school supplies

i'll be the first one to tell you that i'm really happy to not be starting school in just 3 short weeks. i will say, however, that i'll miss buying school supplies. that was always my favorite part, regardless of how much my books cost or whatever. if that makes me crazy, so be it.

the other day, sarah and i were talking about shopping for school supplies, since emery is getting ready to start kindergarten. when i was little, i always wanted the big box of crayons. you know the one. the one with the built in sharpener in the back. i got it maybe one time (it's okay, mom. i understand) and that was a happy year. those extra 16 crayons made all the difference.

today i met sarah in bountiful so she could borrow some of my books. she said there might be a treat involved. she was not kidding! she brought me this:

64 delicious colors of waxy goodness. i couldn't be happier :D

happies

1. alex stayner finally joined facebook!!! i know that means little to nothing to most of my readers. (do i still have readers? {chirp, chirp} that's what i thought). he's been holding out on us for about a year now, and quite possibly longer. my jaw hit my desk when i saw my friend invite from him. i don't know who jamie schram is, but he is now my hero. (he's apparently the one that got alex to cave on the facebook thing)

2. matt moses committed to movie night!!! this is the first time in the history of matt moses friend-dom that matt has committed to host an event that he did not in fact plan. it's a big day. we threatened to just show up at his house tomorrow night and wait for him to come home and let us in. for once our idle threats worked!! movie night tomorrow at matt's house :) yay!! (although i must say that i don't believe that our threats were actually idle. after walking into the frat house to wait for someone to come find us in the living room because no one answered the door, i can actually believe that we would sit on matt's doorstep until 1. he came home or 2. the neighbors told us to leave.)

3. girls night with julia and debbie. i hate it how married friends drop off the face of the earth. i'm glad that we've been able to successfully drag debbie back from over the edge periodically. good times at buca :)

4. the best ever recipe for molten chocolate lava cake. to. die. for. very bad for you, but very like an expensive restaurant dessert. you can thank/curse me later. i'll understand either way.

5. it's friday and i'm going hiking with jules tomorrow :)

yay for productivity!!

yesterday at work i felt like nothing got accomplished. i only scanned about 20 projects in (which is not very many, by the way), had 2 hours of meetings, and then worked on different projects here and there for a few minutes each. i did manage to print off 3 reports (only 3 pages each), but i still feel like nothing got done.

today was a different story! i went through and scanned 60 projects, plus documented the elements of about 12 segments of my one big project. i just have to go through this video that has conference clips, documenting the speaker and the videographer, along with any graphics or artwork in the clips. it's pretty exciting stuff. i'm liking it a lot.

and in other good news, i'm getting a raise. kinda. i was told that while i'm training on the IP (intellectual property) stuff, i'd still get paid my normal rate of $11/hr. today i was informed that i will, in fact, be making $14.16/hr during the times that i'm working on my IP projects. exciting stuff. that'll add about $30/week to my paycheck. i'll take it!

work jokes

having re-entered the realm of the employed, i need a little humor to get me through the day sometimes. they're giving me a break from scanning and i've started working on some real intellectual property stuff. one of the projects that's been assigned to me has to do with the use of a particular font in some sort of training for family history. this video was recommended to me by my trainer.



and the sequel. . .

"i can see russia from my house."

today, as i re-enter the blogging world, however temporarily it might be, i would like to share a link to a pretty awesome montage of SNL clips from the last election. ah, the memories.

click HERE for fun.

tuesday funnies

i was reading on The Pioneer Woman (one of my favorite websites) and found this post of really funny puns. they're laugh-out-loud funny.

the sad business of cameras

i am so sad!! i had about 50 pictures from wedding weekend, and they somehow got erased off of my camera!! i had great pictures of the beach bbq, the kidlets playing on the playground, a visit to the reno temple, incredible lake tahoe sunsets, and the list goes on. and they're gone. instead, i'm left with just 15 pictures from the entire weekend. i don't know how this happened, but i'm very very sad about it. here's a few of what was left.

