Look What I Made!!!

So my old roommate, Rachel is going to be having a baby in July. They want to be surprised by the gender when the baby's born, so I had to make something that would be equally cute, boy or girl. Justin helped make the kite, I just stitched it on. All in all, I think it turned out pretty dang cute.

Why Yes, I Did Get a 426 in Yahtzee Today! Thanks for Asking.

Yes, I got 2 Yahtzees, and my subtotal for the top half was 78, easily clinching the 35 bonus points. Today has been incredibly boring.

Big box chains

So my friend at work, Courtney, is the one who orders to office supplies. She and Staples are pretty close and they generally provide us with all of our office needs. Recently, Courtney needed to order a box of Sharpies. So order she did. The Sharpie order came today and I kid you not, it was a single sharpie (instead of a whole box) inside a garbage bag with a twist tie to partition off the part that had the sharpie in it. The Sharpie didn't even come in it's own packaging! It's like they just took the Sharpie out of the bulk box and threw it in a bag and shipped it to us. I couldn't believe it. I guess we probably should have gone with Dunder Mifflin instead of a big box chain like Staples if we wanted service better than that. Serves us right. After all, they are the people person's paper people.

Continuing the tradition

So I'm pretty sure that yesterday's post about dreams inspired my dream last night. I had a dream that me and some of my high school kids were at the MTC watching a presentation put on by the Russian elders (the ones Justin teaches. Riley was there doing the presentation too). It was a beautiful spring day until suddenly, we got wind of a terrorist attack on the MTC. We heard there would be hundreds of them, but they were filtering in slowly. A lot of parents showed up mighty quick to take their children away and one of the parents offered to drive me home as well. I jumped in this snowmobile that they used for a car (but it was huge... like the size of an SUV, but a snowmobile) and they decided that on the way to dropping me off, they would check out their secret hideout house in case they had to go live there. Well on the way there, we magically got our snowsuits on and were wading through several feet of snow before I knew it. Their house was fine so they took me home to my parents, who apparently now lived in Utah in what used to be the vom Lehn's house (for all of you from Glenville. Yes, it was the vom Lehn's house, but transplanted in Provo). Justin was still at the MTC fighting off the terrorists I guess. We didn't hear from him for days, just hoping everything was alright. They basically put all the other elders in this underground bunker, so they were all safe, they just left the Russian elders out there fighting the terrorists by themselves. It was weird.
Anyway, Justin eventually came home and he was ok, and I guess Riley was too, since Justin didn't say Riley had died. Almost immediately after he got home, Justin had to leave again because if he didn't, he was going to be late for his shift at the MTC. Yes, he was going to go straight back to work, so help him.

Needless to say, I dream really weird stuff. In quite vivid detail, too. If you want a show, Justin says I talk during all the dreams too, so maybe we could try to videotape it one time and then rent it out and make millions.

I had a dream

So, maybe you can't tell, but I dream pretty weird stuff, pretty often. Here are a couple of good ones lately.

I dreamt that I had crazy asthma and one day at work, I had such a bad asthma attack that I almost died. However, in my dream, my coworker, Janette, also had bad asthma but she was actually prepared and had this giant iron lung type nebulizer that she used to save my life. So thanks, Janette. You can tell I think pretty highly of you since sometimes my coworkers chase after me trying to kill me in my dreams.

I dreamt that Justin went crazy and was trying to kill me and my mother. And we were trying to run away from him and we just kept running further and further into the woods towards the river. I just remember thinking that if we could just get across the river, Justin wouldn't be able to kill us, but as long as we were on this side, he could shoot us up all he wanted.

