Pack rat

Mark and I live in a nice sized four-plex. It's two bedrooms with a LARGE kitchen. You would think this would be big enough for us and our 7 pound yorkie. It's not.

I should have known there would be trouble. When Mark moved in back in June of 2006 I took it upon myself to move all my extra stuff in while he was at work. At the time Mark worked 6 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. and with overtime and the long drive he didn't get home until 4 a.m.-ish. You might ask 'How much extra stuff can a 24 year old who still lives at home have?' Let me tell you (or let my dad tell you) A LOT. 

See I had at least 6 rubber maid containers of Tupperware stored in my dad's outbuilding and maybe another couple tubs in his garage. This isn't counting the non-Tuppperware kitchen items I'd squirreled away in my closet and under my bed. I had A LOT of extra stuff. If Mark knew of all this stuff I don't think he would have given me the OK to move it into his brand new apartment.

At this point you may be wondering why a 24 year old would have this much kitchen stuff (mainly Tupperware) Besides the fact that I'm addicted to cute kitchenware and gadgets, I was a Tupperware Sales Consultant for a couple years. No I didn't sell that much. But I sure bought a lot. Basically every 'deal' available, I bought. So I amassed quite a collection. 

This collection found it's way to Mark's brand new kitchen with strict instructions that he couldn't use any of it without me. I even bought him cheap ugly fake plasticware to eat off of. This was my brand new Tupperware and I just knew he wouldn't take care of it. 

Well my cousin and I lugged all those Rubbermaids the three streets over from where I lived with my parents to this new apartment. We started stocking the cabinets. There are a good number of cabinets. And before we knew it .... they were full! We are talking 'Where is the food going to go!' full!! 

Needless to say I had to have a major sort. So my brother and friend inherited some pieces that I could part with and our other friends have been receiving nice Tupperware sets for their wedding showers ever since. 

So from that story you can tell I have a lot of stuff. Well add to that Mark who has a lot of random stuff too and before you know it our nice sized apartment has filled up. We have two bedrooms but we should actually say we have one bedroom and a large walk-in closet. 

So tomorrow we are going to tackle this giant walk-in closet and hopefully clear out some of  our stuff. And maybe we'll find some more potential wedding gifts along the way! (Do you think I could give a paint ball gun or a set of golf clubs at a wedding??)

Life at the Mortis'

Well Hayley and Mark are officially on a budget diet! We've SAID we were on a budget diet for oh about a year now but this time we mean business! (I feel writing about it will make it so!) Mark and I have big plans for this upcoming year and if we ever want to be home dwellers instead of renters then major changes have to be made! And that means cutting out .... McDonald's. It's going to be hard but it must be done. :(

Not only our bank account but our waist's will thank us in the end.

My best friend

Tonight will be exactly 7 years from when I became Mark's girlfriend.

I'll start from the beginning. I was 19 and in my freshman year at the community college. Mark was in his second year at the same commuunity college. We were 'friends' in high school. Meaning we were in the same group of friends so we were friends by association. I always thought Mark was cute. I even found an old diary entry where I talked about thinking he was so cute! (Mark doesn't believe this exists. He thinks I made it up)

My first day on campus Mark's friend had given me a shirt that was Mark's to give back to him. I was very nervous about giving this shirt back to him. (Remember high school crush?) So I gave the shirt to his best friend who I was actually friends with, not just mutual friends.

After this initial 'contact' we started hanging out on the weekends as a group of friends. And Mark and I became friends. We made each other laugh and enjoyed the same things. During this time period I began 'dating' some other people and getting caught up in my own boy dramas. But Mark was ALWAYS there. We began hanging out without our other friends. We went to the movies and Target and just hung out. Essentially we were dating.

I was in complete denial about this dating relationship the WHOLE time. My good friend would tell me ALL the time that Mark liked me and I was like 'No he doesn't. We're just really good friends.'

This went on my WHOLE freshman year. By the end of the year I considered Mark my best friend. He was usuallly the first person I talked to that day and the last person I talked to before I went to bed at night. We would always joke that we were counterparts. The male and female form of each other. I was starting to realize I LOVED Mark. I was like 'WHAT! I can't love Mark like that, He's my best friend!!!' So I continued to 'date' other people.

But during the summer Mark and I were hanging out every chance we got and talking multiple times a day on the phone. And then one night we had our first kiss! It was after watching Karate Kid and he'll tell it differently but I totally kissed him! Don't let him try to say he kissed me! He didn't!

