Too much to blog about

At work today I thought of all these things I wanted to blog about. Now that I finally can, few, if any come to mind. And once I start rambling to give myself time to figure it out, I'll have written too much.
Anyway, now that I've talked you all out of reading our blog....
Christmas was fabulous. We stayed at mom and dad Parnell's to avoid the hustle of mom and dad Ranck's busy wedding home. The second we got off the plane we hit the ground running by decorate for the luncheon and wedding reception. The next day was ALL wedding... even taking down the reception until 11:30 at night. It was a beautiful wedding. Jess had us all outside for an hour in freezing rain. That is love.
Wednesday Jameson went to take down more reception and mom took me shopping. Tough love. Thursday we spent at the Parnell home. We had a German Christmas and opened presents that night with the parents. We spent the night at the Ranck home so we could wake up for a 6am Christmas. True to tradition, we woke up before 6, had to wait to wake up the parents who then got ready to march us around the house humming "We'll follow the old man wherever he wants to go'... priceless. We got lots of awesome presents. Some of them (in no order): star wars trilogy, wall-e, a wheat grinder, long walk to freedom, wii, and fun goodies. Jameson and I bought each other fun stuff too... He got me the leather jacket I wanted SO BAD, a book, and everything else I'd been pointing out to him. I got him a guitar capo, scrubs season 2, john mayer cd, stellaluna... and so many glorious things I cant even...well... remember. But that is beside the point.
Here is what I really wanted to blog about! Now I remember! Our first night back Jameson and I had a rough night. It was cold, we were tired... and he couldn't sleep! We turned on the heater and cuddled fiercely all through the night. Best way to stay warm ever.
Jameson, despite his loathing, wore and... AND... enjoyed wearing my snuggie.
I'm back at work plugging away and slowly being trained.
Jameson bought books today. One pay check spent and totally worth it. I love being able to work to support him in school.
Tonight? I made stuffed peppers. And they weren't bad!
If you've made it this far, you've earned a place in heaven. You're all awesome, enjoy the holidays and we love you!

Merry Christmas

Well, Becky and I are sitting here on a couch in my parents' home and enjoying ourselves immensely. We just wanted to say Merry Christmas everyone! I hope that you all are having a fantastic day and spending it with those you love. Remember to smile! It's a good day :)

Finals

So I, officially, am done with my finals. Well technically no, but yes. I walked out of the testing center at 9:15 yesterday having finished every test for finals and it felt fantastic. The technically no part? I have to read a paper I have already finished out loud at 8AM tomorrow in my creative writing class. But that's like nothing.

I just thought I would share the fantastic news with you all. It feels...amazing.

And pertaining to last post: I know that John Lennon's original version of the Acceptance song is not So This Is Christmas, but rather Happy Xmas (War Is Over). The Acceptance cover has the name I put though. And have any of you heard all of the covers of this song? The Polyphonic Spree's version is pretty fantastic. I also recommend Damien Rice. I think Thrice and Celine Dion should be shot for having covered this song, however.

Well. Have a great day!

Music

Well. As some of you may have noticed, it is the Christmas season. As such, I have been listening to quite a bit of Christmas music. And, as I have very little else to write about, I am going to post my Christmas playlist I've been listening to for the past few weeks. Becky's been listening to it as well, but that's just because I play it. Does she like it? I dunno. But I do.

We listen to her Christmas music in the car. Don't worry.

Here goes!

Bright Eyes - Blue Christmas
Vince Guaraldi - Christmas Time Is Here
The Beautiful Mistake - A Cradle In Bethlehem
Darius Rucker - Candy Cane Christmas
Fall Out Boy - Yule Shoot Your Eye Out
Relient K - I Celebrate The Day
Barenaked Ladies - Green Christmas
Chris Tomlin - Angels We Have Heard On High
Relient K - I Hate Christmas Parties
Bright Eyes - Silver Bells
Jars Of Clay - Little Drummer Boy
Relient K - Silent Night/Away In A Manger
Acceptance - So This Is Christmas (feel free to replace with the original John Lennon version. I don't have it but it's better)
Casting Crowns - Away In A Manger
Barenaked Ladies - Footprints
Bright Eyes - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
Vince Guaraldi - Greensleeves
Barenaked Ladies feat Sarah McLachlan - God Rest Ye Mery Gentlemen/We Three Kings
Rebecca St. James - Hark The Herald Angels Sing
The Red West - It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
Selah - Silent Night
Barenaked Ladies feat Michael Buble - Elf's Lament
Matthew West - Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow
ZOEgirl - What Child Is This?

And another song that is not on this playlist. Becky hates this song with a fiery passion, but it is the most technical and spiritual Christmas song I've ever heard. You need to listen to it. It is:

Santa's Got A Mullet - Nerf Herder

So many fond memories...anyway. I've also left off the Christmas Shoes song because Becky says she cries every time she hears that song. So...yeah.

Have a great day! I recommend every song on that list...obviously. I made it. And posted it. Anyway. Happy Sabbath!

Happenings

What are we doing right now? Well I'm glad you asked!

We're watching the Muppet Christmas Carol.

It's okay to be jealous. I would be too.

Pictures

Well I figured I would put some pictures up because I didn't last time. So here you go! Us with our build a bears and putting our table together. Our apartment looks pretty much fantastic by the way. Except in the pictures. It's kind of messy with stuff in those :)

Finally, a post

Well I guess it's about time that I write in this again. It has been almost two weeks after all. I've been putting it off lately because, well, I've been writing so much for school. All the papers have been due because there are only four more days and all, so my time spent not writing papers has been also spent, well, not writing anything. I've been working hard to make this last week and then finals not stressful, so I've finished all of my homework a bit early. I only have a one page paper to write and my spanish homework left to do for school. Well, other than the finals. But why stress about those? I'll do fine.

