TinyWingzzz.

You know, today as I was sitting in class I was thinking about all this stuff I wanted to blog about. And now that I'm here blogging, I can't remember what they all were. I hope you're ready for some meaningless updates on Stoddard Life!

Sterling acquired his sister Steph's iPhone since she's on her mission and his phone died. Since he gave up Facebook and Reddit for Lent, he spends much of his time playing a lovely game called TinyWings. It's basically a bird flying over rainbow-colored hills and farting starry fireworks. I don't get it. But he is all about that thing. Whatever makes the husband happy, I guess.

Yesterday I had my blood pressure taken and it was super high, in the hypertension range. So, we are being healthy now in hopes of getting it under control, even though I'm not exactly sure why it's high. We eat a lot of produce, I don't eat a ton of sodium, and my weight is the lowest it's been in 4 years! So we're trying this exercise thing. We've gone to the gym two nights in a row! That's a big accomplishment for us, seeing as we haven't been in weeks. Now we just gotta keep it up. Plus I'm making healthy things (like granola bars!) and not buying much junk. Sterling's lost 3 pounds this week. We're so good.

Sterling just found out I wrote about his TinyWings addiction and I'm only allowed to talk about it as long as I also mention that he's been reading a lot, as well. So there ya go, honey :)  I'm also not supposed to mention that he frequently yells at the little bird on his phone.

He also has been having fun snapping pictures on his new phone.

Can you tell I had no idea he was taking this one?

Ron Paul is coming back to U of I next Monday. It's cool and all, but it's just not as exciting as the first time, mostly because we already met him and it just doesn't get any better than that. I won't even be going, since it's during the time I work. But Sterling will go with the guys and have fun.

My newest hobby is looking for apartments in Blackfoot, ID. Sterling has a potential job in that area (a really good one too, so cross your fingers!) and I'd still be able to go to ISU, so it's pretty exciting. Oh, and we officially signed over our lease to a guy, so it's his as of May 15th and we will be gone from Moscow! Hopefully we have a job lined up by then! I'm so anxious and excited about this move, I can't even stand it. I want to get everything all figured out right now. But, alas, we have 2 months left here. Aghhh. Go by fast, please.

PS: Is it spring break yet?!

I love you, Monday.

Tonight is one of those really nice nights. The day was just alright, but I'm quite enjoying the night. I went visiting teaching, which I'm really starting to like. I have a great companion (Sterling and I had dinner with her and her husband last week, we love them!), and the ladies we teach are both really nice. This whole husband thing is wonderful, but it's also nice to just go talk with other girls :)

And now Sterling and I are both home, just hanging out in the living room, him reading his new book and me, well, doing this. First off, I love hanging out in our living room, mostly because we never do. Our TV is in the bedroom, so we spend pretty much all our free time lounging in bed, watching Friends or something. Second, it's nice just being together but doing our own thing. I admit, I'm not always very good with this. I have this thing where I think that whenever we're just hanging out together, we should be cuddling. I'm just most comfortable when we're close. But I do enjoy this 'together but separate' time, as well.

And third, well, I don't have class on Tuesdays, so I'm kind of a fan of Monday nights in general!

Okay, enough of my babbling about this lovely night. I suppose a recap of the last week is in order.

Last weekend, we went to the temple in Spokane to do baptisms for the dead. I liked it a lot. I love temples and really feel a connection to them, so it was cool to actually be in one for the first time! The Spokane one is tiny though. But pretty still! We drove there with the lovely Bowles' and got some delicious Red Robin with them afterwards, so it was a good day all around.

I don't think the weekdays were too interesting, so we'll skip them.

Friday evening, Suzy and Stacey, Sterling's mom and brother, arrived in Moscow! They stayed with us until Sunday after church. We showed them around little Moscow, I got Suzy to try (and love!!!) sushi, introduced them to JAMMS, took a windy, snowy walk around campus, and all sorts of fun stuff. They came to church with us Sunday to hear us give our talks. As terrified of speaking as I was, I actually lost a lot of that nervousness as it got closer. It wasn't bad at all! Sterling did a great job on his talk. I swear, that guy has got to be a bishop someday. He just sounds like a preacher. He got all teary-eyed up there too, which is my favorite thing :)

I ended up getting sick Saturday night with who-knows-what and I'm just now getting over it, so that kind of put a damper on things a bit. I still don't know what was/is wrong with me. Saturday I thought it was a migraine, Sunday I thought it was a flu, today I'm thought it's a sinus problem....but I really don't know. It just felt like a really bad head cold without all the stuffiness and snot and gross stuff.