the golf course where the wedding took place. (not in this place exactly, but close)

me and lake tahoe from a scenic overlook above incline village.

ellie-bell

makayla with her birthday presents. we had a little birthday party for 3 of the kids whose birthdays are coming up. i missed it because i was taking a nap with marlee. that was almost as fun as a party :)

camping posse highlights in reverse order

day 4

capitol reef national park

another stamp in my national park passport book. that's why i look so excited :)

pool at the bottom of upper calf creek falls in grand staircase escalante national monument

upper calf creek falls, gsenm. this is about an 85 foot drop.

after the big dive. ashley, beth, sarah, seth (l-r)

the brink of upper calf creek falls and the location of the big dive.

into the canyon to upper calf creek falls

me, julia, ashley, beth, sarah, seth (l-r)

day 3

sarah. lookout on the trail at escalante petrified forest state park

camping posse all stars and some petrified wood

seth, me, sarah, beth, julia, ashley (l-r)

a reservoir whose name i forget. these are the sunniest skies we saw the entire weekend!

escalante petrified forest state park

day 2

we are amazing and resourceful. we found a way to put up a 10'x20' tarp in a place with few trees. this was the best idea ever.

at the very windy base of lower calf creek falls, gsenm. thanks to all of the extra rain, there was about 3 times as much water coming over the falls as usual. lucky us!

me, julia, ashley, sarah, seth, beth (l-r)

the perspective shot at lower calf creek falls. this waterfall is about 129 feet high.

sarah is happy, in spite of the rain.

day 1

this is me as a hobo.

on the first night (thursday), i camped up a dirt road with andrea and lyndsi (who later moved on to greener, drier pastures in st. george). we were worried about being able to find another campsite since it was the holiday weekend, so we left lyndsi's tent and andrea's sleeping bag at our original camp. dirt roads + rain=disaster, in case you didn't know. we found another campsite, but when it came time to retrieve the rest of our camping gear, my poor little car just could not make it up that muddy dirt road! we pulled off the side of the road about 2.5 miles down the hill from our original campsite. we started to hike up, when a couple of kind gentlemen from california stopped to see if we needed help. they gave me a ride up the hill to the campground, where i dismantled the tent and started to hike down the hill, juggling tent, sleeping bag, and pad. lucky for me, the elastic straps on the sleeping bag were completely stretched out, so i untied the knots that were in them, and converted a rolled up sleeping bag into this lovely hobo-style backpack. i met up with andrea and lyndsi just around the bend from the campsite, and we trudged back down the hill to my car. good times.

WARNING!! not for the faint of heart!!

no really. if you don't want to see a medical procedure performed in my dining room, you'd best avert the eyes now!!!

believe it or not, some people actually wanted to see these. my friend heather from the ward was very excited to take my stitches out for me. for all i know, it saved me a few bucks, and definitely a long wait in the waiting room.

i am pleased to report now that the skin is all the way attached everywhere now. it's almost back to normal now, except for that last bit of swelling that will probably be around for a while. it's amazing how quickly our bodies heal sometimes.

the actual stitch removal

no more stitches!!

immediately after stitch removal

one week later and almost all healed.

one more video

here's a video i took of what i like to call "the big dive"

just click on the title of the video and it will take you to a permanent link on facebook to view it.

CORRECTION: if you click in the middle of the video here, it'll play :) it cropped the edges off, but you get the point.

movin' pictures

here's a couple of videos from the trip. i was the interpretive guide for the hikes. both of these are from the lower calf creek falls hike. funny stuff.

this one is from the middle of the hike. please note seth in the background. that's sorta his thing :)

this one is when we arrived at the falls. the pictures don't quite capture what it was really like down there, so i'm glad there's this video so you can see.

p.s. i hope these links work. i'm crossing my fingers for you non-facebookers that this works as an external link. if not, i'll see what i can do for you.