Well I should be putting pictures on here as well. In fact, if Becky was awake right now she would probably scold me for being lazy and not wanting to find them and upload them. But I'll do it soon. But we have been doing well together here. We ate at PF Changs and then went to Build A Bear for our four month anniversary and she has this cute polar bear in star wars pajamas and I have a panda in full Darth Vader getup. I call him Darth Poe. It's pretty sweet. We had an awesome time going and figuring it out. I had never been there before and I'm now a fan. It's pretty awesome. And what else? Becky's parents gave us an early Christmas present in the form of funding a table for our apartment! We went and chose it and it looks quite fantastic. It is, however, a lot bigger than it looked in the store. So we're currently in the process of trying to rearrange our apartment to make it fit. Our movie bookshelf is now in Becky's closet and the movies are in piles on the floor while we work out another home for them. It's an adventure and we're enjoying ourselves.

Nik and Niki are home and we helped them move into their apartment. It's nice and fun and they have free gas so it's warmer than ours and Becky loves that haha. We have spent a few nights together and are loving having another newlywed couple around. Tonight we watched Star Trek and ate meatballs and mashed potatoes. Great stuff. It's a good train, you should hop on.

Anyway I'm pretty well exhausted right now. I should get to sleep. So I will. I hope you all are having a great week!

Reason #117

Reason 117 I married Jameson is because he treats me like a goddess. When I get home from a hard day at work, I'm tired, I haven't seen him all day and I told him today wasn't that great, what is the first thing he does? Well...

after pointing out he scrubbed the stains from the carpet
committed to making dinner
cuddle with me
and give me a welcome home kiss?

He draws me a bath! An amazing perfect bubble bath.

Yeah... I scored.

Nik and Niki

There's something about seeing love that's newer than yours that's refreshing. Especially when that love belongs to someone very close to you. It's invigorating. You look at it and can't help but smile because for a little while, you're there again. You remember what it was like and how it all felt and you can't help but be happy.

My best friend Nik got married to his sweetheart Niki on Friday. Unfortunately we couldn't make it to the sealing; Becky had to work and I had my final psychology presentation. But we did go to the reception. And I went to his party the night before. But I was going to talk more about the reception.

I feel so feminine talking about this.

We show up with our present that is put together with shoe goo (we didn't have any tape and didn't want to go to the store because we were running a little late, so we used that instead). His brother Kris has an extremely nice house. I'm debating on whether or not it's bigger than our apartment building. The guy graduated college four years ago and has a ridiculous amount of money. But I digress. We show up and it's great. She looks beautiful, he looks happy. Usual reception stuff goes on: we're recruited for dancing (it was our first time dancing together!) and we ate the subway and fruit and we talked and looked around. She threw the flowers, he grabbed the garter with his teeth and threw it. They cut the cake, she smeared his face and he retaliated. The usual. And then her brother I think played a song he wrote for them, and Nik stepped up and sang a song he wrote while her sister played and Niki was crying and Becky was tearing up and I wondered why he was sitting on that hard stool while she was sitting on the floor.

I'm so romantic.

But really, it was great to see the two of them together. Becky and I have been married just shy of four months so the memories are still fresh. Seeing it really took us back.

I'm proud of that kid. He's a rock and a huge example to me. And I couldn't be happier for him.

So! In a roundabout way, here's to you Nik and Niki. May your life always be happy and bring joy and, if it doesn't, may you see it anyway. Love and laugh. Keep up the good work.

And always remember to pray and thank God for the treasure He has trusted you with.

o-tay

Well, I still have my job. Big misunderstanding. Elmond (HR guy in Colorado) made a mistake. He doesn't know how he called the wrong branch about the wrong name, cause it wasn't mine. Which everyone is grateful for. Especially my branch manager who found out about it today cause he was on vacation. It was funny.

Get This

So, not so funny story that must be shared with the world:
Around 4:30 my trainer/dept manager asks me into her office. She shuts the door and tells me that she just got off the phone with Elmond, the HR manager in Colorado. My background check came in, and unfortunately there was something that didn't check out and that they would not be able to hire me. I am a great girl, I've worked hard and all I've done has been a huge help. I asked her what could make me not hired. She said usually it is something like a felony (yeah, me... a felonist) or under litigation (yeah... totally me). She said if I called Elmond he could tell me exactly what it was cause he cant tell her, but that things happen for a reason and they appreciate me. She walked me to my desk where I gave her my binders and the stuff she gave me back. All the while I was smiling, dunno why. I got to the car and LOST IT.

Yeah, I lost it. Cried hard core. Talked out loud about how wrong the whole thing was. This was supposed to be the job that kept Jameson and me afloat. Now I understood why Chilis wouldn't let me quit, cause I was really supposed to be working there. It was rough. I was going to call Jameson but I realized I had nothing to tell him when it came to a reason. I called Elmond.

He was nice when he heard who it was. Surprising. I told him that Laurie had told me that I was let go and I would like to know what about my background check disqualified me. He was confused, my background check wasn't done... so it wasn't me that had the bad background check and that I was to be at work the next morning and that he'd call Laurie.

Ummm... What? So I really dont know what to expect tomorrow morning. For her to tell me that she was right and I am let go, or for her to say that they got it wrong and I am supposed to be there. We hope it was that something was wrong and that I'm still employed there. But we dont know what could be wrong. I am the only new person in the branch, so he couldn't have mixed up the names. We just dont know. We'll see.

Best luck in your endeavors.

Just lookin for a good time

We had our friends over (that are getting married this week! Hola! And, like most awesome couples, we busted out the DDR and partied it up! This first video is of Niki and me having a dance party. We took turns with the men. The second video was shot in retaliation. It was quite the party as you can see. I promised Jameson and Nik I wouldn't put up the one taken from the back... it is my favorite though. Hope you enjoy! We are no 5 year old Asian kids doing DDR on expert with our eyes blind folded and hands tied behind our back, but we have fun!

