Where Were You?

It was my first year off campus and I was living in The Riviera at BYU. That Tuesday I had an 8:00 history class, so of course I didn’t watch any TV before class. The guy that I sat by in class worked in the BYU Bookstore on the early morning shift and told me he had seen one of the planes crash into the building. I didn’t really think much of it until I got home and turned on the television.

Over and over it showed the planes crashing and the towers collapsing. My roommate Jennika (crazy girl with bright pink hair) kept saying it was a ploy by the government to do who knows what. I finally told her to leave and fortunately she went to her room.

I tried to make sure that my Dad wasn’t in New York or in D.C in harm's way. Also, I wanted to make sure that my aunt Joan’s family was all okay. Fortunately they were all safe. I went back to campus later in the afternoon for a geography class, but it was cancelled due to the day’s events.

Since then, every year, I listen to a CD I made right after the events occurred. It has a variety of songs with sound bits from the news in it. Generally it makes me cry, but it is worth it to remember the lives of those who were lost.

Where were you?

Celebration

This is my happy face. It may be difficult to discriminate from my not-so-happy face...

I should have taken a follow-up picture. It would have resulted after the following:

1. Riding a bus with 50 others wearing the same shirt.

2. Walking through a gauntlet of high school cheerleaders and band members.

3. Sitting in a hot stadium.

4. Having items thrown into the crowd that seemed unnecessarily close to my head.

5. Thinking I was going to be attacked by some student council person running up the steps.

6. Waiting in the hot bus for 20 minutes.

7. Riding a bus with no air conditioning back to school.

I'm pretty sure it was a VERY un-happy face...

Painful Reality

The image to follow was a very painful experience. However, it is what happens when you are allergic (not slightly, but highest level of allergic) to the following:

TREES:

Boxelder

Birch

Juniper Rocky Mtn.

Oak

Ash

Cottonwood

Elm

Maple

Russian Olive

Willow

GRASS:

Timothy

Johnson

Bermuda

WEEDS:

Cocklebur

Lamb's Quarters

Pigweed

Dock

Sagebrush

Plantain

Ragweed

Marshelder

Scale

Kochia

Russian Thistle

Greasewood

Alfalfa

OTHER:

Cats

(That doesn't even include the lower rated allergies i.e. dogs, horses, sycamore trees, walnut trees, linden trees, mulberry trees and mesquite trees).

My arm was ON FIRE! And it took quite awhile to get the itching to subside - even after heavy duty anti-itch cream and a shot of liquid Zyrtec...

The avoidance techniques won't really work since these allergies occur all spring, summer and fall here in Utah. I do get a higher A/C bill because I don't open the windows. Lucky me.

Possible allergy shots are in my future...

On the plus side I am not allergic to mold or dust :)

Babysitting

It is a rare occasion that I babysit only my niece at my house. Today just happened to be one of those days. She was in a pretty good mood, so I thought we would try a few fun pictures :)

She was enjoying herself, even if it doesn't look that way! It is hard to smile when you are fascinated by that cute baby on the computer screen :)

Robots Galore

Welcome to my tiny speech room. I affectionately call it "My Cubicle"...

Here is the quilt that I made for this year's theme. I did most of it by myself with phone tech support from my mom and some guidance and quilting help from my sister. In retrospect I should have listened to my mother and made the black border out of the green pinwheel and finished the edges in black. But alas - too late for that now...Here is a little bit of the decorations. I only decorate two walls so that when I am sitting at the table working with children I don't have to look at any of it. It takes me a month or two to get accustomed to all the busy decorations that I DO have.
Don't you feel "Geared Up For Success"?!?!?

It's A Jungle Out There

Lions and Tigers and Bears oh my! Wait - wrong song...

Dragonflies, praying mantises, rolly pollies, and spiders oh my! (And some little white crawling bugs too.)

Oh what do you do in the summertime when all the world's asleep?

You WEED in the dark by the dim glow of your mostly obscured porch light of course.

If you have seen posts from others where their garden is flourishing and producing delicious vegetables; my backyard is just NOT the same. The plants are being overtaken by weeds (the ones that are alive of course) and the bugs are taking over.

I am NOT a gardener. Maybe some astro-turf is JUST what I need.

And I still feel bugs crawling all over me...

July 4th Fun

This past week my brother was in town with his family. Of course he was only there for a day or two, so really it was my sister-in-law with the boys :) We did something different everyday, but taking pictures isn't my specialty most of the time. One day we we went to Thanksgiving Point.