Last night I dreamt that I was talking to my friend (who never had a face, but did have the last name "Holbrook"-- I remember that specifically) and he had a little brother who had been in the state soccer finals (playing for Bountiful High school). Anyway, the state finals were held at some huge stadium where they were taped by ESPN (yes, Utah high school soccer finals are a pretty big deal). At the end of the game, my Holbrook friend's little brother was back up in the stands and they announced that he was the MVP of the game- so he started going crazy and jumping around for joy in the stands, and they were of course videotaping it and broadcasting it on ESPN. Well I was watching this video with my Holbrook friend after the fact and I realized that behind his gleeful little brother in the stands was my WHOLE FAMILY! Yes, my family had been on ESPN and I knew that they didn't know it. So I got the URL of the video from my friend and was going to e-mail it to my mom to tell them they were famous. I actually only realized this was a dream about halfway through the morning this morning when I suddenly remembered that I really needed to e-mail my mom about something and then remembered what. And to be honest, I was a little disappointed when I realized it wasn't for real. So sorry, fam. You're not so famous after all.

Late Mother's Day

So I didn't write about this before, but not because it wasn't awesome. Yes, I have an amazing husband who will treat me for Mothers Day even though I technically have no spawn of my own yet (I know, the word "spawn" just makes that sentence so sweet and tender.). Justin surprised me by taking me out to Olive Garden on Friday night and then he surprised me with something I've been wanting FOREVER. So our house struggles for decorations, and I've been wanting some flowers to brighten up our otherwise mildly drab apartment. Well, Justin pulled through and helped me put together this cute arrangement for our front room.


He also took me to IKEA to get a rug for our front room. I think it makes a huge difference.

Also, on a relatively unrelated note, Justin built us a window box. It is adorable and I love the flowers. Usually, I am a plant killer, but I must say, these pansies are pretty hardy!! There are about 5 or 6 flowers on each plant now, but this picture is from when we first started. Justin is pretty much a plant genius- he just cuts off little sprigs of plants and puts them in dirt and they grow. I'm not even kidding. It's like he can just will plants to grow with his mind powers. We now have a hanging plant, a plant for our living room, one for our kitchen, our window box, two other plants in hanging baskets off the balcony,bamboo in our living room and begonias on our kitchen table. Pretty much the only fake plant we own is the one Justin just got me for mothers day in the picture above. Anyway, here's our window box. It is awesome. And that is all for today.

Awesome Dream

So I woke up this morning at the absolute worst time EVER. I was having this stellar dream where I was in GAP and I was finding all of these really awesome steals of deals. Actually, technically, my ward Relief Society's first counselor, Shawna was an employee there and she was helping me find the deals. I'm talking really great deals. I mean I had a really cute shirt in my hand that was, get this, 34 cents. Yes. I know. So I have all these really awesome clothes that I'm so happy I've found, and I'm just getting the dressing room to see how stunning my 34 cent shirt will look when BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP my alarm goes off. BOOOOOO.

Goodbye, Brett!

So I dropped Brett off at the MTC today! I officially have a missionary brother... weird! Hopefully I'll be a better letter-writer with him than I've been with anyone else I know who's ever gone on a mission since my skills in that area are generally lacking. Thank heaven for being able to e-mail family members!

My new true sports love

My new true sports love (as in true love in the world of sports) is the game of bowling. Oh sweet game of bowling, my heart doth cry out to thee! Every day as I don those beautiful blue and brown shoes, I feel as though I am slipping in to a dream world of comfort and relaxation. My favorite balls- oh you 9 pound pieces of spherical wonder- the streaks of color that you leave as you speed down that glossy lane fill my heart with joy. The sound that you make as you hit that headpin--crack! The pins shoot up and around in a spray of high-scoring excitement! Ah my heart leaps to see that giant X on the scoreboard. A strike! A strike. The words are like sugar on my lips. Ah bowling, my heart will be forever yours.

You may wonder what has caused this outpouring of love for such a seemingly silly sport. Well my friends, I bowled 3 games today. The first and second, I scored a 142. The third? A 175. Yes, truly bowling is an amazing game.

Also, I got 10 strikes today. Granted, not all in the same game, but still. I bowled enough strikes to get a 300 today. So.... honorary 300 score awarded to me. Yesss.

WOW.

Ok, so Justin got an e-mail saying that this design firm was looking for landscapers. So Justin went to check out their website, only to find this.

