Refresh

Last weekend was AMAZING! And it gave me enough energy to catch this blog up with my life. So here goes:

• I realized this weekend that I was more excited to see my family than getting out of Corvallis or anything we were doing. The amazing part is that I was thinking of them as my family, not my husband's. I was excited to see everyone and just listen to their stories and hang out.
• The wedding was so much fun! Definitely not traditional, but when thinking of the bride and the groom, nobody would expect traditional. The weather was great and we just sat around on the river bed with a camp fire and ate amazing food. The downside is now I have to clean everything I brought because the smell of camp fire smoke filled my entire bag. The upside is that they had a side dish that was DIVINE! Pastry crust on the bottom with a cream cheese mixture above that and topped with broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots. It was so good I made myself sick on it. Thinking back I should have asked for the recipe, but as I didn't know anyone there or who fixed it I wasn't inclined to ask.
• I have finally come to grips with not knowing about Loma Linda. The Logan plan is a good back-up and I like it because it's safe. Loma Linda could be fun though. The only downside is that I have no idea how to look for a food science job in California. On the other hand, I don't really HAVE to get a food science job. Maybe it would be nice to take some time off like genius, that way I could get my footings under me before I decide my next move.
• I was watching the food network yesterday (I only get to do this when my husband is busy with something else. For some reason his love of food only goes so far as eating it--not preparing it or knowing anything else about it. Maybe that's why he's so forgiving when I get thinking about other things while making dinner and mess it up.) Anyway, I was watching the food network yesterday and I decided that a new knife would be great! We got our knives that we have now for our wedding and they're nice, it's just that they're serrated which means that it doesn't cut just up and down. It's a hassle and I wish I had a really sharp knife for chopping veggies and the like.
• Today the weather was is so nice that I wore a dress to school. This is great! I love it. All except for the part that I burnt my chest just walking from my apartment to class. I guess it's time for SPF 50!
• I was thinking about money the other day and how I don't like to spend any of it now that I'm married and sometimes I blame it on me being married. I realized this weekend, that's not true. I wouldn't be blowing money on fun stuff right now even if I weren't married. Granted when I was single it was easier to just blow $40 on a really REALLY cute shirt, but I only did that if I had the money. I knew if I did that how long it would be to the next paycheck and if I could make it on the money left over. If I didn't know all that stuff I wouldn't buy it. That's just how I was raised. You only spend money if you are really sure where its coming from and that you have it already. That's how my whole family is (well, not my dad, as much).
  
• Speaking of how I was raised, I think my sister is right about my need to do everything for this class because it's a list. I love lists. I love checking things off lists. The best thing is to put everything you do in a day on a list and then checking them off. The worst feeling is not getting to check something off. It gives me just as much satisfaction to check of, say, "eat breakfast", as much as "write 10 page research report."
• Now that the sun is out I'm bringing my houseplants out to see the sun (I have a cactus, a spiky plant that I don't know the name of, a primrose, and ranuculs). They all looked cute on the front steps of our apartment. One of the best feelings in the world is to discover some new growth on plants that you've been taking care of. My mom sticks with flowering plants, but I like my cactus just as much as my primrose, maybe a little more since it has been with me longer.
  

That's about it for now I guess.

Leaving

This weekend I'm leaving Corvallis!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This has made me so overcome with joy that I'm going nutty. I have about three things to do on campus and I'm going to blow them off to go home and pack. Also I'm going to clean. Here is my opinion on the condition to leave a house/apartment in. I hate coming back from a trip to a messy house. Usually I don't even want to be coming home at all so coming back to a mess that I have to clean up is the pits. That is why the day I leave for a trip (big or small) I run around like a mad person cleaning everything. My husband is not of this same frame of mind. What are your opinions?

Wine Pairing

So in sensory evaluation class today we have a guest lecturer talking about wine pairing (that means what wine goes with what food). I informed my prof that I don't drink and she said, "That's ok, just go and enjoy the session." This means that I don't have to drink. That wasn't really my concern though as I knew I would be drinking whatever she said. My question is who would think that someone that doesn't drink and is never around alcohol would "enjoy" a lecture about wine pairing? I have no idea what it means to have a wine tannin be over-powering. How does a "nutty" wine taste? Or a buttery wine? I know what grapes taste like and I know what butter tastes like, but I assume that's not really what the wine tastes like. If it were, that would be gross. Now we're going in for an activity, which I assume is drinking wine, describing it and eventually matching it with food. At least I can eat the food so I guess all is not lost.

Mediocre

I'm taking this class pass/fail because I need the bacc. core requirement to graduate, but I don't need any more credits than I already have. You'd think this would make me relax about the class. It's a 100 point class so I only need to get 70 of the points. I thought this would be great because I wouldn't have to work as hard. Now I am finding out that I have this insane drive to do the checklist of things the professor posts each week. This would mean that I'm getting a 100% so far. I sometimes have to stop myself from doing the work and tell myself I'll get the same grade if I get a 70% as if I got a 100% so I should just slack off. It surprises me that I'm having trouble slacking off. I would never have predicted this outcome.

Is it really that odd?

