Oh no! There's nobody here!

This week the Department of Statistics has been drained of its population. Why? Because of the American Statistical Association's (ASA's) Joint Statistical Meetings in Washington, D.C. Thus, the only people here for the next few days are the secretaries . . . and Dr. Collings because he's still teaching 221 this summer.

The point of this story is to illustrate the fact that I have not been doing anything, really. But do you want to hear something crazy? My computer got hacked! I don't even know what happened. Greg (our CSR) says that I must have clicked on something I shouldn't, but I don't know what it was. Ruth said it might have been something that looked like updates and I didn't recognize the difference, but my computer got virus thwacked. It's bad.

So . . . the only reason I'm on the computer now is because Noelle is in Yellowstone, and I'm using hers. They had to rebuild my computer from scratch, and I don't think I'll have it until Monday morning. Ew.

But I'm rather bored. I made bread last weekend, but I need to blog about that later because I have pictures. It will be fun. :)

HOLY BANANAS! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

So, remember that one time when I told you that my fabulous husband was secretly selling textbooks on Amazon to get money for my birthday? Well, it worked. Holy bananas.
So, Friday after dinner, we had the cake that Mike had made the night before (delicious, by the way. Good job, baby!) and then he made me open all my presents, and he got me Monsters, Inc, (yay!), a new scrubby for the sink (double yay!), a big bag of Skittles, and a cute pearl bracelet that matches the necklace he got me last year (I've worn it the last couple of days because it's awesome :). Well, after that, I was all, "Wow! You're so sweet and amazing!" and I totally thought that was it. In fact, I probably would have been completely happy and satisfied with that. BUT. Then he got all sheepish and admitted that that's not the reason he was selling textbooks. And asked me to help him move the bed so we could get my last present out. (!!!) What's a girl supposed to think after hearing that? I kind of flipped.
HE GOT ME A KEYBOARD!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, I don't know how long the excited squealing lasted. I'm pretty sure I was glowing for a while. It's just funny, because he hid it in the little space between our headboard and the wall, and I'm pretty sure I noticed it a couple of times when looking under the bed for other things, and just never even thought about it. In fact, before it was wrapped, he just piled blankets on it, and I just assumed he'd moved them there because it was so hot and he wanted them out of the way. Can you say space cadet? Turns out Mike's really good at surprising me. It was also kind of funny, because my fabulous in-laws sent me piano music for my birthday, and I was excited, but it made a lot more sense when I found out about the keyboard. Turns out he'd told everybody but me. Even my dad called that night because my mom had told him that I was getting a keyboard and he wanted to talk to Mike about what kind he got me, etc. Either way, it was a fabulous birthday and everything was perfect.
I have the best husband in the entire universe. :)

I need to brag about my fabulous husband.

So, the last couple of weeks, I've been wrastling with the financial aid office, trying to get reimbursed for what I could have had in the last school year, so we'll have money to pay for Michael's tuition because this year's grants won't come until after tuition is due . . . moral of the story, I was on the bank account looking to see if it had been deposited, and I noticed something a little bit strange. We had a credit for over a hundred dollars from Amazon.com. I was a little weirded out by strange money coming into our account, so of course I queried Michael about it.

After looking quite sheepish for a few seconds, he confessed that for the last couple of months (months!) he's been secretly selling his old textbooks on Amazon so he'll have more money to spend on my birthday. Who does that?!?!?!? You know how he gets off an hour earlier than I do on Thursdays, and goes to work an hour before me on Mon, Wed, Fri? (I knew you didn't, that's why I told you) well, he's been secretly using that time to send books to people! Holy bananas!

So, I just thought I'd brag a little bit. I think it's the most romantic thing in the world. I mean, I still think he's going a little crazy with making my birthday all huge, but I think it's so sweet that he's been planning this and being all responsible so he's not just breaking my budget.

Happy. :)

Off like a bottle rocket! . . . well, not quite so explosive.

This weekend, we went on a crazy wonderful adventure that was wonderful and awesome and relaxing and NOT PROVO. It was great. And this blog post is going to be super long because I have lots to tell. So brace yourself. (Don't worry, there are pictures to keep you from getting bored.)

