Paint the Cabinet!!

Paul and I bought an ugly old filing cabinet at a Boy Scout yard sale that our ward did a while ago.  I've sort of been wanting a place to put all of my choir and piano music (and Paul's guitar music, too!) that isn't a purple bag or the floor or the overflowing piano bench.  This little thing was $5.00 so yeah, it really was a no-brainer.

We decided we would spray paint it.  Here is the before:

And the during:

And the after:

The first can of paint ran out, so we had to go back and get more for a second coat.  Oh, and I forgot to mention that we did a lot of sanding so that the paint would stay.  I'm pleased with the color choice and I think Paul did a great job and it was fun to have a painting project!  Okay, now I have to go buy some file folders!

Easter Eggs

I hope that everyone had a fabulous Easter weekend.  This year Paul and I celebrated by dying eggs! 

Last year we dyed eggs with our good friends and then played an egg game where two people roll eggs at each other and whoever has an intact egg after the collision wins (only one egg will crack ... it is scientific ...).  Apparently it is really fun to do as a tournament.  We only had four people and it was still fun.

But anyway.  Paul and I already had some cracked eggs, but we dyed them anyway.  My favorite thing to do is to draw on them with white crayon.  Paul likes to dip his eggs in all of the colors.  Try to guess which ones are his.

This year also we bought a lot of candy to celebrate!  Our candy of choice?  Cadbury eggs (both caramel and creme filled), Starburst flavored jelly beans, Reese's eggs, and the little Cadbury eggs with the candy outside and the chocolate inside.

And on Easter day I got to teach sharing time.  I loved it except for the fact that I was losing my voice and had to honk in the microphone.

Happy Easter!

meivos

How many different ways can you arrange the letters in the word "movies"?

Arthur.  After the job drop a couple weeks ago, Paul and I went with some friends to see this.  We all liked it and laughed quite a bit (it was funny!) but I'm not yet sure what I think about Russell Brand.  He's a little loopy, and kind of scary at times, but I guess he did a good job with his character.  Arthur was entertaining but not really a must-see.

The Switch.  I started adding random movies that Netflix randomly suggests to us if they predict that we will give it more than 3 stars.  This was one of those.  This movie came out last year but I didn't hear much about it.  It is about a guy who "accidentally" donates his sperm to his best friend so she can have a child, but she thinks it is someone else's kid.  Anyway, it was a little odd, but not too bad! 

9.  I don't know why I insisted on seeing this.  It was awful.

Unstoppable.  Haha.  SNL did a sketch about this movie with one of the new comedians on their show, who does awesome impressions of Black celebrities like Will Smith, Kanye West, and Denzel Washington, and I think I might have enjoyed the sketch more than I enjoyed the movie.  It is the one about the runaway train, and though it was trying to be thrilling, and trying to be awesome, it just wasn't.  Too bad.

Morning Glory.  I think Rachel McAdams is so cute (almost as cute as Amy Adams).  Her character was extremely energetic in this movie but it worked.  I was actually surprised that this movie was as good as it was.  I had kind of low expectations, I don't know why, but it turned out to be super!  It was funny and dramatic, with a little romance, and it was pretty clean too.  Paul even liked it, we gave it 4 stars.

Flipped.  This was another Netflix recommendation that I added even though I hadn't really heard of it.  It is too bad it didn't get more publicity because it is uber cute!  Really good.  It is set in the 50's about a boy and a girl who live across the street from each other.  The story is told through the two characters' perspectives.  Paul likes Rob Reiner, and I like "cute", so it was a great movie for us.  We highly recommend it!


We decided we are finally going to give in and get Modern Family next so we won't be watching many movies in the near future I guess.  And speaking of TV (kinda) I started watching Glee ... and I like it.  :)

Sonora Caverns

On Saturday Paul and I decided to take a trip to Sonora to see the caverns.  Sonora is about 70 miles south of San Angelo and the drive is pretty low-key.  We finally fixed the AC in the van, and we listened to The Hunger Games on CD, so it turned out to be a rather pleasant drive.

