March 23

I almost hesitate to write. It's been a couple experiences this week, but I'm still kind of in the middle of one.

Yesterday I took a full shift because my coworker was sick. So I had a book from the library recommended by my coworker called Go Ask Alice, which is a first person account told in journal form about a girl's descent into drug addiction. I knew it would be a rough read. And it was absolutely WILD how the girl's language would change between her addiction and her recoveries, which happened time and time again. I wanted to read it to become more educated and to really delve into a world driven by forces such as those, and I feel more educated for it.

But last night, as I tried to sleep, I felt fear creep into my stomach, and evil spirits or thoughts whirling around the room. I thought to turn to Atlantean, but I resisted the thought multiple times, and the fear increased, to a point where right before I did turn to Atlantean, I felt my stomach become hard, it was difficult to move and I felt as if I went to sleep or opened my eyes, I would see scary black personages and frightening things, and I didn't want to do that. So I finally buried my head in Atlantean's back and started crying. He woke up and held me and asked me what was wrong. He said a prayer and then he turned me over so I could sit and he gave me a blessing. It was one of the most powerful blessings I have ever heard or received. He said that my Heavenly Father blessed me and with fervency, he said He wanted me to REST. He told me how there are guardians upon guardians who love me and will not let ANYTHING beyond the necessary trials of mortal life harm me. He told me that among those guardians were my unborn children. He later said that he felt the strong presence of boys who will love their mommy. He thought it was amazing that we already had a story to tell our children who are not yet born. In the blessing, he also said that Heavenly Father wished to bless me with so much more than Atlantean was physically capable of handling, so he left it off with that. When he stopped, I felt peace. But not like a wave, just as a state of being. I just sat up in bed and looked around the room and leaned back on his chest and thanked him. I felt that room was so clean. Even in every night time, I usually felt very much confined to my bed, not wanting to venture into shadows or have to go to the bathroom in the dark, but I tell you I saw that room as a very safe and very clear space. I told Steven I could've danced around the room and felt fine. I fell asleep with no problem and woke up in the morning very rested.

I wanted that recorded. Atlantean and I talked about how we wouldn't mind being parents. In fact, we can actually both get kind of excited about it. This is kind of my personal journal. I felt that God was not telling me to not read the books, but this was a warning (not that it was sent by Him, just a byproduct of the exposure) of what the consequences would be. I am so grateful that I have a worthy, loving husband who holds the priesthood and is not afraid to exercise it, and is not ever burdened or annoyed by me waking him up with the need for his help. He is a good good man, and I have married him, bound him to me for all of time and eternity, and I couldn't be more lucky.

I read Jay's Journal this morning, which was essentially the sequel, but was about a different story, of a boy's joining a cult. I found out shockingly as he mentioned things like, "President Oaks" "Relief Society" and even "Gadianton robbers" that he was Mormon! I grew a little more scared, because it was easy to think these stories took place over seas in Europe or something, but even reading it and thinking it was so close to me made me a little fearful. I am now reading Stephen Colbert's I Am America (And So Can You!) which is funny, and will hopefully lighten me up.

I have noticed in these two journals two things - one, how much they know the truth. These are not stupid kids. Even though they are making rash and scary decisions, they seem to always come back to their journals with the hard truths, like "My parents are right" or "Maybe this punishment is good for me."
Two - how much they want help. How much they want to reform, get better, tell someone everything, and be free. I was surprised by how much it seemed to hurt them to keep it to themselves. I don't think I'll ever forget Jay's entry about his Aunt trying to talk to him about it, and him being very rude. He writes in his journal about it, but then the next entry, he feels bad and says if she asks again - he'll lay it in her lap! Then he'll be free! But his Aunt tells his parents who get mad before he can, and he becomes closed up again. I was surprised by the lack of communication between parents and child. Not that it wasn't there, but it wasn't stated by the child often.

Other than that (I'll get off this topic) I've been going to water aerobics with my mom and while a lot of the older women there just kind of bob around on their noodles or socialize, if I just look behind me, there's my mom, giving it everything she's got. Looking completely ridiculous, determined and adorable.
Sometimes makes my day thinking about her waggling her legs in the water.

Wolfman came over yesterday and I let him play Armikrog and he finished it, and he helped us make dinner. I set Wolfman on the biscuits, Atlantean on the ribs and me on the apple strudel pie. It was fun :) and the dinner was great - those ribs were to die for!! Atlantean did a great job, though we set the smoke alarm off multiple times. It became Wolfmans job just to stand beneath them and turn them off when they went off again. We opened windows, turned the microwave vent on hight and Atlantean poured water on the grill to cool it off. We finally got them to turn off. We have very testy smoke alarms.