Needless to say, for a design firm, it's not the best designed website out there. Also, it is very fun to read all their fun links (example (and as Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up): "Eating Your Landscaping Some of those plants in the wild areas of your mountain landscape are actually delicious. Here are a few of our favorites!"). One of the links discusses how to plant flowers or shrubs against a wall in a pleasing manner. For your amusement, I've included the text below.


"When you're planting flowers or shrubs against a wall, how you arrange them makes the difference between a professional look and an amateurish one. Here's how to do it like the pros.

How Wilbur the Amateur Does It Wilbur wants some plants along a wall to soften it and make it look cared for. So he buys a bunch of plants he likes, digs them in, and waters them. When they come up, they look like a hodge-podge of weeds. At the very least they don't add much to the look of the wall. How Sheila the Pro Does It Sheila, on the other hand, knows the secrets to a great looking wall. First, she understands that she wants to arrange the plants into three tiers with tall plants against the wall, medium sized plants in front of the tall ones, and short plants in front of those. She also wants the colors to contrast. She wants the tall plants to contrast in color with the wall. The medium plants should contrast with the tall ones and the short ones need to contrast with the medium ones. So, she makes a list of what plants are tall, medium and short. She looks through a selection of tall plants and chooses something she likes that is clearly a different color than the wall. She repeats the process with medium and short plants. She has lots of choices. She can use tall shrubs, medium shrubs and short ones. She can use tall flowers, medium flowers and short ones. Or she can mix both. Finally, she buys the plants she's chosen and digs them in. Now there's a beautiful wall!" Now here's the thing that gets me about this whole description. Not only is it already strange with its descriptions of Wilbur and Sheila (whoever those two are), but the following is the professional landscape architect's rendering of the landscaping procedure he has just described. Right now, I'm pretty sure that if that's all it takes, I should go into landscape design. Because it sure makes a heck of a lot more money than a music teacher, and anyone can (as Justin so insightfully put it) "draw some green jellybeans smooshed against a wall." I think I probably even have the ability to throw in some purple leprosy on one of them (see "SHORT" plant in picture). All I can say is, well said, Justin. Well said.

Still vacation...

[Sorry for the second post, but I'm not blog-smart enough to get all the pictures to add at the bottom of the post instead of the top. So you'll want to read my other post, the post below this first, and then continue with this one.So on that note...]

Cont'd from post underneath this one...

It was so nice in fact, that I just couldn't bear to do another week of school and work after that without getting away again. So after barely making it through 5 long days, I packed up and went to New York. My brother is leaving on his mission next week, so this was the last time I was going to see him. He was also going through the Temple for the first time, so I wanted to be there for that. So here are those highlights:


These pictures are totally and completely out of order, but oh well. Here they are anyway.
Besides going through the Temple, the one reason Brett was excited to go to NYC was to get a Jamba. Did you know there are underground jambas that you can order that aren't on the menus tha you just have to hear about from other people? Me neither. I only know of one- Pink Starburst. And I have no idea what's in it. But I know if you order it, they will make it for you.
Also, I think I should send this picture to Jamba Juice so that I can be their Jamba model.
MUST HAVE MORE CHOCOLATE!!!!!!! This was in the Hershey's store (duh.). One interesting thing about this picture is that of all the people that were in the store that day, the only people in this picture miraculously all belong to my family.
Nice view, Atlas! Haha, I just had to put this one in.
My mom and dad and Brett outside Rockafeller Center. Clearly, Brett is a stud.
Brett and Jared and Lauren and I at the airport right before I left. You would never guess that I'm the oldest. Jared and Brett are so stinking tall!
This is a picture of me jumping. I have to give credit to Brett for taking this picture in what is clearly a feat of the photogrpahic world. Look at that leg extension! The clarity! The composition! The hair almost in my mouth! Truly it is incredible.
Just me and Brett. This was supposed to be the last time I'd see him before he left to go to England. But actually, as of today, plans have changed a little thanks to our favorite visa processor and now Brett's coming to the Provo MTC on Tuesday instead of going to the England MTC on Thursday. So I get to see him and take him to the MTC for that sob-fest slideshow they torture you with after all. As if leaving your family for 2 years wasn't bad enough, they make you watch that movie! Heartless, really.
This is the infamous CIA. Despite what I may have lead you to believe before, it is not the government building, the Central Intelligence Agency. It is actually the Culinary Institute of America. And it was AMAZING. I didn't even know there were so many incredible things you could do with food. I'm also happy to report that I only gained 2 pounds after my day there. Go me.
This is a car. The speedracer car. It is in the Toys 'R' Us in NYC. Very cool. I had to therefore make a goofy face and do some sort of strange plie stance to convey to you that this car was obviously very cool. Did you get it? That stance makes the picture, huh? I don't know what the heck I'm doing with my feet.
Well hello, my LEGO friend, Jack Sparrow. It is certainly nice to see you here in NYC! Have you commandeered any good ships lately?