So I was waiting for my lab to start today in the student lounge in our department with a group of about six of my classmates. A friend there that likes to bring up my religion brought it up again. This wasn't a big deal. Today though somebody started talking about how one of their Mormon friends got married and she couldn't go to the ceremony. Then someone said, "I heard that once you get married you wear special Mormon underwear." To that I replied, "It has nothing to do with getting married, but yes we do have special underwear." After that comment complete silence filled the room. I then said, "It's not that wierd, I'm wearing it now and you wouldn't even know unless I told you." Complete silence again and then a girl said, "Awkward moment." Then we just changed the subject. Man that made me feel really weird and then frustrated at my inability to explain myself. I knew they all thought I was some sort of sketchy person that wore weird undies. After thinking about it though I still think they shouldn't have thought it was so weird. Like Heather, my friend said, nuns wear special clothing to show their devotion to God and their covenants with him. I also though about the Jewish religion that wears special clothing to show respect for and devotion to God. The Sikh religion has five different articles of clothing that they wear as part of their religion. I'm sure that none of the kids in the room are bothered by any of those items. They understand them because they've encountered them before and they can see them. The only thing that makes them think its weird for me is that they've never seen it. So my devotion is on the inside not the outside. Is that really all that odd? I don't think so. Do you?

Because I don't.

Drivin' Me Nuts!

So just about every major life decision has been dropped in my lap in the last year. I got married last summer. Also now we need to decide what we're going to do about moving, going to medical school, taking a year off, having a family, and on top of that I need to take 19 credits successfully, and finish my extra work in order to graduate.

None of this would really be all that bad if I could just make the decision and live with it. The problem comes in the indecision. We found out yesterday that we probably wont hear anything from Loma Linda until the middle of May! The national deadline to declare what school you're going to attend is May 15th and we wont even hear from Loma Linda until the middle of May. Plus, we're deciding if we want to take the year off and spend it in Logan so Dan can get some research experience. That would look good on his application next year. One minute I want to go to Loma Linda and he wants to stay in Logan. Just when I decide that it may be a good thing to go to Logan, he's really wanting to get accepted to Loma Linda and head there! And I'm supposed to go to school like this? I don't think so.

Anyway I don't have time to think about all that today because I have tons of schoolwork to do. Maybe the school work is keeping me sane. I can't think about how I have no concrete plans for my life after June because getting to June will be hard enough.

The Goal

I just read my sister's post about goals and it made me think. I may not necessairly know what my sister's goals are right now, but I am always inspired by her drive for them. My goals right now are pretty concrete, I know what they are and I know why I made them that way. My frustration is that I'm not as driven. I have these great goals, but right before I get to the finish line I'm ready to give up and scrap the whole thing. I feel like since I got back from Spring Break I've worked as hard as I possibly can both academically, and emotionally, but I don't seem to be getting anywhere. I can't float up for a breather because if I do something wont get done and not doing just ONE of those things could be the difference between achieving my goals and failure. I hate this situation. I like my work, I like my goals, I like where I am, I just don't like the pressure to be so driven. It feels like I might miss something pretty important on my way to success. I'm not sure what that it, or even if it exists, but I'm still upset about it. Oh well, at least it's semi-sunny today and I'm wearing a cute outfit.

Who wants that anyway?

Well yesterday my husband got a rejection from Creighton. Who wants to go there anyway? We're down to the last straw and I'm starting to get nervous.

The Computer

So I'm taking a women's study course. I have to if I want to graduate. At first I wasn't really happy about this for many reasons. I will list them below:

• It's only a bacc core class and I don't feel this particualr category should be mandatory. That or I feel that they should have taken something from my BYU credits and said I didn't have to fulfill this requirement.
  
• I know that my personal views on what I want to do with my life and what is the best course of action as far as the family/carrer decision is concerned are drastically different than the major population of the women's study program, if not OSU in general.
• I would really rather NOT debate these views with agressive people. I have learned, especially in the last few years in college, it is better to steer clear of the agressive "debators" when talking about subjects they are passionate about. Perhaps also it is best to steer clear of the debate when its something I am passionate about.
• I have to post comments on the disscussion board for EVERY CHAPTER. This means I have to write personal insights, which leads me to believe that there will be no avioding a debate about my views.

So these are all negatives to this class, but I am keeping an open mind about it too. There are several things that have caught my attention and I am looking forward to. They are as follows:

• Our textbook is all about questioning whether being technologically advanced really means having an advanced society. This is a question that has been presented to me before, but never really vocalized so clearly and precisely. I'd like to hear more about these theories.
• Also we have six projects to complete that use technology in different ways. At first I was unhappy about this, but then I realized that these will be easy projects and they're just designed to get us into the technology and explore. That's easy enough. Plus, they're things I either already know how to do or have always wanted to know how to do.
• The text has a whole section focusing on technology in the home. In the introduction it talked about how there has been great advances in home technology ( something as basic as the washing machiene) to help with housework, and yet women still spend as much time cleaning the home now as they did 50 years ago. Why is that? I'd really like to know that answer.

So anyway, the jury's out on this whole class. I'll tell you what I think later. I probably shouldn't have used bullets for this, but oh well.

The Pope, The Love, The Let Down

Well, I haven't posted this past week because I was up in Puyallup looking after my two nieces while my family was in England. I will have to say that it was TONS of fun! I enjoyed myself immensely. I realized that you don't have to have things planned to have fun with kids/pre-teens, you just need to be creative. One day we went to the park and found a little stream. We decided it needed boats to float down it so we went home and made boats a couple of days later out of cardboard, aluminum foil, plastic wrap, popsicle sticks (yes we had to eat two popsicles each and that's why it took a couple of days to make the boat), glue, and wax paper. They were great fun!

Also I learned the real reason that Santa lives in the North Pole is to escape from the hammer head sharks. They can attack people and hurt them a lot/kill them, but they can't live in cold water. Naturally it follows that Santa is one smart cookie for living in the North Pole.

I also forgot to post earlier that I found out my friend Holly is getting married to her highschool sweetheart in September! YEAH! I hope I can attend!

