So un-talented

I can't even get my hyperlinks to work today.
I should call it a day.

the LET (low-expectation theory)

Sometimes I think myself crafty, or creative.

That is, until I see things like this.
Or this.
Or this.

Or this.

Or this.

Or visit here and realize that I'm not.

Me Want Cookies!

Hey, thanks for the cookies Nik!
They were delicious.

I wanted to let you know Chod did share.
Now he can have another cookie in his life.

Hope you've had a great day!

Happy, Happy Birthday Grandma Dear!

This coming Tuesday will be my grandma's birthday!

I just wanted to give a little shout out to her for her special day.
I hope it's great and you get to enjoy the sunshine!
We love you Grandma!
Love,
Brian & Whit

Jog for Jiggy, 2nd Annual

Tomorrow, April 18, 2009, I and the rest of the A-Team Gang will compete in the 2nd Annual Jog for Jiggy.

In honor of an awesome, spunky girl we will run our hearts out in the Salt Lake City 5K. We will all finish and it will be great!

Last year, only one person threw-up, a couple of us were passed by older men and we enjoyed all the bananas, chocolate milk and taquitos we wanted at 7:53 in the a.m., followed by a scumpcious breakfast at the 2nd oldest restaurant in Utah, Ruth's Diner.

Here's hoping for another great run! Go big or go home.

Fake-out

In the midst of my training for the Wasatch Back my Nike+ decided it would rather die than keep on, keepin' on.

I had just joined a family group on the Nike+ website.

No recorded runs for me.

Last night I finally decided to calibrate my Nike+ -- in hopes of making my runs more accurate -- but to no avail. "Connecting to receiver" was all that would come up as I started my run. Nothing would work. I toook the sensor out of my shoe, pushed the button -- nothing.

I was disgusted with the device.

Brian's battery in his sensor died a few weeks ago and I was not about to buy another Nike+.

"I'll just do without," I thought.

I"m not totally attached to the system. I just wanted to record my fastest 5K.

Anyway, back at home, Bri took a look.

"Yeah, that's exactly what happened to mine."

Gonner. Not exactly the best news.

But wait -- what did I notice this morning?! My receiver sitting on top of our microwave!

That must be Bri's.

Wait a minute -- I took that out to charge my iPod the other night -- and never plugged it back in!

Hallelujah!

Anyway, now that that is solved -- I'm planning on running a marathon in October.

Anyone have good training tips?

Spring Fabric Giveaway

I decided to visit TheFarmChicks today and found they had posted a giveaway yesterday!
Pick your favorite two fabric patterns from Pixie Dust Fabric and leave a comment on TheFarmChicks website for a chance to win.

Hurry -- it only goes until April 17th!

Becoming a Tradition

Here it is -- a little earlier this week! Hurry, it's today!

Free Aggie Ice Cream after Tasting Hamburger
9:30AM to 1:30PM
NFS 209
Free
Taste hamburger and get a coupon for a free scoop of Famous Aggie Ice Cream.
Participants must be 18 years or older and have no food allergies.

Conclusion

I've come to a conclusion, as I was re-reading my blogs of about a year ago -- when I wrote about my memories from college and Utah State -- that I did a pretty dang good job!
I laughed again as I remember those things.
I don't mean to brag, but wow.
I think my blogging/writing ability has slowing deteriorated.
I need to work on that.

Sorry About Our Bad Luck!

The Hamburger Taste Test was today.
I'm sorry about the late information. I thought it was later this week.

I'll try to be more timely next time, but look -- it got me to post on my blog!

Free Hamburger and Ice Cream Anyone?

Here's an idea:

Hamburger Taste Test

9:30AM to 1:30PM

NFS 209

Taste hamburger and get a coupon for a free scoop of Famous Aggie Ice-cream; participants must be 18 years or older and have no food allergies.

Not such a bad deal, right?

The Excitement Is Skipping Inside Me!

