Rant and rave...

Oh man I'm so annoyed. 

The other day I bought a couple of these soups at the store because A: they looked good. B: I had a coupon that made them a pretty good deal, cause normally they are expensive. C: they looked convenient to take to my office to heat up and eat there.  I don't like taking dishes into work cause I forget them and it's hard to clean them there and all that. 

So today I'm in my usually grumpy "I hate my job...I hate working 10 hour days...I didn't bring my lunch and I'm the only one here so I can't go get something" attitude.  Then, I remember I brought those containers of soup a week or so ago and I could have one of those!  Yippie!  So, I read the instructions on how long to microwave it and YOU CAN'T MICROWAVE IT!  Stupid Campbell's soup people made it so the metal ring stays on the container, and duh you can't microwave metal!  I was so annoyed!  Cause I don't have a bowl or a Tupperware here and now I still can't have lunch.  Poor me!  But I just think it's stupid that they would package it like they do their other microwavable bowls and containers...so you think you can... but now.   This special overrated overpriced soup needs a special bowl to be heated.  Lame.

Getting my craft on...

This blog is dedicated to Jillian...cause I made a promise...and I don't like my pants being on fire (you know...from being a liar!)...

We bought a new coffee table and end table over the weekend and in order for it not to get ruined too quickly we decided we needed some coasters.  Daron wanted to buy some expensive sand stone coasters, and maybe someday we will.  But for now, I decided to make some coasters that I had seen on Pinterest.  

I have to say they were super easy and I think they turned out really really cute!

I made 12 coasters, 4 of them were Christmas oriented.  I was really excited cause now I could take a new coaster to my office!  I had been using one that my former roommate Whitney gave me that her sister made for her.  But, it often caused confusion because the girl who worked at my desk before me was Whitney, so people thought it was her coaster.  While I appreciate the loaner, I was excited to have one of my own!

To make them, all I did was get $ .14 white tiles from Home Depot.  The tiles were about 4x4.  I cut out some scrapbook paper into a square slightly smaller than the tile.  I put a layer of mod podge onto the tile, put the paper down on it, and then put another coat of mod podge on.  After it dried for a while I put another layer of mod podge on.  After all the modge podge was completely dried, I sprayed it was an acrylic sealer, so it makes it waterproof.  I did a few coasts of that, letting it dry for 20 minutes in between coats.  After they were completely dry, I glued the cork to the bottom of the tile.  You can use felt pads or plastic pads or a full sheet of felt, but Daron wanted nice cork bottoms.  The only thing that was difficult was the fact that I decided to use gorilla glue to glue the cork on.  Well, I forgot how much gorilla glue expands, so in the morning I had lots of foamed dried glue seeping out from under the cork.   After a mild tantrum on my part, Daron suggested I just cut off the excess with a razor blade, and that worked well. 

So, all in all they were super easy and really cheap.  The tiles were $ .14, I already had the glue and the paper.  The spray was about $7 but I had a 40% off coupon for Hobby Lobby where I got it.  Also the cork was $2.75 for 6 sheets, but I had a 40% coupon for those too. 



FINALLY...

Last night me and Daron headed over to his moms house to give her dogs the T-bones from our steaks.  It had been stormy all day, so by the time we cleaned up dinner and went outside...the weather was B-E-A-UTIFUL!!!  It was in the low 70's and there was a cool breeze!  As soon as we got home we opened all the windows and shut the air off.  I actually woke up this morning on the chilly side of the temperature spectrum!!!  It made me so happy...hopefully there is an end in sight to the 110+ temperatures we've been having all summer and maybe fall is finally on it's way.

It seems like the rest of the country got cool a while ago...cause all of my facebook friends and crafty bloggers that I stalk were all talking about fall and fall craft projects and soup and apple cider and pumpkins...and we were still having 115 degree days!  I really struggled with it...I was beginning to HATE the fact that I live in Arizona.  Fall (and everything that comes with it) has always been my most favorite thing ever, and I seemed to be getting screwed out of it.  But...the past couple of days I've realized how ungrateful I was for what I did have!  Sure, I may not be able to do the Nauvoo Pumpkin Walk every year anymore, and I may never get to really carve a pumpkin out here and have it last for any length of time, or be awe struck by river road every year in the fall no matter how many times I drive it.  But...I have a great family who I love and who loves me...we are healthy...and...when we finally do get down into the fall temperatures I love so much...the rest of the country gets to deal with this:

Friends...



The title of this picture is "My Greatest Friend"  I LOVE it and I used to have a copy of it hanging in my apartment.

 These thoughts have been on my mind for a few days now...but I hope they don't come off too jumbled and weird when I put them in my blog.  Also, I want to say that I am talking 'obviously' about friendship...but in nothing that I say or think do I ever want to downgrade the quality of my friends that I have now.  I love them and don't mean any disrespect or belittlement...


Daron and I were hanging out on Friday night and he says "We need to get some friends.  Why haven't we made any friends in our ward yet?  We really need another couple to hang out with sometimes!"  And it really got me to thinking....we don't have any friends!

I have friends in the area that I hang out with sometimes...like...quarterly.  But they aren't our friends.  And I feel really bad for him because he did have friends before, but since his divorce, you sort of loose those people that were both your friends because it becomes awkward.

So you'd think that we'd make friends at our church.  But we just haven't!  I am sure it's mostly my fault...cause Daron is very out going and loves to chat it up with people.  I am not very forward when it comes to new people, so it usually takes me a while to find a good friend in a new situation.  I think one of the major roadblocks to making friends is that there is such a difference between us and a lot of the other couples.  Firstly, our ward is full of mostly older couples, and by older I mean like 60's and 70's.  If it's not elderly couples, it's couples with mostly teenage kids.  Which is great for Daron but a little older than I really feel comfortable bonding with.  But, the couples in our ward that are my age either have young babies or no kids at all.  So, we don't have a lot in common with them either.  But I can't really say that...because it's not like we can't be friends with anyone who isn't exactly like us.  But I think it makes it a little more difficult.  Or maybe I'm just being silly and anti-social. 

There are a couple couples that we both agree we'd like to get to know more.  One of them is actually in a really similar situation as us.  The husband was married before and has kids, and she hasn't been married until him.  They got married a week before we did, and they don't have kids together yet.  The only difference is they don't have his kids with them regularly like we do.  So we thought they'd be fun to hang out with.  (Plus I talked to her our first day in the ward and I really liked her a lot.  She went to Ricks...and those are usually good folk!)  There is another couple too which just moved in a month or so ago, and they have a bunch of boys.  So we invited them over sometime this month for a BBQ.  (Hopefully Bryan can make friends with their kids and maybe not be such a baby about going to church.)

But the thing that makes me nervous about all of this is that I'm just no good at being like "Here I am...let's be friends!"  I mean...I think I'm a friendly and nice person...but it makes me nervous to invite someone over and be on the spot.  I'm not good on the spot.  Plus I've never really put an effort into making friends.  But this idea of finding a couples friend is really hard.  I guess we'll see how this goes.

In a perfect world, I would create a community where all my single friends had boyfriends/husbands, all my long distance friends lived down the street, and my family was close by too.  And in that community there would be seasons...