Don't Mess With Texas

Last week I had the chance to fly to Texas. Yes, I flew. I was planning on driving. Th arduous and lonely 11 hour drive was not going to be fun. But I viewed it as a challenge. A challenge for my staying awake ability, not to mention my poor little car. My dreams of the great American Road trip were thwarted Kourtney, the bargain hunting fiend. Like a sweet angel sent from above she found a manageable airfare, and so I flew.

Question: Is it rude to not make friends with the passenger sitting beside you on an airplane? I just...didn't feel like it.

American Airlines gives you a whole can of beverage. Not like those Delta cheapskates. Delta gives you a cup filled to the rafters with ice, then only pours enough beverage in the cup to wet a baby's tiny toungue. Curse you, Delta.

Anyways...my friend Holly is married now. We met in 6th grade, and all throughout the three trying, awkward, braced and acne riddled years of middle school we were there for eachother. Mindy, Holly and I--or the Three Amigos, as we liked to call ourselves (seriously.)-- were inseperable. But not for long. Highschool came. We became separated, but still kept in touch, and I had to be there for her wedding. Simply had to. I mean, we'd been talking about our weddings since middle school. You don't just miss something like that.

So, I forgot my camera. I brought only what could fit into a tiny carry-on duffle bag (checking luggage is pretty lame, in my book), and the camera was left out. My little phone has a tiny camera built in, and luckily I remembered my phone. So, here is my trip, pictured in all of its grainy, low resoluted glory.

The Houston Temple. So gorgeous. I love just..sitting on the temple grounds. Except when its over 100 degrees outside...then I love sitting in the Temple waiting room.




First steps as man and wife...

First bench to sit on as man and wife...

Holly wanted us to express our personalities through our shoes. As long as they were dark brown shoes. Maybe she should have set more boundaries.

Lake Bryan. Flat, smooth, peaceful, and blazingly hot. Mindy took me kayaking.

Our glasses matched. Not planned! Mindy had all kinds of adventurous things to do with me.

Not pictured: bike ride through perilous nature.

Kourtney took me to explore the tacos and antique shops of downtown Bryan. We found fun, expensive stuff! Also, when I lived there, there was no "Downtown Bryan." Only "The Ghetto Part of Bryan." Funny how things change. Now its quite picturesque.

Kourntey and I are so ready. For anything. I think this was taken right before we began the long journey to tacos. Seriously. We walked for days but the sweet promise of tacos was enough to sustain us.

I love this picture. We found it in an antique shop. The crazy eyes must run strong in that gene pool.

Also, we spent a good while spelling our names with the stamps from an old printing press. We're pretty wild.

When I try to explain Texas to people...they don't understand. They don't understand Stetson hats, or the Aggie yell leaders. Nor do they understand fields of blue bonnets that cover the country side for a few weeks. They don't understand that the state flag is considered a tasteful motiff for birdhouses, park benches, shirts, babies...

I had a few things I really wanted to do while in Texas. And, eat 10 snocones was on the top of my list. Let the record show that I almost met that goal.

If You Can't Take the Heat...

Following the noble tradtion of singles wards across the nation, Tallahassee's very own 5th ward holds a "Break the Fast" potluck on the first Sunday of each month. This past Sunday it was "Battle of the Sexes" themed--each gender's dishes were to be compared, judged, and the winners were awarded first pick of the dessert table. On Thursday I get a lovely wall post from our Break the Fast Co-ordinator proclaiming her excitement for my "Chinese Onion Pancakes". Chinese....onion...pancakes? Oh dear. Lots of thoughts ran through my head...confusion..and...well, mostly confusion. Long story shorter: I figured she needed someone to make them and I blindly follow orders, I googled them, and learned something new.

Sunday morning, I walk into the kitchen with my oniony goodness, and tell her something along the lines of, "Well, I don't know what you're expecting, but I tried...". She turns and looks wide eyed at my dish. "You MADE them?" A few minutes earlier, CINDY, a girl from Taiwan had brought in her plate of, you got it, Chinese Onion Pancakes. Apparently Cindy doesn't have the clearest handwriting. And she signed up right next to Kristen, so Lindy was the next name that came to mind. What that says about me and Kristen, I don't know. :)

So, my googled version of a Chinese staple faced off against a, shall we say, authentic version. And I'm told mine put up a good fight. Were maybe even (dare I say it?) preferred. Take that, all of Asia.

Pictured in all of their glory. What you think is a table cloth is actually my apron! And yes, I am aware that it looks like it belongs on a 70 year old cat lady's couch. That's because thats where I got it! I helped a little old lady with her garage sale, and found this GORGEOUS throw pillow case. Now it is my apron, and I wear it with pride.

Speaking of cooking, I finally finished my little recipe book. Inspired by the recipe notecards Becca Renfroe makes, I took my favorite recipe's and made them into little 4x6 notecards. Then it was quick work to put them into a photo album (water proof!), and for convenience's sake make little tabs. I love tabs. Since I only had about 10 recipes that I loved that much, and it took a lot of time to make the silly cards, I went ahead and printed off Becca's recipes too! Thanks Becca! So now my little book is full. If you would like the cards, I can e-mail them to you. No problemo.

So handy!

Make Over

This is what I look like this week. I think its cuddly, cute, and tons of fun. But, that could be the medication talking.

