I was at work before the sun came over the mountain this morning.

It's sad when you find more things wrong with living right up against the mountain than right. Just sad.
So, finals week is surviving. Mike's stressed beyond all reason, I'm working my life away, and Christmas is just around the corner . . . with not enough gifts for the people we've been assigned. Eeek!
Someday, when I get my camera back, I'll take pictures of our Christmas-decorated apartment. That's right, it's staying up through January. :)

I never thought I would have to run all the music of the ward when at BYU.

Seriously. When I first came, I discovered that a majority of the student population sings and plays the piano, and I got out of playing the piano in my ward almost entirely. I had to consciously go over to the central building in my apt. complex to practice the piano because I had no other opportunity.
But it appears that is not the case in my current ward. I know for a fact that a majority of the ward, just like in my other wards, is musically gifted and perfectly capable of playing in RS, doing musical numbers, etc. Unfortunately, fewer people admit to it.
Thus: I am part of BOTH musical numbers tonight at the Relief Society Christmas Dinner (one in a singing group and one as piano solo), I'm playing the organ on Sunday, we're singing in the choir for the Christmas Program the week after, and Mike and I are doing something musical for a Variety Show at the ward Christmas party next Friday. We're like, ultra-involved. It's crazy.
Most of these are not too stressful. Churchy musical numbers are easy to come up with (thank you, Sally Deford!!!) and playing the organ is just a matter of practicing enough before you get up there. Unfortunately, for the variety show, Mike and I want to sing "Baby, It's Cold Outside," which requires a rather jazzy accompaniment. I could sing and play, but that would make it LAME, and I also don't want to sing to a CD Instrumental recording. That is also LAME. Thus, we need to find an accompanist who can play jazzy piano. I even have the sheet music, so it's not like improv or anything.
*sigh!* We'll see, I guess.

Heavens, no. No no no.

The subject of this article is cougar fans of Twilight. And I don't mean BYU students.
I'm going to let the article do the rest of the talking.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/11/16/older.twilight.fans/index.html
Okay, I lied. I'm going to talk about it. But only briefly.
Now, there is a significant difference between reading the books, liking the books, and having racy fantasies about the books and indulging them.
We talked about it in my 365 class today, just because we were all disgusted with the people who are slobbering over the New Moon premier tomorrow. It seems one girl in my class went on a date to Olive Garden, and there was a long table full of women in their mid- to late-40's, talking about Twilight . . . and they had a full-sized cardboard cuttout of Robert Pattinson (Edward) with them, talking to it as if they were having dinner with him.
I understand needing an outlet, but sometimes it gets a little excessive. No, that's a lie. The teen and twenty-something girls whose relationships are ruined because of the impossible expectations they have gained as a result of Twilight are excessive. 40- and 50- something women who become drooling, lustful fans of Twilight are just plain creepy.

I am about to be rebellious. Muaha.

Tonight, I believe our family home evening activity is going to be decorating the apartment for Christmas. Now, I know what you're saying. It's not even after Thanksgiving, right? We shouldn't even be thinking about Christmas carols yet, right? Well, let me ask you this: what would you rather celebrate, the birth of the Savior of the World, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, or some indignant Calvinists who took a boat over to the Americas and thanked the Indians for teaching them how to plant corn before promptly killing them all off with smallpox and bayonets? Hmmm? Besides, neither of them actually happened on the days we're celebrating anyways!
I'm decorating for Christmas. Now. So there.
So, I'm writing this long paper for my 314 class (see the very scrambled post before this one), and I have been under the distinct impression all semester that it was due the monday before Thanksgiving. So I was planning and drafting accordingly. Let me tell you now, I was wrong. Last Friday, my professor gave out a revised version of the syllabus with new dates on it, because she had to move the due date. It is now the Monday after Thanksgiving. But it was moved from this Wednesday, November 18. If she had not changed the due date, I would be sitting in a very unfortuante position right now. Let me tell you, I'm very, very grateful for the syllabus change.
Funny story #2: For this aforementioned 314 class, most of the class periods for the last few weeks have been cancelled, to give us extra research and writing time. This class is from 12-1 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Well, after all this time, I just barely found out that Mike's 12-1, MWF class was first block, which means it got over two or three weeks ago, and he's had a free hour since then. We've just been hanging out, eating lunch and studying on campus, not knowing the other was doing the same. Isn't that just plain ridiculous?
Oh well. I hope that makes up for my insanely confusing post about weird literary theories. 'Tis the season, after all. :) 39 days until Christmas!!!!

Do you ever get tired of the looks of vast confusion on people's faces when you try to explain your poststructuralist papers to them?

I'm actually quite impressed by Mike's ability to comprehend my rough description of Derrida's argument in Structure, Sign and Play. Although I think I spent more time talking abjection like Kristeva . . .

So yesterday in my Psychology 111 class (I know - I'm seriously in like a quarter of the class that's not Freshmen) we were discussing Freud, and we were just hitting the part about Freudian slips when someone made a comment about last week's lecture on homosexuality, and my teacher said something about the two camps, those who consider themselves "pro-tolerance," and the "rabid anti-sexuals." I will admit, I chuckled. It was quite appropriate for the times. I'm not saying I hold to Freud and think that Dr. South has some deep-seated issue, but it was pretty funny.

I have quite an affinity for Regina Spektor today. Particularly her songs "The Call" and "Samson." Also Ingrid Michaelson's "The Chain."

As you can probably tell, my thoughts are a little scrambled tonight. I'm writing two very large papers. One, for my 314 class (which is forcing me to think critically about Great Expectations . . . blegh) is on the Victorian Feminine Ideal (i.e. Coventry Patmore's "Angel in the House") and its devastating effect on our dear Miss Havisham, and I'm not particularly involved in it. It's like a glorified version of those assembly-line papers I used to write in high school. Just 15 pages longer and with more elevated vocabulary and lofty-sounding sources. The other, however, is going to be titled "Black Mothers: the Doubly-Abject." Doesn't that just sound delicious? I'm so excited! I began when we read The Feminine Mystique and Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, and I started to wonder: if the constructed ideal for mothers and wives was so destructive to the psyche of middle-class white women, what could it possibly have done to black women, who already faced such impossible expectations by not only white society, but their male counterparts as well? Oh man, let me tell you. My research has been SO fun. I have a giant pile of library books on our rocking chair, and I've already invested in some of the books that I totally love and can justify buying because they were like 4 bucks on Amazon. :)

That's my life right now.

Oh! Right now I'm listening to "I want you to" by Weezer. Let's add that to the list of approved songs. Kind of off of the general mood of the others, but still appropriate, somehow.

I am very slightly incensed.

