Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig!

What a trip! My goodness! Jessie and I had so much junk! It was unbelievable...of course, I can really only label my stuff as junk. Maybe it would be safer to say that combined, we had enough stuff to completely stuff the car...no jokes! We ended up sitting on like a foot of all of our squishy stuff. It sounds kinda, well, squished...but, in all reality, it was probably the most comfortable car ride i've had in a while. (Considering the fact that the only car rides i have had in the past four months are the ones to the temple when at least 7 of us are squished into a car with 5 seat-belts)

Around 5:17 in the morning, we pulled up in front of Jessie's house, and I was soooooo excited when i saw our dark blue Ford Freestyle sitting in front of their driveway! Wonderful Bliss! My family piled out of the car groggy and a bit wrinkly from the early morning drive up to Fort Worth. We proceeded to un-stuff the poor little car that was given the task of hauling my junk and Jessie's stuff. It was quite the chaotic scene of mayhem as we tried to sort through which plastic bag was holding whose clothes that wouldn't fit into a suitcase, which ukulele went where, and which pile of bedding belonged in the garage, and which belonged in the other car. Finally, we got it all sorted out, and i'm pretty sure that their car was three feet taller after being relieved of its heavy load.

Before we departed, Jessie and I sang one last duet. And it was really fitting that we sang the song we did, because it was also the first song we sang together...in front of our whole ward...at the very first ward prayer...on the very first sunday. ("You and I" by Ingrid Michaelson) It was fun, but i have to admit that i couldn't look her in the eye...that is until i had to after my befuddled, worn-out brain forgot the chords and the words...

I arrived home around 1:00...i think, though i can't really be sure... After we pulled into the driveway, my parents dashed inside after a hurried, "Stay in the car, we'll come and get you in a minute or two." I turned and asked my brothers what was going on, and before Slade could shush him, Logan said, "They're probably putting up the sign."

After my parents gave the OK, I walked into the house with my arms full of junk. Taped across the entryway was a very large, multi-colored, very home-made banner that said, "Hooray! Our Shalysse is HOME! We missed you, Sweet Pea!" It looked just like all of the banners I taped together when I was ten wishing everyone a Happy Birthday: Pieces of Construction Paper taped together at different, wonky angles, drooping a bit in the middle because the entry way is a little too wide to give its full support, and each piece of construction paper a different letter, each with its own sort of decoration.

I whole-heartedly expected that to be it. And I was so content and happy to be home. As i rounded the corner at the top of the stairs, however, I spotted pink, black, and white streamers, flowers, and posters all around my door frame and my bed. that made my already-too-wide smile grow even wider. I love thoughtful, loving family members! They had scrubbed, vacuumed, and cleaned up my room, AND they had moved Oopsie and her bin back to the corner in my room (as opposed to down in the kitchen where they wouldn't forget about her). It felt good to be home!

Logan was really excited that it was Easter, and went straight to the task of finding the basket that the Easter Bunny had hidden for him. The Easter Bunny likes to make his the hardest one to find since he is really the only one that gets super excited about the hidden baskets anymore. So the poor kid searched high and low. He found every basket...except for his own. We all (namely Slade and myself) decided to help him and began rummaging through cupboards, digging through the clothes dryer, and opening oven and microwave doors. After spotting the rogue Easter basket, I told Logan what room it was in and left him to his own devices. Where my basket was just underneath a table cloth in our formal dining room, Logan's basket was hiding behind cookie sheets in the most out-of-the-way cupboard in the kitchen. He finally found it and proceeded to hound down all of his candy in one hour. Crazy Kid!

The next three or four days mainly consisted of unpacking, scholarship searching, doing laundry, job searching, chilling at home, and reading all of the books i couldn't when I was at school (due to lack of free-time/ spending my free-time in a more social way).

Nothing too terribly exciting to report. Our air conditioning was fixed today - which is good since it has been in the 90s with roughly 80% humidity the past few days. We might be moving to North Dakota in a few weeks - which is good since that means that my dad will have a job. Oopsie is just as adorable and dinosaur-like as ever - which is good since she still finds it supremely entertaining to poop on my pant legs. My family loves having me home - which is good since that means that i won't have to do the dishes for about another two weeks. ;) I get to watch movies for a few days before i go to work earning money for school - which is good since i'm watching them with loved ones that i haven't seen in a while.

Conclusions: Life is good, and it's good to be home.
My To Do List for the Next Few Days: Get a job or two, read Atlas Shrugged in its entirety, get back into the swing of using my words of the day, walk Oopsie extensively (and get her to stop shunning me like I've wronged her in an unforgivable way), wait on pins and needles for a possible move to North Dakota, and enjoy every minute of the time that i have here at home -away from home.

~~Words of the Day~~
shirty
\SHUHR-tee\
Pronunciation
adj. bad-tempered, irritable

axiomatic
\ak-see-uh-MAT-ik\
Pronunciation
1. adj. taken for granted, self-evident
2. adj. based on or involving an axiom or a system of axioms
Note: an axiom is a self evident truth...so couldn't Thomas Jefferson have said something to the affect of, "The following are axioms: " or "we hold these axioms, that all men are created equal..." (well, i guess that one doesn't really work, does it?)

****Quote of the Day****

He is risen! He is risen!
Tell it out with joyful voice.
He has burst his three days’ prison;
Let the whole wide earth rejoice.
Death is conquered; man is free.
Christ has won the victory.

He is risen! He is risen!
He hath opened heaven’s gate.
We are free from sin’s dark prison,
Risen to a holier state.
And a brighter Easter beam
On our longing eyes shall stream.

--Hymn 199: "He is Risen!"