And I have D&D tonight! So not only do I have a girl coming for the first time like ever (and I barely know her but would like to) but I have a semi-semblance of a plot who I constantly feel like I'm attempting to cram combat into. I'm so story-based! But I have the next ark kind of set out. I love telling stories.

I love my husband. He's been excited to get up with me in the morning. I made
(Also, lately he's been taking his pill later, so he's much more self-assured, confident, mature, and well... attractive at night. Lately he had been more anxious. So he's been taking it later for me...)
~Nymph

March 16th

There's actually probably more going on than I think, so let me just start writing.

Some of my favorite things recently that have been going on was actually literally just minutes ago. I have a lot of spanish-speaking people who come into my office. So I've taken it upon myself to learn the basics to be able to direct them. So I've been Google-Translating and asking my spanish-speaking coworkers and I just recently used it to help someone!!

"Hasta Pasillo (Up the hallway) Izquierda (Left) Cuarto Dos Tres Cero (Room 2-3-0)"

And then two ladies just came in who I couldn't. -_- Google Translate only goes so far I suppose. But hey! Win some, lose some!

Lets see... Currently trying to milk Spriggan dry of all the songs he wrote so we can do it without him when he leaves in two weeks... Also have D&D tonight. I'm DMing and my style just very little consciously includes combat, which I'm sorry for, but I like story.

Last night I had an awesome date night with Atlantean! We went to King Buffet in Taylorsville, which I thought was going to be much more expensive than it was (I thought atleast 18.00, but it was 12.50 a person!) and it was possibly one of the best buffets I have ever experienced! I've been there before with my friend Kappa (he and his Chinese class actually introduced me to it) and I really think Atlantean liked it. I know I like it, and especially the price. Good food. Would highly recommend. Even though we're kind of kicking ourselves for not grabbing a business card (We always do with these asian restaurants we've been trying)
After that we went to Barnes and Noble to try and find us a model. I had an idea for a date to build kind of a sheet metal model. After looking with no success, I asked a employee and they totally showed me to an obscure place with the exact thing we were looking for - and it was totally well-priced! I was shocked! Two in a row! and to top it off - we found a 2$ clearance box where EVERYTHING in it was 2$. Atlantean bought a Magik set with models that I kind of pushed him to buy since I like the ideas of using models in D&D (even though we haven't yet) and I got a Pocket Drug Guide for Nurses (which I used THIS morning when a friend on Facebook was concerned about the prescription she had just got from her doctor) and a notebook that has a pretty "Just Start" scrawled appropriately on it, since we've been wanting a notebook to record our finances in. Godsend, seriously. I feel like that date was a steal and we got so much fun stuff.
When we got home, Atlantean just crashed. We had stayed up late two nights ago and he felt like it was finally catching up to him. We watched two episodes of Trigun and he was feeling a little better, so we attempted to start on the model. I tell you what, no matter how small the tabs or how many times his items broke, he would make noise, but he never truly got frustrated. It was a ferris wheel, and when we discovered we had to make 40 little ferris carriages each with four tabs of their own, we decided to take a break from it for a while. I played fiddle/guitar/banjo music while we did it. I like that style :) Atleast for a while.

Oh! We bought the tickets to my birthday extravaganza! I decided for my GOLDEN birthday (turning 21 - and on the 21st! Big birthday) as poor as we are, we can't go to Ireland like I wanted. So I took one of my biggest bucket -list items and are going to go swim with stingrays at SeaQuest Aquarium! :D We are also going to have fish pedicures! It's not Ireland - but it was still 117$ and I'm excited! Atlantean is a little scared of fish (ironic with his name) but he said he was still excited, and was more nervous of fish that looked like sharks - which stingrays are not.

The other night, I settled down after Atlantean had gone to school and began watching Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd, but as I texted my mom about my activity, she and my dad insisted that they would send my brother over to take me over to their house so I could watch the "right" one - the televised play version. I did enjoy it. But I realized I watched Sweeney Todd for the first time ... on Pie Day.

Also - the reason I haven't updated in a while is because my boss covered for me while I went and got some snacks in the break room and she saw that I was posting, and she said, "This needs to happen on a personal computer. People have gotten fired for this." So now I have to bring my laptop every time I wanna post. So I might become more infrequent.