P.S. As fun as it has been to be here in Burley with Bay and Garrett, and the fact that I've learned so much from them and we've had a great time together -- I cannot wait to go home tomorrow and be with Brian.

It's been nine days since I've seen him and I miss him!

I am also excited for Homecoming week at Utah State!

Go Aggies, Go Aggies, Hey, Hey, Hey!

Childhood Memories: Fall time

Yesterday, as I sat at my home in Burley, sick of writing "Thank You" cards and having watched about all the What Not To Wear episodes I could, I decided to go see what the great outdoors had to offer.

What I saw when I got out there was a yard full of leaves -- and when I say full, I mean FULL! So, what else can you do when childhood memories start flooding your head but engage and satisfy them?!

I remember growing up here, and every fall brought the same things: tons of trucks full of potatoes, beets and corn, a lot of dust and allergies, and a huge pile of leaves that called my name. The pile was always almost as tall as me. I used to spend hours jumping, playing, re-raking and jumping more into our pile of leaves, after we had raked them. It was the greatest thing in the world -- to come home from a long day at school and play, until dark, in our pile of leaves! My little sister and my neighbor and I would bury each other in them. We would try to jump from the tramp into them. We probably even incorporated some version of "house" outside with our leaf pile. That pile of leaves meant fall!

Yesterday, I realized I'm just as picky about raking now as I was back then. I really like to have all the leaves that I can possibly get in the pile. No mediocre job will do. I did have to relax a little, as the wind was making it impossible for me to get as many leaves as I wanted to into my pile. It ended up being a long process becuase the rake decided to give out about halfway through my raking. Nevertheless, I got it done and waited, with little kid anticipation and excitement, for Bay and G-man to get home from school. They were hardly impressed, to say the least.

The pile now only goes to my waist. It has shrunk through the passing years.

The Guide To One Huge Mess In Only Three Hours and 21 Minutes

For the past five days I have been living at my parent's house (no, not because I'm having marital problems), but to have the grand joy of staying with my two youngest siblings while the parents are on vaca.

My parents are currently enjoying a well deserved, and longed-for, trip back East -- to drive about and enjoy the fall foliage. My parents have had the opportunity to see beautiful forests of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, visit the Dartmouth campus, and, I suspect, will soon be arriving in the great city of Boston, Massachusetts for some history lessons and great food.

Meanwhile, back at the farm, Baylee and I decided to make some Halloween sugar cookies. These sugar cookies are a specialty of my mother's and ever since I can remember she has made them for holidays such as Halloween, Valentine's Day and Easter. So, loving to cook myself, I gave in to Bay's pleadings to make them. Little did I know that her "helping" only lasted until two cookie sheets were baked, she then lost interest and left me to finish the dirty job.

I don't know if it was worth the time for about 42 cookies that may be gone in minutes, but it's tradition I guess!

Happy Halloween to all!

P.S.

Did I mention I got married about three weeks ago?
Yeah, I did.
That story is still to come.

JSYK

Bowl Full Of Crunchy Goodness

For those of you who are fans of Kashi's GoLean Crunch! and General Mills MultiGrain Cheerios, I introduce: Cheerios Oat Cluster Crunch Cereal!

It's a grand combination of some of the best Cheerios with little, tasty oat clusters surprising your mouth with a slight hint of cinnamon!

It's also a great grab-n-go cereal that tastes as good without milk as it does with. Plus, it's supposedly good for you because it's made with seven whole grains (we'll overlook how many grams of sugar it contains).

This tasty treat has quickly made it to my top five cereals of all time.

You should get a box!

A Birthday Wish Full of Happiness!

I don't have much time to blog, which makes me sad, but I did want to wish one of my favorite uncles a very happy birthday! Hope it's great Uncle Warren!

Oh, The Life of a College Student!: Parts VIII, IX, and X

And now, for random ramblings of my head.

