That's True Dude, He's Worse Than Yoda.

WARNING, HUGE SPOILER ALERT. DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED THE SERIES OF FINALE OF LOST

Dear Damon and Carlton, (Because I'm sure you are avid readers of my blog)

Thank you so much for your talent and skill. I loved every second of your show. I also loved the last episode. It was well done, beautiful, heart-warming, tragic, and surprising. In a word; perfect.

Thank you for going through the effort to bring all the same actors back. It was awesome seeing Shannon and A.L. and Juliet, and of course, Charlie. Thank you for wrapping thing up with Libby, even though you never explained her back story. The only question I am left with is this;

You made the ending both very specific and very vague, to give closure to people but leave it open to their own beliefs. That being said, do you realize you made it very Mormon? Really. Everyone waiting together in either the church (if you were good) or whispering on the island (if you were bad) to go to the next place. Ben going where he felt comfortable, which was not with everyone else. People still having children and getting to raise them from the beginning. Couples are still married, families are still in-tact, relationships are still real. You mixed up a bunch of different concepts, but they are still there.

So, thank you. It was better than I hoped it would be.

And PS: Don't think I didn't notice Michael Giacchino holding a banjo. Very clever.

Also, "How're" is not a word. Yeash who does your editing?

And thus starts my new policy. Drek and I watch an awful lot of shows for not having television. We watch everything on Hulu via laptop, and follow quite a number of shows. However, with the finale of LOST, we are starting a "no Hulu" policy. Because really, how can you top that? We might pick up Castle when it comes back in the fall (because Nathan Fillion is my Felix Calahan) but other than that, I am feeling pretty good about leaving all my shows where they stand.

Of course, the new policy would be easier if my Library wasn't closed for another month (Worst. Library. Ever.) but I suppose I will just have to edit my novel until I can start reading again. It all works out.

Dude, You've got some...Arst on you

Baby asleep; Check

Cell phones turned off; Check

Successfully avoided all spoilers; Check

Snuggled into bed next to husband; Check

Cup of fresh, whole milk; Check

Massive amounts of chocolate; Check

Marathon of recent episodes; Check

Checklist done; Check

I am now ready for the series finale of LOST.

I finished.

I wrote an entire novel.

Huh.

I thought I'd be more excited. Maybe it's because the ending is so very very bad. I spent the whole novel trying to come up with a good ending; hoping it would write itself. It did not.

Really, if I change the ending to "and then they all died" it would improve the ending.

Sigh.

No Song Unsung No Wine Untasted

Drek and I went on a date night! We went to the University's production of Broadway Review, where a bunch of the students sing show tunes.

We enjoyed this semesters production more than last semester's. Last time all the songs were...obscure. Drek and I hadn't heard of most the musicals, much less the songs. There were a few good performances but mostly the singing was so-so.

This time around, the singing was amazing. Only the first girl was less than phenomenal. And the songs? They were from Wicked, Jekyll and Hyde, East of Eden... all the good stuff. It was great.

The best part was when this guy came on stage to sing Empty Chairs at Empty Tables and I thought to myself; "Wow. I can really picture that guy as Marius. Wait a second...."

After the show I found the guy and asked if he'd ever been in a high school production of Les Mis back in my hometown. He said yes. I asked him if he performed at this theatre and played Marius. He said yes. Wow. Drek and I watched that show when we first starting dating. Weird.

No, It Means I Was Drunk Yesterday

Acouchi is a bit too fond of the bottle.

And no, actually; I didn't set this up. She was like this so I snapped a picture. :)

You Have Been Called Forth to the Summit of Mt. Wannahockaloogie to Join With Us in the Fraternal Bonds of Tankhood!

I made myself a to-do list of things to do in this area while I am still living in this State. A "Bucket List" if you will. It includes restaurants in which to dine, caves to explore, lakes to swim, and even a volcano to climb.

The waterfalls and two caves were on that list. I am way ahead of schedule.

Monday night we climbed the volcano. I have never climbed a volcano before!

