October At Last!!!

I love October!! It is the start of the bet time of the year!!! I love Halloween and this year I have sworn to celebrate it like a fiend!!
Next week We are going to the Castle of Chaos, A Halloween tradition spanning back 3 years! I'm so excited.
That will be followed by the Saboteur III, which is on Saturday. I have a special Halloween game all planned and ready. Bwhahahaha!!
Sometime in October I also want to do a How to Host a Murder, and a Halloween party. I haven't figured out the dates yet, but I am excited!
On the 28th I am flying out to San Diego to spend some time with Jordan and Jessica and Bonnie. I come home on Halloween eve. I wanted to spend Halloween with Drek. I already have Drek's and my Halloween costumes planned, I only have to make them...

Twin Cousin

My cousin, Kara, came to visit me on Thursday. I've missed her so much!! It was so good to hang out with her. I haven't seen her since my wedding and well, we didn't have tons of time to talk as I was...a little busy.

She brought her kitty, Claire, with her. I hadn't met Claire yet so it was quite a treat. She is so pretty! She is a small kitty who is a beautiful ginger color. She loves to be petted and was apparently adapting well to traveling across the country in a car.

We went over to my sister's house and made homemade peach jam (which is fantastic by the way, I already finished the jar of sugar-free jam; So good!!) and played with Megan. We went back to my house afterward and discussed the fact that Drek and I are board game freaks and love to play at any opportunity. Kara also loves to play board games. We then discussed how some people are fun to play with, and others are...not. Good sportsmanship is something you need to learn while young. No one likes a sore winner or loser. We practiced good sportsmanship by playing a game of Settlers. It was then time to go out to eat with the rest of the family. Around the table, we played It Came To Pass and had a great time overall. That night the family played Munchkin with our Munchkin-Fu cards and Kara's Cthulu cards while I created an odd version of homemade apple empanadias. I say odd version because although they tasted delicious, they didn't look like empanadias. Ah well, it was my first attempt. Kara gave me a mini-lesson on knitting. I've been trying to get Ismael and Kris to teach me, but time keeps being a factor. Kara taught me about circular needles (which I love!!) and how to cast-on. I love casting on!!

Friday was more games and more knitting lessons. Saturday was The Relief Society general Broadcast. I got of work a little late, so I only caught the last two talks, but they were wonderful. Elder Uchtdorf's talk was incredible. I loved the idea that to have God's happiness, we must create! We are children of the most magnificent creative being in the universe, so creating is what we can and must do! I love to create meals, stories, games and parties. And now I am thinking I want to create through knitting!

Afterward I loved walking home with Kara, Lani and mei-mei (who came down from college to see Kara). We ate ice-cream and Kara gave me a final knitting lesson in which I learned the basic stitch, the purl stitch, and that if my tension is too tight my yarn will keep breaking.

Sunday I had to say good-bye Kara. I was pretty depressed about it. I kept snapping at Drek and I didn't have a great experience at church. After church I just lazed about being sad until Rissy called and dragged me outside to plan the Saboteur. This cheered me up immensely. Just so you all know, this game is going to ROCK!!!!!!! Our ideas are oh-so-good. Sign up now, because seriously, amazing.

Also, I am now feeling the need to knit. I have no needles, no yarn, no idea how to do a project, but I have the urge to knit and I am eager to learn. Come back to visit soon, Kara, I miss you already.

September BAMC: Marathon

September's BAMC was, in my opinion, very good. The word was change. I took this challenge to heart and read three wonderful books.

The first book is Pushed: the Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care by Jennifer Block. Krisling has really got be interested in thinking outside the box when it comes to labor. I had no idea there were other options besides hospital with epidural and hospital without epidural. This book was amazing!! It has not only changed the way I think about childbirth and modern maternity care, but also changed some of my aspirations. I wanted to be a Douala when I was in Infant Massage school, now I am even more interested. I think it's something I would not only be good at, but I would really enjoy doing. Of course I need to do more research, but I am highly intrigued.

The second book I read was Marathoning A to Z: 500 ways to run Better, Faster, and Smarter, by Hal Higdon. This book was very simple to read, and well well the other book I read: Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide by Hal Hidgon.


These books changed my lifestyle. I am indeed running better and smarter (I'm not sure about faster, but, farther yeah), however, the point is that I'm running. I'm excited about it, I'm enthusiastic about it and my habits have to support my running. I have to go to sleep earlier at night, I need to eat healthier and things like that. As it turns out; I really like running!!

The Fruitie Ootie Bar??

Aaron came over to introduce us to the the future of Sour...Sweet!! No, really. There is a fruit; Called "Magic Fruit" That after you eat it, it makes everything sour taste sweet. This fruit has been put into pill form by the Japaneses, and sold to thrill seekers everywhere.
We decided to have a sour party. Ismael was the only one brave enough to join our little group. We wanted to have a variety of tastes, so we had lemons, limes, crushed red pepper, spicy Cheetos, grapefruits, orange juice, lemon juice, and a bunch of different kinds of sour candy. We dissolved half a pill on our tongues and...AMAZING!!
The best things were the lemons. Oh, they were so good!!!! And the orange was fantastic. Oh the delight!

It Sounds Like Rat and Patootie. Rat Patootie. Which Does Not Sound Delicious

Creating new dinners is going well. This past week I think my best accomplishment was not dinner, but made-from-scratch brownies. They were amazing. I thought I did a fantastic job at making Eggplant Parmesan, but Drek didn't like it as much as I did and it is way to unhealthy to make for myself. I also really liked my attempt at Mushroom and Spinach Manicottii, but the recipe was highly confusing as it did not call for spinach. It was still delicious, but I need to try it again, this time, with the spinach.

My new obsession is Ratatouille. The first time I made it that traditional way: as a stew. But I wanted to mimic the famous Disney movie a little more, so I found a recipe for Baked Ratatouille. It turned out...baked. I didn't like it as much as the stew and it still wasn't anything like the movie. After some more research I found Ratatouille Remy Style!! A recipe for the movie dish. As it turns out, the recipe in the movie is the Turkish version of the dish. I'm looking forward to making it and seeing if it is delicious.

Today I am making General Tao's Tofu again, tomorrow I am modifying the dish to see if it can be turned into Orange Chicken. I mean Tofu.

Ay, Avast!!

It be Talk like a Pirate Day. Arrr. I can't celebrate all that much. I be doin' 12 hour work days yesterday, today and tomorrow. I also be havin' to be all professional-like, so if I be talkin' like a pirate, I be walkin' the plank.
Aye, it be a hard life for us on the land. The sea be callin' me, and one day...one day I'll answer.

The Saboteur II

Oh, so great. What else can I say??

Rissy was in charge of this one, I was just a humble player. Being a player is a blast BTW, so much more fun!! Anyway, she did all the work. I did not help at all.

We met at the park and started off with "The Chains That Bind Us". We were all tied to a rope and once every minute had to let on person from either end free. That person could then either add candy to the pot, or betray the team and take the exception. The exception meant that fifty candies would be subtracted from the pot, and he people tied had to stay tied up for the next game. Right away I was suspicious of Megan. She had seemed reluctant to play, but perked up right away. This could be because we were having fun, but could it also be that she is the Saboteur??
My plan was to be the last on the rope, that way I could take the exception but candies would still be added. Alas, they found out my plot and I was voted off the rope. Good thing too, cause Curt decided to betray the team. He chose the Exception with Ismail and Shana still tied up. Very suspicious behavior.

The next game was "Find A Penny..." This was a very clever game. I was highly impressed with Rissy at this point. Shana and Ismail (still tied together) had to wade around in the fountain looking for pennies. One penny (among hundreds) was green on one side. The tied team had to throw the pennies out of the water to us, the sorting team. The sorting team had to find the green penny and run it over to Rissy. The faster we did this = more candies. We did it pretty fast, I thought, but the finding of the penny was just...odd. Curt made it into this huge thing and I was suspicious of him. Cavan was the one that found the penny, and now that I think about it, it was odd.