Just one of those days

So it all started when we woke up. It was all running smoothly (first sign something was up). For some reason we had the time for me to put on make up before we left and actually left at 9:30 instead of 9:38 to walk Jameson to class. We get up to campus when my phone rings.
Colorado number? What ho!?
So I answer the phone and it is the people who did the background check on me asking why I wasn't at work, today was the day I was supposed to start... at 9... I didn't know! They said they had left a voicemail and an email... neither of which were received. Odd. They asked if I could be there in forty five minutes. SURE! Jameson was a doll and let me run off to get to work.
I made it home in an okay manner, realizing my hair was still up I settled for a clip, sweater and black pants cause I dont know the dress code. I jump into the rental car and hit the highway.
Luckily traffic was over and I got there 5 minutes early. phew. They were all really nice.. you can tell they had planned on me being there because the office room had a 'Welcome Becky' sign. And later when I met an Advertising rep, after she said hi, I heard her in the back say, "so the new girl ended up coming today..." ouch.
Half way through the new day today, after studying for test 1, my boss gives me the test schedual and because I start in the middle of the month, I start on test 7. On Enteral Feeding. Big words. Lots of information. sigh. Early on at work I get a call from a 801 number. Uh-Oh. Of course, the day I start my new job that goes until 5 and is about 30 minutes from home, our car is done in the shop... that closes at 5:30 and if we dont pick up our car AND return the rental by the time they close, we get charged money.
They let me go early to get the car! Jameson and I get to the car place 5 minutes before close... He goes to return the rental. I call him a few minutes later cause, well, I forgot the insurance check at home! sigh. Luckily they stayed open for us. Both did.
That is today in a nutshell. Feel slightly flustered from reading it? I feel slightly more flustered from typing it over haha. Today was great though. A whirlwind, but great. We ended it with a great dinner at Chilis (discounted due to my current remaining employment there) with Dave and Kristen.
Enjoy your days and remember to count the blessing of a relaxing day!
Love from the Rancks!

Whew

Well we haven't written in a long time. The reason? I don't think I know what to write about honestly. Things have been fantastic here. We're having fun and working and all, and it's turning out okay haha. We are so EXCITED for Becky to start at her new job! We're not sure when her first day is exactly, but that doesn't matter. It's whenever the paperwork goes through. So hopefully sometime this week.

I am done with my christmas shopping for my wife. I am fantastic, I know.

Does it seem like the Christmas season is starting earlier and earlier each year? The lights are already on trees on campus, the day after Halloween is when the holiday displays go up in stores, and there are a bunch of snow and Christmas commercials. I was very unprepared for this so it kind of took me by surprise. I have broken my cardinal rule of not listening to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving, and am in fact listening to some now. It's slightly shameful but you know what? Oh so good at the same time.

We've finally hung some pictures and things on some of our walls. Nowhere near to finished of course, but it feels more homey now. I love it.

Well Carly challenged us to write a few six word stories and I decided to try it. It's hard! After a while I only came up with a few but I'll share some with you. Have a great day everyone.

-You jerk! Hobbits are people too!
-In church, shoulders turn into pillows.
-The bookshelf collapsed, leaving behind sadness
-That really IS what she said...

Three months

So yesterday was our three month anniversary! And it was rather fantastic. Becky went off to work so I stopped by the DI and bought THREE childrens books for a buck fifty. Pretty sweet huh? Arthur's First Sleepover, Mickey Meets The Giant, and Olive The Other Reindeer. I am stoked. After that I went over and hung out with my brother while wifey was at work. And around five I picked her up and we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner...oh thank goodness for gift cards haha. It was fantastic. We walked the mall and then bought, wait what? Yes, Dance Dance Revolution. Why yes, we ARE fantastic. At the mall there were all these little kids dressed up because they were doing trick or treating to all of the stores. It was fantastic haha.

So I was a DDR champ as a junior in high school. I suck now. Badly.

We didn't dress up for Halloween. No, we didn't. But we do have costume ideas ready for next year! You'll all just have to be surprised.

Have a good one.

Would you like to add guacamole for 99 cents?

As most of you know, I started my job at Chilis. I have been training for the last week, so I get to tail people and occasionally do things. I also have gotten free food for the last week as a part of my training. Little did we know, it was actually how they get "Chilis" to invade your home. So you only THINK you escape your job... until you get home and smell it there too. Leaking from the fridge. Aroma mists in your room from the direction of the hamper.

Last night was my first day alone. I was supposed to start easy. The 11-5 shift. My friend Raquel asked me to switch and take the night. Seeing as we need the money, I took it. It wasn't until I got there that Kristen Young's warning a few days earlier came to its full realization: It is Homecoming Weekend. Not only was there the usual Saturday night crowd, but the prom dresses, tuxes, blue/white painted bodies and hungry mobs of disappointed (bad tipping) BYU fans. I had it under control when I had my little corner of tables. (4-2. Started with 4, then they took two away) Then, the groups came. I thought I was doing pretty well and I wanted to handle more. I took on the 10 group table. They were super nice. Really gave me props when I told them it was my first night. Then something happened with the checks. (Half my fault and 3/4 the guy who gave me a card he should have told me about in the first place). Not that I'm bitter that he took the merchant copy of the check, meaning no tip for me and that even though he works at a chilis, he is a jerk. But who cares?

Jameson, my loving, adoring, ruggedly handsome, and tall rippling muscles-ness came and picked me up at 1am. True love ladies and gentleman. True love. We were so tired that we went right to sleep... or... that was the plan. We woke up. 2am and we couldn't shut down. I kept thinking I had another entree to run and he was just restless. So I lie there, refusing to give up and Jameson reads to tire himself out.

