sunday

Today was a special day in that I didn't have my normal church schedule. Usually I have 2 pm (2 PM!!) church out in West Richland and I have to drive 15-20 minutes to get there and then we don't get done with church until 5. And most weeks I have meetings before that. But today I had a blessed reprieve and had a special stake conference at my old stake center which is 4 blocks from my house and it was at 10 am and I was home before I am even showered for church on some Sundays. So I walked.

As I walked I starting thinking how much I missed doing even that-walking. In college you have to walk everywhere. And I didn't have a car for most of my time so I walked even more. (Although I don't miss biking to the grocery store with my backpack and bags hanging off the handles..) Now I sit on my bum all day at work and drive wherever I need to go. Sedentary life. Meh.

Then I got nostalgic for the old days. I miss how my Sundays went in college. Getting ready in the morning with roommates available to ask advice on how to dress, dashing out the door to get to early meetings, cold walks up the hill or south stairs, or cramming into a nice person's car to get a ride. Church was backwards (RS first, Sacrament meeting last) in most of my wards there. And I liked it because of the togetherness you feel at the end, plus I felt more prepared to take the Sacrament. Never at BYU do you meet in an actual church building-classrooms and auditoriums are the norm.Hymns are sung to the player on the computer and people used the internet to show clips during their lessons. And then after church I had time to have a delicious Sunday nap, visit with roommates, call home, make dinner, ward stare, more antics with roommates, game nights, etc, etc. I learned quickly that no homework gets done on Sunday so you may as well not try. So I wanted to write some of those memories down for blogsterity.

Freshman year-I lived in Hinckley Hall and we had church at the University Parkway chapel (building where they teach English) in the afternoon, backwards, Sacrament meeting was in the gym where they had to put down rugs so it wouldn't be too loud. Monica would always be making scrapbooking sketches on her program and the Ukranian/Russian kid would be knitting. We were assigned Sunday school classes because we had small classrooms and each floor was it's own Relief Society. Our bishop was a new bishop and was so scared to give the Chastity lesson that he had his wife do it-I still remember they titled it "Birds and Bees do it, why can't I?"...Still my favorite Sunday of the year/semester. We'd race home for dinner after church because it was usually the only meal we got all day from the Cannon center. Every other Sunday was chicken cordon bleu with creamery ice cream-those were the good Sundays. And visiting hours, the time where boys could come over to the dorms. Eventually we'd make our way up to May Hall for ward stare and usually finish off the night with chatting or a movie watched on one of our lap tops sitting on our bed. Some weeks we had a CES fireside which we usually went to because none of us had living rooms or TVs and the Marriott Center was so close. Jenn came up with the term "Sunday Prude" which is someone who wears their church clothes all day to look righteous. (which a lot of people do down in P-town)

Sophomore year-I lived in Liberty Square with Jenn, Jenna, Jules, Monica and Marissa and we had church in the Marb, backwards, and early in the morning. More people would be at church at the end than at the beginning. This was the first year with RMs in the ward and so I had the first dose of "On my mission" stories. Monica had the van and we'd drive some weeks. My favorite was the time it snowed and the van got stuck and Eric/Lyle and another boy (probably Jeff) tried to help push us out. As an apartment we started having Sunday dinners and had people over. I claimed "ambiance" as my job (I really had no cooking skills) and would light candles, make flower arrangements etc to have a classy dinner. And we started an apartment tradition of always playing Barry White "Can't Get Enough of Your Love" to start the meal off. This is the year I learned how to make homemade Cafe Rio. We had ward stare in the clubhouse at the Lib and the first week we were told to wear fun hats. I think Jenna got asked on a date to the CES fireside like the first week and I learned that that counted as an actual "date". Monica made texas sheet cake a few times and  we often had people over for chatting. Benji was often there to help with dinner and DK too probably. One Sunday, after ward stare, we had a snowball fight in the parking lot and Bishop Larson was playing in his Sunday suit. I got beaned in the back by Eric/Lyle (who was a baseball pitcher) and it wasn't fun after that. One of the first Sundays we had an epic game of "signs" in our apartment where a lot of people got to know each other. Also, a kid named Russ taught sunday school and liked to tell stories with the phrase "'cause I'm Mormon", it was funny. And then there was the time we got a lesson at church from Bishop Larson on how us girls needed to dress nice and wear makeup so the boys would think we were cute and ask us out. Yep. That was a good one too.

