fuzzy. People were coming and I was leaning over the bush so I snapped this picture, saved it, and then left for home. I didn't realize it looked so cool (in my opinion) until I was at my grandparent's house showing the pictures to my mom.

A note to self...

Use a large bowl when allowing your dough to rise.

So a few weeks ago, I made cinnamon rolls. It was probably closer to a month or more ago, but I digress. This is what happened. Oh wait for it, it gets better...

My Christmas Present

My brother and sister-in-law came up last night to stay with us before the funeral. They brought our Christmas presents with them. Whatever I am getting involves a basket. I love the basket. I want the basket, but alas, I must wait like everyone else till Christmas morning to play with my basket.

Caramels and Family

I have made three batches of caramels today. I have to make one more tomorrow so I will have all of them made for my Grandma Burrell. I will be seeing her at Aunt Louise's funeral and thought I would save some gas and money by binging them with me. I had to reheat one of my batches because I didn't cook it long enough. I really home it turns out all right. If not I will feel really bad and probably won't give them to her. I am a firm believer that you shouldn't give out things that are not quality. My Grandma asked me to make the caramels so the quality is really important because it reflects on her more than me.

My Aunt's funeral is tomorrow. I am sad, but I am happy that I will get to see my cousins. I have't seen some of them in ages. I am even more excited that I get to see my nephew later today. My brother and sister-in-law are coming up here and then heading over to Benson. Jeffrey is so adorable. I love the little tike. The sad thing is a funeral is bringing my family together. We got together for my Grandma's birthday, but I think more people are going to be coming for the funeral than for the birthday party. What is even more sad is I am willing to bet that this isn't going to be the only funeral that I have to go to for the next year.

Aunt Louise

So, I found out today that my aunt is very close to passing away. It makes me sad. She has had cancer for a while now, so her passing would bring her suffering and pain to an end, but that doesn't make it any easier for her family. I wish I could see her one more time before she dies, but I don't think that that is going to happen and my cousins should be there.

Yellow -livered-sap-sucker

So, aside from being incredibly cold right now, I suddenly became too chicken to call one of my guy friends. All I want to do is invite him to an activity to night, and I find myself tongue-tied at the thought.

Why poets get the girls

A friend of mine has been posting a poem a day in his facebook notes. This was the one from yesterday, and all I gotta say is if someone wrote something like this to me, I would totally tap that action.

Love Sonnet 17
by Pablo Neruda
100 Love Sonnets

I do not love you as if you were a salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where *I* does not exist, nor *you*,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

Yep, I am pretty much in love with this poem. Don't worry, I like other poetry too, but this is the first poem I have read in a while that made my little heart go pitter-patter.

Dates

I have a date tomorrow. Yipee, yahoo! (Insert dancing here).

My dog gets cold

So my dog thinks that she has to sleep on my bed at night. She is a small dog and that shouldn't be a problem, right? Wrong. She is the biggest bed hog, then if I decide I am uncomfortable and need to move, she has the nerve to growl at me (I have a twin bed). It is actually much worse sleeping with my mom's dog too, which only happens when my parents are out of town and I am sleeping in their bed (a queen). You would think that I have more room, but the dogs can't sleep on the same side of the bed, so I get pinned in. I pretty much have to sleep in the same position all night. They aren't big dogs, infact they are considered small. But I digress from the original reason I started this note.

My parents (me too for that matter) believe in waiting as long as possible before turning on the heater. It makes for cold nights and mornings, but that is what we have blankets for. My furry little beast thinks that she needs to sleep under the covers at night. I don't like it. She has this bad habit of licking and leaves huge wet spots which are disgusting and cold to put your foot on in the middle of the night. So my glowing eyed friend gets to sleep on the top curled up next to me, until I can take her pathetic look no longer and let her come under the covers, which usually isn't until the morning after I come back upstairs from family prayer. Does that mean that I am going to give into my children if they give me puppy dog eyes and a quivering chin long enough?