I feel like a kid again.

So today was the first official day of winter break. No grades have been posted yet so my spirits are still high. Brett is working for my mom over break so he got up extra early this morning. I was worried I'd feel bad staying in bed when he got up... no such luck for him. This morning I fell back asleep immediately after he got up and I moved into the middle of the bed. We're staying in my parents house so we're sleeping in the bed I slept in through most of high school. It's fun to be back but I'm out of practice crawling into a bed that is belly button height. My dad woke up about about 9'ish this morning to tell me to NOT accept any packages from Fed Ex today. I was pretty disoriented and first said "isn't it Sunday?" Then I realized no its Monday. My next confusion was remembering last night when my dad asked me to sign for any Fed Ex packages. He told me yeah he had said that last night but now he was telling me to not sign for any of them. I was pretty disoriented. I got up and went upstairs where my husband was eating breakfast for the second time today. I stole a couple kisses before my dad started teasing me by asking Brett if I was also so disheveled in the mornings.

But my morning stupor didn't last long. I had Christmas shopping to do and I didn't want to do it alone. My dad was about to go to town so I hurried and got ready so I could go with him. I am so out of practice shopping! My dad went to a million different stores... some stores twice... I realized today that I never shop and when I do it's one stop for me. It was amazing to me how much money was spent. Brett and I aren't poor but money had taken on a new meaning since getting married. Sadly a fair amount of the money spent was by me... but also not sadly because they were Christmas gifts for Brett and I'm pretty darn excited to see if he likes them.

But the reason for the title was... It truly felt like I was in high school again. I woke up alone, in the middle of the bed ( I really miss sleeping in the middle of the bed, although Brett would try to convince you I still do), in the house I grew up in, by my father, and then I spent the day shopping with my dad... no husband. I kept looking at my wedding ring to remind myself that yes I am married still. Living in a one bedroom apartment makes it so Brett and I are always within talking distance from each other. It's weird being in a whole house where we can be separated by more than just on wall. Now Brett is at his brothers so it's just me and my parents.... I am married right??? Brett wasn't just a dream??? oh yeah... there's my ring... I'm not still in high school.

It's over

Hurray! It's Monday, 10:00 and I'm not in physical chemistry right now, I didn't just come from heat transfer, and I don't still have to go to thermo, fluid, and nuclear eng. !!! Awsome! The semester is finally over. I'm so excited!

I still however have about all my christmas shopping left... ugh!

Warning! TMI

For those of you who don't know TMI is Too Much Information. And in this case it is too much information about myself and my body... so if you want to stop reading now please do. But if your brave/female feel free to take a gander.

So I'm a procrastinator. I'm pretty sure I was born with it. You'd think that since my mom is type A and my dad is a list maker I'd combine that to make a lethal force of getting things done. Nope. It backfired and I procrastinate. So I got married a year ago... you know what that means.. my female doctors appointment (by this I mean an exam with a gynecologist. I'm going to stick with calling it a female doctor's appointment.) was over a year ago... you know what that means?? for the last month I've been putting of finding a new female doctor here in utah and going. And do you know what the final straw was? What finally forced me just do it?? Well last Friday my birth control pack ended so last Wednesday I went to refill it... my presription had expired three days previous. UH-OH. So they tried calling the doctor I had gone to last year but Friday came and I still couldn't get my prescription. I had made my doctor's appointment but it wasn't in time. Gasp. What is Margaret going to do... have a kid.... gah NO!

So I take Yaz which is the new and improved version of Yasmine. Well it just so happens that I had some old expired packs of Yasmine on hand. So I decided to just take them. Now I've heard stories about girls getting pregnant because they had switched pills and failed to take other precautions. So I was sure to take other precautions. Now as those of you who are of the female variety know a great joy comes at the end of every pill pack.. Aunt flow, the painters, your flower.. call it was your will... your period. So as I am every 28 days or so I was exstatic when the monthly miracle of womanhood visited me. And then quickly became anxious when that miracle was a little different that it normaly is. (I'll spare the details just this once so thank me.) I just wrote it off as being due to the pill change but a very small part of me was still worried I was preggo. (A small part of me worries everyday I'm not on my period!) Since I had a doctors appointment today the perfect opportunity to ease my worries was presented.

So I went to my doctor's appointment today already really nervous. I knew I was going to meet Ms. Pap Smear and I was terrified. And of course my female doctor was a man (I chose my doctor by proximity to my home so I could walk... beggars can't be choosers of gender). I filled out their paper work and tried my best to be brutally honest. Let me tell you I do not enjoy sharing the details of that aspect of my life with a man. Yeah sure sometimes I tell brett about it to torture him but a perfect stranger... But I put on my brave socks and told him. I was oh so taken for surprise when he said 'Oh yeah that can be a sign of pregnancy' GASP! GAH! Heart acceleration.. Small part of me thinking well can I drop out of school now??? So he had me pee in a cup to make sure. Although I really needed to pee I was so nervous I almost had to turn the sink on. As I went back to the room to change into the oh so fashionable gown my heart was racing and my palms got a little sweaty. Once I had changed I sat there looking at the poster on the wall of the stages of pregnancy. Thinking.... could that be growing in me! Once the doctor and the nurse walked in I was told my test was negative. Phew! No baby in me. For about 3 minutes though I could have been preggo! But no, my anxiety was relieved... that is until I saw the tool for the pap smear.... my legs are a bit sore from clamping them together. But it was actually quite painless. Although when he asked if I'd like to do it again I told him I'd wait a year.

So the doctor gave me some samples of prenatal vitamins. I don't know, maybe he thought I was planning on pregnancy soon (no) but he said they were still good as just a multi vitamin. And I'm all up for that. But when I called the pharmacy to make sure my new birth control prescription was in they had also filled a prescription for the vitamins. I wouldn't have gotten then but they were only $4! and I happened to have a coupon for $20 in grocercies for every new prescription. So I made $16 off those pills. And since I switched to the generic brand of birth control which was $5 instead of $25 I made another $15 off of that. Gosh I love making money! ( And that isn't even counting the $15 I made off of transfering Brett's prescription last week.)

SOOOOOOO!!! Just so you all know... No I'm not pregnant and I've now taken my first preg test ever... I'm so glad I'm not a cow cuz I'd be pretty sore right now... I'm also 31 bucks richer thanks to smiths.

two disappointing performances on a final down three more to go.

wish me luck I need it!

SHHH!

Don't tell anyone I'm blogging right now. I'm suppose to be writing a report for fluid dynamics that I managed to procrastinate away all day already. Now it's crunch time and I gotta finish it but I just had to tell you. I was so excited to gas my car up today! (Well actually Brett gased it up but I was sitting in the car.) I don't drive much so I don't have to gas up often but I was so excited that I finally needed to because prices have come down so much! I gassed my car up from completely empty, fuel light on and everything, to full for $16.01!!! And that was chevron gas even. I don't think I've ever been so excited to pump hydrocarbons into my car!

It can't really be over!

I can't believe thanksgiving is over. I'm so very sad.

So over break I fell in love with a vampire, was nearly killed many times and lived happily ever after. Oh wait I'm confusing my life with the books I read over break. (And no I'm not in love with Edward!)

During every break from school that is longer than just a day I usually choose a book or books I want to read since I don't get much fun reading in during the semester. So this year I read the twilight books. all of them. I also saw the movie. I enjoyed the first book quite a bit. Found the movie passable (but only because I had read the book, I would have disliked it had I not). I especially liked some of the music they used and have already added a few songs to my playlist. I enjoyed the rest of the books as well but got a little tired of then, especially by the end of the last one. Now, much to Brett's chagrin, I'm rereading all the part that I liked. (Thank you for loaning me the first book Kim and thank you for the last three books Caroline)

Thanksgiving itself was wonderful. Just sitting around relaxing and enjoying family was wonderful. My only regret was not getting to go shooting Thanksgiving morning. Last year I went with my dad, brothers, and Brett and absolutely loved it and decided it was to be a tradition. Well both my brothers were out of the state and Brett ditched me to go hunting.(evidently shooting pop cans isn't as fun as shooting flying birds.)

As I said the break was fabulous but I don't have much to blog about since I really spend most of it in the world of Bella Swan in Washington. Now I'm having trouble getting back to work... I think I'll put that off another day and go veg!

Being on the bandwagon isn't so bad.