This was my token group shot that I forced all of the children to take since I had bought them all red shirts with a favorite character on it. Don't they look happy?!?This is my youngest nephew - he is quite the crack up. One day he wanted some chocolate animal crackers so I told him to ask his mom. He came back and told me: "Mom said a few, but I say A LOT."

Friday night we went to the Riverton Parade. Our chairs had been moved, so we took another spot, but it was not as optimal since we were directly in the sun. It's a good thing I don't agree to go to these every year! Having a lot of candy being chucked at you isn't my idea of fun, but the kids LOVED it!

We decided to do fireworks on the 2nd since my brother and his family were still there. My nephew is modeling his glow-in-the-dark earring/ bracelet. It doesn't have quite the same effect when it is still sunny outside. But there was no way we were going to wait for it to get dark - the kids would be in ultimate melt-down mode by then!

I must admit it was nice to have my brother's kids there since they are almost always willing to take a picture with me. And of course my niece doesn't know what's happening quite yet...
So she is always a lucky recipient of being in my pictures. But boy - isn't she cute! Definitely picture worthy :)

By the time we did sparklers at about 9:15/9:30 it was a little darker, so we whipped out the sparklers. Don't we look like we are having fun?!? The kids were mad because my sister-in-law and I had the last sparklers - not to be mean, but because there weren't enough for everyone to have an additional one. Try to explain that one to 4 little boys...

Painting, Tires & Strangers

This is what my kitchen looked like when I moved in 2 years ago and few (if any) changes have been made, until yesterday... But before the painting could be completed, the story of the tire should probably be shared.

I had failed to tape the entire kitchen. I was originally going to just paint one wall, but my mom and sister convinced me to paint the whole thing. It's not too large of a space, so the biggest problem was that I didn't have anymore painter's tape. So my sister started to paint the wall while I went to WalMart. Of course my sister's car was parked behind my car, so I took her car and on the way, I decided to go to a little local hardware store, thinking that it would be faster.

I am one light away from the store and the car started pulling like crazy to the left. Thump, thump, thump. That's right, you guessed it - a flat tire. The first one in my life in my sister's tan mini-van... I pulled into the parking lot and realized I didn't have my cell phone. So I asked the store worker (a 16 year old that seemed to have just started work) if I could borrow their phone. I also asked where the blue tape was. As I try to call my sister, my cell phone, my brother-in-law, and then my sister again with no answer, I bought the tape. At this point I am getting ready to walk home and leave the car there.

(Of course when telling this story to my mother, she asks what I would have done in my car and I respond with - "call AAA". She then asked me why I didn't do that with my sister's car and that would be because I was already in PANIC mode. It wasn't my car, I didn't know anything about where/how to change the spare, AND I didn't have my cell phone which equals: not being able to think correctly...)

And now - the story of the stranger.

A scruffy man approached me as I was getting ready to walk home (I was locking the car) and asked if I have a flat tire. Of course I showed him and he volunteered to put the spare on for me. At this point, I couldn't find the spare, and since I am not thinking clearly, the man suggested I look in the car's owners manual. Good thinking Mister! So we got the book out and found out that the spare was in the middle of the car and required both middle seats to be removed in order to retrieve it. And of course I couldn't get the chairs locked back in since I was so flustered, so they just sat awkwardly in the car.

He changed the tire for the spare lickety split, then informed me that the spare only had 20 when it should have 60 (whatever they measure the air in tires with). He whipped out a fix-a-flat can and that helped it a little but it still wasn't fully inflated. I keep referring to him as Mister or The Man because I don't actually even know his name. As he was getting closer to finishing and I was getting closer to tears, I asked if he worked at the store or if I could get his name to send him some money.

He merely responded, "Don't worry about it. Just do something nice for someone else." I said "Thank You" about 3 more times and he got back in his truck and left. He must have overheard me in the store leaving my sister a message and he just decided to help me. Who knows if his work day was ending or just getting started, but I appreciated it. I decided it was a good thing I tried to go to the local store since I don't believe someone would have volunteered to help me in a WalMart parking lot...

I refrained from totally bursting into tears until I got home and asked my sister why she didn't answer her phone when I called twice in a row from the same number. She looked at her phone and realized her ringer was off. So of course I had a melt-down while re-telling the events of my shopping trip...

And the taping and painting continued, with an additional incident. I was putting a little piece of tape on an outlet and - can you guess - I got shocked!
It wasn't this bad, and I am still not sure how it happened, but it shot from my hand to my elbow so my whole arm was tingling in pain. I had to keep massaging my hand to try and get it back to normal. And then the painting and taping continued. Again...

