To Remember

I'm making this book of rememberance/photo book for my grandma and my daddy this Christmas. I got the idea almost a year ago when I went up to see my grandma in SLC. Out of her whole life she only has one bread box of photos of her and her family. It seems so odd to me because I've had so many photos taken of me I could probably have filled that box during the first year of my life! Anyway, we spent an entire afternoon looking at the photos and hearing stories of my family. "This is when your grandpa was in Wyoming and we didn't have enough money for him to buy me a card so he made one." Is one of my favorites because the card is funny. Another one is the quote, "I'm pregnant and I didn't even want to do it!" Anyway, I wanted to compile some of the best stories with some of the best photos and make a little book out of them to give to my dad, grandma, and really all of her children. I told myself I will do it for Christmas. The only thing is that in my head it is beautiful and perfect and will make my daddy cry. In real life I've just been frustrated about how to start the whole thing. Some of the photos are REALLY old and crackly. I don't own a scanner and I have little to no skills in this area. I was going to rely on my mom to help me, but now she can't because she's not home from her business trip and they're probably leaving tomorrow and I'm just worried that it will come out crap when I try it on my own. I hope not. I hope it is great. Well here goes, me trying it on my own.

Bring on The Heat

Well, most people reading this probably think I want it to be summer, but that's not what this post is about at all. Today I'm posting about my friend, Heather aka. the Heat.

Heather Schaffer (who will always be Heather Higgins in my mind because that's how I met her and plus Heather Higgins rolls right off the tongue.) Is one of the best people I know. Here's a brief explination.

I met Heather three and a half years ago when we were both moving into the dorms. Her whole family was there and it struck me that they were all short. Her dad, not knowing how inept I am at technology, asked me something about her computer in the dorms.

Later Heather and I had become really good friends and we were in the cafeteria area when she ripped a hole in the knee of her jeans by trying to do a double heel click and didn't quite make it.

Heather is one of the funniest people I know! She always says sort of weird things that you can't tell what she means. I can though so there's really no problem.

Heather is a happy person and has smily eyes. Just to see her smile would make even the grinch crack. She is fun and she can make you have a good time even if it is just while driving to the SLC.

Most importantly I think Heather is a really good person. She has high standards for herself and for her friends that you can just natrually live up to.

She's pretty awesome. I like her pretty OK.

Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing

I learned how to type as a small child with a computer program called Mavis Beacon. It was pretty much the most boring thing ever except for the two games it had on it. The first was to teach you the ten key pad and you were at the grocery store and you had to type in the price of the item scanned before the next one came or it didn't get to go in the bag. The second one was a race car one. You tried to type the words along the top of the screen and the faster you typed the faster you went as you raced. If you made a mistake a bug smashed on your windsheild and if you messed up too much eventually you wouldn't be able to see. It was pretty awesome.

The new typing in the letters you see to make a comment on someone's post reminds me much of Mavis Beacon because if I'm going too fast and I don't read all the letters I don't get to have my comment posted. Then I have to try again. I don't know if I like that.

Beautiful 2

Well, thank you all very much for the uplifting comments. The point of that last post was not to see if I was beautiful or not, it was that I think its weird when complete strangers take it apon themselves to comment to me about it. I would find it just as unnerving to have a complete stranger come up and tell me I look ugly. All the same I would like to thank you.

Today I was reading and I found a good definition of beauty, "the loveliest women... [have] a glow of health, a warm personality, a love of learning, stability of character, and integrity...[and the] gentle spirit of the Lord." Jeffery R Holland

I hope that I can always be that sort of beautiful.

Who says that?

Yesterday I was at church. After sacrament meeting I was sitting next to my husband when this woman who was visiting the ward walks up to me and says, "You are the most beautiful woman I have ever met." Then she turns to Dan and says, "That means you're the luckiest man." I was so surprised by this, all I could say was, "Thank you." I told my husband after church that the whole thing was weird and he reminded me of another recent incident where a different lady (I think she was a raving lunatic) said almost the same thing. At the time I just told him that the first lady was for sure crazy so you couldn't take her word for it. (There's more to that story, but rest assured, she was CRAZY.)

Now that I have had some time to think about it a few questions have popped into my head.

1. Who says that? Who walks up to a complete stranger and just says that? Kinda weird.
2. Who would actually believe what some stranger says? Doesn't that seem sort of conceited? "Why yes, I am the most beautiful woman I know too!" Weird.
3. What is the appropriate answer? My mom would say to accept the complement gracoiusly and move on. It was awkward. I wasn't gracious. I had nothing witty to say. I was just shocked.

Plus, I don't think I'm all that beautiful. I would say I'm on the good end of average. The only unaverage thing about me is my hair, which happens to be red, and I have only gotten the hang of managing it in the last 3 years. All growing up it was either cut way short or in a pony tail or really, really frizzy/big. Even now most days it's tied back into a knot, a practice which I'm sure I will miss when I decide it's time to not do that anymore. I rarely even think about how I will look when dressing in the morning (because I'm usually just focused on keeping myself warm during the day). Anyway, I'm sure this brought up all sorts of issues that could be interesting for discussion, but I'm not quite sure what they are. I just wanted to give everyone a head's up on the issue of crazy women running around.

I've Gone Silly

I just went to my last class of the quarter! YEAH! I'm so excited I've gone silly. Now all I have to do is finish two assignments and take three finals and then I'm done! I don't know if I can concentrate long enough to do that. What's really funny is that I keep coming onto my own blog hoping for something new, even though I know I haven't written anything on it. I wish everyone a happy holiday! Happy December 2nd!

Gnarly

So my husband is an avid rock climber and he works at a rock gym. He is teaching me to climb. I'm not very good (5.8 is the hardest climb I've done successfully), but it is pretty fun so I tag along about once a week. Yesterday he had me try something new. I bouldered. I was pretty nervous about this at first because I'm not very good compared to all his buddies in the gym and they were all in the bouldering area when we walked in trying this super hard move. As the gross feeling in my stomach started to become apparent he told me it was my turn. I tried it and failed. I felt pretty dumb. Then I wateched them all do things and fail. Then I got more confidence. I never made it to the top, but I did get past one pretty challenging section. Next time I'm going to dominate. I think bouldering is probably my favorite type of climbing! It is challenging, but totally ok if you can't get up to the top because everybody is testing their limits on this. Plus, it's social! Since the climbs aren't that high a group of people just stand around chatting and watching the super-human dynamic moves of the other climbers. (I can't do dynamic moves.) Well, one of the times I was trying a route I fell and as I was going down I smashed my knee on a hold. Where it hit swelled up. I was so excited because that would mean I was going to get a bruise that would most likely be pretty gnarly. That way I could show it to my sister and it would be worse than hers. She bruises like a peach and thus always has tons of them on her knees even when she didn't really do anything to get them. This morning I woke up and checked out my knee. To my dismay the bruise is only about the size of a quarter. Although it is darker than usual it is nothing special, except for the fact that the fabric from my pants rubbing across it hurts like mad.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

So I decided last Sunday (that means a week before yesterday) that I wanted to be more social and get to know some of the people in my ward. I also decided that I wanted to use the turkey roasting pan I got for our wedding (It's pretty much the coolest pan I own). That is why I decided to have a pre-thanksgiving thanksgiving dinner. It was just going to be a small gathering of 8, but then when you start to invite people you just can't stop. I did finally regain my self control when the small group of 8 turned into a small group of 15. I bet you all are wondering how I managed to fit in 15 people into my 1 bedroom apartment with no real kitchen. Well, I'm pretty talented. Plus, Phill has a truck and we borrowed tables and chairs from the institute building. Don't worry, they're being returned today. The turkey was fabulous! I was a little worried because, although I've seen a turkey being cooked about a billion times and I know it's not hard, I've never done it on my own. Not only that my mom was going to be in church for the three hours preceeding the big event so I couldn't call her if I needed to. I decided to get the next best thing by making sure my sister would be available in case of any emergency. I called her and asked if she would be free. Unfortunatly she was sick, which fortunatly meant she would be free--or rather laying on the sofa trying not to move anything and still breathe.
Phill delivers the table and chairs at 5:30 PM. I decided they looked really dirty and I didn't have a table cloth so I set out to giving them a deep scrub. Worked like a charm. I don't know that those tables have ever been so clean. The turkey came out of the oven at 6:30 PM and it was fabulous! So juicy so perfect looking! YEAH! I decide to make the carrots and grapes with brown sugar glaze to complement the turkey (it was potluck so everyone else brought the usual Thanksgiving side dishes). I forgot how much butter and brown sugar to use so I decided it would be a good idea just to call my sister and check. I dial her number and it rings and rings and rings. Her voicemail. No big deal I'll just do what looks right. So I did and it worked out ok. Ta Da! No help needed!
Everyone came and ate and laughed and played and had loads of fun! Now I just can't wait for the real thing!

A Break

So I thought I'd take a break from intellectual posts, which were rather entertaining for me. I could get addicted, but I wont because they take up too much of my time. I don't mean my free time, I mean the time I spend sitting in class thinking about how I will say what I want to say instead of listening to how to develop a HACCP plan for the 100th time. Anyway, here are the updates to my life.

Mittens
Anyone who has actually spent time with me during the months of October to March knows that I wear mittens. I try not to ever take them off. I have been given different mittens through the years, but none of them have stood the test of time like the pair I got in high school. They are blue with snowflakes on them and I love them. I am also a little crazy about how I wear my mittens. Yes, I admit it I have to wear them a certain way. Indoors there's no special way to wear them so long as they are on my hands. Outdoors, however, I can't wear them unless they are tucked into my coat sleeve. That way there can be no cold air leaking through the gap onto my skin. Consequently I sometimes have to take my coat off and put my mittens a couple times before I'm ready to go outside. My husband finds this ridiculous, but I say, why wear mittens if you're just going to let your writsts get cold anyway.