One of the most frequent things that get complained about at BYU is the high standard. When I lived in singles' wards, it was quite a common occurence to hear some guy whining about not being able to take a test in the testing center because he didn't feel like shaving, or we hear stories about the girl with pink hair who was denied service by the library employees, or the girl whose female professor told her to change into a less revealing shirt (if a male professor had done it, she'd cry "harrassment"). All of these cases? covered in the HONOR CODE. You signed it when you came, so you have absolutely no right to complain.
But this particular action is a genuinely bad move for the University, as far as I know. You see, effective January 2010, the Women's Research Institute here on campus will be dissolved, the funding for the Institute will be given to individual research projects (mainly ORCA grants, which means science--not humanities--students) and the Women's Studies minor will now be under the jurisdiction of the School of Family Life. Excuse me while I go gag for a minute.
Not that I have anything against the good 'ole SFL. There are great things that happen there, like child development and psychology and family counseling. But as an English major who is familiar with the horrible things that have happened because of unjust inequality and classifying of the feminine ideal, not to mention as a self-proclaimed feminist, I cannot stand for the message that this sends.
You see, BYU has kind of a bad rep as far as gender equality. I mean, who hasn't heard the stereotype about girls coming to get their 'MRS' degree? Heck, I'm married. Doesn't that say something?
The Women's Research Institute was created to promote Gender Studies and equality, and to help give women - LDS women in particular - a voice in the world. I mean, I believe as much as the rest of the church that a wife and mother's place is in the home, but what about as a woman? She has just as much intellectual potential as any man, and the WRI wasn't studying how to be better wives and mothers. It was studying the place of woman in the world, trying to help her find it. That's history, political science, sociology--NOT family life.
The university keeps saying things like, "this will not diminish the strength of our women's studies program" and "we are trying to strengthen the program, not save money" but even without my feminist rantings, this is a horrible PR move. Scholars all over the country have noticed, and dissolving the WRI is particularly bad in a year when race and gender issues have been boiling back to the surface again. Probably just because they want to give the money to "useful" projects like my husband's research on Osteoarthritis. Not that they're not useful, but aren't we?
There's a meeting tonight of the gender equality club on campus, called "Parity," (at 7 in 270 SWKT if anybody in Provo is reading this!) and they're going to discuss respectful protests and petitions to take to the University. I would go, but maybe it would be more in accordance with the new Women's Studies program if I went home and cleaned the bathroom. Seriously.
Sorry this sounds so angry. I'm just a little bit upset. What they're doing doesn't sound to me like "strengthening the program." They're just creating more angry feminists.

Halloween . . . more like Influenzaween . . .

We didn't exactly have Halloween at our house. We were GOING to be puzzle pieces and put a pumpkin in the window so we'd get trick-or-treaters and whatnot, but Mike was still sick. So instead, I made pizza and went to my temple shift by myself, and we ended up watching Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit and The Addams Family (the early 90's version with Angelica Huston and Raul Julia). It was quite fun.
Sunday I went to church by myself . . . but then I got to be the pianist for the primary program rehearsal. It was fun. All two of our primary kids were there, and they were so cute! There is another one, but he's been home for fear of the swine flu for the last few weeks (he's legit, not just paranoid).
Then I went home and made Chicken Divan and it was delicious. Mike's been asking for it for a few weeks now and I finally got around to making it. While we were eating, he was like, "If my mom knew that I'd been asking for broccoli, she might keel over!" But I think after he put tomatoes on his salad when we were in Seattle, there is no shock his family can't handle. :)
Probably the most amazing part of this weekend: I tried to wake up early this morning to do a bunch of homework that I remembered on Saturday but didn't want to do because a) I had a sick husband to spend time with and b) it was Halloween (that wasn't the best part). The best part was when I got up this morning and looked at my syllabi and realized the annotated bib for my 365 class is due NEXT monday, not today! I almost jumped for joy, but it was cold and I was huddling under a blanket. Life is good when your homework isn't due yet. :)
I was thinking about having a contest and having you all comment and tell me about your costumes/send pictures of them, and offering a prize for the most AWESOME costume ever, but I can't think of a prize. If you still want to send pictures or something, I might make the prize be a cameo on my next blog post or something. Maybe. I 'm just needing some Halloween entertainment. :)

Flu-Like Symptoms and Pumpkin-Flavored Candles

All this week Mike has been feeling not very well, and yesterday I finally convinced him to be sick and stay home. When I got home he was totally conked out, and he didn't wake up for two more hours. (Needless to say, I got a lot done.)

Unfortunately, while I was making him be sick so he could get better, I was ignoring the fact that I was getting a sore throat and feeling kinda shaky too. So I shouldn't have been surprised when I woke up this morning completely gross. My throat hurts, my body aches, and I have on-and-off headaches and dizziness. Mike still wasn't better, so we're having a sick day today.

On another note, I ran into a candle sale, and bought a couple more so I have options (until now I've lived with apple and vanilla, which are good, but getting old). So I bought one called "cotton" that smells like fresh laundry and deliciousness, and another one that's pumpkin spice. It smells like Christmas. :) I like it lots. :) It's the one burning right now so our apartment smells really nice.

I hate being sick. The thermostat is set to like, 69 or 70 degrees, and I'm still freezing. Good thing we decided to stay in bed all day. :)

Somebody forgot to tell me to keep my contact prescription.

I realized this morning that I threw away my very last contacts yesterday. So I don't even remember what my prescription is.

So now I have to go to the optometrist. Bleh.

Just felt like complaining. I was even talking to Noelle today about how she forgot her contact prescription when she came to school, but she doesn't like wearing her glasses, so she usually just goes around a little blind. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to get away with that? I calmly explained to her that when I don't have my glasses on, the only way I can tell she's there is the difference in color. She's just a Noelle-colored blob. So she tried on my glasses and gave herself an instant migraine.

Mike says Noelle and I are perfect to work together. Sometimes I agree. :)

BYU vs. Utah State, or, How my beloved husband scared the bejeebers out of two poor little Honduran women

Mike is loud at football games. This is a known fact among those who have been with him to any kind of sports event.

Well, last night we went to the football game against Utah State (they were nice enough to play us on Friday night because today was conference). We didn't get all-sports passes this year, so Mike bought tickets in the section full of old people (and let me tell you, alumni who still come to football games are crazier fans than students could EVER be).

Half way through the game, some people came who had just been to their mission reunion, and they had two friends with them from Honduras (hence, they were all speaking Spanish the whole time). Those two girls seemed very quiet and didn't know anything about football, so their friends were trying to explain it.

Then, there was a touchdown or something. And my husband exploded. And they both turned around with terrified looks on their faces, shocked at his volubility. It was quite impressive. It's okay, I laughed embarrassedly and they all thought it was funny after the initial shock.

Mike had to sing an octave below bass during the hymns in conference today. :)

The Blog Post to End All Blog Posts

*Note: this blog post, when I began writing it, was originally titled "Oh, September. Will you ever end?" As it took me several weeks to finish it, September has ended. Thus the title change.

Okay friends. I did promise. I suppose a month into the semester is long enough for an update, yes? Now we'll see if you have the patience to endure the novel that is doubtless to follow. The great thing is, this is my blog, and I can write whatever I want. Muaha. :)

I suppose I shall begin with the end of the summer. :(

My last day of work coincided with August graduation, and luckily, our department had four (count 'em!) graduates, so we held a reception after commencement on Friday morning, August 15. You know what that means? I got to serve (and later eat) delicious food while wearing a beautiful new pencil skirt which I had recently bought, then go home ridiculously early. (Like, noon). So OF COURSE I went home and scoured my apartment. Thus, when Mike came home, it was officially time to go to Boise. We spent the weekend there, flew to Seattle early Monday morning, stayed there for a week and a half, then flew back to Boise on Wednesday, August 26, and stayed there until Sunday, because School (ugh.) started on Monday, the 31.

