Posts (page 2)

I got home late last night from a girls weekend in Texas.  My 5 best friends from college finally reunited after not being together for over 6 years.  We determined that the last time we were all together was October 2000, right before I left on my mission.  Amber was just barely engaged, and Tiffany had moved back to Florida.  Now, Tiffany is living in Florida with her husband and adorable son Dylan (pictures will come tomorrow).  She is a dental hygienist and her husband just finished law school.  I think most phenomenally though, they are home-owners.

Amber is married to Jamie and has an cute little boy named Zac.  He and Dylan are two months apart, and it was so sweet to watch them play together.  Amber is also 7 months pregnant with her second boy.  They live in Dallas where Amber is a hair stylist and Jamie is a history teacher and soccor coach.  He thinks we should all call him Coach Ayres.  After the way I saw him motivate his team during one of the many games we played (we played A LOT of games.  The weather in Dallas was horrible, totally changing the way I think about Dallas)

Cami lives in Dallas as well and works as a stylist/consultant/fashion guru for Nordstrom.  She designs their windows and displays in the men's department.  I'm sure she has a really great title that I just butchered there, but she is the hippest dresser in the world and has what I imagine to be the best shoe and purse collection for a girl on a budget. 

Emmalee and I flew in from LA.  Emmalee teaches at a middle school downtown and lives in Pasadena.  She is the glue that holds our group together and makes everyone laugh and feel comfortable.  It really was almost like no time had passed and we were crazy freshmen living in the dorms again.  Especially when Jamie started prank calling people. 

That is the name of my class.  Quantitative Analysis II.  We got out very early today, so I am a fan of the class so far.  Richard keeps telling me how much fun econometrics (the subject of Quantitative Analysis II) is and how excited I should be for my class.  During the introduction, my teacher kept talking about how much fun econometrics is as well.  I tried to think fun thoughts today, but I am struggling to imagine that it is going to be fun.  I opened the first chapter today and felt a little scared.  There were lots of equations with summations and Beta's...that is scary stuff to me!  Sometimes, when I think back on my high school days, I am so suprised that I actually took classes like AP Calculus.  The thought of doing calculus now is so terrifying.  My math score on the GRE barely qualified me for my masters program.  I guess it just goes to show you, if you are working on something, like calculus, everyday (like I was in High School) it becomes easier.  I'm not going to start working on calculus everyday, but maybe this could apply to other parts of my life....hmmmm... :) 

I finally got around to making Richard take pictures of my finger nails for the "before" shots.  I'm kind of ashamed at how short and stubby my fingers looked.  Maybe the camera adds 10lbs to your hands too :) 

 

First shot...man, my hands look chubby. :)  I don't think this shot gives the full effect of how sad my nails look right now. 

 

I think the close ups capture it a little bit.  Lots of redness around the nail and they are also really short too.  A bad combination.  I read an article about how to keep from biting your nails.  It suggested things like playing with Silly Putty to occupy your hands or to get fake nails.  I don't know about the fake nails.  I remember the one time that I did put them on, I pried them off about 2 hours later.  It felt strange, like I was looking down at my hands, but they were someone elses hands on my body.  Bizarro.  Anyway, here are the before shots. I'll update in a week or so

 

Today was Richard's first day back at school, and I start tomorrow.  There is something exciting and hopeful about the first day.  Classes have the potential to be really amazing and interesting.  Walking around work today and watching all the students, I could sense that they were feeling that excitiment too.  I do enjoy the first day.  The feeling usually wears off during week two though, which is kind of depressing.

 

 Finally, I wanted to post about one thing that I love about my husband Richard.  He has many talents, but one I really admire is that he can peel/carve pineapples.  Do you carve pineapples?  I don't know.  The point is, that before I met Richard, I never knew anyone who could do that.  It was mighty impressive the first time he did it.  I love fresh pineapple.  Canned pineapple has nothing on fresh pineapple.  Richard comes in handy when I am craving fresh pineapple.  I love him for that reason

 

 

This pineapple is going to be my snack for after class tomorrow.  I am looking forward to it very much!

So far, the nail biting goal is going okay.  Just okay.  My big problem is the time at work, I just get so bored and stressed at the same time.  I have no idea why, but nail biting can be so relaxing.  They do look okay, but I do need to get better. 