Fog
I'm so tired of fog in Oregon. A person might think to themselves, as I thought to myself, "It's Oregon, it doesn't snow here! It must not be cold." Technically this is true. It was only 37 on my way to school this morning. In all actuallity though, you would be wrong! The truth about the situation here is that this stupid fog that has been here every morning and doesn't go away sometimes all day makes the 37 degree weather seem ice cold. I wear my new coat with the hood up and sinched about my face so that the only skin showing on my body is my eyes, nose, and sometimes mouth. Grrr! I'm tired of fog. I kind of wish it were like those really cold clear days in Utah where it's freezing, but at least you could see all the beautiful snow! I guess the grass is always greener on the other side.

Food and Health

Yesterday's post was more or less about the economics of food production so I figured today might be good to look at the health impact of industrialized food production. This topic is much harder for me to approach just because there are (a) so many different aspects to health and (b) so many misconceptions. I'll try my best. If it doesn't make sense tell me. If you disagree with me, that's fine, I'd like to hear your opinion. My one request is that you be respectful. I have noticed that people tend to become belligerent when their health and convictions are questioned on this matter. I'm not attacking you, I'm just stating what I think.

The first thing that a person needs to know about being healthy is that it requires monitoring and thought about what you eat. You can't just go to the store and walk down a row grab everything you see and say, "What's wrong with food producers these days? They're giving me so many unhealthy choices!" Realize that eating fruits, veggies and whole grains are going to be the best for you. Period. There is no debate on that issue. It is always better to eat things that as you eat them, they look just like they did when they were growing. Eating a banana is much better than eating banana creme pie. Eating a potato is much better than eating potato chips.

Given the above fact, it is not the food producer's job to only give you healthy choices to eat. That would mean they would lose out on a whole lot of revenue for people who value taste, and quality more than health. It is common to hear about the "Supersize Me" documentary where a man ate nothing but supersized meals from McDonald's and then had all sorts of horrible health reprocussions. What you don't hear that often is in a reaction to that documentary another study was done where a man ate at McDonald's for a month and actually lost weight and got healthier. He just chose the healthy choices at McDonald's over the supersized meals. It is YOUR choice to eat healthy. Nobody is pushing you to eat what you do, but you. (With the exception of small children of course.)

Another concern that is emerging and growing in popularity is the "organic" food. First of all I think this term is a complete misnomer because as it was originally used in science, organic meant of, relating to, or derived from living organisms, or in chemistry it just means that the compound is based on a carbon structure. Guess what? We live in an orgain world. EVERYTHING we eat is based on a carbon structure. Just about everything we eat is from an animal or plant origin.

The newer definition and the one accepted by the consumer of organic foods is a substance, especially a fertilizer or pesticide, of animal or vegetable origin. This means that an organic food is one in which all the pesticides and fertilizers are not synthesized, but derrived from animals or vegetables. As I understand it this means that consumers of organic foods reject any food that has been in contact with antibiotics, or pesticides. Take chicken for example. They can be given antibiotics while they are growing to prevent Salmonella contamination of the lining of their colon. This gives rise to the question of antibiotics in the foods we eat. WHICH IS A VERY GOOD QUESTION. The answer can be found when you do a little research about the regulations of chicken antibiotics in the United States. They must have a period of withdrawl before slaughter to ensure the antibiotics are out of their system and we don't eat them. Yes, statistically speaking you could get a chicken that has antibiotics in it, but the probability of that is minute. There is lots of testing of chicken carcasses before they go to market for quality and safety to the consumer.

Here's another example. How about organic vegetables. The consumer of the organic vegetable says it is healthier for them because they will not be consuming any pesticides. Well, the days of DDT are over. I admit that there are rather unhealthy pesticides that have been invented, but in order for a pesticide to be used on a crop there must be a "reasonable certainty of no harm" to the consumer in any and all of the various exposure routes to the cosumer (ingestion, inhalation, skin contact.) Many pesticides have come out in the past decade that are much better for the human and the environment. Many degrade naturally into innocuous metabolites. Yes, there is a risk of exposure to pesticides, but the body's response of an unhealthy person depends on other things:

1. What is the hazard?
2. What is the exposure to that hazard?
3. How much of that exposure actually makes it into the body as a dose?
4. The higher the dose the higher the response.

There may be a hazard there, but there have been regulations and guidelines that the US government have set out on how much and what types of uses pesticides can have to reduce the exposure to that hazard low enough that the actual dose into your body is miniscule. In fact your exposure to that hazard has to be low enough to have a 100 fold margin of saftey to the lowest response level. Bottom line, yes the risk is there, but it is really very small.

I think that's enough for today.

Progress

Here is another facet of my opinion on food production in the United States. Here in the US we are an industrialized country. Our food has kept pace with that industrialization. We produce massive amounts of product everyday. I remember going to the SaraLee Bakery and just being amazed by the volume of product in this very little factory. It is all mechanized and flows continuously from one step to another and ensures the same quality of product from the first output of the day to the 100th to the 1,000th to the very last. We, as americans in general, like the fact that when we open the bag of Grandma Sycamore brand bread we know what it will taste like, the texture, the amount of air. If it is different or unsatisfactory in any way we can contact the company and get a refund. If a person doesn't like the idea of industrialization, then the United States really isn't the country for them. Even farming has been mechanized. For the most part we view industrialization as positive because it makes for a better product at a cheaper price.

The impact of industrialzation on our food product is that we need to use ingredients that will create the the appropriate properties that the consumer will want. For example, we have to investigate which polysaccharides will stand up to the high pressures of flowing quickly through a pipe to be pumped into the mix and still retain the consistency. Which sweetener will retain the water necessary to remain soft in the cookie, but not become sticky? The answers to these questions have lead manufacturers to use the best fat source for their textural properties or the best carbohydrate for the appropriate taste. By and large these are ingredients that have been extracted from one food source to be used in another. It is the unfamiliarity with the names of these compounds that have many people nervous about processed foods.

Take sweeteners for example. A general person would likely be OK with seeing "sugar" or "sucrose" on the ingredient label of a cookie. Sugar has been extracted from sugar cane. The reason they are ok with it is because they are used to consuming it and they are familiar with it. Maltodextrin on the other hand can make that same person a little more nervous about it. If they knew it was made from starch (which can be extracted from potatoes) cut into smaller segments perhaps they wouldn't be so nervous about it. Most if not all ingredients in foods are extracts from other foods.

The exceptions to this rule are notable, aspartame, for example. These synthetic substances go under EXTREME study before they are sent out to the public.

There is another side to this, about growing consumer demand for "natural" products, but I have to write up a lab report before my class so that will just have to wait.

Food

So here are the preliminary points about food consumption and production in the United States

• Fact #1: There are four factors people want/need out of food. They are; (1) appeal- under this category can be found appropriate energy/nutrition sources and good taste(2) safety-being free of microbes and other deliterious substances (3) getting to the consumer fast and (4) not costing a ton of money. Other factors can be put into these basic categories.
• Fact #2: There is really no way to get ALL four of these at their best.
• Fact #3: Producers of food would like to supply all four factors to their consumer. I do not say this as an altruistic sort of thing, but as a practical matter. If the producer does not meet the needs/wants of their consumers they will lose business and money. It is true that many people that work in the food industry DO care about their product because the large majority of them are passionate about food. They like to produce a good quality product that they can be proud of and take home to their family.

That's about it for today. The bottom line of these three facts is that there is a give and take in the process which is largely driven by the priority that the consumer puts on each of the different factors.

Stellar

Just as an update for everyone. I have two tests I have to take this morning. The first I just completed on Carbohydrates and I'm pretty sure I aced it. I really mean aced. I don't think I got one answer wrong! YIPPEE!

Now I have to go to my Food Microbiology test. I'm a little nervous about this one. I find it a ton less interesting because it's just memorizing. I think the subject is interesting, but the class makes me want to poke my eyes out just for a good excuse to leave. Well, wish me luck on remembering the important things about Listeriosis, Staphylococcal food poisoning, Botulism, Cholera and much much more! I'll update you as to how it went when I'm done.

Six Hours

It is now 9:30. I started studying at 2:30. I took an hour break for dinner. I have reviewed 55 pages of notes, 1 past test, 1 study review guide, and memorized around 9 structures. If you have any questions on carbohydrates--chemistry, functionality, physical nature, properties, reactions I'll know at least something. I better do well on my midterm Friday.

Moose

Also in my toxicology class today there was a statistical chart of LD50 for DDT the chart was a little fuzzy because he didn't have time to fix everything since his computer crashed yesterday. The line of animal models read a little like this, rat, guinea pig, rabbit, dog, cat, moose. I had a little chuckle to myself about all these moose in a lab and was about to raise my had to ask about that until I realized that the last animal was a mouse.