Some Things I learned on my Summer Vacation:

1. Never expect the weather to be typical of where you live. Always bring a coat or jacket, and then bring some shorts just in case the places that you are used to seeing through drizzling rain become suddenly scorching. Seriously! It was all cold in Boise! Who does that? It's okay, it was all worth it anyways. :)


2. When all the siblings are going to visit at the same time, BE THE FIRST ONES THERE. Bret and Kliss got there a couple days before we did and claimed the back bedroom, and then we had to move out of the front one so Amy and Jared and Spencer could have the room with the crib, then moved back into the back room after Kliss and Bret left. Translation: we slept in two different bedrooms and on the living room floor during the week and a half in Seattle. I like to think we are now connaisseurs of different mattresses, after all the places we've slept. :P


3. THERE IS A REASON MODESTY IS A COMMANDMENT. While in Seattle, we all went to Wild Waves, a water/amusement park. We spent the morning on the dry side, doing roller coasters and whatnot and NOT getting motion sick (I never have in my life!) and then, after lunch, going over to the wet side. Seriously, people are constantly bringing up the problems with obesity we have in this country, then they DON'T sell one-piece swim suits? Whose idea was that? Obviously NOT somebody who goes to amusement parks. :) It was still really fun. It was a perfect way to spend the hottest day of the week. There were all kinds of crazy slides (I didn't go down the not so crazy ones :) and raft slides and Mike and I spent the last hour there floating around the lazy river. It was so nice and relaxing after a crazy day of fun. And we only got minorly sunburned! It was great!


4. My husband is a Monopoly FIEND. I thought I was good at that game, until he drove me into bankruptcy and got into several different bidding wars with my multi-billionaire brother over everybody else's property. It was crazy. Later, when I played it again at the Morgan's, he didn't do quite as well. He still held out longer than me against everybody else though. But seriously! Sidenote to this one: my in-laws are MUCH cooler than my family when it comes to wanting to play games together. Seriously, I think my siblings all have ADD several times over. NO attention span. Thanks, Morgans, for being cool and playing board games with me. :)


5. Mike and I are better at baseball than we each thought the other was. One of the last days we were in Seattle, after all the other siblings left, Mike and I went and found a park by the river and went for a walk and then played catch. I like to think he was pleasantly surprised by my intense baseball-throwin' skills. That's right. I said baseball-throwin'. None of this girly-like softball stuff. :) Then, when we were in Boise, the whole fam went down to the park and had a big baseball game, boys vs. girls. The girls totally rocked them. Totally. Even when we had to put Sarah in the outfield because she just wasn't paying any attention, and then got completely distracted by several screaming girls that happened to walk through the park and see her. :)


6. Sometimes it's just more fun to have a bunch of girls to hang out with. I think I spent more time hanging out with mom- and sisters-in-law when we were in Seattle than I did with my husband, and he spent a LOT of time playing video games, between the Wii in Seattle and the PS2 in Boise. Silly Mike. :)


7. The Boise River is colder than it used to be. Or maybe I was just really cold and tired when we flew into Boise and discovered we were going rafting/tubing down the river. It was cold. But it was really relaxing whenever the cousins weren't screaming their lungs out on purpose. :S I liked it. Then we went home and crashed. :)


8. After two weeks of total vacation and absolutely no schedule or responsibility, school hurts. Like, literally. I think I got sick the first couple of weeks just because I wasn't used to it. Not to mention it gets lonely when Mike and I get home from school/work, eat dinner together, then go to separate piles of books to study and write papers. Gross.

Well, that's vacation. My classes are alright for this semester. My favorite one so far (I think) is actually my linguistics class, where we had to memorize the International Phonetic Alphabet and we learn about all the specific sounds in different languages, but mostly English. It's kind of awesome. My friend (with whom I took French 101 and she's also an Editing minor) doesn't like the memorization and doesn't see how it's related to editing, but I kind of enjoy it. Then again, languages have always kind of been my thing. Ask my mom, I can imitate any accent or dialect I've heard enough of. So this class is totally fascinating to me. It's awesome! I even know all the tricks to practice to be a ventriloquist! Maybe someday I will be! Muahahaha!

My other favorite is Doctrine and Covenants, which I'm taking with Mike. Our class is awesome. I love it when I have a fabulous religion teacher, because even when it's hard, I love the class and I'm willing to actually do the homework, which for my other classes usually isn't the case.

Oh, and one other thing. Our last weekend of vacation, my mom made me a white eyelet dress, just exactly like the one I've wanted since I was like 12. It's perfect and beautiful. And it has a long, full skirt, so it makes me want to twirl all the time. Well, I wore it our first sunday back with a red ribbon around the middle. I guess a lot of people noticed my dress when I went up to bear my testimony that week, because I got a lot of comments. One of my friends even said I looked like Maria from West Side Story. Hee hee, that was the goal! Thanks, mom! You're the best ever!

And now some pictures. :)

This is Nonny. Yes, she made this face on purpose. Thus, it is her fault that this picture came into existence and ended up on my blog. She also cut a deal with Dad that she wouldn't have to pay for gas if she washed all the cars, so Dad picked a day when she would have to wash our car and Kliss and Bret's car along with the rest. :) Muaha.

So, Parker volunteered to help Nonny with said car-washing venture. Or he got volunteered by an adult. Either way, I don't think he was much help.

This is what my hair has looked like for a few months, in varying lengths. Never too short, and never long enough to touch my shoulders. Is it good? :)

Here are all the boys at the Boise Hawks baseball game. I'm pretty sure none of them are in their element until they're at a baseball game. Oh! I forgot to mention earlier. My parents and brothers took me and Mike to a baseball game. Which means Mom and I giggled and talked and the boys got COMPLETELY absorbed in the game. It was pretty fun. :)

This is Mike's kid sister Emily. She's a world-class gymnast and pretty much the silliest thing ever if you get her late at night. In this case, we were driving down the highway to go mini-golfing for family home evening, and Mike (in front of her) had his window open. Yes, she was already doing this. I did not ask her to pose.

Besides this one, I didn't get any good pictures in Seattle, even though we spent the bulk of our vacation there, probably because I kept forgetting that I had my camera. Next time I'll be more proactive. :P

Did I mention I have the cutest brothers ever? Not to mention the phantom of the dining room there . . .

Mike got volunteered to hold the back-to-school pencil cake, probably because he had more self-control about sticking his fingers in it. Ain't he cute? :)

There. Now none of you can complain about me not keeping you informed. :)

GAH!!! SCHOOL!!!!!

I apologize. School has fangoriously devoured my life. I will write about some stuff soon. And it will talk about . . . stuff. Including the last bits of our summer (WORK WORK WORK) and vacation (PARTY PARTY PARTY) and then coming back to Provo. (SCHOOL SCHOOL . . .. *sigh* . . . SCHOOL!)

I promise, it will happen. Soon. I hope . . .

Baking Bread and Camping Craziness!

I said last week that I wasn't going to post about my bread making until I had pictures, but then I totally didn't post anything . . . well, I have my camera and I'm putting pictures with this post. So there.

Last last Saturday (August 1) my friend and I got together to make homemade bread. We made my recipe (Grandpa Crapo's) because it doesn't need a mixer, and because it's the best homemade bread recipe on the face of the planet (seriously guys, molasses AND honey? come on). The only thing is that it's the kind that takes all day, because it's got to rise and get beaten down and rise and get beaten down and rise again before you bake it.

So I taught Kayla how to make bread by hand (the best way, of course) and between exercising sessions, we watched Hairspray! It was good, because that's one of those movies that neither of us can get our husbands to watch with us, so we watched it together. I love girl time! :)

Look at my delicious golden-brown loaves of deliciousness! They were amazing! I'm pretty sure Mike made himself sick eating so much warm bread with homemade jam on it (thanks, mom!). Mmmmmmm, it's making me want to make more. :)Well, last week was pretty exciting, because my boss got back from her trip, and now we have eight billion things to do. It's like, crazy. And let me just tell you, it's really true that the Department of Statistics doesn't function without Ruth. :)

Well, this last weekend, Michael and I went to our Ward Campout. We didn't get home from work until 5:15 on Friday, so we were planning to throw everything in the car and get out as fast as possible to get to dinner by seven. So I had everything packed and ready to go by 5:40. But Michael couldn't find the directions to the campsite. Don't tell him, but I think he accidentally threw them away. :S

So, we didn't leave until like 6:15, at which point we filled up the car with gas and hurdled down the freeway toward Spanish Fork. When we finally got there (at 8!) everyone was finishing dinner, so we got some. It was quite delicious. Then Mike and I went to set up our tent before it got dark, but the only spot left in our campsite that was flat enough for a tent was right in the middle of the field. Gross. And cold. But we set it up anyways.

