I am not afraid of love.

And thus concludes Love Month.....I may be more or less comfortable with "love" today than I was on February 1st. I love a lot of things/people/places/ideas but I struggle communicating those thoughts. Unless I have specifically used the words, "I don't love you," please trust that I do love you and stuff. I do. Really.

I am not afraid of love.

I love the Ogden Temple. I love it just the way it is. I'm trying to get excited about the changes but I'm worried I'll lose the "this is my temple" feeling. I bet I'm just getting ahead of myself. I love all the temples.

I am not afraid of love.

I used to sit on the freeway every morning in a stand still. It took forever to get to work. Luckily, I had a CD of Brian Regan's stand-up routine. I'd laugh and laugh. Unfortunately, I forgot that the other drivers around me could see into my car. I wonder what they were thinking......

I am not afraid of love.

It has been 58 days since I last drank Diet Coke or soda at all. The first few weeks weren't tough on me because I'm not a heavy drinker. It's harder now. Waaaay harder. Blaine (the boss) and I vowed the no-soda vow until January 1, 2011. I may not make it....which means I'll be out a gift certificate to Timbermine and the movies. I should look into getting a sponsor....

I am not afraid of love.

Today is Jeremy's 35th birthday. He's the oldest, I'm the youngest. We're pretty good friends. He's an excellent big brother. Jeremy is generous with his time and does lots of chores at my house. I never imagined that when I was 26 my "honey-do-list" would be for him. But he comes right away and fixes things, hangs pictures, puts up Christmas lights, etc. He worked really hard the day I moved and stayed until 11 p.m. organizing my kitchen a way an OCD girl like me appreciates. I owe him one.

I am not afraid of love.

I secretly enjoy that I have no idea what kind of animal this is. I can't even venture a guess. Let me tell you a little story. Once I was on a horse back riding date. We were just moseying through a little town. A few farms away I could see what I thought was a llama. In an effort to not sound stupid but to find out what the animal really was I said, "Are those llamas?" The young man said, "No! Don't you know your animals?" I felt so stupid. I didn't tell him that I really couldn't be sure. Several minutes later he assured me that I did actually see llamas. A little funny. We went out a few times until the "most mild" horse tried to kill me.

I am not afraid of love.

I love to hear baby E. Rose talk. Soooo cute! I love her!

I am not afraid of love.

Uhhh....let me paint you a picture. I love to sleep. I love to get exactly 8 hours of sleep. I love my bed. I love that I'm sort of an amusing sleeper. Some people aren't amused by my sleeping. Let's get down to brass tacks. I went to bed with no socks on. I woke up with one sock on, one sock off. I found the missing sock in the doorway of my bathroom. What happened? Whatever it was, I bet it was kinda funny.

I am not afraid of love.

I love my job and I love my co-workers. It's endless amusement....usually, at my expense. Still, it's funny. This scenerio is my boss spring cleaning a co-workers desk who was away on vacation. I texted the aforementioned co-worker this picture and told him to enjoy his time off. Funny, right?

I am not afraid of love.

I am not ashamed of my artistic abilities. I don't imagine I've ever been better or worse at drawing. One of my main barriers is my animal i.q. More to come....

I am not afraid of love.

I love the drama which was my frogs and fish: Blaine, Blaine, and Blaine. Their traumatic lives were the light of my life for the few short months that they lived. Blaine, Blaine, and Blaine each had such separate personalities. I had cherished relationships with each of them, may they rest in peace.

I am not afraid of love.

Best idea ever! All edges! All the time! No middles! Brownie edges!!!

I am not afraid of love.

I have a fabulous bed! My favorite time of day is when I'm asleep (that sounds depressing, doesn't it?). Really, it's only because the bed is just that great.

I am not afraid of love.

I don't have the words to express my love for this cat and the book in which its picture resides. I cried salty tears of happiness while I read it cover to cover. Please come to my home and I will share my happiness with you.

I am not afraid of love.