DDT

Last week, or was it the week before, I watched a series of documentaries on PBS called "Rx for survival." It was all about world health and disease and stumbling blocks, setbacks, and success stories that surround the issues. One of the hour long segments was on malaria in Africa and India and how it seems like an insurmountable disease. They talked about the use of DDT to control the mosquito population (the carriers of the disease) and how effective that had been in the Americas (I mean more than just the US here) at reducing and controlling the disease. So much so that it's almost unheardof here. So why isn't that done there? The answer is that it is being done.......well, sort of. Countries who use it get most of their DDT from China. From what I understand this source of DDT can easily be contaminated making it more detrimental to overall health of humans and the environment.
Skip to my toxicology class today where the topic of lecture was DDT and other man made chemicals. DDT has a relatively low toxicity compared to any of the naturally made toxins so for humans the health concern is pretty low. The United States went DDT crazy when it came out and then it was banned for use in the US in the 70s. Ever since DDT's effects on the environment and bioaccumulation of the chemical with the very long half life has been studied we, as US citizens, realized that perhaps crop dusting of the stuff was a bad idea. We were worried about Rachel Carsons's Silent Spring happening all over the world. Now we are trying to get a worldwide reduction and eventual elimination of the use of the chemical. This is a good idea when approached from the environmental view. The problem comes when you realize that using DDT was how we got malaria under control in our country and now we are trying to tell other countries not to do it. People who are impovrished and can't afford the medicine to treat malaria could never get the disease if DDT was applied appropriately and not used for crop dusting. The seesaw of benifits to risks seems to be unbalanced. Perhaps this is just another instance of the situation where Americans are more than happy to spend millions of dollars to help a person get better, but not the hundreds to prevent them from getting sick in the first place.
Don't get me wrong, I think DDT is a risk to the environment and at ridiculously high levels to human health. There are risks. My only question is what about the benefits? Where does the seesaw balance out?

Meatball Stew and Raw chicken

Last night I made meatball stew for dinner. What a success! The only bad part was that I thought my finger was heat resistant enough to touch a pan that had just been taken out of a 425 degree oven. The only thing that saved me was my fast reflexes. The finger is still pretty sore.
After dinner my husband had his first practice of the banjo. He has decided it is the best idea ever to play the banjo. He wants to play a duet with me. Him on the banjo and me on the fiddle. I would like to learn to fiddle (even though this would be yet another instance of my following my sister's lead). I just want to try to figure it out on my own and we don't have money for fiddle lessons. I found out that they're $20 a lesson at their cheapest. Yikes.
Today I did microbial testing on raw chicken. I'm so excited to see what turns up next week. I tested for total microbial load, psychrotrophs, yeasts and molds, pseudomonas, lactic acid bacteria, coliforms, bacillus, and one other that I can't think of right now. I can't wait to see all the plates growing little things! YEAH! So that's today's installment.

A Long One

Well this past Saturday my husband and I took a mini trip up to Portland. It was the best weekend ever. We got to sleep in all the way until 9:30 and then drove up to Portland, listening to the book on tape we started on our trip back from Utah. We got to meet Garth Tingy's (I know you're not supposed to use full names, but I really like his fully name) fiance, who seems very nice, even though he never told us her name. We then went through a session at the temple, which is one of the most beautiful ones I've seen. (Not that I've seen that many.) It was SO BIG compared to the little Spokane one I'm used to. It has a solarium next to the waiting room that is just beautiful. The past few weeks or so I've gotten pretty homesick for my old school and really been having a hard time adjusting to the new one. I've had tons of time alone on my hands, which is never a good idea when you are "homesick." While in the temple I decided that I will make recieving blankets for babies at the local hospital whose parent's don't have anything to take them home in. I have a serger and I have time. I told this to my husband and he said that we could go talk to the lady that runs the free clinic that he used to translate for last year to see who to talk to in the hospital about this. Also maybe some avenues I could go through to get fabric. Although I have time and talent, I don't have fabric. Anyway, that got me excited.
Then we went shopping for Christmas presents for some family members. Did I mention that I love Christmas? I found out my husband's LOVE of Christmas music. I love finding things about him that you would never guess and that nobody else really knows. He loves Christmas music and will join right in when I start carolling in the car.......or the kitchen.......or the mall.
We then made it to another mall which had a Macy's in it because we got our $80 star rewards card and had to spend it. The following information shows how he is so amazing! We purchased all things for me on it! I wont say everything we bought because some were presents for my "readers", but they were clearly for me to give to people. Besides the presents we bought we also bought a great present for me! He decided to get me a new Columbia jacket that has a hood so I don't get all wet in the rain! YEAH for no wet! It is really cute. The one and only drawback is that the sleeves and cuffs are white. Even so I still love it. Everything was half off that day so we really had a good deal. I think that was probably why he wanted to get it. That and the fact that he loves me so much. We spent all but 69 cents from that card. Now I will wear my coat everyday, except for when it's really snowy and cold and then I'll wear my down coat.
On our way home I remembered a gift card we have to the video store so we went in and purchased Elf (another of his ideas, I think he's a secret Christmas fanatic like I am).
After shopping we went home and had sandwiches and soup for dinner. I thought that was great since it has been raining the whole past week and it will continue to rain this coming week. Soup sounds like the best food right now. We played Uno together which is probably my favorite game to play with him. We watched the Legend of Bagger Vance on DVD which we had purchased from Fred Meyer earlier and never watched. It's pretty ok.
Sunday we found out that my husband was called to be the Elder's Quorum second counsellor. Pretty exciting for him. We watched the CES broadcast last night which was really good. We came home and watched one of my favorite programs on TV, extreme home makeover. I love that show. I talked to my mom and then we went to bed. What a good weekend!

it IS the most wonderful time of the year

This morning my getting-ready-for-the-day routine was enlivened by the wonderful sounds of Christmas music. (Harry Connick Jr. Thanks to one Miss Heather Higgins-now-Schaffer) Yes, my husband finally gave into my fanatic love for the glorious seasonal sounds and let me listen to it while getting ready. On my 20 minute walk to class I was thinking about Thanksgiving and how I will get the gingerbread house(s) completed without being in the way too much. This year I wont be getting home until the night before Thanksgiving and I don't want to take up any of the kitchen space during the big day. The gingerbread needs to be stiff and relatively dry for the houses or they wont stand up very well so I can't make it the day of. I decided that I would make the pieces at school and drive with them home so that they will be perfect for Tree Day. (That is our family's holiday. It marks the beginning of the full Christmas season.) I'm a little worried about that because everything in Oregon is always soggy (including our bath towels which NEVER dry) and I don't want the gingerbread to take up all the relative humidity it is surrounded with. I'm going to chance it! Also, while in my food chemistry class, while I was thinking about carbohydrates I thought of a new thing to try for the windows this year. Usually we just use cellophane, which will probably end up being what we use again this year, but I thought maybe a colored sucrose film would work well. I'll have to experiment. I love Christmas!

Silly Putty

Today my professor was talking about visco-elastic properties of polymers in conjunction with polysaccharides (since they are polymers). He used silly putty as a non-food example of a visco-elastic polymer for demonstration purposes in class. First he demonstrated the elastic properties by bouncing it. Then he demonstrated the viscous properties by stretching it. Next was his big mistake. He bounced the silly putty again to re-demonstrate the elastic properties. Since the silly putty was no longer a spherical shape it did not bounce as he had planned. Luckily he has good reflexes or his groin would still be hurting.

Wedding Photos

No, this post does not include wedding photos. The reason for this is that I don't currently own a computer in our house. I just use the ones on campus. That means I don't have a scanner for my photos either. Plus, none of my photos are digital. I am nominating Miss Katie Timothy to scan in some of her photos and post them. I think that would be best for all involved.

Cute

Well my sister wrote a post entitled Maggie is Cute and I love it because whenever I scroll down to get to the links on her sidebar I read that very statement. What a great reminder everyday! Today I am wearing a green turttleneck sweater and brown pants with a ribbon in my hair. I think it is very cute.

Slave to Routine

Today I just realized that I automatically go to the exact same computers in each of the three computer labs I go to. Do you know how I realized this? The history on these three computers includes my sister's blog and various other places that I check up on religously (genius and pink poodle are two of my favorites right now). Today I went to a new computer and had to actually type the whole address in. It was then that I realized that I am a slave to routine.

Newt

Today in toxicology we learned about marine toxins including a toxin named tetrodotoxin. Poisoning from this toxin is usually found in the Indo-Pacific region and epidemics are frequent in Japan. That is because the toxin can be found in puffer fish, a delicacy there. Interestingly it is also found in the rough-skinned newt.

This little guy is a native to Oregon and can easily be found here. My professor told us that there were several police reported incidents where there had been a bar bet for some drunk guy to swallow the newt and then the man would be found 10-15 minutes later dead in his car. Yep! You guessed it, the drunks killed themselves.

Flabbergasted

That's really the only word to describe how what my mind thought.

We got back our lab notebooks from my food micro lab. This kid got a 58/124.5 and he was pissed. He's a good student and I know he spent a lot of time on the thing so I understood his upset state of mind. Then he just whips out these expletives and uses the name of Christ in the middle.

Needless to say, I am experiencing a bit of a culture shock. I'm not used to hearing that stuff anymore. The verbal assault just whirred through the air to my brain. Gross. I like being around people that don't say things like that.

YESSSSS!

I just took my first test at OSU and I rocked it! It's only 10AM and I have the rest of the day to finish everything. Man I feel good!

In other news last weekend we went to the Rodeo. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE the rodeo? Even though there were tons of barrell racers it was still loads of fun. It also had lots of drama when a guy fell off his horse and landed sideways on his neck/shoulder. He tried to get up then fainted. They took him away in an ambulence. The good part is that we were informed that he was going to be ok. They just needed to check him out.

Last night I spent an hour playing UNO with my husband. Just the two of us. Not very competative, but still tons of fun.

Party Pooper

I have yet to skip a class at OSU. This is a direct result of my husband. Here is a scenario that happened just this morning.

The alarm goes off
He says to me, "it's time for you to get up."
I say, "I don't have to
He says, "Why not?"
I say, "because I'm not going to class this morning." (On Thursdays I only have this one class in the morning and nothing until 12:30.)
He says "You don't have class today?" (All confused as to why I would not actually be attending my class. It being at 8AM every day would not be enough of a reason.)
I say, "Yes, there is class, but they're going over stuff I already know."
He says, "And you're not going?"
Confused silence on his part.

