Fun with Emily

What a fun weekend I spent with Emily! You already got some of the scoop from the last 2 blogs, but now I have pictures to go with it. Alot of the weekend was spent finding bird noises on the internet that would make Spree's head pop up and listen. We also learned about Lyre birds who mimic everything they hear and Bower Birds that make beautiful houses with piles of pretty things to entice the woman. We ate at Simi and Andy Gartz's new resterant which had very good food. It's called "Dew" and they serve Rice bowls and sandwiches (Vietnemese?) and a good noodle and lamb dish Emily tried out (apparently it is a concoction created by Andy). I would suggest getting 2 sandwiches, especially if u hadn't really eaten breakfast! The prices are pretty cheap so its certainly worth the deal. Emily said their Buba drinks were better than the other place, so if u like gelatin rice balls in ur slushy, this is the place 4 u!

The rest of the weekend was spent with Jamie trying on wedding dresses. Man was she beautiful. Certainly better looking than the other brides at the store! She was sad she couldn't fit into Melissa's dress but she's just more endowed... not necessarily a bad thing! I video taped her trying on the dressed for Melissa and it's pretty funny. Of course, we couldn't do so at the stores, but I was wishing I coulda. Then everyone could have joined in the fun! I have such beautiful friends... being with Jamie reminded me of how beautiful Melissa was when she was trying on dresses. They don't even have to try. I have told my friends that soon I am going to have a big party too. I will get a beautiful dress, we will all go to the temple, and then have a reception afterwards where everyone will bring gifts. Who needs a man? I told Emily she was welcome to join, but she thought we should do that when we adopt. Dang it, I want the presents to be for me, not the kids!

Oh yes, and in the great tradition of Birgit, we did our toenails. So nice and cool out on the back porch with buckets of water to wash and soak our feet in. It rained most of the weekend which I very much enjoyed (not much drizzle type rain in Las Vegas), but it meant we couldn't have a fire out in the fire pit Emily has made in the back yard. So, we roasted marshmellows over the stove. Not quite as stinky and messy as a fire. And, of course, Emily cooked up amazing meals on Sunday of pork, melons, corn, and squash.

Here she is making her famous mango salsa with green peppers, tomatoes, hot peppers, and onions all from her garden.

Here is Emily in her garden picking produce for me.

and with her beautiful garden, vegetables and flowers.

Goodby Emily and Jamie! I had so much fun!

Crazy Football People

I was just trying to get home (Emmy's home) from the temple and these crazy BYU football people were clogging up the roads! What was up? I realize its the first football game of the season and I guessed there is some sort of hoop-la with the year because everyone was wearing shirts with.... fully invested (Emily remembered) around a football with the game schedule on the back. Note to self, don't try to get to the temple right after the game started or try to get back from the temple right after it ends.

As a side note.. guess how many pregnant ladies I saw walking back to their cars after the game?

Friday adventures sort of

I got up Friday morning ready to blog and apparently dial up doesn't like blogging! I couldn't get it to load the page where I put in a new post... sigh.. I suppose I need to go to something other than dial-up. It just never really mattered before 'cuz if I needed something I could look it up at work or I could do what I needed at home, just have to wait a while for pages to load. However, Melissa told me about cox cable internet and how I wouldn't get cable TV with it. I know cable TV would be a VERY bad thing for me. I would watch it!

Anyway, I went to Brother Peck's funeral friday morning. This is the husband of the lady I blogged about earlier. There were many people there from the ward to support the family and I was impressed with the services. I learned alot about Brother Peck and the love of learning and great spirit he is. I had offered any help I could give earlierand was told to come (one of the reasons I decided to take off work was that there had been quite a few emails asking for assistance through the Relief Society), but I was too late. This ward is one of the most friendly and loving ward I've been in ('cepting my family home ward in NewMexico of course!). Such wonderful examples.

On the positive side of coming home right after the funeral, I was able to pack and get things cleaned up at my house before going to to Provo for the long weekend! I didn't want to come home to a big stink. Who is this person that doesn't put their dishes in the dishwasher or leaves their shoes, swimming towel, and work out clothes all over the living room?

Now I am here in Provo with Emily and I'm sure my whole family is jealous. Emily's garden is GEORGEOUS! I've given up on my garden (if u can call dead plants sitting in the dirt a garden)... I'll give u the details of the weekend next blog. Right now we are going to lunch. Yum.

Texting Challenged

The other evening I was thinking about my friend Birgit who moved to Boston last week and was a little worried 'cuz I hadn't heard from her for a bit. I was used to seeing her on-line every day on messenger and usually doing something with her and her husband and their baby Elliot over the weekends. True, she hadn't been on-line while they took the 5 day trip (can u imagine being in a car for 5 days with a baby who turns into a crying concrete bridge when trying to put him into the car seat? I go crazy just thinking about it), but she had texted me a couple of times with updates and pictures. (that was all background)

I texted her to see how she was doing. I got a very nice text back with a picture of her baby sleeping and telling me she would send an email out in a day or two. I realized with that picture that I had forgotten the 3 hr time difference and that it was way past polite texting time! I thought that was a very nice way of reminding me. Of course, she may not have thought of it that way, but I will have to remember that for future reference.

For those of u who would like to know, she sent out an email yesterday saying she was doing fine, had settled in and the apartment was getting fixed as needed. She is looking for work where she can take Elliot with her and her husband is enjoying riding his bike to school. Wonder how long that will last with the snow and ice of winter! I was impressed with how calm she was when she said that some of their possessions were broken "beyond repair" when they emptied out the moving truck. I am rather stuff oriented so I would have been much more.... animated! But I shore was happy to hear from her... I hope all continues well!!

