Paraffin Dip...

I've gone to 2 sessions of physical therapy for my wrists now (I had a test done by a neurologist a couple months ago that showed it's tendinitis, not carpal tunnel-- No surgery for me!! :)). My therapist does a paraffin dip each time that is absolute heaven. It's the main thing I look forward to. The paraffin is basically a melted mineral wax that you repeatedly dip your hand into and let it dry between each dip. She ties a bag around each hand after I've dipped it enough times, and she wraps it with a towel to keep the heat in. I basically have wax drying around my hands for 10 or so minutes, and it's amazing.  It's mixed with lavender, which is a natural anti-inflammatory, and I can do anything for hours afterwards without my wrists hurting at all :) Then, when everything's done, it peels off. I can wear my wedding ring the whole time and nothing sticks to it.

So. Heavenly.

I've decided I want a personal paraffin dip in my home. That's my new goal. 

It'll happen... Somehow...

♥ Life is Wonderful ♥

Have you ever gone through life only focusing on the bad parts? Constantly thinking "When does it get better? Will the stress go away? Why can't things be easy for awhile?" and then have something simple but wonderful happen that reminds you how perfect life really is? That happened today, and I'm suddenly feeling so blessed and realizing how much I really should be counting my blessings. What an amazing thing to be reminded of! 

. . . I still would appreciate not being sick anymore though :) Allergies &

drainage (that allergy medicine has no effect on) are awful!

"I Must, I Must, I Must Increase My Bust"

There's a book I read when I was younger that I'll never forget -- especially for one specific reason...

Did anyone else ever read "Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret" by Judy Blume? She does an exercise that's supposed to increase your boob size and says certain words that are supposed to go along with it.

"I must, I must, I must increase my bust."

Am I the only one who read that at a young age (10 yrs old, I think) and honestly tried the exercise she did in the book, thinking that it just might make me magically have boobs? And I can't lie, I did mutter those words under my breath while I did it. I had to say it quietly because I didn't want anyone to hear me in case it wasn't true. I didn't do it for long before I realized it wasn't working.

13 years later, I still have no boobs. Dang it. Judy Blume failed me as a child! Oh the false hopes of childhood...

School

Since Matt and I moved to Arizona while we were both still in school at BYU, I never finished my Bachelors. I can't finish online, because 2 of the required courses for my major aren't offered online. I decided that, instead of starting all over again (a lot of credits won't transfer from BYU, even though they should because it's a huge university, so I would have about 3 years left if I started at somewhere like ASU), I'd go to PVCC (Paradise Valley Community College) and simply get my Associates for now.

I met with someone at PVCC a couple months ago about transferring credits and what I would have remaining. How she told us, maybe 2 or 3 of the classes from BYU would count as classes I needed -- or would even simply be accepted... That was frustrating that 4 years of college was basically getting me nowhere, and in time, I decided I'd just work instead, and later on, I'd go back to school.

That plan...didn't work out too well. I haven't been able to find any "real" job that's been a decent fit so that I can still be at home when Matt is, allow the dogs to be out of their crates most of the day, and pick up my nephew most afternoons once school starts again.  I've been feeling depressed and out of place since we moved here, and school and work problems weren't making things any easier.

This past week, I got a letter from PVCC telling me that 54 credits transferred! Yes, several only counted as electives, but that's still WAY more than "2 or 3" - I've been so excited that I may be able to start school again!

Dog Pile!

The past few nights, before Matt and I go to bed, we've let the dogs join us on the bed and cuddle with them for a bit. Sometimes they're calm and just lay there, but other times, they decide it's their play time & start wrestling with each other. Last night I was lucky enough to get a couple of cute pictures.

Matt loves pretending to sleep so that Sam will cuddle and fall asleep next to him.
But just like any other dog, Sam's awake as soon as he hears the camera.

Phoebe's favorite activity: Giving baths.

Dangers of Swimming with Dogs

Well, we took Sam swimming for the first time last night. He loved it and kept fighting to get back in the pool every time we kicked him out. Thing is, he wants to be right next to you in the pool, and when he's near, he ends up getting excited and really swiping his paws while he swims. I was in the deep end of the pool when we discovered this... He was pushing down on me while he was swiping, and I ended up with this:

After that, I was scared to death every time he came near me in the pool. Matt attempted to keep Sam away from me starting then.

Oh, and did I mention I'm getting carpal tunnel in my left wrist as well? Why am I being tortured in such manners?? haha... It hurt SO bad to swim. My right wrist is waaaay more carpal tunnelly (let's pretend that's a word) than the left one though, so it could be worse :)

Does Life Ever Get Easy?

So what hasn't happened recently...

Matt got me into the habit of not liking to wear socks when I sleep, but during the day I always am wearing socks (I HATE dirty feet, even mine. They gross me out.) I woke up this morning and reached to the floor to pick up my socks... and there was a tick sitting on one! What in the world would it want my sock for? It has no blood in it... Weird bug. There was a huge tick on Phoebe when we first brought her home, and it laid a few eggs. They were still connected to Phoebe, so we killed them at that time. The vet removed a few more, and last week, we found one on her. Four instances of ticks, and it's getting really annoying -- We need to spray the house and the yard AND get Phoebe a tick bath now. And probably Sam too, since he'll get here before we've sprayed. It's going to be SUCH a pain!

I've been told that toothpaste works for acne. Does it really? It's supposed to dry it out, but not too much, and help get rid of the redness. I've used it twice now and felt... fresh and minty... when i took it off. haha. And it did get rid of the oiliness that was there before, but I don't know if it's really going to help more, because the redness hasn't gone away at all. I do give it some credit, because the show "The Doctors" even said to use toothpaste. I hope it really works!

Sunday is mine & Matt's one-year anniversary! It seems crazy to think that we've been married for a year, it really doesn't seem like it! We were married on 24 July 2010 in the disgusting Arizona heat in the Mesa Temple. It was the best day of my life. This picture, courtesy of Darilyn Jeter, is also where he proposed to me a few months earlier:

A wonderful thing I've had the chance to experience is...identity theft. I checked my credit report a couple days ago, but I didn't notice something until last night: I apparently have a Capital One credit card with a limit of $12,500. First, I've only had one credit card (ever), and second, I've only done anything with Visa. I've never even talked to anyone who works with Capital One. Whoever decided to do this IS making payments each month. Because of this, he/she has been able to keep this on the DL since they opened the account, which was 1 January 2009!!!

So to echo the title, does life ever get easy? Sometimes it seems busy and hard, but I don't realize how good I have it until it gets more stressful...