Let Freedom Ring

I love America. I would say that a vast majority of who I am stems from the fact that I am an American. I'm proud to be an American, and to live in a place where I have so many freedoms, most important to me being the freedom to choose.

To choose who I am, what I do, and who I will become. To choose where to go to school, what to study, and my career path. To choose who, where, how, and if I worship. To choose how hard I want to work. To choose where and how I want to live. To choose how many children I want to have, and when. To choose how to raise those children, what to teach them, and how to support them. To choose my leaders, my husband, my friends. To choose to help or hurt the environment. To choose safety or adventure. To choose to make a difference. To choose to be an individual, instead of one of the crowd. To choose to speak up and be heard. To choose to listen, and to care. To choose to invest in life, in people, in love. To choose to wake up every morning and go out into the world, not knowing what to expect. To choose laughter and hope over sorrow and despair. To choose how and if I support my country. To choose people over things. To choose compassion and mercy over justice and punitive action. To choose kindness over comfort. To choose my own path. To make my own mistakes. To stare down the road to my future and make a choice, not knowing what the consequences may be or where I am going to end up.

To those who have defended this country--sacrificed lives, comfort and convenience so that I can live in place where I feel safe, secure, and free--I thank you. Thank you for choosing to invest in me: in my happiness, in my future, in my freedom. I hope that every day I can make the same choice as you did (and do)--to invest in others--so that you can be Proud of the America you have helped to create and defend.

P.S. For a great post on why being a liberal is American, check out my brother's blog here. It's the best post he's ever written, and is a perfect post for the 4th of July. Happy Independence Day!

24 Happy Things About Being 24

1. I started the day off right: with Corey singing "Good Morning 24" 2 minutes after he woke up...it was hilarious hearing him try to sing when he was still mostly asleep.
2. Funfetti cake for breakfast. I know it's not a fancy cake, but it's one of my favorites and I can't get enough of it!
3. After waking up to said birthday song, I got to sleep for another 2 hours.
4. Having my day off of work as a paid holiday.
5. Getting a new cookbook from one of my favorite co-workers.
6. I now have as many years to my name as there are hours in a day.
7. Weighing myself this morning and realizing I've lost 22 pounds in the last 10 months.
8. Taking a nice long bath and not blow drying my hair.
9. Eating lunch at The Pizza Factory with mom, dad, Ali, Matt, Krista, Grandma, and Corey. Yay for BBQ chicken pizza and breadtwists!
10. During lunch at The Pizza Factory they didn't even sing to me (that always embarrasses me), but they did give me a gigantic chocolate chip cookie.
11. My nephew asked me if I had eaten my birthday cake of meatloaf yet. It made me laugh.
12. I finally got a singing knife from Cutco...now I can cut my cakes straight (hopefully!). Thank you mom & dad. I've wanted one for years.
13. Free Cold Stone ice cream (cake batter + raspberries + brownies + a waffle cone = heaven on earth, thank you very much).
14. Buying five pair of jeans that fit me perfectly. Five! Seriously, if I find one pair of jeans that I actually like I consider it a good day...but five! Amazing!
15. Also buying eleven shirts, two skirts, and two pair of slacks...did I mention I only spent $83?
16. Lots of birthday wishes from friends & family.
17. Watching The Gilmore Girls...Rory's Birthday Parties. That is a great episode, I'm not going to lie.
18. Zac Efron....not only on a poster hanging in my cubicle but also on a card lying on my desk. Unfortunately 17 Again wasn't playing when we went to see it tonight (seriously, since when do they change the movie times on Wednesdays? Lame). I did, however, convince Corey to take me to see it on Friday since we both have the day off.
19. Corey calling me multiple times throughout the day just to say Happy Birthday.
20. Birthday Roses. They're red. And pretty. And smell good.
21. Listening to the Hairspray and Wicked soundtracks--loudly--while driving around today.
22. Getting six different kinds of fresh cherries from my dad's cherry trees!
23. Getting a brand new ice cream maker from Corey. The freezer bowl is sitting in the freezer just waiting for me to decide what kind of ice cream to make first.
24. Our adoption application has officially been approved! Now it's just a waiting game until a birth parent selects us! (P.S. It's kind of funny that we applied for adoption on our anniversary and were approved on my birthday. I'm trying to figure out what the next big event is, because maybe that's when we'll be getting a baby?)

Thanks to everyone who helped make my day so great! I'm pretty sure that 24 is going to be a great age...and a good year.

On Painting

Last week Corey & I decided we needed to paint our house. The paint job by the people before us was pretty crappy, with lots of paint all over the place (read: red paint on the ceiling, yellow on the cupboards...pretty much everywhere it shouldn't be) and watered down paint that wipes off when we wash the walls. Plus, the bedroom was a really dark and kind of greenish tan that made the whole room seem dark.