After a whole conversation I am obviously awake and now feeling really guilty. I get up and shower and go to class. On the plus side he did drive me. He just ruins my skipping record. I guess it really is a good thing because I did go to class (even though I did already know everything we talked about today) and I'm getting a lab report done now. I'd like to say, "Good for me" for doing it, but really it should be, "Good for him" for getting me to do it.

300 and The Do

It's 4 minutes unitl my toxicology lecture starts. The class has MAYBE 10 people in it but the professor lectures as though there were 300. Hopefully I don't fall asleep today.

I've noticed the difference between how girls do their hair between Oregon and Utah. You never see the shiny straight slick hair of utah girls. You know, flat ironed and straight parted on the side? You don't see that here. I figured out why last weekend. It's too much work and the humidity ruins it 5 minutes later anyway.

Just Wrong

So I have this senior seminar class that meets once a week. We've met twice now and each time I go I feel so out of place. I also feel like everything being said is just wrong for me. I start out class feeling pretty ok, but by the end I'm just frustrated and upset. It isn't anything the instructor is saying. Nobody is offensive. It just doesn't seem right somehow. The class is on how to start your carreer and get a great job. This class has raised some pretty important questions for me and my life's plan. Those questions aren't answered and I don't want to go back this week.

I'm not a Tree Hugger

Today I was walking on campus and I realized how extremely beautiful this campus is. It is completely different from the exquisitely manicured areas at BYU, but it still has a natural beauty. All the leaves are turning colors right now. As I walked to campus I saw the line where the sun was rising. It just barely hit the tops of the trees, which were turning bright red. They were burning with color! During the day there hasn't been any wind or anything, but all the trees have been steadily dropping their leaves. It's just like snow! Only it isn't cold or wet. Plus it doesn't hurt that it was really sunny yesterday and part of today. It is so beautiful on this campus!

On top of all that, my husband and I are going up to his hometown this weekend! A mini vacation! I can't wait.

And you're 21?

Well, today I have learned all the things that I have done wrong during my college carreer to keep me from getting a job.

Also I was in lab and I told Ben that I had never had any alcohol in my life. He said, "Really?" I said yes. Later I asked him how old he is and he asked me how old I am. When I told him 21 he said, "You've never had alcohol?" I shake my head. "And you're 21?" I nod. "It's time to give you a taste."

Sometimes I miss my old school.

Just Say No

• Read the "Safety" section of my food micro lab
• Write my lab write-up on eggs for my food chem lab
• Read about water
• Read an article about Food Microorganisms for my food micro class
• Look up my old resume to see if I could pass it off as new for my senior seminar
• Read my Food Toxicology Textbook

Each one of these things is something small, very small, that needs to get done. I should do some of them today. In fact I bet if I got on the ball and worked really hard I could get the majority of them done today. None of the assignments are too hard. The egg lab was pretty interesting in fact. The only problem is that I just don't want to do it. There, I've admitted it. None of them are due on Monday. In fact, one of them isn't due until November. Maybe it's my natural tendency to procrastinate here, but I would just rather go home and clean my apartment and sit around than do any of these things. The problem is that I don't have 3 hours worth of entertaining things and I have three hours to fill. Maybe if I get really despirate I'll read my food micro safety.

Perks, Yummm!

I start classes at 8AM everyday but tuesday. On Tuesday I get to start at the ripe old hour of 8:30AM. My husband doesn't start until 9 MWF and 11TTH. This morning the alarm went off and I just groaned. Not that I didn't get to bed at a decent hour, I did. I just DID NOT want to get up. Instead I rolled over and woke up my husband. He is so sweet! Instead of complaining he said he had actually wanted to get up with me today to go and study on campus. While I was getting ready this morning he made me pancakes! What a sweetie! Those were the best tasting pancakes ever!

PS. Have I mentioned yet that my parents are coming this weekend? I'm stoked! I'm going home after this post to clean my apartment and all that jazz.

So Few of Us Left

Today I was walking back to campus after having eaten a great lunch. I was in a hurry so I was walking a little faster than the people around me. I passed a guy and girl that came out of the dorms. I wasn't too far ahead of them when I had to stop to cross the street and they caught up. As we waited for the flashing man and beeping sound I overheard the guy say to the girl, "There are so few attractive redheads." I was so upset! So what that I didn't really do my hair today or really my make-up either!! That is no reason to say I'm unattractive! At least say it quietly enough that the redhead standing two feet from you doesn't hear it! I had the next ten minutes or so to think about it as I walked to the other end of campus. Then I had my lab so the comment was pushed out of my mind. After class I was walking along and started thinking about it again. He must have meant that there are so few redheads that are like myself, attractive that is. That may not be how he meant it, but I'm going to take it that way. So there man that speaks too loud in public!

Might As Well

Just so everyone knows my apartment is now completely set up. I painted the bathroom a green/blue color. It's really pretty. I want to paint just about every wall in our apartment, but since it has to be painted back white when we leave again my husband didn't want to paint any walls. Our compromise was the bathroom.

I went climbing for the first time. It was really fun, I was kinda surprised at myself. It does wonders to have someone that is completely confident in my abilities with me. I think I will go again...when my arms and back stop screaming at how crazy I was for making them work.

My husband is heartbroken about losing his Jeep. He has since spent much time online trying to find a four door car that he doesn't think is stupid. He's hoping that in a year we can get a used Mazda M3 that with the money from the Jeep. His first day of looking for cars just got him really depressed. Then he decided to broaden the price range and got a little happier. Today he went on the Mazda website just to look at the new cars and now he's in dreamland.

On Being Positive

Yesterday my mom surprised me by taking me back to school shopping! YEAH! I didn't expect it, but she said she could read through my jeans and thus they wouldn't last me at all during the year, so there you go. This made me so happy!

I was in such a great mood going to a friend's baby shower last night. Then this lady came in. When I got married two months ago I failed to give her a wedding announcement/"invitation" and I have not stopped hearing about how much it hurt her feelings since. Last night she came up to me in front of everyone at the shower and said, "Did you know you didn't invite me to your wedding?" When my mom replied that we didn't know where to send the invitation (which is true since she hasn't really lived in the house that was in our ward for two years now) she said, "Even my friends from Canada seem to have managed to track me down to get me wedding invitations!" Well, I figured it was best not to say anything since what I have to say to her isn't all that nice. Here is my response to this lady:

• We really didn't know where to send the invitation. We didn't have your address. If you're not good enough friends to keep in contact with us so we have your address, I don't think it is necessary to send you an invitation to my wedding.
• Miss Manners says I can invite anybody I want.
• My mom DID call you a week before the wedding and invited you personally to the reception. You had people visiting from out of town and didn't come anyway.
• If you feel you are good enough friends with my family to feel left out of the party unjustly, then you should also feel that you are good enough friends to know you can just come! That's what another lady did, and I was so grateful for her understanding.
• My wedding day is about me, not you. Now that you've made it about you I don't feel sorry for not inviting you.
• How could I not know I didn't invite you to my wedding, I've been hearing about how horrible I was for not inviting you for the last two months now.
• After all of these points if you're still upset about not being invited, you can still give me a present if that's what's bugging you.

So anyway, there goes a whole night down the crapper. I was incensed.

On the plus side, when I got up today I got to put on brand new clothes.

A Precarious Perch

When I moved into the basement of my in-laws house the previous tenant, my sister-in-law, warned me of the huge spiders that also call the basement home. Let me first say I have nothing against spiders when they live in their natural habitat. When I encounter them in the great outdoors I simply give them their space and let them live their lives. When they are in my domain it is an entirely different story. Mostly when I happen across the two inch brown hairy monsters I just call for my husband to come kill it. (Two inches might be an exaggeration, but that's what it seems like when you're staring one in the face, eye-to-eye on the sofa. Well, my husband is gone.

Today started like any other day. I woke up way later than I thought I would, spent a small time in the morning with the ritual I have come to know and love. Feed Tigger, feed myself, let the dogs out to "go potty," read the funnies, take a shower. It was at that last step when it all went downhill. I get into the shower and start washing my hair when I turn around and see one of these mutant spiders INCHES from my foot. Instantly I climb up on one of the seats that are in the shower. I have no idea what to do. Do I call for help from my mother-in-law. Surely that would not do. With no help on the way I had to figure out what to do fast. Was it me or was that creepy thing following me up the wall to the seat? My nemesis is blocking my exit to get the toilet paper to send him swirling down the toilet. The tricky spider can't outsmart me! I just angled the water spray right behind him until he slid right down the drain. Success! I conquered that problem. Only moments after his body finally made it down the drain in the shower did my mistake really hit me. The drain is in the middle of the shower. RIGHT WHERE YOU STAND to get the stream of water. Now I have the possiblitiy of the spider climbing up the drain and right onto my foot. This would never do. I had to spend the rest of the shower on the seat bending over to wash my hair. Maybe that's also why I wont go to the bathroom in the dark. I'll have to think about that one. All I can say is that it is a good thing I am moving out on Sunday!

Some Pig

Last night I went with my parents to the Interstate Fair. I had so much fun! For those of you interested I ate: 1 corn dog, funnel cake, caramel apple, and hawiian shaved ice (the tropicalsno variety). If you knew me you would know that that's a lot for me to eat. I loved it. We walked the circut of commercial barns (daddy bought a mop and some olives) the auto barn, and the flower barn. By far the best part of the fair was again the baby pigs! They had some that were born August 30 and some that were born September 4. The smaller ones were playing like puppies when we got there only they were snorting. Sometimes I think it would be fun to own a baby pig, like Wilbur, but then I looked at "Big Mama" their mom and realized that she probably weighed twice what I do. Although she came when her owner called her and loved to have her ears scratched, I DON'T think I could handle owning a full grown pig. So that's about it for the fair. A fun time was had by all.