But anyway, it was a fun weekend! We loved having family here. Spring break is in two weeks, and it looks like we'll be headed down to Grace to spend it there. I'm excited! Can't wait for the week off, I'm already ready for the semester to be over.

Hello, Mr. President Hopeful

Once again, I'm blogging because my husband was bugging me to do so. This time, though, it was so that I'd stop bugging him to hurry up on his homework so we could leave the library and go home. Well, whatever works.

Friday was THE day. As in, The Day Dr. Ron Paul Came to Moscow, Idaho. It ended up being an even bigger day in the Stoddard household that I'd imagined it being.

You see, we signed up with Youth for Ron Paul (a campus club) to help out with the rally. Sterling knew some people who were pretty much in charge of organizing the event. We had official little badges. We were tabling outside the ballroom before the event started, trying to recruit people to our campus club, YAL. I got antsy and suggested to Sterling that we abuse the privileges of our fancy badges and slip into the ballroom early to make sure we got good seats to see Dr. Paul speak. So, in we went. And then one of the coordinator guys asked us if we would escort Ron Paul from his car into the ballroom. Um, YES!

So out we went to meet cute little Ron Paul at his car and walk him up to the backstage area of where he was speaking. We met his wife and granddaughter, we got pictures with him, we prayed with him, and we hung out back there for a good 15 minutes. Then we got to watch him speak from the side of the stage, where his family and guards were sitting.

Sterling about cried, he was so excited and happy. It was pretty funny. So yes, it was quite the exciting experience! I told Sterling I must've been inspired when I decided we should sneak in early.

Here are some snazzy pictures documenting the event:

The whole group of volunteers with Ron Paul.

Ahhh!!! There we all are! Isn't Dr. Paul such a cute old man?

These are aforementioned fancy badges.

A view from our seats.

Valentines!

I think Valentine's Day merits a blog post, right?

It was our first married V-day, which was quite nice. I made us breakfast, then made Sterling a giant heart-shaped Cake-Batter Rice Krispy Treat while he was at school. He also got a couple other little gifts he's been needing. The rice krispy is the only thing that we got a picture of. Actually, Sterling has one of us on his phone, so maybe I'll add that later.

We had some delicious Chinese takeout for lunch from our favorite place in town. Then I had to go to work (which included dealing with a so fun poopy pants situation...yeah), and came home to find a tidied up living room and roses and a new chick flick and a cute little kid valentine and...a shovel. I quickly found out that the shovel was a wedding present that the Bowles' had just dropped off right before I got home, but it was a nice touch with the roses and such ;)

We went to this new Mexican place in town, Lamadrid. They were doing a Valentine dinner special, which was tasty but kind of cheap on the portions. But it was good, nonetheless!


I also have been meaning to complain via blog. Last week, I got a parking ticket. In my own driveway. Apparently it's illegal to partially block sidewalks? I didn't realize this was an actual law that tickets are given for, especially since we live in a quiet little neighborhood! It's not like a person would be thrust out onto a busy street in order to walk around my car! AND, I have never seen Moscow PD on our street, but they made sure to be there during the TWENTY minutes that I was parked!

Ugh. Ridiculous. Anyway, in other news, RON PAUL IS COMING TO UI! Yup, he will be here tomorrow afternoon. We're pretty excited, and by that I mean Sterling is pee-his-pants-ecstatic. We got tickets to get in early before everyone else, so hopefully we can meet him and get pictures and everything! That would make Sterling's life.

firsts.

Today, Sterling told me I needed to blog. Apparently he checks everyday to see if I wrote something new, and he's tired of being disappointed :)

Maybe I'm forgetting something, but I don't think this past week was too exciting.

Aside from some nannying drama, of course. One of my kids got in trouble for some lying and cheating at school, so when I picked him up, his teacher talked with me about it. Then my kid sat on the floor of the main hallway of the school, crying/fake crying and wailing (he didn't want to go home because that meant telling Mom & Dad). For 20 minutes. It took me and 3 of the staff members to finally talk him into getting up and walking out to the car. It was pretty ridiculous for an 8 year old. Plus, most other parents at the school assume I'm his mom (Uh, not quite), so I'm seen as that mom who can't control her child who has crazy tantrums while much-too-old. Yeah, that was fun.