After that we went to the fireside (literally!) where we played Mafia first and then the Bishop gave a devotional about living a simple life. It was really good. Then we went back to the campsite and had dutch oven cobbler (so good! MMMMMMM!!!!) and went to bed.

Oh my goodness. Let me tell you, we have never had such a miserable night. We had to use the camping equipment provided by the ward, because we don't have anything, and the tent was pretty good, but the sleeping bags were the wimpiest thing I've ever seen. They were so thin, and they weren't even the kind we could zip together to share body heat. I'm pretty sure Michael and I got four hours of sleep between us because we spent all night shivering.

Needless to say, we went back to the campfire as soon as we heard voices outside, because it wasn't worth it to try to stay warm in the tent for much longer. We stayed around the campfire for a few hours, trying to thaw our feet. I'm pretty sure Mike's sneakers started to melt at one point because he kept them so close to the fire. We had delicious breakfast casserole and played a few games of Kubb before packing up and going home.

Exciting fact: Terrence, our hearty little Taurus, somehow survived the trip. It wasn't exactly smooth running. I'm pretty sure Terrence got more dirty than he ever has in his entire life. We were offroading like crazy. There were huge cliffs, giant logs, bushes scraping off all the paint on the front of our car. . . it was crazy. But he lived. He may have taken quite a beating to his shocks, but he lived. :) Aren't you jealous of the picturesque mountain scenery? It was so beautiful up there. Even when we were freezing our brains off we were admiring what a beautiful place it was.

So, after we got home, we slept most of the afternoon, wrapped in all our blankets. It was warm. and then we watched an episode of Psych and crashed. And I thinked we deserved a good hearty crash for one night :)

Sunday was a fabulous day. My hair got ACTUALLY STRAIGHT. It was amazing. Okay, so my hair's not really that curly, but it never goes the direction I want it to. BUT YESTERDAY IT DID!!!!! It was wonderful! I felt really good. And then I played the organ (with the bass coupler--I was too stressed out to try to play the pedals this week :) and taught relief society, and everybody was really nice to me and said I did well even though I felt totally flustered. :)

After church I made bbq . . . steak . . . bites . . . yeah. They were huge steaks, but I cut them into chunks and cooked them in the crock pot with bbq sauce. Then I made mashed potatoes and veggies, and Mike's and my red meat craving was quite thoroughly satisfied. :) It was delicious. Then we went to bed pretty early last night as well, since we still had some leftover tired.

Overall, a successful week, don't you think? To celebrate, a few not very flattering pictures of our life this last week. Yes, this is my ultra-handsome husband, sporting his ultra-stylin' pink tie. Yes, tough Mikes wear pink ties.

This is at the campout. Pretend I'm not there, okay? SO unflattering. Isn't it great that our only sweatshirts happen to all be the same color? We just accidentally match whenever we're cold! :)

Here. I posted a cute picture with cute hair to make up for the incredibly unflattering one posted previously. Although. . . .still matching . . . what's with us and wearing blue? ;)

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?

I just quite realized that I haven't written anything for a while . ..

This is my life.

1. Work. I'm now officially an 8 to 5-er. I live at 223 TMCB in the Department of Statistics. It's a wonderland. Noelle and I have some pet balloons that we decorated. I made Charles the ferocious lion, and Noelle made Zamboni the Zebra. It's kinda awesome.

2. Church. I'm now a ward organist and a Relief Society instructor. Which means that the second sunday of each month, I go insane and freakishly nervous and Mike can't stand me. then I'm home free for another four weeks. It's pretty tight.

3. Michael. He was sick yesterday, but now he's not. Sunday and Monday we made sugar cookies, and I made Gary the snail and a Nose, and Michael made an alien cow. They're quite attractive.

That's it. I decided to write another story, but I'm NOT TELLING ANYBODY what it's about . . . except mike, but that's just because he's always there and sees me when I'm writing it. It's just, last time I put it here and then it kind of . . . well . . . died. I'm going to keep this one to myself until it's published. And then I will be richer than J.K. Rowling.

Not really. I just wish I were.

Anyways, probably should get back to work. Peace.

SCHOOL IS OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just needed to get that off my chest. :)

I forgot to mention:

That film was a short adaptation of the last section ("The Brother") from Thomas Wolfe's short story/novella entitled "The Lost Boy." It's a fabulous story. Very deep. It inspired my brother Parker (who stars as the surface interpretation of the lost boy himself) to say, "so, what's the point of this story exactly?"
ACTUALLY, my interpretation of the story is based on section where Eugene (Mike) is going back to find his own memories of his older brother Grover (Parker) who died when Eugene was four (Sammy). The POINT, my dear Parker, is that Eugene's childhood was lost when Grover died, because the happiness and ambition of everyone else in the family died along with him, and in remembering his brother, he is fulfilling his own lost childhood. It's about time--constantly passing--and what we do with it when we have it.
That's what I tried to do with my limited means and rather embarrassed actors. I hope it worked.

The Brother

Directed by: me!

Starring (in order of appearance): 

Mike

Mom

Dad

Parker

Sammy

Music: Mendelssohn's "Venetian Gondolier's Song"

I'm pretty sure the menu will be this cute pic I have of the two boys in their 1904 outfits. And if I add credits, it'll be the post-production pic of Sammy when he dressed up in a reflective orange vest, tied at the waist into a dress, and an '80's bike cap turned sideways. It was awesome.

Please tell me what you think!

Why does it always have to rain?

Okay, so just this weekend. Driving both ways to and from Boise in thunderstorms = not very fun.
This weekend was awesome. Saturday we filmed my movie, then let all the children swim for a long time. I have to tell you, Sammy was SOOO cute! He followed all my directions exactly and was even better at keeping a straight face than Mike or Parker or Mom! He was amazing! I'm SO going to post my movie on here as soon as I have it all finished. It's going to be really good.
In other news, Mike and I are regulars in my parents' ward. They stopped introducing us in Sunday School and Relief Society and Priesthood. It's kind of funny.
You know what's crazy? This week, Wymount announced they're starting to replace everyone's carpet, starting with our quad. But they said they would post all the individual apartments, so we didn't move anything. I'm torn. Having new carpet is a REALLY good thing, as ours is kind of old and nasty, but having to move everything when we're not home from 7 or 8:30 am to 5:30 pm is kind of a drag. Yeah. We'll see.
But it's still rainy here. I was all expecting it to be nicer here after the crazy storms that we passed on our way back down yesterday. The storms were moving north, so I don't know what's going on now . . .
Oh well. My weekend was amazing, and that's all that matters. Only 4 more days of classes!!!!!!!

Yay! We have married friends!

Yesterday our upstairs neighbors invited us over for dinner, so we, the Rays, and the Gardeners all had dinner outside (bbq chicken) and Rich (our home teacher) came too but he didn't eat as much because his wife is out of town and he used the excuse to get himself a giant steak. :)
Then, after dinner, we all played Kubb with the Capeners (it's pronounced Koob) and then invited them and the Richardsons all up to the Rays apartment and had cheesecake and played Apples to Apples! I love having friends!
Now I have to worry about finishing my school in the next couple of weeks . . . :( blegh.