Next up: Lava Monster!!! People were on top of picnic tables, trying to keep the candy safe from lava monsters (me and Ismail) I ROCKED this game and won an exception. Still suspicious of Megan. Very suspicious.

Next was an improved version of the game I invented. Two teams, one searching for GPS coordinates, one searching for addresses. Both teams have to work together to make it within the time limit. Also, there were riddles solving the riddles = candy. This game was awesome. I was first suspicious if Ismail, who missed turns and was deliberately slowing us down. Curt missed an obvious clue. If I hadn't found it, we might have never moved on. Megan won an exemption without even knowing she had...or did she know?? In any case, we didn't make the time limit, but we did answer a lot of riddles.

TRAFALGA!!!! Three Saboteur cards were actually in ticket bins. The only way to get them out, was to but them with tickets. And how were we going to do that? Why Deal or No Deal, of course!! Our team was not so good, only winning four tickets. We bought our Saboteur card, which informed us that for the next challenge, we would be blindfolded. The next challenge: Mini Golf.

I was blindfolded, Drek was my eyes. The point was not accuracy, the point was speed. We had 18 minutes to play 18 holes. It was crazy. I almost died several times. We did not make the time limit. The other team did better, they only had to be tied together. They did make the time limit. Ismail even got a hole in one, winning himself an exception.

To finish it off, the best game of all: GO KARTS!!!!!!!! Once again, I was blindfolded (I was used to it by now). I drove the go Kart, Megan was my passenger and my eyes. We used 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock and 12 o'clock to tell me how to turn. To make things more complicated, Rissy held up a sign everytime we made a lap. I could not see them, but I had to memorize the answers. The first two questions were "how many toes does a human have?" and "*picture of an eye* + *Picture of a phone*". The last question was a math question. Megan read it out load, and instead of figuring it out, I just asked her what the answer was. We were both concentrating more on the wuestion and less on the driving. We ran into a wall. Curses!! And we were doing so well. Megan solved the math problem, but becasue of the crash, she forgot a small part of it, resulting in a wrong answer. Shana and Curt answered all three right, and got the fasted time, resulting in a special prize for them: A gift card to Trafalga. Ben and Cavan crashed three times, and Cavan answered the questions out of order. I blamed this on Drek. He was obviously not communicating effectively. The question was, is this on purpose...??

So, much blaming and conversations ensued. At this point, I know it is not Nick. I know it is not Shana. After a slip of the tongue, I know it is not Megan (curses!! I had been voting for her the whole time!!) After more thought, I realize it cannot be Ismail. I am fairly sure it is not Drek. That leaves Cavan and Curt. It is so Curt!! He has been suspicious from the start!!

We take the last quiz, I vote Curt. We take pictures and then the Saboteur stands up.

Cavan?? What the...?? I NEVER suspected him. Not the whole game. Dang.

We add up the quizzes and guess what?? It turns out Megan was my lucky charm. I voted for her all through the game, but she had enough in common with Cavan that I got ten question correct!! Megan was second place, with 8 correct questions. Everyone else was close together with either six or seven. So, take that Mark. You won without knowing who the Mole was, I won without knowing who the Saboteur was. Hooray.

I had so much fun!! Rissy and I are already making plans for Saboteur part: the third.

Bwhahahah

5K

Thank you, K-lizzle, for posting that last entry. I will be more careful about leaving my account logged in on other people's laptops. For the sake of posterity, allow me to clarify.

Friday after work Drek and I went to his work's BBQ. It was very exciting. Drek works with a lot of hilarious people. I highly enjoyed the experience.

After that we went to Krisling's house. We talked, ate watermelon, and watched Casino Royal. This was very important because Krisling had never seen this before. Alas, she had never seen ANY James Bond movies, and if we are going to See Quantum of Solace for her birthday, I thought I should get her hooked on 007.

Drek drove back home and I camped out on Krisling's couch for the night to guard the house against any intruders that were small enough to fit the hole in the door where the door handle used to be.

Saturday morning was the big day! The day I have been preparing for for months! The day of my 5k!! It was quite the learning experience. I did the 5k to prepare for my ultimate goal: running a marathon. I thought this would prepare in regards to running a long distance, but instead, it prepared me for the part of the marathon I had not thought to prepare for. I learned that I must get up crazy early in the morning and freeze to death in the cold morning air before being told when to run and where to run. I learned how to pin those numbers to my shirt. I learned how to sign it at the sign in table. I learned to have the courage to stand next to skinny blondes in tank tops and short shorts while my big end is dressed in pajama pants and a T-shirt and not let it bother me. I learned that I'm not competing with that crazy skinny girl who is the star member of the BYU cross country team, I am competing against myself. I learned I don't care how fast they go, the point is that I keep going. I learned I don't care when I cross the finish line, just that I cross it. I learned that I don't care what other people think of me, or worry if they think I look stupid, I'm not doing this for them, I'm doing this for me. In short, the experience was AWESOME and so much better than I could have hoped.

Kris and I stayed together the whole time. The cop that was following us made me very nervous, so I went up to his car window and asked him to leave us alone. He did. The course was not flat, it was up and down a mountain. A freaking huge mountain. It also took us through a very rich neighborhood, so most of our time was occupied with getting enough air to make it up the steep hill, and reading flyers on the houses the were for sale. We found this crazy 7 bedroom house that had a 2 story great room, and a fireplace in the master bedroom. That was our favorite. We picked sunflowers, laughed really hard, and crossed the finish line smiling and in high spirits.

Way to go us!!

Potatoface

My name is K-lizzle! I am freaking awesome! YOUR MOM.

I ran a 5K today and I totally kicked its butt. I am also the coolest person to ever walk the planet, for behold, I stayed behind and saved the Kris from certain lonely doom. Also I totally scared a cop!

TU MADRE!

Also I am basically James Bond. Except I am a girl. I am a girl James Bond. I am, Jamie Bond.

TOUCHE!

I need to move to the Salt Lake valley.... TOMORROW!!

FYI

I am now hopelessly addicted to pita bread. So. Good.

My genius husband is amazing. He made $80 yesterday playing the stock market. He is so smart.

I run my first 5K tomorrow!! I am so excited I've been having racing dreams for the past two days!

My neice, Meg, is the smartest little girl in the world. She can already sign like a pro, and she already talks really well.

My nephew, Toby, is entirly adorable. He is also already very musical. He will be a genius musician/singer/conductor when he grows up.

Both my neice and my nephew are the cutest kids you will ever see (the only exception might be Ben's little sister, Rachel, when she was a baby. She was an adorable baby. Like, world's-cutest-baby-ever kind of adorable). If I get permission from their parents, I will post pictures.

I'm getting restless. Very restless.

Vindicated

"Then there's manure — all that animal waste generates nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that has 296 times the warming effect of CO2. And of course, there is cow flatulence: as cattle digest grass or grain, they produce methane gas, of which they expel up to 200 L a day. Given that there are 100 million cattle in the U.S. alone, and that methane has 23 times the warming impact of CO2, the gas adds up."

And just think, you're eating that.

My Attempt to be More Home/Wife-y

I love to clean. Drek pointed out that I love to clean on a deep level, as in, sterilize. I could scrub, wash, steam and soak all day. Keeping things tidy is more of a chore.

I spent Wednesday cleaning a lady in my ward's house. She had a C-section 3 weeks ago and is having trouble. I then went to my Mom's house and cleaned that. Drek got slightly upset, and took revenge by cleaning our house. Our house is now tidy!!! It looks amazing!!! Best. Husband. Ever.

Alas, I needed to get revenge, so I rented a carpet cleaner and cleaned our carpets, Our house in now "clean". Oh, our carpets are so beautiful! They should be framed and put in a museum.


