Annie says:

You're never fully dressed without a smile!

I searched, Tivo found, and now I'm singing along.

It's not that I ever forget, but oh how I love musical theater! (even when adapted to film) This one in particular.

Shirley Temple will follow shortly.

P.S. Annie always makes me think of YOU AnneE.
Thank you for my lovely new apron! It's PERFECT.

Junie Love

I just can't get enough of this girl.

She's sweet and sassy.

She's silly and serious.

She knows what she wants and my goodness she'll make sure you understand how to get it for her.

And best of all, she finally knows me.
She can point me out in pictures, and she smiles with recognition when she sees me.

Following photo taken October 31, 2007. This is not a very good picture of either of us, but I'll put it up to note what one year of life can do for a little girl. (And a big girl for that matter..) She's really grown into her thighs, don't you think?

For this I am grateful

**UPDATE AT THE BOTTOM**

Amid the chaos and anxiety surrounding the current state of the economy, I have found some silver linings.


Oil is trading for less than $60/barrel. Thus, gas is under $2/gallon. Which means I can fill up my tank for less than $40! This is significantly better than the few times I had to fill my car for approx $80. Ew. Nowadays, instead of resisting to fill my tank in an effort to stretch my budget, I avoid filling my tank because I know next week gas will be even cheaper!!

Flights are cheaper than ever. There are more sales on one-way fares than I've seen since the 90s when you could fly roundtrip SLC-LAX for $99. Remember those days. Ahh...

Everything at Nordstrom is 40% off. I know the half-yearly sale isn't really new, but the quality of the items on sale is better than ever!

Banana Republic's 30% Friends and Family sale. Ends on Sunday at midnight. Need I say more?



On a different note, do you know what I love about windy fall afternoons? That moment when you step outside and your skirt catches in the wind. (Not enough to be obscene, just a tiny lift. Although some recommend matching your undies to your outfit just in case, hah!) Few other things make you feel as feminine and pretty and put a little pep into your step.









*****EDIT Monday 11/17/08************
Check out this CRAZY deal on Southwest!! My allegiances have been pretty much switched over to Delta, but I can not resist this sale. Where should I go between Dec 3rd and Feb 11??


UM WOW. Southwest is offering 50% off all flights from SLC to anywhere they fly starting today until the 18th! Go check out the DEEPLY discounted tickets HERE.

"You're going to change the world aren't ya?"

A few weeks ago the new addition to the Tanner Building was dedicated. They really decked out the place for the event. One highlight was the large, 4-story tall banners they put up listing each of the donors' names. As I was walking out to my car one day after class, I looked up and saw STEPHEN ALMA ZACKRISON right along the bottom of the banner. What?!

I texted Steve immediately (because who doesn't want to know when their name is on a giant banner!) He says he only donated about $50. If I had known I would get my name I a banner, I totally would've donated. Is that the wrong mentality?










We received emails about the dedication ceremony all month long, inviting us students to attend. They never told us who exactly would be in attendance.

They definitely never mentioned that President Monson and the entire A-Team would be there to welcome in Tanner 2.0.














I met up with my friend Heidi (from our trip to Asia) for the dedication. (She leaves for the Tokyo Japan mission next week!) Unfortunately, KHill couldn't make the trip out to Utah for the event. ;-) She was missed. After the meeting was over Heidi and I got front row seats to see the apostles depart.

It was so surreal to see them all in person! It was especially fun to see their wives. I didn't get a picture, but Elder Wirthlin was wheeled out of the building as well. He is looking SO TINY all hunched over in his little chair. His mind is clearly outliving his frail body.

At one point Elder Nelson pulled out his cell phone and called his grandson who was watching from the 4th floor. It was cute. Then Elder Nelson walked right up to Heidi and me and said "You're the ones who are going to change the world aren't you?" and shook our hands. His eyes are quite piercing.















Talk about pressure!! I'd better go figure out exactly how I'm going to accomplish such a thing...

I am so grateful to have had this experience. It's such a small percentage of church members that get the chance to see our leaders in person. And I didn't even have to leave my building to do it!

