We've Moved

Alright it is official. This blog's life is at an end, and it's been a nice ride.

Follow us over at our new blog now! First one to follow me there wins (I don't know what).

I've copied and pasted several posts from this blog to our new blog so our whole "life together" is documented there. The very first post on that blog is a little about us, although everyone who reads knows us fairly well! The blog is still basically under construction so bare with me for a bit. I hate setting up new blogs. Anyways, head on over to thechapps.blogspot.com to read about our life in Washington and all of our other shenanigans.

Yours truly,
Lisa.

Not To Leave You All Hanging...

So yes we did make it safely to Washington. I'm having quite the time getting used to all this rain! I'm used to the amazing miracle Arizona rain that happens 4 times a year! Not quite as special when it's 4 times a week but it's still pretty and it makes everything so green and loverly. A few weeks ago I did start uploading a bunch of photos to the blog but it pooped out in the middle and I haven't had the time to do it since. And now I'm using my brother's tablet and am too lazy to figure out how to upload pictures to it haha.

So til i actually put up pictures here's a brief update. Dan is LOVING his internship at Boeing! I was lucky enough to find a summer job...however it is selling Cutco knives and I'm not a huge fan. I just don't have the skills and the heart to "show people all their options" (aka keep showing them things until they buy something haha). On top of that I am doing phone/virtual demonstrations since I don't really know many people here yet. And that is a huge bummer...not a fan of talking on the phone. But it's okay. I had two other job interviews yesterday so hopefully one of them works out.

In other news, Dan is sitting on the couch next to me listening to music and singing me his own rendition of the song and creating his own harmony (which consists of some rather high notes) and solos. Nice. He has also has told me that I should start an "us" blog...so this may be one of my last posts on this blog! :( But I suppose it's just as well because this is a new chapter of my life and I don't especially want "our" blog to have all my posts from the last five years or  whatever. Anyways, I sctually did make an "us" blog while we were engaged because we considering putting a link on our wedding announcements to the blog and then on the blog we would say where we were registered instead of on the announcement itself. Anyways, so when I move to "our" blog that web address is thechapps.blogspot.com. Yay. This is the last timeI am doing a blog post from this tanlet it is so irritating because it gave me the hardest time when I was trying to move the cursor to edit words and I,m not eve going to double check this sentence because I am so frustrated the end and good bye.

Graduation

Commencement (Thursday, April 19) was horribly boring. And it was sweltering.

 I feel bad saying it was boring, because Elder Dallin H. Oaks spoke:

Conference addresses are much more...entertaining?...easy to pay attention to than graduation addresses I've realized. Especially when you're comfortable in an air-conditioned home rather than sitting on bleachers in the heat.

The next day (Friday, April 20) was convocation. In all of the graduation pictures my eyes look so puffy....probably because I had to be there at 7 AM and it started at 8. Boo. Here are the proofs that I got from the photographer's website...

 Here's a picture my mom snagged of me right after I walked across the stage
.

Lacey and I at college graduation and at high school graduation with Becca and Heather. Aw precioussss!!! (sorry it's blurry, click it to see it better if you care)

Ryan, Lacey, me, Dan

Our moms kept saying, "Do a kissy picture! Do a kissy picture!" So I did.

Okay, fine Moms.

High school/old ward friend, Laura Runyan

After graduation, Mom, Dad, Dan, Ashley and I went to Tucano's. There were several other graduates their with their families. The Tucano's employees thought it would be a good idea to make us stand up and give us instruments to play while they sang to us. We were supposed to dance too. Not happening. I was dying of embarrassment!!!

And then later, Mommy dearest wanted to take more posed photos in my cap and gown. Here we are in front of our first ever apartment together. Ours is the one right above our heads with the wreath on the door.

Dan gave me a pinecone! He is so sweet.

