in memoriam

today i got the sad news that my mission president's wife passed away this weekend. It was about a year ago that they found out that she had a terminal malignant brain tumor, so it was only a matter of time, really. This is a picture of myself with the Smocks at our last temple trip before they finished their mission. It was taken on 16 Jun 2005, for all of you who are wondering. Her funeral is on Wednesday, so i'll be headed off to attend that before I head home for the holidays. So this Thanksgiving, in addition to all of the other stuff i'm thankful for, i'll also be giving thanks for the opportunity to know this woman who loved the Lord with all of her heart and who also loved us as missionaries in spite of the all of the really dumb things that we did.

(to read more about Brenda Smock, click here.)

nothing much to celebrate

it's just my 100th post. and i've been putting it off because i wanted to be one of those super cool bloggers that does some fancy contest to commemorate such events. but i'm not cool like that because i came up with absolutely nothing. so whatever. but there's nothing like a contest to bring readers out of the woodwork. still, i'm not doing a contest today. unless someone wants to win the chance to come to my house and do the research for my presentation in class on monday. instead, i'm going to entertain you with some fancy pictures from my hours at sarah's house yesterday. because let's face it: her kids are pretty darn cute.

here's cowboy emery

i think this was the best one of the day. you can see how much evan adores me :)

they're getting so big! and they love cars.

marlee is rolly-polly and adorable

chubby cheeks and very blue eyes

mission story # 639

yay for mission stories!

today i was checking out msn and saw a headline about theives being caught stealing while trying to stuff 12 stolen pigs into a minivan. i, of course, failed to act immediately on this post, so i don't have a link for you to read. you don't have to say it. i know you're all sad. especially laura.

i know you're all probably wondering how this could possibly remind me of my mission. it should remind me of the time when i was in high school that we crammed 21 screaming teenagers into the bed of a farm truck and then spent the better part of an hour dragging main. or all of those stories about seeing how many people you can cram into a phone booth or a volkswagen beetle. but no.

it's really the transporting of pigs that set off this particular memory. and it's a short one, so i've filled the rest of this post with idle comments in an attempt to entertain the whole world. so the story is that one day when i was in my first area, which was a really rural area, we were on the bus on our way to district meetings. we had to pass through the bus station there in quevedo, and in doing so, passed many other buses being loaded with people and whatever else. the "whatever else" this particular day was a pig. there were 3 men trying to put a pig on top of the bus, because apparently only chickens are allowed to ride as passengers. pigs fall strictly under the "luggage" catergory, thus being relegated to the top of the bus. oh, for a camera at that very moment. i, being the only north american in the bunch, was the only person to find any humor at all in this situation. sad, i know. that's why i'm sharing the story with you now so that you can laugh out loud and maybe even start rolling on the floor at the visual imagery i've just created for you.

(for more fun with visual imagery, see this post from last february.)

eeeewwww!!!

that's the first thing i said this morning when i looked out my bathroom window and saw it was snowing. it's also the first thing i said last night when i saw the channel 5 weatherman wearing his white blazer. it's been snowing all day, which means that i also have to start wearing appropriate footwear.

one more thing that snow means is footwear that make me say "eeeewww". here are some examples.

i saw some like this (only with more fur) on one of my students today. they were the inspiration for this post.

these ones are especially bad, i think. it looks like someone turned that pesky neighborhood porcupine into a fancy pair of leg warmers. which if fine, i guess, since the terrible fashion trends of the 80s are making a raging comeback. with a horrendous 21st century twist, that is.

then there's these ones by a company called UGG, which in my book is just short for ugg-ly. they're from australia, and i've tried to blame my australian roommate for them, but she hates them as much as i do. i'm so glad she has some fashion sense and is not sucked into the world of icky winter footwear.

for better or worse, it looks like winter is here to stay. for today at least.

halloween movie

here's a little video of my halloween escapades. if you're wondering who all of my fabulous friends are, hang tight til the end of the video for the credits.

space debris

i was just reading a little article from my desktop news feed and this one struck me as quite funny. really, it's the last line that's the kicker. i laughed out loud. you'll just have to read it to see what i mean.

early voting

i voted today. it's funny to think about it, but this is only the second time that i've been able to vote for president. i was on the mish in 2004, so i missed that whole thing. still couldn't tell you what happened. except that bush won. anyway, i just went to the early voting station they had set up here on campus, which was nice and convenient. i didn't know what the hours of operation were, so i ventured over to the union just before 11am. on the way there i noticed the signs saying that they were open from 12-5. i decided to just go back to my office to wait until noon. and then i changed my mind. i had a book with me because i heard that the lines were long, so i figured i could wait at the union just as easily as in my office, so i just went and got in line an hour before the polling started. and boy am i glad i did. there were already about 5 people waiting in line on nice hard folding chairs. so i joined them and began reading all about islam and the secular state. it wouldn't be bad if the author weren't so darn repetitive. anyway. soon, my hour had passed and they started taking us in to vote. then, and only then, i looked back at the line. i had heard it was long, but wow, it was really really long. i looked all the way down the long hallway and couldn't see the end of the line because it wrapped around the corner and out into the cafeteria area. so it turned out that my initial decision to sit in the hallway on a hard, cold chair was a really good one. not only was i headed back to my office at 12:10, but i also got to spend my hour-long wait seated rather than standing. i feel all warm and fuzzy now that i've done my civic duty and put my two cents in on this one.

in other bigger, potentially more exciting news, today is halloween, and i promise to post some pics this weekend of the fun times i've had this week in my most fabulous costume. it just keeps getting better and better. two more parties tonight, so it'll be a good time, i tell ya what.