And basically, that was my trip. It was great to see my family and SO relaxing that I just couldn't bear to come back and do more work and school. So I got back on a Wednesday, and the next Wednesday, I was driving to Disneyland, BABY! Those pictures will have to come a different day since we haven't gone through them yet, but needless to say, all in all, April was a GREAT month for vacations. And not a great month for much else that was work or school related.

Also, I quit my job in April, so that was nice. Now I work the same place doing something entirely different and much more pleasant. It is amazing.

Aaaaaand I guess that concludes this post (you can all breathe a collective sigh of relief.) (or start collectively bawling uncontrollably from sadness depending on how much you liked it.) (Please only tell me if you're bawling or else I might become so overwhelmed with sadness that I would just have to take another vacation and post more pictures about it to make you jealous.) (mwah-ha-ha-ha!)

VACATION!!!!

Ok, here it is! Finally, a recapping of all the wonderfully fun vacationing I've done between the end of March and now. I've taken some pretty awesome trips- touched both sides of the US, even. It's been a blast.

A long, long time ago, I can still remember... how I took a band trip with Timpanogos High School. I was student teaching there, so I got to go on their band tour. We went all over- southern UT, Arizona, Nevada and back. March 25-28 if I remember correctly. Here are some highlights:

Firstly, Do you know how refreshing it is to leave frigid cold, snowy weather to go spend 4 days in a place where it's warm enough for the trees to blossom? Probably not. Not unless you've lived through the frozen misery that is Utah winter. Needless to say, it was a welcome break.

We went to the Grand Canyon. It was my first time and it was incredible. Seriously, that canyon is grand- people aren't lying. Way bigger than I expected.

This was in a welcome bag in one of our hotels. Yes, that is a full women's Schick razor with 4 blades. Just for FREE. There was also men's cologne in this welcome packet (since that, along with packets to flavor your water are clearly essentials that the hotel must provide on the slightest chance that you forgot your own), which I meant to try and trade to some of the guys on the trip for that ladies razor. I mean seriously! Do you even know how much razors cost? A LOT. And being the poor college students we are, there is a good chance I'll never shave again if I can't get them for free.
Another highlight of the trip. I know it's blurry, but you can deal wid it. This was one of the clinics we had. We forgot music stands... soooooo... well, some of the students filled right in. How resourceful. Also, at this clinic, there was a sign outside the room that advertised that we had the room reserved. This sign called us "Pimpanogos High School." Now I don't know about you, but if I was typing that sign up and saw that name come through, I think I would double check to make sure that the name of the high school really did have the word "pimp" in it. But apparently, I might be the only one, because whoever typed that certainly just had a good chuckle about our stupid name and kept right on typing.
Lastly, the bizarre and slightly suspicious yellowish-brown stain that was on my bathroom floor. You don't need to worry- I checked it out and it was just a bit of brown sealant or lacquer or something, but really, the last thing you want to see as a paying customer at a hotel is a weird, shiny stain on your bathroom floor in an all-too-convenient color. But there was that welcome packet, so my weirded-out-ness subsided very quickly.



OK, then, there was a weekend getaway when we went to Logan to check out Utah State. We also spent that weekend celebrating our anniversary (which makes sense because our anniversary is in January) at the Anniversary Inn there in Logan. Here are some highlights from that (DON'T WORRY! KID FRIENDLY HIGHLIGHTS!)


