Warning, Long windedness and audience participation ahead. Proceed with Caution.

So today is kind of a hodge poge of all sorts of different ideas and thoughts. So, where to begin? I guess I have a couple of questions from my readers (this is where you all participate like the good followers that you are). So my mom, sister, and just about everyone in my family, including in laws, are all about essential oils. I even have a couple of aunts that sell, or advertise, or I don't even know, but they are Way into it. I am trying out a few to see what I think. So far I think they smell funny. I have heard all of this great stuff about them but I don't even know where to start. I started trying them because my immune system decided for the last 6 months it was on vacation and didn't want to respond to my desperate cries for help. I have noticed that while I am taking the vitamins (don't ask me what kind I am taking. My mom said "here" and I am swallowing them. But I trust her) and I am also using on guard or something of that nature, I have not been getting as sick as often. So I am kind of loving that. I have tried the Lavender to help me sleep and I will admit once or twice it helped calm my mind so that I could relax but most of the time I dump half the bottle down me and then suffocate all night. (Brad, as a consequence suffocates as well, poor guy). But I haven't noticed too much help from the Lavender. I also use Lemon in my water but I don't know what that really does but help me drink more and possibly rot my teeth. Last of all, I have peppermint that I have yet to open the bottle because I have no idea what you use it for. In fact, I guess I am really wondering what you all use yours for?

Next, Brad and I have been cleaning up our act and trying to be more careful about the movies we watch. We started trying to get better (not that either of us were watching horrible movies to begin with but we both knew we could do better) and decided to follow the Prophet's council to not watch anything that has sexual content. Now this cuts out about all of the movies ever made. But we have really noticed a difference and have gotten more and more sensitive (in a good way). I have really liked making this change although I still struggle not to watch Devil Wears Prada because that is like one of my all time favorite movies. (it's not that bad, is it?) Brad and I always check out movies we want to see with this website: http://www.kids-in-mind.com/ It is, I believe, connected to the Deseret News website and is really a great tool for making sure that we know exactly what to expect in a movie. It goes into fantastic detail about everything, has a rating system and reviews new movies right after they come out (like the day of or the day after). I highly recommend this site. Sometimes we get a kick out of what this site calls "sexual content" such as a husband holding his wife's hand but as of yet, we have never walked into a movie and not known what was going to be shown. So does anybody have any good recommendations of clean movies? We are always on the look out.

So a little while ago, I went to a thyroid specialist because I was showing all of the classic signs of having thyroid problems, but my numbers were relatively normal. While at the thyroid specialist office, I was told that I might have insulin resistance (never having been diagnosed because I don't weigh 400lbs and I am too small for most Drs. to think about it. Same has been said about Megan). I was also told that I have hypoglycemic episodes ( I already knew that.) and all of this has lead me to be on a diet that gives me 30 grams of carbs per meal and 15 for each snack (3 snacks). But at the end of the day, 1 banana and a couple of bite fulls of corn for dinner does not a happy smiling Paige make. (Mom, I know I misplaced that modifier but it was for dramatic emphasis). I generally do well throughout the day but by dinner my blood sugar has really had it and I am not much of a cook so I don't really eat much for dinner. I am also on a medication that helps make insulin more efficient in the body but also causes low blood sugar so I have A LOT more episodes than I have ever had before. This leads to some funny stories of bursting into tears (an unfortunate and embarrassing side effect of low blood sugar) and shaking all over the place to where I can hardly feed myself and dump half of what ever I can eat all over myself. So do any of you out there have any good easy recipes for low carb foods? dinners specifically. I am going to try a cauliflower pizza crust tomorrow and we will see how that turns out. Again, poor Brad. He is such a support and only dies with laughter when I am crying because of low blood sugar (don't worry, I am laughing too) and not when I am crying because of anything else. He really tries to help think of ideas of what I can eat and tries to make whatever I eat work for him as well. I am so lucky.

Last, as a reward for reading this forever long blog post, you get the tip of the day. I tried this from Pinterest yesterday and it worked fantastic. So I never paint my nails because I feel like suffocating with all of that wet paint on my fingers and inevitably, no matter how careful I am being, I smudge them. EVERY time. But I have found, or someone else has found but I am taking credit here, the solution. If you paint your nails and then hold them in cold water for 3 or 5 minutes, your nails will come out dry and you can clean up any paint that got on your skin. Works great. Life changing. No more waiting and worrying and fending off anyone who gets too close. Miracle to the life of woman. Now you know. Your welcome.    