I took 3 naps today.
Jameson, you are the best. Thank you for going to see the roommates you dont like very much, thank you for pep talking me as I cried the whole way to work, thank you for being patient with me and the fact that I just could not wake up this morning for church. You are the best husband a girl could ask for and I thank God daily for you and that you support me in a job that takes me away at random, late, and long hours.

May you all feel equally blessed in love.

Hi again!

Well! I know it's been a while. The reason is...it's been my turn to write about something and I have absolutely no idea what to write about. Life is going well, there's school, and Becky is doing fantastic at her job orientation. So what I'm going to do is go ahead and put up some poetry. In my creative writing class we've been doing poetry for a while and I've written a bit. And so I'll put some up! Hope they aren't a complete waste of time. Here goes...

Something Like Santa

“There are three things I’ve learned never
to discuss with people: religion, politics,
and the Great Pumpkin.”
-It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

If you need me,
I’ll be out in the garden
waiting for the Great Pumpkin.
Flying around giving toys
to all the people?
I can’t think of anything better.
Unless maybe it was those
boxes of 64 crayons
with the sharpener attached to the side
so that you never have to color
with a blunt pole of blue.
I can’t think of a better way
to make everyone happy.
It’s a must-do if we really want
world peace.
Just drop a 64 box for everyone and
let them try to figure out
the mystery scented crayon.
That’s what will make people happy.
Maybe the Great Pumpkin will come this year.

Sugar and Spice

Oh my lovely,
with your black sweatshirt covering
half of your face so that
only your closed eye and
half a nose is visible,
curled up into the tightest ball
under that quilt your friend made us
for the day we were married,
breathing in and out
deliberately
so as to taunt the mumbling fan
and the clicks of the keys on my computer,
whispering “hah! I am still asleep!”
Moments like these are when I know
that I am an undeserving fool
writing poetry on a Sunday morning
about your sleeping frame,
all the while loving you and
wishing you were awake with me.

I’ll Die Harder Than I Ever Lived

Losing breath has never felt so good, I decided,
through assiduous study of the lack of the air
that my lungs decided to expel. Of course my
ears had an unfamiliar slight sting, which was one
of the first signs that my exposure to what I’ve
heard referred to as the “wild side” has been
severely limited. Still, I never expected that
John McClane would be so blatantly raffish
while running through the streets of New York
trying to catch that Simon from blowing up
more buildings. Of course, thinking about it
from a personal point of view, I don’t think
I would act much differently in his situation.
Does that mean I’m not as good as I think?
Or that these “bad influences” that parents
always warn us about are really normal people?
Either way it makes me wonder just a little
bit as I turn up the volume to pay better attention
to the upcoming gunfight. Bring it on John.

Well there you go. Hope you have a great day!

Ball

Who is this stranger sitting in my lap?

My computer broke. Shocker. About two-three weeks ago. Long enough to forget it. It is actually kinda funny, you see, it crashed so I had to take it into the only genius bar in Utah, SLC The Gateway mall. They were the second group of people to discover my hard drive was dead. Jameson was the first. I got rather upset at them when they said they wouldn't be able to recover anything because 1. I have lost all my college work 2. I dont have any of my old pictures from college 3. I lost all the texts I saved while Jameson and I were dating and 4. (perhaps the most important depending on perspective) when mom and I were visiting Grandma before she died, mom had be transcribe stories Grandma told to us. It isn't backed up, it isn't saved elsewhere. I have the only copies. They are now sitting on a 'dead drive' in a bag. They gave me a number in California that try to recover that stuff but, and i quote, "they do get pricey". Then comes the ethical question, can you put a price on memoirs? Good thing: we didn't pay a thing for my upgraded hard drive. The Mac people sent out a notice, my serial number was to have a new hard drive put into it the next time I visited. My computer is so screwed up they had to send out a notice about me. At least I have more memory now... and it was free... Blessed that I have a crappy computer? I guess so!
Count blessings!

Chilis!

And I'm not talking about the weather...
I got a job as a server at Chilis and I am very VERY excited. It has been a long process to get here. I have gone back there several times, been rescheduled and taken long tests, but it finally happened. She offered me the job on the spot and that was very flattering. Christy, the owner/main manager woman is very nice. The other managers (as we all know) range from kinda sketchy to really nice. But I've already made one server friend and I think/know/hope I'll have more of them in the future. Besdies, this is my kind of dress code: black t-shirt and jeans. HELLO! And comfortable shoes. Gosh this is going to be good. I told Jameson this morning that he will need to remind me that I danced in the mall with him I was so happy about this job. That is how it is with all jobs, right? Up, down, Left, Right, plummet to the bottomless pit and soar at the top.
I dont know if we already mentioned this... but... we made fried rice! yeah... I know... we rock.
happy fall!

Cold Nights

So it is getting pretty cold. Cold enough to sleep with two quilts... on my side of the bed. Jameson just barely started to sleep with something other than the sheet. Last night I folded a quilt so it was like I had three blankets and it was perfect! I woke up in the middle of the night freezing and I had no clue why! I looked down and all the blankets were GONE to the bottom of the bed. Next to me, happy as a lark and sleeping like a rock, Jameson is sprawled, and I dont mean one arm out, I mean legs spread-eagle, arms out SPRAWLED across the bed flat on his stomach. I see his leg is pinning the blankets to the bed and I figure, he is asleep, he cant have too much weight on the blankets. Note to self: My husband is 6'2, his leg weighs like a 6'2 man's leg would weigh. I could not get the blankets back. Freezing, I lucked out when I found my second quilt not under his grasp. I cuddled under the little throw and fell back asleep. I woke up immediately, I dont know how much later when Jameson started pulling blankets on to him. I dont know much about what happened, I just know I said "FINALLY!", pulled blankets on to me and fell right back asleep. Jameson doesn't remember any of this of course but gosh did he love hearing about it this morning.
Joys of sharing a bed!
Have a great fall day! Our love is with you

Musings and Firsts

Tonight I accomplished something fabulous. I made fried rice! It was amazing! Not to brag... but Jameson had 3 bowls... and finished mine :) I didnt get the lawyer secretary job, but that is okay. We have a couple other leads. So it'll all work out. I interview with Chilis this week and Marshall has been networking for me like crazy. Hopefully it isn't too late to apply for the school teacher job. Pretty dang good pay.

