Thanksgiving all over again. ..

Happy Thanksgiving! Ok…I know it is a week past…almost Christmas even.

Alas! Here is my Thanksgiving story:

I flew into Denver Tuesday night and greeting my mother at the airport. She was about 20 minutes late due to a hold-up at Taco Bell. No really, it was a police hold-up. I wonder how desperate you have to be to try to steal from a Taco Bell…I mean what do they really have worth stealing?! Nachos Supreme? And I can’t imaging that a single Taco Bell takes in all that much in a day…surely not enough to be worth stealing. Besides, everyone that works there speaks Spanish—and only Spanish. When they can’t understand what the hold-up is all about they might confusedly ask: “do you want mexi-fries with that?” Personally, I don’t think there was a lot of thought put into that one. Really people. Where are the good criminal minds these days—this is embarrassing.

Mother and I were finally reunited and despite a stressful meal at Taco Bell and a cold wait outside the airport. No one was seriously hurt—in fact no one was hurt at all. Custom tradition of my mother and me, we talked the WHOLE 45 minute drive home from the airport. We covered all topics and felt almost on the same page when we got home—where there was another happy reunion.

Naughty Kitty was very glad to see me. Ok, so was my family. I hadn’t seen Kenny and Meggan for more than 10 minutes since Mayish of last year. All of us sat and got all caught-up on life. It was already late so after a while we all went to bed. Naughty was very happy to be let out of her nightly bathroom confinement and sleep with me in the bedroom.

Wednesday was relaxing. The main event was tasting wedding cake. Mmm…I found it interesting that Kenny and I were on the same page with our cake consuming habits and opinions. Chocolate is good was the main consensus. It was pretty fun. I helped mom pack for her departure the next day to Sunny California. Alright, I was probably more of a hindrance. I sat on the bed and chatted while she packed. I am such a good daughter. I went to Roger’s office and he was kind enough to torture me for a few minutes. Ok that was a lie. Anyone who knows me even a little knows I LOVE chiropractic work. I also got to see mom’s new office. I thought her new piece of art was a pushpin-board—good thing I didn’t try it out…that could have been disastrous. That night we had pizza. Every holiday we have pizza at least once. I love pizza. We also watched a Veggie Tales: The Wizard of Ha’s. Changing the field of poppies to a field of puppies? Brilliance. Who really stops and frolics in a field of poppies? Now ask yourself: if there was a field of adorable puppies…would you stop? Yes. I have to say, it had some clever moments—but still not as good as Lord of the Beans. We also went shopping for the last few things for dinner the next day.

Thanksgiving day was fun-filled with cooking. I made poppy seed raspberry muffins for breakfast to go with the cold pizza. Then I stole away with the paper for Black Friday. When Kenny and Meggan arrived, we started in with the cooking. It was fun to be with them cooking away in the kitchen. By twoish we were ready to eat. Grandma came over a little earlier. We had three courses: appetizers, salads, and REAL dinner. Everything was fun and good. I love food.

Friday, I picked Meggan up around 5am and we headed to Home Depot to get mom’s poinsettias. They are only a buck on black Friday. We got her a bunch including the token red one from Kenny. Meggan and I spent the greater part of the day walking around shopping, finding deals, encouraging each other on purchases, and a great breakfast together a La Peep. What fun we had. Grandma and I spent the last bit of the evening sewing and being creative. I asked her about her and grandpa’s BYU dating story. Cute. Gotta love a good romance. Kenny and Meggan took me to dinner at one of their favorite hang-out places called Tequila. Well…actually I drove. My plate was wonderful—but unbelievably hot. For all you Spanish speakers—you can’t laugh…but how was I supposed to know what Diablo meant? It started snowing when in dinner, and the drive home felt like we were in a StarTrek show. CLARIFICATION: not because I was driving at warp speed—but because there was so much snow falling. We actually slid around a bit, but ended up making it home safe.

Then it was Saturday. I actually was ready to go home. I had one more thing to look forward to. A few weeks ago I was craving Cinnabon and found-out that Danny had never had one. Disgrace! That day went online looking for the closest one. Astounded, I found that there was only one in Utah—in concourse C at the Airport. The only way to get to that gooey goodness was to fly somewhere. Thus, when I got off the plane I bought two and met Danny. It was a great break, but there was so much on my mind needing to get done and ready for Finals week. Another Thanksgiving break over and done with. Now to Christmas!

