Long Beach and a new table..

I know most of you (3) people who are reading this probably won't care, but we were soo stoked.  Since we've been married, we have been using a borrowed card table for our dining room table.  I must have looked at tables on craigslist 34 times but have never actually bought one.  The other day, Jered's aunt Lori said she had a friend who was giving away her table and did we want it.  You can guess what we said.  I came home on Friday from work to this..

I have never heard Jered talk about a piece of furniture like he does this table. Every time he walks by it and says, "Boo..I love this table!" It's so funny. He says he loves anything that makes our apt seem more like a home.  You gotta love that kid.  You never know what will tickle his fancy.  

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Contrary to what I thought before we went there, Long Beach is not all ghetto.  The city center is pretty cool. We went last Saturday and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  There are all kinds of little shops and restaurants a lot of which are right on the water front. My camera card was missing but I was just able to take these pics of us in this amazing book shop we found where everything was a dollar.  Everything!  If Jered hadn't talked some sense into me, I would have bought their entire young adult section. They had all the classics.  

We ate dinner at this old school diner and picked songs from the nickel juke box.  Fun day.

A trip to Utah and Lil G

Things around here have gotten a little hectic as of late. I started my last two classes to graduate.. yes I realize I've been out of high school for almost 7 years but between two years off for a mission and my teacher being on sabbatical for the last year things got a little behind schedule. I've been doing homework every night until midnight this past week and I don't think it's going to let up soon because one class is only 7 weeks long. Once I finish these classes though I'll be done for good. It will be so great not to have the whole degree thing hanging over my head.  


In other completely different news, two weeks ago I got a chance to go up to Utah very unexpectedly.  On May 1st, my sweet Grandpa Hawkins passed away.  I wanted to go to his funeral, but didn't think it would be possible between work and the price of a place ticket. Luckily, despite my more often than not negative attitude about my job, I do have amazing benefits and they offered me three days bereavement.  That along with my wonderful parents who offered to fly me up.
My grandpa's funeral was wonderful.  So intimate and personal.  It really let me in on this whole other life he had lead before I knew him.  He was buried with military honors which was such a touching thing to witness and he was so deserving of it.  He was such a patriot and risked so much to fight for our freedoms. I walked away from that experience more convinced than ever of what a great man he was.  Saturday I totally took advantage of my time and went to the gym and shopping with my mom in the morning, to a good friend's baby shower in the afternoon and to dinner with some dear friends that night.  As I sat at dinner and caught up on life from like 3 hours with those girls, I felt so grateful so be able to spend time with people who have been such a big part of my life that I hadn't seen in so long.  It was also soo great to get so much uninterrupted time to spend with my family. Just to be able to sit and talk about life.  There are few things I value more than those one on one conversations with my parents and siblings.  On top of all that it was mother's day so I got to spend all day with my wonderful mama and even cook her a little dinner.  It was a fulfilling trip in so many ways.  Jered was sweet to be so supportive and keep things going down here while I was away.  


Right after I got back from Utah, we made a really spontaneous purchase.  I had been bugging Jered for awhile about getting a kitten or something like it and he was 100% against it.  He's not really an animal guy and neither really am I to be honest.  But I just have been wanted something to use some of my mothering instincts on.  Well, we were parusing the LA garment district a couple of weeks ago when we came across these little tiny dwarf bunnies they were selling on the corner.  I about died. They were seriously the cutest things ever and I know from growing up with them that bunnies are really easy to take care of plus they don't stink or make noise.. two reasons we're not such a fan of most other animals..  Somehow, I convinced Jered to say yes...

Since then, I think Jered has really warmed up to her.  We named her Goliath but call her Lil G for short.  She is about the most cuddly thing in the world, follows our feet around until we pet her, never makes a peep, and eats like 1/4 cup of food a day. We just let her run around the apartment now and she always goes into her cage to sleep.. well almost always... 

Jered found her curled up in my pile of clothes this morning.  I about died when I saw this pic.