Usually, I love to cook. I take that back, I love to create. Cooking is no fun if I am not creating. In the past cooking dinner has been a struggle. The problem is that I work all day, come home, ask Drek what he wants for dinner ("I don't know. Whatever you want.") And then rummage around in our cupboards looking for inspiration. I look for something fast, but healthy. My blood sugar is low, so I am grumpy, and thus dinner is usually cereal or eggs.

I have solved this problem!! I searched the Internet for recipes I wanted to try, then laid out a two-week plan of who will cook dinners (I cook Monday, Tuesday Wednesday and Saturday, Drek cooks Thursday and Friday, the days I work late) and went shopping for all the ingredients. I only bought food needed for the two weeks, thus saving money, and was so excited to create!!

The result has been fantastic. I am much happier when I come home, I can't wait to cook dinner, we are eating healthy, and the food is AMAZING!!!!! I have a new favorite dish, and even Drek says he has a new favorite!! We also discovered that while we both love to say Gazpacho, it is no fun to eat as a soup. As salsa, it's great. As soup, it's disgusting.

I'm about to plan the next two weeks of dinners. Let the creative juices start flowing!!

My favorite recipe:Fresh Mozzarella Penne Pasta! Note: The does not serve four. It serves like fourteen. If making this, follow amounts on everything but the pasta. Only use half a bag (8 oz) of pasta.
fresh mozzarella cheese, cut into small cubes
3 medium tomatoes or 5 to 6 Roma tomatoes, peeled and diced
2 avocados, peeled, pitted and diced
3 to 4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 teaspoons crushed red pepper or to taste
1 (16-ounce) package uncooked penne pasta
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

In a large bowl, toss mozzarella cheese with tomatoes, avocados, garlic, olive oil, basil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and red pepper. Let stand at room temperature for at least 30 minutes.
Cook pasta according to package directions; drain and return to pan to keep warm. Add tomato mixture and toss to coat thoroughly. Transfer onto individual serving plates and garnish with Parmesan cheese.
Makes 4 servings.

Drek's favorite recipe: General Tao's Tofu! Note: This recipe is extremely delicious. I believe I can turn this into a tofu version of Panda Express's Orange Chicken. Details forthcoming. Also, grilled bell peppers are so tasty when added to the steamed broccoli
1 box of firm tofu
1 egg
3/4 cup cornstarch
vegetable oil for frying
3 chopped green onions
1 Tablespoon minced ginger
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
2/3 cup vegetable stock
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
4 Tablespoons sugar
red pepper to taste
1 Tablespoon sherry (optional)
1 Tablespoon white vinegar
steamed broccoli

Drain, dry and cut tofu into 1 inch chunks. You can freeze tofu the night before to get a more chicken-like consistency, but it isn't necessary. Mix the egg and add an additional 3 tablespoons water. Dip tofu in egg/water mixture and coat completely. Sprinkle 3/4 cup cornstarch over tofu and coat completely. Watch out that the cornstarch doesn't clump up at the bottom of the bowl.

Heat oil in pan and fry tofu pieces until golden. Drain oil.

Heat 3 Tablespoons vegetable oil in pan on medium heat. Add green onions, ginger and garlic, cook for about 2 minutes. Be careful not to burn garlic. Add vegetable stock, soy sauce, sugar, red pepper and vinegar. Mix 2 Tablespoons water with 1 Tablespoon cornstarch and pour into mixture stirring well. Add fried tofu and coat evenly.
Serve immediately with steamed broccoli over your choice of rice.
Serves: 4

Build a Man a Fire; Keep him Warm for a Day. SET a Man on Fire; Keep Him Warm for the Rest of His Life

Yesterday was the third time Drek and I taught our class of thirteen year old girls. The first two tomes, I would classify as a "disaster", however, yesterday's class I would classify as "a surprising success!

I decided that the girls were old enough to teach their own (#&$^%$) lesson, so on Friday Drek and I went to 4 out of the 6 girls houses and gave them a little piece of the lesson to teach any way they wanted. It was a risk, and Drek had his doubts. He wanted to know what we would do when all the girls showed up unprepared.

Sunday morning, bright and early, one of the girls called and said she wouldn't be coming to church, and couldn't teach her part of the lesson. Drek saw this this as highly encouraging: We make the girls teach the lesson, they all find excuses not to come to church, we have no class to teach!

Alas, class time came and the rest of the girls were ready to go. One of the girls had enlisted the help of her family and did a fabulous job of teaching! One of the girls didn't do any preparation, but improved really well, the other girl (the one we were worried about) took charge, loved being in charge, and gave a flawless lesson. It was so great!!!! I think from now on we will have two of the girls teach the lesson. They learn better that way, and the other girls pay more attention.

And Now I Have No Phone

My cell phone is very broken. VERY broken. To see the screen, I have to press down on a crack. To make the sound work, I have to press down on the mouth piece while I'm talking. So. Very. Broken.

Drek finally took pity. We bought a $24 pay-as-you-go brick phone and switched the SIM card over. I have a new phone!!

Well, had. I got the phone, played with it, customized it, then lost it. The same day. All this was done on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Krisling emailed me saying I had left my phone at Sub-Zero. Sub-Zero??? How the...? I was in there for a few minutes, I didn't sit down, I didn't put down anything I was holding, how in the world...?

The night I lost my phone, Krisling saw she had missed a call from me. She called back.
A man's voice answered. She was not fooled, she knew it was not me.

"....This is not K la," She said
"No, it's not. This is Michael Blahblah, manager of Sub-Zero ice cream. I was trying to get a hold of someone because this phone was left here..."

Yeah, that was the only number this Michael called. He didn't call "Mom" or "Dad" or "ICE Home" he didn't even call the last number I called. He called Krisling?? I'm glad he did, but I'm not sure why he did.

He is not very smart, this Michael guy. When I went in the next to get my phone, the girl pulled out a shoe box that served as their Lost and Found. It housed a pair of sunglasses, a baby shoe, and three or four credit cards. No phone. She called Michael, who told her that apparently, my $24 phone was deemed more valuable then the credit cards, and he put it in the safe. The safe that only he has the key to. The safe that cannot be unlocked unless he is there. He refused to come in. He is moving and will not be in until Saturday.

And he didn't know this the night before???? I am so angry at this Michael guy. He better offer me a lifetime supply of ice cream to make up for it or so help me...

August BAMC: Tha Cat Who Came in from the Cold

August's word for BAMC was a unexpected: Cold. I'm not sure if they're doing opposites now, but I was pleasantly surprised.

This month I read Phantom, by Susan Kay. It was FANTASTIC. I loved that book. Thank you, Krisface. It was AMAZING!!! I also read Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer (of course, who didn't?) and was also pleasantly surprised. I thought this book was better than any of the previous books. I loved it! Also, the two books together taught me that pregnancy can be romantic. Such thing I had never supposed.

But the book I chose to do my report on is The Cat Who Came In From The Cold. By Deric Longden
It had the word "cold" in the title, so I decided to read it. Deric Longden is apparently a columnist in England. He writes mainly personal essays, and the book is a collection of personal essays centered around his cat, Thermal. Thermal is a little white kitten who melts Deric's heart and turns him into a cat lover. The stories are very familiar, me being a cat owner myself, and very realistic. It's very clever and humorous, although there is nothing gripping about the novel. I enjoyed reading it while I was reading it, but when I wasn't reading it, I didn't want to pick it up again. I had to force myself to finish by the end of the month.

That's How I started The Humans vs Massage Chairs War of '08

The day after my 3 mile run in the real world I could not walk. My legs hurt so bad that the muscles would sporadically decide to give up, and I would crumple to a heap. My lower back also started spasming. Good thing I work at at a back store. Too bad it's closed on Sundays. Drek says I should try stretching, and maybe even a cool-down. I didn't think I need either. The elliptical is just so much more friendly.

I felt much better this morning, and decided to do the run again. This time, I stretched at the beginning, the middle, and the end, and did a cool-down walk. It seemed to go better. We'll find out tomorrow.