5th Folder Picture

My best friend Jill tagged me to post my 5th picture in my 5th folder. This is a picture from the Brigham Young University's Ballroom Concert two years ago. We danced to "Candy Man" and this is the final pose. I am the one cut off on the far right side. You can see my nose... It was WAY fun. Time of my life dancing at BYU.

The Last 5 Months in a few words...

So I just tried to post a novel of information I wrote a few months ago about my summer experiences, but again I could not get it to work! I don't know why...lame.
So I have given up and will just start from here and just mention a few important Summer points...
First, I have another little sister. Danette had little Kylie in June. I love being a big sister! She is adorable and I got to spend the whole day alone with Katie (one of my most memorable days while in Seattle). We read books, watched a Veggie Tales movie, and I introduced her to the world of Nutella. It was brilliant.


Second, Emily and I took a trip to Forks, Washington to celebrate our love for the Twilight series. It was a blast. We had girl/sister bonding time, ate good food, and saw Twilight sites.


Third, I went on a boating, fishing, and skiing trip with my dad. I almost got up on skis...next time I will have success.


There were many many more things that happened this summer, but these were the ones I thought I could not pass by.
Now for Fall...
School is tough. I have already written over 60 pages in papers, taken ugly Statistics tests, and given three presentations.
I turned 23...and have a hard time remembering when people ask me how old I am. Weird. I had amazing chocolate cake, lots of balloons, a football game, and friends. Who could ask for anything more?


Homecoming was the next big event. Danny (dance partner from three years ago...and just happens to be the person I am dating...), took me to my first and perhaps last BYU Homecoming dance. We got all dressed up and went dancing.


Halloween is the latest event to talk about. We were the party girls from three different eras: I was a 70's Disco Dancer, Nicole was a 80's Rocker Chick, and Whitney was a 90's Club Girl--all modest of course... Halloween was also Katie's 2nd birthday...and she was Thing 1 for Halloween...perfect for a two year old.
Alright, there is an update of major events. I will try to be more on top of this whole thing.

Back in Happy Valley.

Hello all.


I have been thoroughly chastised. Thus I am writing a post. Honestly it is not that I have not had anything interesting going on in my life--I just plead a forgetful mind.





For all who don't already know, my research time in Seattle has ended and I am back in Happy Valley once again for my last year of BYU. I started a new job at the Museum of Peoples and Cultures (the MPC). If you have never heard of this museum before, you are not alone... it is in the Allen Building south of campus near Brick Oven. Literally, on a hot day (so every day here) you can smell the gourmet pizza from up the street and then you can imagine the freshly brewed root beer ready to wash it down... almost makes my daily EasyMac unbearable. Almost. I have actually come to like the stuff. Well really I think that EMac and I have come to an understanding--almost a partnership. I need sustenance, it is quick, easy, and cheap...and with enough water to wash it down, the filmy leftovers of the almost plastic "cheese" on my teeth are minimal. Partnership is too strong...it is just an understanding.


I digress.


My job has been good. Not thrilling, but good none-the-less. I am currently working with two different areas: collections (not like the sheriff of Nottingham and money--more like Indiana Jones and artifacts) and education. In collections they saw me coming and said "Oooh...a new girl! (Devious little grins on Heidi and Tammy's faces) What can we do to torture her? Loans! Perfect." Really? Why would they do something like that? Thus when I work my collections hours I spend my time entering loans into the computer, fixing problems from before I was born, and pestering Heidi and Paul with impossible unanswerable questions (my little time to get back for putting me on loans). For real though, I don't mind it. I get to chat with them all day and feel like I actually know what I am doing. I'm glad they did not give me exhibition files--those look frightening...


The other part of my time I spend working with the education people. I have decided these people are the creativity of the museum. I am excited to get to learn from them. I helped (ok...watched--or "observed" rather) with the children's program called Mornings at the Museum (on Thursday however it is in the afternoon...we need to do something about that). This was fun. We pretended that we were archaeologists today and dug up beads, shells, and sherds (pottery pieces) that we put together into a pot. Kids are great. I also have a project that I am working on that is looking at all the courses taught by BYU and seeing how they might relate to the MPC. Long and tedious, but fun to find stretching correlations--I am good at those (weight lifting 101: Come and learn about building a pyramid!)...and so forth.