It's Official

Well, it's official, Tigger is my favorite dog. I decided to make it official this morning when I looked down at his ever watchful face. He loves to monitor computer use. Plus, yesterday mischief pounced on my foot giving me a big fat bruise that hurts really bad. (This is on top of peeing on my Physics textbook and deficating on my white pants.) I love Rommie, she has the best personality for a 13 pound dog. The only problem is that she's the biggest dog I've ever lived with. My guess is in the neighborhood of 100 pounds. For anyone who knows dogs, she's a Bernese Mountain Dog. She loves people and loves to be petted. When new people come though she barks at them just as much as my mom's little Quinn, well more now that we've trained Quinn not to. That big, low, gruff bark would make me thing she's about to eat me, not welcoming me in. I'll admit that it's pretty scary to have three dogs rush you barking to beat the band. I always feel like apologizing to new people that come over for the first time. Tigger, although he does bark, he quickly retreats when he finds out it's someone he doesn't know. Plus, he follows you quietly around the house. He's supposed to be a herding dog, not a people dog, but I think that since he's never been around any sort of herd he decided that the people are the herd and he follows you around just to make sure where you are. He can't jump really, but he's sneeky enough to get the food off the counter. Anyway, he's my favorite.

WAY too much time

Well, as you all know my husband left on Wednesday for school and I'm not going to leave for another few days. On top of that my in-laws, whom we've been living with this summer, are out of town until tomorrow evening. I've been alone all week (OK so only three days, but it's been a LONG three days.) Plus, I had been waiting around to try and get a hold of the proctor for my test. Good news, I took the test today which means I'm on my way to the next one. Anyway, I've been bouncing around this house alone with the three dogs for a while now and I decided that I have way too much time on my hands here. I don't have anyone to take up my thoughts but me. Sometimes that's good, but not when you're lonely and you want someone else around. Grrr. I realized I needed a distraction when I sent out five emails in one day. (That may not seem like much to most of you, but I tend to keep my volume of emails at a minimum.) When I want to hear from people I just send out emails kind of like casting out the bait and then check my computer way more than I should just to see who I hooked. Today I was delighted to recieve an email from the lovely Mary. It was good to hear from her.

Tomorrow is my friend's wedding so that should be good. Plus, it's Saturday and my mom wont be working. That means I can hang out with her. It's so funny, but next to my husband my mom really has been my best friend here this summer. I love to hang out with her. She's so funny. Today we went to Luna's for lunch. It was delicious.

Two Inch Holes

Well, my husband is officially in our new apartment and moving all our stuff in too. No, I'm not with him because my high school best friend is getting married on Saturday and I wanted to be here for that. I'm following my husband to Corvallis a week from Friday. (A random thought totally unrelated to this post is where did my summer go? I think I lost a week in there somewhere and I can't seem to get it back.)

On Tuesday my Father-in-law and Brother-in-law thoughtfully decided to help us move our sofa up from the basement. This is where the first of the two inch holes appeared. They put a two inch hole in the fabric of my sofa. I was DEVISTATED. I called all my girlfriends all my female relatives (except Katie not because I don't love her, but because she never answers her phone. I wrote her an email instead). My mom luckily found some fabric in Boise that is the same pattern only smaller. I think the way we're planning on fixing it will make it seem not noticable at all.

Tuesday night we packed all our belongings up in the U-Haul. Turns out that now I'm married I own a whole ton of things. Looking at all our home furniture made me feel really grown up. I own furniture! Sure it's not the best furniture, but it's mine, well, ours. But still!

Wednesday morning came and my husband changed the tires/wheels on his Jeep (yes, you do need more than one set of these for different activities). He checked the owner's manual for his Jeep to see how to hook it up to the tow dolly on the back of the U-Haul. He did EXACTLY as the manual told him to. Well, this is where the second two inch hole appeared. Turns out the manual was wrong and the engine EXPLODED just after he left town. Yes, it ruined the engine. Pieces of metal went flying and that's what cut the two inch hole in his oil pan and his rear wheels locked up and the U-Haul overheated. It was a real mess.

Because I was the one that was responsible for us getting the auto insurance in the first place I was also in charge of calling in the claim. Hopefully the insurance will pay for the damage and my dad says he and his buddy will put in a used one he found for only $800. That way we can get the check from insurance and avoid having to pay the deductable.

Anyway, this move is becoming a bit of a mess now. My husband took my car down to school with him and left the Jeep here for me to figure out. I was planning on driving my car down to school so unless they can fix the Jeep pronto I have no car to get to school in. Mom and dad say it will get figured out though so I'm trying not to worry about it too much until after I hear from progressive.

Green and Sparkly

Well, to interrupt the commentary on physics I thought I'd let everyone know of the new vaccuum my husband and I recieved this weekend! My mom and dad were at Costco and saw a little vaccuum and, remembering me telling her I didn't have one, my mom bought us one! Isn't that GREAT?! It's just a little inexpensive one that I'm sure wont last for a long time, but the fact of the matter is that it's ours! It is green and sparkly and has a telescoping handle for easy storage! Plus, it doesn't have any bags to empty. When you vaccuum you can see all the stuff you're picking up! I'm such a dork, but I love this little wonder! It made my day! It was a nice rest from physics to put it together and try it out! I brought it home to show my husband and he said, "nice." I'm not quite sure why I love this so much. I mean if my husband had said he bought me a present and it turned out to be a vaccuum I would not be happy at all. As the matter stands right now it's a present for BOTH of us and I'm elated! We needed one and I love it! YEAH!

PS. Should I really be this excited over a new vaccuum? I don't know and I don't really care.

Day 2

Just so everyone knows, my wonderful sister sent me a link to a site that is basically some professor teaching me about the subject I was having trouble with. Athough it was very helpful and I was incredibly greatful it still did not help me answer the stupid problem. I came to the point where I decided that since it wasn't a question that had to be graded anyway I would just skip it and try to move on with my life (something that is very hard for me to do when I haven't figured out a problem that I SHOULD know). I have learned quite a bit today, but I think I'm still going to need another day to review the problems I did today and try and complete them in one go. Today I had to start each question over three times before I could get them right. Stupid algebra and physics. Anyway, at least I'm moving in the positive direction. Plus, today I was in a better mood about my life, which you wouldn't think had any relevance to physics questions, but it did somehow.

Physics

If any of you were wondering whether or not it is a good idea to try and teach yourself physics let me inform you of my attempt at it. I'm getting pretty frustrated at this point. Most of the material is fairly straightforward, but then there's always 1 or 2 sections per chapter that I'm just confused about. The chapter started off with an entire paragraph to tell me that emf means battery or something that produces a potential difference (to all of those that actually know physics and that I'm totally oversimplifying the situation, I only need this class to graduate and thus don't really care) Today the confusing section is the "branch-loop method" of solving problems in DC circuts. Also I'm struggling through the idea of RC circuts. I hope I figure this out soon, like today, because I need to be taking a test over this chapter and two more by next week! YIKES!

One of the things I think I missed the most about my home when I moved out for my freshman year in college was the music. My mom and sister and me dancing in the kitchen, my dad breaking out into song in the middle of the grocery store, or the little game of word association into song that my family plays with my dad that rubbed off on me. I love them all! I wanted that musical spirit to be part of my new home and family with my husband. I was worried, but honestly now I have no idea why. My husband is the one that will sing to EVERY song he knows on the radio. And even now, as I'm typing this I can hear my father-in-law in the kitchen making up a song. I think it's about one of his dogs. Probably Romie since that's his favorite.

Anyway, the other night I was really sick after eating dinner and I went down and laid on our bed. My stomach hurt so much it had cramped up and I was sitting in a ball in the middle of the bed. My sweet husband came down and was sitting with me trying to think of something he could do for me. I told him I wanted him to sing me a song while I was laying there. (I'll usually do that or have him read something in Spanish, I love the way that sounds.) He started to sing the Happy Birthday song, but I stopped him and told him to sing a hymn, since I figured those were songs he would know the words to mostly. He found his spanish hymnal and started singing. On the songs I knew the words to I started to sing along. Then he got me the english hymnal so I could get all the songs he wanted to sing. Sometimes we would sing together in english sometimes I would have him sing in Spanish alone. We would try to harmonize on some songs. We spent over an hour just sitting there singing. I don't know when my stomach stopped hurting because we kept singing for long after that. He doesn't even mind when I get the giggles because our "harmonizing" is pretty gross sounding sometimes. I love that man! He is so fun! He loves me so much!

Aargh

So I was thinking about health insurance, as I'm still sick and wondering about such things. I looked on the OSU website. When my husband told me that OSU charged $400 a term for ONE person for health insurance I thought he must have got it wrong. I went on just to check and it turns out he did get it wrong. It is $554 a PERSON a TERM. That means I would have to pay that much just to cover me for three months! That's crazy! The only way I would pay that were if I were preg-o or had a chronic disease!