Junior year-I lived in Chattsworth with Monica, Jenn and Marissa. We had backwards church in the morning in the SWKT. Ward stare was in between the other two rows of condos and it was a good time to spy on people. We walked or drove to church. Although it really sucked being out of breath when you got to church. One time, our interesting home teachers gave us a ride and then proceeded to drive up Rape Hill. I was so sure we would get caught and we were laughing so hard the entire time. It was also interesting to ride up and down  elevators for church and one time we overloaded with people, the elevator beeped until a few got off. We had a few fancy dinners this year too and Monica had a roasting pan where she made her famous roast chicken with fennel. We didn't go to the Marriott Center as much for firesides because it was so far away. But I do remember living in this apartment and hearing President Foust say that "Meetings do not need to be endless to be eternal." We had a great Easter dinner with family and friends and also an Easter egg hunt between me and Matt LaRose that got quite competitive.

Senior year part 1-I lived in Moon apartments, we had backwards church in the morning in the JFSB basement. I didn't really enjoy this year for a lot of reasons, but I didn't really get to know my ward that well and we didn't have company for dinner. Ward stare was harder and I had a lot of consternation that Marissa had to listen to ;) But I did make some friends. We had ward break the fast and I was on the committee. Someone had a connection to the hospital so we ate in a conference room there which meant we had to drive all the way over there. Our stake boundaries were weird and our stake center was all the way on 500 West even though I could see the Manavu chapel from my bedroom window.

Senior year part 2-I lived in Devonshire with Jenny, Audrey and Rachell, we had backwards church and I think I had it both morning and midday. I was back in the SWKT again. I had Bishop Lawler and I really enjoyed this ward and had great roommates. (First time living without one of my original peeps). I lived here the longest and knew a lot of people. I first moved in during the summer and we had game nights pretty much every Sunday. I learned the "Fun Game" where you put names of characters in a bowl and do different rounds of guessing the same things-explaining it without saying the name like in Taboo, charades, one word, and one action. It was pretty fun and hilarious. It was also the only ward (I think) that had friendship notes. We had ward stare out on the lawn if it was warm or in the parking garage it it was cold. I still remember when Dusty crawled out of the sewer in his Ninja Turtles costume with a pizza box and just walked away without saying anything to anyone. I missed the Sunday my roommates filled garbage bags with leaves and then dumped them from the windows on top of everyone. I still remember meeting Brent and Jason Molen at one of the first game nights of the school year at someone's apartment. They were hilarious and I remember thinking that I was going to like them. Also, Jason was sporting a creeper mustache and I enjoyed that too. The second summer I was there I had to hand out the friendship notes which was awkward because I felt like I was interrupting all the make out sessions. We had a few Cranium battles in my apartment that got quite heated because we were so competitive. Audrey had us over for dinner at her parents' house a few times and one time "Aunt Sheri" came over too. (She scares me.) One of my favorite memories is when my apartment was doing introductions and we did a "Lawrence Welk" SNL skit where I was Judice and had baby arms. It was hilarious and it was one of my favorite memories. It was also the only ward where I gave a talk at BYU, Brother ____ forgot to ask the speakers and so I skipped church to write my talk (the beauty of backwards church). And our other bishopric counselor was known for making strange but hilarious comments during ward council and I started to write them down. (I'll add them if I can find them).

Anyway, that's me getting really nostalgic. Sundays were kinda party days if you think about it. But those were the days when everyone was around, no one had work or school so it kinda had to happen then or no other time. My Sundays are still good, but much less going on. I'd really like to have church earlier in the day, but oh well.

you were born on the 4th of july, freedom ring

I like fireworks. So much that I try to keep them with me for longer than the fleeting seconds they last. I have my trusty Nikon and it has a most excellent fireworks setting. Here are my artsy pieces of work.

AMERICA

independence weekend

I had a fantastic 4th of July holiday and weekend. I got the holiday off as well as Friday because the doctors at my clinic didn't feel like working--so I got it off by default.It was kind of my mini summer vacation/staycation. And my friend Stacey was in town so we had enough excuse to do everything. And did we! (People in these events include Stacey, Brit, Erica, Michelle, Elizabeth, Whitney, Alexis, and Dave).