Just a little tidbit, I found a lovely photo of the pope on my brother's fridge. Kind of confusing, but whatever.

Lastly, my husband heard back the final decision from UW the other day. He's an excellent candidate, but the competition was tough this year so they can't accept him or put him on an alternate list. What a let down! My initial, and childish reaction was, "UW is stupid! Who wants to go there anyway!" I almost cried on my train ride home, but I was surrounded by very chatty women so I didn't really get a chance to worry too much. Today, after digesting the news, my Sweetie said to me, "I didn't really feel like I was going to get in there. When I went to Loma Linda I really felt good about everything." So obviously we've moved our sights to California. (Not my favorite, but I'm pretty sure it's better than living in Nebraska. Although I've never lived in either place.) It would have been better to know about his thoughts and feelings earlier so I didn't invest so much energy in UW! I had already made plans in my head and I had to put them aside. Still I know that we're doing the right thing with our life and it will work out for the best no matter where we go. The worst part of the whole thing was that my family was out of the country so I couldn't call any of them!

Speaking of the train I was supposed to get from Tacoma to Albany at 7 pm last night. Guess what time I got in. 10pm! Yes, I was on the train from 2:30 to 10 yesterday. This is because we got stopped by all conceivable traffic. We stopped 5 times for freight trains to pass! Also we had to stop because a bridge had been lifted to let a tug boat through. For about an hour we had to go around 10 mph because we were following another stupid train. And to top it all off we had to stop because there was a woman laying on the tracks! Well, I'm glad we were able to stop on that last one, but all the others I could have skipped. At least I was sitting by some fun and interesting people! Plus there was a lounge car where I bought some cranberry juice.

To end on a good note, I realized when I got home how much I love my husband. Last night he was pretty much as down as he could be, and yet he was still the greatest person ever in my eyes. He is so great! I love him so much and I'm so glad to know I made the right decision when I married him!

The Mandolin?

So I ended up getting some money for my birthday. Quite a bit more than I thought I would actually. I have enough to realistically LOOK at purchasing a mandolin. I decided I wanted to learn the mandolin a while ago, but figured it would come in the future, after all the other things I wanted. Now I have enough not to fully purchase one, but I bet I could look around and I would only have to save up for a couple of months or something like that. Plus, my sweet, sweet husband said, "Well we did just get our tax returns." When I brought up the idea. I'm super excited, but here is what's keeping me from right out doing this.

1. I really want to buy a new pair of shoes to wear with my new Sunday outfit my sister bought me. Brown, leather, nice for Sunday. I haven't looked around yet, but I'm sure that would take up a big hunk of change.
2. If I get the mandolin I will really need to be serious about learning it. Yes, I would do it, but it is a pretty big commitment.

So here's the question. Are those two hang-ups justified or should I just move ahead with the mandolin idea?

So Blessed

Yesterday was my birthday and my family did what they always do. They make a big, big deal about the whole day. It's like Valentine's Day just for one person. When it is a person's birthday it is the day for everyone to tell them how much they love and appreciate them. Also, that they are happy to have that person as a part of thier life. I think more than anything that is my favorite thing about birthdays in general (not necessarily my own, although it was pretty nice). I like to make a big deal about that day for people. I like to call all day long and continually sing happy birthday.

It reminds me of when my sister and her boyfriend were with us on a family trip during his birthday. He's not technically part of the family (yet?) but we all LOVE the kid (I guess he's not technically a kid as he is older than me). So anyway, we spent the day doing things that he really wanted to do in Seattle, we went to pike place market, and to the original Ivar's on the pier for lunch and my dad bought him a hat with original "artwork" on it with something to do with ear doctors. Also we had one of those guys that make balloon animals make him a balloon hat. There were a ton of other things. We continually burst out into the happy birthday song so that everyone would know that it was his special day. I don't know if it overwhelmed him or not, my sister said he liked it. It was just good to let him know that we appreciate him and that we love him not only for who he is, but also for how happy he makes my sister.

Going back to the title of this post, I am so blessed to have a family that thinks this is important. My mom called me about 20 times my dad two separate times from my mom and my sister 2 times and my brother even sang on the voice mail for me. My husband made me a pancake cake and we ate it together in the morning. Anyway, I just wanted to say that I am so blessed to have a family that loves me so much!

Carried Away

Last night I fell in love, again. My husband and I had to go grocery shopping. We were in the car and he was singing along to his CD and we stopped at a red light. Right then he looked at me and sang the rest of the song just for me. It was some romantic song and we were sitting there in the soft red glow of the stop light and I just fell in love again. It's cheesy, I know. Later that night he turned to me and said, "You are the most beautiful woman I know. I love you." Who wouldn't love a man like that? I am so blessed! I love him bunches and bunches.

Ah-ha!

I just found out that one of my finals is optional! (Translation, I'm not taking one of my finals!) That means that for the six classes I'm currently taking I only have two finals! Only one of those finals do I really even need to study for. Man I love OSU sometimes!

Sake

I think that after graduating from Oregon State University I will know more about alcohol and alcoholic beverages than the vast majority of drinkers! My class last friday was about Sake (rice wine) and I learned all about how it is made and what is in it and why people don't like it unless it's really fresh. I'm also learning about wine and a little (very little) about beer. I find it to be very interesting, even though I'm not going to consume any of it.

