Does Fergie cook for Josh Duhamel?

Probably not. This is why I'm a better wife than she is. I made tonight's dinner LAST night so all Jared has to do is pop it in the oven when I get off work. Sometimes I have to toot my own horn.

So remember how yesterday I was talking about my indecisive brain? It has struck again! Last week I was so adamant about re-decorating our bathroom. I was fixed for 2 days after walking into the WORLD MARKET and seeing all the fabulous patterns. So I bought a new shower curtain and painted some artwork for the bathroom. Then I stopped because I realized I would never be able to fully paint the walls and invest the money into that i wanted to. So I moved on to my wardrobe. I wanted a re-vamp for the summer season, but an economical re-vamp of course. So I went to the Goodwill Friday night and got 3 killer steals for $15. [i'll have to show you later]. Then yesterday my kind sister posted some very unflattering pictures of me which made me realize how awfully crooked my teeth are [being the first child, I was skimped on the braces]. So I frantically looked online last night for the cost of invisalign with my insurance. Too steep. Dropped that thought. After waking up this morning, recovering from a loss of self-security 12 hours prior, I was awakened yet again with the desire to add to my wardrobe. That is why I will be going to the thrift store again on my lunch break today. And that is why my brain is insane. It is constantly fluttering from one obsession to the next!

Which reminds me that I have to get THIS! My cousin-in-law spotted it and immediately knew this belonged in my shower. Ingenious!

No Title.

So this morning Jared asked me what i was going to have for breakfast. My first response: Scrambled eggs with a protein shake and banana. OOO... wait, that might be too much protein. So I changed my answer. I told him scrambled eggs with a 1/4 slice bagel and a banana. NNooppee. That sounded good, but not as good as a shake and banana. Hmm. So I asked Jared what I should have. I think he answered me by saying get down the toaster. So I did. I guess that meant that I was going to have the bagel with eggs and no protein shake. Part of me was sad that I wasn't going to have my shake. The other part of me was glad that I was going to eat a carb for breakfast. For a moment I battled it out in my head. Until I realized that it was just breakfast. What a dimwit. I can make HUGE decisions with the greatest ease and confidence, but the most minute things I struggle with. Like this past weekend, Jared asked if we should take the toll road. After thinking about it for a moment, I reasoned that no we shouldn't. That is, until we approached the toll, my mind blurted out for him to take the toll road and he jetted across 6 lanes to make the on-ramp. I think I make his life a headache sometimes.

Since the last post: Jared and I met with a recruiter from a possible grad school in London. It's just a POSSIBILITY and we're not putting all of our eggs in that basket, but... come on - 3 cheers for LONDON! Jared's finishing up his junior year here in the next 2 weeks, so we're preparing for the GRE and a slew of grad school apps to start in the fall. I'm excited, to say the least! 95% of the schools we're looking at are located on the east coast. I've been dreaming of weekend trips to NYC, fall trips to the Appalachian hillsides to go apple picking and spending the 4th of July in the heart of America. Nostalgic for Virginia, can you tell? So I guess what I'm trying to say is I'll be happy anywhere!... so long as its New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachussetts, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, Carolinas, Georgia OR London.

But in the mean time, we're living the life of a SoCalifornian. This past weekend my family came down for my cousin's farewell. I'm glad that both our families live relatively close. I think my favorite part of this weekend was my father's confession - the other day Jared posted on his facebook "I'm excited to get some pazookie tonight!" I don't know where my dad's mind was, but his first thought was, "oh, is that what kids call it these days?!" No dad, kids dont call "it" a pazookie, THIS is what we call a pazookie. Us and 2 other couples downed it in no time. It felt good.

Oh, and this weekend we were introduced to FRICKLES!! Frickles are probably our new favorite thing. They're fried dill pickle slices. MMMmmm it's the perfect combo of salty and deep fried!

Vaca? Check!

