a few random things

Turns out when trying to make an au naturale smoothie, one must add 100% pure frozen orange juice. It makes all the difference. Trust me. I drank some fruit sludge a week ago in an attempt to start eating healthier and I can't emphasize enough: orange juice.

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I took my final final last night and now I just have to finish up a couple of papers and then I'll be done.

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Also I'm planning on totally re-doing my bedroom...again. This will be like the umpteenth time. Doug will probably roll his eyes if/when he reads this. I know I'm ridiculous and knowing is half the battle right? (or so I'm told). The room doesn't get much light so I thought I would just embrace it and paint it a dark color but now I sorta feel like its oppressive. SO Now I'm thinking that if I make it really light and bright that somehow the lack of strong light will balance out the brightness. When I say brightness I'm talking like whites and taupes and stuff, not neon pink. Now that I think about it, I think I hate neon colors. Like in every situation. I think I hate neon colors no matter how they are used. Hmmm. Interesting.

Ok well anyway, what are you doing for the weekend? Its cold here today so we are going to go home and make a nice warm meal and then watch old movies on our fabulous new couch (pictures to come soon). Tomorrow we plan to go to an art exhibit a friend of mine has up. How fancy of us, right?!

Fancy. That's us.

Oh and did I tell you about my souffle disaster? No?

So I attempted to do re-create this beauty--

I mean look at that! Wouldn't you try to make that? Ugh makes me salivate just looking at that.
Anyway, I attempted to use the recipe on the site that I found it on called Canelle et Vanille (found here. Now you may have figured out from the title that blog is not of American origin but "hey," I thought, "neither am I" (I was born in Britain).
So it turns out translating grams into tablespoons and ounces and such was a little beyond my ability level.
suck.
So we ended up with something that looked akin to this--

(thats mud, friends)

While eating mud normally doesn't taste that good I was determined that I could still enjoy the chocolate goo.

And I did.

For a while.

And then... well lets just say that it looked pretty much the same going in as it did coming out.

haha. Sorry. Actually not really. I think poop stories and poop jokes are hilarious.

Random fact #123498y4: Even the word "poop" makes me laugh. every.single.time. I hear it.

But I found another version of the recipe, with far less enticing photos, but that is seemingly similar nonetheless and which should suffice. I will try it again tonight and let you know how it goes.

Have a great weekend all!

digits

Single digits, that is.




SINGLE DIGIT COUNTDOWN TO GRADUATION BEGINS TODAY!!!

Watch this video and smile




Yeah, Baby! That video makes me proud to be a product of the 80s. :)

mario and brothers

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Ha. Mario Mario. Speaking of brothers, I have a couple of them and one of them is in the military and leaves for the Middle East again today... for the 11th time. Can you believe that? Here I am enjoying my busy little life while others (my brother included) are fighting and risking their life in a war that I forget is even going on at times.
I passed my thesis defense and I graduate in 10 days and I made a book for Doug for his birthday of our Europe pictures and it turned out amazing and I bought that white couch from Ikea because I'm crazy but I love it and other things have happened
but
sometimes it all feels a little stupid or shallow compared to things like someone risking their life in a war so that I can have these little and yet completely wonderful things in my life.

just a little humbling is all... but Mario Mario. Thats funny.

Easter

Do you have Easter plans? Our Easter will be crazy, as usual. I am putting on the annual Easter Egg Hunt for the teenage girls that I oversee at church. I think they love getting to let their inner kid out and run around in search of candy-filled eggs.

Its supposed to rain on Sunday so I suppose we will be scrambling to provide umbrellas for each of them (posted this umbrella picture before but I just love it!)


I'm also accompanying the church choir on the piano for the Easter service. The song is probably a little beyond my skill level on the piano but I will do my best.


In other news - I took my final class yesterday. It was a strange feeling actually. I still have a few things to finish up. I'm trying to stay focused during these last two weeks. Posting may be a little more sparse than usual.

Have a great weekend everyone! Happy Easter!



oh and if you want to read an old but interesting article based on a show about Easter done by ABC's 20/20 that I plan on incorporating into my lesson on Easter on Sunday, check it out here.

on the birth of a great man

(doug at our mustache bash a couple years ago - doesn't he look superb?!)

Its my best friend's birthday today. He turns 28. You can read about him here. I thought I'd add a few more things to that list of things about him today.

