The Neighborhood

So far I only have two complaints about the apartment Jacob and I live in and they are both very minor.

1. The kitchen is too dang small. Imagine doing your dishes and cooking in an airplane bathroom. If you leave one dish or box of crackers on the counter it feels like the whole place is a mess.

It's a bit of an exaggeration, but it is small.

2. The walls are thin and the neighbors are close.

On the side of our apartment is an assisted living center. I am pretty sure there is an old guy in there with bronchitis. About every 15 minutes or so you'll hear some horrible sneezing followed by him coughing up a lung. More often than not the coughing is followed by lugie hocking and nose blowing. This whole process usually lasts about 2 minutes or so. I am pretty sure this old man has a grandson that visits pretty often and plays Grand Theft Auto extremely loud. Every once in a while you'll hear screams and gun shots with the sound of screeching tires from the TV and the boy will shout a profanity loud enough for the whole senior home to hear... without their hearing aides.

Across the street there is a trailer park with all sorts of interesting people. One trailer has a confederate flag hanging in front. Something I thought I would never see in Idaho. A couple times a week you'll see a women going for a walk in short shorts, a loose tank top with nothing holding her in, and hair with a perm gone wild. I should also mention that those short shorts should be a bit longer. Not just for modesty's sake, but also because it looks as if there is a three dimensional map of the United States from her thighs to her ankles. Anyways, the noises from the trailer park usually consists of loud cars, old people bickering about which road to take to Wal-Mart or the Family Dollar and mothers yelling at their children phrases like, "BOY, Quit picking yer gosh dang nose." I swear one day I heard one of these mothers yelling, "Emma lou, come back in here or I'll pull of one of yer pigtails off yer pea-sized head."

I don't have many complaints about the people upstairs. It just sounds like they run when ever they move from one room to the other and they drop heavy objects on their way.

As for the people down stairs, and on a more serious note, I don't think they realize I hear everything. And I mean, EVERYTHING. I don't know who they are, thankfully. The husband can be so rude to his wife. He says very derogatory things about her body. Not that she is ugly or fat, but definitely things I don't want to write on my blog. You can just about bet on an argument once a day and tears a least once a week. Today really got me. She had made enchiladas for lunch (I told you I hear everything) while her husband was gone. When he got home and heard they were having enchiladas he just about hit the roof. He just started yelling at his wife like crazy. Here is how the conversation went. This isn't very descriptive, it's just what I heard.

Husband:"ITS WAY TOO HOT TO HAVE ENCHILADAS! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?" (he was seriously screaming at her.)
Wife: "I am sorry, I have just been wanting them for a while and I had all the ingredients..." Husband: "I don't care. I don't want this. Go make me something else."

At that point the conversation became muffled and I couldn't hear everything, but it sounded like he was being a complete jerk for next ten minutes until he finally apologized. I felt horrible for that girl. No one deserves to be treated like that at all, especially when she made her husband a nice lunch.

Someone once said at a BYU-Idaho devotional (unfortunately I can't remember who it was), "The golden rule is old, but not outdated." I know the golden rule sounds really simple, but for what it's worth, it's important that we remember that, especially with the people we care about most.

Demolition Derby

On Saturday Jacob and I had a day full of adventures. We got all our homework done on Friday so we could spend the whole day together with out any worries. Our first stop was Melaleuca to buy some crackers and mouth wash and then we decided just to walk to run the rest of our errands. We ended up about a mile and a 1/2 away at D.I. I found the movie Little Manhattan there (cute, Sunday movie) for three dollars. It was a steal. When we got back home we decided to cool off from our walk at Rigby lake which did more than cool us off, it froze us to the bone! But we manned up and took a lap around the lake.

Anyways, we had been hearing about a demolition derby going on in town and I was just about dying to go. Turns out demolition derbys are the most entertaining events. If you ever get the chance to go, I highly suggest you take advantage of the opportunity. 12 cars in an arena crashing into eachother until the last car running wins. It's real life bumber cars. Even Glenn Beck joined in on the fun! He's in the passanger seat of the police car.

Post 4th of July

The 4th in Boise was great fun. Jacob and I had such a relaxing time and we definitely do not want to be back in Rexburg. Not one bit.

Jacob got off of work early on Wednesday and surprised me at our front door. He had called my cell phone a couple of times but I missed it, so he walked home from work and there I was cat-napping on the couch. So we took off early, and thank goodness or else we would have been driving well into the early morning hours.

Thursday we returned a few gifts and relaxed at Jacob's house. Then we went to Tucano's! It was absolutely amazing and my mouth is watering thinking about it. They bring you turkey wrapped in bacon, mango fish, steak, and GRILLED PINEAPPLE! There were actually 15 different types of meat they brought by but I can't remember them all. They were just so yummy. There was also the biggest salad bar I had ever seen. Which was more than just a salad bar. You could have had your full meal from the salad bar. Anyways, it was a great treat.

On the 4th we had donuts for breakfast and I forgot how GOOD they were! For dinner we went to Jacob's sisters house for a barbecue and some fun with fireworks.

Now Jacob and I are counting down to the 7 week break and could not be more excited to spend more time together. And we need to be much better about taking pictures!

Forth of July

I love traditions and at my house, we have plenty of 4th of July traditions. Some have died down in the past few years as cousins have gotten older and grown apart, but I still love the memories of the 4th of July. Every year we would go to my grandparents house and have a barbecue. The cousins would always swim all afternoon in the pool and best of all we would eat homemade ice cream! My grandparents had the really old kind of ice cream maker where you'd have to actually crank the ice cream around and around with a handle. Each grand kid youngest to oldest would have to take 50 cranks on the ice cream maker and then an adult would finish it off. The ice cream was absolutely delicious.

There were also A's games that we'd go to around the 4th of July to watch the fireworks. Fireworks games were always packed and everyone was excited. The wave would go around the stadium 8 or 9 times and everyone would get up during the 7th inning stretch and sing "Take me out to the ball game." When I was younger I used to think fireworks were way too loud and I would sit there with my hands over my ears. But I remember my favorite part was when the Journey song "Lights" would come on and the lights would go out and the stadium and everyone would cheer and then get really quiet. A few fireworks would go off during "Lights" and then the real show would start. The stadium would shake as fireworks went off and crowds would ooh and awweee when the smiley face fireworks would shoot off.

The Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays and I can not wait for the break from school and to visit Jacob's family in Boise. Maybe I'll get lucky and hear "Lights."