Frandtastic!

are coming to visit today.

Looking forward to my/their first trip to NYC.
Visiting Philadelphia.
Maybe the beach.
Stay tuned for pics of all our adventures.

*They bought plane tickets to come out here before we even moved, so I guess that means they like us :)  

Note to self...  don't mess around with Blogger design settings.
Now my blog looks like a big piece of white boringness.

Guess it's time for a revamp anyway. Dang it.

On a different topic, I'm kind of ticked about a new show that is on TLC called "Sister Wives".
I bet you can guess what it's about- yeah, a polygamist family. "The real life version of Big Love," according to TLC. You're really letting me down TLC. They were on the Today show this morning, and I just can't help but feel... irked? Yes, irked.

Do you know how many times I've been asked if Mormon's are polygamist (aka, if I'm polygamist) since I moved to NJ? It's a really sad, but true misinterpretation that people have and hold and pass along. It's all some people think they know about Mormons. And now, this guy and his four wives are going on national TV, letting people assume they are Mormon, and making it even harder for people to understand that my religion is not a polygamist hang out club. Kind of drives me nuts. If your not sure what I'm ranting about, I'd say check it out the real deal here.

Now, back to fixing the blog for your visual pleasure.

Paul and I have been real bad at taking pictures since we got here.
I do have a few- but for now I'm going to steal some from Camie's blog.
(Camie's fam and Valerie's fam came to visit us Labor day weekend and we had lots of fun at the beach!)
We met up with them in Philly and ran the "Rocky steps".

I really like reading nienie- like I'm sure many of you do.

Today her post rang true in 2 BIG ways.

1- She used to live in East Brunswick, which is where our church is... super close.
2- She said New Jersey was "sometimes downright depressing". Ya- I feel that. For me, it's not about the time the sun sets (yet- because I really hate winter, but I don't want to think about that yet, and yesterday it actually was about the sun setting because I really wanted to take some pictures and I just hate flashes.) But it is a new place, I don't know many people, and it's just downright scary- and that can be depressing.

But today I have a little bit better perspective and a better attitude about my situation here. Paul reminded me yesterday that we are only a few weeks in and "we still have time to get roots in the ground."

Which can be the story of our new pillow that Paul picked out (maybe subconciously):

and 3- My grandma has a goose just like that and they are awesome.

We've been in Jersey for about a month now. There are so many things that are different from Utah.
Here are a few:

Brand names.
A lot of food have different brand names, but are exactly the same. Example:

The first few years I was at BYU I worked at Wasatch Elementary school as a tutor and after-school program director.
My favorite kid (ever) that I tutored was a first grader named Jackson Gledhill. He was the craziest, goofiest, kid, but he was also smart and I helped him make a ton of progress with his reading. One day I was asking him questions, and he told me his mom's name was Mindy. Wait... Mindy Gledhill? The EFY song lady? Well I thought she had a great voice, and I thought that was pretty cool.

At the time I was dating this hot, newly returned missionary named Paul, and I knew that on his mission he had a slight obsession with Mindy Gledhill's music. So one day when I met her at the school, I let him know about this, and she thought it was real funny.

Anyway, now she has changed her musical style a bit, and I like it.
Here is her latest music video, which is also cool.

And let me just say, that when people post videos on their blogs I usually never take the time to watch them, but this one is worth it for a nice "feel-good" moment.