As for firsts:
First time Jameson has handled raw beef
First time I made fried rice
First time Jameson has had Lindt chocolate
First time I've woken up to an alarm since I've been married
Our first overnight couple guest
The first mission reunion

Things are great here. Pushing along. Just paid our second months rent, getting our car fixed, paying bills, bills, oh... and I think more bills on their way. But, gosh I love the time I have being with Jameson. I'll miss it. Take care, we love you all!

Nice and Bright

I, at this moment, am listening to two amazing things: the rain falling outside the window and the Bright Eyes CD I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning. And I am having a fantastic Sunday. We just finished doing dishes and now Becky is getting things ready for her interview tomorrow and I am going to start on my homework. What's that you ask? Why, it's writing poetry! And I am excited. It's been far too long since I've written poems. I wrote one a day for Becky during our engagement for a wedding gift and I haven't written a one since. So I just wrote one from a chair's perspective and now I get to use some fun words. And then after that I get to do spanish...awesome...haha anyway. Conference was fantastic! I loved it. Highlights were Elder Uchtdorf's talk in priesthood and Elder Holland's. Any thoughts? If not that's cool. Have a great Sunday evening!

Presents

I would like to take this opportunity to share that I have the best wife. Ever. Of all time. Would you like to know why? It is because she got me presents. And one of those presents was...

Reese's Puffs!

I have the best wife ever. I also had peanut buttery chocolate goodness this morning. Be jealous, it's okay.

At the testing center they have nice little inspirational words for you if you get more than a 90% on your test.
I have been going to BYU for two years.
I have seen a "fantastic!" once.

Let the Good Times Roll

Blessings just keep coming! Things are going really well for us. Jameson has midterms this week and next. Ew. The irony of midterms never really hit me until I came to Provo where they have a couple ROUNDS of midterms for each class. Then you hear that your midterm is only 30 questions and you hit this wall of:

Am I supposed to be
A. Excited
B. Nervous
C. Grateful
D. Working on an application for my passport to Mexico.

I dunno. Personlly I'd be on D. I'm finally not sick any more! Well, I have my voice back :) Which means *fan fair* I'm job hunting again! And honestly, I think this may be the last round. I mean, God knows what is best, but I really feel like there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Jameson and I had lunch with my Young Women leader Michele yesterday and she said if I applied to any of the places she checks(? she works for EcoSure) then she would give me a good word. We talked about Chilis, so I went there today and I told her. She called her contact there and told him about me and he said he is excited to talk to me today! YAY! I also went to the Clear Horizons Academy, a school for children with special needs and she was super nice. Then last night Brenton text us with a secretarial opening at the Law firm he works for.

Things are just really coming together. We are so grateful for the love everyone has shown us and the prayers. And support. And phone calls/texts. Just, thanks friend and family for being so great. It makes starting off a new family a lot easier when we have a support system like you.

We love you guys and hope you are feeling blessed... cause you ARE!

Blessed

This has been a particularly awesome and really hard week for the Ranck household. Jameson has had two group project papers due (both of which he volunteered to put together for them), I have been so sick that I couldn't go out job searching. I couldn't even speak... only Jameson could understand what I was saying. Haha I sounded ridiculous. I still dont really have it honestly. Today Jameson stayed after church a bit late to help Dave shut the church down. Seeing as we've got 2 o'clock church we get to put up chairs and stuff. So, we walked home from church with them and got home around 6. We turned the corner and there were Albertsons bags on our door step. A note was shoved in the door saying "Jameson and Becky: Good luck on the job hunt. Enjoy the snacks." They bought us groceries. It was really sweet. Just thought I'd share a tender mercy with everyone.
Hope your days are all blessed in some way!

Wishes?

At times I wish I was more creative and could do some really cool stuff.

I just laid in bed with covers over my head singing the batman theme song but replacing the words "batman" with "bugman."

My creativity knows no bounds.

It's best to keep these ideas to myself.

Have a good sunday!

Priorities

So I was walking home with my brother and I decided to pick up my copy of the newspaper for the day. BYU's Daily Universe. So I grab it and stuff it in my backpack. Later, at my apartment, I take it out and flip it open. And what's the big front page feature? The one with color pictures and a nice background and everything? Fall Fashion! How awesome! I rolled my eyes and shook my head, wondering why this was even front page material. Then I noticed a tiny strip up at the very top of the paper. A man confessed to the murder of a BYU student and agreed to show the police where the body was.

Wait.

So this is a tiny strip at the top while fall fashion is the large feature?

Either someone has a very skewed priority or my expectations of humanity are too high.

Oh well. Here are a few pictures.

State Fair

Why hello! It's been a while unfortunately. But! Now you get to hear from us...with pictures! I bet you're all so excited. Yesterday we went to the state fair with my good friends Andrew and Lissa. And it was quite fantastic I must say. I've never been to a fair before...so I didn't know what to expect. My experience of fairs comes from what I've seen in The Notebook. So I knew that there would probably be a ferris wheel there, but that's about as far as my knowledge went. So here we go with what we did/saw:

Ate turkey legs

Looked at a ferris wheel and watched the sunset

Ate cinnamon roasted almonds

And looked at sharks

And it was fantastic. And I loved it. And we're in love.