We've also been avid Vandals Basketball fans. Well, we always have been. But there were three really good games this week, so that's another thing we spent a lot of time doing. I really like watching basketball. Gets me all fired up!

Then today. Ohhh, today. We went to church and the Bishop's secretary pulled us aside and told us the bishop wanted to speak with us. So we went to see him during Sunday School. First, I was given a calling. My first calling! I'm one of the Activities Coordinators for Relief Society. I kind of neglected to ask what exactly that entails, but it should be good!

We also got our temporary Temple recommends so that we can go to Spokane on our Ward Temple Trip this Saturday to do Baptisms for the Dead! I'm pretty excited about that. It'll be another first for me!

And now here's the real kicker. So in Sacrament meeting today, Sterling and I were talking about how we hope we can manage to get through this semester without being asked to give a talk. We know sometimes our bishop likes to ask people to speak when they're about to move away and leave our ward, so I joked that we just shouldn't tell our bishop when we leave. In case you haven't caught on yet, I'm terrified of speaking in public and would die if I had to give a talk in church.

Fast forward about 20 minutes after mine and Sterling's talk about this. We go talk to the bishopric. The bishopric asked Sterling and I to both speak in Sacrament Meeting on the 26th.

Oh. My. Goodness. I really wanted to pee my pants or cry or something. Luckily, I was able to refrain from either.

But seriously?! Oh, man. So, I'm giving a talk about my conversion and testimony. Which, yes, is a pretty easy thing to start on. But....I'm still absolutely terrified and am dreading doing it!

I know it'll be a good thing though. I knew it was bound to happen, and I do really need to get more comfortable with stuff like this. But sheesh, it was a little earlier than I expected! It'll be interesting to see what a nervous wreck I am as the 26th gets closer.

Now that that's on my mind, I can't think of much else that's been going on! Oh, our friends are getting married Tuesday! Well, they're getting married this summer in Indonesia, but they're doing it legally at the courthouse on Tuesday so that everything is squared away and she can start going through the citizenship process and whatnot. So that's exciting! Except I have to work while they're doing it, so I'm pretty bummed I can't be there for it. Sterling promised me he'll take pictures, but come to think of it, I'm not exactly sure if that's allowed in a courthouse, ha.

Tuesday is also Valentine's Day, which I'm pretty excited about. Mostly because we're going to a new restaurant that has a good special going on. Yeah, food gets me pretty dang excited. Aaand, I think that's all for my recap for now!

nieces&nephews&missionaries♥

Well, the Week of Terrible is officially over. I still would like to just hide in my bed all day, but that comes from nothing but a lack of sleep. I tell you, I cannot wait until we get our nice, new bed and we have a cozy living room with a TV to which The Husband can retreat to when he wakes up before me in the morning.

Here's a recap of what I neglected to write about during the past week:

Last weekend we drove down to Grace. We had a farewell breakfast for Stephanie, Sterling's little sister. She left for the MTC on Wednesday the 1st-- she's been called to serve the Cleveland/Kirtland, Ohio Mission. She spoke at Sacrament Meeting Sunday, which was great. We're sad to not get to see her for the next 18 months, but she'll have amazing experiences and will be such a good missionary.

Sunday was also the baby blessing of our newest niece, Emma Grace. She's the cutest little thing ever.

It was nice having (almost) the whole Stoddard family together. Have I mentioned that we have some pretty dang cute nieces and nephews? They're fun, even though they burst into our room and wake us up early in the morning!

The weekend after next, Sterling's mom and brother Stacey are coming to Moscow to visit. They're driving to Seattle to check out a mortuary school thing Stacey wants to go to (yes, he's a little crazy but we love him), and making a side trip to see us.

I think that's about all the news for us. The rest is the same; I'm still addicted to Pinterest, I'm still madly searching for jobs for Sterling and being anxious to find out where we're going to live in just over 3 months.

nothingness.

This week has been….crap. All I want to do is snuggle deep down into my bed and do absolutely nothing but wait to feel better. 

But instead I’m expected to be a functioning member of society and do things like going to work and school.

I don’t even know.