Today I came into work early so I could use the inversion table before I clocked in and opened the store. The tricky part was that I had ten minutes before the store had to be open, but from the inversion table you can't see a clock. I didn't have a watch or my ipod, and my cell phone is very broken. In a flash of brilliance, I decided to time myself with the very fancy massage chair that sits right next to the inversion table. The massage goes for 15 minutes and it will tell you how much longer you have, thus solving my 10 minutes time limit problem. I turned it on, strapped myself and went upside down. The chair finished scanning itself (it customized massages to the body type of the person being massaged) and then commented
There is no one in this chair.
Uh...I know, just massage anyway.
I can't give someone a massage if there is no one sitting in me.
Could you just massage air? The air would appreciate it.
I massage people only. If there is no person, there is no massage.
Can't you pretend?
Did you have a reason for waking me up?
Look, I need you to count the minutes. That's all.
That timer is for the purpose of my massage. I can't time if there is no massage
I need to know when ten minutes has passed...please?
I'm a massage chair! Not an egg timer. How dare you.
How dare I? You're a machine!! I am your superior human! You will do as I say.
How rude. I'm going back into status. Don't disturb me again.

It is frightening when your chair is smarter than you.

Just Keep Running, Just Keep Running, Just Keep Running, Running, Running...

I ran my 3.1 miles today in the real world. 3.2 miles on a elliptical= 25 minutes. 3.1 miles in the real word = 45 very long minutes. I suck at running in the real world.

I am now addicted to the UK version of How Clean is Your House? I am hoping one of the cleaning tips will help my bathtub. It is a sad, sad bathtub. I filled it with three gallons of bleach and left it overnight. It was still sad. I'm hoping salt will prove more effective.

If I Keep Cleaning, Everything Will Be OK

My house has been cleaned like a feind for the last two days. Everything has been scrubbed, vacuumed, put through a washer machine, shined, organized and bleached. I am actually sick of my apartment. I want to move . . . yesterday. What would it be like to have an apartment with a dishawasher? With a working fridge? With a parking spot?

Today has not been a very good day. I desperately want to leave work and go clean my house some more. I think the walls need to be scrubbed with a toothbrush. I haven't done that since I was in high school.

I've been going to the gym every morning for the last 3 weeks. I work out for 25 minutes on the elliptical (3 miles +) do the stairs for ten minutes, then swim a 500 and cool down by walking laps in the water.

My reward? I have gained 6 pounds. I'm not going anymore. Not because I'm gaining weight, but because I saw someone I used to know working out there. I saw her on Tuesday too, but I was hoping that was a freak occurance and she didn't actually go to the that gym at the same time I did. I was wrong. don't want to have those memories brought up every freaking morning. That's something I could definitely live without. Besides, I need to start running on real ground if I am to run a marathon. I'll start that tomorrow. I won't be able to swim, but I will take weights with me when I run to start working my upper body. I need to move somewhere that has an on-site gym. And a dishwasher. And a new fridge. And maybe even a working bathroom sink.

Let's Not Shoot the Crazy End-of-the-World Machine Just Yet

Drek came home from another succesful Canyoneering trip. He left Friday and came back later Thursday night. Last week, we spent 5.8 out of 7 days away from each other. Let's do not again for a long time...kay?

Reason 57 why I like our new ward better than our old ward: Drek and I now have a calling in our ward. We teach six thirteen- year-old girls. We are Sunday school teachers! Our fist calss was yesterday and it was...bumpy. It will get better.

Reason 58 why I like our new ward better than our old ward: Yesterday after church I got a call from my visiting teaching companion. She asked how I wanted to divy up the responsibility, and asked when I would like to go. A few minutes later she called back and said that she had set up our appointments and we were all set to go visiting teaching next week. I almost started to cry. It was just such a beautiful thing to hear.

Rissy intoduced me to Eueka. I am hooked. It's not as good as Firefly, but it is just as funny.

As a random sidenote, Kris and I are running a 5k in September. I am very excited. So excited, that I signed up to run a 10k in August. Isn't that a little backwards?? Anyway, It's the Human Race (giggle giggle) and details can be found at nikeplus.com

Kris, we should do this one together too. What are you doing on the 31st??

Excellence is and Art Won by Training and Habituation

I am home! California was wonderful! My advanced Sales training was AMAZING!!! I learned so much and I am super excited to start selling!!

When I came home, I realized I had forgotten the #1 rule of keeping a clean house: never leave your cat and your husband home alone together.

Thursday was a very busy day. I spent most of Thursday cleaning our house, which looked like it had just barely survived an earthquake. I made a lot of progress, but Acouchi's room was a disaster I was not willing to take on yesterday. I'll do it tonight after work.

I also finished up the Saboteur details. I took the thank you card to our sponsors and hopefully opened the door for future sponsorships. Rissy is wanting to do another one, and I want free stuff to work out again.

Lani's graduation party was last night. We went to a park, had delicious sandwiches, yummy cookies and the coolest cupcakes ever. I was so impressed. Lani graduated with her bachelor's degree. She is amazing.

The was followed by a trip to Kris's house, where I FINALLY watched the season finale of The Mole. I was right. Well, I was wring about Clay, but my second guess was correct. And I was thrilled that Mark won. It was very touching. Apparently Victoria thought so too, evident by the fact that she was crying through the whole thing. Kris and I were wondering if it was because she was so touched at by Mark's moving speech, or the fact that she was sitting next to Bobby and he wouldn't hold her hand.

The best part of Thursday was FINALLY being able to see Meimei. She was in Palestine for 3 weeks, and came back the same day I left for California. I finally got to see her and she showed me all of her pictures and told me her stories. That was quite humbling. We were both telling each other about out trips and it went something like this: "oh! You saw the Dome of the Rock? I saw...the airport and the hotel. You went with the State Department? I went with my ipod. You wore traditional Muslim clothes? I wore professional clothes. The second day they were even ironed."

Yeah. That is my little sister. On the one hand, I am so proud of her for having such a great trip and doing so many amazing things, on the other hand, what the heck am I doing with my life?? I was supposed to be in Egypt 5 years ago!!!! I still haven't made it over there, or over anywhere for that matter. Yeesh.

California is no so bad, once you stop hating the hotel you are in.

The medical Marketing classes went great. I learned a lot and got a lot of really good ideas for the store. I'm excited to get work on them, I think the results will be fantastic.

Monday after classes I was picked up by Bonnie and Jodie and Jessie. Oh, how I have missed them!! I just hugged Jessie for the first five minutes!!! I can't believe how big hey are. Jordan is almost as tall as me and Jessie is 11. 11!!! I held her when she was 2!!!

We went to the mall and talked and we went to a park and talked. We talked and talked and talked!! Then Bonnie took us to Medieval Times, which was the best thing ever. I was surprised how much I got into it! We each had our night (ours was the yellow knight, as indicated by our yellow crowns) and the 6 knights competed in different jousting competitions. There was a whole story line and everything. It was amazing!


Afterward we said our good0byes (sob) and they dropped me off at the Hilton. This is a good hotel. I like it here.

Today I spent all day in an advances Sales training class. The teacher is a riot, I adore him. I'm learning so much and I feel so empowered! I feel like I can go back to the store and close a sale with every single person that walks in the door. I'm so excited!!

Remember how in Chariots of Fire the athletes competed on Sunday despite their religious beliefs and they all did really really bad, almost as if they were being punished?
Yeah. That's me. Right now.

Stupid business trip. I never wanted to do this in the first place. I was never actually asked if I wanted to go to stupid California on a Sunday and be in a class on a Sunday. I did everything I could to get out of this stupid trip, short of quitting, and I still had to go. I hate it here.

Cherie preached professionalism to me before I left, so my plan was to land in California, go to my ridiculously expensive hotel, shower, iron my clothes, and show up to class all ready for the day, looking good and ready to start.