Corey is the plain old vanilla in our family, so naturally he wanted to paint everything white. I figure that if we're painting, it needs to be an exciting color. After several days of working on him, and way too many paint chips to count, I talked Corey into a white ceiling with yellow and blue walls. Sounds bright & cheerful, which was just what we were going for.

Corey was excited to paint, and I was excited to paint. That's what we call at win-win. We had our home visit for our adoption on Friday morning, and Corey decided that he would take the rest of the day off so we could paint. We started around 1:00 and figured that we'd be done by about 7:00 or so...

10 hours, $300+, 2 rolls of tape, 576 square feet of plastic, 5 trips to The Home Depot, and 7 arguments later we decided to finish for the night. Can I just say that it was stressful? Apparently painting a room 3 colors isn't the best idea because you have to wait for the paint to dry in between so you can tape it and get decent looking corners. Plus, all the prep work of taping off the windows, floorboard, doors, lights, etc. We ended up going to sleep around 1:00 a.m. and sleeping on the couches downstairs (yep, I slept on a tiny little loveseat, not the most comfortable arrangement in the world) because we still had work to do and couldn't move the bed back in to the room.

Saturday we painted corners and removed the tape...and then realized we should have removed it when the paint was still wet; since we removed the tape after the paint had dried, pieces of paint came off with the tape. So we had to paint again. And do touch ups. And do the corners again. After 3-4 hours on Saturday we were finally finished.

In case I'm ever crazy and say that Corey & I are going to paint another room...please talk me out of it. Really. For the sake of our marriage. It really was that bad.

I did, however, get some exciting pictures. Corey told me that I paint like I eat, I get it all over myself. Apparently that's pretty accurate. I was covered from head to toe in paint, whereas Corey only had a couple of speckles on himself. Both of our feet, though, were completely covered in 3 kinds of paint. Want to take a guess on how long that took to scrub off?

I was already this messy after only doing the ceiling. Impressed?

And of course Corey is practically spotless. It makes me sick.

Trying to look happy after painting for 14 hours isn't as easy as you might think.

We made a bit of a mess...

But our feet got the worst of it.

My lovely foot.

I somehow managed to sit in paint multiple times. Don't ask.

Nicely speckled. I look like an Easter Egg.

Pre-painting.

Before.

After. It makes a huge difference, don't you think?

Really, regardless of what you think of the colors, the right thing for you to say when I ask how you like it is "it looks fabulous, you did a great job." Because after all of the work & money, it should be the best dang paint job the world has ever seen.

I'm really excited, in case you can't tell.

Tuesday's Truth

The truth is that I woke up at 5:30 this morning...and was wide awake. You'd be amazed at how much I can get done when I get up an hour earlier (exercised, played the piano, ate breakfast, made a card...)

The truth is that we had friends over on Sunday and I won every single game we played. Even every round of every game. It was ridiculous. Hopefully they'll forgive me and still want to come over and play again.

The truth is that I secretly wish that I had someone like Dwight Schrute that worked with me. Mainly because I could use the laughter every day that I'm sure he would bring with him.

The truth is that when I got to work this morning, there was a gigantic poster of Zac Efron (semi-shirtless) and a birthday cake waiting in my cubicle. I love my co-workers.

The truth is that I get ornery when I'm stressed out. Just ask Corey.

The truth is that nothing makes me happier than cooking for people. Except possibly putting the treats in a cute little bag and attaching a homemade card to it and delivering it to someone.

The truth is that I miss my pet turtle, Todd...even though it's been 19 years since he died.

The truth is that I'm totally milking my birthday week for all that it's worth. I got free fried ice cream at Los Hermanos last night, I'm hoping for some ice cream at The Pizza Factory on Wednesday, and free Cold Stone on Thursday.

The truth is that I played a piano solo, "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" for the prelude in sacrament meeting on Sunday...and then we sang all 7 verses of the same song for the opening hymn. It was quite the strange coincidence.

The truth is that Primary Activity Days stress me out. I'm glad they're only once a quarter, because spending 5 hours at the church and trying to get all of the kids back to their parents afterwards was quite the chore, and not something that I'd want to repeat very often.

Tuesday's Truth

The truth is that we're going to a meeting about a timeshare tonight...solely for the reason of getting a free vacation.

The truth is that I almost cried last night when I couldn't find anywhere that prints 8.5 x 11 inch photos. I've spent hours working on a photo collage and now I have to completed change it to make it fit an 8 x 10 instead.

The truth is that Costco makes me laugh. I got an e-mail from them at 1:04 p.m. today saying that they received my order and were starting to process it, and it would be ready for me at 11:00 that morning...which had already passed.

The truth is that I listened to Celtic Punk Rock (a la The Dropkick Murphys) at work today.