First Time Back

Today Jameson and I went back to the temple for the first time since we've been married. I got butterflies again and pretty nervous. I got lost, didnt know where to go once changed, had to ask a woman where the chapel was, tripped up the stairs on my dress. Yeah... I took ballet as a child.

But, beyond the embarrassing feelings, I was at peace there. When we were sitting there and I was peppering Jameson with question about what I needed to do and what not, the temple worker came over and asked if we'd like to be the witness couple. My first time back. Neither of us have done it before. He tried to explain that it was my second session ever when the Sister behind him piped up and said, "No better time to learn!"

And there we are :) Front and center. It was a really neat experience. I am glad we did it. My knees were bouncing with excitement, I was perspiring enough to hydrate a third world country. And I loved it. I had this glowing feeling that we were supposed to be there at that time, in that session and being there the way we were. It was an overwhelming feeling.

After we went back to the dressing rooms, I was standing there folding my clothes up when a woman walked in and gave me this smile I recognized... "I dont know where I am supposed to go. This is my first time back since I got married... can you help me out?" I GOT TO HELP SOMEONE! It was so nice :) To know something.

God Bless and go to the temple!

Interview Number One

Good afternoon all. I figured, when one must suffer, it is best to suffer with friends. It is supposed to relieve it somewhat. But first, the embarrassing story that leads up to my current situation.

Today was my first interview in Provo. With the Buckle clothes store. I was pretty excited. I had looked up the FAQs on their company and found they paid 80% Medical and Dental, covered prescriptions, paid holidays, Maternity Leave, etc. Dream come true, right? So I spent longer than usual dolling myself up. Straightening my hair by layers, meticulously going over every eyelash with mascara. I was over anxious and showed up at the mall by 1:20... my interview was at 2. Jameson said I could go in a quarter til, but no earlier! So I wandered... looked at books, hand lotion, but kept the store in my sights. FINALLY! I could go in. I was very smiley and kind. But still got the stink eye from the woman helping me. She became much more cheerful when she came to find me and told me that my application wasn't on file. I very kindly told her that I was. She made a call and turns out, I was wrong. I had applied to the Buckle in Provo Town Centre, not University Mall. *aghast*

Tail between my legs, makeup melting in the heat and sweat marks beginning to form under my arms, I drove back to Jameson to wait for my newly moved appointment at 3. He was kind and made me laugh. Nice guy that Jameson. Fabulous husband and comforter. He drove me to the real Buckle and gave me a good luck kiss at the door--unwillingly taking some red lipstick with him. Brittany was nice! Very sweet, very direction and very professional. She kindly took me outside and ran down her expectations but all the while getting to know me. We had a great talk. I even made her laugh a couple times.

Then we got down to brass tacks. She enjoyed the interview, thinks I am a wonderful person. But things as they are, they cannot give me the time off for Jameson's little sister, Jessica's wedding. They could muster a few days (like... 2) but that is all. She SEEMED reluctant to let me go. She kept looking at me, my application and making pained noises. Whether that is practiced or genuine, I may never know. But she gave me her card, wrote down to call her in January and after we come back from the wedding, she wants to talk. She even said she'd keep the application on her desk. So whether I am in or not, I wouldn't be in until January.

The job hunt continues. The mascara is cried off (I dont take rejection well). Jameson has dedicated his person to cuddles and shoulder to crying. And many a bad guy has died on Bond. But, life as we know it is good. The world is turning. The love is never-ending. And the experiences are mounting.

We're loving the weather, being by family and having a great day and hope you are enjoying life too. So let the good times roll!

Friday!

I know I wrote in this thing last night. And I am telling you that I don't care. You know why? Because today is Friday! The first Friday of the school year and I am excited. And I'm also writing because I'm laying in bed waiting for my wife to wake up and don't have much to do. And she is adorable let me tell you. As always!

So tonight is date night. And what might we be doing on this fine adventure? Well, to be honest, we aren't sure yet. We both really want to watch Coraline so we may go pick that up at redbox. We may just watch one of the movies we have here. I may take her to Outback or something (hooray for gift cards!) or maybe just make her some nice food here. Or we may, being the nerds that we are, go to a bookstore.

When we were first dating we went to a bookstore. I mean first dating. Like, it was our second date which was the day after our first because she was only here for a weekend. Saturday evening. I took her to Bajio's and then we went and walked around. It got cold so we stepped inside Borders. After browsing around for a while we both found a book of random facts and everything. Ten minutes later we had lapped the bookstore again and found our way to another aisle where Becky took a soft chair and I think I sat on one of those step stools that bookstores have. And we flipped through pages finding little facts and "conspiracies the government doesn't want you to know" (Jefferson had slaves?! O RLY?!) and read them to each other. This was where we discovered that Cloud 9 does, in fact, have a literal meaning, but is not the highest cloud. The highest is Cloud 0. That's a zero by the way. So that started the deal of us saying "Cloud 0!" whenever the TV said Cloud 9 or whatever. And we were happy.

We both still remember the good time we had there very vividly and the idea still comes up whenever dates are suggested. We have yet to go back. However, I am currently taking a Creative Writing class where I have to read books of essays and poetry and short stories, so we may end up having a few more dates down at the library or at Borders or something. And to tell the truth? I am excited.

Forget expensive adventures. All that I need are books, chairs, and, of course, my loving Becky.

Internet

So! My wonderful wife has been busy lately. One of her achievements is the acquisition of internet in our apartment! Yes I really do have the best wife. So I am officially sitting here in pajamas watching Blood Diamond on USA and half cuddling...while writing in our blog. How cool is that? Pretty awesome. Thank you, I agree.

What else has been going on? For me? School and studying. For her? Job hunting. She has two interviews next week and feels good about some applications that she has turned in. So we're optimistic! Something good will happen. I also have health insurance now. So...that's a very good thing. And that's about that.