I moved into a new apartment as well. I have met two of my roommates and they are wonderful. They are putting up with all the stuff I brought into the apartment (NICOLE'S LOAD). But I have to keep friends somehow... There are two main attractions for me. First, I can now confidently spend my quarters wherever I like because we have a washer and dryer in the unit. Second, my car has luxury underground parking. My car smiles at me every afternoon that it does not have to be sunbathing.





The latest excitement in my life of work and research was the 4th of July weekend. I spent it with my best friend--Jill--and her family. Her parents just finished building their amazingly beautiful home up in the mountains. We spent the whole day (after the parade) eating and in the pool. Can't get much better than that. Jill and I both debuted our new swimming suits--mine is strawberry pink (I know shocker--and I even had the option of black...don't know what came over me), and Jill's is eggplant purple. We did watch fireworks that night, but I was so tired I really did not give them the attention they deserved.

Well...I think that is sufficient for now. Hope you all enjoy the update...

A Time To Live.

I have to add a congratulations to my beautiful friend Charity. (she will probbaly have some harsh words for me after putting this picture online--love ya!). She had a beautiful little baby girl the other day. Being in Seattle, I have not seen them yet, but Kendra took this picture and sent it to me. I think it is adorable! Congrats also to Sean--proud father. I can't wait to actually see her myself--in a month.

Here is a cloud picture I took while driving. Nice huh?

Edward--what's in a name?

I want to discuss the name Edward.
I just finished reading Jane Eyre. The hero and her love in that book was named Edward. He was, well...ugly. That didn't matter--but it was a point made often in the writing. In the Twilight series, Edward is a magnificently beautiful vampire. That wasn't the reason Bella loved him, it was just a point made often. In the Narnia series, one of the high kings is named Edward--and despite all his childish mistakes, he overcomes all those and is a strong individual. Sense and Sensibility...ok, you get the point.
Thus, I started thinking about the name and where I know it from. In history the name is attributed to royalty. This is due to King Edward the Confessor. People were impressed by his Christian humility that led to his name becoming a popular name for male children. Thus now, all of these characters in these books carry the name that means "rich or blessed guard." These strong male characters have become the fantasy love of many women since their publication in the 1800s. The name Edward was wildly popular until it's consistent down slide starting in the 1920s. Now the name is not very popular at all. Then again--there have not been any books with the Edward that have made an impact as these ones did--until now the Narnia Movies and the Twilight series. I wonder if this will change that fact. I have an uncle Edward (goes by Ed)--so I can claim it a family name--can you?

Death of a Duck

Today I cried.
Ok...not really. But I was devestated.

In my evolution class, my professor was convinced that we (humans as we now know them) did not just evolve--but that we killed off all the other hominids. She said it was just that we did not like the competition and wanted (natrually not consiously) to be the superior race. Thus we are the dominant creatures on the earth (Some may argue that insects rule--but really when you look at their life-span, they haven't a chance). For example--just look at the life expectacny of all the animals on earth! Aside from a very few exeptions, we have the longest. In fact, we have made it difficult for others to live by making them live in the "wild" that we have created--the human non-natrual world. This has made the lives of other living animals very difficult and confusing (Just so you don't worry about me becoming "green"--I am not saying we should burn the houses and let the trees grow over the freeway, I am merely observing and lamenting the life of a duck). This rant is becasue of the short time I observed a family of ducks today while driving my fast car on a wide freeway. I was going to Renton for an interview. I left early to avoid traffic and as such there were not many cars on the road at the time. I was on a long straight stretch of 5 lanes with a median and then 5 more lanes. There were trees on both sides of the freeway (not unusual in Washington) and it was a pleasent day. I saw a single-parent family of ducks with two ducklings frantically dodging cars trying to make it to the other side of the freeway (Whoever invented the "why did the chicken cross the road" joke is a sick and twisted person). I first saw them when they were almost across and my first thought was "I wonder how many ducklings there were starting at the other side of the road?" It made me sad. I found myself in those few seconds gripping the steeringwheel in anticipation to see if the little family would make it to safety. When they finally scampered across the last lane of traffic I let out my breath and let a huge grin spread across my face. Once again, nature had thwarted the dangerous "wild" of mankind. Not a second later however, the mom--still running (or waddling quickly) led her ducklings over a rain dranage grate. She made it safely to the otherside and turned around. To her suprise, the ducklings were nowhere to be seen. The had tried to follow her across the grate and had quickly slipped through the slats into the drain.
That is when I passed them on the road. My grin was immediatly replaced with a look of horror and my jaw had dropped. The motherly instincts in me were shocked and I was at a loss of feeling for the mother duck. I was devestated for her.
There was nothing I could do. That is why I decided to write about this little family that will forever be stuck in a rut.
It just makes me hope that I will never be careless enough to lead my poor future children over a drainage grate. And If I do--I hope it just spills outside on the otherside of the freeway. Everyone deserves a second chance.