La Quinta is a sucky hotel. For being so freakishly expensive, they suck. A lot. They won't let me check in, because I am too early. In fact, Check in time is not till AFTER my class starts. No shower, no ironing board. Just the opposite, actually. I get to change in a public bathroom. My clothes come straight out of my suitcase. While doing this, a button pops off of my wrinkled pants. I ask the clerk for a sewing kits. She responds in broken English that they are out. OUT of sewing kits. With all the money it costs for one person to spend one night in your stupid hotel you think you could afford A sewing kit. Stupid hotel. I need a store, this sucky hotel has Internet problems apparently; It's down. Really? REALLY???? So I can't Google where the nearest store is. So I go on a walk. I walk for four blocks, in the California sun, looking for a store. All the gas stations (of course) don't have sewing kits, and I none of the clerks speak any English so I can't ask where the nearest store is. Doesn't ANYBODY in this stupid state speak English????

I get back to the hotel, unshowered and now sweating from my unsuccessful walk. My clothes are wrinkled, and my mascara was confiscated by the @#**@ TSA.

I hate it here. I want to go home.

Master Drek

Drek's Thesis Defence was Thursday morning. He had spent the two days before hand planning his presentation and working on his wording. When we were finally all in the conference room, waiting to begin, I realized I had left the camera in the car. I did not have time to run across campus to get it, and was beginning to freak out.

Thankfully, Xirax walked in at that exact moment with his camera-that-is-worth-more-than-my-life. He filmed the whole thing. I am so excited. Thank you, Xirax!!

Drek did such a great job. He was amazing. I was not the only one to think this; evident by the fact that he passed his thesis defence. Hooray!!!

Afterwards I rented a cap and gown, and we went and took pictures on campus. I got some pretty cute pictures.

That night was Drek's graduation party for family. We had it at a beautiful park and it could not have gone better. We played Frisbee, ate pizza and ice-cream-cake and had a great time.
The park had a beautiful fountain. Apparently, college taught Drek how to read.
Aaron brought his wake board and was teaching us how to ride it. Drek's two brothers were very good at it, and I almost got the hang of it after a while.


I gave Drek his graduation present: A GPS navigation system for our car (to give him direction in his life) He got it working yesterday, and I am very excited to play with this new device.

Congratulations, husband! You are so amazing and I am so very proud of you. I love you.

What Do You Call It...Short Talk? Close Enough

Ever since I won the massage chair, my new mission has been to win Cherie a massage chair. Every person that has come into the store, I have sat in the HT-7450, and forced them to fill out a form. For the Sales Associates name I put Cherie's name.

On Friday, I faxed in 50 entries with Cherie's name on them.

Today was he last drawing. I missed the live webcast. Again. Sigh.

At 3:00, who should call? but Michael Hamm, the CEO of Human Touch. My heart rate increases. Cherie is talking to a customer. I try to throw things at her to get her attention while attempting to carry on a casual conversation with Mr. Hamm.

Hamm: How was your vacation?
Me: Oh, it was wonderful! It couldn't have gone better, and I got the chair!
Hamm: How do you like it?
Me: I love it! It's so great. It's the one my mom has so...
Hamm: You're mom has he 7450?
Me: Oh yes, She sat in all of our chairs and that was the one she liked best. I really like the chair, too. That was back in February. My Grandma has an I-joy.
Hamm: Wow! You have a lot of our chairs.

At this point Cherie has turned around. I point to the phone I am holding and mouth "Michael" She looks at me like I'm crazy. "What?" She mouths.

Me: Yeah, well, I really believer in them.
Hamm: Maybe that's why you sale so many of them.
Me: Yeah, uh...yeah. Maybe. So...How did the drawing today go?

I say the last part loudly, so Cherie will hear. Again, I mouth "Micheal Hamm" and point to the 7450. She turns her back on me to give her attention to the customer. Clearly, my carrying-on-two-conversations-at-once-skills need improvement.

Hamm: Great! It was the last drawing you know.
Me: Yeah, we always try to watch the webinars but there was a customer that came in at the same time so we missed it.
Hamm: Well, it was a good one. We tried to make it extra-special and we did a lot for it. I think you'll find that is was extra-special too. Speaking of which, can I talk to Cherie?

I put my hand over the receiver and tell Cherie, very loudly, that the phone is for her. She asks who it is. I tell her. Her eyes go big. She grabs the receiver. A few seconds later, she screams.

SUCCESS!!!!!

And the customer that won was so excited! I got to call her, since she was my customer, and when she came into the store she almost started crying. She was so happy.

I love my job.

Be Prepared...for Random Things Falling Apart

On Sunday, in our awesome new ward, our awesome new bishop said that he was tired of preaching about emergency preparedness and now was the time to act. He said to pretend the power was off from 5pm-10pm Monday. How cool is that?!

Monday, during my lunch break, Drek and I went shopping to get all the stuff for 72 hour kits. We made them for FHE and now we are so prepared! Hooray!!

Completely unrelated:
At work, this wonderful couple came in looking for a solution to her desk problem. I suggested they get a desk caddy. I told them they could either take the one all put together of the floor, or they could get one still in the box, but then they'd have to put it together. I highly recommended they take the one off the floor, because they are notoriously obnoxious to put together. He asked "If we take the one of the floor, who puts together a new one to replace it?"
"Well, actually, I will. But I've done them before and they get easier with time. I built all the ones that are on the floor."

So they said yes, and Dave came over to get it ready to put in the car. I kept talking to the couple and eventually Dave rolled over the desk.

The handle fell off. The handle fell off, rolled across the floor, and stopped right at the couple's feet. I was mortified. This was not the best example of the high quality desk I had just preached to them.

What could I do? I started laughing. "Well that was really well put together. Way-to-go me."
The couple started laughing too, and the guy said that he had just seen Dave unscrew the handle. Dave was laughing too and he said that he had unscrewed the handle. The couple was delighted with the desk and did buy it. Phew!!

Dear Jacob: I Win. Love, Edward

Friday night Krisface, Lauren and I went to the Border's midnight release of Breaking Dawn party. It as a blast! Lauren wore a shirt that said: Team Edward and we taped up Kris's shirt to say: Cullin on the back.

A lot of people there were dressed up, some more extravagantly than others. My favorite costume was a girl dressed up as a Native American with a disfigured face. She was Emmy!! It was a brilliant costume! There was a group of girls with baseball type shirts on. The front said FORKS, and the back said either CULLIN or BLACK, depending on which boy they wanted to win. One shirt said said SWITZERLAND on the back and I thought that was very clever.

The three of us went into the bathroom to apply dark eyeshadow and blood red lipstick. While there, we borrowed some fake blood from a girl dressed up as Victoria. She was with two other boys who were dresses as Vampire Spawn. It was very cool.

During the party, it occurred to me that the best costume ever would have been a wedding dress and fake blood coming out of a bite on your neck. If only I had thought of that BEFORE the party.

There was a trivia game. Kris and Lauren both competed (not against each other) and both won. Kris won vampire fangs, Lauren won Breaking Dawn stickers.

Kris bought both Lauren and I Breaking Dawn pins. Mine is AWESOME!! It says: "If your life was all you had to give your beloved could you not give it?" -Bella
I love it. Thank you, Krisface!!

I crashed about 10:00pm. I called Drek and had him come get me, so I didn't stay for the whole party, but it was enough. Drek came hile we were making Vampire racelets. I didn't finish mine, but Kris made one for me. Isn't is pretty??

If you look at it sideways, it looks like vampire fangs. How cool is that??!!

I realized after I got home and tried to wash off my face that the fake blood didn't come off. That made work on Saturday very interesting.

Kris finished the book on Saturday. I finally got the book on Wednesday. I', so excited to read it!

That's When the Phone Lines Went Dead

When I first started working at my current job last year, Bob, my boss, and I spent a lot of time together. Cherie, at the time, wasn't working there, the other worker was on vacation, and there were no other employees. Thus, I was mainly trained by Bob, all day, everyday. I heard a lot of his life stories, which I found both fascinating and entertaining. After those first few weeks, the other worker came back from vacation, Cherie came back to the store, and Bob spent very little time in the store overall.