With the end result:

I thought I would put up this second picture to show how it goes with the curtains that my mom made me for my birthday a couple of years ago.
It looks pretty good and was only slightly startling when I came downstairs this morning :)

The moral of my story is:

1. I am thankful for my sister for helping me paint.

2. I am thankful for the stranger at the hardware store for changing the tire.

3. I am thankful for the full feeling I have regained in my arm.

The Downer:

1. My shoulders/armpits hurt from painting...

Happy Father's Day

I love my dad. He has always worked hard for our family, supported my mom and fulfilled his church callings as best as he could. My dad continues to be an example to me as he dedicates his time to serving in the church.
My dad has supported me through schooling and life and continues to do so. I always think of him when someone mentions P.E.F. (Perpetual Education Fund) or swimming (and yes - he still has all his trophies and is willing to share them with anyone who will listen!). He has given the "buck up" speech to the point of exhaustion and tells pretty lame jokes that he thinks are hilarious. He even waits for others to laugh at his joke and acknowledge it before moving on... But I love him anyway!

I love my grandpa too. He is the only grandpa that I remember (my paternal grandfather passed away when I was young). And visiting California is never complete without a visit to see him. Hot chocolate, crosswords, gardening and baseball are just a few words that always remind me of him :)

I am very appreciative for the fathers and grandfathers in my life! Even those I don't remember or know have helped shaped the men that I do know and for that I am eternally grateful.

Sunny (and Humid) California

For the last week and a half, I was in Southern California with my sister and her children. It was mostly fun, but I have never quite enjoyed living by myself quite so much as the couple of days after we returned home...
We did a little park-hopping while we were in LA with my parents. I think I went to 3 different parks and my sister went to even more! I opted out one afternoon to take a nap... shocking, isn't it?!? Who wouldn't want to spend time with these cute kids? I think that I look like my mom, but everyone says that I also look my sister (who looks like my dad). How is that possible? Oh well... This stranger came by at one park and asked if all three of us wanted our picture taken because we looked so much alike! As you can see, my sister declined...

On Thursday my dad was finally able to spend some time with us to go to the LA Zoo (He is serving as mission president for the Los Angeles Mission). It was all I could do to force the boys to take this picture. They only agreed because they could climb on top of the "art".For those of you who know me, you should be impressed that I am even in the petting zoo. I petted one animal and left, but the rest of the day, all I could feel was the dirt on my shoes from this encounter. Maybe next time I will remember...

We spent some time walking around the Los Angeles Temple wasting time while my dad was in another meeting. I try and guilt the children into taking pictures with me - sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. At least one child couldn't complain :)

Before we left LA we went miniature golfing. The kids surely enjoyed it, but I spent most of the time trying to not have an anxiety attack or yell at the boys to get off the green! Not exactly relaxing, but at least we went to IHOP afterwards :)
After LA we went down to San Diego to visit my grandpa. While there my sister went to Sea World for two days. Since I thought I would kill the children at this point, I opted to stay home and help my grandpa one day and go with them the second day.

It's a good thing! My sister took her oldest boy on some rides while my younger nephew and niece came with me and he didn't listen very well... To paint a picture for you - I am holding my niece, watching my nephew play, he moves over to another activity and I see him, but I keep my eye on him. All of a sudden he's not there! I stand up with my niece and start yelling his name - no response. At this point the people sitting next to me say "Do you need help? Do you want me to hold your little girl?" I'm thinking - "Heck no! I've already lost one kid, I'm not going to lose two!" So I run around frantic until I find him at another area. He doesn't seem phased by the event, but I was traumatized...

In the end it all worked out, the boys had a great time, I got to eat some funnel cake and see Shamu. Of course the drive home seemed eternally long. Did I mention that boys are SOOOO loud?!?

Mother's Day

My mom made me this FABULOUS quilt for my birthday and I just got around to hanging it yesterday.
Everything is hand-stitched applique and personalized for me! There is a cross-stitch on there that my grandma Toolson made and it hung in her kitchen and there is a piece on there that my great-grandmother made. Unfortunately, I won't be able to pass this trait on to anyone else... But my sister will!
Just so everyone knows, I love my mom. She does a lot of things for me that I am greatly appreciative of! I convinced her and my dad to go to England with me, even though they had already been TONS of times. And...
I can usually convince her to take a picture with me, even when she doesn't want to :)

Happy Easter

I spent the day with my sister and her family so I could participate in the festivities. Chocolate and gum were the names of the game! Oh, and the never ending commercial lyrics... "It's a pillow, it's a pet, it's a pillow pet!" The evening ended with a London broil, baked potato, fruit salad and asparagus - YUMMY!

