Number 5

This has been a lot of fun. I've really enjoyed answering your questions, whether serious, silly, or just plain fun. This is the second to last round...

Mel asks:
"How is the "married Annie" different from the "single Annie?" And why? :)"

This has actually been a little hard for me to answer, because I'm not always sure I've changed for the better since I got married. I guess the biggest difference is that I have a husband (Thank you, Captain Obvious), but I really have changed quite a bit in the last 8 months.

Now, don't get me wrong, the changes are by no means all bad. And some of them could even be thought of as good or bad, depending on your point of view. I've definitely learned to be more patient. I got a little used to getting whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted it. Now that I've got someone else's feelings to consider I'm learning how to wait for things I want. I'm much less Veruca Salt ("I want it now, Daddy!") than I used to be.

One of the things that could be good, or bad, depending on your point of view, is that marriage has turned me into a bit of a neat-freak. I like our house to look nice, and it clutter bugs me. Anyone who saw my bedroom as a child or teenager knows that this has definitely not always been the case. Sometimes I think my neatness has taken control of me, though, when I start to get a little peeved that he doesn't see the messes that I do. Granted, we grew up with very different standards and expectations of cleanliness, and he's been very patient with me and my nit-picking. The more we settle into marriage, the less annoyed I get, but then again maybe we've just found a middle ground cleanliness standard.

Sometimes I also feel like maybe I've lost my sense of humor a little. I'm definitely much more serious now than I was in my college and post-college dating days. I guess it could just be maturity, but I also seem to feel this compulsive need to keep our home in order. I'm much more organized than I ever have been before, I'm much more budget-conscious (of course, this could be due to six weeks of being single income), but I also seem to care more what others think of me. I seem to want to show the world that I was, and am, ready for marriage; that I can manage a household; that I can keep my husband happy, my home clean, and my life managed.

One other thing that has definitely changed about me is my feeling toward babies. It used to be that newborn babies terrified me. Now, I'm the first person to volunteer to hold a baby in church, watch a baby for a few hours during the day, etc. I'm much more conscious of children around me, and picking up tips for how to raise, and how not to raise, kids. Don't worry, we're still going to wait a little while before we start our family, but I think about it often.

What it comes down to, though, is that I'm much happier than I ever thought possible. I love my husband so much and I am so thrilled to be building a life with him. He truly is my other (and often better) half. He keeps me balanced, calms me down before I can freak out about things, and makes me smile everyday.

Essentially, Married Annie is the same girl as Single Annie... just a little more grown up.

The Wait is Over!

Alright, the list is quickly dwindling... If you want to get a question in there's still time folks! (Please, I'm begging you, give me something to write about!)

Jillybean says:
"wow coming up with a question is hard so I will pick some topics.
The Utes, Nursing, living in Utah, first year of marriage, movies, books, favorite food, animals, vacation dreams...
just to name a few."

That's a good list. Let's get started, shall we?
~The Utes: Oh how I love my Utes. This is kind of funny, considering that growing up I wasn't ever a huge U fan, and I went to Dixie. You'd think if I were going to be loyal to a team it would be from a school I'd attended. However, Dixie is no longer the Rebels, which is how I knew them. Anyway, back to the Utes. I don't really follow basketball (I do know that they lost in the first round of March Madness, and I'm not too thrilled about it), but I LOVE Utah football. I love it that my extended family all buys tickets to the football games, and the fact that we have to sit on three separate rows because there are so many of us. I love the tailgate parties before hand, I love the fact that I look fabulous in red, and I love it that I can yell and scream to my heart's content and no one thinks I'm a fool for doing it. I actually even know some of the rules. Anyway, I am a die-hard Utes fan... no one really knows why.