We decided to spend the fourth of July weekend with my parents in Boise (we can't seem to stay away . . . ) so we could blow off fireworks with everybody and get out of town for a few days. It was so amazing!

Day One: Thursday, July 2.
We drove up after I got off work on Thursday afternoon, but I didn't even get to see my apartment before we left! I gave Mike a list of things to do/pack before we left because he got off work really early to get ready and pack the car, and he finished every single one plus more! He cleaned the house, packed the car, went grocery shopping, cancelled our Netflix subscription (right before the free trial ended), finished his ward bulletin for Sunday so he wouldn't have to do it on the Fourth, and even had time for a powernap before he came to get me! Holy cow! I married Superman!

The drive up was pretty quick, actually, and I managed to stay awake THE WHOLE TIME. Seriously, that's a big deal. We sang along as loud as we could to all our Disney and Michael Buble CDs, and laughed when we drove through yet another rainstorm. I'm pretty sure that everytime we've driven to or from Boise in the last six months, we've been rained on at least a little bit. We're starting to get a complex. :S

When we got there, everyone was half dead. Dad and Parker were at Scout camp until Saturday, and several siblings had already given up and gone to bed, so we decided to just crash too. The only problem with all this is that the bed in the guest room is a double, and Mike's feet hang off the end and he has to curl up all funny in order to fit, so he always wakes up sore. It's okay, the vacation with our AWESOME family is enough to make up for it. :)

Day Two: Friday, July 3.
We slept in. OF COURSE. Then we ate a big breakfast of French Toast by ourselves because everyone always wakes up in stages, and at 10 am we were between the early risers and the 2-in-the-afternooners (I love my sisters. :) Then we got all dressed and pretty and went with Mom to the temple. It was beautiful! We haven't been to the Boise Temple since we got married, so it was a great experience. Mom cried because Mike is so amazing and I got so lucky. Now we just have to get him to realize that . . .

After the Temple, we went to Costco to get food for all the weekend parties with Grandma and everybody. I tell you, going to Costco on a weekend afternoon is like getting a free lunch. I love those taste-testers! They're amazing! Also . . . Mom got me tupperware for my birthday! Okay, so it's not actually Tupperware like the brand, it's the snap-on kind, but who cares! I have great plastic storage containers for my kitchen! My happiness is overwhelming!

We then took everybody to Grandma's house to swim and party, and I helped my mom make Kabobs while the kids (including my wonderful husband, who often fits into that category) swam like crazy. I think he needed to get it out of his system.

That night we all went home and watched Pirates of Penzance, but Mike was spending most of that time building his big, cherry-red, THREE-STAGE rocket. It was pretty cool. It was taller than Sam.

Day Three: Saturday, the FOURTH OF JULY!!!!
Slept in again, obviously. As soon as we were dressed and ready, Mike got sucked into playing hours and hours and hours of Playstation baseball with various little brothers. Dad and Parker got home around 11 from Scout camp, so we all went outside to help them unpack. Holy cow, Parker looked like a Bubonic Plague victim! His entire face was covered with bumps and his arms were dotted with scars like he had the chicken pox! It was crazy! Dad told us that he was way better than he had been Monday and Tuesday when he first got his bug bites. It was GROSS.

(Scoutmaster Bill = AWESOME DAD)

After the boys were all inside getting showered, Mom and the sisters and I all went SHOPPING! (Yay! Girls!) It was so fun. We did get a little bit tired, though. Not all of us have limitless shopping energy like some of my sisters . . . *cough cough SARAH cough*! I got Mike a brown belt and socks so that he could wear his brown shoes to work, and I got me a pair of red flats! They're SO CUTE! Okay, I cave, here's a picture. Even Mike said "Cute!" when he saw them. I have him so well trained.