Yet another reason

Today for the last lab of the term for my food formulation all we did was make our own flavored dairy blend! They just gave us all the ingredients and said have at it and the best one wins! (For anyone who doesn't know an example of a flavored dairy blend is a fruit smoothie). Our group never quite got the beverage tasting quite right. It tasted like grape laffy taffy, which is good if you're marketing it to kids. That's why we called ours pirate juice. My favorite came from another group that did a strawberry lemonade smoothie! It tasted like those italian ices. The last bit of class we got to taste everyone's! No grades, no pressure, just fun.

Wow

Well today I have gotten the worst grade on a test since I think my sophmore year. The worst part is that I KNEW what I was doing, but I got freaked out because the time and just lost my mind. I got it back today and just hung my head because it was that bad. Oh well. One week until I'm done with that class. Plus, the other two tests so far I've gotten a 94 and 82 percent. No worries.

Kitchenaid

Dear Kitchenaid,
I am very dissapointed in you. I can't believe that my mixer cost $89 to fix and still isn't even fixed! When I called your customer service line all they could say was that my problem shouldn't be happening and that something was wrong but that you could do NOTHING! I don't believe that it only had a six month warranty! I don't care what model you sell if it's going to cost as much money as I'm sure it did I don't think you should only cover it for six months! Now I can't do the one thing that I really like to do with the mixer! I should have just saved the $89 and spent it on an appliance that a different company would stand behind! Why did this happen to my mixer and not my mom's or my sister's or my mother-in-law's? What a load of crap!

Sincerely,
Unhappy Customer

The Squirrel

We live in the first floor of the apartment complex. The windows are at ground level. We have a bird feeder that sits on the ground right outside of the window. It's great. We see birds all the time. Last week I opened the blinds to see a squirrel munching on our birdfood. I tapped on the window. The squirrel ran away. I did this with the squirrel for the next hour. Finally he didn't come back again.

Until the next day.

So I moved the bird feeder to inside this bush so he couldn't find it.

He found it.

All the bird seed is gone. I was very angry with the squirrel. I spent days making sure the squirrel wasn't getting the food. I think he stole it at night. I decided to stop putting out birdseed for the squirrel.

Jump forward to today. I woke up and looked outside and there was snow on the ground. The only good thing you can say about Oregon weather is that it doesn't snow. Until now. It's the worst kind of sloppy, dripping off the trees down the back of your neck kind of snow. It melted. Then it snowed again this afternoon. The weatherman says it's going to do this all weekend.

At first I was just upset for myself. Then I thought of the squirrel. Outside, in the snow. Now there's a pile of birdseed outside our window.

Conundrum

I just got back the grade for my lab notebook. I knew it wasn't going to be that good because I actually forgot part of the way through the term that I needed to be taking notes in it. Consequently I had to go back and fill in a lot of holes. Well, my grade was worse than expected. Much, much worse. While looking at the rubric for grading (which was not handed out before the assignment, and thus I find to be a mean, mean trick) I see that I got marked down for things I CLEARLY included in my notebook. I can go through and highlight sections of included information and whatnot. Should I:

1. Go in and argue for those 8 points back, even though my grade on the notebook would still be bad. These 8 points could mean the difference between an A and a B (I don't count -/+ since that was never counted while I was growing up).
   
2. Figure that getting a B in the class is just fine since all I have to do is graduate. Let the whole thing go and ignore the headache. Plus I hate to be the person that argues for points back. It just makes me feel like a leech.

I have the remainder of the week to decide so any input would be greatly appreciated.

Ferocious

Last weekend was Vert Fest, a climbing competition on campus, which is put on by Dickson Rec. My husband, being a worker for the rock gym, was involved in setting the routes for the competition. This meant that he wasn't home Thursday or Friday.

On Thursday he was planning on going into work at noon so he could get off about 7 to study for his midterm the next day. This would have been a great plan if there were other people working with him and if the people the night before had taken down holds. Well, nobody had done anything when he got in and nobody else came into help him work for five hours. He was alone, taking down holds and putting up routes for five hours. Because of his sense of responsiblity and comittment (which I admire very much) he stayed unitl the job that needed to get done was completed on Thursday. That meant he was working until 10pm on Thursday. This got him angry because he didn't get the time he needed to study for his midterm. He called other people to come in, namely the guy that was supposed to be there with him, but that guy didn't answer his phone. So he called a girl that he works with that said the other guy had a midterm he was really stressed about the next day so he wasn't even answering his cell phone!!!!

Now hearing this of course made him angry, because he had a test the next day too, but he was in doing his job. When my husband told me this story I was immediately very angry with the kid. I think he took advantage of my husband's sense of responsiblity. That kid knew he had this midterm since JANUARY. He also knew when vert fest was. He should have planned for both. When I was talking to another kid at the gym about this he said, "Yeah, but that's (insert kids name here)." That is not an excuse! Apparently that kid is so undependable that the people around him expect him to let them down. Well, my husband got over it and went to work the next day just fine. I on the other hand sort of don't really want to talk to this kid ever again, which is a real problem because when we go climbing he's always working.

So I realize that I get very defensive of people I love. When I feel people are taking advantage or hurting the people I love I get angry and don't really like those people anymore. Well that's not true, but it really does ruin the opinion I have of them.

The other day my sister told me about someone that hurt/is hurting her right now and doing something I feel is very selfish and stupid. It reminds me of what happened to me in high school with some of my friends. This makes me very upset at this person. I realize that Kaite might figure it out with this person, but I think they're stupid for treating her this way.

Countdown

So if I discount the rest of this week. And finals week (which for me is really only finals DAY).

I only have two weeks left of this term!!!!!