I don't really love Valentine's Day. It's a day I don't even love to hate. This holiday has more meaning to people who aren't in love then the people who actually are.

I was trying to find a humorous graphic of a broken heart but google brought up only gruesome, bleeding hearts. Instead, I googled a lonely heart. The top link (which was sponsored) was for http://www.ldsplanet.com/. Unfortunately, that's the website I am registered on.

The purpose of this post was supposed to be humorous and thought-provoking. It didn't work.

I am not afraid of love.

I really love playing my nintendo ds. It's probably the biggest waste of time ever but if I'm playing it, then obviously all I have is time on my hands. Lisa gave me a pretty fun game for Christmas. I'm pretty good at it.

I am not afraid of love.

I love Marlie's artwork! She made these pictures just for me. Two years ago she made me a special ghost picture for me that still hangs on my board at work. She has such a creative mind.

I am not afraid of love.

I love to think about traveling to Ireland. I may (or may not) be traveling there in October of this very year. I haven't gotten very far into the itinerary.....fly in to County Cork, take a look around, go to the annual Jazz festival, stay or move on, meander through the county and/or country. I'll start by turning in my passport application.

I am not afraid of love.

I am not afraid to say that I love stuff like this. Inspirational quotes are a little over the top for me but I guess sometimes they aren't...especially if they have a distressed kind of look. I just got this on a shopping trip with my mother.

I am not afraid of love.

I love Stephanie Nielson's life story. Can Mr. Nielson really be a human? He sounds too good to be true. I read the nienie dialogues regularly now. My friends, Morgan and Natalie, shared her blog with me just a few months ago. Fortunately, I was able to stay up all night to read the archives back one year so that I know her whole story. NieNie is great! Really, she is.

I am not afraid of love.

I love New York City. I learned a lot of lessons during my New Jersey stay but the payoff was I got to visit the city almost every weekend. In fact, my first Sunday back east, I went to sacrament meeting in the building that is now the Manhattan Temple. On Saturday mornings I would jump on a train in Jersey and take the 1/2 hour ride to Grand Central Station. I loved, loved walking around, riding the subway, catching a cab, watching everything that happens on the streets there, attending a 1st anniversary memorial of 9/11, etc. The odd part about all my visits is that I haven't seen the Statue of Liberty. Guess I need to head back for another visit.

I am not afraid of love.

This picture may not fit with the title because it looks like I'm trying to get away from my mother's love. I'd like to point out that she is the one who taught me to fight against it. If you could only hear the yelling and screaming we were both doing. She kept yelling, "Take it, Joey!" You would have been scared too. I really like my mom. I love having the same day off as her. Sometimes we do productive things together and sometimes we don't. We're friends.

I am not afraid of love.

The other day I stayed home from work because I was ill on the insides. My dad brought me one of my favorite meals for dinner and stayed to eat with me. When I had the flu in November, he came every day on his lunch break to fill my selfish requests for things like....a thermometer and a banana. I'm very lucky to have such a good dad. But....he says there is no luck, just blessings.

p.s. the music isn't permanent, it's just the February blog theme song

I am not afraid of love.

Secretly, I love this. It's set to record every week on my DVR. Collette and I watch it together. Bonus, talking about it with Blaine the Boss is not a one-sided conversation.

Please note: this is the 100th paperless blog post.

I am not afraid of love.

i LOVE this! LOVE! where has Noodle's & Co. been all my life?!?

I am not afraid of love.

I love these! I have no use at all for place card holders but I still love the style and color. I don't own them. I don't even know where to get them. But we've already established....I don't need them.

I am not afraid of love.

I love this a lot! James didn't want to get dressed until Jack stole his underpants! I wasn't there but the I love the picture independent of the story.

I am not afraid of love.

During LOVE month I will post something I love every single day.


I love Grandpa Stone. Isn't this the cutest picture ever? He was waving at me when I got in the car. It was a warm day. Grandpa loves the heat.