Then we all went back to Grandma's house, where more people swam, and Mike and my dad shot off a bunch of rockets. They shot off a few and then decided to attempt to shoot off the cherry-red THREE STAGE rocket. (Bum bum Buuuuuuuuuum!!!!) It was cool. They loaded three different engines, because it's supposed to launch, then go off again two more times, and it's designed to go as high as half a mile up in the air. Mike fully expected to never see it again if it worked. So they went out to the field, got it all ready to go, and launched the first engine . . . and it exploded on the second, maybe fifty feet up. Apparently, there was some glue in some places where there was supposed to not be any glue, and both of the last two engines went off at once, turning Mike's sleek, beautiful rocket into two halves of a very melted, not-quite-so-long rocket. It was fun though. :)

(Exploded Rocket and Mike) (I think he's really cute :P)

Well, so the boys had a bunch of fun making and exploding their rockets, and even Hannah made one. Unfortunately, all of them, even the little ones, got at least twice as high as Mike's . . .

That's okay. I got some cute pictures of the fam.

Sarah and Emma. Sorry, forgot to tell them they had awesome goggle lines on their foreheads.

Here's the peanut gallery watching the rocket launch. Can you tell why they're called the Whitings? :P

Dad, Nonny, James, and Sammy at the designated rocket making table. Notice, they even got the laptop out to research how to make the three-stage rocket work correctly, and still it got blown up. I don't think they were too disappointed, though. ps- Nonny was making that face on purpose for the picture.

Well, after all the rocket tomfoolery, we went back to my parents' house with the cousins to shoot off some very legal fireworks. (*sigh . . . *) It was fun though. Sammy was so excited at first, and every single spark that flew was "wow, that was my favorite one! Brittany, did you see that? This is awesome!" But when the screamers and loud popping ones came up, he didn't like the loud noises, and Mike had to distract him with a camera to get him to stay outside with the family. That night we got to bed pretty late, but we slept pretty well. :) Church was really good the next day, but guess what? I played the organ! Who does that? I visited their ward one Sunday and I played the organ in sacrament meeting and the piano in Relief Society. Did everyone decide to be out of town or something? Geez.

Well, after church was a fun time. Mom made bbq ribs. (My tummy still sighs with pleasure when I think about it. They are SOOOOOOOO Delicious!) After dinner, they all decided to make it be my birthday, since my birthday's in two weeks and I don't think we'll be in Boise. :) The sisters gave me some music books, including a classics anthology that I've wanted for a long time, and a cute blue top and HUGE blue ring that I wore yesterday, and the ring was kind of distracting . . . I'm pretty sure I played with it more than I did any work . . . also, they got me a really really cute black Audrey Hepburn style raincoat! It's SO cute! I'm pretty sure I want it to get cold again JUST so I can wear it. It's adorable. Oh! and we're still getting wedding presents. This weekend I got a Wok! I'm so happy. Ask Mike. He thinks I'm ridiculous. :)

The drive home was rather uneventful. We ALMOST made it without going through a storm. We were chasing clouds the whole time, but it only rained on us a little bit. And I stayed awake almost the whole time! I was still awake when we got to provo! It was awesome! I hope Mike appreciated it, cause we were BOTH really tired the next day.

Last night we watched our almost last free netflix trial movie: Field of Dreams. I hadn't seen it in a long time because my dad only has it on VHS. It was really good. But you know what I love most about that movie? When the guy starts hearing voices and everyone should think he's going crazy, especially because he's being a lot more crazy than, say, JM Barrie, his wife doesn't just give up and leave him. Have you noticed that's always happening in movies about crazy guys? Their wives always flake out and leave them! It's giving us wifely types a bad image! I loved that this wife was supportive and let him build his baseball field. Even if he really was a little bit crazy . . .

Anyways, back to business. What did you all do for the fourth? :)

I AM SO BORED.

Ruth is out of town for the next week, and although Kayla's coming back on Monday, Noelle is leaving tomorrow for New York for a week, so I'm just alone in my office. There aren't even any professors here.

We're trying to leave for Boise at five today, which means that Mike's getting off work early to go pack up the car and get everything ready, and he'll just pick me up and we'll head out from here. But that means I'll have to survive another five hours of work. One more until my lunch break. Ew. I'm dying here.

I can't wait to go to Boise, though. It's going to be so fun! It's worth sitting alone in the statistics department, right?