Well there you have it I just finished Twilight. My brother and sister-in-law stayed with us before flying out of the Salt Lake Airport and she brought the first book down for me to borrow. I was sure to not be too judgmental and let myself enjoy the book. And I actually did enjoy it quite a bit. I got a little sick of how overly clumsy the main character was made out to be and wanted to yell 'just pick your feet up a little higher when you walk woman!' I made sure my sister-in-law only brought down the first book because I knew if I had all four books all my responsibilities would go unfinished. So now I'll have to wait till thanksgiving break, luckily that starts on Wednesday. But of course we are staying with my in-laws so I'll have to restrain myself from reading 22 out of the 24 hours everyday I'm up day. Something about needed to be social...

So sister-in-laws are we still going to see the Twilight movie over break. I just read the book just so I could see the movie. so are we still going?

Something for me to whine about.

I am so angry depressed. Wanna know why? I lost my chap stick. Brand new I bought it last Friday and I've lost it. I swear I put it in my pocket before leaving this morning and now it is gone. gone like a freight train gone like yesterday! Why is it that cheap chap stick will stick around for ever? I still have a grape flavored Winnie the Pooh chap stick from freshman year! But I buy yummy delicious 5 dollar chap stick (that was on sale too!) and it's gone within a week! Mind you I could be over reacting. Last month I thought I had lost my U-Card. Same situation I was almost positive I had put it in my pocket but then it was still at home on my dresser. So maybe the same thing with my lip chap. But until I can get home and look for it I'm mourning for my lonely, barely used chap stick shivering on the sidewalk some where between here and my home.

I miss you my yummy, beautiful lip gloss.

Update:
The chap stick has been found. Well I guess I should say A chapstick. Brett found it walking home, on the side walk, about a block from our apartment. Same color, same brand, same flavor, same amount of lip gloss left, same newness looking. I'm still a little untrustworthy of it. Brett said he ran a DNA test on the application part and it matches mine.... I still haven't used it yet. But really what are the chances that someone else dropped the exact same chapstick within a block of our house the exact same day mine disappears....


On another note I'm going to finally add a new recipe to my recipe blog. It a nearly perfected dish so don't miss it.

Two 'fer' Tuesday

So my dad's favorite shopping website woot.com does two for Tuesdays. Well it's Sunday but you are so lucky your going to get two posts in one today even though it is Sunday.

Post #1: Why I cried like a five year old today

Post #2 I'll continue with Brett's Thursday doctor's appointment.

I hate dishes. Hate them. I find them evil and vile and they always return. Almost as soon as their all clean there are dirty ones again. I feel the same way about underwear. You wash your under garments and think they are all clean and suddenly you realize the ones you have on are dirty. It's a ruthless endless cycle. Anyway back to dishes. Don't tell Brett, but I usually do just about anything to get out of doing dishes. Tonight my ploy was to make dessert while Brett washes dishes. Tonight's dessert was going to be JELLO. If this statement sound weird to you I think you are weird. Yes jello is a dessert. It is not a side dish and is never a fruit. JELLO = dessert. Jellos is to side dish as... okay I'm not an English major so I can't finish this literary tool... I can't ever remember the name of the literary device I just tried to use. Getting back to JELLO. My mom makes really yummy jello. She makes it in the blender and adds cream cheese to it. yuuuummmyyyy!. So I'm going about my business making Jello while Brett does dishes. I've put the jello granules in the blender and add the 2 cups of boiling water. As i loosely place the lid on the blender I think, I hope my lowest blender setting is a slow stir. I hit the button and immediately blood red boiling liquid is spurted onto the walls, floor, table, stove, and all over my arms. I let out a screech and Brett immediately goes to work cleaning up the crime scene. I begin washing it from my arms and burst out in tears. The surprise of what had just happened and the slight pain in my arms added up to tears. Really it is quite humorous but at the time I could do nothing but cry. And this cry wasn't just a glistening tear sliding down my sheet. I was just a few decimals shy of a full on toddler cry fest.. well close. The jello turned out pretty darn good... I still have red marks my arms.

Okay as promised a second post all in one.

So once the doctor came in it was down to business. Basically there are three options. The first is do nothing... well almost nothing. Nothing is actually a CT Scan every two months for a few years and then every six months for a few more years. So the doing nothing option would mean seven years of doing something... at 5 grand a pop! The cure rate for this option is 80%. The second option is radiation treatments. There would be one treatment a day 5 days a week for just over three weeks. Seventeen treatments in all. Each treatment is 150 rads of about 15 MeV X-Rays. Those are some insane fast X-Rays. The radiation would be be concentrated on straight down the middle of his abdomen. Every treatment would take about 15 minutes and may result in a little nausea. The cure rate for this option is 98%. The final option we didn't really consider. I guess recently they've been using a treatment or two of Chemotherapy. But since this option hasn't been around as long he'd still have to get CT scans.

So we decided to go with the second option. One of the worries with this option is will we be able to have kids. Most likely we will still be able to have kids. But just to be sure we are um.... taking some precautionary measures. After meeting with the doctor Brett was mapped. This is where the tattoos happened. So basically as I understand Brett had to get another CT scan but this time without the indicator. To ensure Brett lays in the same spot every time they have lasers and they marked where the lasers go with little tiny tattoos. It'll take about a week to create models of Brett's abdomen and they'll make some dose calculations. Next Thursday they'll do a dry run and the treatments with start the Monday after. So there you go.. Just like life I'm sure there will be more to come.

You think you know your husband.

After 6 months of dating plus ten months of marriage I thought I knew my husband. Then one day... he comes home with not one but three tattoos!.

So we met with a radiation oncologist today. Dr, Jeffry Lee with the Utah Cancer Specialist. This was kind of a difficult appointment for me. You have to understand. It's been nearly a month since Brett's surgery. And thus quite a while since we've really had doctor's appointments and CT scans and nightly phone calls to get the update. So the whole thing just kind of went to the back of my mind and sat there. Now today it was brought back to the front of my mind in a big way. At all other appointment we were just at the hosipital with other sick people with a whole lot of different problems. Even at the urologist's office where the other people in the waiting room had cancer they didn't look like it. But at this place... you could tell the other people were sick, and getting treatments and you knew it was cancer. And to be completely honest it scared me. But it also made me thankful that Brett had a relatively easily treated cancer. Then we met with a lady who described herself as the 'welcoming lady'. She just had us fill out some paperwork, gave us a brochure, and gave us the low down on the insurance situation.

Once she was finished it was more waiting. Once the nurse came and got us it was the usual height, weight, blood pressure, pulse, and temperature. Finally after...

So I started this post earlier and was going to finish until Brett reminded me I have a test tomorrow. And since I always make him stop doing fun things to study I had to taste my own medicine. Normally I would have just left this as a draft until I had time to finish it completely but I know I never would so.. here you go. Sorry I never got to the good information like why Brett got three tattoos. {on a side not Brett just asked me what I was doing blogging when I have homework... he is getting to be so strict about no fun before homework is done.}

This post is brought to you by:

PROCRASTINATION!

In an effort to avoid starting on my homework I've decided to blog. I have nothing exciting to say so I'll just share my mundane week with you.

So far:

Monday I took a fluids test. I was a bit worried afterward. I knew either I did the problem right or totally wrong. That night we went out to Rodizio's restaurant. If you have never been to this place and you eat meat you have to go at least once. It is supposedly Brazilian and the servers just bring an assortment of meat around and if you want some they slice some off for you. You think you'll never get full because they are pretty small slices of meat... before you know it your totally stuffed. We went with Brett's brother, who was in town for work, and a few of his coworkers.

Tuesday: I studied for a Nuclear Engineering test all day except for a few hours while I was working and a few hours of procrastinating. I also make a pretty good stir-fry. The best part of the day however was finding out that Brett did fantastic of the chemistry test he took Monday. I am so proud of him.

So I almost forgot to include this story: Tuesday morning while I was getting ready in the bathroom I heard a noise in the kitchen which sounded like a growl. I called out... "Ah Brett, I think there is a bear in the kitchen!" He promptly replied "There is. B-R-grizzly bear-Brett." I thought it was the most adorable thing in the world. Evidently when he was a kid his mom would call him B-R-grizzly bear Brett and his brother S-E-mountain lion Sean. How cute is that. Now Brett and Sean just call each other ugly and stinky... not quite as cute.

Wednesday/Today: Classes all day. I got my fluids test back from Monday and actually did really well. I also took a test in nuclear engineering. That test didn't go so well at all... Actually I think it went really badly. Tonight was webelos. Always fun... We did physical fitness.