UPDATE: i tried to embed these in my blog, but i can't because i wasn't the one who posted them on facebook. if you're on facebook, look at them there. if not, i'm sorry.

pictures are coming soon.

well, we made it home from camping for 4 days in the rain. it was great. we had such a good time, some of it as a result of the rain. we saw some really amazing things because we toughed it out and went hiking in the rain. i'll post some pics, probably tomorrow. today i have to sew a skirt for my sister's wedding, which is on saturday. i'm going to do that in just a minute. it shouldn't take too long now that i have the template all drawn up. i'll just pop in a couple of movies, and i'll be good to go. i'll also be posting the pics from my dining room stitch removal. there's only a couple, but they've been requested. i'll be sure to put a big disclaimer on that post since i know there are a few of you who might pass out or something. (amy, if you decide you want to peek, let me know. i'll come to your house, hold your hand, and have a sucker ready for you :) anyway, i'll try to get all of those things up before i flee the state on thursday. if you've ever been to south central utah, i know you're excited.

not dead

i've been around, i just don't have much to say these days. i pretty much just sit around and to a whole lot of nothin. and no one wants to hear about that.

yesterday, my friend heather removed my stitches. it's not very pretty, especially since the doctor stitched me up really tight. i may or may not post the pictures i have of the procedure. still debating.

tomorrow i'm going camping. yay!! i finally get to use my new therma-rest matress. okay, i haven't had it that long, but still. the camping posse is reuniting and going on the 2nd annual memorial day weekend camping trip. this year we're going to the escalante area, even though the weather is threatening. no slot canyons this trip, i fear. flash floods are bad. at any rate, since the majority of the camping there is first-come-first-served, we have to show up early to get a space for the weekend. should be interesting looking for empty campsites in the dark. . . which is why we have headlamps :)

i'm brilliant

for two reasons. first, i graduated. i guess that's something to be excited about, unless you count that whole "i have to find a job immediately and start acting like a productive member of society again" bit. i don't have any pictures myself, but you can see one here on my mom's blog.

second, i'm being completely facetious because i should really know better than to do what i did. i was slicing cheese, trying to get one last slice off the end of the brick. i put the cheese face down on the cutting board, in attempt to filet the cheese. anyone knowing the nature of cheddar cheese and it's tendency to be cut it the way that one least expects it would know what an idiot i am for even thinking it was a plausible solution to my one-more-slice-itis. rather than fileting the cheese, i fileted the back of my middle finger, resulting in a mad dash around town to find an instacare that could stitch me up without my having to wait an hour for my turn. i guess i should mention that this whole ordeal began about 15 minutes before my graduation bbq was set to begin. i was only 90 minutes late for my own bbq, hosted by me at my house. anyhow, $400 and 5 stitches later, this is the end result. not to worry, my squeamish readers, there are no gory pictures to be had here. i'm all bandaged up and intend to stay that way. but for the next 10 days, i get to walk around looking like i'm flipping off the world, which may in fact be an appropriate expression of how i feel about having to find a job.
(this is the splint i get to wear until the stitches come out so that i don't bend my finger and pull the stitches out before they're ripe.)

i'll be sure to take a pic and post it once i'm all healed up. then we can all enjoy together the scar that makes it look like my finger is frowning at me. as well it should.

the dating revolution

sarah and julia and i are sick and tired of never going on dates!! so we've taken matters into our own hands. we're starting a dating revolution. it's called the low-stakes dating movement. culturally speaking, people here are stuck in the mentality that if you go on one date, you must then immediately assess the marriage-ability of that person. it's too much pressure, high-stakes dating, if you will. and because of that, most people we know just avoid going on dates altogether. so we've decided to retrain the world into the correct thinking that one date merely means that you'd like to know that person more. after a few of this kind of dates, one might want to move on to something more serious, like medium-rare steaks dating and then maybe well-done steaks dating, which might then lead to *gasp* courtship.

here are some photos from our innagural event, which was also, coincidentally, our first bonfire of the season up millcreek canyon.

this is heather and trevor. heather used to live in our ward and now lives in logan. they drove all the way down here to participate.

