A Peek at the Poulsens

Okay, this isn't Michael (yeah, we're on a first-name basis, no big deal), but it is my fabulous husband who supports me in practicing. He brings a book and reads as I bang out Beethoven and Scriabin. He's such a winner : ) (And, incidentally, ten times more ripped than Michael Phelps.) And this is just a funny picture - for some reason the placement of this peel cracked both of us up. Okay, now to the big guns: U.S. Olympic Swim Trials 2012! My sister won tickets from her swim team so we split them up (thanks Shoogs!). My mom and I went to the Tuesday morning session at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha and it was the BOMB! Naturally, we got treats for pre-, during, and post-trials, but Miss Five-Minutes-of-Power standing at the front doors wouldn't let us bring them in. (As if I'm going to be carrying a bomb in a Panera bag...sigh.) I was ready to let it go but then they wouldn't let me bring in my water bottle full of ice cubes and delicious freezing ...

"I know not who you are, nor how I came to find you; but may I just say..." "Hiiii." Haha, I can't get enough. When Austin is at work and I am fiddling around at home (because that is what I do all day every day, and I'm running out of projects - you know it's bad when I'm reorganizing the snat bowl "no, Reese's need to be equally spread out over the top of the Jolly Ranchers and the 100 Grands should be hidden a little, we don't want to eat those too fast...wait a minute, why do we have SweetTarts?") I like to have background noise, so I trade off movies. Tangled is my current favorite for this task, and it is seriously in our DVD player at least once a week. Don't hate. We do watch movies other than Tangled (and Matilda, Pride and Prejudice, and Heavyweights, all of which can brag about prime-time viewing privileges in the Poulsen household), however. In fact, excluding ESPN, both of us much prefer movies to TV. And I ...

All of my life, I have thought of myself as a skinny person. Every once in a while I get a little chubby around the edges, but it's never anything serious. I'm a pretty active person, and I can lose weight fairly easily. Unfortunately (and fortunately, I guess), Jessie is the greatest cook that this world has ever known, and I have had a really hard time saying no to second, third, and even fourth helpings. Needless to say, I put on quite a few extra pounds in the first few months that we were married. Then one day, my self-image was drastically altered: I was fat . Like I said, I have always thought of myself as a skinny person, so to realize that I wasn't anymore came as a rather unpleasant little (or, rather, big) surprise. This was me. After a few days of moping around in my obesity, I finally realized that I could do something about it, so that night I went for a run. I went to the lake that is right behind our apartment, and I did the whole 2.3 mile revolutio...

What is more satisfying than finishing a delicious, witty, interesting, 5-star book? Nothing, in my mind. Austin and I adore reading and spend a good amount of our time discussing, browsing for, and sticking our noses in the latest read. You've already seen my husband's Star Wars collection, but today I organized (or, rather, attempted to find places for) the rest of the books in our apartment. I have two large boxes bursting with more books waiting at my parent's house - I miss those friends but they have nowhere to go! A bookshelf lamp...cool, right? (These pictures aren't doing it justice - I promise that the effect is more overwhelming in person.)  All my juicy piano books!   Our small (but growing!) children's section My dad has a dream that every member of the family will own a Kindle, so he bought Austin and I our own this past year - thanks Dad! Admittedly, I haven't fully conquered the I-prefer-actual-books-i...

I forgot to mention a couple of things in my Les Mis/boredom/awkward pictures stupor, so forgive this extra post (or don't read it if you want to be that way!). One of the reasons I love being at my parent's house is the time I get to spend with my siblings. They are all the best , the best the best. Jack (21), Max (19), Sam (17), and Annie (13) make me laugh, sometimes make me cry, and always make me proud. Yesterday Annie and I went to Target to look at baby things, nail polish, and office supplies, and then she played Call of Duty (no joke) and I read my book next to her. I can't believe she'll be an 8th-grader this fall! Last night we had Domino's pizza for dinner (woooo Mom left the credit card, the only time we ever get the extras like parmesan bread bites and cinnamon stix!) I made a comment that I felt bad for the 50-year-old delivery boy (man?) and Jack said, "At least he has a job," which prompted Sam to segue (<-- the spelling for the...