Well there you go people, are you even still awake? What a boring week so far, aside from watching Brett dance along to the country music awards performance just now. (He's a pretty bad dancer but at the same time a wonderful dancer because it cracks me up so much. ) So people make my life a little less boring and post on your blogs.

Families are so demanding!

So I keep hearing I want details I want details and so I give you details and you say I already had those details give me new details. Sheesh. There is no pleasing you all. No, I'm just kidding. I know alot of you have been wondering what happened post surgery and I'm sorry part two of the lost testy saga has taken so long. But in all reality there isn't much more, I mean I could give the all the details of the movies we watched while Brett was recovering...

So like I said last time Brett felt so good right after the surgery. While we were in the recovery room someone else was brought in and guess who it turned out to be... remember the old lady who wanted to turn the TV channel while the baseball game was on... yeah it was whoever she was waiting for. I laughed inside when she gave Brett's dad a look as she walked past. Once they had recorded sufficient vitals Brett was released to go home. It's good Brett's parents were there to drive Brett home because he was feeling so great I would have made him walk. Just kidding just kidding. But, I don't remember if I mentioned before, we live right across the street from the hospital. We walked to the surgery...

So once we had gotten home we all just crashed on the couch and flipped on the first movie of the recovery period, the last half of Rio Bravo (Brett had already watched the first half). I went to the store and picked up treats, his prescription, and movies. Once I got back the movie was about over and Brett's still nausous parents about ready to head home.

As I've already written Brett's parents left and within minutes were knocking at our door again because they had a flat tire. And of course all the tire places were already closed. Once his parents got everything settled and headed home Brett and I watched Iron Man. *MOVIE REVIEW* Meh, it was an okay movie.

The next few days were filled with movies, harry potter and sleeping. *MOVIES REVIEWS* 21-about college students count cards in vegas. I hated the movie and couldn't wait for it to end. But they just found it absolutely necessary to include scenes set in clubs with scantily clad women that were crude and unnecessary. Baby Mama- Woman hires a surrogate mother. Hilarious. Brett and I both loved the movie. We also watched Armageddon which is always a good movie and always makes me cry as well as 8 seconds. I think we watched a few more movies but I can't remember.

As far as how Brett was feeling he was pretty sore the second day and was only comfortable if he was completely horizontal. Each day he got better and better and by Wednesday was itching to get out of the apartment. The greatest aggravation was the cut on the tip of his tongue where he had bit it. It got pretty swollen and hurt his pretty bad. It was made even worse by the fact that his mom had brought down cookies and he couldn't eat them because when they got stuck in his teeth it really hurt his tongue to try to get them out.

So like I said.. the week was very uneventful. The following Monday it was back to the daily grind of school. Thursday was the following up with the urologist where we got back the pathology report.... that however will have to wait because I'm very sleepy.... and I still have to spell check and maybe try to proof read it.... nah forget the proof reading...

It's finally (almost over)!!

The election is almost come and gone (the polls close in 8 minutes) and I am so excited. I have gotten so tired of all the politics! I voted for the first time today and even have my sticker to prove it. I almost didn't vote but when I went into work my boss almost yelled at me that I had to vote. (Please keep in mind that when my boss uses his 'inside voice' he is only a decimal below shouting. When he uses his excited voice it gets even louder.) So I voted. I feel bad for voting because I'm definitely an under informed voter. But I also would have felt bad for not voting. I thought about following the advice I heard on the radio, 'just vote for whoever will make the best SNL skits!'. I was pretty tempted to vote on that alone because I love tina fey, but I did take a few more issues into account.

In other news of our life. I know I blogged that Brett has cancer, which is true, but I really haven't let on many more details. And it's mostly because I don't want to worry people. But then I realized the other day why Brett and I are handling the entire thing so well while some other people are nearly making themselves sick with worry. It's because Brett and I know exactly how much we can do for ourselves, we know when our next doctor's appointment is and we know that we can't do anything more till then. We also know what our own needs are and we can meet then and move on. However, family and friends it's different. When I've been the family or friend I've been the one worrying sick with what if's and what more can I do. So in appreciation for all your prayers and expressions of love I'll fill you in as much as I can on all the what if's and what more can you do's.

So I'll start from the beginning and instead of saving the post when I run out of time tonight and then never finishing it. (I have a billion unposted posts.) I'll just publish what I've finished and pick up later.

So nearly two months ago Brett discovered a mass on his testicle. What a blessing it is that instead of ignoring the thing we went to our family doctor (after of course finding one) and had it checked out. This let to an ultrasound a week later. About another week later the result came back. This day I remember as a vivid blur (oxymoron... yes). It was a Tuesday and I was at school doing homework. Brett called letting me know the results had come back and our family doctor had suggested the name of a Urologist. I spent the remainder of the day crying. I cried on the phone with the insurance company (calling the insurance company to see what was covered is about the first thing I did), I cried as I picked up my stuff from the computer lab I was working in and left (much to the bewilderment and concern of my friends), I cried as I told my boss I would not be coming into work, and I cried as I walked home. And when I got home I made Brett cry because I was crying. I then called and told my parents and cried. And surprisingly I did not cry when I called the radiologist that lives down the street and asked if he'd look at Brett's ultrasound results. I also did not laugh with fear or sorrow but with ironic tears when I wrote a paper for school about radiation and where it comes from. (FYI a large portion of our radiation dose come from medical procedures.) Lucky the tears cease and left me with a headache. And even more luckily our appointment with the Urologist was the next morning because really it is the unknown that drives me to tears. As soon as we realized, yeah it is probably cancer, every movie about someone with cancer came to my mind and the fear and emotional roller coaster set it. But I'm happy to say that day was the only time that I cried for fear.

The next morning (a Wednesday) a long wait and short meeting with the Urologist put the uncertainty of what was coming to rest. The thought was that the mass was small enough that it had probably not spread but to confirm this a CT scan and a chest X-Ray were set up for the next day. A radical orchiectomy (surgery) was scheduled for the following Monday. And such a blessing it was that the following Monday also happened the be the Monday a week long break from school, thus, to Brett's dismay he didn't miss any school and to my relief I didn't miss any school.

So our week long break at home in Idaho was shortened to one weekend. That Saturday was a nephew's birthday party and the perfect opportunity for Brett to get a blessing from his father and all his brothers. This day I also cried, not because I was scared, but because I can't not cry during a priesthood blessing, because I have faith and I knew that everything was going to be okay and I was thankful for that, but most of all because the power of those men in that room was real and was so strong it's undeniable. I start to cry just thinking about it.

Well all wonderful weekends come to an end. Mine ended with the flu the minute we walked back into our apartment. (Luckily I made it to our apartment). The following morning was filled with nausea (on the part of me and both Brett's parents) and worry. I nearly puked when the put the IV in Brett (combination of dislike of needles and again the nausea). Then came the waiting room (and more nausea). First was an hour and fifteen minutes of waiting for the doctor to come out. I looked up every time I heard footsteps walk past hoping it was the doctor. Then once he came out and told us everything went well was 45 minutes of waiting for the phone in the waiting room to ring saying we could come back. The highlight of this waiting period was when a little old lady wanted to change the TV channel and Brett's dad strongly objected because the game was on and the Ray's were playing. Finally as the 45 minutes was coming to an end I found myself incredibly annoyed at the family watching a very loud, rather inappropriate movie on their laptop in the back of the waiting room. But let me tell you when that phone rang I jumped up and ran over faster than I've ever moved before. I was so relieved that the call was for me and not one of the other families waiting.

Brett was in heaven back in the recovery room. He had apple juice and 'nilla wafers. He felt so great the rest of the night while Brett's parents and I all still felt sick.

Over the following week Brett recovered so quickly.

Speaking of Brett... he's home now so I'll finish later.

This post is for Joanie!!!

So my sister-in-law took her blog private and slacker me procrastinated sending her a simple email to say 'hey here is my info add me'. So now I'm out in the cold with no Joanie updates. So joanie, please add me (I don't know what info you need.. email? social? blood type? DNA sample? I hope just email...) . And one more thing.... I know I spell your name wrong half the time (or maybe even all the time)... I'm sorry.

I stole someone else's kid.

Okay I didn't really steal anyone's kid but I did borrow a picture of a nephew from the last Marshall family reunion to try out the photo shop I just had installed on my computer. I have been yearning to try out one of PioneerWoman's photoshop actions so I just had to put my homework aside and just try one picture. With minimal effort and under 5 minutes. I went from this adorable picture:to this:
I'm not sure I would leave this picture as my final product but considering I do have lots of homework plus a cub scout fundraiser tomorrow night that I need to get ready for I've already wasted enough time.