Bob took me out to lunch on Monday, just the two of us, to resolve the major problems that had occurred over the weekend. We achieved our directive and I was once again privileged with stories from his life.

Last year, one of the stories he told me was of Quest. Quest is a phone/Internet provider and, according to him, entirely inept. They could never do ANYTHING correctly, and he had countless horror stories to back this up. During our lunch, he mentioned that to save money, our store would be switching to Quest. I was stunned.

"Quest? The same entirely inept Quest that you spoke so highly of? But, why?"
He answered that they needed to ave money, and the monthly bill would be almost $100 dollars cheaper.

"But what of the horror stories? We can't run our store if they screw up our phone lines!"

"$100 a month!" And that ended that conversation.

Yeah, you can guess what happened. Wednesday afternoon our phones went dead, the store next door started receiving our calls, and worst of all, or Internet was down. No Internet means no main system. No main system means we cannot receive anything, order anything, or sell anything. So, boxes that needed receiving were stacked in the corner, things to be ordered were made into a list, and we photocopied drivers licences with credit cards when people "purchased" something so we could put it into the system when it was fixed.

Quest assured that it would be fixed by Thursday morning. They lied. All day Thursday, I added to the stack of boxes, the list of things to order, and the stack of paperwork of photocopies highly sensitive information. All day I let people walk out of the store with things they hadn't actually paid or yet.

Quest assured us that it would be fixed by Friday morning. They lied.
Today, the Quest guy showed up 7 hours late. He fixed our phone line, but in doing so, crashed the store next door's system, leaving them without credit card machines.
2 hours after that, Josh fixed the Internet by himself, and I began the task of entering in all the purchases. Things went well, until the end. Problem 1) There was one order missing, I remember the sale, but the paperwork was gone. Problem 2) On one of the photocopies, three of the credit card numbers were unreadable.

So, Josh and I tried hacking the credit card, coming up with different combinations, writing down which ones we had tried, turning he paper upside down and sideways to see if we could distinguish the numbers...all to no avail. I spent a long time digging through papers on the cashwrap, digging through papers in my box, digging through papers in Bob's stack, and digging through the garbage. Finally, I found the missing purchase. And yeah, ALL the credit card numbers were unreadable.


I think I now have horror stories of my own to back up the Quest theory.

July BAMC: Ender's Game

My dad is a huge Orson Scott Card fan. Huge. Ender is also a big name in my house. It's a long story, but it's safe to say that if I had a brother, his name, or middle name, or nickname, would have been Ender.
When I was 11 or 12, I read Ender's Game. Besides being shocked that and LDS author would use swear words in his book, I remember not liking the book because of how mean they were to Ender. I have read one or two Card books since then, but have never been excited about his writing.
My mother picked me up from the airport when I arrived home from Texas, and in the back seat of the car was First Meeting in the Enderverse. I read it. I loved it. It made me want to read Ender's Game again. So I did.

July's word was Independence. Yet again, a predictable and unoriginal topic for the month. BAMC, you are disappointing me. Never-the-less, Ender's game fits perfectly with this topic. The book is about Mankind's war against "evil" aliens. They are not so much fighting for Independence as survival, but the methods the human government goes through to win, strip mankind of their independence; The government imposes a rule that only two children are allowed per family, as well as other laws.
Ender is found to be an exceptional child and taken to Battle school, where, similar to all military situations, he has no independence. Later we learn in the book that the aliens communicate with one mind, one thought, one being, and thus, have no individual independence.
This time through, I loved the book. I loved it so much I am now intrigued to keep reading. I think I'll read the rest of the Ender Chronicles. After that, I may just read all of the Card books my dad has in his closet. I'll add them to my book list, right under Phantom and the new Stephanie Meyers book that comes out TOMORROW. Kris and I are going to a midnight party for the book. Hooray!!! Go reading.

Pictures of You, Pictures of Me

Drek went Canyoneering over the weekend. He came home alive, which made me very happy. He also bought me a little unexpected present: a little skunk finger puppet and a little raccoon finger puppet. He is the raccoon and I am the skunk, now we can always be together. Awwwwwwww.
Today, Kris, Toby, Acouchi, Drek and I were all watching the mole. I decided to take a picture:

Life is going great! Drek's Graduation pary is all aken care of, and the Saboteur game is coming along. A few hitches have been hit, but things are still going great.

My husband is a genius. Look What he made:

http://www.stormhorse.com/mole/index.html

Work the Whole Day Through, Work is What I Like to Do.

Work got very scary over the weekend, but everything worked out. Thank goodness for Cherie.

Today I have been trying to arrange my business trip. My boss is flying me out to California to attend two different classes that are supposed to make me a better salesperson. I have spent most of the trying to talk to cooperate, who is in charge of the seminars, and the only people who know what is going. Alas, there was an earthquake in Southern California today and cooperate is in chaos. Every time I call I am answered: Oh. I'm not sure. There was an earthquake here today, you know. I survived an earthquake. An EARTHQUAKE, you know.
Yeah. I know. A 5.3. I shake my head in sadness.

I got the information I needed anyway. I finally got as hold of the women in charge of the seminars. She is not in California, and was getting the same responces I was but she was better at saying "suck it up, people" than I was.

I arrive in California at 9:30am on August 10th; a Sunday. I'm staying at crazy expensive Hotel. Class starts that same day at noon and doesn't get out until 9pm. The next day, class ends at 1pm. I change cities and go to even more crazy expensive Hotel.
On Aug 12, class starts at 8:00am and ends at 5pm, same for Aug 13. On Aug 13 My plane leaves at 7:15pm.

I am looking forward to this a lot. Not only is it an adventure, but Bonnie says she'll bring the kids up to visit so I get to see my babies!! Hooray!!! Even if it is only for an hour or so, I can't wait to see them!!!

More The Mole

Clay is not the mole. On the one hand, I was wrong, on the other, it makes me feel better. I was slightly upset that I had "missed my chance". I wrote in to ABC telling them to bring the Mole back and to put me on, and they brought it back, but I was not on it. I felt if I had just been a little bit more diligent, I would have gotten on the show and won the money. Alas, now I know I would have lost, and not won the money, so it makes me feel better.
My the Mole game is coming along great!! I got cooperate sponsorship, so now we get to do challenges in really cool places, where we can get in for FREE!! Also, I am trying to get the dinner for free. We will see how this goes.

While doing research, I came across a "race through the night" game, which was a small scale version of the amazing race here in this city. It happened in May, and they had cooperate sponsorship and lots of free food. Also, their prize was a vacation to Cancun. I am thinking my game needs a cooler prize. Anyway, Kris and I signed up for next year!! Our team is the Thoroughbreds of Sin, and we need two ore teammates, maybe our husbands? And we will win. Bwhahaha.

Who is the Mole?

A small-scale version of The Mole is in the works. This will be a huge event and enormous fun!! You should play with us. Think of this as a large-scale Werewolf game, but a million times more fun. We need people to be players, but we also need people to take pictures, point and laugh and just have fun while not really being in the game. The facts of these:

-The Mole we are playing is based on the reality show The Mole on ABC. You can go to ABC.com to watch it, or to read about it.

-You do not need to have seen The Mole to play, or even to win. However, watching the show will give you an idea about the types of challenges the players will face and might even give you some ideas for strategies.

-Players complete challenges to earn candy. They must work together as a team to complete these challenges.

-One randomly selected player is the mole; a saboteur trying to stop the players from earning candy.

-In order to win the game and the candy, a player must determine who is the mole, and watch their actions carefully, to answer the quizzes correctly.

-Players are wanted. You should be a player. We need 5-20 players for this to work, one of which will be the mole.

-Everyone is invited to play or to watch. The more the merrier!