T v. W

Well, I've been married a little over a month and have run full force into a huge difference between the two families. Here is the story:

I got sick on Saturday. I told my husband I wasn't feeling well in the morning during breakfast. He still really REALLY wanted to go to the gun & outdoors show so I caved and said I'd go with him. (Don't get me started about that last sentence.) Anyway, we went with his parents and left around noon. John, my father-in-law, decided he'd get us lunch and when we stopped at the place I was so sick to my stomach that the smell of the Mexican food was torture! (Probably a bit of an overstatement.) So everyone else ate while I just sat there. We went to the fairgrounds and found out that it was NOT as my husband had though and gun & outdoors show but merely a gun show. Since nobody was REALLY interested in paying the money just to go look at guns we decided to bag the whole idea. I was very grateful thinking that I would be able to return home soon. John had the alternate activity of going to look at the Saline (I'm not sure how to spell that one), which is some type of Mustang. I was perfectly happy with that since I figured it would be quicker than the gun show anyway. Little did I know what was ahead of me. I got SO SICK on the way to Coeur d'Alene that we had to pull over at the first gas station he could see so I could throw up in the restroom. Then we STILL MADE two other stops after having established how sick I was. I was so very upset at this I just made myself sicker. Plus, the motion of the car was making things in my stomach even worse. I was really glad at this point I had not eaten any of the Mexican food at lunch. I am still feeling a little under the weather six days later. I have calmed down and just realized that the reason my in-laws are acting like this is a basic philisophical difference between our families. I thought it was just because they didn't really think I WAS sick. I thought it might be because they didn't CARE that I was sick. No, no. The reason is that in my family the focus on a sick person is making them feel the best they can while on the road to recovery. You make sure they have enough blankets, you give them time to sleep and make sure they have the food they need. In my husband's family the focus is on making you feel as normal as possible to help you focus on BEING recovered. Therefore they treat you as much like you are not sick as they can. This means they don't really check in on you (this included my husband for a while) or anything of the sort. While neither way is wrong it certainly did hurt my feelings until I understood that I had to ask for any help I wanted. Now I ask and they are more than happy to help me. What a fiasco! Next time I must remember that I'm not with my parents before I get my feelings hurt.

PS. I can't wait to be better. I'm so tired of being sick at the moment.

Pure Green Comfort

Just so everyone knows, my mom and dad are getting a new leather sofa this afternoon. The important part of that is that my Sweetie and I got the old one. It is pure green comfort. We moved it into the basement and for some reason Daniel thought I could carry half of it from the driveway around the house to the back basement door without needing to put it down. He's crazy. I got a rug burn on my wrist. And we had to take the door off the hinges to get it inside. Now it is set up under some windows and I love it.

Pretty OK

Just so everyone knows this post will be mushy.

My life is just one rolling stress ball of things that I have yet to get done. The other day I was particularly wound up about everything. I was worried about having money for school (a big one since we are about $8000 short right now). I was worried about needing to call Brother Shelby to ask for help filling out my FAFSA ( I looked at it with Dan and got physically ill because I have no idea what I'm doing). We don't have a place to live at school, which I shouldn't worry about because we will eventually have one, but we don't right now so I'm a little stressed about that. Also, I haven't yet got everything moved into our place in the basement-everytime I go down there I just get overwhelmed with all the stuff we have ALL OVER the place. We still needed to go return things at Macy's and also we have a four page list of people to send thank you notes to. I have to make sure I have everything for work. I have to go to the bank. And on top of that I had just done my first real day of working on my Independent Study physics course. Just so you know my goal is to get it done in 7 weeks and now I'm thinking that maybe when I made that goal I was INSANE. Well, I was working on physics when Dan came home and we had dinner. John, his dad, had been asking me about all our financial stuff and it just made me realize that we really have no idea what's going on there. It would be nice just to know, you know? So I was pretty upset by the time that dinner was over. Dan said that instead of going down and cleaning the basement or going to the bank or checking anything off my list we should just go and watch a movie in the basement together. I am so glad that he did that. I just had time to relax and be with him. At one point in the dark room I turned and looked at him and my love for him just washed right over me so strong. I love how calm he is! I love his sense of humor! I love his eyes! They are so beautiful. Did you know he has a freckle on his ear? I love that too! He works so hard and I know that he loves me too! I love being cuddled next to him and making it so hot that he is sweating buckets. He never says anything about the heat. So I decided that night that I like my husband pretty ok. Boy am I blessed.

Super Powers

I have had a kid in my classes for two weeks now. The first week he went the full day, which includes two classes then a lunch finishing off with two more classes. The second week his mom only signed him up for one class then lunch then the two classes to finish the day. He came into class in the middle of the second week and declared I was his favorite teacher. Then he said, "Do you know why?" I told him no. He responded by saying, "Because this week you made lunch come sooner." I have now found my super power....controlling lunch.

A to Z

I have had TONS of funny things happen at work this week. The only problem is when I get home to write them down I've completely forgotten all of them! DRAT! Anyway, the only thing I can remember right now is from my "Fun From A-Z" class. The other day we were doing the letter V. I asked what begins with V. Apparently none of their parents have made it this far in the alphabet because none of them knew what begins with V. I told them vegetable begins with V. Our project was doing a vegetable garden. The first vegetable we did was a carrot. Because of this they were hooked on the carrot the WHOLE time. I asked them several times, "What does V stand for?" They would all shout back to me, "CARROT!" I was SO nervous when the moms came to pick up their kids. Then while I was walking down to lunch I overheard one mom ask her son, "V is for...?" And he made my heart soar when he said to her, "VEGETABLE!" I was so happy! Nevermind I had heard, "V is for carrot" about a billion times before. At least one kid remembered.

New Insights

Ever since my sisters boyfriend has come on the scene he has been stirring stuff up. First of all he's a really manly man in that he played football and wrestled and recently has had some kickball fame. These are all very masculine things that I'm sure my dad was excited about from the start. On top of that he swing dances, sings (at least for Katie) and, my dad's new favorite, plays the piano. These are things I'm sure my mom loves. So he has been the topic of a few conversations lately, just because of his many talents. The one thing that has really stirred some controversy is his position on Q-tips. He is studying to be an ear doctor of sorts and thus is my personal expert on this topic. He thinks they are the worst invention ever. Nobody should use Q-tips for their ears...ever. I remember a conversation about cotton and ear wax and water hardening like and adobe brick inside of your ear and then you having to have that pulled out. OUCH, and YUCK all at once. Ever since hearing that I have had an internal struggle. I don't really like to live on the edge or do things that I know have a possibility of causing me pain, but I love Q-tips. I hate to have my ears in the wind or the cold or wet. The Q-tips solve that thrid problem. I used to use them everyday after I got out of the shower. When I heard what he had said I stopped using them completely. Cold turkey. In case any of you were wondering it wasn't a will power thing, I just ran out and was too lazy to buy more.
The story gets better because ever since I've come home I've wanted to buy myself some Q-tips. I mentioned this to my husband and the internal struggle turned external when he said, "You remember what Garrett said." So my husband is anti Q-tips as well. Tonight I was unpacking some of my things while moving into our place for a while and I opened a box of bathroom stuff and found a WHOLE BOX of Q-tips unopened. I must have purchased them and shipped them home before having heard of the wax brick that could form in my ear. Now the problem is do I open the box and experience that wonderful feeling of clean? Do I just leave the box there? I'd hate to waiste them! Anyway, I have to go do laundry now.

Starting Out Young

Two funny things happened at work today. A little boy decided that his hair needed to be cut so he cut it. Those scissors we give them wont cut paper at all, but apparently they're great for cutting hair. I was lucky that his mom wasn't mad at all.

The other one has to do with a little boy in my class. Today we made windsocks. We drew on them with markers before putting the foamie pieces and glitter on them. He told me that he had drawn words, but it just looked like a bunch of scribbles to me. Then he asked, "Do you want to know what it says?" I told him sure. So he read from the page (finger pointing along with the scribbles), "Dear Diary, today there were more new kids in my class at school. Love, Brianna" I said that sounded wonderful, but was confused about who Brianna was. He proceeded to take 3 minutes describing Brianna (a six year old girl) in great detail right down to the address she lives at. Then he told me that she was his "girl." I think he's pretty proud of having a girl. It was so cute!

Just to Catch Up

I have so much to write! AHHH! It seems like I can't write it all down! Here's my main thoughts, or at least the ones I think my mom and sister will like.

The Leapord has spots too
Yesterday I again had to explain what freckles are. Here is how the conversation went:
Grant: "What are those brown spots you have?"
Me: "They're freckles."
Grant: "What are freckles. Where do they come from?"
Me: "They're spots you get from the sun."
Grant: "The sun has spots?"
Me: "No. Do you see how in the summer, when you go outside your skin gets darker?"
Grant: "Yeah."
Me: "Well, my skin does that same thing, only in spots."
Grant: "Like a leapord?"
Me: "Yeah, I have spots like the leapord."

Marital Bliss
I have wanted to do a sort of post wedding/honeymoon wrap-up, but now that I'm here sitting thinking about it I'm not really sure what to say. As far as the actual day goes, I felt so blessed. So many people were there to support me. I felt so loved. I also kinda felt bad because I didn't get a chance to talk to everyone I wanted to. I wish I had had more time in particular to talk to my sister, and my two friends Heather and Mary. I miss them already.
My honeymoon was so much fun. We stayed in a cabin up in Canada about 40 minutes from Victoria in a resort called point on point. It was fun. Dan let me do all the touristy sightseeing things I wanted to including Miniature world which boasts the world's smallest WORKING saw mill. We didn't get to see it working though because of fire regulations. We just watched a video under the diarama. We also went to the Royal BC Museum, which is reputed to be the Canadian Smithsonain. It only had about 5 rooms in it total.
I also found out how inclredibly funny my husband is! Since we've been married its like this wall has come down and I know him so much more (I'm not just talking about sex here for those of you perverts) He is so much fun to be around and I love him so much. He is my hero.
My sister is the best ever. Everyday she amazes me. I wish I could write more now, but my train of thought has just dropped off because my sister just called me on the cell phone. Maybe I'll finish this later. Probably not.