Quick photo catch up...

I'm so behind in my blogging. Really there's no reason for this because I have plenty of time on my hands. But I have a few things I've wanted to post about for a month now which has been holding me back from posting about more current things. So I'm just going to post some photos of a few different things to get them done with so I can move on to more pressing matters. Like Thanksgiving. And Christmas. And the lack of school. And wreath making. Etc.

So here they are...

Sundance Full Moon Ride, Oct 15 -- It was fun to finally catch this event on its last day before closing for the season. The moon provides a shocking amount of light and the mountain has a very different feel at night. If you don't believe me, you can ask any of the other 600 Provo couples that were also there. Awesome.

Run for Nie -- Sarah and I participated in the charity run for NieNie. It was a delightful event. I always love the chance to run a new course with new people. Around mile 1 I saw a kid ride past me on my bike and realized it was Brenden! He had lost track of Sarah and was a bit distressed. I love that finding me gave him enough comfort to calm down. Family is a special thing.


















Sunday dinners -- We've had some lovely Sunday family dinners hosted by the Wileys. Recently they have included some daredevil showing off by the kids on the bike jumps. Watching little Oliver on a little bike on a very big jump is almost more than I can bear (almost as bad as watching kids on a trampoline on top of a cement slab). Unexpectedly, watching big Ken on a little bike and a big jump is just as frightening.













































JCrew Warehouse Sale -- CZ and I scored some sweet finds at the JCrew warehouse sale at Thanksgiving Point. Family -- watch your mailbox for some delightful surprises!





















Beautiful Birthday Flowers -- People are so good to me. Look at all these lovely flowers I was surrounded with for my birthday. The pink ranunculus arrangement came from Kirstin from TriFec Ta, an awesome flower shop in Salt Lake owned by her mom's friends. They have such unique designs, they win all my business in SL County.
More to come shortly...

You know it's been a while when...

So this treat fast has been good to me. This morning I found myself pulling out some old jeans that I haven't worn in a long time, not since living in Boston, Summer 2007.

When I unfolded the lovely, barely worn Citizens of Humanity jeans I noticed a white thready circular patch on the leg. Upon closer inspection I realized it was a SPIDER NEST! Neatly wrapped inside the little cocoon of a web was a spider!

I was hoping it was dead but pretty soon it started twitching in response to the movement of the jeans. I should've taken a picture but at that moment my only thought was KILL! Which I did.
I couldn't bring myself to wear the jeans to the football game afterall and promptly threw them into the washing machine. Who knows what else could be on there! But it's a little depressing to think some of my clothes go unworn for so long that they become spider homes. I mean seriously, that's a problem.



P.S. Just a tip, do not search google images for "small spider nest". You will not like what you find.

People's Republic of America.

Say hello to socialism people! It's around the corner.


The only two silver linings:

• Outspoken liberals can stop whining about the condition of the country and stop blaming Bush for all the woes of life. (Although democrats will probably use/run against Bush in their campaigns until 2048...)
  
  
• Lots of new work for tax accountants with the changes in the tax code.

And now, I pledge my support to the new President-elect of the United States. It's a position that deserves dignity and allegiance regardless of your beliefs. It really bothers me how we no longer hold our presidents in high esteem. We may not always agree with them, but they are our leaders and deserve our respect rather than relentless criticism and ridicule.

Our Happening Halloween

This was one of the most exciting Halloween's I've had in years. It really helped that the holiday fell on a Friday with plenty of friends and parties to choose from. I think the last 2 years I have been in the testing center on Halloween taking a test until 10pm. Which is just sad.

First, because Christine doesn't blog anymore, I'll share with you how cute and Halloween-y her house is decorated.

It took me a couple weeks to decide what to do for a costume. I had plenty of goodies (read: belly dancer outfits) purchased in the Middle East to choose from, but none of them seemed quite right. In addition, Ken invited me to accompany him to our friend Severin's Halloween party which meant we needed a more couple-y costume.