It was a beautiful day for a hike;

And we passed and Elk farm;

Some of the sights on the hike;










The view from the top;

We're About to Go Over a Huge Waterfall. Yep. Sharp Rocks at the Bottom? Most Likely. Bring It On

On Saturdays I do my long runs. Drek drives me however many miles I am training away from the house and I have to run home. He drops me off in the middle of Farmland on a very long and desolate road. He drives in the same direction every time so the only the beginning miles are new, I've run the rest before.

Yesterday I had to make two turns on my route; one at the very beginning, and one in the middle; a turn I've done several times before.

So I start running. Forty minutes in to my run my sister calls to tell me she just finished her long run. She made great time and did such a great job that I decided to pick up the pace just to match her.

An hour and a half in to my run I start to get worried; I am supposed to be at the bottom of the hill in thirty minutes, but I don't see the hill, or the road that leads to the hill, or the road that has the turn that leads to the road that leads to the hill.

Two hours into my run I panic. I am lost. I only had two turns and clearly, I missed one. It's not like it was a maze; the road is long and flat. And yet, I was most definitely lost. I call Drek, who drives around until he finds me. He picks me up and tells me I am only a mile passed my turn; I didn't think I was on the road with the turn, so I passed it up. I have no sense of direction without my mountains. None. Drek comments that I only missed fifty percent of my turns. He is clearly amused.

He drops me off a mile passed my turn in the right direction and I keep running. This was about where I really started to hurt. I'm glad my sister called at the beginning, otherwise I might not have finished. I just kept thinking about how she sounded; so proud and so not-dead. If she could survive the run, so could I.

So I finished! Twelve and a half miles in less than three hours (Almost twenty minutes slower than my amazing super-fit sister). Hooray!

Later that day we went on a trip to see some scenic falls. There is no story about this, only pictures;

I am Short, Fat, and Proud of That

Weight loss has always been elusive for me because I've always had a hard time losing weight. It seems no matter which crash diet I use, no matter which exercises routine I use, no matter how many goals I set or if I keep a food journal, it doesn't work. There have been two exceptions;

When I became a vegetarian, I lost ten pounds from September to April. Don't ask me how, I have no idea. I was obsessive about my weight in high school (because I was overweight and couldn't seem to lose anything despite my exercises routine every morning and my new-crash-diet-every-week diet) but finally got sick of it, stopped working out and the only thing I watched in my diet was that I didn't eat meat. I weighed myself in August, and the next time I got on the scale (in April) I was down ten pounds. I moved out and went to college in April, and in another six months had lost another ten pounds. Again, I don't know how. I wasn't trying, I just did.

When I got engaged I went on the Special K diet (my first crash diet since High School) and went to the gym as often as I could. I lost a half a pound a day. My wedding day was the skinniest I've ever weighed (since puberty) but I was still three pounds away from my goal weight. I went off the diet on out honey moon, and when we got back I was above where I had started.

When I was pregnant, I did my best to cut out all High Fructose Corn Syrup and Red Dye 40 from my diet. In September I started lactating, which is supposed to burn around five hundred calories a day. In January my wonderful sister and I started training for the half-marathon. In February I started eating small things every four hours to boost my metabolism. I also started to weigh myself once a week. In March I decided our food bill was outrageous and vowed to make everything from scratch; I make my own bread, tortillas, and sauce. I am trying to never buy anything from a can ever again.

Nothing drastic, nothing difficult. But, there have been amazing results.

In March when we signed up for the half-marathon, I qualified for the "Athena category". That basically means overweight women. I didn't sign up for that category only because my sister said she didn't. I really didn't think I could lose any weight.

And then, finally, I was down to my Pre-Pregnancy weight. A week later, I was officially out of the "overweight" range for my height and body type. A week later I lost another pound. I was/am ecstatic. I began to think I could actually set some goes and reach them. I gave myself some incentives and two weeks later I was ten pounds under the "Athena Category."

My reward was to buy exercises cloths. I shop at DI (I may be losing weight but I'm still not making money) at I found myself these awesome like-new pants and T shirt for $6. I love them. They make feel skinny.