The truth is that I got rid of 2 gigantic bags full of clothes and shoes from my closet last night...some of which I've had for 10 years.

The truth is that I sometimes find the need to throw socks at Corey. The other day when such an occasion arose, I aimed right for his face, assuming that I would miss. I didn't.

The truth is that I have a gigantic bruise on my arm from running into a door. There's really no excuse for that.

The truth is that our adoption caseworker said that she might be able to have our case opened as early as Wednesday...that might have provoked a small panic attack from me wondering if I'm really ready for this. But 10 minutes later I was sure again that we're on the right track and ready for whatever comes at us.

The truth is that I hate answering my phone if I don't recognize the phone number.

The truth is that I'm going to be at the church for 5 hours on Saturday for a Primary Activity Day...I'm in for the long haul!

Sometimes Work Can Be Funny

Exhibit A:
A client turned in a review. One of the questions is "Is the registration current for all of the above vehicles?" The client answered "Casey (her husband) expired on 3/09." Is it just me or does that sound like he died? I think she was trying to say Casey's car....

Exhibit B:
I overheard Charles (one of my co-workers) say, "My grandfather was duplicated 4 times." I think he was talking about family history/temple work, but taken out of context it sure is funny.

Exhibit C:
The 60 year old lady I sit next to just asked another co-worker if he Twitters. It makes me happy that she knows what Twitter is.

Exhibit D:
I've been fighting with our computer system a lot lately. To the point where I almost want to cry. And I know that eREP (the new system) is a woman, because every time we fight it's one of those "If you don't know what's wrong, I'm not telling you" kinds of fights. I sent an e-mail to our eREP support team explaining one of the errors I was getting and I started it with "eREP hates me." I got an e-mail back, and part of the recommended solution was to "please reassure Aubrie that eREP does not hate her."

Exhibit E:
One of my co-workers (cough*Jeff*cough) has a man-crush on Zac Efron, which he freely admits. Ok, he might be being facitious, but it still makes me laugh.

Happy Father's Day!

In honor of father's day today, I'd like to post a few things I love about the dads in my life.

10 Things I love about Dad:

1. It's impossible to go somewhere with him without him seeing someone he knows. While this was frustrating as a kid (how can it possibly take 2 hours to run into the store and pick up some milk?), I think it's a great testament to the kind of friend he is, that he always sees someone he knows, remembers who they are, and stops and talks to them. It's a great reminder to me of the kind of friend I want to be.
2. He is the best at planning vacations. My favorite memories as a child are all of going on vacations as a family. He spent hours and hours planning where we we go, what we would see, and how we would get there. Plus, he sacrificed a lot to pay for a vacation for all seven of us every year.
3. He respects the women in his life. I've always known that my mom and grandmothers are special and deserve my respect because my dad taught me this through his example.
4. He has a song for everything. And if he can't think of one, he'll make one up.
5. He has a joke, funny story, or pun for every occasion...and even if we've heard them all before, they still make me chuckle every time.
6. He makes the best yorkies (yorkshire pudding) I've ever had in my life.
7. He's not afraid to say "I love you."
8. He is always serving others, even if he's been working all day or his back is sore or he doesn't have the time or energy, somehow he always finds a way to help everyone with what they need.
9. He's great at his job. I know this, because we always see former students of his and they always remember him and talk about how great he was as a teacher and how much they learned from him.
10. He dances in the kitchen with mom, Mica, Krista, me, and Ali.

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10 Things I love about Dad Shaw:

1. He still loves me, even though I have yet to figure out what I'm supposed to call him and I rarely address him by name (Brother Shaw? Bishop? Dad? Jim? Bud? James? Sir?)
2. He is a hard worker, and he taught his children the value of hard work.
3. Everyone that knows him knows that he is 100% honest.
4. He takes amazing photographs and shares them with all of us.
5. He always has a family history story to tell, so we are always learning more about Corey's ancestors.
6. He is humble and not at all presumptuous.
7. He always compliments my cooking.
8. He hugs me back when I hug him (which is every single time I see him).
9. He has a tie for every occasion.
10. He never complains.

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10 Things I love about Corey:

1. Kids love him, and he loves kids. He is always playing with his nephews, making faces at the little kids at church, and waving to the kids at the grocery store.
2. He always takes the time to talk to Ali, play with her, and shamelessly flirt with her.
3. He almost never raises his voice to anyone.
4. He makes me laugh every single day.
5. He wants to be a dad just as much as I want to be a mom.
6. He cooks dinner for me when I'm too tired to do it myself.
7. He has a room with fairies painted on the wall.
8. He gets excited about things like painting the house and working in the yard.
9. He provides for our family and never complains about it.
10. He always makes sure to check on me and makes sure that my needs are met before he every worries about himself.