After much contemplation, we settled on Ken & Barbie. It's an idea that has been considered each of the last three years, but it never quite seemed right. (Mostly because I'm all too aware of how un-Barbie I am...) But this year I found some great costumes that made being Ken & Barbie pretty easy so we went with it. It turned out to be really cute and fun.

Ken, Barbie & Egyptian Belly Dancer (Kirstin)

Our first stop for the evening was Megan and Reed Olsen's spooky halloween photo hunt. They had a really fun game where each group got a list of things they needed to find and photograph around town. Whoever found the most items on the list within the time frame won. The list included things like pitchfork, fake mullet, real mullet, political candidate mask, fake boobs, someone drunk, more than 6 jack-o-lanterns on a porch, someone drunk, vampire costume, inappropriate use of spandex, creepy moustache, someone shirtless... who needs one, guy-liner, fishnets, most disturbing costume, etc.

It was so fun collecting these photos! We stopped first at the line outside of Muse Music. There were so many that could've won the "most disturbing" award but this guy's hand decoration takes the cake. I still don't understand how it works but it's gross...

Ew.

On to the 15th Stake Halloween party at the Smith Fieldhouse where we struck gold. There were some very impressive costumes at that party. We were able to find almost every single item on the list! All while collecting some great stares for our non-dress-code-abiding costumes. I didn't really plan to be on campus that night, sorry.

Kirst and I with some vampires

These guys get Inappropriate Use of Spandex and Fake Boobs

We definitely found the most pumpkins!
The Olsen's party ended in the Maeser Building on campus so Kirst and I had to do a little pose with Brigham.

From the Olsen's party we headed over to Severin and Lissa's Halloween haunt. They had lots of things going on including one of the Clue movies (love those!!) and the Ghost Chase board game that I haven't seen since my childhood. I was too shy to participate in the donut eating contest but I've thought alot about the strategy needed to win such a game. Ken excellently implemented the strategy and won the game!!

Ken & Severin
Severin was in the MAcc-Tax program with me but decided to do the JD/MAcc so this year he's in law school. Ken and Severin have become good friends.
Last one... Ken didn't want to wear his plastic yellow hair but it really completed the outfit

Overall the night was a success. I had one fun-sized Kit Kat which was all I really felt like having anyway. Who knew all my sugar consumption of yesteryear was mostly habit rather than actual desire. All those wasted calories...

Squash Dinner Fail

That title is an ode to a wonderful website called The Fail Blog. It shows pictures of various failures in clever ways. Like this pretty funny "Mascot Fail" "Unlimited Fail" or "Motel Fail" or "Camper Fail" or "Tasty Fail". Of course Scott introduced me to such genius. (Warning: you may want to click the "G-rated posts only" page, sometimes they're a bit edgy.)

While at Sarah's house last Friday, I was flipping through her Better Homes & Garden magazine when I came upon this recipe for Chicken and Squash Gnocchi. It looked so tasty and I had a recent success with roasted squash in a vegetable pasta dinner so I thought it would be great. I had to go to Harmon's to find fresh gnocchi (which on second thought, I should've just made myself but whatever).



Last night I finally got around to making the recipe and boy did it fail. The squash smelled and tasted terrible by the time it was time to actually combine it with the chicken and pasta. Look at this photo, that just looks terrible right? I wish I could recommend that recipe but I don't really. Luckily the rest of dinner was salvageable.


The fact that I'm able to experiment with a recipe means this week is amazingly less busy than last week! Monday was so great. I went to class in the morning and then went with Sarah's kids to see High School Musical 3 at Riverwoods.

I had never seen HSM1 or 2 and found HSM3 to be mildly interesting and not too overly dramatic (except for that kid who plays the male lead, he clearly loves his biceps too much...). I had to resist napping during the movie until I realized wait, I don't have to feel bad for taking a tiny rest in this movie because it is a kids movie afterall.