        

Snowmobiling. My new Addiction

So I accidentally deleted this post so I have to write it again. It goes between the post about our first vacation and my birthday surprise.

Brad's family is way into snowmobiling and this is the second time I have gotten to go. We went to Island Park here in Idaho and it is about an hour away from Rexburg. It is a ton of fun. Since Brad and I were still in school, we went for the weekend and stayed with the family in a little cabin. The rest of the family got to stay for about a week. Brad and I had so much fun that the next Wednesday we skipped class and went back for the day. I hope to continue to get good enough that I will be able to go on some of the more advanced rides next year. Or maybe the next after that. We even got to have an up close and personal experience with a mad mamma moose that was separated from her baby. I had to jump of my machine because it looked like she was going to ram it and Brad almost got to pet her back as she fell right next to his. But in the end, everyone came out with a good story and no broken limbs.   

 These are some huge trees that are just pilled with snow. A very fun ride all the way up to the top of a mountain.

 I never seem to pick the activities or sports where one is given the opportunity to look attractive.

 Thumbs up for a great ride

 This is a river where you can feed these huge fish. We made the trip and I was so frozen that I couldn't even attempt to break bread apart for the fish so Brad just took pictures and I just watched the fish swim around expectantly. It was almost funny to see them thinking I was going to feed them and then for me to taunt them with the fact that I had no food.

 If I was a midget, I would live here. It is this little cabin looking house that we don't know why it is there but it was cute and little and I had to have a picture of it.

 I think I might really like this kid.

 Me attempting to smile for the picture but then I realized you can't see my face.

 Me getting my big head out of the way so you can see the river. I was so cold I couldn't even take my helmet off.

The moon was just beautiful. We got back from a ride right as the moon was starting to come up. I love snowmobiling and can't wait to go again.

The odd little things that make life grand.

I love the randomness of married life. We have so much fun together and the camera really needs to come out more often. In fact, I want to try to start taking more pictures. I have the hardest time remembering to bring the camera and when I do, either Brad or I decides we don't want to take pictures. I think both of us are just going to have to such it up and say cheese. 

Last semester, as I have mentioned before, was one of the hardest and busiest semesters of my life. I did nothing but homework and would fall into bed at the end of a very long day that usually started somewhere around 5am and ended at like 10-12pm. Brad was the biggest support I could ever ask for. He didn't have as big a homework load as I had, But his classes were very hard and he had an on campus job that started about 7:00am so both of us were working our tails off. But not only would Brad come home and help me with my Chemistry, but almost every night he would make dinner and do the dishes too. He was a true champ.     

 This is an apron that one of my good friends made me for a wedding gift. There is a matching guy one that doesn't have the ruffles but I think this one was on top or maybe I just thought it would be funnier to make him wear this one.

 I know, terrible picture of me but this is how I looked all last semester. Sitting on the couch with tons of homework and books around me. So glad I will be graduating soon and can take a break from studying so much. (Sorry mom, I really am working on my posture. Just not when I am sitting, or standing, or thinking, or breathing. But other than that, I'm doing pretty good.)

 One of the Sundays of that dreadful semester, we decided that it would be fun to walk through the little nature park that we live close to. This was one of those times when I wanted to take pictures and Brad didn't want to have anything to do with the camera. So naturally I convinced him to take some pictures with me but it all ended up us making funny faces because by the time picture taking actually got started, both of us were already tired of the idea. But I'm kinda stubborn (family trait) so I made sure that no matter how awful they turned out, there would be pictures taken.

 An attempt at a somewhat nice picture but the sun was too bright and we were both cold and wanted to go home.

 HUNGER GAMES!!!!! I am a fan of the books and was so excited to see the movie. Well it was sold out for miles except for one showing at like 10:00am and seats right in the front. By the time Brad and I noticed that there were still seats available in that showing, it was like 9:45am and we had just gotten up for the day. (Don't worry, it was a Saturday so we didn't skip any classes). So we jumped up, brushed our teeth quick and left. I happen to be wearing his sweatshirt and neither one of us had showered yet that day. It was so fun to make a last minute decision like that and run with it. We both loved the movie and can't wait to own it when it comes out.

 So this is now caught up to this semester (Summer 2012). We were able to both bring our bikes to school and that has been the major mode of transportation for us. Now that Brad has a job and needs the car, it is the only mode of transportation that I have. I have to bike to campus and try to get there in time for a van that goes out to the livestock center. If I miss the van, I miss class. I must also add that we always wear our helmets when biking (thanks Allen for teaching us).