I can't tell you too much about the caves except that they are acid-formed and were discovered in the 1920's.  Inside it is about 70 degrees with about 98 percent humidity.  They are home to stalactites, soda straws, helictites, and a bunch of other cool formations that I don't remember! :)

That green part is actually water.  And apparently the pool is about 5 feet deep!

Our guide called this flat stuff "applesauce":

And these hanging things are referred to as "draperies": 

That triangular thing in the middle of the picture is a "fishtail".  A fishtail is a pretty rare helictite (formations that ignore gravity):

Can you see the knot in the skinny pillar on the left?  The column on the right is a stalactite that has grown together:

This stalactite is called "the kissing columns" because the top and bottom portion are only separated by one drop of water.  Apparently it has been like that for 50 years:

This last one of the caves is called "the crystal butterfly" because it kind of looks like a butterfly!  The guide's flashlight is on it though, so it is hard to see in this picture.  Although none of these pictures really do the cave justice!

Our tour was about 1.5 hours and we went down 155 feet.  After the tour we hung out a little at the visitor's center.  This floating pipe was outside of the visitor's center.  Trippy!

We bought some of their homemade fudge and sat outside eating it and enjoying the weather.

On our way home we stopped at a small diner in El Dorado and watched the Master's.  It was a fun trip!

The Job Drop

At work a couple weeks ago, Paul got the list of job openings for intelligence officers.  There wasn't a lot of variety and we are okay with moving pretty much anywhere.  We ranked the jobs.  We considered Paul's job preferences first, and location second.  We knew we would be happy anywhere except if Paul had to go to Korea (without me).

The job-drop was on Friday at a park near our house.  It was a beautiful night.  They planned a big party with pizza and drinks (mostly alcoholic), a DJ, balloons, and some games.  Here's Paul and I at the beginning of the night, waiting patiently until they announce the jobs.

The two classes played a couple innings of "drunk" kick-ball (notice the red cups).

Then I guess the leaders decided that it wasn't fun enough so they lined the students up and threw dodgeballs at them.  Who knows why!?  Paul's on the very right:

Then they finally got around to announcing the jobs!  Someone decided that it would be funny to write the jobs on a piece of paper, laminate the paper, stick it in a pie pan, and then cover it with pudding, cookies, sprinkles, and whatever else they could find, and then make everyone use their faces to get the piece of paper out.  I still don't understand why they couldn't just stick the piece of paper in a envelope and hand it to us, or just write it on the board in class or something.  Oh well!

Paul was in the last group.  By this time all the jobs we didn't really want had been assigned.  Here they are waiting again:

Here they are with their faces in the pudding:

And there's Paul.  He couldn't see what it said because he didn't have his glasses on and the paper was covered in pudding!  I looked at it for him though!

Turns out that we are going to Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, South Carolina!  That was our first pick!  We were pretty surprised, but happy!

We're excited to be close to some family and to experience a new place!  We're not sure when we leave yet, but class ends mid-July, so hopefully we'll be moving by August!  :)

The Dudes

Yesterday we took Donatello to Cub Scouts to show him to the boys.  They were learning about nature, ecosystems, and the like. The boys really liked feeding him little shrimps and got a kick out of watching him try to eat them.  He is pretty funny.  So is Patrick.  She has become pretty huge compared to Donny and sometimes turns a little nasty on him and tries to bite off his feet.  But he's quick and always manages to get away.

Donny's favorite spot is just slightly under the water and resting on this purplish rock.  He does like getting out of the water and basking though.

Sometimes they like to bask together.  Their basking area is getting a little too small for both of them, so Donny will climb on top of Patty.  They kind of sink into the water.  It is hard to catch them like this because usually Patrick skits off the rock as soon as we walk by, knocking Donatello off as she goes.

 

Our guys spend most of their time in the water.  We feed them once a day and they go crazy for the food.  We also like to taunt them by pointing at them.  They usually try to bite our fingers through the glass.  We also laugh when they (mostly Donny) seem to be trying to dig a hole in the corner of the tank. 

That's the dudes for ya!  Bye-bye for now!