Today I saw my favorite Aggie Shuttle Driver holding his new little son. He is about the happiest person I know -- always greeting every single passenger with a enthusiastic welcome.
"Good Morning!"
"Come on in!"
"Hello, how are ya?"
"Good Morning!"
"Come on in!"
I don't think I have ever known a driver such as him, and I'll never forget him either. Who wouldn't want to be greeted like this every morning for your 7:30 class?!

Speaking of 7:30 in the a.m. -- I took my last final, maybe ever, at 7:30 on Tuesday morning. It was anti-climatic.
No huge burden of stress was relieved. I didn't feel lighter. I didn't even give a shout of joy as I handed in my exam and walked out of the room.
It was just over.
And now it's over -- everything.

I remember Nikkala once telling me of when she finished her final exam before graduation. She said she was walking around in the TSC -- looking for anyone who cared and ran in to some girl she knew from her ward. Nik said she just had to tell her because she had to tell someone and that girl just happened to be the first person Nik knew and could tell. I felt kind of the same way.
I had to tell someone that I was done, and since it was 8 in the morning I knew I had few options, so I called my dad.
It felt good just to tell him I was done. He was pretty excited, maybe more because he just realized he didn't have to pay for my schooling any more! What a great dad I have and how blessed I am to be so lucky to have had the opportunity to go to school. Parents make it happen, you know.

As I walked out of the business building Tuesday I felt as though everything was my last.
My last time walking out of a class.
My last time seeing Old Main lit so beautifully by the rising sun.
My last time checking my hair in the Eccles Conference Center Windows.
My last time to sell back a book....

And they did even buy it!

But you know, it's not really my last. Maybe I'll be lucky and land a job at the university -- where I can remain in college forever, but if not I still have all summer to enjoy the fine campus and exciting atmosphere of Utah State University!

Which makes me happy.

P.S. I walk in two days time -- May 3 -- and today I had to scrape snow off my car. What a bummer.

Oh, The Life of a College Student!: Parts VI and VII

Nothing beats working your butt off in a class and getting what you deserve! I know I've already blogged about my Mass Media Law class, but I just have to mention it again, as I was reminded today about the satisfaction of completing it and receiving an 'A'! I'll never forget the many late nights camped out in the computer lab, suffering with fellow journalism students as we all tried to construct a paper that Penny would find somewhat acceptable. I learned a lot in that class, even though my mind doesn't allow me to recall much of it. I learned that hard work and the willingness to persevere pays off. I also learned that I'll probably never be a lawyer, and I'm ok with that.

I've also learned that you've got to be able to laugh things off, and most importantly, laugh at yourself. It's the only way you'll make it through the rough times. You have two choices -- to laugh or cry -- most often I opt for laughing because it brings smiles to others, it makes me feel good, I once heard you burn more calories laughing than...sometimes, I don't know what, plus you get a pretty good ab work-out. My roommate, Karilyn, is a great example of this -- I don't know how she does it, but some day I hope to be as good as her. If you only knew half of what she's had to deal with, as far as school goes, this week -- and then seen/heard how many times she's laughed -- you wouldn't believe it.
Thank you Kari for keeping things light and bearable.

I don't know how I could write blogs about attending Utah State without mentioning Aggie Basketball. It has always been a favorite -- from making signs my freshman year that said, "That's my boyfriend, #20!" (because I was Jaycee's girlfriend!), to waiting in line for at least three hours in the cold with Kari, Brian, and Dylan to get on the front row, Brian and his mullet, tying with a guy who couldn't shoot in around-the-world contest during a timeout, to being there when we beat Nevada and rushed the court -- I've never heard The Spectrum so loud! -- or being on the Kiss Cam twice my last year and getting raff from the athletics office as well as the whole town of Burley, to sitting in the press box and hardly being able to sit down because I couldn't cheer and the game was intense, and being there when Jaycee hit his 2,000th career shot and becoming the school's leading scorer and Stew, the school's most winningest coach -- Aggie Basketball has provided many good days for me in Logan and I wouldn't be a True-Blooded Aggie if I didn't mention them as part of my experience at Utah State.