That's kinda all I want to say at the moment. Currently enjoying Clan of the Cave Bear, Night Fire as my two novels (one I keep at home, the other I keep at work) and the books I have recently been gleaning knowledge off of have been Hobby Farms magazines (I want sheep, ducks and one tan pig) and The White House - an Illustrated Tour. Learning a lot actually. Also recently finally compiled all my accruing interests which have been piling up in my feed. Just wanted them written down somewhere.

Ooh! Wait! There is also vague talk of my dad and his friend starting a company in which I could be a valuable asset! And a friend of mine who now works at a different school, said there might be a job for me where she works in the fall. It's still walkable, but I think it pays less. We'll have to see.

Oh.. right... and I have a vague fear I might be pregnant. Now I don't know why I saved this for last, but this is extremely intimate information and I kind of keep this blog private for a reason, it's more of a journal. But I have been off birth control because it made me moody, uncomfortable and gain weight. Not great stuff. Atlantean and I have been using protection a lot (there was once I can remember that we were pretty sure I was infertile  depending on my period). But we've also noticed my period only started when I was on hormones, and I tend to just ... not have a period when I'm not. Up at USU, I think I had it very rarely. I think there might be something wrong with my uterus, though I'm scared to find out what. But this morning, while walking to work, I suddenly got really panicked about the whole thing. What if I was? How many things would I have to give up for how long?? For just a moment, it seemed unbearable. But I have to find out before April 6th, or atleast before my family leaves to Rome, since I would like to surprise them with the news when they get back. I'm still scared though.

~Nymph

March 9th

Yesterday's post got me thinking, because I liked the ideas of posting many more pictures when I first started this blog and my phone has recently been saying it has no more storage because (I figure) I have too many pictures. So I'm here to post some of the most anecdotal pictures that I have on my phone, that I may relay to a source of greater storage - but in the end - wouldn't it be cool to have them published here - waiting for posterity to find them - and so mainly I can revisit them whenever I want??

So today is essentially a recap PICTURE POST!!!
(I really love the idea of this)

And maybe I should put some pictures of the wedding in here...

This is Aos Si (Atlantean's brother) having a "picnic" with one of our nieces. That's her dad in the background and Atlantean's mom.

 

This is Atlantean showing me around his old welding shop at SLCC- showing me equipment etc.

Atlantean is always shocked how tiny my socks are, so I took a picture to compare, haha.

 This is me posing in the outfit I have always thought Jace Stett would wear in my script The Amalgamation. I even believe her to look very similar to me, with that hairstyle and everything. It was just too perfect not to capture.

One day when I went out to walk - all the ice on the trees and everything looked like this!!

Just... Atlantean being cute. :3 I thought his hair looked kinda cool so I told him to freeze so I could take a picture.

Atlantean, Wolfman and Gnome all playing Dominion together for the first time. Atlantean loved it! They had a great time and have often talked about playing it again.

Us on Christmas night, just before we filmed a video about out first Christmas together. (Atlantean is pretending to sleep)

We got one of the pillowcases we ordered, but neither of us ordered a soccer pillowcase... After some short communications with a Chinese emailer, we got a refund, but no green lantern pillowcase :(

Atlantean proving he is strong and almost always tries to carry in all the groceries at once

Another couple (the one who were married a week before us) used MY hashtag I came up with!

Atlantean hanging out with Oni and Dwarf. Dwarf is the one nearest me. They played a Naruto game.

Isn't he handsome? 😍

Our cat Fuzzy finds shelter in some of the boxes I still had to return to my mom.

Fuzzy enjoys the intense loving of her daddy. (He knows how to do it right lol)

Fuzzy gets more in the habit of understanding that we leave during the day and starts to get a little more clingy. One day she follows me around the house, watching me from her hiding places.

Me trying out a new look. I wouldn't say I hate it...

I posted this on Facebook, and Atlantean's sister explained that as a baby, Atlantean was infamous for snuggling people out of beds. Alas, I have fallen victim.

The giant parfait (yes, that is a giant chocolate-y parfait) that I sneakily got for Atlantean on Valentines Day. (Sneakily is hard when you don't have a car!)

One day, a man came in and put this giant flower arrangement on my desk, saying it was from his wife's funeral. It was a weekend, so I took her home with me and named her Amryllis. Despite my wishes, she died promptly.

My family and Atlantean and I went to Castle of Chaos Asylum Escape Room for my mom's birthday and my sister was the one who volunteered to be in the strait jacket.

My friend laughed so hard at one of my other friend's jokes, that she pretended to "die."

(Look at her gorgeous apartment!)