There is beauty all around.

I am so absolutely, completely, totally in love with fall colors. I got to the store and see the decorations and want to fill my apartment with them. Then I realize once the season is over I'll have to store all these decorations and there is so room for that. So I decided to fill by blog with the fall colors that fill my heart these days.

Just a quick update

Brett is doing awesome. He is sore but never 'testy' or grumpy... He is however in a good amount of pain and complains about the pain in his tongue from where he bit it. Evidently while he was asleep he bit his tongue while they were trying to put tubes down his throat. Ahhh, I love that my husband is stubborn even while in a drugged slumber.

I am however awaiting the day when I can say to him, while we are both watching a movie, "will you put these Reeses away and get me the caramels?" And he does it for me. And then, just like he did to me, I will say, "Oh wait, the caramels are right here." When he can't find them. Pay back will be sweet.

My last name's Marshall so....

A few months ago I wrote that my last name is Marshall so I'm tough. Today... My last name's Marshall so I have awful luck. Now don't get all worried yet everything is fine it's just ironic the mishaps today. So in my last post I wrote that Brett has cancer (not so lucky in and of itself). Today he went into surgery and it went great (as great as surgery can be). They'll run some tests and we will know for sure if it was cancer or not. Now the bad luck comes in. We spent last weekend at home in Idaho which was fantastic. We spent Saturday with Brett's family and Sunday with mine. However, the fabulous-ness ended about 40 miles from Salt Lake when my stomach started churning. The bad luck at least subsided long enough that I made it home. But the minute I got into the bathroom... oh boy was I sick. I'll stop there to avoid an over share. So the rest of the night I was in and out of the bathroom, sick a few more times. I think I honestly slept a few hours worth on the floor outside our bathroom. This morning when I got up the sickness had turned into just nausea. I honestly spent most the night thinking "No, not now, not before Brett's surgery" but just kept remembering that Heavenly father will not try us above which we are able to bear. So with the faith that I would survive I got up and got ready and cleaned up before Brett's parents arrived. Once they arrived we learned that they too had gotten sick.

So after spending the day nauseous in the waiting room of the hospital Brett came home and felt better than all three of us. This evening Brett's parents decided to leave because, in Brett's dad's words "If I'm going to dye I want to do it in my own bed." So they headed out only to quickly return reporting a flat tire.

I honestly just sit here wondering if I could have avoided this bad luck if I had kept my maiden name.... It's good Brett's worth all the bad luck.

The word of the day.

Today has been sponsored by the letter "C" and the word of the day is cancer.

Let me tell you it's something that happens to other people but not to you or your family and then it does and every third word you think is cancer. (excuse the run on sentence but my thoughts have all been run on the last 48 hours.) So my advice, do what you need to do to get your check-ups so you can find it early because it can happen to anyone.

Well if no one else will..

So no one has updated their blog since I checked them all last so I'll just have to update my own. Things are more of the same down here. The messiness of our apartment is getting worse exponentially as school is being so relentless. I had a test a week ago, a test Monday, two tests tomorrow and another test next week. OH BOY!

In none school news (of which there is very little). We went home last weekend. Brett went fishing with his brothers and I went to a ski patrol refresher with my sister. It was oh so much fun to hang out with her and just be sisters.

It was also fun seeing all my friends from ski patrol. Let me clear up some possible confusion also. You are correct, there is no snow yet, and yes we've already started ski patrol. But you must understand we do more that just ski. We also do first aid and that takes some refreshing, no snow necessary. Last Saturday's refresher was for the OEC (outdoor emergency care) instructors who will be teaching at the regular refresher on the 11th. This is always the better refresher because there are a lot less people and they are the people that I know the best and enjoy seeing the most. Now to toot my own horn. Being at school I really don't do as much first aid as I would like and I don't get the practice I used to. So I was a little nervous about getting in there and taking charge of one of the scenarios (mock accidents) they had us do. Finally after watching a few other people be PIC (person in charge) and thinking oh they could have done this or that better I finally volunteered to be the PIC. I was pretty nervous and felt pretty out of practice but when it was all said and done everyone told me how good I did and that they'd be on my first aid team anytime. That made me feel pretty good.

So now the post is over night is drawing nigh; Shadows of the evening steal across the sky.... And I need to study...

Long time no see!

Well it has been a while since I've posted anything. At least anything more interesting than school woes. Today I'm playing stay at home wife. That is what I play whenever I'm home alone, didn't just spend five hours on campus and Brett isn't home. Basically playing stay-at-home-wife (note just wife, not mother) consists of forgetting I'm a school time student and dreaming up all sorts of yummy things to cook next week. The fact that my text books are strewn across the floor makes this difficult but I'm still enjoying myself. I'm planning my favorite shrimp scampi recipe for tonight, will attempt to make pesto in my new food processor, and have a new french bread recipe rising in the kitchen. I think I'd be a better stay at home wife if I had actually finished cleaning the apartment (I did get dishes done), wasn't continually snitching left over frosting from the fridge and had actually showered instead of opting for a messy bun. Luckily I'm just pretending so I hope I get away with my faults. I'm now waiting to go grocery shopping. Waiting for what??? Nothing. I'm dressed, my list is made, I even put sunglasses on my head and threw my phone in my purse as well as put on flip flops. So why have I not gone to the store yet??? No clue. I came to the computer to turn on the music and succeeded yet. So I guess i'm a pretty lazy procrastinator stay at home wife. But then I realize that I'm home a lone not because Brett is at work but because I opted to not go with him to a BYU football game with twin brother and his wife. So I'm justified in being lazy right???

So onto more news. I'm 21. My birthday was on thursday. (my favorite thing about birthdays is thinking about how uncomfortable the birthday persons mom was however many years ago they are old and then laugh.) So 21 years ago thursday my mom was uncomfortable and ginormous I imagine... I've managed to forget the whole ordeal because I'm sure it wasn't so comfortable for me either. Thursday though was quite the day. So at school three assignments are due friday so you can guess what that makes thursday.. homework day. I sat down and started homework at 8:30 AM and finished about 5:00. Pretty depressing but I really enjoy the people I do my homework with so it was quite enjoyable. And I ate three blow pops throughout the day (yummy). don't' feel bad though things started looking up when I got home. As I was walking to our door a delicious fresh bakes cake smell wafted into my nose and surprisingly got stronger and stronger and I entered our apartment. My wonderful husband had baked me a cake and bought me two beautiful roses. And he did this although he had an assignment due in a few hours, a math quiz and chemistry test the following day. (I'm not sure putting these things off to bake a cake was actually a sacrifice for him though.) The best part though was when he excitedly handed me the mail and told me to open the top letter. To my delight and surprise the great state of Utah had granted me the honor of having jury duty. Oh wait did I say best/delight/surprise/honor?? I mean With a groan and dread I read that I had jury duty. And guess what.. they don't' schedule those things on Saturday when i don't have class! But I'm told I'll get out of it for being a student. The rest of my birthday was spent helping a tired and slightly grumpy husband (with no ability to focus at 10 at night) study for chemistry. He did apologize profusely the next day for his grumpiness although it was totally unnecessary. I know the exact feeling home sleepiness/hopelessness/panic/fear the night before a test. So all in all my birthday wasn't amazing but I've had worse. AND I can't complain because I celebrated last weekend with family.

Finally to end this post and go grocery shopping I'll list my birthday loot: A marlin .22 gun, stainless steel measuring/baking set, two DVD's I really wanted, monkey potato peeler , and a food processor. There are stories behind all these gifts explaining why I got them or wanted them but the grocery store just called and they want my money.

So finally finally here is the cake our five year old decorated for me for my birthday. Oh wait no Brett and I decorated... (note the ez-cheeze style frosting isn't as great for cake decorating as it looks!


Please excuse the messy table. Homework was happening on the other side. Oh and see the slumping edge. That was where Brett had spelled my name wrong, took off the frosting, warmed the frosting up some so it spread easier but didn't wait long enough to decorate that spot so the frosting succumbed to the pull of gravity.

Let me clarify

So let me explain my post last night. I had spent the entire day in class with an eye infection. Then I was home alone trying to figure out homework by myself. I've decided it's a law of nature that all homework should be completed synergisticly. Never alone. But last night I was trying to do homework alone and quickly I spiralled into a 'woe, woe, woe is me' mood. That is why I started ranting and complaining here. But now that I think about it (and now that all my assignments due tomorrow are done) I realize I am so lucky. The fact that I have the opportunity to go to school. Especially the fact that I even make a little money going to school (well if you don't count living expenses like food and shelter). I am so lucky to have to chance to attend college, especially with one with such a good engineering department. I'm also lucky that after only about a month and a half of dating Brett loved me enough to agree to move down to Utah so I could finish school. Really, I'm lucky.