~Nursing: For this post I'm just going to give you a reference link. It says it best...
Nursing 101

~Living in Utah: Really, I don't ever see myself living anywhere BUT Utah. I love it here. A big part of that is the fact that both Steve's and my family's are here. Even bigger, though, is that I've never really found a place I like as much. I think Salt Lake is a beautiful city, and I'm perfectly content to hang out in the suburbs. I like the Utah Bubble... what can I say?

~First Year of Marriage: Let me just sum this up by saying that it is so much different than I ever thought it would be. I'll elaborate more on this in my next blog post.

~Books/Movies: I'm combining these categories into one because all I'll say about movies for now is that I love them. Especially Disney. As far as books, I'll read just about anything I can get my hands on. Lately I've been big into young adult fiction, reading mostly series. I really like the Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Fablehaven, Serpent Tide, The Alchemyst and Ranger's Apprentice series'. I also love Janet Evanovich and her Stephanie Plum novels, I'm anxiously awaiting the release of #15. One of my new favorite authors is Sarah Addison Allen. She currently has two books out: Garden Spells (which I just read for the 4th time in 6 months), and The Sugar Queen her third book should be released sometime this year. A friend at work and I are also currently reading one classic novel a month. If anyone is interested in joining us, let me know, I'll email you the list.

~Favorite Food: My favorite food is, without a doubt, potatoes. I know, this probably seems strange. In all reality, though, they're pretty versatile. You can mash them, bake them, fry them, turn them into hash browns, all kinds of things... plus they have such a mild flavor that you can serve them with just about anything.

~Animals: Well, we all already know that I want a dog. Bad. But my favorite animal is probably the giraffe. I feel a special kinship with anything that is extra tall and kind of awkward. In fact, if I were a wizard in a Harry Potter book, my patronus would be the giraffe.

~Vacation Dreams: As far as vacation dreams go, I'd like to see as many places in this world as possible. As it stands, I've been to France, Canada, Tijuana, and about 20 of the United States. Sign me up to see every country in the world, though!

So, there you have it... more than you probably wanted to know at this point. Stay tuned for what is currently the final installment of "Ask Me Anything"!

Three-ish

This has been a fun little exercise in getting to know me. Shall we continue?

Lena of Wonderkitty says:
"Ok, so I feel I know a lot about you already, but I am curious about your decorating style. I see how you have done your apartment, and it is beautiful. Is that representative of what you would do in your house?"

This is going to be a fun one for me to answer. Let me begin by saying that my decorating style is eclectic, to say the least. I get these ideas in my head of things I want to do, projects I want to complete, and ultimately what I want my house to look like. The main thing I crave is a clutter-free environment. I wasn't always this way. If you were to look at my bedroom growing up, my college apartment, and even my room at the condo, you would think I thrived on clutter. This is something I will address more in a later post, but I think marriage has turned me into a bit of a neat freak.

Anywho, back to decorating. A lot of my decorating style is inherited from the home I grew up in. Anyone who's seen my parents house knows that it is bright, open, and very tastefully decorated. The colors they've chosen compliment each other well, the furniture they use is very classic and timeless by design. They use a fusion of decorating antiques with some "Utah Chic" thrown in. Now, don't get me wrong, my parents are very low-maintenance people. This shines through in their design style, but in a way of being simplistic as opposed to not caring. I like to think that I adopted this same sense of style, but I'm afraid my taste is a little more expensive. What can I say, I like nice things.

Now, let me address "Utah Chic": For those who may not understand what this particular style means let me give you a store as an example... Tai Pan Trading. It is, in essence, a wholesale design outlet, and happens to be one of my favorite places on earth. I tend to draw my influences quite a bit from the displays they use in this store. I just tone them down a little. "Utah Chic" can also apply to using plaques, tiles, picture frames, or other decorative objects with sayings, uplifting thoughts, etc, on them. My kitchen and living room hold perfect examples of both. I can think of at least 5 different examples from my home of this particular idea.

One thing I'm looking forward to about home ownership that I don't have the liberty of doing in our apartment is painting. I'll be honest, I've already got colors picked out for the master bedroom, the nursery, the guest bedroom, the office, the kitchen, and the living room. I'm going to cost my husband a fortune in paint!