And to finish off, a couple of the wedding (we'll see if live ones work...):

So these are actually live pictures. When you touch them on a phone, they move. As unflattering as that first shot is, this is us eating between the temple and the reception. Remember, these ones move, so we're actually eating. I personally love Atlantean's expression. We were both like, "We're eating - why are you taking a picture?" no smiles kind of attitude.

Atlantean thinks I'm pretty adorable in this one because on a phone I bounce up and down and you catch us joking together. It's really cute.

This is a grand-niece and a niece or something like that, who both seem to like me and they followed me around everywhere following my train, having some good fun over chasing me around while holding my tail.

Aos Si coming to give us the sword to cut our cake. Turns out it was the only knife in the whole place, so as endearing as it was for us to cut our slice - the bridesmaids then literally had to make do with the sword for the rest of the crowd. Sorry, guys!

Lol that was way too fun! I'm gonna do that way more often since I'm always taking random pictures of random moments that are special to me, but always sending them off into oblivion on some hard drive "somewhere" ya know? What's the life of a picture if not to be shared?

Gonna be doing that more often.

~Nymph

March 8th

At this point, it's been a while. And although I have don't feel like I have anything huge to report, I still feel obligated to update with a new post so here we go.

Atlantean and I are just holding tight. We want to get him through this last semester while also getting him used to a new full-time job. I'm doing my best just being the wife, keeping the house clean, helping him feel comfortable to come home to even though we come home at the same time, which we both agree is not fun. We'd both rather he come home to me. But I know we'll easily get there someday.

As for any big news...? Well, I mean Atlantean's hand has been cramping, and when I did research I discovered it was a common condition amongst musicians or people who use their hands in the same positions for hours on end, called Trigger Finger. He and his father are convinced he needs to go to a doctor to get the diagnosis, but I am not so sure. Neither is my mom, whom is a nurse. I think he needs to stretch it and work with it before we waste one of our three doctor's appointments on something that can be solved at home.

I also have been watching a lot of TV lately because I get up early, watch two hours and go to work. It's mostly (well, actually basically only) library DVDs and specifically - The Simpsons and Modern Family which got another hold on them so I had to cruise through them. I swore I wouldn't put Simpsons Season 5 on hold for another week so I can clear my schedule and watch them all, since the same thing seems to happen. Plus I love the Simpsons and was super pleased to find out the library has up to almost 17 seasons! I guess I'll be busy for a while...
I also watched So I Married an Axe Murderer last night for the first time. Liked it :) Feel more cultured lol. My dad quoted it often when I was growing up.

Other than that, dinners and food and budget are stressing me out, but I won't go too much into detail about that. Tonight is our first vegetarian meal from my meatless book and I hope it goes well :)

Actually the biggest news currently on my mind is finding a new D&D player. I've been searching since my brother is leaving soon. My friend Sylph is interested, but she's leaving before my brother even is so it turns out now I'm probably gonna host her for a couple games til she leaves. And Atlantean and I both had impressions/thoughts to invite a girl I met once in the play that we had to quit. I'll give her a name.... Naiad. (Not to be confused with Dryad - different friend) She seems pretty up to it and I appreciate that. I did a Facebook shout out and didn't like the results as well, and I'd love to start up a game with some girls. Hopefully Aos Si won't be shy about it... So I'm excited for that, but I better have my campaign together... speaking of which I need to make Sylph's character... Exciting! The guild is gonna change! Also Brownie is coming down for the summer, so maybe we'll draft her!

What else, what else. The book I'm reading is incredibly good. It's called Clan of the Cave Bear and apparently it was very popular in it's day. I can see why. It's good!

Nothing much else :/ Atlantean and I already spent our fun money at the beginning of the month. Wolfman's been coming over recently, brought Atlantean a meal, chilled out with us one night playing a game on my computer while I made dinner for the both of them. Also - I ironed things today! I was so glad to find out that our iron actually works. When I first tried it it didn't heat up and I got worried we'd have to buy another. And I have a sick kitty, so I locked her in the bathroom with her litter box and food because I heard her starting to throw up and apparently Atlantean found two this morning. So we'll keep her in there til the tummyache passes.

The things Atlantean and I spent our fun money on were board games - me on an expansion for Mysterium (which really is pretty cool!) and him on a DC deck-building game he's been eyeing for a while. So I left a note on the bedroom door that says "Come In, Cutie ;)" and then I left this for him:

Lol. Atleast I can leave him some surprises. Hopefully with many more to come.

~Nymph