Well? Nothing else honestly. We're just enjoying life and smiling all along. So I hope you're doing the same. Have a good one!

Hey

Did I ever tell you how cool we are? No? Oh. Well. We are.

Loving my wife,
Jameson

First day of school! First day of school!

I swear I was more excited for today than Jameson. I was talking about taking pictures outside the door. Posing with the backpack by our cement walls... you get the idea. Instead of pictures, Jameson let me walk to school with him. It was a great morning! We celebrated our one month anniversary. I made him eggs and toast (a huge step up from my cooking skills of pouring milk and cereal in a bowl for him). And I got to go to school! It is weird for me to not be doing the same. But I think I'll be grateful for it when I have a job and can come home and sit while he does hw. Not that homework is a bad thing... just... kinda glad I dont have to do it any more.

I "online interviewed" with a company the other night, and as interesting as her deep south accent and small town mannerisms were, I couldn't make myself become an online saleswoman. Sorry M. Today I go out and start the door knocking, anyone with a sign and even some without. I'll drop a couple names of people that used to work there and hopefully it works.

Last night we moved the house around a bit. Brenton is having us hold on to his tv (bigger than ours) so I unloaded our entertainment center (came with apartment) and we carried it out to the basement. We picked up a little rolley piece of furniture that the tv would fit on and now we have a whole wall to put stuff up on! Or... stare at... either way.

Yesterday we went to our ward for the first time. Talk about a small ward. I am in it with Rachel (used to be) Tygerson. I dont know her new last name. That was crazy. We had a lot of fun though. Jameson kept telling Kristen (who has leeway with her husband Dave, a Bishopric member) how he wouldn't do well with a church calling. Kristen is still being quiet about being pregnant in the ward so we enjoyed her sneakily eating a Tupperware full of peaches. haha good times. We got together and had Hawaiian haystacks, watched Hotel for Dogs and played Munchkins. Very entertaining cards to read and things to do to people.

Enough stalling, I gotta walk back home and get out to job seeking. Whatever that is.

Love to all of you--Love to my husband on our one month anniversary and happy first day of school!

Goings ons

So right this VERY SECOND I am sitting here on a mac. Actually I'm at a mac. Becky and I have switched computers because she is doing an online job dealy. She is in some online information something or other with 15 other people and afterwards they're going to call and talk to her about if she wants a job or not. Of course, jobs are great! She received several (three or four) inquiries due to her massive outpouring of resumes and so we're hoping one will be something that works out well. We would enjoy eating and having a home, you know?

What else is going on? Not much. We bought a Thndercats DVD yesterday, which I have never seen, but I'm excited. I've heard lots of good things about it and Becky is really excited for it. So yeah! Fun times all around. I don't know what to rightly say. Sleeping in a bed is amazing! I love it haha. Well I hope you have a good one!

And we saw Up yesterday and I'm a baby.

Setting up

So here we are! Up on campus. On the internet. Because that's where we have to go. And I've decided that I hate hills and stairs and my ideal planet will have everything flat. Or! It will be all downhill. That's right. When you get to the bottom of the hill it would shift around and you would be at the top of the hill.

I have the best ideas ever.

So we're up on campus right now. Sitting in the JSB and just hanging out really. Well, I'm just hanging out. Becky is looking for a job and is quite done with the whole process. I am too and I'm not even looking yet. Sigh. Oh well.

We get our bed tomorrow! I got a call this morning asking if they could drop it by in the morning so we will totally be ready and grateful for it. And when it comes we can finish setting up our home. Our bedroom is the only place that isn't functional right now. Everywhere else looks great, thanks to Becky. I have the best wife ever.

So! This morning as we're sleeping, we are both kind of startled into this half awake state by some tapping or something. I'm laying there wondering what it is as it's keeping me half conscious. Sounded like somebody throwing a tennis ball against the wall every now and then. And that's when I heard the springs squeak and I realized what it was. We were highly entertained for about ten minutes. We officially live in a married apartment.

Well, that's all I can really think of at the moment. We're just having fun and relaxing and working things out at the same time. It's great. I'm loving every second of it. I truly do have the best wife ever. Have a great week!

Utah at last

Well, we're here! And in this sweet apartment. Let me count the ways...
1. It has blue carpet
2. It has some dressers
3. It is ground floor/basement level
4. Covered parking. Can I get a heck ya for our convertible?
5. It is a fifteen minute slow walk from campus

Things are really good. We took a 15 (100,000,000,000) hour drive here with Jameson's little sister in the back seat. His parents were kind enough to stuff their Suburban chalk-full with our bookshelves, hope chest and the wedding presents. Not to mention my and Jameson's entire existence (minus one book box, pictures, random stuff, sword). It is beautiful here. I never thought or really wanted to live in Provo. But it is turning out to be really fun. We're in Kristen and Dave's ward and that helps to ease us into the ward. Which is one less stress for us.

Mom is coming up soon. I dunno when we'll be able to post next... Seeing as we dont have internet and have to come up on campus for it. Good chance for a hike up the steepest hill in all collegedom, right? Right. *sweat*

We're just smiling and making our way through life. Life wouldn't be worth it without turbulence, right?

Set it Straight

First off, I would like to say that Becky is not at the bottom of the things that I like. It's just like that on my list arbitrarily and she is fine with that so hush haha.

Anyway! Not too much is happening here...unless you mean that my wife has officially changed her name and got a new social security card and license! It was a lot of hassle...until we got the right documents. We kept trying to figure out ways to get around going downtown and paying for parking and heading into the courthouse and everything, but when we finally did everything was so easy! Yesterday we hit up the DMV. So we're going in around 10:30 or so, which is a couple hours after it opened. We figured that time on a Saturday? Things are going to be a while. So we brought our books and prepared to spend a couple hours waiting around the building. We got our number and sit down. Before we even open up our books we get called. What? What about all of these other people? Eh, apparently we're more important than them. We were in and out of that building in literally 15 minutes. It was glorious.