My Madeline shirt got hit on today. And it was funny.

It was the guy at the Sugar and Spice when we were getting some yummy mint brownies after lunch. I was wearing my amazing Madeline shirt, the one where she's saying "Oh la la!" Well, he said, "that's an amazing shirt." and I was like, "yeah, I like it." Then he was like, "if you weren't already married to him, " (pointing to Mike) "then I would propose right here right now." I was like, um, well, sorry, etc. then Mike was like "that's the shirt she was wearing when I did propose!" and the cahier guy was like "no way!" and then the other girl gave us our brownies, and the guy was like "do you have any sisters that you could, like, give that shirt to?" and I was like "yeah, but the oldest one's only 16" and he was like "I can wait." It was kind of funny.
Anyways, I need some ideas. I have to do my adaptation project like this week. It's due mighty soon. Gross, huh?
I'm really sunburned. Even my french teacher commented on it and asked me if I had some aloe vera. I do, by the way. It's in the fridge. But I'm still like a walking skin cancer target.

I just passed a guy running through the math building in a white shirt and tie, sunglasses, army shorts, and bare feet.

Also, today on my way to work, I was walking out of the Wilk and a girl saw me coming and went through an entirely different entrance because we were wearing the exact same shirt. I think that's a good sign that I'm wearing a good shirt because somebody else is wearing it too.
Also, I'm really bored. Ruth isn't here, so I've been working on my HEPE class. So you'll probably see lots of these kinds of posts this week while she's gone.
Also, Noelle and I totally remodeled all the bulletin boards in the hallways and now they are amazing.
Also, Noelle left me a balloon with face on it that we had at our ice cream party last week as company. It also kept me company when she was in New York all week. Those were dark days . . .
Also, I think The Kite Runner is a sad book. I don't really want to watch the movie. But I have to.
Also, I have to make my adaptation project soon. It's kind of due really soon. Oh well.

My husband would like it to be known that he beat me at Scrabble.

For the first and only time. And he only beat me because I still had a Z left over that I couldn't use. That's it. Hmphf. 

Happy Memorial Day!

I am going to give a full description of my entire weekend. It was pretty fantastic.

Thursday we watched "Taken." I'm not so sure that was a good idea. Liam Neeson is a great actor, don't get me wrong, but I'm easily creeped out, and it was pretty creepy. And it got over, and we were both like, "what is this supposed to teach children? That it's okay to kill as many people, innocent and otherwise, as you want, just to make sure that your own immediate family is okay?" Seriously.

Friday, I made real dinner. Really. Chicken and peas in a cream sauce over rice. It was really tasty. I'm already hungry for it again. Aw, man . . .

Then we used our last free red box rental to get "Paul Blart Mall Cop." Holy cow. That movie was so hilarious. And it was rated PG! Mike and I laughed SO MUCH. I don't know. It was probably really dumb and we were just tired late at night. Oh well. I still liked it a lot. :)

Saturday was a good day. After sleeping in (a lot! It was beautiful!) we went to the park and ate lunch (including yummy pie) and threw a frisbee around. It was awesome! I'm a much better frisbee-thrower than Michael . . . sometimes . . . when the wind is blowing in his direction . . .

After that we went to the temple. Which = awesome. It was amazing. As always. :)

And that night, after we had not real dinner (it's not an every single night kind of thing for me, okay?) I randomly started reading The Princess Bride to Michael, including all of Goldman's ramblings, which I happen to think are hilarious. Well, long story short, he got completely sucked in, because he's never read the book before. So I kept reading, and he took a couple of turns, and I kept reading . . . until like 2 in the morning. Right after Westley and Inigo dueled, the two greatest swordsman since the Wizard of Corsica. It was epic.

Needless to say, we were a bit tired the next morning and didn't wake up in time to go to choir practice. But we did, however, wake up with enough time to look pretty AND get to church in time to warm up and play twenty minutes of prelude. (I was the organist yesterday). And I am so grateful for generic topics like Provident Living where I can choose easy, familiar hymns like "Did you think to pray?" and "I Need Thee Every Hour" and they still match. It went very smoothly, thank you, even if it didn't sound necessarily good . . .

Well, that afternoon, Mike and I totally fell asleep at like 4:30, right after we'd had lunch and stuff, and didn't wake up until 8. Not on purpose. So it was a seriously good thing we didn't have school yesterday, because we were up kind of late. You know how if you let your toddler have a dinnertime nap he never goes to bed eVER AGAIN? Well, it's the same thing with college students. So we played Sorry and Uno and stuff instead of sleeping that night.

And slept in LIKE CRAZY yesterday. But then we woke up and I did Pilates and Michael tried (he thinks I have killer abs--I'm just slightly more flexible than mr. ultra-non-flexible). And then we had pancakes and orange julius and took a shower and I cut my hair (okay, I didn't actually cut my hair. The salonist did) and it's super short and super cute. I think I'll put the pictures up when I get home this afternoon. So then, I came home and Mike and I ate and read some more Princess Bride and then we walked all the way around Wymount. We just wanted to get out of the house, and sort of thought of finding the sand volleyball pits, because we'd heard all about them, but never seen them. So we walked, for a long time, all the way around the entire complex, and do you know what? The sand volleyball pit is directly next to our laundromat. We can see it from our front window. That's embarassing . . .

So anyways, then we decided to go goofy golfing. And I TOTALLY skunked Michael. Okay, not really. He kind of skunked me. But I came close a couple of times. I got some really good scores. It's just that he got a hole in one in the almost last one. It was totally gross. Then we went home and I made banana bread and we had family home evening. It was a good night. I kind of had a headache (I don't think I drank enough water) so I slept like a rock and it was hard to wake up this morning. But I did, and it's a beautiful day outside. Happy Tuesday!

What a beautiful day! It's summertime!

Today after my class (which I was completely prepared for . . . for a change) I realized that I'd forgotten my water bottle, so I walked home in the sunshine to get it. (I have a two hour break between class and work on Mon, Wed, Fri). After that, I sat on the grass underneath a shady tree and ate my lunch. Mike came to visit and eat his lunch, but his break from work is only 15 minutes. So I was by myself for a while. I tried to do the crossword puzzle, but I haven't mastered Wednesday yet. Mike and I can do Monday and Tuesday puzzles easy, but we're still working up to Wednesday. So I watched people. It seems that springtime has enveloped the campus, and even the cranky people (whom I know are cranky -- I am a frequent people-watcher) have a happy sort of glow around their cranky-ness. Professors even laugh with as they're scurrying from building to building. And any random passer-by is subject to be hit by a speeding byciclist. And everybody is wearing shorts and either tan or sunburned. Me, I take the sunburned part. That's why I was sitting under a tree. :)

I'm Stalling.

Mike says I can't go to sleep until I write my French composition. But I'm REALLY bored. I guess I'll just never go to sleep then . . . French is boring sometimes . . . but then, so is sleeping. I give it up. Forever. I'm on a no-sleep diet. Ha. 

 . . . 

It's sad when standing up to my husband means no sleeping . . . now I'm sad . . . maybe I'll cave and write my composition so I can sleep . . . :S

Happy Mother's Day!

