Update on the Good Life!

Happy March, all!

Sorry for the delay again. We've just been ridiculously busy with work and school and school and work and work and school….and work….and school…..

            But I wanted to take a minute really quick and give you all an update on our little world! Tyrel’s job is moving us to London. Yeah. Wild. When, you ask? So far the best estimation we’ve been given is “sometime this year, though possibly next year.” Honestly, it all just depends on how the company does over the next few months. Sending employees out to another country in order to build a new branch up from nadda is not something any company wants to go into blindly, so I respect the uncertainty. However, I’m also going absolutely crazy due to said uncertainty, because it makes planning our ‘life’ in general nearly impossible. I can’t have a pet, which is nonsense, because transporting said pet from one country to the next, or at least the steps in order to do so, is ridiculous. Did you know that in order to take a pet to Europe, the pet needs to have its own passport? With a picture and everything? And such and such shots need to be administered no more or less than 6 months before leaving the country, and such and such shots need to be administered within 24 hours of the flight, la-de-dah…it goes on. It’s intense.

Not knowing when all this is happening is also seriously messing with any concrete plans we could have about where we’ll be in 5 years, and what we’ll be doing, when babies are a good idea, where our house will be, IF our house will be, and all that. I’m a person who LOVES to make lists and follow them as best as I possibly can. I make a list every morning, even if it’s as silly as “1, brush teeth, 2, exercise, 3, take a shower, 4, get dressed,” etc. I love planning ahead. With our life so tied up with this moving though, and with us having almost NO idea of when that will be, I feel like I’m permanently in limbo. I can’t describe the stress my list-making brain is going through. -_-

Speaking of stress, MIDTERMS!!  Because of the move potentially being sometime during when fall semester would be, I’ve had to expedite my schooling in order to cram the rest of my degree into this and summer semesters. Thus, I am now wading through 21 credit hours. That’s at least 42 hours of homework every week, plus my work schedule of about 20 hours per week. I hate it. Today I had a dandy old breakdown about it, and my husband was INCREDIBLE. He held me, offered me ice cream and French fries, offered to let me play with his favorite gun (SO sweet), let me cry on him, tried to help me prioritize what was stressing me out and make a list with me (that was one list I DIDN’T want to make), and finally gave me a priesthood blessing to help my brain cope with everything that’s going on.  He’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Truly. I have no idea how I got so lucky.

Tyrel, as always, is working hard in his job, and is one of the biggest reasons that this future branch in the UK is even a possibility. I’m so proud of him.

And that’s our update for now! Have a wonderful day!

We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

       Evidently this is a monthly-update blog.  Or I may take it down altogether, I actually haven't decided yet. Whoever is reading, thank you so much for your patience!

       This December brought Tyrel's and my second Christmas together, which was amazing. We're so lucky to have such an incredible family on each side that we get to spend time with, and I'm SO lucky to have such an amazing hubby. Tyrel bought me a sewing machine for Christmas, which I am currently resigned to oggle at every day as it sits in the closet. I don't have anywhere to put it just yet, so for now just the box and I are buddies. Someday! Tyrel asked only for ammo for his guns this Christmas, so our cute little mini-tree was laden with startlingly heavy little packages. One of his gifts was a giant spam-can-looking thing, filled with Russian mosin-nagant ammo that had been sealed since the 70s (his mosin-nagant is from the 1930s, as most mosin-nagants [Russian rifles] are. It was submerged in a nasty preserving fluid along with thousands of other rifles like it, and was meant to be used by soldiers. Now they're all over the place for cheap, and smell like the preserving fluid, which reeks strangely of rigorously shoe-polished old-man socks). The "can" weighs 40 pounds and looks like an army-flavored ham. When he opened it up (using a hammer and chisel), sealed inside with the ammo was a purple fingernail (I have NEVER painted my fingernails purple) and a long, black hair from some Russian factory worker woman from 40 years ago. That was a gross, yet strangely fascinating discovery.

       Another exciting thing this month, we moved! Tyrel and I now live in our own little apartment on Redwood Road, and every day of having my own little cupboards and our own little bathroom and our own little living room again feels like a privilege. We're so blessed!!

I still love working for the wonderful photography studio that hired me in November, and Tyrel works so hard, and is an incredible international sales and support correspondent to the UK for Xima software. He'll be going on his first business trip to England in a few weeks. I'm so proud of him. <3

       New Year's Resolutions...do I have any? I actually haven't written any down, or even thought about it until I wrote that.  Ahem: I would like to resolve to be better at nurturing constructive habits. And to make better use of my computer-time. Far too often I'll sit at the computer with the intent to write or do something else specific, only to waste an hour or more on facebook, or pintrist, or solitaire first. Eesh. I would like to make more time for Tyrel. He is my most cherished treasure, and by all fault of mine, I don't think he always knows that. Also, I think it would be dandy to submit one of my dorky poems for publishing this year.  I might share one on this blog (if it continues) one of these posts. My personal favorite is called "Sophia and the Blue Cheese." And yes, it is just as cool as it sounds. ;)

       I wish you all a wonderful day, and a happy new year!

-Melanie.