I sat down half an hour ago to start writing but I have since been distracted...I wanted some music so I browsed through iTunes on the family computer. The Les Mis soundtrack caught my eye, and after ten seconds into "Look Down" I realized how much I  LOVE  this musical. I listened for a while without doing anything else, completely enraptured - it is the BEST! Anyway, I was reminded of when I was Villager No. 1/Bandage Wrapper in our high school production, so I went looking for pictures. Me in 9th Grade. Winner. In finding that picture, I ran into my high school collection of self-portraits. Seriously, 58% of the photo library on this computer consisted of close-ups of moi. I was very glad that no one was here to witness the purging because it was embarrassing. There were entire albums of me trying on new outfits, curling my hair, picture upon picture of awkward braces shots that then morphed into retainer pics, different shots of me pretending to sleep, and on ...

I work for a company called Region V services. Region V is a company that helps mentally challenged people be active and play a role in the community. It is the greatest job in the world. I get paid to do things like go swimming, go bowling, go to movies, go to Salt Dogs games, and much, much more. And the people I work with are seriously so hilarious. I’m not allowed to use their names on the internet, so I will refer to them as Q, T, and D. Q is an older, diabetic African-American gentleman who needs help remembering to take his pills and check his “suga blood” in the morning. When I first started working with him, he would feed me full of lies and tell me anything that would get me out of his house. I would show up, knock on the door, and wait. I could always see him through the front room window, but he would ignore my knocks and go into his bedroom to hide. One time I knocked for a full twenty minutes before he finally gave in and opened the door. Unfortunately, getting him to ...

I guess the combination of thunderstorms, Jack Johnson, and jammies has got me contemplative. I'm sitting here in my bed propped up by two pillows after organizing all the baby things we have so far listening to the rain, and I'm feeling cozy and grateful and content. Everyone always talks about how "hard it is at first" and how much "you have to adjust" to being married. Well I hate to be contrary, but Austin and I have had an amazing ten months together. We have been blessed in every imaginable way - spiritually, financially, academically, career-wise, health-wise, family-wise... everything, and I am just so grateful. (This is not in a spirit of pride or bragging - I am just filled with gratitude and needed to share.) My husband is incredible. He remembers everything I say and thoughtfully uses the information later to surprise me. He runs down three flights of stairs when I get home late and it's raining so he can open the door for me. He is never i...

We don't need to get in to the whole brownies-in-the-closet catastrophe, but I wanted to prove that I can bake! New families have been moving into our ward for the past few weeks and we are sooo excited to have them - Austin and I really want to be more social but our pool is not very vast in Lincoln as far as the friends go (especially during the summer) so we are stoked to have some potential pals.  One of the families is expecting their first little girl a month before we are so we want to get to know them more ( and because they seem cool, not just because we are both in baby mode).  We decided to make Tiffanie Cake for them, a delicious treat that our friend made for an activity a while ago.  It turned out beautifully, if I do say so myself. Pink for baby girls! Naturally, we had to taste-test it before we could bring over a hunk to the new crowd, so we had Austin's sister Makall over and tried it together.  Soooo yummy.  (Cool Whip on th...

They really aren't kidding when they tell you pregnancy hormones will get crazy - Austin's post was (unfortunately) right on: randomly I will just feel totally distraught and start whining and often weeping and not know what I want and become an absolute mess in seconds' time. It's true that the only thing that somewhat calms me down is stroking my husband's hair - normally I've flopped in bed by this point with Austin next to me trying to be soothing.  I just reach over and literally pet the top of his head until I fall asleep. Embarrassing. But the other day I had a real meltdown, as in I wasn't falling apart for no reason (like usual). I looked in the mirror and it was the last straw - I felt humongous and unattractive and like I was never going to get my body back. It sounds like a vain and prideful meltdown but honestly I'm not worried about how others see me, especially Austin (because he always reminds me how beautiful he thinks I am and ...

(That used to be one of Austin's favorite songs to belt in the car. Classic.) We've been trying this whole young-couple-poverty thing lately, which I'm really bad at.  Basically, I see money in our accounts and want to spend it, but Austin sees children and school and emergencies in the future and wants to save it (the monies).  He's right. So, to show him how dedicated I am to the cause, I decided to find us a free Friday night date. I didn't want to do anything lame or common, and luckily I saw a post on Facebook that was just the ticket.  125th Year Celebration - Palmyra, NE  This town of 600 was doing fireworks and I knew we had to get in on it.  We drove out there through the quaint Nebraska countryside (Austin tried to convince me we should live in the country...I told him I was game if it was within a 10 mile radius of Target) and made it to Palmyra right as it got dark outside. We didn't really know where we were going but we saw cars and ...