This weekend was AWESOME.
Friday: did I mention that May 8 is the one-year anniversary of Mike's and my first date? And we've already been married for 4 1/2 months . . . but I think I already said that. So we went to a baseball game against UNLV, and it was the second-to-last home game of the regular season (the last one was Saturday afternoon). We were all nervous because so far, every BYU baseball game we've been to we've lost, and Mike and I have started to get a bad luck complex about going to games . . . but we won! It was 7 to 4 so we didn't even have to play the bottom of the ninth! It was super fun. We snuck in some Reese's Pieces and wrapped up in blankets (it wasn't as warm as last year). We were almost in the top of the bleachers, and right behind us was a family with six kids, mostly boys, and they were having so much fun! Dad kept missing whole innings to get mountains of nachos and hotdogs, and mom was singing what sounded like joyschool songs with the ones who were too little to care about baseball. They were awesome! It made me want to have kids so I can take them to a baseball game . . .
Well, Saturday was a pretty good day, too. Mike and I went to the temple in the morning and did a whole bunch of initiatory for our family names (yay!) and it was awesome. Then we went home, washed sheets and had lunch, and then I went and used almost our last gift card money to get a new shower curtain (it's very cute, and white this time, so it totally opens up our bathroom) and a cord for our phone. . . but the phone still doesn't exactly work. See, we got a hand-me-down one from my parents, so first we had to get our own cord, and then it also wasn't the right base. It came from a set they used to have, and the one we got was the one that doesn't have the answering machine, it's just the extra extension. So we can get calls (at least it worked when we tried with our cell phones) . . . but we can't call anybody. oh well. We still have a few dollars to target. Maybe we'll just go get a new one or something.
Anyways . . . so then, we went to the Macaroni Grill, because Sunday was Mother's Day, and as Brother Heywood says, if you don't treat your wife like she was born with a divine motherhood and celebrate mother's day even before she has children, then that's just lazy! (I thought it was really funny when he said that.) But anyways, we went out for dinner, and it was super yummy, and we still think that Macaroni Grill makes the best Italian cream sodas. MMmmmmm.
After that, we went to the indoor/outdoor movie at the Wilk (basically, they show a movie in the ballroom and everyone brings blankets and pillows to sit on the floor.) It was Muppets from Space, and we laughed a ton! I'm pretty sure we laughed more than anybody else there . . . I guess we were just in the right moods . . .
Then, for dessert, we had a dream come true (no, the Italian sodas were part of the meal -- they don't count!) I don't know if I've ever told you guys this, but I've ALWAYS wanted to be a "regular" somewhere--you know, where you walk in and say "the usual" and they know what you're talking about? Well, Mike and I go to the Malt Shoppe all the time after we go to the temple, just because you have to get a treat after the temple, it's part of the rules! And the spiky-haired guy at the drive-in window makes the BEST milk shakes ever!!! So we went on Saturday night after the movie (we just postponed our temple treat until nighttime) and we pulled up and he said "hey guys!" and we were like, no way. We're regulars. He said "I must be doing something right, because you keep coming back!" and we're like "we love these milk shakes!" Maybe next time we'll ask him what his name is so we don't have to just call him spiky-hair guy . . .
Sunday at church was fun, too. That's when Matt Heywood told all the guys that they were lazy if they didn't celebrate mother's day :) The talks in sacrament meeting were really good, even if they were last minute . . .oh! that's another funny story. So, Mike's the assistant executive secretary, which means he's in charge of asking people to say prayers and getting all the people that are talking and the hymns and putting the program together on Saturday afternoons, and then the executive secretary prints it at the church on Sunday morning. So Mike got all the hymns, prayers, and speakers and sent the file to Todd on Saturday, but on Sunday, Todd was printing and passing the program out right before the meeting started, and he and the two members of the bishopric were speaking instead of the people they'd told Mike before. I guess there was some miscommunication between everybody or a mistake or something, because they weren't even there. It was kind of funny, but the talks were really good for being last minute. Bishop also asked a couple sisters to come bear their testimonies.
Not much else exciting happened (besides really good meetings) until after Relief Society. I was playing the piano, because Rachel was out of town, and I was playing postlude, when Renata told everybody not to leave because something was going to happen. So I kept playing postlude. After a couple of hymns, we all got filed out to the gym (our building's really weird and the RS room opens into the gym) where all the men and primary kids were holding red roses and they sang "I Often Go Walking" and gave us flowers. It was SUPER cute. One of the little boys (I think he's 3?) got to hold his mom's rose, but it broke, so he handed it to her upside down and snapped in half. But it was enthusiastic all the same! I loved it :)
When I called my mom that afternoon, she was super excited to talk to me (I think) but then I got passed on to my Dad and then Sarah, and I talked to her the most until she got "nagged to dinner". They were all at Grandma's house having a barbecue. We just ate leftover Macaroni grill.
That's my weekend. I don't have any funny jokes, but this post has been hecka-long and you're probably tired of me by now if you didn't give up and quit reading several paragraphs ago. :) Peace out!

How do you ACCIDENTALLY work for NINE hours?

I love you, Michael. Even if you forget that you're supposed to come home and stay at work for an extra hour. :) At least I got the grocery shopping done . . .
I wore my cute new dress today. And then it was chilly. My bare legs do not appreciate it.
So I'm listening to French music and chillin' at work, waiting for Ruth to get off the phone. Life is pretty good.
Want to hear something funny? Mike and I have been married for, like, 4 1/2 months now, and tonight we're going to a baseball game to celebrate the one year anniversary of our first date . . . :) Yeah, we're awesome. (In case you didn't understand, we went to a BYU baseball game for our very first date ever, so this is like super nostalgic. :)
And then I found out that the indoor/outdoor movie this year (it was Lion King last year for our second date) is Muppets in Space, which is an awesome movie. It's tomorrow, which I thought would be a fun Saturday night date, but when I showed Mike the flyer, he got all mysterious and smiled, and let slip that we'd have to move our plans!!! WHAT PLANS?!?!?! I'm all intrigued. Maybe he's celebrating future-Mother's day . . .
I'm all SUPER curious. What happens to follow. :)

There are ten minutes left at work.

Ruth went to a meeting and now I'm just waiting for noon because I have nothing to do. Well, I guess I could like, wipe stuff and lock my files, but that's not very exciting, so I thought I'd write on my blog.
A couple minutes ago, Elisa, Kayla and I were all talking about girls who try to hit on our husbands, and when I told them that sometimes I refer to Mike's ring as "girl repellant" they thought it was funny. Apparently, we all married very attractive men and women in Provo sometimes forget to check for a ring before they make fools of themselves and start hair-flipping and arm-brushing. It's kind of funny.
I'm listening right now to a song called "Moi...Lolita" by Alizee. It's in French, but it's super awesome dance music. I find myself bouncing and spinning in my office chair when I'm listening to it.
I have to go to my film class in 20 minutes. We're going to finish the Innocents today, which is the movie about the governess and the ghosts and the creepy possessed children. I already know the ending, because I read the book, but it's still interesting to see what Deborah Kerr is going to do at the end. She seemed a little over-affectionate with her charges . . .
Today when we were walking to school, it was like 7:30 but I wasn't wearing a jacket. Granted, it was crisp because the sun doesn't come over the mountains and hit our apartment complex until like 9, but the point is that I wasn't freezing. It was quite nice, actually.
Tonight I'm taking dinner to a friend in our ward who was recently released from being Relief Society President because she just had a baby (that's why I'm taking dinner to her). It's actually a kind of funny story. About a month ago, we had a baby shower for her and another sister who were both having babies at the same time (but Brittany hasn't had her baby yet). And Jennifer (the sister I'm taking dinner to) got a ton of cute little pink girly stuff and frills and whatnot. But then, on Sunday, the Bishop announced that the Rockwood baby had been born, the one that was supposed to be Katarina, but it was a boy! She got caught completely by surprise! And not only was Aladis born (I kind of thought it was a girly name) but he was 11 lbs., 6 oz! That's HUGE!
Oh, I've got to go to class. But I'm making Jenny enchiladas, in case anyone was wondering. Peace out!

