The Wonderful Month of May

Is it just me or has May been going by super fast? I have been keeping fairly busy, so that definitely plays a big role in the speed that May is going.

First of all, I failed to conclude the big cliffhanger: did I or did I not get my classes back? For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you know very well that I got my classes back! YAY! But for those of you who don't, I'm sorry for keeping you hanging like that. How rude of me.

Since the time I last posted, my documentary episode has gone through multiple edits, I have written 2 French papers, taken 2 French tests and celebrated the 1-year anniversary since Ryan proposed (click on the link there to read the blog post from that time). We have also settled into our new apartment, and I am loving it! It is a 15-minute walk to the JFSB, the "heart" of campus, a 10-minute bike ride to my work at the BYU Broadcasting building, it's close to Macey's and Smiths, though since I don't have a Smiths card, I don't shop there often, but that might change...

Anyways, the location is perfect! And it stays fairly cool. We've only had to turn on our swamp cooler a few times, and usually after me and Ryan bike home so we're hot already. We replaced our shower head, so I absolutely love taking showers now. The ward is fantastic (I've already made a friend or two), and I just feel like this is where we need to be. I feel good where we are. I love that we have 2 bedrooms (the study room is still in shambles, but that's because we're still waiting to get furniture from my grandma)...I don't know! There's this weird sense of peace in the apartment when I'm here, and I love it.

Recently, me and Ryan decided to walk around the neighborhood, and also pay a visit to the south campus pond. Here are some iPhone photos of our excursion.

 Here is the lovely pond in it's entirety.

 Goslings! Seriously, this time of year is my favorite because of all the little ducklings.

 Another view of the pond. Most of the ducks in the water are male, and I'm assuming their female counterparts are basking in the sun, much like human couples.

 Ryan is checking out the water, or quite possibly a turtle.

 Ducks on the rocks.

 A giant pile of goslings that are busy napping.

  I wanted to stuff my hands in that pile SO BAD...

 But mama duck was nearby watching closely. 

 This duck was awkward and the only one of its kind at the pond.

 If you look closely you can see another smaller pile of goslings.

 Turtles and a duck sun-bathing. How lovely.

 I was very good at following the rules, but it wasn't hard because the pond smelled horribly.

 Aaaand a random white duck. Huh.

Yay ducks!

It was a jolly good time at the pond. But I sorely miss our duck pond by the Provo river. One of these days we'll go there again and maybe have a picnic.

Well that's all for today. We've been very busy getting settled and having new adventures, I wish I had all the time in the world to blog about them all. But for now, this is what you get.

By the way, we'll be coming out to Missouri from July 17th to the 26th, so if you want to see us, you Missouri folk, start planning something! Bonne journée!

April Fail

Okay, so I kinda failed at updating my blog on a daily basis. I'll give my BEDA effort a C. Maybe C-. Nah, I'll cut myself some slack and keep it a C. I deserve it right now.

I shall give you all a nutshell'd version of the chaos that is my life right now: things that seemed in order in April have gone spiraling out of control in May.

I may be over-dramatizing it a bit. But allow me to give you a more in-depth-not-quite-so-nutshell'd version of it all.

I found out on Thursday night, in a hotel away from home and comfort, that I not only forgot to pay tuition for Spring term, but that BYU had taken the liberty of dropping both of my Spring term classes. I was sitting in said hotel room, pleased after a successful first day of filming (I'll get more into this later), and trying to do my French homework on BYU's version of Blackboard, and I found myself staring at a blank spot on the page where my French class's name would've been on this version of Blackboard. I had tried this earlier in the day and emailed my professor about the issue, thinking that it was a glitch in the website since it's only a few weeks old. After the second attempt at the hotel room, I looked at my email and saw I had a response from my professor; he told me that I was no longer on his roster and that I had dropped the class, something he wasn't too concerned about since it is still early in the semester and people are prone to drop classes.

I was shocked. Why in the world would I have dropped the class? And then I remembered in one, frantic thought:
holycrapiforgottopaytuitionwhatamigoingtodonowohmygosh!


Yeah, it wasn't pretty. I was sharing my hotel room with one of my film crew members, so I kept my cool, but inside I was crying and hating myself for forgetting to pay freaking tuition. I remember what I told her as far as the situation a few minutes later, and I remember that I was cool and collected and there may have been a chuckle or two in it, just to elude coolness and whatnot.


A few minutes after that, I tried sleeping and pretty sure I didn't sleep well, though that might've been because of the horrid pillows at the cheap hotel.


I haven't yet resolved the issue, but both my professors know what's going on and so I am in the process of petitioning to BYU to get my classes back. I'm not too hopeful.


The second thing that's been going wrong has to do with the contract to our apartment we supposedly sold. For all of last week (the week before rent was due at our old complex), me and Ryan had been trying to get ahold of the couple who told us they wanted our contract, with no success. We've also been calling our landlady, and had been unsuccessful at getting ahold of her as well. And so the entire week, we were freaking out about the fact that maybe our contract didn't get sold, since we hadn't heard from either of them as to the next steps in the contract-selling process, which usually includes a cleaning check and giving the keys to the new owners, things we hadn't done yet.