But don't remind me of that in ten minutes while I'm trying to do Physical Chemistry homework because I'll slap you.

See Me... I'm one of the ones in white on the stage. I graduated summa cumme laud so I got to sit on the stage. (I enjoy bragging myself up sometimes)

These are my bestest bestest bestest friends from high school. We were just about joined at the hips. (the horrid white gowns might hide it but let me tell you we all had hips!) Without these girls highschool would have been soooo boring!

Oh and this, this is the best day of my life. Whewii he is HOTT!. Oh and see the lace on the viel.. my mom hand stitched that onto the viel.

Life as it will be.

Well school started back up. The nerve, just as I was completely relaxed and used to doing nothing after five pm (not to mention actually getting somewhat used to all the ins and outs of work) I left my summer employment, said goodbye to my paycheck, and said hello to paying money just so I can work my butt off and learn things like how much heat you loose out your window, the whose-it's something or other it takes to pump hexane from a storage take to someother take 200 m away. Yes these of course are the last two homework problems I gave up on.

So I figured I would do the same thing for school that I did for work. Write out why I like it why I hate it and tell you what i'm doing, minute by minute, everyday of the week. But, alas, I cannot think of enough things that I love about school to match the number of things I dislike about school and my minute by minute schedule is way too much and you, quite frankly, can't handle it. I'm pretty sure no one can.

You truly want to know how intimidating I find my school schedule??? I'll illustrate... If I were to say, wake up one morning with some nasty infection. Let's say pink eye. I have every right to stay home because it's contagious and all. What would I do?? Stay home?? NO! If I can stand up without puking, I'm going to school. Instead I carry Clorox wipes with me so I can sanitize every desk I sit at during the day and do my darndest to sit within a buffer of empty seats. If I owned an eye patch i would have worn it. Wait this story sounds oddly familiar... oh wait that is what happened this morning.

Yeah no joke. I have pink eye.

So just a second ago.. as I was typing, my AMAZING husband came home from webelos (I skipped because of my pink (literally pink) eye) with milkshakes. So pink eye, school work and all is nothing to be depressed about when I have my hunky husband home and a milkshake in hand.

So you all go ahead and be jealous I'm going to go cuddle with my husband while watching super nanny and pretend I don't have homework.

WHO AM I MARRIED TO?!?!?!

So I had my last day of work Wednesday and I don't start school till Monday. It has been wonderful to sleep in the last two days. This morning I slept in till 9:30!!! Waking up this morning was not so wonderful though.

First off let me say Brett woke me up, not on purpose, at 5:30 this morning. (If I was still working I'd have been leaving for work at this time!! Disgusting I know.) He was trying to figure out what day it was, hoping it was Saturday. No suck luck. He got up and left for work. Immediately after he got up I spread out to take up every inch of bed. (When I finally woke up at 9:30 I was perpendicular to a normal sleeping position.) Well while I was sleeping I dreamed a dream, nay, I dreamed a nightmare... sort of. Well my dream started out fine. We were at a county fair of a small southern Utah county. The area was made up mostly of old farmers so Brett enjoyed playing farmer with them. This part of the dream was fun and enjoyable.

Then my dream morphed. Next thing I remember I was in a gift shop. Now we were taking a bus tour of rural Utah. I was accompanied by a man but this man was not my husband. It was a guy I know and don't particularly enjoy. Let's call him George. Well it appears that I was dating George and he was on this bus tour with me. (Most of the other bus tour people with little old ladies with white pouf hair.) Well in the gift shop I was looking to buy a new ring. All of my rings (in real life) have some story behind them, where I bought them, who gave them to me... In my dream though all my dreams corresponding with a relationship (this caused me to remember various old boyfriends in my dream). Evidently in my dream I was dating George and I was buying a new ring to represent my relationship with him. Well, while I was looking at rings I overheard him talking to the sales lady. Evidently he was going to propose and was thinking that whatever ring I bought myself would count as an engagement ring. In my dream I remember thinking, First off I will never marry George and second, even if I would marry him, like I'll accept my own ring as an engagement ring! Well I ended up finding a ring, it was huge and clunky and way pretty.

Then I woke up. When I woke up I knew I was married but had no clue who I was married to. I was picturing my actual wedding ring but couldn't remember who gave it to me. I thought through all my previous boyfriend that I had remember in my dream and thought oh please say I'm not married to George!!!!! So I stopped and thought, okay who woke me up this morning??? Oh yeah Brett! Oh good I'm married to Brett.

Crazy dream eh? I have 'em a lot!

Thank my lucky stars he is my husband, and an amazing one at that!

Fated by Fire Sauce

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY KATRINA AND BEN!!!

So a year ago Saturday one of my best friends from high school and her high school sweetheart were married. It was such a beautiful wedding. She paid me the honor of being one of her bridesmaids along with our other closest female friends. It was my one opportunity to 'walk down the aisle' since I got married in the temple. The entire evening was gorgeous and beautiful. By the end of the night I was drunk and full off of chocolate fountain. Once everyone had left we filled punch cups with chocolate and drank to our hearts content. Whenever I hear Big & Rich Lost in This Moment it reminds me of that perfect summer evening. (I got married in the dead of winter... sometimes I want to do the whole thing over just so I can have a summer wedding too. YES of course same groom!) Brett came by for a few minutes during the reception but had a softball game that night so left pretty soon after he came. Following the reception I went to the park and watch the last few minutes of Brett's game. After the game we went to what used to be A&W. I don't know how I possibly wanted food after all the reception food, not to mention left over rehearsal dinner food from the night before, I scarfed down. The evening ended with parking... haha... sort of. The purpose of this parking was not to make out it was to watch the a storm roll through. The lightning was beautiful. While sitting there, watching the lighting strike and feeling the thunder reverberate through Brett's truck, we talked about the future of our relationship. We'd talked over options before then but this magical night Brett said he would move to Utah for me. Happy doesn't begin to describe how I felt. His next question was so, um... do you think we should be married when I move down. After briefly remembering how much I enjoyed kissing him, and already knowing I wanted to marry him, I answered Yeah that would be best. So we flipped open his phone and brought up the ever handy cell phone calender. We quickly decided on the six month anniversary of our first date, Dec. 29 as the day. Now thinking back I guess I became engaged at this point but I was stubborn and wanted the ring before I let myself believe it. It took 2+ months for the ring to actually land on my finger. Does this night actually count as our engagement. Did Brett really propose by saying "So, um, do you think we should be married?"? Well its my life so no I'm not counting this as the proposal.

The following evening was to be my last before moving to Utah for school. Brett's brother and his wife were having a BBQ at their house. We went and had a grand old time. I remember whoever brought the brownies failed to cook them all the way and they were amazing. After the BBQ we were driving back towards Brett's house when I saw a Taco Bell billboard. I still don't know how but I hungered for a cheesy gordido crunch. (Really I don't remember what I got/craved.) To this day I'm truly perplexed how I was always so hungry those days. So I forced Brett to drive the 20 minutes into town, to buy me taco bell, and then we drove the 20 minutes back to his house. Where we parked ... this time 90% of the time we were eating or talking I promise... on the bank of the canal that runs by his house. As I was getting ready to scarf down my fourth meal of the day I offered Brett some firesauce and began happily masticating my food. Brett interrupted my taco bell bliss with a simple "Yes". As always with the height of prim and proper poise I replied, I'm sure with cheese hanging from my mouth, "Huh??" He repeated himself a little more forceful, "Yes!". Finally, utterly confused, I say "What are you talking about? Yes what?" He then returned the packet of firesauce I had just handed him. The quote fatefully read

"Will you

marry me?"

I do not recall what happened next. I'm sure laughter, some cheesy kisses (haha total pun intended) ensued. Although I still don't count this evening as our official engagement I still claim I proposed first.

Finally Friday

Well as the weekend converges just like the limit of all continuous functions must converge I'm bored and leaving you with a teaser. Keep up folks and internet permitting come Monday... maybe Tuesday... you will be regale (d??? not sure I'm totally hoping this word fits this context!) will the tale of my proposing marriage to Brett (which of course was accompanied by bolt of lighting and rumblings of approval from the heavans). Well I'm off enjoy your weekend.