There really are only two questions to ask with this experience.
Why did the duck cross the road?
Was it worth it?

Bubbles, Kids, and Mothers

Today I relearned why bubbles were created. Aside from being a natural occurrence, bubble liquid was created and stored in little bottles with bubble blowing sticks for one reason--little girls (ok...children in general, but girls in my case). Today Danette was reading to Katie and the children (or animals) in the book were playing with bubbles (or something--I was not really sitting on the magic rug making her read to me too, I was just sitting in the room working on my computer slyly eavesdropping to hear the exciting little story... I digress.) And Katie started saying buhbuh? buhbuh! buhbuh! (Bubble) and got really excited. She had seen bubbles in nursery a few weeks ago and did not really know what to do. She just stared at all the other kids while they ran around destroying (trying to catch) the bubbles. But she knew what they were now. Danette asked if she wanted to play with bubbles. That got her really excited, and she said buhbuh! over and over again with bright excited little eyes. Danette got a bottle down from the cupboard in the kitchen a blew them in the kitchen--right there not caring where they landed (true motherly love--blowing bubbles in her sparkly clean kitchen and letting them land on counter tops and beautiful wood floors) covering the surfaces with little soapy circles. She blew them up above Katie's head and Kati would squeal with delight and try to catch the bubbles. She would see one and follow it to the ground until it burst. What fun. She LOVED it.
Having lived at BYU in a singles ward for the past 4 years I have really missed little kids--sure there are enough to go around in Happy Valley, not in singles wards. You have to make a real effort if you want to be involved in kids lives there. It makes me miss Tori and Michael. Adorable little children that I never get over to see often enough.

Mothers Day was a happy one for me. For a few weeks I had been thinking that this is the second in a row that I have not been with my mother for her special day--and that made me miss her and wish I could be there (I was in Jerusalem last year). I worried that I was not there to make it a great day for her--which was stupid because Kenny and Meggan were both there to do that. As well as Roger, who would not let something like that go unnoticed. I'm just the worrier in the family I guess (Clarification: I'm not really a worrier, but compared to the other people in my family...I'm practically all we got). After I called and talked to her--I realized something (that I already knew);My mom has a way of filling her life with things she wants to do and not making people plan to make her happy (that's not saying she does not let us do things for her though). She was watching some crazy scientific video with Kenny and making baby blankets with Meggan--just because she wanted to. Kenny and Meggan brought over chocolate cake and pizza the night before so she could have it for breakfast. I am not sure if it is her favorite, but it is tradition so I hope she likes it because she will get it now for mother's day and her birthday until the day one of us dies. At that point Roger was making dinner--some crazy chicken thing, I'm sure it was good, great, grand! They got to talk to Mckay (Elder Knowles) and said he is doing wonderful. I'm a little jealous I was not there to talk to him again--not like we would have chatted it up, but it would have been nice to hear his voice and thank him in person for the sunset picture he sent just to me. He's a good kid.
Mother's Day in Washington was--well rainy. (gasp) Shocker, I know. I got up and made muffins--which, aside from a little setback, were quite good. Then we went to church and tried to fit the little family on one of the side pews--no luck. Brandon had to sit in the row ahead of us. I think we could have fit--but not with Katie moving around, we would have had to play musical chairs with her. I was a considered old enough to receive the Mother's Day gift. It was a CD of hymns. They are pleasantly nice arrangements. We came home and took a nap (much needed) and went to the Smith's house for dinner. Going to their house for dinner is like going to a gourmet restaurant without having to dress-up. Both of them are amazing cooks. We had steak with some kind of sauce, potatoes, veggies in cheese sauce (one of my favorites) and salad (really, really good salad). I don't have time to give the descriptions justice--just know that it was bon apatite. I let their little girl do my hair--she wanted to brush it. That would have been disastrous--I tried to explain that to her (she has Barbie's hair--big, blond, and straight), that it would be a bad experience for the both of us. It turned out ok--she put in a few clips and then decided it was not worth the trouble and went with a simple ponytail. I did her hair instead. It went a little better.

