Category Archives: Other

And a category, of course, for everything else. Thoughts, stuff to share, anything that doesn’t fit elsewhere.

Guaranteed

Other, , ,

One of my new favorite hobbies is reading the guarantees on Walmart’s Great Value brand food labels. Sometime recently they’ve redesigned their packaging to be white, blue, and simplistic, but with each item they include a guarantee of what they’re food will be. Usually the guarantees seem to be pretty safe. For instance, did you know that they guarantee trail mix to be fruity and nutty?

Thank you, Walmart, for guaranteeing that my fruit and nut trail mix is, indeed, fruity and nutty. Also, breadcrumbs are guaranteed to be crunchy and crumbly.

But some of the guarantees are a little less obvious, like distilled white vinegar:

Pure. Robust. Guaranteed. And I think one of my favorites is the guarantee on cream of chicken soup:

Versatile. Creamy. Isn’t that just perfect? I want to know whose awesome job it is to pick out just two adjectives to describe each and every Great Value food item. And maybe this could be a new dare/prank activity: walk into Walmart and try to complain that your cream of chicken soup isn’t versatile enough for you. See what they do.

A very big thank you

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A few weeks ago, Josh and I got a package in the mail. It was addressed to us, but the return address was just that of a children’s book publishing company in the midwest. Inside was this book:

It’s a cute, fun children’s book with no words, just pictures, and lots of fun fold-out pages. I bet Carson will love it when he’s just a little bit older.

But we just don’t know who sent us the book. So if it was you – a very big thank you! We love it. If you let us know who you are, we’ll send you a proper thank-you. :)

Perspective

Just Life, Other, , , , ,

Lately I’ve been feeling a little stressed and busy. It’s been a fun, action-packed month of July with vacations and an awesome work conference. I’ve gotten to spend time with family and friends and it’s been great. But coming out of it all, I feel like I have so much to do: normal laundry and cleaning, getting the house back in order, collecting baby gear, getting things ready for the latest addition to our family, wrapping up projects at work, other to-do items. For a few days, I was really overwhelmed. (And it doesn’t make it easier to accomplish my to-do list when I’m so tired coming home from work that I just want to lay down and do nothing.)

This evening our house was hot, and BYU has faster Internet that we do, so Josh and I brought our computers and some things to work on and headed up to campus. I was tired and whiny, but after a frosty and fries (yum yum) and once we got settled in a study room, I started tackling my to-do list.

After a little bit, I looked around and realized that I was on BYU campus in a study room, somewhere I hadn’t been in a while, and it reminded me of being a student. Those days of papers and tests and studying and deadlines. Then I took a second look at what I was doing: writing thank-you cards for generous baby shower gifts from family and friends. Sitting next to my best friend in the world. Getting ready to be a mom. Wow, how easy, fun, and carefree compared to studying for finals!

I really enjoyed being a student and going to college, but I think if my college self could look ahead to me right now, I’d be jealous and excited. Me with an awesome job I love and free evenings. With no homework. And with an amazing miraculous blessing about to enter my life, just around the corner.

So remembering my past tonight helped me enjoy the now just a little bit more. It’s so easy for me to get caught up in dreaming about and waiting for the future. Sometimes I think I forget that this current now I’m in is the future I once looked forward to more than anything. I think I need to stop and enjoy the now more often.

Lost Pictures

Just Life, Other, , ,

Have you ever found a camera you haven’t emptied the pictures from in forever, and then finally put the pictures on your computer, way after you remembered you had even taken them? Well, I hadn’t…until today! And now it’s like I just found a five dollar bill in my blue jeans! Awesome! So here are some pictures taken foreeeeever ago that I forgot I had:

Here’s some pictures of my awesome brother Cole and sisters Shelby and Jennie at a wildlife park in Texas:

And here’s some pictures of my sisters Brenn and Audrey trying to break into our house the same way Josh and I had to:

And finally, here’s a picture I took forever ago on my very first day of my study abroad program in Alcalá de Henares, Spain!

Yea for being lost and getting found.