Not that I don't enjoy what I'm studying. Actually this term has been one of the most interesting terms I've ever had. Ever! Next term I bet will be just as good. The real excitement is that in total I only have 12 weeks left of my undergraduate carreer! (Again not counting the two finals weeks.) I am so close to my prize! What I will do with that I have no idea, but it feels good to know that my work for the past, hmm, 16 years of my life will finally have a crowning accomplishment. I will be a college graduate! Now all I have to do is just get it done!

One Year

The summer after fourth grade my family moved. I think this ended up being one of the best experiences I went through as a child, although at the time I didn't really like it. I can always hear my mom say, "Give it a year. Then it will feel like home." A year seems like a long time, but after a year you're no longer the new kid, you have friends and you know where everything is at school. Your bedroom actually feels like its yours, and the yard starts to grow in right.

Going to college was sort of the same thing--only I had forgotten about the "one year" rule. It was never until the second half of the school year that I finally felt at home in my new living situation. I guess I'm a little slower than others in that it took me until the second half of the school year to feel like I had friends wherever it was I was living (except of course for those that stayed with me the whole time.)

Transferring schools this year is yet another prime example of the "one year" situation. The whole first term I felt really bad about not being at BYU for my senior year, even though I agreed to it. I tried, with varying degrees of success to just deal with it and be happy. I realized this weekend that I finally feel as though I fit in at Oregon State. I have friends in my major that I study with and I know where to go for most things I need. Although I'm not going to graduate with a group of friends as close as my sister did, I do know people that I can sit by and talk to.

The kicker really is that I'm moving in just four months. After that who knows where I'll live? If we get into UW then I'll live in Pullman for less than a year and then in Seattle. At least in Seattle I will live there for about three years. I wonder if there's a way to speed up the "one year" rule?

Accomplished

I woke up at 6:30 AM this morning like I do almost every weekday. My mind was tired because it was working on my homework all night. I've had this happen as long as I can remember. When I go to bed with schoolwork yet to do, my mind churns with the thought of it. Even when I fall asleep the figures and statements still run through my head. I had a paper to write. This paper has been on my mind all week, but I haven't had time to do it because other homework assignments, and a midterm today to study for have been more pressing. It is due by 5 PM today. I was nervous I wouldn't get it done so I thought I'd just get up and go to the library to finish it right off. That's when I found out how different this morning would be.

This morning I was at the library at 7:30 AM, right when it opens. My walk surprised me because the sun was out. I saw all the flowers blooming on campus and I arrived at the library relatively free of stress. I checked out a laptop so I wouldn't have to be in the computer section which is always noisy because it's not a designated quiet area and inevitably I end up stuck next to someone that wants to chat on their cell phone for about an hour.

This morning I went up to the sixth floor. I think I was the first person on the sixth floor today. I found my way to the south east corner of the building, as far away from the entrance as you can get. It is there that I found my glory seat. It is quiet and I'm alone. I am sitting right now looking out onto the bluest sky I've seen this term. I saw the sun rise. The geese flew in their perfect v towards some unknown watery destination. The flag flying above city hall has gone from the rosy hues of the morning to the sharper image waving in the breeze. I enjoyed this while writing, but best of all I look apon this picturesque scene after having finished my paper. Yes, it's only 10AM and my paper is done. Abstract to conclusion.

Now as I sit and listen I hear the sounds of the day have started. There are big semi trucks roaring along the street below, motorcycles and cars rush up and down the street in their hurry to get where they need to go, and some other students have come up to the sixth floor to study. Their quiet page turning and pencil scratching can just be heard above the sound from the trucks below. I have much yet to do today, but I think I just might take this little moment to relax. Breathe deep. Enjoy.

Best and Worst

One of the best things about Oregon State is the huge amount of laptops they have at the checkout desk in the library that you can check out for a couple of hours like a book (only it has to stay in the library). All of them have wireless internet acess and are really nice. I think that's one of the best things about OSU.

One of the worst is that for some reason the people that planned the campus thought it would be a good idea to build the main campus downwind from the barns for the agricultural students. Also the agricultural students find it necessary to air out the barns about once a month and the campus smells like cow poo for 3 to 4 days.

Gutherie

My husband and I played some songs at the institute talent show. Banjo and fiddle. Now all these bluegrass people are coming out of the woodwork.

That night we talked to this other kid from the institute who knows about this little place in Gutherie that has a one room school house that is converted to a music hall. Every friday night people from all around just come together for a bluegrass jam session. All the musicians pull out their instruments and sit in a circle and take turns shouting out songs to play or even just start playing them. The other musicians join in and you're welcome to join in too. If you don't know a song you can just sit and watch everybody else play. There are other people that come and just listen and dance and generally have a good time. Everyone brings refreshments to eat and be eaten by others.

We went with our friend last Friday. I didn't bring my instrument because I'm a sissy and just wanted to see what it was like before jumping on in. I sat next to the gossip of the hall that goes every week and had a blast learning about her and just about everyone else in the room. There were so many different types of people, professors, plumbers, electricians, young couples, kids, and grandparents. I danced with a little 3 year old boy and also waltzed with an elderly gentleman. I even got in a little clogging on one of the songs. I have never been winked at so many times in one evening! It was great! I loved it!

So my question is who doesn't like this sort of thing? The lady I was talking to said that some wives of the musicians don't go because they don't like it. What's not to like? Just go and enjoy!

Take That!