F-R-E-A-K, Freak

So I've determined that three people read my blog at any given post. Three you ask? You think three whole people read your piddly diddly little blog? Yes. Three and I'm ignoring you last question it hurts my feelers. Fine so how did you determine three people read your blog? Is your reply *accompanied with an eye roll*. Well it seems that of late I get about three comments per post. Thus it can be determined from the aforementioned findings that three people read any given post. So for you three readings you get a special treat today. You get to hear my deepest darkest secret.

Oh boy, here I go. I'm a freak. This was what I realized a few moments ago. Yes I'm a full blown freak-oid. No, I'm not a fruitcake a freak. And not the kind of freak you see on the street, I don't have multicolored hair, I don't have any piercings or tat's. I don't collect cans from trash bins, and I don't push a shopping cart any further than a grocery store parking lot. And, I have never walked down the street which a group of people dressed in various colors of skin tight, spandex, metalic full body suits.

(Remember She's All That with the dreamy Freddy Prince Jr. and
beautiful Rachel Leigh Cook, who I was always envious of because she was so tiny
and petite. Well at the dance the nerds come as DNA dressed tyvek
(they wear these at work, it's okay if you don't get the
reference) resembling white suites. Then when the long hair pretty one
(wow all sorts of labeling tonight huh?) dances with the jerk (more labeling, I'm very rude as well as a freak) she gets out of her DNA chain (now this is very unlikely, if i remember correcting DNA is held together by hydrogen bonds which are quite strong and I doubt that even the popular boy asking you to dance will break a hydrogen bond [ahhh! revelation popular sounds like polar and polar bonds are not as strong as hydrogen bonds so this scene is chemical illogical). So when she removes her white tyvek suit she has a blue skin tight suite on (luckily she is quite skinny). Imagine that suit more pastel in various colors AND best of all metallic.) This parentbetical side note was so long it deserved its own block quotation style thing.

I kid you not. Brett and I saw a group of people in metallic skin tight suites. But I'm going to let that one slide since it was the same weekend as the arts festival and I pray and hope that they were dressed up solely for the arts festival. NOTE!!!! I'm not calling any of these people listed freaks. I'm not calling them anything because that would not be politically correct, which I always am. But me... I am a freak. Okay this is difficult for me....

I LOVE NUMBERS

Go a head get me a shirt that says I heart *symbol not word* #'s! I've never so blatantly admitted before but I do, I love numbers. Now some of you may have known this already and if so you can applaud me for leaving my denial stage, I only have what 12 more steps?

So you must be wondering what finally brought on this realization. We'll it's been a few months/15 some odd years in the coming. I'm going to take 'the show you climactic confusing ending and then go back and show you the morbid events leading up to my horrific admission of guilt to number loving' approach.

So at work numbers are often used. While I do very little number manipulation (i.e math) I still use numbers daily, nay, hourly, nay minutely! (NO not secondly.) All samples that come to me are on what is called a Chain of Custody. And what do ya know, these chains are numbered! When I first started working the chain numbers were in the mid to upper 40,000 range. I have to include this chain number for every sample I run. I found joy when ever there was a pattern to the chain number. For example I enjoy chain 49909 because well... just look at all those 9's. Or perhaps 49876 because of the descending of the numbers. A few weeks back the chain numbers passed 50,000. I got chain 49998 and 50002 but I was saddened that I never saw chain 50000. Also samples themselves are often number depending on what type of sample it is. Many of the samples I've been running lately are given area numbers. Which are basically AREA####. I am tickled pink when there is a pattern in the area number. For example for quite a while I anticipated the sample AREA6666. Today I got to run the sample AREA6868 and tomorrow I'll likely to get to run a sample AREA6886. Every time I get twitterpated knowing that these patterns are awaiting me. Oh and I also enjoy when they numbers are fun to type on the key pad and the right of the key board. For example 50852 is all on the middle row. I know, you are thinking, wow she is crazy! And I will not deny it nor be offended if you tell me so. But this is how it all started.

My first number memory was a failure. In kindergarden I skipped fifteen. I don't know how this happened. I have nothing against fifteen. Actually I kind of like the number it is 3*5 (aka 3x5). But in my five year old mind the number was no where to be found. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17. Oh what the world would be missing out on if there was no 15. I would have gotten my license at who knows what age, polishing off a dozen donuts and then washing it down with three more would result in how many donuts consumes? infinity. What day would tomorrow be, today is the 14th. There would just be a black whole between 14 and 16 sucking everything into it. Not good, except maybe a black whole of donuts... mmm.

Well this was not the end of numbers for me. No 'mam, siree. I'm not quitter so I took numbers by the horns and learned 'em.

And oh boy did I learn 'em good. Within a few I was doing numbers for fun, long division and multiplication to be exact NO CALCULATOR! Yes you heard me! I did long division/multiplication for fun... Oh dear this is disturbing me. While I go deal with the fact that while other kids were getting high off of sugar cereal and playing four square I was doing long division... I need a moment before I can face this head on... I'm sorry I didn't think I'd get this emotional.

Okay I'm back. Actually I didn't have time to finish my post so I feigned tears and excused myself. But I'm back now. So back to my blissful numerical childhood days. So my mom has a wood shop and upstairs she had a chalkboard. I LOVED writing on chalkboards (still do actually). Now during this time my mom had hired one of her best friends/the mom of my best friend, Amy, to weave rush chair seats. Amy happened to do her work just outside the room where the chalkboard was. So I convinced her to play with my while she worked. So I brought her an old math textbook that was laying around the house, had her give me long division and multiplication problems to solve, and then she would check them on a calculator. NO JOKE! I found this fun. I know what you're thinking, NO! I don't still do this. This is not what Brett and I do on Friday nights. I think back to these math play times with Amy and think wow... I needed to get out and find friends my own age. True friends my own age probably would have beat me up and made me realize my sheer nerdiness. But a small part of me thinks... I want to write on a chalk board again.

I know you are all fearful right now that your kids will be as nerdy as I was but I want to reassure you this was the peak of my math/number loving days. The following anecdotes will not horrify you as the previous on did.

Now in sixth grade (which was still at the elementary school for us) I reached the epitome of cool. Two words people... Fraction fairy tales. So before each new seconds in math class we'd all take a pretest. If we got a high enough score on the pretest we would be allowed to go in the hallway during math and work on alternate assignments. Big surprise, I rarely had to sit through math class. One assignment we had was to write a fraction fairy tale. The basis of this assignment was to assign each character a simplified fraction. And then we wrote the fairy tale out. Every time the character's name was used a non-reduced fraction was used instead. Then when we presented the class had to reduce the fraction and decide which character went in the blank. Confuse? I'll illustrate.

1/2 Cinderella
3/4 Prince Charming
1/5 Fairy Godmother
Before the ball 50/100 didn't have anything to wear. Luck would have it that 20/40 had a 20/100 she didn't know about. 25/50's 2/10 arrived and magiced her a beautiful gown. After a reminder from her 8/40 to be home by midnight (curfews are a bummer huh?) 16/32 was off to the ball. At the ball 90/180
met 12/16 . They danced and talked all night. To 4/8's chagrin 15/20 had nothing beyond his good looks and kingdom so she was home by 10:00 and finished filling out her college applications. 150/300 went on to school and
although she never ruled a kingdom she found self satisfaction and married a
nerdy brainiac from the computer engineering department (those boys are
odd). (That is how The 2/4 story goes right?) (Please forgive math errors this was just to give you an idea of it.)(Oh and this story was written with no help from a calculator!)

See how much of a nerd I truely was. I've grown though, I've learned. I now know how to hide my affair with numbers rational and irrational alike. Because of this the last 8 years or so since sixth grade has not been marred by geeky outbursts of math fun. Although pi day is still a holiday for me I now keep my love for numbers deep down in the corner recesses of my heart.

So everyone. Congrats. The three of you are lucky. You know I'm a nerdite. But please keep this dirty little secret to yourself, please don't ruin my burgeoning social life. (Ha, ha This last part is a joke. I have no social life, just my husband. I like it that way though.)

Words of Wisdom

"Keep your mind in the middle

while your butt swings round and round."