Word Scramble

Yesterday in my clay and construction class I decided that we could work on learning shapes and cutting by making a moblie and hanging the shapes on it. I started out the class saying, "Who knows what a mobile is?" Evan raises his hand but it too excited to wait for me to call on him because he blurts out, "I know the batmobile!" Then Katie says, "Yeah! And there's a snowmoblie!" Then Nicholas says, "We're gonna make CARS!"

Boy the shapes mobile was a let down after that!

Two Pats on the Butt and a 72 Hour Kit

In case you were wondering, today was indeed my first day of my most favorite summer job ever. I am back to teaching art classes! YEAH! Here are the highlights of my first day back:

• It is so great to see the little kids that I have been teaching in previous years come back and recognize me!
• I noticed today that when you take roll and call out a little kid's name and they raise their hand to tell you that they're here, they also smile a great big smile-even the shy ones. It's just great to see.
• I forgot that my butt was the perfect height for little kids to tap to get my attention.
• A little barely 3 year old girl in my class was having troubles getting down the stairs today so the 5 year old girl walked back up to hold her hand and help her down without any prompting by anyone. It was so precious!

In other news, tonight Daniel and I went in for an interview with our bishop. He had previously talked to Dan about having an "emergency plan." I told him that when the bishop asked we should just say, "Don't worry we have our 20 pounds of wheat storage." Dan thought we should say, "We're living in the basement so we don't need to have ladders to get out of the windows in case of a fire." It was so funny to me that the bishop was planning on our failure! Anyway, we went and the interview was actually pretty good. All positive. He didn't even bring up the emergency plan. I am SO EXCITED to be home, and to be working, and to be getting married! I just love my life right now! YEAH!

Reflections

I drove home this weekend with my cousin. She is so funny! I didn't even know until I had to spend 10 hours with her in the car non-stop. We stopped at a rest stop on the way home because I was so full of pee I thought it might come out my eyes. We went into the "restroom" that had wet floors and those airplane style toilets. You know the ones with the flap that opens to let the waste out of the bottom and use the least amount of water possible. She was in the stall next to mine when she yells, "Ahh!" After we got out I asked her what happened. She said that as she flushed the toilet the flapp opened, the water sprayed the stuff down and then the flap shut, WHILE THE WATER WAS STILL SPRAYING! Needless to say the water sprayed all over her foot! GROSS! In other news a friend of mine just got home from his mission this weekend. He left the summer after our freshman year in college. The question in my mind is how the heck did time all of the sudden jump forward? I went to his farewell! It's too bad I didn't get to go to his homecoming. He always was an amazing person and I'm sure he'll end up doing simply amazing things in his life! Anyway my leaving BYU and starting a new life away from everything I've known for the past three years has really given me a lot of stuff to reflect on. His homecoming hit this idea home to me in more concrete terms. It seems ironic to me that as my friends are coming home and back to school, I'm leaving it. Now I can't be sure of this, but I think I've changed tremendously over the past three years. Not that I've changed per se, but that I've grown up. My freshman year in college I was so naive in my understanding of things. I kind of regret how people viewed me after that year. I always kinda felt misunderstood. I realized this past month that the way people saw me that year was a direct result of what I let them see. They say that you can change who you are from high school to college, which is only sort of true. You can change what you let people see and percieve about you. You will always be you deep down inside, it is my opinion that doesn't really change. You can change the ficade though. When I decided that I wanted to be friends with someone I let them see in me what I thought they would like the most. Unfortunately I showed the lesser aspects of my character. The ones that were superficial. Somehow I went from one of the best good girls in my high school to one of the "easier" girls in college. (That's in quotes because I went to BYU and the general public would never think anything I had done was "easy") The reason that happened was that I showed that side of myself to the people around me and once you are percieved that way it is really easy to act that way too. I never told any of them how I didn't kiss a guy my entire high school carreer. I never told them that until my senior year the parties at my house were all girls. I never told them that I was always "one of the boys" with all the guys I knew. I never told them about telling boys I wouldn't date them until I was 16 and once I was that age they had stopped asking. Don't let this post make you think I didn't love my freshman year in college. I look back on it with fond memories. I think the people I met there are some of the most amazing people. I can see them being the future leaders of businesses and organizations, families and nations. I just wish I had shown them something better of myself. Now I have someone that thinks the world of me! He thinks I'm better than anyone else. His perception of me is so precious and dear to my heart. I realize now that is because I showed him everything about me. If he doesn't know everything about my past, he certainly knows all the parts of my personallity that were created from those. I am so excited to be with someone forever that loves me so much and that thinks I'm so amazing! So as scary as moving into the great unknown is, I am so glad to know that I will get to do it with him by my side. With someone that thinks so highly of you, how could you not work to achieve the best?

Infernal Tapping

I'm in the library writing a review of this paper and the girl opposite from me has been tapping on the enter key for the last 5 minutes. She has ONLY been hitting the enter key. Over and over and over. If she doesn't stop soon I may have to move. I just have a lot done on my work already. Oh good, she stopped. Now I don't have to kill her. Earlier today this guy just flipps open his cell phone and starts talking on it. Did I mention I'M IN THE LIBRARY?! I stared at him without even blinknig until he said to the person on the phone, "Oh sorry, I'm trying to be quiet because I'm in the library." Did he get up and go to the talking section? NO! Did he stop talking on his phone? NO! Grrrrr.

About to Cry

This is safe to write on this post because my Sweetie doesn't ever read this. I don't even think he really knows what a blog is really.

Today I got him the second half of my present to him. The first half of the wedding present is a nice Seiko watch. It's just beautiful. I ordered it at overstock so a watch that would usually cost $150 ended up only costing $50.

The second half of the present requires a little more explination. He went to Chile on his mission and had a nice Spanish Book of Mormon complete with that requisite leather case that all South American missionaries seem to come home with. A couple of months ago he lost it. Since then he's moved twice and it's still missing. I was talking to his mom and she talked about how much he really liked to use them to study rather than his english ones. I thought it might be nice to get him a Spanish set of scriptures. I know I can't replace his mission scriptures, but at least he could use them to study or something.

Today I happened to get an hour break between work and class so I went and purchased the set. They are black leather bound and I had his name embossed on the covers. I was so excited to not only have found a present I thought he would like, but also to be able to check that off my list. I didn't want to just leave them in my car (I've had scriptures and other items stolen from my car so I'm pretty paranoid about what I leave in there now) so I put them in my backpack. Well, on my way back from the store I dropped by Wendy's and got their delicious Mandarin Chicken Salad for a lunch.

I got back with just enough time to go talk to one of my professors before class so I figured I'd have to eat my lunch in class. I put the salad in my backpack and went up. I dropped by my professor's office and it turns out I didn't need what I thought I did so I had extra time. I walked to my class sat down and opened up my salad to eat it before class started.

It was right at this moment and earlier conversation I had had with my mom that flashed into my mind. We were at Wendy's several weeks ago and she talked about how the salads always have EXTRA WATER in them that she has to dump out so the dressing isn't runny. At the time I had said that I didn't care because I don't use dressing on my salads anyway. Well, I'm sure you've all already made the connection, but this time I CARED. The water had run out of the salad and onto the BRAND NEW set of scriptures I had purchased for my Sweetie. The bible is ok and the Book of Mormon only has water on the corner of some of the pages, but I am so upset by this.

I think I may be under some stress because after I got out of class I sat down in the sun to further inspect the damage and I started to cry. I don't know what to do. Do just give him the scriptures with water on them? Do I get a new Book of Mormon? If I get a new one then what do I do with this one? I thought I was done with this task! I'm just so upset right now. I tried calling my mom to vent about it and she isn't answering her phone, I tried calling Katie, but she never answers her phone and I can't very well vent to my Sweetie! Well, now I'm late for my next class so I'll just have to figure this out later.

2 Dozen

I was walking down the hall in the new JFSB after class today. All the doors were lining the sides. I was thinking about the next few days ahead of me when I suddenly felt a lot like Donald Duck in Mathemagic land. Not after he finally understands all the math around him. Do you remember right in the beginning when he feels totally surrounded by all these numbers and doors and had no idea where to go? Well, my life right now seems to be swirling with numbers

4-days of class left
2-statistics assignemnts still to finish
1-present still to buy
12-hours of lecutres still to sit through
2-final exams still to take
24-days until my wedding
227-dollars left in my bank account
1-present to return
20-pages of my final paper left to format
12-hours of work left to go to
1-final paper of someone else to grade
2-books to sell back
5-minutes of an oral presentation yet to write and give
5-days my granparents will be out of town
2-grades to recieve
10-days until I get to see my Sweetie

And only 1 me to live through it all.

Humor

Maybe it's just that I have a weird sense of humor, but I think that my Statistics professor is HILLARIOUS! Here is a sample of the things he's said (I hope they're still funny written down):

• This quote was taken as he was giving an exam review. A kid raised his hand to ask the steps to do a complicated problem. The professor didn't really want to go over that particular part and he said, "I'm just doing this general review because who knows what's on the test? Well, I do because I just wrote it, but you don't."
• "In statistics you want the truth, but you want the simplest form of the truth."
• This last quote was taken as we were discussing the use of some statistical tools. We wanted to know if our model matched and he was talking about experimenting until you were "happy" with the fit. Then he says, "We'll define happy later."

Anyway, I love sitting through that class just because it is so funny!

Passion

I would like all of you to think of the stereotypical redhead. Are you thinking about it? Good!