So I'm taking this food formulation chemistry class where we take apart a juice beverage and analyze all the macro components and then eventually put all the information together to synthesize a formula for a replicate. So in this class we have TONS of extra reading to do and extra study to do. There was so much that I felt overwhelmed. In the first week of class I asked the the professor how important that extra reading was and he said, "You would need to do it if you want an A in the class or on the tests." Interpretation to my ears, "No." I decided not to do the extra reading. Because of this I studied the class notes really hard before the test and expected to get about a B on the test. Today I got it back from him and I got a 94.5% and he said, "I can really tell you studied Maggie." I said, "Yes I did," because I did study, just not the extra outside readings--and I still got an A! Take that!

On Another Note

Once a week for two weeks now I have been awakened at 5AM by the people living in the apartment above us having sex. Yes, that's right. They're not quick about it either. Their bed is so loud as to wake me up. Last night the bouncing went on for an hour! They really need a new bed. One that doesn't sound like small children jumping on a rusty trampoline.

Oh nuts!

Everytime we go grocery shopping we pass the aisle with the planter's honey roasted peanuts. I always make a comment about how much I love them, but we never get them because well they're just treats and we don't need them.

All day yesterday I was wondering what my Sweetie would get me after our two talks about presents. He's been so busy lately when would he even have time to get me anything? Well, he certainly does know me well! He had gone grocery shopping on his own! (A gift in and of itself.) And purchased me two types of cold cereal and honey roasted peanuts!

These presents may not seem like much to all of you readers out there, but considering our lack of money right now it almost made me cry. He really thought about getting me something! It was way better than candy, flowers, or anything else really. His presents are always winners!

I don't even Mind

Well it's Saturday. Do you know what that means? Yep! You guessed it! I'm studying in the library. Normally this would really bum me (and it sort of does), but I don't even really mind right now. These are the reasons why:

• Yesterday my husband and I took half the day off and went up to the temple in Portland and picked up my Kitchenaid mixer from the shop and spent the afternoon together.
• Also yesterday we played for the institute talent show. He played his banjo and I played the fiddle for "Cripple Creek" and "Cotton Eyed Joe." We rocked! Also we talked to a guy in the other ward that just got a mandolin for Christmas and next weekend we are going out to "The Grange" which is this old one room school house that people in this area get together and play bluegrass. I'm a little nervous about doing this as I'm not to confident in my fiddle abilities and I don't know any songs, but the kid said that the old people there are more than happy to help you learn the standard songs.
• I cleaned my whole apartment on Thursday. Sort of a Spring clean type of thing as I also went through my closet to sort out the clothing that I no longer wear to give it to the goodwill. If I'm not wearing it then it really should go to help someone else. Normally I would give it to the ARC, but I don't know where one is or who to call to have it picked up so it's going to the goodwill.
• I didn't study for my test on Monday all that much this week so I have to study to even think of passing it. This reminds me of when I was at BYU and would spend a Saturday studying organic chemistry for hours just to try and pass a test.
  
• Nobody is in this library on Saturdays so I actually have a chance of finding a quiet place to study. Which I would normally have no hope of finding since there are only two designated quiet areas in the whole stinking library. The rest of the place people chat uninterrupted. It drives me nuts.

So all in all I'm not too bummed about having to study today. Plus I'm studying interesting stuff. All the components on how to formulate a juice beverage that matches one currently on the market. Its pretty cool.

Passion and Presents

My husband and I had a short talk the other day. It went a little something like this:

Me: "So are we going to get each other Valentine's presents or not?" (Sort of a negative tone in my voice meaning that it would be ok if he said no.)
Him: "Oh, Umm...no."
Me: "I didn't figure we had the money to spend on that kind of thing."
Him: "Yeah."

That was the end of it. Or was it?

The more I thought about it the more I wanted a present. Not something huge, just maybe some flowers or something that says he loves me. Then I felt guilty because I wanted a present. We really don't have the money. I mean we could get by with spending a little, but it would probably be better spent on other frivilous things. Like food, and hot water.

So anyway the more I felt guilty the more I really secretly wanted a present. Then I thought that maybe he would be totally romantic and get me something anyway. (Katie's boyfriend is always doing that sort of thing for her! Maybe my husband will do that for me!) Then I came to reality and realized he's not really into presents. It isn't a big deal to him. He doesn't really care about me giving him a present, but he might just decide that I should get one. The more I thought about this idea the more I liked it. It lifted my spirits! I was loving him more already! Until I realized that although he may have spontaneously decided to get me a present for Valentine's before our talk, after there was no way he would do it. I realized that pretending he might do it would just set me up for failure and make him really mad because we had already agreed on no presents. So here I am, wanting a present, feeling guilty, and now depressed that my husband wont be so romantic and get me something anyway.

Yesterday I decided something that I consider very mature of me. I decided to stop all the fallderall and just tell him that I really do want a present, no matter how selfish it sounds. The conversation went like this.

Me: "I know we said no presents, but I actually would like something."
Him: "Ok"
Me: "I know we don't have a lot of money to spend so it can be really little. Like less than $5. Just so that its something. Do you want anything?"
Him: "Not really"

The differences between the two of us are rather amusing sometimes.

100 %

I made myself a goal on the second week of school this term. That goal was to have 100% attendance for one week of class. That means going to all my classes. This may not seem like a big goal to many of you (my sister), but for me it is. When I have deemed something not necessary I have a very hard time actually going. Like today for example, my recitation was going over a homwork set we turned in last week. I got a 100% on the homework set so going over all the questions again is not necessary.