-Garth Brooks The Fever

Those are my new words of wisdom I discovered on my drive home yesterday. While the song is talking about rodeo riding I think it applies to life. I know sometimes I feel like I'm being pulled in every direction at once and you just have to keep your mind centered. Plus the mental image is great. Serious! Close your eyes. Oh wait no don't close 'em yet! You have to keep reading. Okay when I say so close your eyes and imagine a Cartesian coordinate. Now imagine someone with their head at the origin on the circle (that's point (0,0)!). Finally, with their butt trace the equation y^2 + x^2 = 1 (we are assuming the length from the tip of the person's head to the bottom of their butt to be one 1 unit). Okay go ahead and close your eyes and imagine it now. Funny huh, wait no! Stop! Your not imagining it. WHAT!!!! You don't remember your high school geometry. What is this world coming to! Just kidding! If you didn't follow I just used a long and convoluted way to describe someone bent over, spinning their butt in a circle. But come on! Doesn't the math description sound so much more fun.

Any whoo let's move away from math to history... Wait no it would be herstory since its what I did this weekend! I know you're rolling on the floor in laughter.

Now that you are begging me to stop the maddness and tell you what I did this weekend...

So if you remember (or if you missed out read my last post) I told everyone I was pregnant as a total joke. Well I spent the whole weekend doing two things. 1) Pretending I was preggers. i.e eating for two! I had a bowl of ice cream every night! YUM. Double, nay triple YUM!. and 2) Worried I actually was. While I had no reason to think I was I've still heard enough "she was on the pill and ended up pregnant stories" to be scared. However I'm not scared enough to spend money to find out. God gives us a free preg test every 4 weeks or so... I'll wait for that.

So I was also taught my lesson on playing jokes like that. Joanie and Caroline you both got me in your comments. Joanie I believed you when you said you'd told Brett's mom. I had hoped you had also let on that it was a joke though. And Caroline I did believe you when you on a nine month journey. The one thing I'm still curious about is this. My oldest brother called me and left me a voicemail saying "Hey Margaret, I heard you are pregnant congrats!" And that was it. I never bothered to call back so I'm not sure if anyone clued him in that it was a joke. Oh well.

And for any of you (Yaz) looking for a recipe I've posted I moved them all here. Check it out. I've added a few and hopefully with in the week I'm going to add a divine alfredo sauce recipe.

Bun in the oven..

Hello friends... or just empty space which is the internet, I still have trouble believing people take interest in my blog. But, just in case the empy space has noticed my near two week absense from a post I will update. Actually I think empty space is smart enough to know that I started a post on Monday and could have read it even though it had been abandoned as saved draft. Do you even wonder where all this information one puts on a blog is stored? It's not saved on my computer, I can't access it when I don't have internet. Doesn't there have to be some concrete storage of the data. Is there a gaint building, or maybe an underground bunker, where all internet stuff is stored in tiny compartments? And everytime we get on the internet we connect with an extra terrestrial being ( no human being is smart enough to handle the job) who simply waits for our web site requests and then connects us to the compartment where that information is stored. For example everytime I click the perriwinkle-ish blue 'SAVE NOW' button at the bottom of the page more 'bites (or bytes)' are stored. (Okay I really don't know what a bite is, I think I heard through the rumor mill that it is a punch of zeros and ones (yeah any one gossips about computer stuff out side of the computer science cults).) (I try to be very careful of putting period inside or outside of parentheses). (OH NO! I think that last one should have been inside the parenthese because because it was an entire sentence.) (Better that time.) (This is a vicious downward spiral of parenthetical side notes. [I only used the word parenthetical to sound smart] But sometimes I like using brackets within parentheses because that is sometimes done in math. But them I worry that you will start inside the innermost parentheses (or brackets) and work your way out. Dang order of operations. Plus what is the plural of the word for these -->( )?? Parenthese or parentheses?) Oh dear I hope I closed all of my parenthese(s?). Well to say I have digressed would be an understatement. I don't remember what I was saying and I don't want to go back and read through my earlier rambling because I have been inspired -by another blog, more later- (I tried dashes to mix things up) to always be "keepin' it real on here". This means when I'm happy you will be bombarded by mispelled, because I think faster than I type,rambling. (Oh look commas replacing the parenthese(s?). I think it's called an apositive... Mr. Hatch?? It would be weird to find out my senior year high school english teacher reads my blog but if you are can I get a confirmation of what an apositive is. Oh and please ignore all the other gramatical lessons that, judging by my writing, I clearly missed) Oh darn I digresses again. But I've found myself now... I know you all missed me since my last post. So now to business.

I'M PREGNANT

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Just kidding... Ha ha ha ha... Oh boy I crack myself up. I'm really almost crying I'm laughing so hard imagining your reactions. Ha ha ha... tear... gasp. Okay but in all seriousness... No baby on board. My waistline and gut are expanding purely because of food... no incubating. Oh and please remake any phone calls to newspapers, radio/television stations, or anyone else and retract your exclamation that I'm pregnant now that you know I was just kidding. Oh an a warning I think I'm going to go the boy who cried wolf so you'll never know if my "I'm pregnant" announcement will always leave you wondering "Truth or Folly?" For a moment I just thought maybe I'll even get one of these baby countdown things on my blog and then I remembered those creep me out intenesly (please take no offense if you have one on your blog). There is a reason my stomach doesn't have a "see-in-side" portion and that is because the baby has not learned cuteness yet. (Betchya' did realize cuteness is a developable talent.. I practice every night!)

So you all wonder I'm not preggers then where have I been these last two weeks and why do I seem so darn happy today.

Second question first... I had 2 donoughts this morning (waistline expansion) and it was the healthiest part of my just got off the bus snack (we had a site wide safety meeting). I cleverly made the donoughts look healthy by washing them down with non-orange juice i.e Sunny D and then finished off with a unidentifiable juice called Capris Sun. Moral of this lesson donoughts --> still good. Fake "100% juice", "all natural" "fruit" juices --> only good for those with a less refined culinary taste.

So what have I been doing in my non gestating state. (I'm loving using words that probably don't actually fit in my sentences and hoping they mean what I think they do.) (Total side story. I was helping with a cross word at work (even though I'm usually a cross word hater). The clue was like lazy, relaxed (I think). They couldn't get word so I threw out the word languid. They were all pretty sure I had made the word up and I was wondering the same thing. But the word fit. Sure enough the cross word answers the next day confirmed I'm a genius! Let that be a lesson to you parents... make your kids read. But seriously I got the word from reading books, no spelling test contained the word languid.) To recap what this paragraph is actually about it's what I've been up to lately. I made a deliciouso pie. Mississippi Mud Pie to be exact. I went to a ski patrol function with my awesome mother and sister. Worked as usual. And last but not least fallen in love... with a blog.

Joanie thank you. My new found love is all thanks to you. I was innocently enjoying my sister-in-law's blog the other day (see link to left (unless I change my blog template then it will be on the right or delete my blog roll then your s-o-l)). Well she had just learned how to cut up pineapple from an illusive pioneer woman. (I actually looked up the definition of illusive, found that it didn't really fit context wise, but since it sounded good I left. Parents let this be a lesson to you... make sure your kids actually understands the words your force them to read so they can sound intelligent someday.) So I checked out the blog to see if I cut up pineapple the right way. (I'm close on the pineapple algorithm but not exact... I like my way better.) (By the way I just tried using links in my blog and am loving it.) So at first I thought nothing more of pioneer woman until during moments of sheer boredom I began exploring her blog more. First I fell in love with the story of her falling in love with her husband. And then got laughs and giggles out of her ranching stories. So check out her blog (caution some posts are not for the squeemish). Oh and i am also envious of her blogging and photography abilities.
So the answer to your ultimate question... Where have I been... Reading blogs not posting on them. (Now that I'm out of rambling I have to spell check.. scary.) (Acutally spell checking wasn't too bad but I still refuse to proof read. I'm keepin' it real, just like pioneer woman inspired me to, which means no proof reading for me... sorry)

Love and War

So I meant to post this a week ago but it didn't happen.

A year ago last Saturday
By this point in our relationship it felt like I'd known Brett forever and LOVED spending time with him. In reality our first date had been about three weeks before, our first kiss two weeks and we'd made our relationship "official" a week before. We had talked about marriage but not as in marriage to each other just in general. A year ago Saturday I had both my best friends over for dinner along with their husband and fiance. I thought it kind of funny, Brit was married the November before, Kat was getting married the next month, and I had just started dating someone. It had been so much fun having them all over. Once they left Brett stayed. We went out into my parents front yard and sat in the hammock they put up every summer. As we were talking Brett said to me "How many really's before like before it's love?" I don't remember what I said but I do remember I wasn't freaked out, I thought it was really cheesy and cute, and that we started talking about the definition of love in the bible. And then conversation continued to something else. Eventually he decided he should probably head home. He stood up first from the hammock and then helped me us. Once I stood up he hugged me and wipsered "I love you" into my ear. It makes me break into a grin remembering it. I of course said "I love you" in reply and it's been love ever since and I can't seem to tell him enough.

