What I've been up to, in reverse order

1. PAINTING - Since Bony M and Audrey posted about doing freezer paper stencils I wanted to try my hand at it. And since I was recently called to be my ward's enrichment leader I thought it would make for a fun activity. And I couldn't organize an activity without buying all the supplies and testing it out. The conclusion? I'm addicted. Currently I'm stenciling on onesies since I didn't want to start out on anything too big and I thought it would win over the Relief Society crowd knowing they can make cute customized clothes for their kids or as gifts for one of the many many sisters ready to go into labor before the year is out. So I made the following incredibly awesome onesies -As you can see they are Uncle Sam and Totoro. I know you all want one. Uncle Sam may look out of place on a onesie, but I still think it's awesome. I have a Napoleon Bonaparte stencil that I may do next.

2. LOAFING AND COOKING -I am still unemployed, which is a bit depressing, but I get to spend my days doing stuff around the house I wouldn't ordinarily have time to get to, and I read a lot of good books last month. I'm also developing my taste buds a little. Last month I made Mexican rice with beans and cheese and sour cream and lettuce and taquitos on the side. A year ago I wouldn't have eaten any of those things, and especially not mixed together. But I mashed it all up with my fork and ate it. It was delicious.
I took this picture to represent my typical day -I was working my way through the Harry Potter series, I have my remote for movie watching, and there's my leftover homemade Mexican food.

2. HOME IMPROVEMENT - I decided to put up curtains in our living room to help keep out the hot Utah sun. We have blinds, but the light shines right through them even when they're closed. I actually lined two of the windows with wrapping paper, which is very effective in keeping out the light, but not so picturesque. Plus our walls look pretty drab and they're full of holes where previous tenants had put up curtains and shelves and taken them back down again. I mean, who takes a curtain rod with them when they move? Anyway, here's the before picture -As you can see it looked ridiculous. Here's how it looks now. Much better, except now the room looks a little Christmas-y. I can deal with that in a room that's now 15 degrees cooler.4. SMASHING STUFF - Optimistic.'s family likes to smash old appliances. It's pretty fun. Leaps told us he had a monitor to smash and we in turn told him that we had an old DVD player that needed some forced dismantling, so we got together in the street where we live. Here are some smashing pictures.

Before

During

After

Good Times. And now I'm planning for our road trip home to Portland next week where we will see Elder Carp who gets off his mission in two days. We will also hang out with lots of my family, go to my brother Rough Draft's Eagle Court of Honor, go to the beach for a weekend, and I will hopefully get to eat at Shari's, shop at Powell's, buy gummi worms at WINCO, and in general, enjoy myself.