The very same day that my classes were dropped, I sent an email to the couple, giving them a 24 hour ultimatum that if they hadn't signed the contract and hadn't contacted me, I would put the ad back on craigslist and find someone who wanted the apartment. Me and Ryan thought we had until Saturday the 5th to find someone to buy the contract before rent was due/overdue starting the 6th. So I had to act fast, right? So that night, after I found out about forgetting to pay tuition and all that junk, I quickly whipped up a new ad (I couldn't wait in my frantic freaking-out-ness for another 12 hours to pass) and posted it on Craigslist, confident that I'd have 6-7 offers in the morning.


Morning came. Nothing. I texted Ryan to call the landlady as soon as possible. He tried a couple of times and she still didn't pick up. Long story short (TOO LATE), we spent the whole week, and most of Thursday/Friday freaking out when finally, on Saturday, we called the landlady again, trying to cut her a deal that maybe we wouldn't have to pay all of May's rent for the vacant apartment.


She picked up the phone and proceeded to tell Ryan things that we should've been informed about 5 days earlier. Turns out, the couple HAD signed the contract!


BUT...


Not until June. May was still up in the air. We didn't find this out until today via the couple who finally emailed me back, and so when we called her initially on Saturday, she wasn't sure as to when they signed it for. The relief we felt was short-lived because there's this whole thing as to how rent for May will work. The contract is now in their possession, but they won't move in until June. They informed me that they didn't want us to have to pay for May, but neither of us are sure as to how everything will shake out.


And to make matters worse, the new job I thought I'd have by now has still evaded me, I've had 5-6 different interviews at this point, each of them ending with a short email or phone call informing me that I just wasn't the right person for the job. Talk about a confidence smasher. I'm feeling more hopeless as each day passes and I submit my resumé to a new position with no really good leads. It's like dating, except when a job rejects you, it's also taking all your money, not just your dignity and pride.

Sorry for this pity fest. But I figured that you all deserved to know the goings-on in my life. I promise that I will talk more about my filming experience this past week and fun things along that line.

P.S. "The Avengers" was pretty great. Though you all probably know that by now.

Moving Day

Well, I'm back, after a 5-6 day absence. The wisdom teeth extraction went smoothly, I said some pretty ridiculous things while I woke up from the anesthesia, and Ryan was an absolute angel helping me recover. I had some ups and downs, but maybe I'll get into that for a later blog post. For now, I want to write about what's going on now: moving.

A couple of weeks ago, we saw an apartment that we loved, and we decided to take the plunge and move. We weren't going to move until I found a more substantial job, but because this was such a GREAT offer (only $60 more than what we're paying now, and it's closer, and two bedrooms!), we couldn't pass it up.

Fast forward to now. I hadn't really started packing until Monday night, and so now I'm panicking and wondering if we'll get everything done. Thankfully, we don't have to have the apartment sparkling clean just yet. But we'll do what we can while we're at it.

Here are some pictures of the process.

Before

After

Here is the pile I'm currently sitting next to:

It's been a very productive morning despite still being in pain and randomly breaking out in hives. Ryan's dad will come by with Ryan's brother and some of the neighbors and they'll help haul all this stuff over to our new apartment this afternoon. For now, I'm taking a much needed break and waiting for Ryan to come home from work with lunch.

More pictures to come tomorrow and Saturday!

Today is the Day

Alright, people. I know I didn't blog last night. That was mainly because I was with Ryan's family for most of the evening and the rest of the evening was spent calming me down and watching "Scrubs".

But now, I am an hour away from getting my wisdom teeth removed. For the most part, I slept easily last night. But I kept having stress dreams about accidentally eating something and that would cause something absolutely catastrophic in the procedure. But I didn't eat anything and now I'm here at the computer, tired, hungry, and slightly panicking. I keep remembering that I WON'T be awake for the procedure and that I'll be able to sleep for as long/as much as I want. But I'm still freaking out. What kind of pain will I be in that I'll need to take narcotics?!

Wish me luck, people. I may or may not blog the next few days. If I do, I'm not responsible for what comes out, such as drunken tangents about iceberg lettuce and too much peanut butter on a PB&J. I love you all!

Short and sweet

This post will be short. And as I stated in my title, it will be "sweet". So for the sweet portion, I shall eat some chocolate pudding that I whipped up earlier tonight. Mmmmm, delicious!

Now for the short part. If you follow my twitter, you probably already know this, but here goes: WE SOLD OUR CONTRACT! I wasn't too concerned since it's a freakin' sweet deal and we had lots of people interested. Well, I got an email this morning from one of the couples who saw the apartment last night and they wanted to buy our lease! So now we don't have to pay rent for May for this apartment! Yippee!

And now we're a week away from moving out of this apartment and into our new one in the middle of the cutest neighborhoods in south Provo. It's slightly bittersweet since this apartment has been such an amazing part of our first year of marriage. But I'm so excited to have two bedrooms, an open kitchen, and for the new friends we'll hopefully make in our new ward.

Tomorrow, I shall discuss, in length possibly, all my fears and dread for my upcoming wisdom teeth extraction on Friday. And I may or may not post Friday-Sunday because of the narcotics they'll have me on. Though I'm interested to see what in the world I'll type while on 4 types of meds.

G'night all!