My Rules

If you want to marry me, here's what you'll have to do:

You must learn how to make a perfect chicken-dumpling stew.

And you must sew my holey socks,

And soothe my troubled mind,

And develop the knack for scratching my back,

And keep my shoes spotlessly shined.

And while I rest you must rake up the leaves,

And when it is hailing and snowing

You must shovel the walk...and be still when I talk,

And--hey--where are you going?

-Shel Silverstein

Edwin recited this poem by a favorite poet of my childhood for our church talent show. It was hilarious, especially because he dressed up as a "nerd". His outfit was SO good. I'm bummed we didn't get any pictures, but hopefully I can convince him to dress up again...I think he may be a nerd for Halloween. While he was reciting the poem, I came on the stage all prettied up in my black dress. When he saw me, all the rules were forgotten and he chased me off the stage :)

These past two weeks Edwin and I have babysat, participated in the talent show, looked for an apartment, and watched Colony High School's rendition of The Crucible. We've found a place we really want (not because of the looks, believe me - just look at the carpet in the pictures above) and hopefully we can get that squared away ASAP. The apartment is 2 bedroom 1 bath, and is about 12 minutes away from campus. It's only $350 a month plus utilities. Edwin and I decided that now is the best time in our life to go cheap - when we're living the "college" life and don't have a family of our own yet. It doesn't have a washer, dryer, or dishwasher...but we're excited about the small garden and mature apple, plum, and peach trees. I always love watching The Crucible, and it was Edwin's first time seeing the play. It has some great lines, and a great plot too. It was fun seeing a Colony High play, now that we're both graduated and married, since we first met while working on a Colony High play together.

On Friday, October 17 we found a cat on our porch. It was a beautiful black and white cat, but she was totally emaciated. All skin and bones. Mom and I couldn't leave her outside...we had to bring her in and feed her. We don't have a cat ourselves, so it was pure luck that we had cat food in the pantry. I guess my Dad uses it as bait when he goes shrimping. We fed her and loved on her bunches - she was a super friendly cat. Edwin was getting pretty attached (ok, I was too), and we were considering ways we could take her to Idaho with us if we couldn't find the owner. There are basically no apartments in Rexburg that allow pets - including insects, reptiles, or fish for crying out loud. We named her Binx (from the movie Hocus Pocus), until we learned her real name - Bella - when we had her scanned for a microchip. We finally got in contact with her owner today and she's back home. I guess she'd been missing for 6-8 weeks. I wish we had a picture of her to show...I guess I need to be better about that camera. The only thing we have to remember her by is fur on everyone's clothes, along with a new appreciation for nice cats.

This week we have classes, babysitting, a trip to the temple, a Halloween party, and house sitting to look forward to. Edwin and I will be professional house sitters by the end of the year. We are house sitting for 3 different families from Oct.30-Dec.22! Edwin is doing another funeral detail this week with the Marines this week as well. This Saturday I am auditioning to sing at the annual nativity display for Christmas. I hope all is well with everyone. Drop us a note sometime! Love you all,

Megan and Edwin

P.S. You should all check out these pumpkins!!! They're so creative! http://www.extremepumpkins.com/pumpkin-carving-contest-winners.html

Hakuna Matata

Hello everyone!

We've had a few requests to keep family and friends more up to date since our wedding, so we've created this blogspot. Without further ado, here are some of the things we've been up to lately. This past week Edwin has been training for MCMAP (The Marine Corp's version of martial arts) so he can be a brown belt instructor. Edwin has also been volunteering for rifle details at funerals. He looks so handsome in his Marine Corps dress blues. We're also trying to decide on an apartment for when we move down to BYU-Idaho for school. We've found a few promising places and our goal is to have an apartment finalized this week. We are taking a few classes at the local community college, and midterms are this week (wish us luck)! We're not super fond of our classes (mostly just general credits), but we're glad to be getting back in the 'swing of things'. We bought gym passes to a local gym as well, because Edwin has been complaining about his muscle depletion ever since he came home from Iraq :) The winters up here can be hard for me, so I'm hoping this will help keep me active, and keep my seratonin levels up. We just got our PFD's (Permanent Fund Dividends), which we will be putting to good use. For those of you who don't know, the PFD is basically money Alaskan residents receive, just for living in Alaska (jealous?). Actually, most of our PFD money will be going towards paying off school loans, yippee!

We have been having a WONDERFUL autumn - one of the best we've seen up here in a long while. It's still sunny out, with the temperatures near 50 degrees yesterday and today. All the leaves are finally out of the trees though, so snow is probably on its way. I am so excited about Halloween. I just love this time of year! I'm showing Edwin all the joys of some of my favorite Halloween movies. Here is (part of) the list of movies we have already watched or will be watching this month: The Blob, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Hocus Pocus, Watcher in the Woods, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Labrynth, The Worst Witch, The Witches, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, some of the x-files series, Monsters Vs. Aliens, Signs, War of the Worlds, etc. (Ok, so I know some of those are sci-fi, but those are the ones that scare Edwin the most!) Anyway, now you have some ideas if you're looking for good old fashioned Halloween movies! We don't really know what we'll be for Halloween yet, but I do know where we'll be. We'll be house sitting for two families Oct 31-December 4. I hope it doesn't make things too hectic, but I think it may be kind of nice to be "out on our own".

Edwin and I had the opportunity last week to see Lion King: the musical when the broadway tour was up here. WOW! If any of you have the chance to see it, definitely try to. The songs were so powerful, the message applicable, the costumes so creative, and it was just so neat to see a family favorite on stage. They were very talented displaying the traits of the animals; many of the voices even sounded the same as the movie! We got all dressed up for the musical, and we ate at Orso's after (a slightly more ritzy place in Anchorage). Edwin ordered an amazing lamb roast and, although I'm not a huge meat eater myself, it was mighty good!

For those of you who don't know, Edwin and I were called to teach a Sunday School class at our church. We teach the 15-16 year olds, which is interesting because the class is just a few years younger than myself, and consists of my brother and all of his friends! We love it though, and I think the kids like it too, because we're able to relate to them in ways "older" people may not be able to. When we go to BYU we're planning to take a class to become seminary teachers. Edwin thinks that he really wants to be a teacher now, instead of a pilot. He has been taking a ground school course here at the college and he keeps leaning more towards teaching. I would love it if we worked at the same school together one day - him as a teacher and myself as the school nurse. Edwin and I are also now volunteering a night or two a week to babysit for couples in our church who need a date night or want to go to the temple. I'm hoping this will satiate some of Edwin's (and my) baby-hungry-ness, for now, anyway.

This coming week we're going to the A Capella Festivella, a yearly A Capella concert at UAA campus. My sister Aimee took me to one before, it was awesome! It takes a lot of talent to use for voice for singing and making the sounds of instruments as well. Also, an early shout out to Carleen and Ruth - birthdays on the 14th and 16th - no, we haven't forgotten! I hope your card gets to you on time, Ruth! Our church is also having a talent show this Saturday night. Edwin and I are going to try to recite a poem or something for it. I'm thinking something silly, like one of Shel Silverstein's.

Anyway, sorry this is so long. It's been a long time since we've sent out an update email. We love you all and hope you're having a great October so far!

-The Arctic Andersons