Then we went and bought a set of California King sheets. Sweet deal.

Becky has been awake since 5:45 this morning for no reason. She's really tired and falling asleep on me right now. It is so so cute. Don't worry, I even make myself gag sometimes. But I'm in love and don't care.

Have a great week! We leave for Utah Wednesday for our new apartment. We'll see how well we get moved in and all. Sigh. We also have no milk for breakfast this morning. We may have to hit up my parents' house again haha. We'll see how it works out.

2 week shout out

Hey everyone. Jameson thought it was about time I took my turn :)

Things are great! We've been living with my parents--they are out of town the next couple days so we get to play house for bit--kinda fun. We've been running around trying to get stuff done. We're currently working on picking an insurance, changing my name and getting packed. So far we have narrowed down the insurance to all state and state farm (opinions?) We've gotten my name changed on my social security and we'll hopefully work on my license tomorrow. As for packing, it hasn't happened yet. We're both still dealing with our mono flair ups and just being tired. We've worked so hard to get to this point, graduating and moving and working that we have really needed this down time.

I've sent off a resume in Utah. I haven't heard back, but I'm still crossing my fingers. It'd be with Kristen, my cousin, and that sounds really nice to me. We'd get to carpool, she'd help show me the ropes you know? I've never really had a job outside of custodial at BYUI and that is a setback.

Jameson and I are really enjoying marriage (of course, I can only really speak for myself on that one). I love the whole companionship of it all--waking up and going to sleep with someone in bed with me. Not to mention while he is actually sleeping and all the funny/cute/embarrassing stuff he does! heehee

Today is our two week anniversary. I gotta appreciate these little marks, cause once they get bigger, they'll be farther apart and my reasons to "celebrate" something get more and more outlandish. Anyone have a good reason to celebrate at 12 in the afternoon? ;)

Happy Two Week Anniversary Love

Love in love

So I've been trying to convince Becky to write her turn on this blog but she's been "busy" or something like that (honestly what does she have to do? Birthday and honeymoon? psh no excuse). So I'm writing again. I think she just makes up excuses. But I'm fine with that.

Well here we are back in Washington! We actually came home a little earlier than expected. Funny story about that. So on Friday we went out to lunch at this chinese spot that we really liked. Some sweet and sour, general tso's chicken and beef and broccoli later we came back to the hotel and decided it was time to grab some stuff to take a little walk on the beach. We walk up the three flights of stairs and try the key. Red light. Thinking I just did it wrong I tried again. Red light. Again with the same result. We decide it's time to go talk to the front desk people to figure out what's up. So we head down and talk to the lady and she informs us that she had checked us out. Turns out that, unlike what we had believed, we had only reserved the room until Friday instead of Saturday. We get the key redone really quick and went up and cleaned out our stuff in fifteen minutes and headed out. It actually wasn't too bad...we got another day of free food and all!

So since then we've just been hanging out. We opened all of the reception gifts yesterday...and let me just say wow. Along with the myriad of household objects (Becky's favorite was the strip poker game that her friend gave us. The back of the chips say "Orgasm Service Station." Best. Present. Ever) we got a lot of money. I didn't know people were so generous! Definitely worth standing in line for two hours. I love everyone who helped. Thank you all.

We stopped by another wedding reception yesterday. Ours was cooler. And that's kind of the end of that story (unless you know Autumn then I have the best story for you later).

I got sunburned on our honeymoon! It was pretty great. My back was pretty red. Like, really red. And it hurt. And lucky me, I itch when I heal from sunburns. Itch like crazy. It blocks my coherant thought process sometimes. And it's been horrible! Friday was the worst, yesterday was fairly bad, and today has been alright. Friday night was an adventure. I was up until 5:00 or so hanging out on the floor freezing and looking online for home remedies which everyone and their dog seems to have and they're all "miracle cures." Right. Anyway hopefully I'll be better tomorrow!

Well that's kind of it. Tomorrow we're going to see GI Joe. That should be pretty cool. And that's our life. Just spending time together and learning to be quiet.

Happy 21 to Becky! She's all grown up now :) I'm proud of her. And I love her. Which is why we're married and in love. Well I hope you have a great week!

Listen to:
Ben Folds - Songs For Silverman
Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous

The beginning

Well it's incredibly hard to start off a story with as much material as ours does. So I don't know how well I would do or even how hard I will try. But here is the blog that Becky and I are making about being, naturally, the happiest married couple alive (which nobody will ever argue I'm sure). We are together forever. Right now we're on our honeymoon! In Oregon and it's marvelous. Of course I come down with some sort of illness on day three haha but we're having the time of our lives here. I couldn't have pictured a more perfect time. Except for, you know, the whole being sick thing.

It's still kind of surreal sometimes. We sometimes still think it's a little break or vacation in our lives that will be over when we head home on Saturday. But it's for real and we couldn't be happier. Right now we're relaxing in bed listening to a bit of music and about to put in Rush Hour. We picked it up for five bucks. Becky hasn't seen it yet. I have tried to alert her to the travesty that is that statement but I don't think she has quite caught it yet. We'll remedy that in a half hour or so. Then her life will be so much more complete.

Can I take a moment to say just how beautiful she looked in her wedding dress? It was amazing. I really do have the most beautiful wife ever. Wife. I like that word :)

Well I think that's about it. I don't know exactly what to say. It would take a book to fill up what happened on our wedding day and we've had a few more since then. I'm not quite up for all that typing. I'll just say that I am so incredibly blessed to be at this point in my life and could not be a happier man. And I'll leave it at that. So we're off but wish you all love.