jared and sarah. sarah is one of the founding members of the revolution and jared is one of our favorite people ever.

julia and nathan. julia is the other founding member. nathan is jared's roommate/cousin. it's hard to get more than a smile out of him, so i like to gauge funniness on how many times he laughs out loud. we were on a roll this night because i counted at least 3 or 4 laughs from him.

me and seth. seth's a quiet man, but once he opens up, prepare to laugh. i am roasting starburst, which is quite delicious. crispy outside, chewy inside. try it. you won't regret it.

nathan, julia, and sarah making faces for the camera.

nathan captured this great picture of our bonfire. i'm a fan of both the picture and the fire.

spring has sprung

sorry for the long absence. here's some pretty pictures to make up for it.

quicksand

last night julia and i tried something new. we were hanging out with our friend sarah and we went to hang out with some guys that she's friends with. things were going well. we were spending time with new people. then jake called. he came over to hang out, and sooner than we know it, we were hanging out with the same guys again. try as we might, we just gravitate to each other. the adventure of the night was bowling. i hadn't been in a really long time, but it was good fun. we laughed a lot. here are the pictures of our late night bowling adventures.

here's jake (missing from the last post), sarah, and dave (a frat brother of the guys)

bob punched so fast that his arm is seethrough. take that, chuck norris!!

me and sarah and jake

sarah wore some awesome wonder woman boots. turns out her belt doubled as a wonder woman lasso.

alex and sarah. looks like he's about to make a move on her. but no.

me and alex (with dave and bob in the background) trying to figure out the electronics.

this is maybe one of my favorite pictures of julia. ever.

me and jake waiting our turn.

yep, i make this pose before every frame.

alex having a sit-down with julia and sarah.

me and bob. i love that face he's making. it makes me laugh.

fake moustaches are always a good time.

fun with fondant

today i played with fondant for the first time. i'd like to think that it went pretty well. here's the story. last night i went to watch a movie at julia's. i got there the same time as alex, only to have him accuse us of leaving a big note and some jumbo-sized tighty whities with his name on the waistband on his front porch the night before. his roommates were in agreeance that it was julia and i, even though we had pretty good alibies. we do feel special and pretty flattered that they automatically jumped to the conclusion that it was us. but that's not really our M.O. we like to take full credit for the stuff we do for them. so we started the movie, and i got a call from alex with a food challenge. (he denies that it was a challenge, but it totally was) tucker had just come home with some cupcakes decorated like turkey drumsticks, peas and carrots, and potatoes and gravy. so we took the challenge. we kinda went to town on it, but it was so much fun. and let's be honest, they're pretty awesome. and here are the pictures to prove it. (not necessarily in chronological order)

cutting out fondant bones

the mess we made

a look at our mashed potatoes and gravy and peas and carrots cupcakes



julia, master of the peas and carrots

piping details on the tighty whities. this is how we make underwear jokes. none of that "mystery note on the front porch" crap.

in the process

check out those turkeys! we made them out of caramels


personalized cupcakes for the boys

the complete plate. the peas and carrots were made of green m&ms and diced starburst. the mashed potatoes were fondant with caramel gravy and lemon starburst pat of butter. the turkey was made of caramel with fondant bones. finally, the key lime pie (their household favorite) had a caramel crust with buttercream frosting filling.

the guys before the big reveal. left to right we have julia, alex, tucker, and bob. jake was a no-show for the evening. sorry about your luck

tucker and bob digging in

this is tucker flexing for us. i especially love the chubby cheeks. he had just shoved half a cupcake in. yeah, they were good enough that he ate it in just two bites.

I hope you all enjoyed my adventures in fondant decorating. now you can have some faces to go with those names i'm throwing out all of the time. my roommate is always giving me flack for all of the fun stuff that julia and i do for these guys. they really appreciate it, though. and it makes us feel super cool because everyone wants to be friends with these guys. and, and, we have a lot of fun in the mean time. as you can see.