Finally, mustard has a purpose!

Saturday was Brent's birthday!! Happy late birthday, my love! Sorry I didn't get around to making a fun post about you before now. Good thing you already know that you are my favorite thing on this whole planet!

We had a pretty lazy day. Just what Brent wanted. We had an open house at our building in an attempt to fill our vacancies but no one came. Oh well. It just meant I was able to dote on my hubby. He is in desperate need of a new suit and in London he will need to wear one to work so last week, his mom picked up a couple of awesome suits in Utah because she had a great coupon. Thanks, LeAnn! But even with great deals, 2 suits cost us $400 so that was Brent's birthday/Christmas present. Boring, I know! So in exchange, I made him his favorite breakfast: waffles, eggs and bacon. That man is a breakfast food nut! Have you ever seen Elf? The movie with Will Ferrell? Well, Brent and Buddy the Elf have very similar views on syrup.

We mostly watched TV/movies and goofed off on the computer all day. He listened to the BYU vs Utah game on the internet. BYU lost. Bummer. We also found and scanned all of our necessary documents to apply for our visas. I'm not sure why they needed copies of our college diplomas and resumes but whatever. That evening, he was nice enough to give me up for a few hours so that I could go see Twilight with the Young Women. The YW had been planning to see it as a group ever since they heard it was being made into a movie so Brent understood. I asked him about 7,492 times if he was sure and he promised he was so I went and he stayed home and watched a boy movie that I wasn't really interested in seeing. When I got home, we had ice cream. He didn't want cake or pie, just ice cream and candy. Boy is he easy! :)

All in all, I think it was a good day for him and now he's 28! Love ya, Bubs!

Here's a very small sampling of reasons why Emily hearts Brent:
-He loves kids more than any man I know & they love him right back.
-He is smart and is really good at thinking ahead (which I am not).
-He is incredibly funny!
-He looks really great with a goatee (superficial, I know but c'mon, he is SO good lookin'!)
-He knows how to get me to do things I don't want to do.
-He prefers to drive, especially on long road trips.
-He either truly does love everything I cook or is really good at lying to make me happy.
-He can figure out what other shows actors are in. Like when you watch a movie and can't figure out who that person is, Brent knows.

I'm glad I get to keep him forever.

Oh, right, you're probably wondering where the title of the blog comes from. Well, Sat morning while making bacon I lost the bacon game. Cami & Melissa know what that means. I got burned. Big time. A big piece of sizzling hot bacon landed on my thumb while I was trying to take it out of the pan. It blistered almost immediately and I carried around ice for an hour or so until I realized that wasn't going to help in the long run. We have some burn ointment but that didn't help so I did some research online. I found lots of funny sounding home remedies but decided on just one. Mustard. The stinky, gross yellow kind people stick on their hot dogs. I hate mustard. But I was desperate so I slathered my thumb in it and let it dry. The pain stopped after about 15 minutes and I kept it on for 2 hours. When I finally washed it off, my thumb wasn't even red. All there is now is the blister. Weird. So, go mustard?

My 6 quirks...

I got tagged by Cami and Meredith. I'll go ahead and fill this out, even though I'm pretty sure that I have a lot more than just six quirks.

1.I don't throw stuff away. I'm getting better, but as one of my mom's kids I'm genetically obligated to keep stuff forever in case I might need it later. This includes things which have no practical use, such as all scraps of fabric larger than a quarter, anything cute or tiny, and presents/trinkets that have sentimental value even if I don't remember who gave it to me or why it has sentimental value.

2. I hate shopping more than any rational adult female should. Well, let me qualify that. I hate clothes shopping more than any rational adult female should. There is something about trying to come up with "cute" outfits, trying on clothes, spending money on myself and braving crowds in an attempt to not look like a hobo that is just not appealing to me. I am usually crying by the end of most shopping trips so I NEVER take anyone with me if I can help it. This should explain, to those of you that notice and/or care, why I don't have a very extensive wardrobe and why it's all from Target. Don't get me wrong, I FULLY appreciate great clothes and "cute" outfits, I just go brain dead and shut down as soon as I set foot in the store. When I lived close to Cami she would drag me to the stores and I would just stand in the dressing room while she buzzed around picking things out for me. I miss that arrangement.

3. I am an Obsessive Compulsive Housekeeper, or OCH as my sister prefers to call it. If something isn't done perfectly, I have to do it again until it is perfect. This often prevents housework from getting done if I know I don't have the time or energy to do a job properly. I almost always clean my house in the same order: livingroom, laundry, bathrooms, bedrooms, kitchen. I would SO rather scrub a toilet than do the dishes. Weird and gross.