 

I was very excited on Thursday to see Nancy Pelosi be sworn in as Speaker of the House.  I am not crazy political, but the fact is I love that a woman is the Speaker of the House.  It makes me really glad that I live in a world where women have equal opportunities that men have.  I love that my daughters could grow up to be the Speaker, or even the President.  I am also really happy that the Democrats are in power in the House and the Senate.  I am hopeful that this will lead to a positive change...it is already starting out well, the Dems are looking to enact the rest of the suggestions from the 9/11 commision and have commited to some real ethics reforms like cutting out "pork" spending."

 

Richard and I have also committed to changing our diet.  We went to Costco tonight and got a lot of yummy good food-such as whole grain pasta, brown rice, and loads of fruit.  Richard is pretty convinced that we can do this.  I'm a little more skeptical, but I know that I need to be more committed if we are actually going to do this.  I have a weakness for sweets. 

 

 

One BIG resolution that I would like to keep this year is to stop biting my nails.  I know, I know...I have been biting my nails FOREVER.  I think probably since I had teeth.  It is a disgusting habit.  Currently, they are not that bad.  No blood or anything.  I think I am going to try to chart my progress on the blog.  Maybe if I record the progression, I will feel some accomplishment and want to stop forever. 

 

I have grown out my nails twice in my life.  Once, in college, because my friends didn't believe that I could.  I grew them out for three months.  I felt like I was constantly taking care of them and hurting them.  The second time I grew out my nails was for the wedding.  You know, all those up close hand shots and stuff :)  Unfortunatly, it is true.  There is a picture of Richard and my hand holding the temple door.  I know...SO CHEESY!  But it was Richard's aunt who took the picture and it was the first day I met her AND she has a very dominating personality.  How could I refuse. 

 

Darn, I don't have a picture of the "hand shot" on my work computer.  Maybe I'll post one tonight.

Back from Christmas in Italy.  It is very nice to be home, but wow...was 8 hours of work today ever hard!  At about 3:00 p.m., I kind of lost it and "puttered" for the rest of the afternoon.  It will be better tomorrow.  I am sure. 

 

I tripped and twisted my ankle on the way down the stairs to get the laundry tonight.  OUCH!  Richard got me an ice pack for it, and now I am sitting here with ice on my foot.  He was very sympathetic and took very good care of me.  He even offered to get me crutches.  I don't think it will come to that. 

 

So now we have an ice pack just like the one pictured above.  I like the look of it.  I am sure it will come in handy again as well.  Richard and I seem to trip a lot 

 

 

 

Well, I'm just going to pretend that it hasn't been over a month since my last post.  I'll pretend like we just got back from Indiana and post some pictures of the Indiana trip.

We finished up the move BARELY making to our flight.  I guess we did have time to have an airport snack, but we were in the car with our last load out of Federal apartments at 10:30 p.m. with a flight leaving out of LAX at midnight.  I was a little nervous and my poor husband bore the brunt of the stress.

 

Here are some pictures of us in the car with the last load.

I am so crammed in here it is incredible!  Thankfully nothing broke, we made our flight and we still got a shower!  We really both needed the shower too..moving is stinky!

 

We took the red-eye flight to Indian

a, with a brief layover in Minneapolis.  I bought another scarf.  I am addicted to the $10 airport scarf!  I just love it.  I thought the scarf was orange until Richard mocked me and told me it was red.  I took a vote when we arrived in Indiana and every said yes...it was red.  I am apparently developing color blindness

 

My dear mother picked us up from the airport and we w

ent straight to Blooming to see my brother Karl and his girlfriend Emily.  We got to see his house and his delux television.  His roommate is very much into technology/computers/televisions etc.  He has a HUGE tv in his living room.  The HDtv made a world of difference, but I cant' imagine dropping $2000 on a TV anytime soon.

 

We ate lunch at a yummy restaturant-delicious clazones with creamy garlic sauce.  I love anything with creamy garlic sauce invovled.  There was a chocolate dessert to die for as well, we all split one, but I wondered if I could finish a whole one myself :)  hehehehe.  Probably not a good idea :)

 

After getting back from Bloomington, we stopped by Richard's sisters house in Indianapolis.  Our nieces and nephews are so adorable.  They took a bunch of pictures themselves.  I'll upload a few of the funny ones.  I will not upload the picture that Abigail and Anna took of their brothers underwear.  I don't think Benjamin and Matthew would be too happy with that.