J'ai decouvert que le travail n'est pas une pique-nique!

No, work is no longer a party. I officially have to actually do stuff now. 

But there's something funny attached--even with all the crazy errands I do, I still don't work as much as Mike (only partially because I'm part-time and a student while he works 40 hours a week). He has, like, eight jobs because all his bosses thought he had nothing to do so they gave him more jobs. So he's a crazy person. 

And the other day, the library sent him an email asking him to fill out a survey about student employment at the library...so I wrote that he works more than me and my starting wage was more than his is now, after working there since LAST march. Teehee!

In other news, school progresses. We finished our first book in my literature and film class, the Turn of the Screw by Henry James. So, it's about this governess who goes out to a country house to care for some guy's orphaned niece and nephew because he wants absolutely nothing to do with them, where she discovers that their previous governess and the other guy's valet had been having an elicit affair before they both mysteriously died, and she sees their ghosts. She thinks the kids are seeing them too, even being possessed by them, but no one else will admit to their existence at all. There's really no plot. Just ambiguity. We never know if the kids really were possessed or if the governess was just bonkers. 

So today we watched a film adaptation made in the '50's or '60's, called The Innocents, with Deborah Kerr as the crazy governess. Admittedly, my film teacher says that this is one of the few versions that maintains ambiguity without actually telling us that the teacher is crazy or no, but I thought she was a little off myself. Maybe Ms. Kerr was just a little overenthusiastic. And the kids were dang creepy. I was creeped out. Seriously. 

ALSO. Mike has officially been eaten by Alexandre Dumas' the Count of Monte Cristo. My favorite book, but seriously. I haven't spoken to him in three hours now. And I finished my homework two hours ago. I'm not exaggerating. Okay maybe a little bit. But mostly not! He wanted to read it this summer while he's not in school because I love it and talk about it all the time, but now he's been eaten. I think it's cute. I interject things like "I'm hungry" or "guess what? This and this about my french homework" and sometimes he looks up and says "oh no! so-and-so died!" or "i love you!" Just to remind me that he's still here. Other than that, he and Edmond have forgotten that I exist. Yay for reading for fun! I'm so jealous . . . 

That's the current report. Thanks for watching. 

OH! And we're going to Boise next week to escape the Provo monster . . . and because my sisters' ballet concert is that weekend and I haven't seen Sarah dance officially in way too long. I'm pretty excited. Thanks Whiting parents for letting us use your house as a cheap vacation from school and stress! You're awesome!

The only other vacation plans we have are for the last couple weeks in August, between Summer and Fall terms. My boss, when we were discussing my schedule this spring, told me that she would be out of town some of those weeks, and that they would *hint hint* be optimal time for me to take off as well, since she's kind of the brain of our operation. (my words, not hers. She's way to nice to admit that :). So . . . we're planning on escaping the non-air conditioned utah heat and making our way to Seattle to visit the Morgans! . . . if you're reading this, would that be okay? :) We're not sure on dates yet, but I am quite anticipating getting a cold from the humidity. I always do. It's kind of weird. But I imagine it will be much nicer than a sunburn down here where our apartment will be an oven all summer. :)

Okay. THIS is our report. Now I'm really done. 

Spring? Is in the air?

Yeah. That's what I said. So the last week of everything was great, we both finished our classes well, and I think Mike got a 4.0 this semester. Fantastic. And, I was wearing capris and short sleeves all week, practically sweating my face off because it was so warm and summer-y. 

And then it snowed. Weird, huh? I can't really complain about it because it's back to being yummy outside. 

And then school started again. Ugh. Mike's been rubbing it in my face, reading fun books like the Count of Monte Cristo and making me feel all...studious...ugh. 

But I guess it's not so  bad. The lovely thing about spring semester is that I have three (okay, so really two and a half) classes which is 6.5 credit hours, and I only have to go to one class a day (the half a class is HEPE, which is the basic GE Health credit and it's only half a credit and it's entirely online). So really, I'm totally relaxed now, too. And my classes are great!

My first class this term was English 345, Literature and Film. Yes, it's as awesome as it sounds. We're going to read Turn of the Screw by Henry James, Pinnochio, Shane by Jack Schaeffer, Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate Dicamillo, and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseinni and watch the film adaptations of them. It's focused on how film has become a medium that is overpowering that of books, and especially how when you adapt a text into a film, you use different modes of capturing your audience. For example, in Pride and Prejudice, you are taught in the novel to hate Mr. Darcy and think him incredibly proud and snotty through the first half of the book, and then it's a wonderful revelation to think you were wrong, whereas you can't hate Colin Firth. It's just not in you. He's just too cute. So the filmmakers have to think of different ways to make him interesting. In that particular version, you see a lot more of his side of the story than you do in the book, which can be good or bad. 

My other class is French 202, which is hard because our teacher is an actual French woman and her French sounds like French and isn't slow and American enough to pick apart, but it's fun because we're studying actual French literature and history instead of just conjugating verbs. I'm excited :)

That's what I'm doing. Oh yeah, and I've been deathly ill the last couple of days. Yesterday I had a fever of 101. But now I'm fine. And that's all it was, a fever and headache. Mike made me stay home from work again today because I was still kind of achy this morning, but I don't have a fever anymore and my headache is mostly gone. It came and went really fast. Weird. 

WHY DO I KEEP GETTING SICK THIS YEAR?!?!?!!?!? It's minorly frustrating. 

But it's springtime, and there are flowers outside, and everything is beautiful and warm and my neck is sunburned, and the little Asian boys get to play baseball outside for five hours a day without their mother yelling at them to wear a jacket (they've played baseball all day, every day since the snow melted mid-january.) I'm happy. 

When Semester Ends...

Yes, I'm talking about that totally morose Greenday song. The one my dad liked for a lot of years. 

Anyways...

We're making cupcakes because the semester's over. I helped host an open house for all the grads from the Dept. of Statistics today. Everyone's done. But not me. 

School starts on tuesday. 

Alas. 

At least it's spring. 

Just Kidding!

I'm not actually done. I came to work today at 8 because it's finals week and everyone's schedules are crazy, but I'm the only one here all morning until 2. And I've only been here for a little over an hour and I'm already really bored. Kathi's fun, but she's in her office doing busy things, and I'm out here at the front desk and the entire building is empty...nobody's on campus anymore...
But finals week is going well. Mike and I both took our religion finals on Friday (we're in the same class) and he scored higher than me (of course!) by one question. I'm not complaining, I got a 94%, and he got 96%. I was surprised at our test. I thought it would be harder. But that's what I loved about that class. It was technically called LDS Marriage and Family, but Br. Brooks understood that in order to have a good marriage and family, we need to simply have a deeper understanding of gospel principles. So we talked about all kinds of different things, not just the Family Proclamation, foreordained roles of women and men, parenthood, and dating and such. The test was really testing how well we had understood the gospel principles that were taught. It was awesome.
I only have three more things to do for this semester. I have my CHUM portfolio due on Wednesday, (see Mac Lab entry :) and then my French 201 final is on Wednesday (the last day of finals) from 8-11 pm (we'll be there even later than the testing center--they close at 10). So my French final will be the very last of all finals on campus. i'm being serious. My Brit Lit final isn't due until friday, but that's because it's a take home essay final, not very huge, and he wanted us to have the most time possible. And grades aren't due until next week, so we have until Friday. I'm perfectly okay with that.
Mike's finals are stressing him out like crazy. He's doing pretty well so far, having gotten 96 in religion, as I said, and on Saturday he went and took his Physics 105 final and came back grinning, saying that something happened that had never happened for him at BYU before. He completely aced it. 100% in Physics 105. Gross. What did I think I was doing, marrying a genius ? ;) He's going to take Nutrition today, which he's a little nervous for, so it's a good thing I'm working for six hours so he'll have time to study his bum off before he goes. But he'll be great. I know he will be. He just finds this strange kind of masochistic pleasure in making himself unnecessarily anxious over everything.
I don't know what else to write about. My life is kind of boring for the next week. Friday I'll be here at 8 again to help with the Graduation open house for the department. Other than that, I'm just working, writing stuff, etc. Nothing huge.
Maybe I'll make a pie. Mmmmm...