I loved the time I got to spend with Sarah Brenden Oliver and June and I'm glad I got to go. But overall, the movie really REALLY bothered me. It's just not good for kids to see all this madness about falling in love in high school, or that the only way you can be happy in high school is if you have a best friend of the opposite sex. It sets unrealistic expectations. It creates false hope. It causes kids to have the WRONG focus. I remember being affected by these kinds of movies as a kid. Dawson's Creek was also popular at the time which glorified these super close, you-mean-everything-to-me friendships between boys and girls. I remember what it made me think about high school, I remember the longing it created in my mind and immature heart. It doesn't lead good places.

Where are the movies glorifying what high school should be about? Practicing building friendships with all kinds of people, learning about what you believe and how to stand up for it, spending time bonding with your family, participating in extracurricular activities that expand your horizons. I was lucky enough to have older siblings as examples for how to have a great time in high school. And I did!! But there was a lot of wasted heartache too. That's all about that for now...


Monday night I finished all my homework, finished the gym, finished laundry and found myself watching a documentary on KBYU called Brides on the Homefront. It was the story of 3 separate women falling in love during World War I. It was touching to hear their stories, one got to marry her sweetheart, one's husband was killed while at war, one women "Dear Johned" her soldier. During that time BYU was about 80% female! And we think our current 2-1 ratio is bad. It's an interesting time in US history when the country was so bonded and strong. People were proud and worked hard. It's hard to completely grasp the range of emotions they experienced during that time.




That was followed by the always fascinating surf documentary Riding Giants. Then the documentary Mall Mania about the expansion of the American shopping idea into China.



Then I finally went to bed.




Yes, I just admitted to watching one full-length movie and three documentaries in one day. Should I be embarrassed? Maybe. Do people generally admit to watching TV? No way. If I had said I read books for 4 hours would people think differently about how I spend my free time? Yes, they probably would.

I love this funny post from Lisa on Light Refreshments Served about this subject (you should really click that link). Here's an excerpt:

Have you ever been in the situation when someone says something like “Oh, I never watch TV.” or “I don’t even OWN a TV. . .” or “I don’t have TIME to watch TV. . .” like it’s an automatic virtue, (or like my friend Eric says, “It’s not like they’re out there curing cancer while you’re watching TV. . .”) and you’re left standing there feeling kind of dumb, like you can’t really defend TV watching, like it’s just an assumed vice like force- feeding baby seals hard liquor, so you say nothing or you say something like “Oh, well, we love PBS! And the Discovery Channel is really worth it. . .” or “It’s nice to watch Conference. . .and the Olympics!” Or worst, you jump in and tell them which book you just finished reading like you have to justify yourself, your life, or your use of leisure time. But what you’re really thinking is “I love to watch TV–it’s relaxing! It’s entertaining! There’s so much good stuff on there. . .and, what with my DVR, I’m responsible with it–I save time in fact. . .” Well, maybe you don’t go on and on like that, but the sentiment is the same.

So there you go. I watched some TV yesterday. I don't have to defend what I choose to do with my leisure time. And neither do you! :-)

RIP

I mentioned it briefly on Tuesday, but I wanted to give an official farewell to my favorite red watch.

I was first introduced to the "Cuff Watch" by my mother. She gifted me a Silver Ox Chico Cuff Watch that was featured on Oprah's Favorite Things 2002. I wore it til it broke in two.

A couple years ago on a date to dinner and a movie at the Riverwoods, Ken bought me a random present at that random home decor store (you know which one I'm talking about right?): my beloved red watch. It was a GREAT replacement for the old chico version. I've worn it in on 4 continents and a dozen countries. It was starting to wear out and I was considering replacing it this birthday, but I was never going to let it go.

I've searched the testing center and the BYU Lost & Found (IeLi - any tips?) but they don't have it. I am positive I left it in the darkness of the testing center. Which means someone found it and just kept it? or threw it away?

Ah... what a shame. It's so rare to find something that you love like that. And supremely annoying when you lose it..

**Photos courtesy of Dave Kader's crazy cool camera color feature. And the Mount Scopus Brittish War Cemetery in Israel. **

This would be GREAT for Jay-walking

Check out this 2 minute video of people who claim to be Obama supporters. Pure gold.