This week a friend and I are using a free seven day pass to a gym. We are going everyday and working out like crazy! This, on top of my running, I hope will result in my hitting my next weight goal where I get to go tanning.

After that, I'm just five pounds away from my wedding day weight and three new pairs of pants and three new shirts from DI (I really need them. I have two pairs of jeans and two pairs of khakis, none of which fit my anymore. The jeans I have had since high school. The khakis have paint on them. Actually, so do the jeans, but whatever. Can you tell I never go clothes shopping? About once every six months I will get a new shirt if it is on sale for less than $10, but I never buy pants).

After that I am three pounds away from my goal weight. I don't know what my reward is yet; I don't want to jinx it.

But the important thing is; I can do this! I can reach my goals! Hooray!

I Had a White Rat. That's No Mother!

My first Mother's day with a human baby. It was...like any other day, except I got chocolate at church. I am not complaining. Any day I get chocolate from anywhere is a really good day.

I am a little confused; is Mother's Day supposed to be where you work harder to be a mother, or where you take the day off from being a mother? Is it a day to showcase yourself as a mother; get up early to fix a healthy breakfast, dress your children up in their best cloths, do their hair with ribbons and bows, shine their shoes etc, or is it a day off; a day where you get to sit back and let your husband or your children do everything, or better yet, find a babysitter for the weekend? Is it a day where even the worst mothers hug their children, snap a few pictures, and tell them a story, or a day when even the best moms get to sit back and demand a foot rub?

At three o'clock Mother's Day morning Ash decided it was time to celebrate. She woke up and would not go back to sleep. I cuddled with her, I sang a few song, I fed her, but she was awake and determined to stay awake. At four I let Drek take over and went into the other room to sleep. Her being up all night meant her sleep schedule was off, she fell asleep thirty minutes before we were supposed to leave. When we were ready to go I didn't want to wake her up. She was a little naked baby except for her diaper, so I just picked her up in her bundle of blankets and took her to church after stuffing a dress into her diaper bag. Of course she woke up as soon as we walked in to the building.

So there I was; dressing my baby in the chapel at church. My mother skills will blind you with awesomeness.

Who Disturbs My Slumber

Today was our trip to the much anticipated Ice Caves. It was so much fun.

Drek stayed home with Ash, and Curtis stayed home with his baby, so it was just me, Anna, and cousins Ali and BJ. We got the directions out there, borrowed a jeep (for the 4-wheel drive) and we were off! We drove for about forty-five minutes, trying decide if the directions meant real cattle-guards or fake cattle guards and if cows are smart or dumb, but then we found the turn-off and started down a very bumpy dirt road. Three minutes later we come to a fork in the road. Oh noes! Do we go left, or right? Which one? So we called three different people, we text messaged, and we evaluated our choices. Twenty minutes later we still didn't have an answer so we guessed. A few feet later the two paths merged back into one. Wow.

But, we finally made it to the cave. Or rather, we made it to a hole in the ground, that looked like it might be the cave; I was suspicious. I went down the hole and yes, it does look like a cave, but it looks more like a slimy green den than an ice cave. Also there was a cow carcass rotting out in front. Gross.

So I gingerly went inside. Right in the entrance I found a plastic tube that said "Please help us keep the Ice Cave open by filling out this questionnaire!" Oh! What do you know? We ended up in the right place after all!

The cave was AMAZING!

It was a great cave; small spaces, large spaces, standing, crawling, climbing, it was great! It was also very, very beautiful. There was a lot of ice. A lot of ice. The floor was made of ice and a little bobsled rut had been melted in made it so you could just slide through most of it. So much fun! At the back of the cave (back meaning, you could not go farther, a great quality in a cave you feel more accomplished when you leave!) there was an ice slide. It was great.

Yes it was cold, but I was wearing three layers and thermals, so I was fine. However, if you feel so inclined to do the cave yourself, I would recommend gloves and waterproof pants. Wet jeans are no fun.

I Had to be Versed in All the Woodland Creatures

On Tuesday Toshi came over for dinner, so I decided it would be a good time to celebrate Cinco De Mayo. I made from-scratch tortillas and black bean refried beans. We had burritos and virgin Margaritas for dinner!

