In Search of Vanity

Dear DC,

Do you ever get so bored you just google anything? Anything including yourself? Well they call it a vanity search and guilty as charged. I'm occasionally curious what pops up that actually applies to me. Fortunately there aren't that many "Julia Skelton"s (except for a super cool semi-pro surfer) but there are quite a few "Julia Jarrett"s to sort through. It's still fun to see what's still around from my past.

Here are a few:

BYU Students Place First in National Business Competition
I look so young and skinny (and have a small stain on my shirt...oops)!!

Joy Luck Club Page - English Class 2001-2002 - Julia Skelton
The title says it all. This was early enough in technology that an English teacher thought making a website took a lot of smarts, and I thought that this website design actually looked good.

BYU NewsNet - U of U firearm law ignites gun controversy
My first (and only) article published in the campus newspaper. It was the final project for my newswriting class first semester of Freshman year. I got bonus points for actually getting it published!

ksl.com - Successiteas' series finds success at YWCA
This is an interview I did for the YWCA young leader's board I was on last year. I learned that I need A LOT of work to be half-decent on camera.

So do it. I dare you. Google your own name and see what comes up then post in the comments section.

With "I'm so vain" Love,

Julia

Has it been 4 or 5?

Dear DC,

Sometimes Kyle and I will turn to each other after reminiscing about the early days of our marriage and say, has it really only been four years? Are you sure it hasn't been five? Perhaps that's because in our eagerness to prove to people that we are mature in our relationship, we have rounded up a-bit-too-soon. Like 8 months too soon.

We pretty much started saying that we have been married for four years, oh about three months after our third anniversary. It makes the fourth year seem really really long.

Well on Tuesday it will be officially four years and the two of us agree that it has been the best four, or five years!

Here's to the next four or five and the five or fifty after that!

With "We're still newlyweds" Love,

Julia

The Best of Us

Dear DC,

There are a lot of people I admire for a lot of different reasons. There are the people whose hair always looks perfect and who could be wearing the exact same outfit as me and look 10 times more stylish! Then there are those who seem to have a way with people and make and keep friends so easily.

Well, instead of listing all the things I admire in others and thereby point out my flaws and insecurities, I thought that I would quickly turn that frown upside down and list the things I admire in myself.....and then in my better half, the hubster.

I admire that I am:

1. Smart. I am so lucky that I have been blessed with an understanding of concepts and processes and can reason things through. I would honestly be lost without this and I appreciate it every day.
2. Able to deal calmly with stressful situations. I love that I can keep cool under pressure, at least for a short period of time. I am able to diffuse difficult situations.
   
3. Forgiving. I can't imaging living with a debilitating grudge day after day and so I am sure glad I naturally am able to forgive people pretty easily. It's much easier to keep track of!
   

I so admire that Kyle is:

1. Forgiving. I don't think comes as any great surprise that my husband's ability to forgive and forget all the stupid fights and dumb things I do is a great boon to our relationship!!
   
2. Funny. His silly jokes and stupid humor sure do make life a whole lot easier and fun!
   
3. Giving. Whether it's cooking a yummy dinner or cleaning the bathroom or giving me a big hug, Kyle's giving nature reminds me every day why I fell in love with him in the first place.
   

What do you admire about yourself or your significant other??

With Love Love Love,

Julia

House? Where Are You?

Dear DC,

Kyle and I have been looking for a house in DC for a little while now. With our relatively low budget and our stubborn unwillingness to commute 50+ miles (quality of life anyone?), even in the housing "crisis" it's slim pickings!

Unless of course, you love the type of house that doesn't have a kitchen, but does have plenty of mold and perhaps has a ceiling caving in. If you like those kind of houses, then DC is your oyster!

Unfortunately, I wouldn't exactly describe myself (or Kyle) as experienced in home repair, or even especially handy. We would really prefer an ugly house that we can just move in and "fix-up" cosmetically as we live there.

As one real estate agent told us, "HAH! Good luck!"

After several weeks of hunting and hunting and hunting, we found our dream home! It didn't have any mold, the floors only sloped a little bit and no one had been murdered in the area for at least 12 months. What a find!

Ok, it was better than it sounds! So we made an offer on the house. It had been sitting on the market for 8 months but just our luck, a competing offer came in on the same day for $5K higher...and we didn't get the house.

We had to move on with minimal tears but shattered hopes...

There was one house we saw on our first day of hunting and kept coming back to it as a place that we could make-do with if we had the misfortune of of not finding anything better.

Well, last week we put in an offer on that house.

Actually I'm pretty thrilled about it and I have already claimed a room that I get to decorate without any input from Kyle...and yes, he gets a similar room. Although the decor in my head changes constantly, mine will be an urban Parisian-themed guest room/my dressing room/hair and make-up room (the bathroom is tiny). Kyle's will be an "office."

We just barely received the counter-offer yesterday so it might be a while before the contract is finalized and even longer before we can close and move in.

So, DON'T hold your breath, but DO cross your fingers!!!

With Home Sweet Home? Love,

Julia

Quirkie Quirks

Dear DC,

We're all a little strange, we all have our quirks. I'm a fairly boring person, but even I have some somewhat weird quirks to my name. Such as....

I refuse to drive. Even when I first got my driver's license, I much preferred to have someone else drive. The only time I enjoyed driving was when I bought my first and only car, a VW bug, and that lasted about 6 months. I guess that's why me and DC get along so well....public transportation!!

I wear socks to bed. In fact, you may never see me without socks. It wasn't until grade 12 in high school that I started wearing flip flops because I couldn't stand to not have socks on. And I don't think it has anything to do with the fact that my second toe is longer than my big toe....

While I love to read, I hate buying books. As long as a decent library is within 25 miles of me, buying books seems like a waste. Plus, see the next quirk.

I grew up in the same house 0-18 years old but since leaving I have moved every 6-8 months. I have learned to limit my belongings, including books, but not well enough. Moving cross-country really kicked my butt.

I ALWAYS forget the lyrics to songs and just make random lyrics up, but honestly think I am singing the right ones. Kyle is constantly correcting me, even on the songs that I am a fan of and he doesn't even like.

What are some of your quirks?

With strange-things love,

Julia

Blast from the Past

Dear DC,

I am home sick today so obviously that means I am catching up on my blog reading!!!

What did I find but that my sister-in-law, Nichole, not only read one of my very old blogs (three years old) but she re-posted it on her blog. I honestly didn't even know that she knew about it so I was pretty surprised as I started to skim her post and recognized the words.

I wrote a blog about a year after my dad passed about the experience. It was partly for a college project and partly therapeutic. The post she re-posted was about my experiences dealing with people's actions and comments toward me and my family after his death.

So - I thought instead of writing something complete new today for this blog, I would share with you some of my older blogs in the case that you might be interested in some of the topics.

Note: I do not intend to put post any more on these old blogs so if you do have a desire to know way too much information about me and actually visit them, once is enough.

This is about my experiences after my father's death.
http://survivingdeath.blogspot.com/

This was a lame attempt at a blog. My attention span is apparently not very long!
http://kyleandjulia.blogspot.com/

AND for a true archaic record - I wrote this the summer before I went to college. I was 17 so don't judge!
http://cranberrie.livejournal.com/

I'm sure I'll enjoy reading these much more than anyone else....so I'm off to self-indulge!

With "was I really that stupid?" love,

Julia