Spring

We're going back to my previous Paint drawings today - the drawings I did 2 years ago whilst bored at work. This one is actually my very first drawing. This is where it all began. Today I present to you: Spring.

The Loudest Tree Ever

Jake & I stopped in Casa Grande on the way from Tucson to Mesa this month. There we learned that Casa Grande has more birds than people. Here is an especially popular tree.

The Mont Curse

James Mont is one of 4 brothers in his family. He is the father to 4 sons, the 3rd being Bard Mont. Bard is father to 4 sons, the 2nd being Jacob Mont. Jacob is my husband.

By now you may have caught on to the trend: The Mont middle name curses you with having only sons. Now, this may not seem like it's that big of a curse, but let's look at Bard's brothers' families (Jake's cousins). We counted the other day, and Jake has 6 boy cousins and 6 girl cousins. 50-50 exactly. Only his family of all boys throws off their numbers.

I was made aware of this curse when Jake & I were dating, and I had to accept the fact that if we got married, I would have only boys (which, as you can see, I have accepted).
Jake is SURE that we will break the curse. He thinks we may even do it on the first try. But just a warning to my future children: The Mont Curse will be passed on. We have every intention of using "Mont" as a middle name for one of our many boys.

p.s. We should know about this one in the next 6-7 weeks.

The Population Growth in Tucson

I'm sure everyone that reads this blog is already aware of this, but if there are any secret readers out there, this entry is for you.

Tucson's population today: 486,699 people

Tucson's population after September 26th: 486,700 people

13 weeks, 1 day.

A strong heartbeat.

There's a Kiss at the End of the Rainbow

Jake & I travelled to Rocky Point last weekend. We left at about 8:30am - just as the rain started. It rained on us the whole way there and the wind blew like crazy. But, 3 or 4 times throughout our drive, this would appear in the sky.


It was rainy the entire first day, which only meant that we had to eat our fabulous shrimp tacos indoors. By the next morning, the sun was out and the sky was blue. It was a perfect day on the beaches of Mexico.

Anyone Want a Unicorn?

We bought this Pink Unicorn costume for Jake for next Halloween, but it doesn’t fit him like we had hoped.

Does anyone know someone who would be interested in it? It should be someone about ½ his size and ¼ his weight. Also, we’d prefer to give it to someone who really really likes pink unicorns.


Thanks,

Abbie

Part 4: And the Rest is History

Jake's second attempt to go on a date with me was a successful one. I decided to accept his offer this time. We went on a double date with one of Jake's companions from his mission who was in town for the weekend. We set him up with one of Danny's friends, we'll call her "Alison". And again, Alison, I'm sorry for that whole experience.

I had a really good time though. It was my first experience buying scalped tickets. That wasn't our best date though. Our best date came almost exactly a month later - on Labor Day. Jake & I realized that neither of us had ever been to the Grand Canyon, except a quick stop on the drive home from Utah one time. So we packed a picnic, borrowed a quilt, and headed north.

Here we are enjoying the view. And now, may I present to you my latest freehand Microsoft Paint drawing, just completed a couple of weeks ago: Grand Canyon

Monday was our 2nd wedding Anniversary. That is why the story began on Monday. Thanks for crashing my birthday and marrying me on your birthday, Jake. I love you.

Part 3: The Pursuit

I forgot to mention something very critical. Well, actually I didn't forget to mention it, I thought it happened later in the story, but now I remember that it happened at the party. I had a trip to California planned with Brad Stoddard at the end of July. Sometime during the party, I brought that up, saying that I wouldn't be able to hang out with anyone that weekend.

Ok, back to the story. For the next few days after the party, I called anyone I knew that might have known Jake in high school, to see what he was like. Everyone in high school knew him as Jacob, and all anyone really knew was that he was shy and skinny, but they all thought they remembered him as a good kid. I also hung out with Danny's friends one day (Danny was on a mission at the time) and told them all about Jake.

Anyway, apparently my "I dare you to use it" statement worked. Jake remembered it, and said that it was one of the main reasons he actually did call. He called and invited me to a work party the weekend I was going to California. I had to reject him. I was so mad. But, I did point out during the phone call that he knew I wasn't available that weekend. (I later learned that he has zero memory, and I shouldn't have assumed he remembered our conversation). I didn't think about much else on my trip to California. I even told Brad about him, even though Jake & I never really hung out.

After California, I knew that the ball was in my court. I had to call him so he would know I really was interested, and I really did want to go out with him. I called his cell, and he was at work. He told me he worked for a law firm in Phoenix cleaning their toilets. I believed him. (why wouldn't I? I was unemployed at the time, so anything sounded like a good job to me.) I got his e-mail address and we began IM-ing each other from 10:00am until noon every day. I then realized that a toilet cleaner wouldn't have that much access to a computer, and figured out that he must do something else besides janitorial work.