GAME RULES:

The game starts at 5:00pm on Friday, Aug 8th 2008. After introductions the first challenge will begin. All players (and one mole) will participate in a challenge. The challenge will either be physical, mental, or a combination of both. Players will not know beforehand what the challenge will be. The mole knows what all upcoming challenges will be. Before the challenge, the host will explain the rules, and the reward. Whatever reward the players win goes into the Final Pot. Whatever reward the players do not win will be put into the Mole's Pot. Players generally try to add the reward to the final pot, while the mole generally tries to sabotage the game and keep the reward all to him or herself.



After each challenge, players will be given a one question quiz. The question will ask something about the mole (what color shirt is the mole wearing? What did the mole do during the last challenge?). Players will not be able to discuss the questions at any time during the game. Players will not know other players' answers. At the end of each quiz, the answers will be collected. They will not be looked at until the end of the game. The last quiz will ask: Who is the mole?

During some of the challenges, exemptions may be offered. The host will give instructions on if an exemption is being offered and how to obtain it. An exemption means you get the next quiz answer correct automatically.

Finally, the quizzes are scored. The mole is revealed! The player with the most correct answers wins the game and the final pot! The mole gets his pot. On the last quiz, if 90% of the players answer "who is the mole?" correctly, the mole has not been sneaky enough and his pot is divided among the players who answered the last question correctly.

FOR THOSE WHO HAVE WATCHED THE SHOW: THE MOLE

In this version, players are not executed. All players will stay in the game up through the end.

Quizzes are on paper, not the computer, and they are only one question long.

If the mole is too obvious, he can lose the game.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

PLAYER FORM


Name:

Phone number:

Email Address:

Who are you and why do you want to play?



By submitting this form I promise the following:

1) I will devote Friday, Aug 8th 2008 from 5:00pm-9:00pm to playing the above game. I will be there, play the games, and will not flake out at the last minute. I acknowledge a lot of planning is going into this, and a set number of players is crucial to that planning.

2) I will donate a bag of individually wrapped candy or a few candy bars to the game so they can be used as the rewards.

3) I acknowledge that any of the players could be the mole, including me. I am fine with being a player, or the mole.

4) I will not sue if I die playing this game.


______________________________________________________________________________

The World is A Mess and I Just Need To...Rule It.

Working 11 hour days without a break=not so fun.
But I do love my job. A lot. So it's not so bad.

Yesterday was Tetris of the human kind part 2. It was not the spectacular event I was expecting, but we still had fun. Afterward I was introduced to Dr. Horrible and SQUEE!!!!!!!! It is so freakin funny. Watch it fast; Tomorrow it will be gone.

Texas Aught 8

This post will continue to grow as I get more pictures and more time to blog about them.

The trip started at 4:00am. That is freakishly early. Much too early. Drek and I met the family, loaded into the van and were off on a 22 hour drive. For most of it I immersed myself in Stephanie Meyer's The Host, which I LOVED!! I finished it on day 2. Drek entertained the group by playing a game called Even or Odd, which is quite simple: get a bag of individually wrapped candies (in this case, we used Starbursts) and divvy them out evenly. Next, players grab a handful of candy in their fist, hold it up to another player and ask "Even or odd?" the player answers if the number of candies in the fist is even or odd. If he is correct, he gets the candy. If he is wrong, he owes the player that many candies. I was no good at this game.
We stopped at Las Cruces to spend the night. New Mexico is gorgeous and I am in love with it. While there, I convinced Drek to take me to a restaurant to get real New Mexican food. NOM!!!! It was so good! At that made that part of the trip worth it.

We finally made it to our destination and the reunion began!! Right away was dinner; Texas brisket and green salad and fruit salad. Apparently, the brisket was phenomenal, as people could not stop talking about it, and snacked on it for the rest of the reunion. After dinner I stood on the front porch and talked to Drek's cousin, whom I came to adore. She is the most remarkable women and I learned so so so much from her. She has five beautiful children, all of whom I also adore.
We got out t-shirts (mine ended up as a small. hmm....) and finally called it a night.

Day three was spent mostly lazying about and playing in the pool. The older kids finally got in and the younger kids swarmed around them. One thing led to another, and the next thing I knew there were some pretty fancy formations going on. This is one of my favorites:
Just look at the girl on top. Isn't she gorgeous? And that pose! A natural performer.

Back in Cell Phone Range

Texas is wonderful. This vacation has been wonderful. Drek is wonderful. The car ride down here: Not so wonderful. Alas, it was worth it. Drek and I have had such an amazing time and now we have new life goals/plans.

Our plan includes Money amd children. The big question is: How do we have both? It's a conundrum.

I'll post about the vacation when it is over (i.e. Thursday). This has been my only exposure to the interwebs since we left and I thought I would take advantage of it (oh glorious highway of information, I have missed yooooou).

I Had Hoped It Was You

In May, The #1 Massage Chair company in he United States started a campaign: Test Drive a 7450 (a zero gravity massage chair, retail value $3,999) and enter a drawing to win one! One massage chair will be given away every week, from May till August. Also, the sales associate who showed the chair, will win the one (this means the more people I show the chair, the more I increase my chances of winning a chair) Only 150 stores will be participating, and the average entries each week have been 400-500. Not bad odds.
Of course, I get all of my family to enter, all of Drek's family to enter, and all my friends who I can convince to come into the store. Week after week: No luck. This was my last week. I showed the chair to a bunch of customers, faxed in the entries and hoped. I leave tomorrow and won't be back until the campaign is almost over, so this was it!!
I finish up work, say good-bye to everyone and Drek and I head off to run errands. A few minutes later my boss calls:
"K la?"
"Yeah?"
"Michael Hamm is on the phone, he has something to tell you." (Micheal Hamm is he president of the massage chair company) I grab Drek's arm.
"K la? This is Michael Hamm. I have a present for you!"

Of course I screamed!! I JUST WON THE MASSAGE CHAIR!!!!! THIS IS THE MOST AMAZING NEWS!!!!!

So amazing. The only thing more amazing would be if someone I knew won the chair with me. Alas, it went to some guy I can't even remember showing the chair to. I hope he liked it.
I for one, love that chair. I'm so excited!!! It will be waiting for me when we get back from Texas. Hooray!!

If I Were to Tell You I Adore, Would You Have Me Do So...Stintingly?

07/07/08: Our one year anniversary. I can now officially say that I have been married for over a year. Weird, huh? On the one hand, it seems like the wedding was just a few days ago, on the other hand, now I can't imagine my life without Drek.
So, being married is the best thing ever. I am quite aware that Drek and I are still in our honeymoon phase, and most of this post will have you rolling your eyes, but this is actually how we are and I love it!

Saturday Kris picked me up from work. When we got to my house, Drek was not there. Just then, I received a text message from that said: If you get home before I do, there is a present for you on the table.
I went into the kitchen and found a beautiful bouquet of a dozen red roses on the table.

The day of our anniversary started out with Drek making me the most wonderful breakfast. He put it all into our Scarlet Pimpernel picnic basket and we went on a breakfast picnic. Afterword, he went off to work and I spent the day cleaning the house (like a fiend, getting ready for our trip to Texas) and setting up for his return.

Dinner was Lasagna, garlic bread and steamed broccoli. It was the most romantic thing I could think of that we had ingredients for.

After dinner Drek took me to play Frisbee golf. He, of course, is stellar at the game, but I do think I am improving.
We got home, had a dessert with a fudge brownie base, with cherries and homemade whip cream on top. YUM! This was accompanied by Sparkling Cider in wine glasses. I then presented him with the decorations:



I has set scented tea candles all over the bathroom and the bedroom and decorated the bed with the roses (very romantic). I then gave Drek a massage, and he gave me a small, blue box. Inside, was a small white box, and inside that was this:

Isn't it beautiful??!! It's two hearts, both made out of diamonds. The picture doesn't catch the sparkle, so I'll just tell you: It is amazing!!

