We just found out that the air conditioning for our new apartment that we’re moving into tomorrow morning isn’t installed yet, and won’t be for an unspecified amount of time. How lovely. Washington D.C. in the dead of summer without a.c. Should be an adventure!

If you don't want to listen to me whine, don't read this post

I feel like complaining. As I write this, it is the first little break I've had since I woke up at 6:00 this morning. I hate my life right now. I work 50 hour weeks, commute 2 hours a day, go to night school twice a week for 3 hours , and have been living out of boxes for the past few weeks because we're moving on Saturday. I am behind on all of my homework, our apartment is a disaster, I haven't exercised in weeks, and I've been totally neglecting Adam. I feel like I don't have enough hours in the day.

The days I have school, I leave the house at 6:30 a.m. and get home at 9:30 p.m. By the time I get home, it's time to go to bed! Call me a wuss, but I don't enjoy days like this. I feel like I might as well live on the metro because I'm on it so much as it is. I'm really growing to hate that dang metro, especially because it's been breaking down almost daily recently and is taking me twice as long to get home at the end of the day. And I hate it because there aren't enough seats and I have to stand the whole way. Men are pigs and never give up their seats to the women in heels! How rude.

All I want is to have some free time to myself to read a book, lie by the pool, and get a little bit of a tan on my ghostly white skin. Any respectable girl should not be this white in the dead of summer! It may seem silly, but it's really bugging me that I haven't had any time this summer to get a tan. It rained every day on our Miami vacation and has rained every Saturday that I've had free to go to the pool. Tanning beds here are $16/session, and the tan-in-a-can runs, splotches, looks orange, and smells nasty.

Hopefully things will be better when school is out in 3 weeks and we're settled into our new apartment. I don't want sympathy, I guess I just wanted to vent. By the way, I don't want to come across as a princess because I'm sure a lot of you have it a lot harder than I do. By no means do I want to downplay anyone else's lives/schedules. All I'm saying is that for me, this is one of the busiest times I've ever had. Big deal.

Congrats, Addybear!

Adam just found out today that he got on one of GW's law reviews! He had to write a big paper over Spring Break for the competition, and the editor called him today to tell him he was selected. He wanted this really badly, and I'm so happy for him. He works so hard and deserves it more than anyone I know (I'm biased, I know, but I really believe it). He will be embarrassed when he finds out I'm publicly bragging about him, but he'll just have to deal with it.

May the next two years be filled with endless Bluebooking! I'm so proud of you!

Seriously, so blessed!!!

Do you guys ever feel like blogging is a competition to prove that you are the most happily married, spontaneous, trendy, righteous girl alive? I know I get caught up in all of that sometimes, but let's be honest: life's not really only about where you went out to dinner over the weekend, who you hung out with, and what you bought while shopping.

Honestly, sometimes I get depressed reading other people's blogs because I constantly compare myself. I'm sure I'm not the only one. I think "she's way prettier than me" or "I wish I had her social life" or "she looks like she has the most perfect marriage" or "she has two perfect kids. I don't even have one!"

But when you really think about it, it's all a show. People only write about the good, the things they're proud of, the excitement. I guess that's the fun thing about having a personal blog. You can portray yourself in whatever light you want. It's easy to paint a pretty picture even if it's not really that pretty. You never hear about the fights, the heartache, the pain, and the struggle that people are REALLY going through behind closed doors.

I really didn't mean for this post to turn out like this. I actually just wanted to share this blog. It is the funniest parody of the perfect Mormon Utah girl that we all secretly compare ourselves to. I laughed my head off because I could relate to almost every single word written. It's perfect- from the spelling errors to the excessive exclamation points to the constant reassurances that her life is seriously, so blessed. Happy reading! You won't regret it!