While my parents were up here, we also got ice cream with my brother Travis's current mission companion's parents (got that? haha..), and we got to go to lunch at his first companion/trainer, David Whiting's house. That is a horrible sentence but I'm too lazy to reword it. Elder Whiting just got back in January. He was super nice and I'm so glad Travis got the chance to serve with him. I can tell they both had a lot of good influence over each other.

Here's a picture of Travis and Elder Whiting during their first few weeks together on P-day:

And that's about it.
Dan and I are moving to Washington next week!!!! And haven't even started packing yet aagghh.

Oh yeah, and today is my last day working at BYU Independent Study. The last post I will ever do from my desk. The last day of weird smells, kind/crazy/irate customers, fun people, familiarity. I am so so sad. So happy. BITTERSWEET.

Right now at work, it smells like some freaking weird seasoning herbs and this super funky body odor that smells like a nasty bellybutton.

Tah tah!

A Little Bit of Reading

I was on a roll with my reading! But then finals struck and my reading time quickly dwindled. However, I have read 2 1/2 books since the last time I posted about books. I reread Speak, picked up a random book called All We Know of Heaven, started Jane Eyre, and have gotten almost half-way through Spindle's End. Here's the recap for anyone who's interested.

Speak
Amazing, just like it was the first time! I love this book because it's all about finding your voice and speaking up, standing up for yourself. I think I especially like it because it's about a girl in high school who is dealing with a lot of depression and other horrible problems, and I really want to go into social work with teens. It's just such a great message! A message about making it through hard things and realizing that bad experiences don't have to define who you are.

All We Know of Heaven
It was kind of a cute story...I don't know. I got tired of it. (The following is not a spoiler, it all happens in the first chapter or two of the book.) It's about two best friends who look a lot alike and they get in a car wreck...one of them dies and one of them lives (in a coma for a while) but the authorities mistake the girls for each other. That's basically the first little section of the book. The rest of it is boring. And it seriously didn't mention or allude to heaven at all, except for when the coma girl was thinking, "Am I in heaven? Am I in limbo?" for 4 pages. It wasn't even uplifting. So I don't get the title. The end.

Spindle's End
It took me forever to get into this book. Once I realized it's basically the story of Sleeping Beauty, I got a bit more excited about it. Now I'm on page 174 out of 422 and am thinking I'm done with it. I love Harry Potter but I've discovered I'm just not entertained by a lot of other fantasy. I love detail, but this book is over the top. No one cares if an "earth sprite" is digging through the ground and gets interrupted by a mole. Plus this book is a week overdue at the library so it's a good excuse to stop. I wish I wanted to finish it.

Jane Eyre
I started it but couldn't get past the first 10 pages. I might try again in a few years.


So, for my own personal records, here is my updated list.


The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
((Spindle's End))
Pride and Prejudice
Moby Dick
Lola and the Boy Next Door
1984
The Da Vinci Code
Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Cinder     <-------picking up from library today
The Book Thief    <--------have but already overdue :[
((Jane Eyre))
Atlas Shrugged
Speak
The Hiding Place
Harry Potter
**All We Know of Heaven
**The Once and Future King (Sword in the Stone! Though I'm afraid it will turn out like Spindle's End...)

((gave up for now or forever))
**added to original list


A lot has happened in the last few weeks so hopefully I'll post about that when my mom sends me pictures.

Irrational Childhood Fears

I was a really weird kid. I had the strangest fears. Here are the main fears that my parents (especially my dad) ALWAYS made fun of me for:

Empty Gas Tank
Even if the gauge showed there was 1/8 of the tank left, I would freak out and ask my parents the entire time we were driving, "Are we going to make it? Shouldn't we get gas? Will our car explode?"
One time my dad's gauge was nearing empty so he thought it would be funny to speed up and slow down and tap on the breaks so that the car would shake. I freaked out. Not funny, Dad!

Inside-Out Umbrellas
When the wind caught an umbrella and turned it inside-out, I freaked out. It was creepy to me. I think it had something to do with Mary Poppins, but I haven't seen that movie is so long that I can't remember.
Also this picture of George W. is funny.