Why I am Vain

So... here I am. I was threatened with my life that if I did not create a blog that I would die (or rather I would not have any friends). So in lieu of that scare--welcome me to Blogger. I don't really know what I am going to put on here...isn't it a little selfish that I have a page all to myself? I thought so too--but I love Jill too much to deny her the favor. Thus I am reveling in all the vanity and will probably post 50 pictures of just my face (love digital. Thanks Laura). JK. I wont do that unless I really go insane.
Currently I am sitting in my dad's kitchen listening to oldies looking at the rainclouds out the sliding glass door. Recently, I am enthralled with the clouds. I have always loved the sky, but being in Utah there are only two options--sunny or gray. But here (where I started my infatuation with the sky) there are so many variations--sunny, dark and cloudy, light and cloudy, misty, partly cloudy, etc. Partly cloudy at night is probably one of my favorites--it is so interesting. I love sunrises and sunsets as well. With clouds...wow. I have nothing more to say!
I love nighttime. I am not sure why--perhaps because of the heightened senses and excitement, or perhaps because it is when humans sleep and I feel like a rebel being awake and outside at that time. Whatever the reason--I live for the peace of the night. It is my time when nothing is scheduled and I get to be free. (Do I sound like a caged bird?--I do feel a little that way sometimes...).
I'm sharing a room with my little sister, Katie, who is almost 18 months old. That only lasted for a week. I am internally selfish and she liked to chuck her empty bottles across the room in the general direction of my sleeping body. One night I threw it back (softly) into her crib. Big mistake. Now it was a game. In the morning when she wakes up, if she thinks that I am asleep she will lie down again. If I move or make a sound she sits up and says "wasat" (what is that). No good--I can never fool her, then she will beg me to get her out of the crib and play with her. One morning I was sleeping facing her and I woke up and she was looking at me and saw my eyes open and that was it. The begging started that morning at 5am (4am my time). One morning I just rolled over and put a pillow on my head. She didn't like that. To make an unnecessarily long story shorter, neither of us were getting any sleep--so I packed my bags and moved downstairs to the couch. Both have us have been a little less grumpy since then. Eh...I don't hold it against her--what girl wants to share her room. Look at my track record! Kenny and I shared a room until I was in first grade--since then (with the exception of my first year at BYU--sorry Jami) I have had my own room and have been very happy with the results of selfish alone room-time. All's well that ends well. Sharing ended well.
Ill get to the research another time. I need to go to bed because I last night I read until 4:15am. It was great. The book The Host by Stephenie Meyer came out yesterday and I went to Walmart to buy it. Then I decided to not stop reading after my dance class. Thus it was a long wonderful night of reading. I don't like to stay up that late (er...early rather) very often...but the occasional night of reading, talking with dear friends, or being silly is--I have decided--is healthy. Makes you appreciate the long nights of sleep. Now, growing up there was a rule that my mom made--she had to make it because both Kenny and I would read late into the night. She said that we were aloud to read as long as we still got up in the morning, did the things we were supposed to do, and that we were absolutely not grumpy or short with anyone. I think that this was a smart way to make us happy people--because we were even nicer to people on these days in fear of breaking the rule. If she could get us to do this every night--we would never be aloud to be grumpy or angry. Man that woman is full of wisdom (I just figured this out...like 10 minutes ago). What a woman (more on that on Sunday--the official Mom Day).

Ok...time to go to bed/couch. Love you all and am actually glad I have a place to write my stream of consciousness (aside from my neglected journal).