Note to Self:

If I ever decide to get married, remember all the hassle Crystal's wedding is being. Chill. Relax, go with the flow, etc. Let people do their own thing. Also, colors: black and white. Maybe one bright accent. Simple. Easy to find. Classy. Works for any season.

Crystal came up to Rexburg this weekend to visit her fiance. She brought Laurel (our 14-yr-old sister) with her to keep her company on the drive. She wanted to surprise Loren, so she didn't tell him she was coming. She forgot to tell me until Thursday. The hazard of surprising people with lives is that frequently they have other plans. Such as work. And other friends coming to visit (which I do, and therefore Laurel gets to hang out with them tomorrow for most of the day, even though they don't want to spend time with anyone else, and they are just going to have to deal with it). And plans. Loren had to work tonight, so the three of us girls went to do wedding stuff. We went to buy the dresses Crystal wants us to wear, but they only had Laurel's size in stock, and it made her look pregnant, so you can only imagine what it'd do to us non-stick figure-types. We went to every store in town, searching for something else, then decided to go to the booming metropolis of Idaho Falls to search. See, the problem is, Crystal wants us, the three sisters and Crystal's bff from high school to match. Bigger problem, her bff is in the Navy. Army? Something. Anyway, she's not around. Won't be around till moments before the wedding and has a very difficult body type to shop for in proxy (5 foot, very...voluptuous). And Crystal's maid of honor, our cousin, already bought her (different) dress, and none of us have any idea what it looks like. After searching unsuccessfully for a dress we think may work for all four of us for four hours, not to mention the countless hours on the Internet, Crystal finally decided we can just wear cotton sundresses in her colors. We wound up getting two of the dresses, for both my sisters. I think I'm going to end up making mine, and we're hoping Crystal's bff has a few hours she can hit the mall in, or at least the Internet, because there's no way we can get her something without her being there. It was horribly frustrating and complicated, and I'm afraid Crystal's going to end up hating it because she's so completely OCD about things matching perfectly. I don't even care anymore. I'm going to find a dress/fabric and a pattern in those colors, and she's going to have to deal with what I find, and how I wear it. (Oh, that was another problem, we have completely different taste and sense of style.) I don't have the time or money to do otherwise.

Home, Sweet Home

A lot of you have probably seen this blog, as it's today's Blog of Note from the Blogger staff, but it struck a chord with me. Andrew and Jennifer, it seems, are a couple of Southerners who have spent the winter camping/working in Death Valley. I and several of my readers (hi guys!) grew up just outside Death Valley, and Andrew and Jennifer have visited lots of our old haunts (or at least my family's--we like to hike and explore), and documented their adventures and the beauty of our homeland. We grew up in Ridgecrest, CA, and if anyone knows anything about it, all they know is it's really really really hot there. That's true, but it's also a beautiful region, especially in the spring after a wet winter, like they had this winter. And so, friends, without further ado, I encourage you to check out:

Traveling with Andrew and Jennifer

I haven't been home for more than a couple days at a time in four years, and looking at the pictures of MY mountains and the beautiful wildflowers and cacti in the area, my eyes started to water. Okay, I got a little homesick. :)

Andrea

Explaining why I'm disappointing my grandparents by voting for Obama much better than I could. She has much better words than I do. Pretty much always.

What to do, what to do?

I keep seeing these lists, "What to do before you get married", "Why being single is cool", etc. They're in the magazines I flip through during work. They get emailed to me. They're posted on blogs I read. Etc, etc, etc. Oh, and then there's the "How to make a guy fall in love with you" ones. I don't know about you, but if I have to make a guy fall in love with me, I don't think he'd really love me. Coercion is just not really my cup of tea, I guess. (Side note, I've been saying "not my cup of tea" a lot lately, and I don't really know why.) Here's a few examples of what I mean:

29 Reasons it Rocks to be Single

Single-Girl Things to Do Before You Marry

Five Things To Do Before Settling Down

These all seem to be aimed at women, which I find it interesting. I also think that a lot of these are stereotypical and sexist, as well as contradictory, but that's just my opinion, and as we all know, I'm very opinionated.

"Want a cat? Heed this advice: Buy it now. Call it Snowflake. Let it sleep next to you in bed. If you wait to get a pet with your betrothed, it will end up being a big, slobbering Lab called Bif." I happen to know several couples where the guy wants the cat more than the girl, or the girl wants a big, slobbering Lab.

Secret hobbies that you practice it in your room. No one needs to know that you knit. Did I miss the memo? Since when is it not cool to be crafty? OK, maybe my Mormon is showing. But really, you shouldn't care that much what people think anyways.

Date a guy who's totally wrong for you just because he has amazing abs. So what if he's five years younger and your polar opposite? The joy of running your hands across his six-pack is a perfectly legitimate reason to go out with him. If a man any of us knew dated a woman for her boobs or her butt, we'd shun him and run him out of town. Why should it be any different for a woman?

I know that some of the people who read this are married and some are single, and some are at varying stages of relationships in between. But my question to you (single or married, guys or girls) is: Is there any validity in these sorts of lists? Do you have a personal list along these lines? What is/was on it?