November: Monthly L+G

    Lately our little home has felt very busy! We have just had a list a mile long, and we have slowly checked off a thing or two here, a thing or two there. Let's get it started with the most hilarious picture of all time:

-I helped prepare our 2015 Night of Excellence. The Young Women program in the LDS church works on Personal Progress (basically experiences and projects based on certain values: Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, etc) throughout the year and we display/showcase a project of choice. The YW President created the theme "Color Me Beautiful." I was in charge of decorations, so I gathered my Pinterest ideas and the sweat off the brow's of our youth :) We ended up making a multicolored balloon banner, tulle bows, tissue pom poms and another banner with our theme's name on it. The other leaders helped by prepared food or speaking at our event. It was a very simple night, but it turned out to be really cute! Each of our Young Women stood up to speak, as they did I felt the Holy Ghost so prevalent from their words. They are a shining light for their generation. There is no comparison to those kinds of spiritual moments as a leader. It was a great night, one that I am proud to be apart of!

I left my camera at home accidentally, sorry for the crummy cell phone quality.

-I bought tickets to Justin Bieber's PURPOSE tour. Okay, hear me out! JB's new music has been hitting the spot recently (see: Where Are You Now, Sorry, What Do You Mean), it's been very, very good for his career I'm sure. He's kind of making the transition from annoying teenager to successful adult (that's still a jerk). Regardless, I'm going in June with my sister as a companion- Graham would rather have his eyes jabbed with toothpicks- to the Jacksonville arena and we are gonna JAM. Oh and fun fact, when JB first came out Listi was a  love-struck 14 year old. She would listen to him relentlessly, since we shared a room I hated his everlasting guts because I couldn't stand the continual loop. At one point, she was so devoted to him that she proved it by deleting EVERY OTHER SONG besides his album! A hundred other songs, lost at the bay of insanity. That's still hilarious to me.

-Prepping for Thanksgiving! I have to say, I've really stepped into my cooking shoes. I have grown to enjoy making meals for Graham and I, it is fulfilling to enjoy something from my own hand (insert bashful emoji). But, huge Achilles heel here, I despise cooking for others! Now when the missionaries come I feel like they aren't too judgmental, so they're okay, but cooking for friends or families gives me anxiety out the ying- yang. If this holiday wasn't all about the food it wouldn't be so bad! But since it is, I'll dread it until it's over with. I'm just weird like that.

-We were gifted a table and dryer! Here's the back story on those... Whenever we were just about to get married Graham bought several $100 giftcards from Rooms to Go (there was a special, buy one, get $100 free! It couldn't of been one bit better for newlyweds.) He purchased our pull- out couch, that we are both obsessed with, and our table. We moved in, the furniture was delivered and my sister-in-law and I assembled the table. This table was the tiniest, 4 people would have to squeeze, most inconvenient for hosting guests. It also was exceptionally tall, but we went with it. There wasn't really enough problems to warrant getting a new one, so for the past 30 months we have persevered. And the dryer. The dryer. THE DRYER. A girl needs a dryer, unless they have access to an outside hanging line, right? Ours was a handmedown from my Uncle, which was great, and it worked just fine. After a year and a half of steady use it began to screech LOUDLY. If it was running we couldn't sleep, watch tv, be on the phone, and eventually we began to only let it run as we were leaving the house. The neighbors began to complain that they could hear it, even the ones across the hall, so we quit using it. We had big plans to grab a new one but never got around to it, plus we didn't have any way to transport it. Instead, our clothes were hung out to dry on our tiny table for 11 months, meaning they were wrinkly and I could only wash one load per day. Now that we have our table and dryer, we feel like we're living it big! Life's a pleasure! I am so happy for these modern day conveniences.

-I've been doing a great deal of cleaning around this apartment. I'm so serious, these Lysol Disinfectant Wipes make cleaning certain things very simple. My next job is to tackle the "guest bedroom" which is half nursery, half storage room. Bringing in all these new pieces in my home has further inspired me to keep it in mint condition. And as soon as I had the kitchen sparkling, I decided to make Snickerdoodle Popcorn. which was a gigantic mess, but a delicious choice :)

-My niece is currently sick with a cold, but here is a picture of her being the sweetest! This is her "I'm about to get into everything" face. She is as curious and brave as the day is long. She enjoys crawling and standing in the most perilous places. She wants to eat everything in sight (when she isn't sick) and tries a bit of all my meals. This little girl, with her current Rudolph nose, brings a smile to my face. I love this Auntie gig.