It is now the fourth week of the term. Up until now I have not reached my goal. One week I got a migraine in the middle and the other well, I sort of forgot I was taking one of my classes. This week I decdied it was my week to shine. Today was almost my downfall. I stayed up pretty late studying last night for a test today and I was incredibly tired. I didn't want to go to my recitation because I felt my time would be better spent sleeping. As a motivational tool I told myself that if I finally reached my goal of 100% attendance I would make some homemade brownies tonight as a treat. YEAH for me! I just went to my final class of the week (in which we took a test so its not like that was an option). Now I get to have some brownies! When I told my husband he said, "Does having 100% attendance for four weeks earn me some brownies?" I told him no because 100% attendance wasn't something new and different for him.

Italicized

Today I'm wearing my "Bring on the Heat" T-shirt, hereafter it will be referred to as my lucky shirt. Today has been a great day! I got to sleep in all the way until 7:30 this morning! I also had absolutely no complications during my chemistry lab today! I used atomic absorption to correctly tell the concentration of copper in my unknown sample perfectly the very first time! No little wizard picture on the computer telling me to go back and do everything again to figure out my mistake! NOT TODAY MISTER! 100%! A+! First try! I had a good lunch consisting of an open face pork sandwich (leftovers from last night's post roast) with gravy drizzled all over so that it soaked into the bread. Yumm! Then I got a little nap in. When I woke up and walked back to my class I felt on top of the world. Not just good. You know how some days you feel as though you could conquer the world while wearing high heels, make it look incredibly good and still have time to relax and enjoy? I was feeling like that! Then when I got to my class I was faced with yet another reason I like to be a food science major. We had cheese samples in class today! Also I got a chance to wear my new Valentiene's socks with hearts on them. I just got my Valentine's Day gift package from my mom yesterday! I got to eat the Sweetharts and wear the socks and wear my lucky shirt! Man this is a good day!

I also forgot to add that I got to have a good little chuckle out of Heather's quote of the week. Also I just saw this kid across from me in the computer lab totally picking his nose. He was a whole knuckle deep! Oh man that is awesome. (Note to self, don't ever use that computer and wash your hands as soon as you get home.) What a great day!

Thanks to Ronnie

TOMORROW IS GROUND HOG'S DAY!!!! Anyway, thanks to all the information I recieved last year from my ground hog's post I sounded REALLY smart about this little tradition today when my professor brought it up in class. We have a lot of students from Asian countries so when he says something he thinks they wont know he stops and asks the class if they don't know it. (EX. "Does anyone not know what "in the ball park" means?") Today he wished us a happy ground hog's day tomorrow and then he had to make sure everyone knew about it. I told the class about Phill and General Beauregard and also about the tradition and everything. It was for that reason I decided to thank everyone that added to our ground hog's day discussion last year and to wish you a happy ground hogs day again this year!

Wanted

One person to study with. Must want to study in big chunks of time rather than small intervals. Must also enjoy going to the library. Must have learned to have the exact same study style as me or similar and compatable. Must be available immediately.

If I don't start studying more I fear I will hit this wall of things that need to be done. Right now I'm not swamped, but I will be.....soon. The problem is that I like to study with people. I'm a socially driven person I think. Even if I don't really talk to the other person all that much, it's good to just have them go with me. Then I can't leave when I want to give up because I'm with them. I like to study in the evening. Preferrably after dinner. I also like to study somewhere other than my home. Preferrably the library. That combination doesn't really work here because I feel really vulnerable walking home alone in the dark. I just feel as though there are a lot more opportunities for me to get raped/abducted/killed around here. Especially when I have to walk under this big evergreen that drapes over the sidewalk. In the day its a natural arbor. At night it transformed into rape central. I had better figure this out soon.

Happy Birthday

Today it is January 24 and my husband is turning 24! YEAH! I woke up all on my own at 6 AM (half an hour before the alarm) to put up the home made "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" banner across our kitchen/dining area. Then when the alarm went off he just rolled over turned it off and went back to sleep so I let him sleep in until 8! We finally decided to get up and while heading to the bathroom he saw a little trail of Happy Birthday Sweetie signs on the floor leading him to the kitchen and the big banner! While he showered I made him his pancake cake and after breakfast he opened his presents. That part wasn't as much fun as it normally would be because he already knew what all of them were. Anyway he's in taking a test right now but I think I'm going to go home and make a special lunch or something for him. Yeah for my Sweetie!

Problem Set 2

Silly fool that I am I decided to wait until the night before I have to turn in my homework assignment to start it. (In my defense I was cleaning and getting errands done instead. It's not like I wasn't doing anything productive.) Anyway, I don't really like to do homework on Sunday (not because I think it's morally wrong or anything. I just don't like how stressed it makes me feel on a day that I feel I shouldn't be.) so I stopped doing it and said I would get up early today and finish it before my first class at 9. Well that plan was working well. In fact it worked brilliantly. The only problem I have run into is number 7. I have figured out every other problem but #7. I just can't seem to get it. This not only stresses me out as the assingment is due at 10 and I have a class before that, but more than that, it annoys me. This class is easy and the rest of the problems on this set took me about an hour total. I just seem to have one more unknown than I have equations to find them all! I hate it when I can't figure out something I have already deemed easy. It is so frustrating!

Can't you See...

That it's just rainin. Yes everyone, today it rained so hard I actually turned back to get an umbrella. Usually the rain is so light it's more like a mist that's falling. Today it was real rain. I might have been depressed except for my new enlightened attitude toward how beautiful Oregon is. On the other side I've had that Jack Johnson song stuck in my head for two days. That's what the mental association does to your brain.

So my husband's birthday is in four days. I'm pretty excited to make him the pancake cake. Also I think I'm going to get him a metronome for the banjo. I know it isn't the most interesting gift, but I think he'll like it. Now I just have to find a store that sells a happy birthday sign.