Metro Woes

Lately it has seemed like we've been blowing through money on our metro cards like crazy (for those of you who don’t know, the metro is the train/subway in D.C.). Because it seems like we put money on and it is gone within a few days, I decided to add it up and figure out exactly how much Adam and I are actually spending on rides to school and work. What a mistake that was! I was totally blown away when I realized what we spend just to get to the places we have to every day. Adam spends and average of $8.67 a day and I spend an average of $7.02 a day, or $78.10 a week combined, or $312.40 a month!!!

The metro doesn't offer any kind of discount to commuters or students. In fact, they do the opposite by charging almost double between the hours of 5:00 - 9:30 a.m. and 3:00 - 7:00 p.m. Anyone that works any sort of normal business hours gets slammed with the high fare prices. Sure, the metro is convenient, and sure, it's pretty reliable, but I think it's totally ridiculous that it should cost one little couple over $300.00 a month just to commute into D.C. Luckily, we don't even have to park at the metro stations or ride buses to the stations. We can just walk right to the station right from our apartment across the street. If we did, it would cost us an extra $4.50 per day for parking plus the cost of gas to drive to the lot.

I am so angry! The worst part about everything is that we have no other option but ride the metro. We live too far to walk or ride our bikes, and parking in D.C. would be even more expensive, not to mention an enormous headache. The bright side is that it will be a little cheaper when we move later this month, but I’m still angry nonetheless! Don’t ever move to Washington D.C. because it’s really, really, really expensive to live here and you’ll go broke!

4th in the Nation's Capitol

It was so much fun to be in D.C. for the holiday! We arrived at the Capitol more than 7 hours early in order to claim a good spot on the grass. It would have been nice if it hadn't rained for 5 of those 7 hours and if we had brought more than one umbrella along, but it was fun nonetheless.


The stage where Jerry Lee Lewis, Huey Lewis & the News, Taylor Hicks, and others played.


Adam trying to stay dry.

There were a ton of people!

Janie's Bread Sticks

Jane, my mother-in-law, uses the same dough for dinner rolls, bread sticks, and cinnamon rolls, but her bread sticks are my all-time favorite. They are AMAZING! They are soft, fluffy, and huge with the perfect amount of butter and salt. They are so delicious!

The first time I tried to make them was a few months after I got married, and let's just say the whole event ended in tears. I tried to make them for Sunday dinner to take to the Alba's, and was so humiliated that they didn't turn out. They were an utter disaster. They were so hard and dense, they could have been used as weapons. Adam suggested that instead of crying about it, we play a little joke on his family at dinner.

When we got to the Alba house, we let his mom and Michelle in on our little secret, but didn't say a word to the rest of the family. We gently arranged them in a basket with a beautiful cloth and laid them on the table with the rest of the meal. Jane made sure to say in a loud voice a few times "Thanks for making these bread sticks, Andi! They look great!" so everyone knew I was the one to bring them. After the prayer, they were passed around the table and put onto plates. Adam, Jane, Michelle, and I all put on our best poker faces and watched everyone take a bite one-by-one. It was pretty silent at the table with everyone trying to choke them down and be polite. Hiram, however, somehow missed the memo and asked in a loud voice, "What is this supposed to be?!?" after his first bite. Michelle quietly leaned over to him and informed him that I had made them. You could see his face fall and his expression change. You could tell he felt like such a jerk. It was then that we couldn't hold it in anymore and all burst out laughing. We told everyone what the plan had been, and everyone had a good laugh. Poor Hiram was so relieved that he hadn't really hurt my feelings.

When I went to Utah for my brother-in-law Andrew's wedding last month, Jane oh-so-kindly tried to give me a little lesson so that I could have success the second time around. When I got home, I gave them another go, and they were a success! The dough rose like it was supposed to and they baked to perfection. I was pretty proud of myself and am glad that I can now make Adam one of his mom's specialties even though she is over 2,000 miles away. He can have a little taste of home right here in Washington D.C.! :)

You must see this movie!

If you haven't seen it yet, make sure you go to Wall-E. It is the funniest, most adorable film we've seen in years. It's our very favorite Disney/Pixar so far. The love story will just melt your heart. Get a date and go this weekend!