Wedding Extravaganza

I now officially belong to the "Wedding" stage in life. I should have seen the signs before now. My fluff viewing and reading material has been shifting so slowly I didn't even realize what was happening. It started with the movies. Ten Things I Hate About You suddenly seemed immature and....highschoolish where it had once been so...grown up and cool. And then 27 Dresses, My Best Friend's Wedding, and finally Bride Wars just felt so...relevant. The finalality of it all came with Kendal's wedding. Now, this was no shotgun wedding. It was figured in our plans since househunting a year ago! But it still seemed to sneak up on us. I got to be a bridesmaid! Now, I'd been a bridesmaid in Kourtney and Jackie's weddings, but my bridesmaidly duties were basically "show up" and "love your sister". Check and check. But this time I had to...like...do stuff. There was dress shopping, the bridal shower, bachlorette party (hey o!), supporting and advising the bride, being generally helpful, and so on. So basically, I acknowledge that I'm growing up, and its not too bad.

The bridal shower! We went classy with a Breakfast at Tiffany's theme.

The amazingly fabulous invitations, brought to you by Alyse and Kristen's Auntie.

See those little pearls? They're mints! Mints!

There were some points in the decorating process where Kristen and I asked, "Is this too much, really?". The answer was always, "No."

I don't know where Ashley got all those Tiffany's bags and boxes. They don't just give those away you know. I guess someone loves her a lot.

Cute little favors filled with kisses, wrapped in love, and tied with a little bow.

After eating and gifts, we made scrapbook pages. Here Kristen and I work steadfastly. Well, she works steadfastly. Apparently I'm just really in love with that piece of paper.

Room mate love:

Kristen and I got to plan the Bachlorette party! I like those. We stuffed our faces at Stevi B's (Any and every pizza you can imagine. Really. Cheeseburger, Mac & Cheese, Bar-B-Que, and Baked Potato are the usuals. But we got Spinach, Mushroom and Alfredo on special request. And then Just Pickles on super special request.) The we headed back to Kendal's little love shack for games and gifts. What a wild night :)

The guest list was pretty exclusive:

Lara trying her hand at "Pin the Kiss on Chris"

(Virgin) Margaritas on the rocks.

Clever title brought to you by Kristen.

On an unrelated to weddings side note, I learned to make Cake pops!

Pay Pee Trash

I forgot I made a draft of this post during Easter weekend. Whoops.

Easter is so great. I like it. A lot. My parents love hiding things from us, so this is pretty much their holiday to really shine. My mom is a great hider. Not such a great rememberer. Almost every year there's one egg we just can't find. This year we broke with tradition and found all of them. Probably because my Dad helped her hide them and his mind is pretty much a steel trap.

The primary colored eggs with chalk at our house. They left the chalk. Then Jesse found a turtle. One thing led to another, and I would like to introduce you to Roscoe the Easter Turtle. Be aware that it washed off easily and went on painlessly. No animal was harmed during this process.

My mom has the cutest little "Happy Easter" bunny blocks she sets out every Easter. This year Jesse and I were left in charge of the decor and cleverly arranged them to spell "Pay Pee Trash." We had our giggles, and then promptly forgot about our trick. So that's what the little bunnies proclaimed to the primary during their Easter party. It became a game to see who could come up with the best alternative combination. I feel like my dad won with "The Raspy Ape." But I "Peers & Apathy" was a close second. I don't know why we don't play Scrabble more often. I love my family.

Sidenote: I love visiting my old ward. Everyone asks about my life. But what they're really asking is, "Why aren't you married?". Some are more subtle, but others just come right out and say it. It's so funny. Best question of the weekend: "Well, you got yer eye on someone steady, girl?"

Sidenote to the sidenote: Yes. Yes I do.

I'm also SO excited for the summer. No class and warm weather make Lindy a happy girl. I have plans. Big ones. I'm going to make a list just so I don't forget them.

Summer plans/goals/dreams:

1)Read books. I'm taking suggestions now. It's been ages since I felt the delight of an amazing new book.

2) Jogging. Every morning before work. Now that I've written it down it feels more concrete.

3) Trip to Texas in June! One of my very best friends from MIDDLE school (we go way back) is getting married, and I wouldn't miss it for anything.

4) Skydiving. We found a great place, and we get a group discount. All we need is the perfect date.

5) I'm going to New York City to visit Jesse. He's working up there all summer.

6) My wisdom teeth are being viciously ripped from my mouth June 1st. I feel like they didn't even get a chance to thrive.

Well, that's all I can remember for now.

Maiden Voyage

It's been raining. Raining, and raining, and raining. I was unsure if I would ever see the beautiful sun again. It rained enough to completely fill up the park in front of my parents house. Now there's a giant lake where there was a mere puddle before. The next logical step would be to build a raft and sail around it. It started as a joke, but we never know when to stop.

Here is Jesse working on the frame of our raft. Sparks fly, but he gets that a lot.

This would be my and Kristen's contribution to the raft making process. What could go wrong?

Oh. This was unexpected.

Our noble flag:

Kristen sustained a few injuries in the tube blowing up process. I was pumping my heart out as she sat on one end of the tube to help insure it would fill evenly. We had already patched the tube once, and it suddenly decided it couldn't take it anymore. It exploded, and Kristen hit the ground like a sack of rocks. She took it like a champ.

Pit stop:

Water is not supposed to be here:

Honestly, we had our doubts. But I'm pretty impressed.

Brought to You by Insomnia

I can't sleep. It's annoying, frustrating, and inexplicable. But while I'm up, I wanted to post the pictures from the Zoo. I went to the Jacksonville Zoo on Friday with Kristen and Lara. Yet another fun filled, road trip adventure. I explained my love for those earlier. Do try and keep up. The zoo was SUPER cool. I will show you my favorite parts.

Obviously white with black stripes. No, I will never let that go. Just concede already.

I like rhinos a LOT more after noticing their eye placement. It's just cute.

Get a room.

We're pretty talented.

Fancy pants elephant.

This was "We just found out we're going to be eaten by a Komodo Dragon." I don't think Andrew picked up on that. But perhaps he's just really excited to die in such an exotic way.