Wildlife is overrated

This beautiful Sunday evening Ander decided to take me and May-May on a small hiking trail he found while geocaching the other day. It was a really nice little trail and it led to one of the biggest oak trees I've ever seen in my life.

(And we still haven't gotten our new digital camera yet, so my pics are still so crappy looking)

Good little hike, got the heart rate up for a while for both of us and May-May was enjoying herself as well.

We were walking back to the car and still had a little ways to go when all of a sudden we heard a coyote howl off in the distance. Ander stopped me and smiled saying, "Hear that? Coyotes. Cool, huh?" I nodded, a little out of breath and sweating out what felt like all of my insides. (I'm pretty sure it was about 90 degrees when we went out there) We kept walking for a little bit with May-May beside us off of her leash. I kept hearing howls behind me that sounded quite a ways away. Very suddenly we heard more howling very close behind us. Ander turned around and looked at me with very wide eyes. Neither of us said anything for a moment, and we heard more howling... even closer. "Run." Ander said, and we took off. Now, Ander has been outdoors a whole lot more than I have in my life, and when Ander began to run, I began to feel a little rise of panic. What if they come up behind us? Surround us? All of these horrible visions went through my head. What will we do? I'm so scared! I was running as fast as my little legs would carry me and Ander was up ahead running with May-May, who thought the whole thing was a game. The howling still sounded quite close, and the panic inside me had started to rise. When we got close to where our car was parked, Ander finally began to slow down to a brisk walk and turned around asking me if I was alright. I was completely winded and my face was drenched with sweat. I couldn't speak I was so out of breath. "Yes," I finally said. He smiled and laughed, "What a thrill, huh?"

"Uh, no."

More laughing.

We made it to the car and the howling was far away. My whole body was a little shaky and my legs felt like lead. "We're never doing that again," I said as we drove away. Ander just laughed.

On the way home Ander told me that coyotes were really nothing to worry about. If they would have caught up to us he would have been more worried about May-May than the two of us. He explained that he would have just beaten a couple of them up, kicking and whatnot, and they would have run away. I was still really shaken. I've never been in a situation like that. I honestly thought they were right behind us.

"Oh my gosh," Ander said later, "I completely forgot that there's a small wildlife preserve over there but it's all fenced in. Remember, we walked by the fence a bunch of times on the hike. They were probably in that fenced in area. Ha! Don't I feel stupid."

"Well, I didn't know that it was a wildlife preserve, and when I started to freak out a little I certainly didn't remember that fence."

"Ha, I'm sure they were in there. We didn't really need to worry. But I'm glad we had a little adventure today, aren't you?"

"...uh, no. Not really. I was really scared."

More laughing.

Some ranting

I know this sounds weird, but I have to rant about something for a minute...

When you come into my room to receive a facial from me, please remove your nose stud. I literally pulled a girl's nose stud out of her nose with one of my towels during her facial once. I have been terrified ever since that I'm going to rip out the piercing if you don't take it out yourself. I know, I know, it's difficult to take out sometimes, or it's uncomfortable to take out, but seriously, it's really hard to give you a good facial when I'm worried about that dumb little stud.

Now I know this little rant sounds stupid, but this happens more than you would think.

Thanks for your time. I feel better now

On a happier note, I have started reading The Secret History by Donna Tartt and I cannot read that book fast enough. My eyes can't take the words in fast enough. Most curious book I've ever read.

How d'you like them apples?

SECOND review for me! Found it at Yelp.com. I don't remember who this girl is, but apparently I did a good job!

Long time, no see

After weeks and weeks of not having a stable internet connection, I have finally found one long enough to peek into my blog world and say hello. It's sure been a while since I've been here, but here I am!

A lot of crazy things have happened in the last month. I hope this blog post doesn't take up too much space with all the Meine happenings in the last little while.

Number one: my brother Joe is not married.

I know I didn't really talk much about this whole situation but the bottom line is, Joe was very brave, and didn't feel right about the situation, so he decided to call off the wedding. Michelle is obviously upset, and it was a pretty dramatic week, but all in all Joe (and everyone else) knows that he made the right decision. It was hard, but it was most definitely the right thing to do. I was fortunate enough to be able to go out there and visit everyone the week the wedding was supposed to happen and help with the stress. We had such a good week! Joe made it through that dramatic week with flying colors, and at this point we've all got to, "just keep swimming, just keep swimming"

Number two:

The night that was supposed to be Joe's wedding night we all needed an upper, so we decided to go and see this little gem. I'm telling everyone now, this movie was one of the best movies I have ever seen in my entire life. If you haven't seen it yet, GO! And if you have, GO AGAIN! Someday I will be the proud owner of this DVD and I can't WAIT to have it in my home. Sweetest story, wonderful characters, amazing images, and be prepared... it will make you wish you had a dragon yourself. Two thumbs way up from me!

Number three: More crafting!

These cute little things are my most recent project. I turned old children's books into wall storage folders!

They were so much fun and so easy to make, I made three of them. One for Ander's school papers, one for finances, and one for coupons. I found the idea on another craft blog called gingerbreadsnowflakes. Super easy and super cheap. What a way to go!

Number four: Interwebs

Ander and I have decided to bite the bullet and pay for internet. It sucks because we don't want to fork out the money, but we are so tired of being completely disconnected from the outside world because the wireless connection we have near us is so bad. So, in the next couple of weeks Ander and I should be floating around in the deep abyss that is the internet on a regular basis.

Number five: Denise Austin is my hero

It's finally happened! Last week one of my friends told me I looked like I had lost weight and I looked really thin. Music to my ears! I have been doing Denise Austin workouts three to four times a week since January, and now I think somehow my body has begun to really change. I feel a lot stronger, and I have more stamina, my abs are beginning to show and all of my clothes are fitting better. I can't believe I've stuck with it for this long, quite honestly. But I have now gotten to the point where I enjoy my workouts because I feel so good afterwards. I'm even more toned than Ander is! And that's saying something.... he's so lucky, he's just a bean pole by default. I've definitely been working hard but I feel like it's finally starting to pay off and I'm loving it!

Number six: Broken Bells = musical intoxication

Broken Bells. Favorite. Band. Ever.

Well, that's pretty much the last couple of weeks in a little nutshell. We still love Austin, we love our ward, and hopefully this summer will be a transitional summer for both me and Ander. (somewhere in the job area) But I'll talk more about that as it happens... no point in getting ahead of myself. Now... stop reading this and go and see How to Train Your Dragon!