During this IM-ing time, I saw Justin at a Post event, and told him that it would be fun to set up "Game Night" with his friends and kids from the Post. This, of course, was my passive attempt to see Jake again. It worked, and game night existed every Sunday night for a couple of weeks until Jake & I began hanging out without the excuse of game night. Then game night stopped - it had fulfilled its purpose.

Next: The First Date.

Part 2: The Rest of the Party

I wanted to get to know this kid, who's name isn't Adam, better, but I had a problem. I had invited one of my friends from BYU-we'll call him Dan- to the party, and he didn't know anyone but me, so I was forced to hang out with him all night. Well, I wasn't going to let this Adam boy leave my party without getting to know me, so I went over to him, with "Dan" in tow, and asked him if he wanted to play Uno Attack. He said he would, but we needed batteries for the game, so I asked to borrow his cell phone to call my house. I then had Dan go pick up the batteries (ah, some alone time at last).

It was then that we realized that we graduated from the same high school the same year. He even recognized some of my friends at the party, but we had never even heard of each other.

Dan came back with the batteries, so he and I set up the game. I came back to not-Adam, who's name is actually Jake, and told him, with an accidental touch to the forearm, that we were ready to play.

We had a good time (it is Uno, you know) playing a couple rounds with a bunch of people from the party, and then everyone started heading out. We both mentioned to each other that it was fun hanging out and whatnot, and that we should do it again sometime. Jake then remembered that he had my phone number in his phone, since I had used it to call my house. And, in a last desperate attempt to see him again, I shouted the only thing I could think of as they were walking down the steps of the clubhouse, "I dare you to use it."

You know how when you say something stupid, you cringe inside? And something in your body, as you're saying your stupid thing is inside you going, "NOOO! Don't Do It!!!" That's how that moment felt. "I dare you to use it"? Seriously?

Could this be the fateful end? Stay tuned...

In the Beginning - 07.12.03

In the summer of 2003 I spent a couple of days a week at the Three Fountains pool with my married friends Joe & Rhonda. We decided there that it would be a good idea to have a party in the Club House, just to get all of our friends together. Rhonda's birthday was fast approaching, so we decided to throw her a birthday party for our party. However, I shortly realized that I would be gone on vacation over her birthday so that wouldn't work.

We then changed it to be a birthday party for me, and set the date for July 12, 2003. In the mean time, I went on my vacation. It was a SCUBA diving trip to the Bahamas with the Post. It was my 3rd trip with them and I like going on these trips because it gives all of the kids involved in the Post a chance to become reacquainted with one another.

After the trip, I began planning everything for the party. Now, I might add here that I throw a great party. There was swimming, pool tables, nintendo, and Uno Attack - something for everyone. I invited everyone I knew. I even invites some of the kids in the Post. Well, when my mom found out I invited Post kids, she asked me if I invited Justin. Justin is a boy that is my age and from the same high school as me, but I didn't know him in high school, and we didn't have much in common. We never even hung out on our vacation, when we were living on the same boat together. I told my mom that I hadn't invited him, and she told me that I should, because he doesn't have too many friends. I told her that I would, but that was a lie (sorry mom).

As my party got closer, my mom would remind me more and more frequently to invite Justin, but the whole time I knew I wasn't going to. The night of the party, my mom came by to see how things were going, and noticed that Justin wasn't there. She asked me if I invited him, and I said that I never got around to it. She went back home, and without me knowing it, called him up and invited him to come.

That night, Justin was hanging out with a couple of guys from his ward. They had nothing to do that night, so when my mom called, Justin was really excited to come. He told the guys about the party, and they weren't too thrilled about it. They didn't think that anyone that Justin was friends with would be that cool, so they just didn't want to get involved. But, for a lack of anything better to do, they came to the party. However, they drove in separate cars, just in case it was lame.

You can imagine my surprise when Justin came in the door of the clubhouse. I told him I was glad he could make it. He brought 4 or 5 friends, and as he was introducing them to me, one of them looked at my shirt and asked, "Is your name Logan?". I was wearing a thrift store fireman shirt that must have belonged to a guy named Logan. I said, "No, this is a thrift store shirt." Then, one of Justin's friends, who I hadn't met yet, turned around and faced the group and, pointing to the name printed on his own shirt said, "Hey, my name isn't Adam". I was immediately intrigued.

to be continued...

Seeing Double

We know a good thing when we have one.

Meet our new car. It's the one on the left in the picture above (obviously).

Look Who's Back in Town!

It was a long, harsh Tucson winter. The wildlife was no where to be seen. But, alas, I opened the blinds of my kitchen window to let my plant get some sun, and Bunny was back! Spring must be on its way.Luckily for us we had some nice green weeds growing in our patio for him.