Once upon a time...

There was a sweet, innocent, totally well-intentioned young girl in a married ward, who happened to have taken many years of piano lessons. Because of this, the kind-hearted bishop thought she would also want to learn to play the organ. This was a very controversial bet to take.
But she was whole-hearted into accepting callings, so she learned to play the organ.
And switching into present-day reality, yesterday was the first day that she played all the hymns in sacrament meeting, with the pedals, all by herself. "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go," "Tis Sweet to Sing the Matchless Love," and "The Time is Far Spent." Not too horrible.
It was very traumatic. She messed up a lot. But all the people in her ward--whom she knew were all musically inclined and probably were wincing at her every key stroke--encouraged and applauded her for massacring the hymns. Except they said she did a good job. She just thinks she massacred them.
But then she went home and made tuna-noodle casserole for her husband, played the cello for a while, and then went to work at 8 the next morning, and it was all better.
The end.

I almost forgot!

ps- I've been meaning to put this up. This is the cutest little French girl ever telling a story. My teacher showed this video to us, and now I'm in love with Capucine!

http://vimeo.com/2113477

Hmmmm, Mac Lab....hmmm....

So, in taking my CHUM 230 class, (for anyone who doesn't know...okay, so nobody really knows...I just found this out myself...It's "computers and the humanities") I spent a BILLION hours in the Mac Lab on campus so I could use InDesign, Photoshop, Quark, etc. And I am continuing to do so during finals week in order that I might finish my horrid portfolio (really, it's just taking all the assignments and publication designs we've already made, printing them out again, making a cover page, and turning it in). So I been thinkin'. 

I want a mac. That's not a secret. I only have my lovely (cough cough) hp laptop because my accountant father and engineer grandfather picked it out without me. Not that I'm complaining-it would be a lot more painful if I had to do ALL my homework on campus-and it's a really nice laptop-I just really wish that they'd let me get a mac. I don't really need all the excel and math programs and whatever. I only use this one for word and the internet. So I can blog and reach out to all you lovely people. And occasionally do boring stuff like register for classes and check my grades. I'm totally kidding. 

But I realized today, that if I end up becoming an editor (which is the whole plan with the whole English major and editing minor thing) and taking jobs at home (which is also the goal--so I can be a mom and put my husband through med school at the same time) then I would need a mac to do all my editing and publishing stuff. And it's fine, Mike already promised me that when one of our computers dies our next one can be a mac.

Problem: my teacher said that if we wanted to get the adobe suite (all the publishing programs that are good) then it's a LOT cheaper (we're talking hundreds of dollars) to get it when we're students. 

HMMMMMMMMMMM....

Just some thoughts for the day. It hasn't been really that exciting. Except that it's Super-Sexy Friday. See, all the professor that I work with and most other people dress up during the week and then get to be casual on fridays. Well, Mike and I wear jeans and sneakers all the time. So we decided that Fridays would be dress-up days for us. So I actually did my hair, and Mike wore slacks and a dress polo and stuff. And we looked really good, but it makes Mike look way old. It's weird. :)

A Tribute to Dr. Brandie R. Siegfried, OR, An English Major's Reflections on Growing Up

In 2006, when I was a senior in high school, I was in AP English with Ms. Sue Norton. My class was composed of the same people as inhabited every single one of my other classes. It didn't mean much that it was English--we were AP everything students--so we didn't expect to get anything else out of it. Ms. Norton was this sweet old lady who smiled a lot and had a very soft voice. We expected it to be a breeze.
The first thing she showed us was a template for a research paper. You know what I'm talking about. The intro paragraph has intro sentence, intro sentence, intro sentence, thesis. And every other paragraph had topic sentence, concrete detail, commentary commentary, etc. You've all seen it. And she told us that if we tried to emulate it at all in her class, we would fail on our papers. I was excited.
Through the course of the year, we learned not only to write with our own voices (or to utilize the voices we had already had without knowing we had them) but also to teach ourselves. Instead of lecturing on her own ideas about the literature (like so many teachers used to preach theories passionately over our heads) she gave us background and set us loose. We read plays in a circle and stopped to discuss. We had to have real opinions and ideas. We learned to truly think.
And then I came to school at a huge university, where everyone--and everything--was smarter than I was. My English professors were so varied, I didn't know what to expect. But I followed the prompts, I analyzed poems based on word meaning and whatever theory that professor preached, and I spit out papers that followed all the guidelines. I learned to speed read so fast I finished Frankenstein in three days. I forgot what it was like to get sucked into a book and to actually feel sadness when it finished and there was nothing more to analyze. Reading became work, and I couldn't get through a story or poem without thinking of how the women related to the men, how the power structure played out, what the story said about the personal experience of the author, etc...
And then I jumped into this semester, taking English 292 and 382. In 382, Shakespeare with Dr. Siegfried, I was really nervous the first day. She had all these strict beliefs and requirements which made at least half the class disappear after the first day. The class got down to 11 people before she announced that it was about the size she liked, and she became more personable. The fear I had had the first day immediately evaporated, and this class became the one that proved I was in the right major. I actually got excited about all of my papers, because when she asked us a question, she expected a real answer. Not just a spewed out knowledge of what she had told us the day before, but a real answer. So these papers involved what I actually thought and felt, and I began to grow as a person, not just remaining static in my studies and telling people I was an English major. Now I'm a critic. A real one.
And then, the last two weeks of the semester, there were a couple of things that happened that have changed me permanently. First, was the final research paper. When Dr. Siegfried told us about it, she said she wanted us to produce something that was an actual contribution to the literary scene--something real, that we could submit for a contest, an undergrad journal, a conference, etc. So we began thinking real thoughts, making real hypotheses, and and putting real thoughts and feelings down on paper. I'm not going to say that my 11-page monster written on how Portia from The Merchant of Venice is a reflection of Elizabeth I just as much as Shylock becomes a prototype for Rodrigo Lopez, her Portuguese Jewish doctor whom she executed for a suspected murder plot. It's pretty genius. And it's all my own. And I couldn't find many people who even suggested things like that before, so maybe it'll be worth something.
But then, we were also reading a book called Mama Day. And suddenly, I'm re-learning how to read for pleasure. I can't remember the last time I did that. It's so refreshing.
So now comes the conclusion, as every good English major knows. Ms. Norton taught us to write with a voice, but Dr. Siegfried taught me to write the things I actually think. I'm not trying to argue somebody else's point, I'm arguing mine. I'm not trying to spew out information to prove that I've learned something, I'm telling her how I feel and what I think and I'm making all the work that everyone groans at when they hear I'm an English major mean something to me.
Okay, I lied. That was not the conclusion. The reason I've written this big long sermon/personal history/whatever-you-call-it, is because this morning I turned in my paper. And attended the very last class of Shakespeare 382. And I've never felt sad about finishing a class before. You can think I'm cheesy, make fun of my nostalgia and sentimentality; I don't care. I never thought it could actually create a space in the room of my mind that is full of things that I genuinely care about. But somehow it has. And now it's over.