This is us just before the deadly black fog entirely overtook us, eating our lungs and turning us into nothing more than sludge puddles on the floor.

No, but really, I don't know what happened to this picture, but this is us in the room. Check out that cactus lamp!!!! And clearly, I am one of the devil's minions.
Despite what this picture might lead you to believe, I am not pregnant, though this shot makes me look very much that way.
I know what you're thinking. "But, Erin! This is just a picture of blackness." Well, you'd be wrong, because this is really a picture of the ceiling of our room where there were fiber optic lights to make it look like the night sky!!!! Yes, I know. GREAT picture.
This was the 5ft. long fish tank in our room. Yes, in our room!!! There were surprisingly few fish in it, but on the other hand, maybe not so surprising. Those fish could have easily been horrified to death by some of the things they might have seen.
Justin in the 2nd floor of our room. Yes, there were two floors. It was cool.



And last, but certainly not least, this is the breakfast we got brought. DELICIOSO if I do say so myself. Hot cocoa, orange juice, milk, apple juice, yogurt parfaits with fresh fruit (who doesn't like a parfait?!) and delicious cream filled pastries. MMMMMMM.

It was thoroughly enjoyable, and an incredibly nice getaway after a long, tiring, mind-numbing, enitre week of school and work.

Awesome picture

Look at this incredible picture that Brett took of me. He should be a photographer. It is perfect! Also, check out that height. WNBA, if you'd like to recruit me, I'm open for offers.

Rules for writing twice

I'm pretty sure that the rule for blogging is that you can only write two times in one day if the second time, you're writing to say that you got a 165 at bowling today. So... yeah. Let's just say, I'm writing twice today.

Take that BIO 100!

Alright, I know many of you are waiting for the details of my recent vacations. However, right now, my brain is exploding with joy about what I have just accomplished. At approximately 8:09 this morning, I entered the Independent Study testing center to take exams 1 and 2 for my BIO 100 Independent study course. This may not sound like much of a feat to you, but let me also say that I started this independent study course in May. LAST May, that is. And yes, I was taking exams 1 and 2. And yes, you take the exams in increasing numerical order. Needless to say, I was pretty proud of myself. After a sum total of probably 4 hours of reading and studying the entire first units (5 chapters in the book), I thought to myself, "I hate this. If I go take the exam now, I'll at least pass, and really, isn't that all I need to graduate? Yes. Yes it is." So off I went. And I'm proud to report that I got an 88% on the multiple choice. I'm clearly a super-genius. Why spend an entire semester in the class if you can spend a sum total of 24 hours (there are 4 tests) learning ALL the material and get an 88%? You are quite right, my friends; there is no reason.

[Also, just for your information, at approximately 8:35, I exited the testing center, having completed 50 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions. Yes, 25 minutes for 2 exams, baaaaaby. How much time did they recommend allowing yourself? Between 2 and 3 hours to take both exams. I am awesome.]

Ok Ok

Ok, so I didn't write yesterday. I stink. But today, I am, and I will leave you with these 2 pictures to wet your appetite for what is coming next.Ouchie-mama! Look at that hot car! Yes, that is the car from the new movie "Speed racer." Just wait til you find out where it is.
Yes, my friends, that is the CIA. I went there. I went blindfolded and gagged in a black helicopter in the middle of the night for questioning. Not really, because I'm a law-abiding citizen, but I bet some people have done that.

Full stories are coming. Get excited!

Still breathing

Yes, despite popular belief, I am still alive (and kicking) though my writing here would definitely not tell the same story. I know you've heard me say a million times that I'm so busy that I never have time to write, but it's really true. I mean, just look at the time-stamp on this baby! 12:08AM? Yes, truly, only desperation and severe lack of time would cause me to write a post at this time of night. Well, don't be too excited, because this is, again, about all I have time to write. But I do swear to you that I will write tomorrow. And I will include at least one picture. Ok, Ok! Two pictures.