I also have a monthly subscription to Better Home and Gardens. Not only do I draw paint inspiration from this particular magazine, but it is where I also find a lot of my holiday-type craft ideas.

Anyway, in answer to Lena's question, thank you for the compliment. I try very hard to give us a nice home, a haven, and a relaxing environment to spend our time in. And secondly, I would say that the way I have decorated our apartment is how I will decorate our someday house. I'll just have to rein myself in on the kitschy knick-knacks.

Two-fer

So, since my life has a serious lack of internet access right now I'll give you a two-fer on the question answering today.

Christi of Tranquilitea asks:
"Hmm, in a fight between ninjas and pirates, who would win? If they were on sharks in space would that change your answer?"

Really, this is no contest in my opinion. I've always had a special place in my heart for pirates. Seriously, even when my family went to Disneyland in my senior year of high school I took as many pictures of pirates as I could (My favorite is of myself and the notorious Captain Hook).

When I asked Steve for his opinion on the matter he looked at me like I was nuts and said, "Duh, ninjas. Even with the space sharks." My reply, "No way! Pirates are scrappy."

(Let me insert, briefly, that this question sparked a lively debate around my family's dinner table. McKay says ninjas, my dad says, "Pirates, no question", and Maddie says Chuck Norris. If it didn't involve pirates I'd tend to agree with Maddie.)

Anyway, back to my pirates argument. While in your average, run of the mill fight the more disciplined fighter is generally going to win, pirates are the wild card. Because they've seen more of the world, it's safe to reckon that they've picked up fighting styles along the way.

Also, my thought is that if you put a bunch of men on a boat with weapons, no women, and way too much spare time they're bound to pick up a few mad fighting skills, not to mention other skills... like shark riding. That's right, I think that by throwing sharks in space into the mix you're just going to give the pirates more of an edge.

So, there you have it: Pirates, hands down... even in space.

Round one...

The lovely Mr. B asks:
"What were your favorite, and least favorite parts about living with me? Now, be honest."

Well, Mr. B, let me tell you. Some of my favorite things about living with you were:
~All the fun new friends I made
~Brownies
~A wide selection of movies I'd never even heard of
~Living with a boy (SO much easier than living with a girl)
~The lovesac
~Having a social "crutch" at church
~Decorating Nadia for the holidays
~Listening to you sing in the bathroom (Too personal? Nah)
~Oh so many other things

Really, most of my least favorite things had nothing to do with you at all:
~Those damn birds
~The smokers downstairs
~When you still traveled for work and I'd have to spend a week at a time home alone
~The carpet in the loft (So gross)
~The fact that we kept such different hours. It was strange to have a roommate that I'd rarely see.

All in all, I think that sharing the condo was one of my favorite times in my life. You were by far the best non-husband roommate I ever had. Thanks for a great nine months in San Francisco. :)

So, you know...

Alright, I feel the need to blog, but don't know what to talk about. So, here's what I'm going to do: Leave me a comment and you can ask me anything you want to. I'll spend the next few blogs elaborating upon my answers to your various questions. Sound fun? I think so...

Now get creative, people! I want a challenge...

The good news, and the bad... revisited

So, we'll start with the bad news. I'm pretty upset about this (because I totally got my hopes up) but the seller has received a better offer than ours on the condo, aka someone else wants to pay full price (We offered about 10k less than asking). So, unless that sale falls through, not likely, we won't be getting the condo. So much for the decorating plans I'd made in my head.
On the good news front, we won't have to worry about buying out our lease. We've decided we're going to hold off on buying for a little while. We'll start seriously shopping again around the time our lease is up, and then just rent on a month to month basis until we find something. Not ideal, but it'll be ok.
I guess I just got my hopes up about being a homeowner. I know something will come along for us when the time is right.