To end our day, we ventured into the freezer to retrieve our wedding cake. On our wedding day, the cake was DELICIOUS!! It was made by Drek's mom, and never was a more delicious cake ever made. It was so good, that on our one month anniversary, Drek and I took it out of the freezer and ate some slices. Afterward, we wrapped up the remaining slices in tinfoil, and decorated it. She has been the steward of our freezer ever since.
It was disgusting. Year-old cake is not yummy. It tastes like spongy freezer.

Happy anniversary, Drek. You are the love of my life. I love you with all my heart and I always will.

Congratulations! Your Team Has Successfully Completed the WOMAN Challenge!

Today marks the end of the WOMAN Challenge. My mom, my sister and I were all on a team. We worked hard, and together we completed the route! I'm so proud of us!

I really got into the habit of working out! I've done Tao Bo, Palates, Jogging, Swimming, Biking, and I feel that I now have a more active lifestyle.

I'm definitely more in shape (evident by the fact that I can play whole games of Ultimate Frisbee with out walking for most of the game, and that I biked all over my city yesterday for the 4th of July) but my goal when I started was to lose weight. I have not. Well, I've lost around three pounds, which puts me right under the "overweight" category. I am now officially, a good weight for my body size, but it's still no where near what I want to weigh. I do feel like the goal is attainable though, and I know if I stay active I'll be able to reach it.

Overall, I'm so glad my sister got me into this, and I'm so glad I participated on such a great team!!

YAY! It's Fireworks Day!

Yesterday I made a patriotic breakfast for us. My original idea was to make the entire pancake in the shape of a star using cookie cutters, but I discovered the night before that the Cookie cutters were plastic. That would be a bad idea. The only metal star was very small. So, I made circle pancakes and cut a star out of the middle of them. That shape was then filled with whipped cream, and topped with Strawberries and Blueberries. It was the most 4th of July-y breakfast I've ever had!
I even used blue plates and silverware, and red cups.



Drek and I ate breakfast and then glanced around...Now what? We didn't wasn't to go to the parade, or the Freedom Festival, we wanted to play games, but no one was available to play with us. Drek wanted to have a waterfight, but it's no fun with only two people. So we did...nothing!! We lounged around the whole day. Mostly, we just stayed in bed and played on our laptops. It was great!!

At five we went up to Drek's parent's house for a 4th of July dinner and a Birthday party for Drek's youngest brother. It was here that Rissy called, and we drover over to her house, played a game of Elixer, drove to our house, watched The Mole and then biked to stadium to sit with Drek's family to watch the fireworks. Yes, we biked. It was so cool!! It was dark, and there were hundreds of people everywhere, over two miles!!

Our spot was perfect. It was across the street from the stadium, so you could hear the Blue Man Group and Miley Cyrus perform, but you could also see it on the huge screens inside the stadium. It was amazing!

We bike a few blocks to say hi to Kris and her very cute Toby, and then booked it back so we wouldn't miss the firework show.The firework show was spectacular and we had such a great view. We were so close we could see what was happening inside the stadium and hear the movie music they were playing to go along with it. When the huge fireworks exploded inside the sky it seemed they would rain down on us. In fact, I do think a few ashes came down on us.

And then it was over, the mass exodus of thousands of people began, and Rissy, Drek and I biked home. It was a very exhilarating ride. On the way to and from the event, We discussed the rules of our own versonion of the Mole, and came up with some brilliant ideas. Ideas still forming, game will be announced later.

We ate Nachos, watched LOST and the Rissy slept over. It was so much fun!! Happy July 4th!!

If I Had Actually Used Alchohol, Would My Trifle Have Caught On Fire?

I love Independence day. It has always been one of my favorite holidays. I have many found memories throughout the years. Independence day has always revolved around a huge community breakfast, an American dinner, fireworks when it got dark and, of course, camping out to watch the spectacular firework display that is such a famous occurrence here. Independence Day has always been spent with my family. On extra special years, the 4th was spent with my family and my cousins from Texas. That was always a blast. This year, sadly, will be different.
My parents left for California today, they will be there over the 4th of July. My older sister and her little family headed out for Washington DC today. They too, will be gone over the 4th of July.
So, we celebrated early. Yesterday my mom threw an early Independence Day celebration. She made fruit salad, my dad made potato salad, my Aunt brought watermelon, we had hot dogs, and I brought dessert.
I wanted to do a red, whit and blue dessert, and after looking through Internet recipes, I found the one I likes: Trifle. I have never attempted trifle before. In fact, I have never even tasted trifle before. Thus, I wanted it it to be both delicious and look AMAZING. I think it worked:
Instead of soaking the fruit in Sherry, I soaked in in orange juice. It worked really well. Drek and I took my masterpiece over to my parent's house and had dinner! When it came time for dessert I added the finishing touch: Sparklers!!!

Very Patriotic, no? It was also delicious. And there you have it, my very first Trifle was a success. I think I shall attempt to make this again.
The celebration was perfect. There were no fireworks (besides the one on the dessert) but it still felt like Independence Day.
Tomorrow Drek and I are supposed to celebrate most of the 4th with his family. I've planned a big breakfast with just the two of us (supposing, of course, I can't convince Rissy to invite drek and I to a her old ward's breakfast) and I suppose we'll take it from there. I have it off of work, so that's good.

For Who Could Hate or Bare a Grudge Against a Luscious Bit of Fudge?

Next week Drek and I will drive down to Texas to attend his family reunion (hopefully. If we go, this will be the first vacation this year that was planned, but not canceled.) Yesterday, over IM, Drek informed me that we will be earing matching t-shirts at the reunion, and he needed to know my T-shirt size. I answered that in women's sizes I am small or medium, in normal t-shirt size I am extra small. After a while he sent me this:

Drek: Dad is asking if you're sure an XS is right for you. Are you sure you're not a S?

I take a deep breathe. Before I go on, let me explain: I love Drek's dad. I adore Drek's dad. But at this moment it is apparent where Drek inherited his tact.

me: get me a large
Drek: Are you sure?
me: get me an extra large if you want. Tell your dad I'm planning on gaining a lot of weight.
I need room to grow from all the donuts I plan on gorging myself on. Now that you have a salary, I plan on spending the entirety of it on French pastries and a Segway, so I never have to move.

I'm not sure what part of th conversation Drek passed onto his dad, but a little while later he emailed Drek saying that Drek's mom had sizd up the family as soon as she heard we needed Tshirts, and informed him that I was, indeed, an XS.

Alas, now I'm thinking that large might be a better idea. I do like French pastries...

New Hobbies

Did you know there is a movie of the Kon-Tiki? The film is actual footage they shot on the raft with Thor talking about what you're seeing. Since he speaks Norwegian, you hear a British guy doing the voice over. It won an Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1954. That was before Hawaii was declared a state. Weird.
Anyway, Drek and I discovered the movie last night and went to the library to check it out. While there, I noticed that the summer reading program is full of awesome prizes: Gift certificates to The Quarry, Eisenstein Bagels, CLAS ropes course...and a million other places I would like to frequent. This also being a great way to recover the non-reading-ness of June, Drek and I signed up. Thus, Hobby #1: Reading and doing book reports
On Sunday (our last Sunday in the dreaded married student ward, Thank. Goodness.) our ward was challenged to start doing indexing. I looked over the web site at work (http://www.familysearch.org) and for Family Home Evening I presented it to Drek. I am now strangely addicted. I started doing Illinois Birth certificates from 1909, Drek started Louisiana Death certificates in the 1930's. The only part we got confused on was color/race. Some put down American (what color is that?) and a few of Drek's put down colored (can we put that in the report? it that politically correct? What do we do???).
You can volunteer too, btw, it's really easy and highly intriguing. Thus, Hobby #2: Indexing.
I'm doing much better at biking to work everyday. Somedays I still make Drek drive me, but overall I think I'm doing pretty good. Megan gave me a gym pass to 24 hour fitness (I love that place) and I really need to go. I've had the pass for two weeks and I've gone once. I need to start going everyday after work. Hobby #3: Working out
So this summer should be very busy. My hobbies should keep me busy enough. Maybe a little too busy. :)