 

 These kids crack me up

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also got some fun photos of them.  There are none of Benjamin because he had a new video game that he was devoting the majority of his time to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aren't they the cutest!   The rest of the weekend was relaxing and fun.  Although I did have a paper due on Sunday and I spent a lot of Saturday night writing the paper.  I got an A though...all worth while!  It was wonderful to see so much of our family!

 

 

Unfortunately, my celebrity sitings have been slim to none.  I might have once seen this guy....

 

 

Peter Boyle (Dad from Everybody Loves Raymond) in traffic, but it just as easily could have been some old man in a nice car.  I once saw Richard Kind

  

who I am sure everyone may recognize at "that guy" in "that show" but really...that is fairly pathetic.

 I did once roam around Barnes and Noble right in front of a Hobbit.

Dominic Monaghan was sitting in the corner of the where crafts meets cooking reading a book about the beatles and one about the history of rap music.  I thought he was a woman until he got up.  Then I realized he was actually a hobbit.

 

Finally, on Thursday, I got to see Hollywood in action!  I had to run over to Bovard Administration building at USC in the morning and noticed something peculiar.  A huge Welcome to Yale Parents Weekend sign was draped over the front the building. The Tommy Trojan statue in the front of the building was hidden by plants and trees and tables covered in Yale gear were on the walkway leading into the building.  I asked my friend Kevin was going on and he said they were filming an episode of Gilmore girls in front of the building.  That is right!  Rory goes to Yale!  So exciting!

Later that afternoon, I walked over to Bovard again and was mezmorized while I watched them film a scene with Lorelai Gilmore (aka Lauren Graham)

 

I loved hearing "Quiet on the Set" and "Action!"  It was just so interesting to see how many people were involved in making this one tiny scene on one tiny TV show.  Incredible.  But very tedious.  I watched for about 15 minutes and they ran through a 30 second scene twice during that time. Some of the crew were playing catch most of the time. 

The whole experience was very interesting though and I am looking forward to catching the episode sometime!

We painted the walls for our new apartment today.  I love the color, I think in part because it is mint choclate chip green.  We had friends stop by and they suggested that we should add the chocolate chips.  I doubt we will do that, but I can imagine that I will be craving ice cream when I walk into my living room.  Who am I kidding, I'm always craving ice cream :) 

 

 

 

ACTION SHOT!!!  You can't notice here, but I am completely covered in paint.  Richard got two or three splotches on his pants.  I had it all over.  I mean all over.  My feet, my arms, My hair, my ears, my mouth and covering my clothes.  I am not a clean girl

 

 

 

I really like the way it looks.  We have a really beautiful red tree outside our window and I just like the green and red together.  We are moving everything in on Tuesday and I am excited to see how the furniture will fit in

As we pack up boxes for the move, I have realized that I have never moved some of the books on the shelves here to dust the entire year we have been here.  Not once.  There is a lot of dust that accumulates in a year.  I remember being sort of disgusted and embarrassed by my mom because she never dusted.  As I would watch TV (laying on my back, feet resting against the pink wallpaper wearing it through) I would periodically wipe dust off the TV, the VCR, the books on the TV shelf etc.  I couldn't believe that she could live that way.  Then I got my own place and realized how easy it was to forget to dust until the bunnies were taking over the house.

I like these dust bunnies.

Great, my second post about my dirty behavior.  Anyone reading this might get the wrong idea...I actually do like to clean, just not my own house or when I have other things to do.  like reading or blogging.  I used to clean my friends house when I spent the night.  I would always get up earlier then them and clean in the morning.  I also cleaned my friend Tiffany's room in college.  I think I am slightly neurotic.

 

My other failures (as listed in the title) inlclude the fact that my husband ate cereal for dinner and I had pot stickers.  I had enough time today to make a real meal, but I enjoyed flipping channels so much more. 

 

And finally, for the third failure of the day...I almost fell asleep on my 10 minute commute home.  Shhh, don't tell my husband.  I just can't help it.  The lull of the start and stopping along with NPR, puts me in a trance.  I try to do things that will prevent me from falling asleep, but one would imagine that driving is enough to keep you awake.  I think this is a result of car trips with the family.  I could fall asleep for an entire state (not Nebraska, that state takes forever to drive through).  I consider my ability to fall asleep in a car a talent.  Just not one I should practice when I am alone in the car.