Our chinchilla has three names.

Last week I brought home a chinchilla my brother got from a friend of his and promptly neglected (God bless my parents who keep allowing us to bring homeless animals into their house even though they know what the outcome will probably be). I'm a huge animal lover, and feel the need to always have a small animal in the house. Deuteronomy, our rabbit, sadly had to find a new home in Germany, so the chinchilla was an ok second choice. Originally, his name was Wiley. But upon bringing him home, Anna decided she liked Roger better. Then Elizabeth came to visit and kept calling him Chinky (the fact that name is so close to a racial slur didn't seem to bother anyone but me). I've taken to calling him Chinchilla with Three Names. Maybe I should shorten it to CTN.

Last night, a friend of mine, Morgan, and I carved pumpkins. Maybe it's because when you're little your parents do all the work, but carving pumpkins is a LOT harder than I remember it being. Dan and I carved one in Alabama when we were engaged and I was visiting, but he didn't make me do much , I guess. Anyway, Morgan came up with the brilliant idea to use carrots for their noses.. a sort of snowman meets jack-o-lantern. For some reason, I didn't think about the fact that carrots need moisture to stay straight.. so my pumpkins nose is drooping rather sadly at this point. I guess it's a good thing Halloween is tomorrow. I'm taking Nandi and Madeleine to the Harvest Festival at RBBC. They will be dressed up as a pumpkin and a dinosaur. I'll post pictures when I get them. :)

I spent the evening at the Blank's house (as in Dan's parents house) and had dinner and watched NCIS and the Unit. The Unit was a little hard to watch.. it actually was set in Iraq this episode, and their was lots of shooting and explosions. I had to keep reminding myself that Dan was safe and in the middle of nowhere. My stomach kept getting queasy though.

I've been having a lot of trouble sleeping lately. I think it has something to do with not totally feeling at home here, which is weird because before I got married, I had been living in San Diego for like nine or ten years. I know it's because Dan isn't here, and all of my stuff in my bedroom is new. It's weird sleeping in a bed that Dan has never seen with sheets Dan didn't help me pick out. I'm hoping once everything is put away and in order maybe I'll feel better. One of these days I'll finally get my old bookshelf out of my parent's storage unit. I've had it forever, which should help.

Dan is still doing well. He got the Wii I sent him in the mail today and was pretty stoked about that. He's been asking for one since last Christmas, but they get snatched up pretty quickly. I had to have a showdown on Ebay to get him one. He was watching Transformers when I spoke with him earlier. His opinion on the movie? "I was disappointed it was a commercial for GM." I didn't notice when I saw the movie, but maybe I missed something.

Shoot Your TV; Read Comics

Being the oldest sibling sucks sometimes. Or maybe it's being the oldest female sibling that's the problem.. regardless, I find myself worrying about my younger siblings when I really shouldn't. They're all technically adults, and can pretty much fend for themselves. But that's not helping me sleep any better.

Can I just say my weekend rocked? Saturday evening I drove up to Deidre and Jarod's in Whittier. Man, I miss Deidre being around all the time. I feel like we've only started to really openly share with each other in the last couple of years, and it makes me sad that she lives further north now. Her husband, Jarod, is quite possibly one of the most rad men on the planet (watch out for the hookers!). It was such a blessing to get to spend time with them. Today, first thing in the morning, I drove further north to Granada Hills to hang out with Dan's friend Jeff. His church is awesome.. I wish I lived further north.. I'd go every Sunday. We had a fun lunch at the Grove and I was finally able to spend some time getting to know him. He and Dan go WAY back.. like from junior high school (and they're in their early 30's so that was a long time ago.. ha ha). Jeff is now one of my most favorite people in the world.

I just finished the book "House" by Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker. It scared me pretty bad. I'm such a chicken. Spiritual warfare freaks me out.. even if the book is fiction.

Driving on the freeway is terrifying. Especially the 5. Especially when the little red car four cars ahead of you spins out of control and ends up facing the wrong direction and you have to swerve into another lane without looking. Bah.

My title for today's blog comes straight from the comic book company Lost in the Dark Press.. which just happens to be run by not only Jeff, but another one of Dan's friends, Steve. The company is in my top friends on Myspace. You should check them out. Their work is brilliant. No, seriously, go NOW.

It begins.

Why does it seem like the font is HUGE while I type this? I've been blogging for 5 seconds on something that is not Myspace and I'm already confused.

I figured this blog thing was a good idea.. it makes sense to have one spot people can go to for updates. Not that my life is that exciting. :)

I hate it when all you want is to go to sleep because you know you have a big day ahead of you and your body refuses to shut down. I'm going up to LA tomorrow to visit Deidre, and then going further north to visit Dan's friend, Jeff. I mean, he's my friend too, but he was Dan's friend first. You understand.

Dan is doing well in Iraq. He's pretty bored at this point.. you know there's not a whole lot going on when the highlight of his day was winning a game of Risk. Actually, he really likes that game, so maybe it would have been the highlight regardless. At any rate, it's very frustrating to be away from him knowing he's only had a handful of missions so far and it's been almost three months. BUT, at least the three months have gone by fairly quickly.

I'm still trying to finish putting everything away from unpacking. I hate unpacking. It's time consuming and I don't really enjoy figuring out where to put things so they look good. Apparently I'm not much of a nester. I like the end results, but I hate the process.