A year ago last Sunday and Monday
A year ago Sunday and Monday it was Friday and Saturday. We had a very fun weekend planned. Brett's parents had invited us to Bar J Wrangler's for dinner and a show. Saturday we wanted to hike table rock. We convinced Sarah and Mark to camp Friday night and the hike Table Rock with us. On the way to Victor (we met Brett's parents there and drove to Bar J together) we stopped and bought pop, Zingers, and Cracker Jacks. My pop must have had caffeine in it and I got very very hyper. This was the first time Brett ever saw me hyper (not many people ever see my really hyper, only friends from high school and Brett have ever really seen me off the wall) and while he is now he was not used to it. When I'm hyper I get a little crazy and can be a little mischievous. Well on that drive to Victor I put a cracker jack in Brett's Pepsi and may have a shook it up a little... okay maybe a lot. He did not think it was funny at all and got pretty mad at me and asked me to calm down. Oh and I sure calmed down. I didn't talk pretty much to rest of the car ride. And there you go our first fight, or close enough to it.
Bar J's was a lot of fun and the food was delicious. The last few days my mom had been saying she wanted to meet his parents and to invite them over for a Sunday dinner. My family usually always had big Sunday dinners and we'd always bring friends over so it wasn't that big of a deal to invite them. I had mentioned it to Brett and he thought it sounded fun. So when Brett's dad was asking about my dad's church calling and when he gets home Brett and I both remembered about inviting them to dinner. So I did. I said "Oh I was wondering if you guys would like to come over to my parents house for Sunday dinner next week." His dad replied "Is there a reason we should meet your parents?" Both mine and Brett's jaw hit the floor. I kept opening my mouth to say something but had nothing to say. Finally after the most awkward silence I've ever been a part of his dad said Yeah sure. What time do you eat dinner. I said "Usually around 5:00." And to make my feeling stupid and my embarrassment he replied "Well that's not dinner that is supper." And then explained how dinner is the same as lunch. (I'm still not used to that.) I was about ready to jump out of the car and walk the rest of the way down the Jackson Pass to avoid anymore humiliation. I still don't know how I showed my face around his parents ever again. (Also keep in mind I was still pretty darn scared of his dad at this time.) Afterward Brett apologized and said he should have talked to them about it himself.
Finally the car ride ended and Brett and I headed toward Table Rock to meet up with my siblings to camp and hike.

Rodeo, Camp and $3 Groceries

The last week has been fairly uneventful. While things have happened I've been planning on blogging they haven't been exciting enough to actually sit down and do it.

Last weekend was the only weekend in July we planned on being in Utah (more on that later) and whenever we stay in Utah I feel like we have to do something really fun. So last weekend we decided to go to the Days of '47 Rodeo. This is our second rodeo this summer the first was up in Herriman. It was a ton of fun but no one else around us was cheering and all gave me a weird look whenever I did. Well this latest rodeo was at the Energy Solutions Arena. It was kind of expensive for a rodeo so we were hesitant to go but it was payday so we felt rich and decided to go. It was really weird being at a rodeo inside. I was really surprised at how few people were there. There were tons of empty seats and again not very many people were cheering. I think Utah, at least Salt Lake area, doesn't know what good fun is. I thought the rodeo was great! They had a lot of good animals and pretty good riders.

Saturday Brett and I ventured down to Ikea and I made my first ever purchase there. I actually bought a couple things. So we were in the kitchen utensil section. This is a bad area to be in because just about everything would be useful but not exactly necessary to own. Well they had woks on display with a wok cook book. Sucker Margaret decided she wanted the wok and the cook book so we bought it. Immediately after getting in the car and unwrapping it I thought, Why did I buy this, I don't need this (mostly toward to cook book. We've actually already used the wok). I've been kicking my self for the waste of money ever since. And I feel like I can't return it because it was my own darn fault I bought it. So if any of you ever want to look through a wok cook book it's our new coffee table book, although we don't actually have a coffee table.

Last weekend was Brett's weekend cooking. (Not that he was assigned to cook he just made supper Sat. and Sun.) Saturday he made really delicious wonderful stir fry in our new wok and Sunday he made really amazing elk roast, gravy, and mashed potatoes (we finally bought a potatoe masher at Ikea).

Monday and Tuesday was webelo's camp up at camp Tracy in Milcreek Canyon. The boys never seemed very excited about anything we were doing but I think did have an okay time. We boated, shot BB Guns (Brett loved that one), archery, hiked, swam among other things.

Monday night Brett and I went grocery shopping and only spent $3 on groceries for the week! Normally I spend around $70 about $50 if I try really hard. But this week was kind of working toward me. We were only planning on being in town till Thursday night so we only needed three more days of food. I had also bought some groceries last week for meals I didn't end up making. I already had the ingredients for Fajitas and Pizza and just figured left overs for the third dinner. That meant I only needed some basics... milk, eggs, bread (on sale for a dollar a loaf) fruit (apples are wicked expensive), vegetables, and a few other things. Our bill came to $28 (still good for groceries) I used my Smith's student discount card with brought our bill down to $23. Then I had just gotten a $20 gift card from Smith's for transferring a prescription to their pharmacy... Thus our groceries came to $3 which we paid for in cash. Only problem is we decided to not leave town and I'm trying to come up with meals I can make using the things we already have so I don't have to spend more.

WEBELOS

Brett and I are the Webelos leaders for our stake. For those of you who don't know Webelos are the 10 year old cub scouts. (Usually webelos are 10 and 11 years old but the LDS church does it a little different.) When we were first asked to do this I almost wanted to say no. Little boys are scary to me! My only experience with scouts was when my mom was a den mom when I was young and I would go with her. We've been doing it about 2 1/2 months now and I've actually enjoyed it. It was sad though because within a month our numbers had been cut in half because of birthdays and kids moving. So now it's not quite as fun but still fun. The little boys are old enough to listen and follow directions but still young enough to be very excitable. They all love talking. For every two words Brett or I get in they have 5 stories to tell. Every story starts out on topic but by then finish their story I'm thinking "This had nothing to do with what we're talking about!" Last week I questioned if I should still be a webelos leader or not. Most of you have heard this story but I figure it is still blog worthy
Last week Brett and I were very good procrastinators and didn't figure out what we were going to do till about 10 minutes before leaving for the church. All the boys LOVE talking so we decided to work on their communicator pin. This had three requirements 1) write a letter 2) tell a story and 3) draw a poster. Not that difficult! We started with letters. One little boy... we'll call him Ned... always has something to say, something to talk about. He could not come up with someone to write to or anything to write. The other boys were almost done by the time he finally started working on his. Then we had each little boy get up on stage and tell a very short story. Ned did not want to go. Every boy took his turn and then Brett and I even took turns and Ned still had nothing. All he was doing was rub his pencil over his forehead. We kept trying to get him to go finally when I was about to tell him he didn't have to he said "Okay I'll go." I didn't hear what he said because I was trying to get another boy to sit down. Next thing I heard was Brett saying "We aren't slave drivers are we?" That caught my attention so I head Ned reply "Okay not you, just her." (I was the only her there but he still emphasized his point by pointing at me.) My knight and shining armour and a scout shirt (aka Brett) defended my honor saying "She's not a slave driver." Ned said "Okay not a slave driver... Evil!" Again Brett said "She isn't evil." Ned finally settled on "Okay... She's scary!" Brett gave up defending me at this point. So now I know I'm a scary, evil, slave driver so you had all better watch out! (Oh and once we were drawing posters Ned was happy to participate and didn't want to stop when his mom picked him up)

Promised Pictures

If I posted a picture of your child and you want me to remove it just leave me a comment with your request!

Brett and his dad fishing

Me fishing

The kids at the pie eating contest. I was sad we ran out of

camera space before the adults competed.

I loved his hat!

The two boys this age would get on the tricycles and just sit on them. SO CUTE!

I've never seen June this dirty before but she seemed to

enjoy the dirt

THE SKITS!

This boy loves cookies
It's a bad picture but this was grandpa trying to get the kids

to calm down for bed time by telling stories and having them listen

for animals like deer, bears, chickens, and a love sick elephant.

Always safe with their helmets

I think Brett was actually happy to be 4-wheeling as

opposed to the look on his face