- Doug wants to be a screenwriter. He discovered this a little over a year ago and has been working toward it ever since. He has read almost every book there is to read on the subject, has written two full screenplays, and will attend graduate school in screenwriting in the fall of 2012. He works on his screenplays every night and has an entire notebook filled full of ideas for stories yet to be written. He carries this notebook with him everywhere and writes down ideas at the most random of times.
- Doug is an excellent writer. He has a way of capturing thoughts and feelings and then expressing them in the most perfect way. He pens raw emotion on a page and its incredible.
- Doug is superstitious. Not the traditional superstitious, like when a black cat crosses his path he tries to pet it, but his own version of superstitious. For example, he won't sit in the seat directly behind the driver's seat in a car. He always grabs the second of something (the second box of cereal on the shelf - the one behind the first).
- Doug is unbelievably not innocent and completely innocent all at the same time. He knows the raunchiest terms and jokes and rap lyrics and yet has this sweet boyish ignorance about him. Once when we were hanging out by the river in our town in Virginia, he was picking up the biggest rocks he could find and hurling them into the river, when all of a sudden he picked up a rock and there was a water snake beneath it. He jumped back and yelled "A SNAKE!" with utter glee and immediately tried to grab it. I saw the 8-year-old in him come out and it was so sweet and unexpected.
- Doug is incredibly intelligent. He learns things at lightning speed and this, combined with his amazing memory and his thirst for knowledge makes him wicked smart. I'm constantly in awe of his intellect and all of the things he manages to keep straight in his brain.
- Doug has a strong testimony of God. Though he can curse like a pirate and probably isn't your typical mormon, Doug reads his scriptures everyday, prays every night, goes to church every week, and has a strong belief in God. He KNOWS the Bible and the Book of Mormon. He has really studied his religion and other religions as well. He even used to want to do it for a living. We probably have as many books on religion(s) as we do anything in our house.
- Doug is unexpected. If you know Doug or were to meet Doug, perhaps one of my favorite things about Doug is that he is not what you think he is...ever. Doug is a gifted athlete and loves sports and can hang in just about any conversation with sports facts and stats, but he is no dumb jock. He loves music, theatre, and prose, but you'll never catch him in a turtleneck. He is super techy and loves electronics and plays video games and even wears a headset sometimes while he plays, but he is also completely up on politics and news and has more friends in real life than online. He knows all the words to the nastiest rap songs and shamelessly listens to them when he works out, but he also loves country music, and classical piano, and just about everything but opera. Just when I think I've got him pegged, he quotes a line from Beauty and the Beast or starts speaking German fluently when we are ordering food on our Europe trip.
I must admit, I absolutely love that about him.

I could go on and on obviously (and sorta have, sorry) so I'll just say, I've very grateful to have this gentleman in my life.

Check out this video (1 min. long) of some pictures of Doug growing up. :)



Happy Birthday, love!

in 3 weeks...

...I will graduate. One paper. One final. One thesis defense.

then

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done.

hope

"Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you"

- Walt Whitman


Today I'm feeling hopeful that there is actually an end in sight. I'm getting better (very slowly) and I haven't even had to resort to voodoo! I have two papers, my thesis defense, and a final and then I will be done with school. I've purchased tickets to Los Angeles for a short trip to check out schools with my husband (for him - not me - I would punch myself in the face if I thought about more schooling right now). I also bought a plane ticket to Phoenix to visit my most favorite person in the world (who recently turned 7! Can you believe that?). That visit will be my graduation present to myself. :)

Besides all that, the trees in front of my house are in full bloom and look gorgeous. I have about half of my tulips up and smiling at me each morning, and I even have quite a few daffodils still hanging on! I just love spring! Don't you just find it to be one of the most hopeful times of year? After all the winter, there is new life! Ahhhh... now if I can just focus long enough to get these last few things done.

lengths i go to not be sick anymore

1. blowing my nose constantly
2. wash hands every hour
3. take cough medicine
4. take airbourne at onset
5. take zicam
6. take several doses of airbourne and zicam for many days
7. put vapor rub on chest
8. drink water every few seconds
9. drink some cleanse crap that made me poo like immediately
10. put my face in steam
11. borrow some oil incense stuff
12. put oily stuff on my body
13. burn oily incense stuff in fancy bong looking contraption
14. google how to hock loogeys
15. practice hocking loogeys
16. hock many loogeys to get crud out of chest
17. miss part of work to try and rest
18. rest under my desk at work when no one is looking
19. pray
20. beg God to make me not sick
21. bargain with God to make me not sick ( i.e. you make me not sick and I will do better about using your name in vain, etc)
22. survey friends and coworkers on crazy sick remedies
23. try crazy said remedies like
24. gargle hot salt water
25. drink water with lots of cayenne pepper
26. crush up sudafed and put it in boiling water with honey
27. lay only on your right side
28. sleep with a humidifier with vapor rub in it
29. not speak for an entire day
30. get a blessing from priesthood holder
31. go to instacare
32. pay $75 effing dollar co-pay at the door to be told its just a virus
33. pay follow up bill of $120 for doctor charges and strep test and healthcare in America is outrageous, and I have insurance


I'm not joking. I've tried everything. So here's to #34

34. blog about it

on 26 days and 26 miles

Have you ever seen the end of a marathon? I don't mean when the first person crosses the finish line - I mean, have you ever seen when the very last person in the marathon completes the race? It is a sight to behold but I doubt you'll ever see it. In fact, very few people in the world ever do.
That's because, at the end of a marathon, most of the race workers and volunteers have already left. The road that was once neatly marked and blocked off has since given way to a pressing and impatient treaty of vehicles. The spectators have long since retreated to view a sooner spectacle. And the rest of the participants in the race, the only people left to walk alongside the last person, have long since pressed past the victor's mark on the road.
So the last person, as it were, they are usually entirely alone.
And it's ironic.
We celebrate the first to finish. We give them a medal and cash and a prized place in the day's newspaper publication. We congratulate them on all the hard work that enabled them to jaunt across the finish line and complete a marathon in about 2 or 3 hours.
But the last person? They've held in the race for about 12 hours. They walked the entire thing and watched every.single.person. pass them by. They watched as water stations and food stations and bathroom opportunities vanished alongside their road. They watched as confused faces leered from car windows, wondering how anyone could still be running the race. They've watched their feet, bloody and swollen, shake from the weight of a body that won't stop. Their slave-master mind won't let them relent to the embarrassment of last place, or the pain of a broken body.
I've seen the last person in a marathon. They were crying and yelling and literally crawling across the finish line. And I wanted to help them up and give them a big hug and tell them how amazing they were. But somehow I knew,
There was nothing that I could say or do that could ever compare to what they had done for themselves. All on their own.

in case you were wondering

I've figured out what I want for my graduation gift.

This

and this



And of course this guy


That's all.