Maybe Later

I love you forever, but right now the dishes are dirty.
I love you forever--my homework needs to be done.
Forever and ever, but if I don't sleep right now I'll cry.

I love you forever, but you're really busy.
I love you forever--three meetings in one night?
Forever and ever and I hope I'll see you soon.

I love you forever, but now is not the time
I love you forever, but there's so much to be done
Forever and ever. Maybe later.



I realize that loving someone forever doesn't mean that love is constant. Love will ebb and flow naturally and trying to force it to stay high all the time is not only impossible, but a waste of time. There's nothing wrong with the bend, just so long as you know it will flow back later. Right now there's a lot to be done and I find that my attention and also my husband's attention needs to be on other things. I know he loves me. He'll pass out on the sofa like he did during the lunch break today and not get to really say a word to me, but still I know he loves me. There's not much time to show him that now. Maybe later.

Mary's Peak

Our meeting time for church moved to 9:30 am. This is actually really good because it gets me up and going on Sunday, which I decided I like. Last Sunday my husband and I went to church and then afterward I wanted to go to the coast. I kinda begged until he gave in. I packed us a great lunch of hard boiled eggs, apple cut in rings, cheese, and ritz crackers. Yummy! When we got in the car we decided that driving would take too long for not enough fun time (plus the big grey clouds in the west looked kinda bad.) We (and by we I really mean Dan) decided to go to Mary's Peak. This is a state park located about 40 minutes from our home. The whole top of the hill was covered in clouds, but it looked like it would be some foggy fun so we decided to head up anyway. On the way there I noticed how AMAZINGLY beautiful it is in Oregon. I know I complain about the rain, but it is just gorgeous! I thought it was funny that all the trees that had lost their leaves were still green because of all the lichen on them. I just realized how many greens there are in our part of the world.

Well we got to Mary's Peak but the road to the summit stops about 4 miles from the top. We decided to get out and walk to the top (which was posted as being ok all year round.) Once we reached the first bend after the gate we ran into snow! We walked right from fall into winter! It was so much fun. Well, it wasn't really winter because everything was green beneath the snow.

Since there wasn't anybody else around we had a snowball fight and Dan almost dunked my head into a little stream. (Not really he stopped about half a foot from the water.) When we reached Parker falls we stopped and sat on a guard rail and ate our lunch. While we were eating, a group of guys walked down the hill and this old couple walked up to the falls looked at them and then turned around. They were walking hand in hand. I hope we still do things like that when we're old. We decided that we would leave the peak for another day and walked back to autumn, and our car. I realized how much I love my husband. He is my best friend and I'm glad I can have an amazing afternoon with him just walking up a snowy hill.

The only sad thing is that I don't own a camera (digital or other). I used to own one, but it got stolen out of my car and I'm too cheap to buy one for myself. You will all just have to imagine the glorious place.

Pa-Pa-Pa Peein in the dark

Earlier this week I woke up in the middle of the night having to go to the bathroom. Usually I just roll over and go back to sleep because I can hold it until the morning. This night though I REALLY had to go. Not wanting to actually wake myself up too much just to complete this I decided not to turn on any of the lights in the apartment on my way to the bathroom or in the bathroom. I'm sure many people don't turn on the lights when this happens to them. There were two issues I ran into on my errand:

1. I know it's irrational, but I sometimes have some fear not seeing the bowl before I set my bottom down. When I was little I spent the night at my friend, Lauren's house. In the morning while we were having our Lucky Charms her dad was watching the news where a story flashed about rats climbing up the sewage pipes into the toilet in people's houses. It has been a long time since then, but if I don't get to see the bowl before I set my bottom on it then I do have a little twinge of fear. What if there's a dead rat sitting in the bowl or worse, a live one?! GROSS!
2. Also when I was done it was still dark and I couldn't find the end to the toilet paper roll. I was turining it and searching and then turning it the other way and searching. I spent a few minutes trying to find it then gave up and used the klenex on the back of the toilet.

In the morning I went to the bathroom to take my shower and found that the toilet paper roll had been HALF EMPTIED onto the floor in my search for the end of the roll! I must have been more asleep than I thought.

Egg Plop Soup

Sometimes I just want to have a bowl of top ramen. This happened to me one rainy day earlier this week. My husband and I strolled to Safeway and picked up 6 packages (if we had only gotten two the trip might have not been worth it.) We had some and while we were eating I told him how sometimes my friend Heather would put egg in it and it was really tastey. I told him I really liked egg drop soup.

Today we had a chemistry lab together. He got done with his experiment earlier than I did and went home to make us lunch. He decided to make some top ramen with egg. I came home just as he was putting the noodles in. Then I went into the bedroom to set some stuff down and when I got back I asked him if he wanted me to show him how to put the egg in. He said, "I already did." Then I asked, "You just plopped it in there?" "Yep!" The whole egg was just plopped on in the soup. I fished it up from the bottom and sure enough it was intact--one big egg in the middle. It was so funny that we had to eat all the egg even though it was pretty bland.

The Grind Stone

Well, I'm back. After an entire month of break from school it doesn't seem fair that I have to go back. When we were leaving my home and I was starting to cry my husband tried to cheer me up by saying, "Look at it this way you only have 5 1/2 more months of school left." Let me tell you that is NO CONSOLATION. I have to leave my family and home and life of being a kid again to look forward to 5 1/2 months of school. Great. I had to come on campus early today to figure out what my class schedule is and I don't really know where the building where my first class is. It's not one of the three I had classes in last term. Great now I have to go figure out where it is. Wish me luck!

Even with all this complaining I'm kind of excited to start a new term.

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.