The Children's Garden

I decided that I needed a Friday off - Spring Break was not coming fast enough! So I went with my sister and two of her children to Thanksgiving Point Children's Gardens. The big water display was under construction, so there wasn't much to see but it was worth it just to not be at work :)

Mostly A just wanted to climb rocks and dig in the sand. What little boy wouldn't?!? Although he would correct that last statement and say "big boy".
My cute little niece spent most of the time in the stroller sleeping, but I got a quick shot before my sister started to feed her cold food that she was less than impressed with...

At first A was scared to take his picture with the bear, but eventually we got a good one. We look amazingly calm don't we?!?

Answer:

ringworm...

What Is It?

This is a delightful spot on my leg. Yes, I know it is blurry, but it is hard to take a picture without the flash. Anyway - it use to be "nickel" size but now is "silver dollar" size. What do you think? I have another one that is smaller in the middle of my back that is probably "penny" sized at the moment...
For this one I probably should have taken a before and after shot, but alas - all you get is the after shot. You might have lost your dinner if I put a "before" picture up... This is the recovering abscess on my back that had a MRSA infection. I don't know how I got it, but it HURT like CrAzY! It was lanced and cleaned for a week with hydrogen peroxide (shot into the hole with a syringe by my "lucky" sister...) and now the hole is finally closing up.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

I celebrated a day late, but I had my toenails done at the beginning of the month. That way - even if I forgot to wear green, I would be prepared! Nevertheless, I remembered to wear green and we had our traditional St. Patty's meal tonight at my sister's house. It was delicious and I invited a couple of friends over to share. Technically I'm not Irish, but my grandfather was born and raised in Ireland - doesn't that count for something?!?

Shadow

"I have a little shadow
that goes in and out with me,

And what can be the use of him
is more than I can see."

-Robert Louis Stevenson

My grandma use to recite this poem to me.
Well, the first line at least.
I still claim I was trying to be her helper.
She probably wouldn't have liked this picture on my blog...
But I like it :)
Today was her birthday.
It's a good thing families are
ETERNAL

29... Feels the Same

I went out to dinner with my friends on Thursday to Red Robin and it was delicious. On my actual birthday I hung out with the Turnbows :)
My niece is EXCEPTIONALLY cute (I am slightly biased) so this was just for fun!

I always have plenty of helpers to help me open my presents...
My mom got me some sheets that are suppose to "keep me cool" at night. We'll see how that goes :)

The FAMOUS cake! If any of you don't know, I have basically had this same cake (with a few alterations forced upon me) since I was 5. Who said sameness was bad?!? Certainly not me!

Finally I forced the boys to do this picture with me. I said it could be their birthday present to me. Shockingly enough, it turned out pretty cute! All in all, it was a pretty good day. If only I hadn't had to work...

The Never Ending Dream...

It is sad to say that I wish this was what I dream about... I have a constant recurring dream that I know others have. It goes a little something like this:


Oh shoot.
I forgot my homework assignment.
Oh wait no I didn't.
What class was that for?
No, that can't be right - I am not taking that class.
SHOOT.
Another homework assignment that I didn't do.
Wait, I didn't know about that assignment.
When did they tell us about it?
Last week?
Was I in class last week?
CRAP!
I haven't been to class all semester!
How did I get signed up for this class?
The FINAL is TOMORROW?
Can I drop this class without it affecting my GPA?
NO?!?
Are you serious?!?
I didn't even know I was registered for it!
I better go take the final.
DANG!
What building is it in?
Who is the teacher?
What is the subject again?
OH SNAP!
I have to turn in the assignments before I can take the test.
Does anyone have a text book?
There's NO textbook or notes?!?
We were suppose to memorize it as the teacher talked?!?
HOLY COW!
I am going to fail.
My GPA is going to be ruined.
The teacher will hate me.
They are going to kick me out of school.
My life is ruined...


Then I wake up in a panic, sweating. How is this fair?!? I dedicated 7 years to advanced learning and now it haunts my dreams every week. Did I mention I completed my graduate schooling over 3 1/2 years ago! If you know me, most of my dreams are very vivid and quite scary. My question is - do the school nightmares ever stop???

And people wonder why this is how life feels when we wake up: