Episode 33: In Which Jessica Moves In and Rearranges Things

Hello Hello! Did you miss me? I'm going to pretend that's a yes and move on.

This entry is pretty straight forward. I moved into my new apartment. I really like it here. We're pretty far south of campus and the neighborhood is pretty quiet. The apartment is pretty spacious and I just like everything about it really. Except maybe the parking lot and all its lovely potholes. =P

Moving in was a grand adventure. Ali and I went to Ikea to outfit our new apartment. We got cute bathmats and and nice little organizer for our sink. The bathroom is a bit small and can get a little cramped in the morning when 4 girls are trying to brush their teeth and do their hair, but we seem to be managing ok. :) Then we had to go grocery shopping to stock up our cupboards! :)

The kitchen is small and I can't seem to figure out quite how the stove works, but its nice to be in an apartment with 4 girls and not have to fight for space in the fridge. :)

Our living room is one of my favorite rooms. We arranged it 4 or 5 times before we finally settled on this layout. It was pretty fun, 4 of us all with a piece of furniture, playing feng shuei demolition derby. =P That curtain over in the corner leads to our pantry. The kitchen is small so we used the alcove to store food and Ali's mom was a genius and bought us that curtain to hide it all behind. The curtain goes well with the happy little orange flowers that Kaylynne got me. :)

Now we just need a curtain for the window...its pretty killer in the afternoon when the sun comes in. =P

The bedrooms are HUGE. This picture really doesn't show it, but we could easily fit two air mattresses in the space we have on the floor and still have room to spare. It's really nice. I put my bed up on cinder blocks to open up my under the bed storage. I'm into hiding things behind cloth apparently because I used my other flat sheet as a bed skirt. I like it :) My bed is REALLY high though, as you can see. I have to jump to get into it and the first couple of days I fell out of it when I got up in the morning. We're used to things now though :)

The apartment is a little far from campus, but its still not a bad walk. At least until you get to the hill of death. By the time I'm done with this semester, I may be well prepared to hike Mt. Fuji. :) It's far more likely however that I would hike Timp...seeing as its closer and all. =P It's a nice walk in the morning, especially cuz on Tuesdays and Thursdays I get to walk with Ali! :) Yesterday when we were walking, we saw a bunch of deer on the campus. :) BYU/Utah is fun that way. I know a lot of people don't like Utah but you must admit...you really can't find fault with living right up against the mountains. :)

The ward is great. All the leaders are nice and quite witty. It made for a very amusing Sunday. We did something kind of unconventional for Sunday school. We all went and had our pictures taken for the ward list...like we're talking an entire portrait set up with the soft lamps and backdrop and everything. Then we went to the computer labs and filled out an information form for us. Ali and I kept joking about all our answers. We wanted to put Andrew and Tanner as our emergency contacts...and probably should have...but opted for our out of state parents instead.

Oh yes, I should probably mention. Ali and Tanner are engaged. :) I'm so excited! I love Ali and Tanner! And that means Ali and I get to do engaged people stuff together...like stress out haha. We stay up WAY too late every night giggling and talking. Not necessarily about our fiances...so really the giggling and laughing is just what comes of rooming with your best friend. More on that later.

Anyhow, at the end of our information sheet, we told the bishop that we were completely and totally awesome. It was much longer than that...but that's the short of it. The bishop PROBABLY thinks we're insane now. But it was fun. :)

Outside of general move in stuff. I love living with Ali. We have all kinds of fun. Even though we don't see each other that often cuz we're busy being students and having jobs and my favorite part...having fiances :) We manage to get in some quality time. We like to write each other notes every now and again and then we have the late night giggling sessions. Those probably aren't so good for us cuz we stay up WAY late without even realizing it...but what can you do? If this is what living with your best friend is like, I'm doomed to never sleep again in my life! =P

One of my favorite things to do with Ali is play with the traveling granny panties. Yeah...you heard me. We have a pair of HUGE underwear that we like to hide all over the apartment. It started when I found them tucked under my pillow before bed. So then I hid them under her school stuff and it's been going from there. Currently...her hedgehogs are hiding in them =P

School has been ok. I like my schedule on Mondays and Wednesdays...and on Fridays as well because I only have one class. Tuesdays and Thursdays are shaping up to be pretty tiring though. Like way tiring. Like I'm in class from 8-8 on Tuesdays and til 4 on Thursdays.

Somehow, I managed to not sign up for an Anatomy Lab so I had to quick like a bunny find one yesterday. It was a nightmare. The only ones available were Friday form 6pm-8pm and Saturday from 8am-10am. Ew. Talk about ruining your weekend. Playing with dead people is not MY idea of a fun weekend. I was pretty stressed out. I took another "I failed my chem test"-esque picture for you to illustrate. (if you look closely, you can see the Joseph Smith vision on the wall. I'm re-memorizing it in Japanese)

Then I went to Physics and decided that there was NO way I was going to go through the semester with that class and actually pass it. Time to drop a class and pick something else up. So I finally settled on two food preparation courses. One is called "Food Preparation in the Home" and the other is called "Family Meal Management" They both sound pretty useful...especially in fulfilling my role as a wife and mother...which brings me to my first observation.

My schedule now consists of Anatomy, Family Finance, Family Meal Management, Food Preparation in the Home, and LDS Marriage and Family (commonly called "Marriage Prep") Does anyone see a pattern here? Am I getting a REAL degree or just my MRS degree? =P

Oh well, not much to do. I'm actually still debating about the Meal Management course. It sounds WAY good...but its going to be a LOT of work. and a LOT of time spend in the classroom. bleh. I downloaded all the recipes they use in the course...so if I do end up dropping it, I've still got the recipes. mehehe. The books sound way interesting too...hmmmm...

It's a popular class so I'm not dropping til I'm sure just in case I lose my seat. BYU classes can be that way.

Today, I had a miracle happen. I was going to change my anatomy lab from Friday night to Saturday morning and when I logged on there were spaces open all over the place! I registered for a Tuesday lab from 2-4 instead so YAY! No more weekend lab for me!!! Then I thought better of it and decided to try for the Tuesday lab from noon til 2...just so I didn't have to go prepare food directly after having poked preserved corpses. Yum. Well...that didn't happen because literally 2 seconds after I registered for my lab...EVERYTHING was closed. I was on at JUST the right time it looks like!

Tomorrow, I'm going to the MTC to volunteer with Andrew. I'm a little nervous...I'm willing to bet HALF those missionaries already have better Japanese than me. Bleh. Oh well, at least Andrew's Japanese is amazing. No one will notice me. haha.

Is there anything else to be said? Nope, I don't think so...I had a BLT for lunch. That was delicious. Now I'm gonna take a nap cuz my tummy is digesting and I got up early to make french toast for everyone. It's not because I'm nice...its just cuz my milk is almost expired and I had to use it pronto. =P

Oh that reminds me, yesterday I went grocery shopping and got all kinds of food to feed Andrew and I. I spent like 60 dollars but I figure its cuz I had to buy EVERYTHING this time around. I got a lot of staples like chicken broth and stuff so from now on I will only have to buy SOME ingredients instead of all of them. It was my first time going through all the ads and price comparing. I made a menu and then my grocery list and for the MOST part, stuck to the grocery list. I forgot my lemonade though. Sad day. I got lots of food to stick in our makeshift pantry! It was fun! I'm ready to cook something now! Well...after my nap...I think I'll make Beef Stroganoff. I'm also proud of myself because I bought a huge thing of hamburger for like 10 bucks and then parceled it out into serving sized portions and froze it. I'll have meat for a while now so long as I use hamburger. :)