 Just workin' on our health and vitality.

 Brad trying out a new style. I'm not such a huge fan so it didn't last long.

Well, the world is all caught up on the Mousley family for right now anyway. I will continue to try and be better at updating and taking pictures. Actually, one more really fun thing has happened. Brad and I were able to get tickets to see Diamond Rio. The pianist is a member so they came to the school to do a show. We didn't know that you could take pictures or else we would have brought the camera. It was a great show and tons of fun. The band tried to get as many songs in as they could in the short amount of time that they had. The son's of the pianist are in a duet together and they were the opening act. I guess they have opened for people like Kelly Clarkson so they were pretty good. All in all, a very fun night.  

A Wonderful Birthday Surprise!

I really am the luckiest girl in the world. So Brad and I were home for my birthday and for a while I guess he has been hinting at what he was going to get me. I never once guessed because I'm thick like that. Well he got up early one morning and ran into town and came back with a brand new, sparkling, hallelujah inspired orange little I-pod. Like the kind you run with. I love it. But I didn't know that the best part of my birthday would have to wait until we got back from being home. You see, Brad and I have had a favorite song together since we were dating (one of many). So when we got back into town, I got sent to my room and had to stay there for a while. Once I was finally told I could come out, I came out to a nice dinner and our song playing. We danced in the kitchen and then I was starving so we snarfed our food. What was really cute about all of this is the fact that Brad was re-creating that song for us. The song is by Darius Rucker and is called "All right". It is all about how the guy doesn't need anything fancy, he just needs the woman he loves. (in case you are wondering, Brad was playing the guy and I was the woman he loves.) I guess Brad has been wanting to do this date for a very long time. Like since before we were married and possibly before we were even engaged. He can't remember.   

 In one part of the song, he says that he doesn't need a fancy 5 star reservation but that homemade spaghetti and a cheep bottle of wine was all he needed. Well since we try to obey the Word of Wisdom in this household, we just had sparkling cider. We didn't get a picture of this but after a couple of minutes, Brad pulled up Youtube videos of Patsy Cline (which we had both never even heard of) because in the song he talks about how all he needed was a cheep stereo and the best of Patsy Cline.  

 All the candles were aglow and our plant that neither one of us water, or have watered since like Christmas. We seem to have a talent for not taking care of stuff and they just wont die. It is probably because we are so cool, all the plants want to stick around.

 Love him so much!

Sorry it is so fuzzy, but I thought it was such a cute picture, or maybe such a cute idea of a picture since you can't really see anything, that I just had to add it.

Well for the rest of the night, we went to the river and sat out by the bank side and tried to look at the stars. It was cloudy so we couldn't see much. I then started to get a little bit spooked (which Brad capitalized on) because I was just convinced that hobos were living near the water. And then all the fish started jumping and I just knew a bear would come for dinner so we decided to get out of there before we became dinner to either a hungry bear or a crazy hobo.     

Our First Vacation

So I had never been to temple square during Christmas time, I know, not very Mormon of me, but I had always wanted to go so Brad and I decided to have our very first vacation together, ever. It was a blast and one of our favorite memories so far.  

 

 Us on our way to Utah lookin' good in our sunglasses

 We took this right when we got there. It was SO cold.

 The lights were so incredibly beautiful I could hardly stand it. We have a ton of pictures and I could hardly narrow it down to these ones.

 Snow art. Sappy, I know, but we had just gotten married. Can you even blame us?

 They had hundreds of these little brown bags with different designs on them. So cool. And it must have taken a ton of time to do all of them.

 In the Joseph Smith building with this incredible tree

 They had all of these little nativities from all over the world. So fun and it was fun to see all of the different interpretations of the nativity.

 Cool picture that Brad took. Love the tree behind us.

 This was in the conference center and they were just taking down the decorations for a program that they had had there. We also got there just in time for someone to get on the organ and start playing Christmas music. 

 Thinking of getting a new mattress. Straw is not my first choice.

We found this cool cathedral and had to stop and take a look around. We even got to go inside and see all of the paintings and art inside. Really cool and fun.

We had so much fun. We got to not only be on Temple square with all of the lights, but we got to walk around the next day and go to all of the church buildings and just spend time together. Not bad for a first vacation. Can't wait to go on our next.