Oh, The Life of a College Student!: Part IV and V

Sorry about missing yesterday -- that just means I'll leave twice the blog today (a blog of randomness).

My second summer here worked out better than I could have ever planned. About the beginning of April I realized summer was fast approaching and I had no place to live (which I find is the case most April's!). Randomly, my friend from the A-Team, Karilyn Flake, said she thought there was an open spot in her apartment and helped me get the contract and necessary documents to move in. We talk about this a lot because really, we didn't know each other very well -- at all -- then. But, luckily for me, Karilyn is what I like to call an "insta-friend" -- someone who you can instantly be best friends with and fee like you've known your whole life, when really, you've only known them for maybe a day. It's the best kind of friend and I recommend keeping people like this around. It really is great! Anyway, the rest is history....we became best friends -- and I don't mean that in "Oh, you're me best friend forever!" as most people would think, but she really, truly is my best friend. I can't explain it and I don't know if you'd understand, so I'll just leave it at that. We had the best time that summer, and have always had good times. Her sense of adventure and high energy has kept me going through some of the most difficult times and also kept things in perspective when it seems as though my life is in fast-forward with no pause button. She's the one that has kept me sane throughout these years and I don't know if she'll ever know how much that has meant to me. The majority of my stories, experiences and memories from my college life include her and throughout the next week or so you'll come to know her a lot more.

Lucky are you!

Summers in Logan are the best! Hardly anyone is on campus, which you may think is a bad thing, but really it's the best! "The dog days of summer" -- I really don't know what this means, but I imagine you could use it to describe Logan in the summer. Campus is dead except for every SOAR day when new students flock grudgingly (and sometimes nervous-excitedly too) to the TSC to complete orientation, EFY groups sprawling out on the lawns and eating catered food from The Coppermill, dance camps and competitions, as well as cheerleaders galore and football and basketball camp boys smelling up the International Lounge. You can always tell when they come in the building to eat.

My summer diet consists of chips and salsa, frozen fruit and go-gurts, apples, a random slurpie or snow-cone, and fresh tomato sandwiches. Also, those spontaneous midnight chocolate and butterscotch chip cookie sprees. This happens probably too often and always too late in the day. Slushy Gatorade is always kept on hand for those too-hot-handle days when your roommates (not Karilyn and I) are too cheap to turn on the air conditioning, even though the apartment is 100+ degrees. I've found that Sam's Club is a great place to visit in the summer and Karilyn and I even made a plan one day that we could live there. They have everything you need -- even though both of us would prefer Costco over Sam's any day -- we just couldn't figure out how we were going to shower. We're still working on that one.

Sunday Waffle Nights, "So You Think You Can Dance" watching, playing werewolfe, going to the Farmer's Market every Saturday, just sitting and listening to the bands at Summerfest, and dressing-up for the opening night of a movie are just a few of the entertainment excursions I enjoy in the summer. This past summer I realized again that I love riding my bike -- everywhere -- or running to places. I love running early in the morning, or later at night when it has cooled down. There's nothing better than running in the summer -- it's so calm outside, very little traffic, few people out and about, the sun is coming out for the day, you get to just think by yourself, about whatever you want, or nothing at all -- it's just you and peace. And I would have it no other way.

One night last year, as I was getting ready for bed I heard a knock on my door. In walked Karilyn with her pillow and a blanket. "I'm just going to sleep on your floor ok?!" So more blankets were brought in for a make-shift bed and then lights were out. Nothing was really said, maybe some laughter about the randomness and craziness of it all, but we said good night and that was that. No questions were asked why she would want to sleep on my hard floor, or why she decided at 11:45 in the p.m. she was going to sleep over, but we always get a good laugh when it's brought up!