So we spent the past weekend in a spring of Palms, or more notably known as Palm Springs. Being only 2 hours from LA, we decided a quick get-away would do our bodies good! We left early Friday morning, spent the first part of the day in a massive palm oasis. Those trees were gargantuan! I guess my main quest for the vaca was to soak up some rays. I have never known my skin to formulate this pasty white color. It is quite revolting. I guess that's the life of a working woman! So we checked in to our Ramada Inn. It was quite evident our room had not been cleaned as the bed sheets were tousled, the trash had not been taken out, the bathroom floor was sopping wet, the towels were loosely hung, and a hairnet sat on the floor. We politely told the guy that the room had not been cleaned, and that we were going to lay out at the pool for the next 2 hours and they could clean it in the mean time. So we went to the pool. Remember the swimsuit I wanted here? Well, you better believe I got it! It's fab. After laying out, we went back up to the room, discovered it still had not been cleaned. Bummer.... We ventured out to the main strip where we sat and people watched for probably 20 min. Of course we hit up a local thrift store - no bueno. Nothing can beat Santa Monica's absurd selection.

Saturday morning we went to this zoo, The Living Desert. I have to give it credit - it was pretty well stocked with animals and things to do. Following the zoo, we were both just cravings some BBQ meat. We stumbled across this restaurant BABE'S, which was incredible! I hate to admit it, but I think I can out-eat my husband. Or atleast I have less self-control than he does. He ordered 2 sandwich sliders. What did I get? The combo - 1/4 rack of st. louis ribs and 2 large chicken thighs with baked beans and sweet potato fries! Yeah, that's right. But I couldn't finish it... We ended the weekend on Sunday by watching "Rebel without a cause"... Actually, I ended the weekend by forcing myself to step on the scale. Something I hadn't done for a couple of weeks but I felt the pressure to do so because the growing pressure of my tummy against my pants. The outcome was just as I had suspected - WEIGHT: GAINED. a lot of weight gained. I guess that 1/2 of a 1/4 slice of that Claim Jumper MOTHERLODE cake really did me in. Seriously, that thing is the sin of all sins! And I'd like to point out that I had 1 portion and Jared had 2... Anywho, I guess that means I need to step up the cardio this week. Plus, Jared's got me going on this weight lifting thing. I've never been much of an arm worker-outer. But it's rather nice.

We All Can Relate

I saw this post over HERE, and thought I'd share some of my favorite ridiculous things people[namely I] do.think.say. [Credit to comedian Aaron Karo]

• Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.
• More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.
• Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.
• I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.
• The only time I look forward to a red light is when I'm trying to finish a text.
• Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.
• How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?
• Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and said "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm...Goonies"
• MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
• Whenever I'm Facebook-stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!
• Why is it that during an icebreaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem....
• I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?'
• I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

Excuse my confession.. and a life update

Jared asked me the other day if I had blogged about our Easter festivities. No, I had not yet done so. Mostly because of the lack thereof. I DID have great ambitions for this year - perfectly Martha Stewart'ed eggs, carefully crafted decorations, and a grandifolis Easter morn breakfast [grandifolius is latin for big {grandi} leaves {folia}. While I did not quite want big leaves for breakfast, I did want to use a word to describe my high ambitions for Easter brunch, and grandifolis sounded grand, but even better than grand actually, so I used it right now under a false pretense. You wouldn't have known if I hadn't told you...]. But alas, my desire for great achievement was cheated out by laziness. We ended up with the 99cent egg dying packet as our only celebratory gesture.Oh, and the Easter Bunny came Sunday morning with a bag of Reeses and mini-cadbury eggs. Easter wasn't quite the same this year, knowing that I was the bunny... Maybe next year our little Oakden clan will have a baby tike to help make the festivities more outlandish???

Is it just me, or was a majority of General Conference about motherhood? I C O U L D N O T S T O P T H I N K I N G A B O U T B A B I E S ! I know, please excuse my confession, but Anyone have any suggestions to stop this baby hunger madness that I eat, pray and live for? The day will come, I need some distractions. That's why we're going to Palm Springs this weekend!

Jared and I called it out - we need a break from this warm... beachside.. abode place we live in.. I know, sounds awful right? Why did we even choose to live in Santa Monica? I can't believe we're actually traveling INLAND for a vacation, AWAY from the beach that is 2 miles from our home. Sometimes you just need to switch things up. We're looking forward to our high end stay at the Ramada Inn, equipped with a pool, hot tub and continental breakfast [which we all know boils down to a travel box of frosted flakes, a English muffin and Denny's restaurant packages of jam.] Neither of us have ever been to Palm Springs. Any suggestions? Laying out by the pool and tanning is #1. Have a great weekend!