You would think that this would be the moment we made it official. It wasn't. I totally freaked out! We had an official date and when we came back I mumbled something about not being ready for a boyfriend and left him standing there in shock. What was really going on in my head was 'I love this boy!' I knew that once we started dating it was official we would get married! I seriously knew. That scared the crap out of me. I had never had a real boyfriend and didn't know if I wanted the first one I had to be the guy I married. You ask if I really knew that this was the man I was going to marry? Trust me I knew. We had spent many nights together and I couldn't picture my life with out Mark. I was so scared that if we didn't work out dating that I would be without Mark and I didn't want that. I would rather be just friends with him than date and break up and not have him at all.

Well all week was torture. He told me he wasn't going to talk to me and needed some time apart. We didn't see each other all week but we did talk on the phone. At the end of the week we finally got together to talk about what was going on. By the end of the night we decided to start dating. This went on for the whole month. I was terrified to call him my boyfriend. He wanted me to be his girlfriend all month long but I just couldn't do it.

Finally on Aug. 24, 2002, I offically told him I would be his girlfriend (And I told him I loved him! :) ) By January he was telling me he was going to marry me. We never looked back. It took us what felt like an eternity to get together and was very obvious that that's where our relationship was going.

Seven years later Mark is still my best friend. Sometimes I want to stab him with a fork but I would NEVER trade him in.

Use the appropriate glasses

I've been thinking about how I enter into a new book or movie or even magazine for that matter. I like to change my expectations depending upon what I'm about to start. If I'm going to go see Transformers or Fast and the Furious then I'm not going to go with the mentality that I'll be seeing an Oscar-worthy production. I like to get my popcorn, settle into my seat and wait for some action. I'm ready to be entertained. I don't expect award-winning action but I do expect lots of special effects and action sequences that wouldn't happen in real life. And when I approach these big budget, low acting movies like this, then I'm usually satisfied. 

If I were to go into Fast and the Furious and say 'Gosh I really hope Paul Walker wins is Academy Award off this movie' I  would be let down. But luckily I know Paul Walker is not going to win an Academy Award but he'll always be nice to look at and this is the mental state I enter all of his movies with.

As far as literature goes, I use my same mental evaluation when picking something to read. I think 'Do I want to be mentally stimulated?' or 'Do I want to lose myself in a story and be entertained?' ( Not saying that you can't get both from a book *The Kite Runner anyone?*) I usually prefer one experience or the other when I'm reading. Having majored in literature I've read some really heavy stuff (heard of Zola?) and now I usually just like to curl up with some chick lit and laugh my cares away. Becky Bloomwood can do this for me (Shopaholic books for those not well versed in the world of chick lit and shame on you if you are in that category!)

While reading a book about Ms. Becky Bloomwood, I don't start the book thinking 'Gosh I better be enlightened here!' No I think 'What situation is Becky going to find herself in today!?' and when I think like this, I'm always happy. 

So where is this rambling going (besides to please Rachel and have another blog post for her to read while she's stuck at work?) I think to say I'm tired of reading reviews for movies like Transformers where the reviewer has his 'award-winning' glasses on and gives it a crappy review because the acting is bad, the plot is bad and gosh it was loud! But my gosh those special effects were awesome!!! 

I just think people would enjoy life more if they approach each event (or movie/book) with the appropriate glasses and stop comparing things to something completely unrelated. Everything doesn't have to be compared. If you want to watch The Reader or read Germinal (Yes that's Zola) then great but don't expect Transformers or Confessions of a Shopaholic to be on the same page. 

Happy quilting

Another quilt done. This particular one is going to my cousin's baby. This baby will be here anytime this month. I wanted to make sure the quilt was done before she was born so the goal was to have it finished by the first of August. I almost made the goal. I'm very happy with this quilt overall. I used lots of the fabric that I had used in other quilts I've made. This was my first time using a patterned binding. (It has little white butterflies) The only think I'm not very happy with is where my binding connects. There is a noticeable bump. I cut one side too short and left the other side too long and tried to 'make it work.' It didn't work too well. It would be WAY too much work to redo it so I'm leaving like it is. I think for most it would be perfectly fine but for my 'Monica' tendencies it's definitely less than perfect. And you know us with 'Monica' personalities have to have things perfect. Overall I love this quilt. The backing I used was an accident. I bought a remnant at Wal-Mart and thought it would be enough to use in the front of a quilt so when I started on this quilt I drug it out to see how much was there to start cutting it up. I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was exactly enough for the back! I really hope the new baby likes it!