BTW Birgit... I'm waiting for pictures. Start a blog! Everyone else is doing it.... Once won't hurt... Everyone will know, but that's OK... U know you'll like it.

Grease Pencil

I have a grease pencil here at work. And its YELLOW! Does life get any better than this? I use it when marking up drawings. Yellow means I checked it and its right. Red is for mistakes or comments, green is comments from the original designer and blue means its been fixed by the drafter. Just some background, and as my Mia Maids know, background is very important.

I love my grease pencil. I discovered you can write on anything with a grease pencil. Cubicles, books, computers, doors, lintels, people. I have to admit its not a full grease pencil, I think its actually only partly a grease pencil cuz its not that soft. It says "China Marker" on the side. Perhaps I shoulduv done some research on the internet before calling it a grease pencil. Oh well. Its my blog.

The best part of a grease pencil is that when you get to the point that on a normal pencil you would need to use a sharpener, you just slowely peel a small strip of paper around and around until u get to the top. Then you have another 1/4in of pencil to work with. And that's not the end.. the small strip is PERFORATED! I love perforation. When I was young and went through the stage of giving coupon books for presents that all children seem to go through, they were all perforated. What could be more fun than making paper rip along a straight line? Ah.. the joys.

PS.. Yes, this was written at work... I was afraid this would happen, but it IS lunch time!

Email from the race Directors

Today I got an email from the Kokapelli triathlon people telling us that Sept 1st is the last day to sign up for the "Elite Wave" which will go 5 minutes before the other waves. Does that make anyone else nervous for me? Apparently this triathlon has become much bigger than 2 years ago when I watched Melissa run in it (Emily was there but she spent most of her time in the hospital with Sarah... a totally different story). We were rained out last year so I only got to do the swim and Melissa had been on her bike for all of 10 minutes when they turned her around. This is why I am doing it again... discount this year for those who were rained out. Anyway... I brought up last year because Melissa told me that was the first year they seperated us by number. I'm also starting to get VERY nervous cuz I am so not where I was last year. I'm not too keen on getting back on my bike since the whole heat exaustion episode (another story) so I swam Saturday afternoon. Then... Saturday night I had a craving for Wendys. I told myself I couldn't go since I had gone to Jack-in-the-Box for lunch (I limit myself to going out to eat once a week... if I increase that goal, I'll eat out 20 times a week. If I decrease that goal I'll eat out 20 times a week... so I think I'll stick with once a week. 'Course, when family comes into town that gets thrown out the window). Then I decided I could go but first I'd have to run. So 10:30pm I got on the treadmill in our little community center. By 11:30 I shore didn't feel like eating anything, much less Wendys so I went to bed. You might want to try this sometime to stop cravings. It seems to work for me.

One more story. I've been having a harder and harder time getting out of bed in the morning (staying up until midnight reading books might have something to do with it, but I think I need to do a few more tests to make sure). This morning I rolled out of bed pretty late (still got to work by 8! 'course, I'm supposed to be here at 7:30) so I just pulled on my clothes and went. When I went to the bathroom later in the day, I looked at myself in the mirror. My shirt was so wrinkled it looked like it had been sitting in a hamper (which it hadn't!! It was hung in my closet!).There was nothing I could do at that point, so I just let it ride. And I wonder why they haven't taken me out to meet clients.

PS.. yes, I compete under the Athena label. You think I'm gonna run with those tall etheopian looking ladies driving suburu's with kayaks strapped to the top? Not in this age bracket.

The lastest Story

Everything that happens to me is a story. You will understand as this blog gets longer and longer.... this is the latest story.

Yesterday afternoon after my Visiting Teachers had visited (Ya for my VT's! They are so awesome and at least pretend to listen to all I say... every month I have to catch them up on the day to day activities and what I plan for the next month. I always take up so much of their time, but they are so patient... the best VT's EVER!), I answered a call from someone in my ward to take an older lady in the ward back to the VA hospital to spend the night with her failing husband. I was glad to be able to help. However, just before we were ready to leave, the hospital called and said he was not responsive and to get there quickly. The poor lady had already been through this once the day before and was understandably very upset. As many of u know, I have a large bubble and have never been one to spontaniously hug or even know how to give that kind of comfort except to family members. I didn't know how to comfort... or even really what to do. Saying it will be OK is not OK because it will not be OK. After a stressful ride to the hospital (about 40 minutes away) with lots of phone calls on her part and me trying to figure out where we were going in the dark (never been there before!), she asked me to stay in case she needed a ride back. I brought her things in and when we got up to the floor the nurse said he was doing much better and was watching the Olympics. I could tell he was so happy to see her even though he couldn't talk. After I left the room to drive back I called my Mother because I just lost it (being a little monthly emotionally unstable didn't help either). Thank goodness for understanding Mothers! She helped me feel so much better and told me I did the best I could. I was there to drive her to the hospital and that was what counted. I still feel.... upset isn't the right word... or bothered, but it has impacted me quite a bit. Death has always been hard for me because of the sorrow of the people left behind.

So... I hope you all don't think I'm the sorrowing type from that last paragraph! U will soon see through other posts that this is not so. I will end on a happy note. My cousin Mandy called me this morning to tell me her daughter Fay has been playing "Melanie" since they spent the night last week at my house on their way back to California. Apparently I made a big impression! Mandy said she answers to "Melanie" and when asked where she lives, she says Las Vegas. Then she told Mandy she had a bird on her shoulder. (I have a bird). This made me feel so loved. Thank you Fay! And also to Mandy for telling me.