I was born the stereotypical redhead. I have the worst temper and I get SO PASSIONATE about things. Most of you that know me well know that I really can get more worked up about something than a lot of people. Over the years I have tried with all my might to control this. When I let myself get worked up nothing good comes of it. I always end up worse in the end than I was in the beginning. Why do I let myself get so upset at things?

Things that I am very passionate about:

• my family-this means that I am passionate about defending my family and that I am passionate when I am in fights with them
• my education-I have worked very hard to learn what I have learned and it gets me really upset when people de-value it
• my religion-it irks me when people de-value my religion or tell me why it's not true. I'm not of the opinion that I know all about my religion or that everyone not in my religion is going to hell or something. Just let me have my space and I'll let you have yours. In fact I find it simply amazing that most of the world's population has sought some sort of religion, even if it isn't mine.
• my person-perhaps this is just my insecurities, but when someone says even a joking comment about me I have such a hard time taking it (even if it is a joke)

In the end I have found that instead of controlling the emotion, which would probably be the best, I have to control the actions. When I get mad I have to just not say anything or step away for a while. It is better to let people just say what they want and stop trying to correct them. This may seem like giving up to some, but for me it has worked really, really well.

The only drawback to this is that days or even minutes later I think of a scathing comeback or remark that would totally make me win, but I've missed my opportunity. My most recent remark that I came up with correlated to a situation that happened over a year ago. Just so nobody thinks I'm that crazy, I wasn't mad about this thing for over a year. I just thought about the situation and realized the perfect response.

Some of this I wish I could change, in fact most of this I wish I could change. I'm not going to apologize about it though. I'm simply reporting the truth.

My Ear, Nose, and Throat Doctor

Last night I was laying in my bed, waiting for my Sweetie to call me back and my allergies kicked into overdrive. I'm not sure whether the situation could honestly be described by the fact that my allergies are always worse at night or that I finally slow down enough to notice them, and thus let them drive me absolutely insane.

Symptoms of my allergies (I'm not just trying to gross you out, I just thought the story would need this background):

• Red, itchy and sometimes puffy eyes (Yes, a kid in my english class this term did ask me what was wrong with my eye one day earlier this year when it had started to swell up)
• Very runny nose
• Sneezing (I always sneeze twice, everyone is always waiting for the third, but for me it never comes)
• Itchy mouth

If you don't have allergies imagine a really bad cold and then put on top of it the itchy mouth and the itchy eyes and you have the allergies. If you don't know what an itchy mouth is it is when the roof of your mouth way back in the soft pallete starts to itch. There's nothing you can do to scratch it. My sister makes this sound when she itches it with her tounge. It sounds just like a baby pig. Very classy, I know.

So anyway, last night I'm in my bed waiting for Daniel to call and my mouth starts itching. I start rubbing my tongue on it (the best way I know how to scratch it, even though it is pretty fruitless). Then the itch spreads to the front roof of my mouth. This rarely happens, but it's not unheard of.

Later the inside of my ear starts to itch. Yes, that's right the inside of my ear. This has never happened before so I got a little worried. I thought perhaps I had caught some sort of disease that makes the inside of your ear itch. I was worried that the itch would never go away. Maybe my hearing would be effected? Maybe it would make that ear produce enormous amounts of ear wax that would be an unsightly mess on the side of my head for the rest of my life? After maybe 2 minutes of this I was really nervous. (Yes, I know it takes me a long time to jump from minor itch to exotic disease. It runs in my family. Just ask my sister.) So I thought I needed to consult something or someone about this new problem of mine. I surly couldn't sleep wondering about this. So what did I do? I couldn't just run upstairs and get on my grandparent's internet for WebMD (my grandparents have the slowest internet. You still hear the dial up when you get on) I didn't have an ear, nose, and throat doctor at my services, but I did have an ear doctor! I called up my sister's boyfriend. We're getting to be pretty good pals so I thought it was ok to call him up and ask about any sort of medical condition. We had a nice chat and he gave me a good prognosis on my condition. He told me that it was probably just another symptom of my dreaded allergies and that I'd be fine. With all my worries about that put to rest I could have a lovely conversation with my Sweetie that night and then sleep soundly.

If anyone in my family has questions about the ear, from now on they know who to call. What a great resource.

Honorable Defeat

Well, I had a take home test that had a 4 hour time limit. I spent ALL FOUR HOURS on it and I still had about 2 hours of work left on it. While other students in the class may feel that the time limit was more of a suggestion, I just closed the program and printed off my work to turn in today. So I wont be getting a very good grade on the test, but at least I followed the directions.

Why do I feel so crappy about this still?

Emails

So yesterday I decided that I would write emails to my close friends and family just to get in touch with them. I wrote five emails....FIVE. This morning as I got to work I eagerly anticipated opening my emial account and getting at least one email in response. Nothing, just a little line from my mom in response to my little line to her. That's ok, I didn't give them a lot of time. Yesterday was Memorial Day so they were probably off doing stuff and it's early yet in the morning. Then after my shift was up I rushed to the computer at work to check my emails again and again a big dissapointment. Nothing, just my emials to myself about my school projects. This is lame. So there.

Bananas

This post is dedicated in its entirety to my new roommates:
Grandma Jane and Grandpa Mel

My grandparents are SO FUNNY! The highlight of my day is coming home for dinner. I wouldn't miss that if my grade depended on it (which is probably not the best place to have your priorities, but it's the truth). I can't possibly write all the funny stories that have happened since I've moved in, but I thought I'd write one from tonight.
My grandparents are avid bird watchers. They microwave different varieties of birdseed (if you microwave it the seeds wont sprout in your garden if they fall) and put it out all over the yard so that the birds will come. They also have a bird bath and several bird houses. Anyway, during dinner and really anytime they are in the sun room they look for and comment on the birds. Tonight was no exception.
Jane: "Look there's two (insert type of bird here) fighting in our yard."
Mel: "It's not that Season Jane."

So it may not be as funny written down, but let me assure you the comedic timing was PERFECT! If you don't get it he was referencing that the birds were mating it being Spring and all. We all had a laugh over that one. Here's another sample of the evening's conversation about birds (pardon the swearing as these are direct quotes):
Jane: "Look at that bird shit on our window! It's all over the window!"(Its really only in one spot)
Mel: "That's nature mother." (Sometimes grandpa calls grandma "mother". It's cute)
Me: "Yeah, I have bird poop all over my car because you have so many birds in that tree."
Jane: "Well, I understand that. Them sitting there and pooping, but not on my window. And so much of it too!"
Me: "Well, birds can fly and poop at the same time."
Jane: "Maybe the bird was flying and had to turn around quick" (or run into the window)
Mel: "Must have scared himself shitless."

You may be wondering why the title of this post is "Bananas" well it's in reference to my grandma being a trivia buff. She LOVES to know pieces of trivia especially if it's about being healthy. Because of this during dinner last night she whips out, "Bananas are supposed to be the best fruit for you in terms of vitamins and minerals per calorie." Yes, that comment came out of nowhere! She just remembers this stuff all on her own. This amazes me because she's always saying how she can't remember anything. She says that she can't remember how to work this or that. She says she can't think of the persons name. Why then I ask you can she always tell you what foods you should eat and why you should eat them (even if you already know that)?

Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed my post as much as I have enjoyed living with my grandparents. They are AMAZING!

The Moon Shots

Last weekend my Sweetie flew down to see me and we went camping with my sister, the ear doctor, and all of Katie's BYU engineering friends. I think her friends are really nice. It was a lot of fun to be there. I wish I didn't have to go. Here are the highlights of the trip.

• I found out all about ears from the ear doctor. Did you know that cotton and ear wax and water hardens up to make a brick like substance in your ear? GROSS. I think I'm off of Q-tips forever.
• I got to see Derek again. Man that kid is funny! He decided the last morning that he was going to light a whole bunch of matches--in his mouth! It was awesome.
• I got to hear the story of how my sister and the ear doctor met. You'd think I would know this by now, but I didn't. He likes to talk and I like to listen so we work well together.
• When Daniel and I got there Friday we got to spend about an hour together just laying in the grass (in the shade of course) talking and laughing. It was fun to have that time with him.
• Daniel didn't get mad at me for sleeping half the way home. He is such an understanding kid! He has basically come to accept that he will be driving 95% of our marriage. I love him
• Daniel and I spent Sunday night with my Grandma Margie and she was SO FUNNY! We had a blast and laughed the whole evening.
• This last one actually happened last night, but the ear doctor called to tell me he had photos of my car on his developed film (my car was clipped by an RV). Man that kid is funny.

Anyway, I also found out that the ear doctor will be making it to my wedding! How great! I hope he likes it! I'm pretty sad that his moon shots didn't turn out.

PS. This post probably didn't do justice to how great the weekend was.

Be There

Through a series of events the past couple of days I've been reminded of a very important lesson. Sometimes it's not so important what you say or what you do--just so that you be there. I've realized how important it is for me to be there for people that I care about and for me to have people be there for me.

• Sometimes to be there means to just talk and talk and talk about nothing. Tell the story of the silly thing that happened today.
• Sometimes you just have to sit and listen. Don't move, don't speak, don't analyze.
• A warm arm and a good hug. A shoulder to cry on.
• Someone that can look through the situation and see the good.
• Sometimes it means the most that you drop what you are doing when someone you care about needs you.
• Sometimes to be there really means to run as fast as you can to get to that person.
• When someone sits on the phone with nothing to say, but will just stay there late into the night and on into the morning. They are there for you.

These are only a few things that I can think of right now. I guess what I'm trying to say is that my hope is that I can continue to be there for the people I care about and that I will be able to thank those that have cared enough to be there for me. You know who you are, and I love you all!