It was really good. The next day I tried cooking with something called Quinoa, which is very healthy. It is also shockingly easy and delicious!

Friday was our ward's Cinco De Mayo party. It was a lot of fun. Anna and Curtis came with us. I made little tiny Apple Empanandas (everyone brought food to share). Besides that I had a lot of chips and a lot of very yummy dip (Anna made something called Cowboy Caviar, which was I could eat all day). Besides that, there was a little station where you could make your own quesadillas! It was so fun!

There were several little pinatas stuffed with candy for the children, and one huge, homemade "deer" pinata for the adults. I didn't bring my camera, which is a shame because this deer was something to behold. It was made out of cardboard boxes duct taped together, covered in carpet (fur? I guess?) and then plastic wrap. It had four THICK cardboard tubes for legs, little paper ears and eyes, and even plastic antlers. It was life-size. It was AMAZING! It was also near-imposable to break open.

Drek held the rope for the first little while and many, many adult men took their turn being blindfolded and going at it. At first they used a broomstick, then a wooden baseball bat, then a full-on metal bat, it still took forever to break the thing. Drek did a great job with the rope; he made it high, then low, most of the time the deer was attacking the person rather then the other way around! Drek even got his turn at whacking the thing. By the end, a few women tried to break it open, it went through a lot of people!

Drek scored us some chocolate bars once it did break open (risking his life among the crazed children, seriously, those children were both rabid and blood-thirsty. And there were HORDES of them) and when we opened the wrapper the chocolate was all in tiny pieces! That candy took a real beating!

Also, as a side note; the legs were filled with beef jerky instead of candy. Giggle giggle.

You Like Me Because I'm a Scoundrel. There Aren't Enough Scoundrels in Your Life

My baby is a Jedi;

Duel lightsabor wielding baby says; Happy May the Fourth Be With You Day.

I Suppose the Life of an Anorexic Duck Doesn't Amount to Much in the Broad Scheme of Things.

Today is the first day of May. Guess what? It snowed.

Here was my morning;

I woke up (pump, of course) and got dressed to go running. Drek suggests we need more adventure and should explore one of the many caves in the area. We look up a few online and decide on a cave called the "Ice Cave." Doesn't that sound like so much fun? Anyway, as Drek calls Curtis and Anna, I change into cave-exploring clothes (thinking I will go running later that day). Before we leave, Drek does some more research and decides the Ice Cave might be a bad idea, because all the websites say four wheel drive is a must. Thus, we switch plans and decide to go to the Civil Defence Caves, thus named because the city thought it would be a good place for the entire city to live if the world was submerged in nuclear radiation.

And we're off to explore a cave. We got lost twice, but made it there in pretty good time. When we got to the entrance it was cold outside, so I bundled the baby up in a snow suit, thinking that once we got into the cave, it would warm up (after all, it was formed by lava, and you'd think if you're in a cave you're closer to the center of the earth, and this cave wasn't the Ice Cave, so this cave must be warm, right?)

The cave was a lot of fun.
The entrance was covered in rocks and boulders so climbing into the cave was actually the hardest part (keep in mind we have two infants and two children, it would have been a piece of cake by ourselves). The rest of the cave was mostly flat.

Inside the cave it was cold. VERY COLD. There is a lot of ice in the cave.

Drek took this picture. He thought the ice balls looked like ice slugs. I have to agree. Once we were deep inside the cave we played with glowsticks, had a small picnic, turned off all the lights and took a few pictures. Then we made our back to the entrance. The whole way I was secretly hoping it would magically be summer when we emerged. Alas, it was snowing.

Curses. The funny part was it was actually colder inside the cave than outside in the snow. Wow.

On the drive home I saw some sheep. I have seen sheep before, but I have never seen a whole herd of sheep before. I had to stop and take pictures!

There were two sheep dogs running around with them, they were the same dogs from Babe! I think they are Border Collies? It was pretty fun to watch.

It snowed for the rest of the day. Needless to say, I never went on my run.

I really don't think summer exists. I don't think it's possible for this city be above freezing for more than a few days. I have given up all hope.