Elevators
I was always SURE we would get stuck. Never happened.
I'd always prefer to take the escalator until, of course, I tripped getting off of one then was sure that I'd be sucked into the tiny crack between the floor and where the stairs disappear.

Pool Vacuums

I was fine with house vacuums. But pool vacuums were a different story. Especially the ones that looked like those in the picture below....they were the scariest!!! The other models of pool vacuums were of course terrifying too but nowhere near as much as these.
My aunt's pool had a vacuum like this, but it had these creepy white tubes that twisted out from the blue part and wrapped around the hose that looked like antennas. So scary.
And to be honest, as irrational as it is, I still hate pool vacuums. :)

Toilets
Anything but a regular, white porcelain, clear-watered, manually flushing toilet was horrifying to me. I was most afraid of the types of toilets pictured below: metal toilets, toilets with blue water, port-a-potties/outhouses, and automatic flushing toilets.
-Story 1: Every year, my dad's side of the family has a "Cookie Day" sometime before Christmas where we elaborately decorate sugar cookies. One year when I was about 5, my dad and grandpa thought it would be funny to take the blue food coloring and put a few drops in the toilet, then call me into the bathroom. When I walked in and saw the blue water, I got that fear-sucking-out-all-the-oxygen-in-my-lungs feeling and ran screaming from the bathroom. My mom was not pleased with them but they thought it was hilarious.
-Story 2: Once when I was younger, we were on a road trip and I told my mom I had to go to the bathroom. So we pulled over at the next rest stop and my mom took me in. When I saw that the toilets were metal, I magically didn't have to go anymore. But my mom knew better and said that I absolutely HAD to go there because we wouldn't be stopping for another few hours. After much protesting, my mom forced me down onto the toilet, where I sat clinging onto her leg for dear life, screaming of course. She said she could hear my heart pounding on her leg! Haha.
-And I still don't like metal toilets, outhouses/port-a-potties, and have discovered that toilets on airplanes and cruise ships are equally terrifying.

What are/were your weird fears?


I graduate next week. Woot!

I Have To Sneeze

Why?

Because we were just informed that the roof of our work building was on fire. So we evacuated.

Then we found out that something in the construction area behind our building was on fire so we came back inside after 3 minutes.

Right now at work, it smells like burning plastic/diesel/brakes/dust/nasty. That's why I have to sneeze...



Who's excited for General Conference?? I am! I can't believe it's so soon. I have been totally slacking on my scripture study lately, so I'm trying to improve that to prepare for conference. I also have other things I'm hoping to get help with/get answers to. And I'm excited to watch and listen to this cute guy:


with this cute guy:

(Although he does have rosy cheeks, he's not really this red! Weird camera-ness..)

We finally got our TV to work so we get to watch it at home.

Other important updates:

Dan got an internship with Boeing! We found out a while ago but were waiting to tell people until it was official-official. And I forgot to post about it. So we will be moving to Auburn, Washington for the summer. I'm pretty excited and hope I can find a summer job up there.

And I'm excited for views like this (thanks Google Maps) :



Click to see my summer town better! Sorry for the crappy collage. I must drive down Harvey Road during the sunset! (PS bottom right picture is funny--they blurred out an entire house!)


Finally....I'm graduating in 4 weeks or so. Crazy.

So Far

Here is what I've accomplished from my list of books to read:

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Spindle's End
Pride and Prejudice
Moby Dick
Lola and the Boy Next Door
1984
The Da Vinci Code
Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Cinder
The Book Thief
Jane Eyre <---------checked out from library
Atlas Shrugged
Speak <------------started last night
The Hiding Place
Harry Potter

Not too bad, right?


Lola and the Boy Next Door:
Super cute and spunky. It was a fun story and an easy read. There is a bit of swearing though. Nothing in this book was too deep, just purely entertainment. Good book to read if you just want to get a little lost in romance drama and have a laugh along the way.



The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society:
I loved this book. So much. I don't really know what it was about it--it didn't have a dramatic storyline, there wasn't much suspense, the romance was more of a side theme. But it was amazing!

I think I loved it so much because of the characters. They were so well-developed and I fell in love with each one of them. And the romance that was a part of the story was so cute. It was old-fashioned romance, completely clean, and just twitterpating as my dad would say. I also think it was so good because it's the kind of book that when you're not reading it, you're thinking about it, wishing you were actually part of the story yourself.

One of the authors wrote an afterword and she wrote about how she and her aunt (the other author) never thought this book would take as well as it did...with the whole world. She wrote of how people sent her letters saying things like, "I was so sad when it ended!" or "I wish it didn't have an ending. I wish I could read on forever." I was glad I read the afterword because that is how I felt after finishing the book too! The end was so satisfying but at the same time so unsatisfying, because how could the book really end?

Anyways, I highly recommend it.

Excitement.

Guess who's going to the Ben Kweller concert on April 30??

These kids!

Oh how we love BK! (Not Burger King)

Books

I have been reading a lot lately and just finished my latest book. I haven't had time to get a new book, don't have homework (excellent), and am avoiding Pinterest, so I am left slightly bored at work. I've been browsing blogs but not many people have updated recently so I decided perhaps I'll update.

I just finished reading the third book of this series:



Uglies, the first book, was so good. Pretties was alright. Specials was just plain annoying. I'm not even going to bother reading Extras. I really like the plot of the books and think it has awesome potential, but I just feel like they're written similar to the Twilight series--something that could be said in one sentence instead takes a whole page. Halfway through Specials it was just dragging. I think this series could have been satisfactorily told in two books rather than four.

I've made a goal to read more this year. Here's the list of books I'm hoping to check off (I'd better get a move on it!):

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Spindle's End

Pride and Prejudice
I've never read Jane Austen before.

Moby Dick
A classic that I don't really know much about
but it sounds really interesting to me.

Lola and the Boy Next Door

1984
Another classic that I have not read.

The Da Vinci Code
I know I'm like 6 years late on this one...

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Cinder

The Book Thief

Jane Eyre
We read this my junior year of high school, but as always,
I was a procrastinator and ended up reading a cliff-note version
of the book that had been passed down for years from
one class to another (which I dutifully passed on as well). I really
loved the summary but just have never gotten
around to reading the whole thing.

Atlas Shrugged
Something like 1,100 pages...wish me luck!

I'm also considering reading The Hunger Games series but I'm too lazy to get that picture since I just barely remembered it.

I also want to reread some books that I've already read and loved.

Speak

The Hiding Place

And of course have to have my annual fill of the
Harry Potter Series.

Feel free to recommend any others to me as well.

In other news, my taste buds have been turned to this loverly treat thanks to Shley:

A treat I can count on Dan not stealing as he hates dark chocolate.
Mmm!!

I also made lasagna from scratch last night! Dan loved it. I'd only made lasagna from scratch one time before, but I used an incredibly simplified recipe (that had like 5 ingredients as opposed to the 20 the one I made last night called for [recipe--and no I didn't actually use a dutch oven, just an electric skillet]) and used thinly sliced zucchini instead of lasagna noodles. Surprisingly you could barely taste the difference. But I used real noodles this time.

Anyways, I didn't get home from school til around 7:15 and started dinner (complete with garlic bread) until around 7:30. Yeah, we ate dinner at 10:30. At least Dan told me that it was the best lasagna he'd ever had (which is saying something as it's his favorite food!) and that it was worth the wait. :]


Hooray for boring blog posts. Maybe one day my life will be exciting enough to document.

P.S. I think every time I blog at work I'll post what it smells like because believe me, for whatever reason, Independent Study has some weird smells. Actually, the reason is because we share a building with BYU Food To Go.

Today it smells like aloe vera. Not like the lotion, like a fresh chop of the actual plant. The stinky smell.