It's Mustache-rific

Jake participated in a 3-on-3 basketball tournament with some law school buddies on Saturday. The teams were made up of students from all of the graduate programs at UofA. It was a charity event for our favorite Tucson thrift store's organization: Casa de los Niños.

Since he was sporting the 'stache last week (it's gone now, by the way), he decided to dress out for the game. He got rave reviews from friends and strangers alike.
If there was a winner for best-dressed, he would have won. But there wasn't. And he lost.

A New Look

Jake has a new look. He made the change on Tuesday and, yes, he still looks like this today. How do you like it?

And here is what he someday hopes to achieve:

We're trying to convince my dad to go back to the mustache post-bishoping.

15 Minute Break

I take a 15 minute break every afternoon. I justify my time by the fact that 1/2 of all the employees at my office take 6-8 10 minute smoking breaks each day. I take a watch with me to make sure I am gone exactly 15 minutes each time, and I use my time to walk.

I realized I enjoyed walking in college when I invented "Study Walks". Study Walks were necessary for me because I found that my brain needed to do 2 things at once when I tried to study. So if I was studying in my apartment, my brain would start wandering to other non-study subjects. But, if I was walking, my brain focused on walking as it's other thing to think about. It worked beautifully. I even got a roommate to start doing it, and Jake does it now too.

Anyway, another reason why I like walking is because I have the smallest lung capacity of anyone I know, so I'm not able to run for excercise.

Some rules to my walking:

1. Change into tennis shoes if you are in work shoes.
2. Walk for 15 minutes.
3. Carry a cup of water (it keeps your elbow up [to strengthen your abs] without looking like an idiot).
4. Don't walk in unsafe places.
5. Choose a different route if the stupid guys across the street are on one of their "we listen to Linkin Park from our truck radio and hang out" breaks, which are quite frequent.

So, if you are in South Tucson around 3:30pm, you may just see me walking around my office complex. You'll know it's me because I'm the one carrying the cup of water.

Another Drawing

Microsoft Paint offers a color pallet of 28 colors. In an effort to expand my Paint talents, I decided to use dark colors one day. I call this one "Night".


This was before I or anyone I knew actually had coyotes (guy-a-bodees to Mabel) in their back yard.

Stay tuned for a New Release next month (just completed today)

Saturday is a Special Day

Jake & I had a very busy weekend,

but we got a lot accomplished.

We put a bunch of stuff on craigslist.

And with that money we went to Lowes and...

bought a new kitchen light...

and new flowers for our front yard. We also...

Cleaned up the front yard.

And while we were doing that, we noticed

Our peach tree's first blossoms of the season!

Overall, it was a very enjoyable time.

Working is Fun

I used to work at a job I absolutely hated. It was a full time job and it required the brain of a slug to do. I used my time there wisely though, and developed a talent: Microsoft Paint. Every holiday or season change, I would create a new masterpiece to e-mail to my friends, so in the spirit of our frigid Arizona winter, I present to you: WINTER

Mormons Didn't Plan This Town

One of the biggest shocks in moving to Tucson was the fact that Mormons did not build this town. I have lived in Mesa all my life, and so I grew up with a perfect street naming system.

• Center of town: Center & Main.
• All of the east/west residential street names run in alphabetical order, starting with A at Main Street (Avenues south of Main, Streets north of Main).
• All miles are exactly 800 numbers apart from each other.
• Even numbers on the north & west sides of the street / odd numbers on the south & east sides of the street
• If you're near 6th Street, you're near 600 North

It's beautiful. And then I came to Tucson. Here is an example of Tucson's addresses:

Notice that 202 is between 5th Avenue & 6th Avenue. Another example: one of the main roads in town is 22nd Street, which is not 2200 south, it's 1100 south (and no, not all of the street numbers are exactly half of the street names). It's very annoying if you are looking for an address. Another annoying feature: odd & even address run on both sides of the road.

However, Tucson traffic cannot even be compared to Valley traffic. It is WONDERFUL. Rush hour traffic is very minimal. Plus we have lagging left turn arrows which are far superior in my opinion. Anyway, I'm guessing Phoenix/Mesa traffic is worse than Tucson's traffic because people couldn't stand figuring out how to get anywhere in Tucson, so they moved to Mormonland.

Elephant

So, why is this blog called "Elephant Droppings"? It's not as bad as it sounds. In my husband Jake's past life, he gave everyone he knew nicknames, and a majority of the time, they were animal names. Jake is a spider because he liked to rock climb (again, a past life activity). When he met me, he was always in complete amazement at my great memory, so my nickname "Elephant" was born. It has nothing to do with the color of my skin, the size of my ears, or my weight, for those of you wondering.