4. I know the lyrics (or have at least heard) of virtually every song written between 1950 and 1972. My dad and sister like to play the "let's see if Emily knows this one" game where we listen to 10 songs in a row on the oldies station and see how I do. I've NEVER gotten below 80%. I attribute this to the fact that I ALWAYS have music playing and until I was about 13, I listened to nothing but oldies and classic rock. I used to be able to name the bands, album titles, and often release dates of the songs. Who knows that kind of pointless info? Now that I'm older and listen to a larger variety of music, my hard drive is getting full so I'm slipping on the details. I also have an affection for 80's music.

5. I love The Simpsons. Not the last 10 or so seasons, the original seasons of The Simpsons back before the plot lines were trashy and the humor was dirty. Back in the day when Conan O'Brien used to write for the show. Hilarious. My mom used to tape it every Sunday and Cami and I would watch it all summer long. Many of our conversations, text messages and personal jokes include at least one Simpsons reference.

6. I love any and all things that coordinate. Colors, fabric, paper, anything. I love dividing things into groups and I can make anything coordinate. This is a large part of the reason it takes me so long to finish sewing/craft projects. By the time I've picked the perfect combination of fabrics/ribbons/etc, I've run out of time or motivation to actually finish the project. I guess that also goes along with the fact that I am a huge dreamer/planner and come up with all sorts of schemes and plans while laying in bed at night but by morning have usually forgotten what I was going to do until I've already done it a different way.

So there you have it. Now you know more about me. Just what you wanted, right?

I tag all my Studio City friends because I want to know what makes you weird! I'm not going to tag you personally on your blog. If you see this tag and want to do it, then do it! This includes (but is not limited to) both Claire's, Michelle, Beth, Pam, Tanya, Hillary, Kristen, Sarah H., Brooke, etc. :)

Going Global

What do all of these things have in common?

As of Spring '09, they will all be in the same place. England!!

Brent was offered a spot in the international rotation program at work and we are moving to London in March. We will only be gone for 2 years so stop freaking out. And think of it this way, now you all have an even better excuse to travel to Europe.

I am SO immensely proud of Brent. I know that sometimes he feels like his work goes unnoticed but I'd have to disagree at this point. I don't know how many spots were offered, I know only 2 in London and they said when they announced the program that probably only 5 or 6 spots worldwide. They had to keep coming up with forms and surveys and things to narrow down the pool of applicants because they had a much bigger response than they had planned on. Do you understand what that means as far as his capabilities? He was chosen by the Chief Actuary at Farmers and the Chief Actuary for the entire Zurich Financial Group (Farmers' parent company). My man is amazing.

Although we were about to start the adoption program here in LA (our first class was going to be on the 22nd), we feel like London is something that we should not pass up. There will be opportunities there for starting our family. It is where invitro was first successful. We don't feel that choosing London means choosing no baby, it just means a different path from the one we would be starting on here.

We've spent a lot of time over the past 4 days making this choice and we know it is the right one. We've been to the temple, we've fasted, we've prayed, we've received some incredible insight at Stake Conference and if you know anything about Brent it shouldn't shock you that we spent an hour or 2 the other night writing a pros and cons list. We've talked to family members and friends and although there will be sacrifices, we could find no deal breaker.

Here are some of our favorite excerpts from the "Pros & Cons" list:

Pros

• exciting and new opportunities (travel Europe)
• no more apartment managing
• perfect timing, for a lot of reasons
• England has Emily's FAVORITE weather (gray & rainy)
• Brent will finally be able to watch Wimbledon, in person
• learn funny British lingo
• we'll be forced to organize all of our stuff

Cons

• miss our family & friends (but we'll be back once a year & if you can, try to come see us!)
• we'll terribly miss watching all of our favorite babies/kids as they grow up
• no longer have certainty (of how to have a baby) that the adoption program provided
• no more free rent
• no more Target :(

As you can see, except for missing you folks, there's nothing big enough to keep us here!

In honor of today

We love this guy!

Brian Regan - Politicians




Make sure you vote today!

Things that make you go, Hmm...

Here is a video that was emailed to Brent from the protect marriage website. I just thought it was interesting.



And here's my LAST plea to my fellow Studio City peeps. We REALLY need your help on Tuesday. There is a lot to be done. Our ward doesn't have too many precincts that need to be covered but Burbank is overflowing and they could use our help. If you even have just one hour to help, please call Michele Meyer. Please. Elections have been won and lost during the last 4 hours of voting.