I started off the festivities by dressing up Joe Panda-he had his patriotic outfit on and my own patriotic outfit.

Then I decorated my living and dining room with fun red, white, and blue. I especially enjoyed the huge pop of color my little tissue pom poms. I had fun making them. Also I made a few button wheels, found two patriotic picture frames at the hobby lobby, and dug out my banner I made last year. It made for some fun decor and I get to be crafty. Win.

Then we watched an episode of BBC Sherlock. (how unamerican!)-but seriously, my mom loves her some Benedict.

I had peeps over for my usual BBQ. However, the power went out at my house at about 2:30 so after playing cards with my parental units and avoiding opening the fridge, we had to skip the pork and beans and the corn because we had no power. But BBQ was still on! The power was out for about 5 hours. It was random but some nice utility workers from the City of Richland got us back working. We did burgers and chicken and it was some of the best BBQ'd chicken I've had in awhile. Of course I made my patriotic jello and it has become rather infamous. (I like it because it combines three of my great loves in life-america, jello and cool whip).

After dinner we headed out to Benton City to enjoy the redneck firework show. I had forgotten how exciting the show is. It's like there is a pre-show, show and after-party. The kids set off their own fireworks before the actual show (which is pretty good and you sit real close and you get debris falling on you) and the after-party is all the crazies lighting off their leftovers. And we're talking big fireworks that go up in the air, not just the "legal" ones. So really we had like two straight hours of fireworks. So much better than the 20 minute River of Fire show that you have to watch from a mile away. Stacey brought birthday cake ice cream and we celebrated America's birthday on a warm summer's night. We even saw part of a mountain on fire in the background. It amazes me that there weren't more fires than there were this year. I love fireworks and I used my wonderful Nikon again to get some great shots. (I'll load them later). I still get really excited for good fireworks and Ooooohh and Ahhhhh like none other.

(Michelle's pic-that's her and her bro)

I was the only one who had work off on Friday so I hung out with Stacey in the morning. We went to Spudnuts (a Richland must) and I got patriotic sprinkles!

Then we made our way to the Richland farmers market and took in all the sights and smells. I wanted to buy all the cherries. Seriously. I wish I could grocery shop there every week, but I have to go to work. I did go to my favorite stall where you can get a fresh bouquet of flowers. You just tell the ladies what colors you want and they make it up right there. And it is so much cheaper and nicer than a wilted grocery store bouquet. I only wish they would let me design my own bouquet! I got yellows, pinks, and purples.

After the farmer's market Stacey and I checked out some antiques stores and I saw some interesting stuff. I went home, had a nice turkey sammy, and then read my book underneath the tree in the back yard on my blanket for like three hours. It was pretty perfect. Then Will and I got slurpees and met up at Leslie Groves and hung out at the Columbia River. Ahhhhhh, the river.

I met up with the gals later that night at Fujiyama's. It's the new Japanese hibatchi place where they cook the food in front of you with all the stunts and jokes. I enjoyed it immensely. It was a ton of fun and we had a great chef. I tried to read his name tag and it was a long name, possibly Mongolian? After a second look I saw that it was "Yippiekayeh". What an awesome name! The food was tasty because it was so fresh and I got to use my chopstick skillz, thanks bro for teaching me.

Saturday we went out to BC again to go shooting. Safety Dave taught us how to shoot the guns and load them and of course, proper gun safety. There were many types of guns and I tried all of them but the revolver. I was proud that I hit the target a few times with the .22 shotgun. I also tried a .12 shotgun, a hand gun, and a WWII era rifle which was pretty fun to shoot. My friend Brit was pretty excited about shooting the zombie target that we had. Everyone practiced very good safety the entire time.

Then we went in to BC proper and grabbed lunch at Wolfie's which used to be a burger joint but is now Mexican? Then we changed at Michelle's house and floated the Yakima in BC which was better because too many people float in Richland now and the river is deeper in BC. The ride was a good length and there were even little rapids we got to sail through. It was so relaxing and peaceful out on the river, plus you got some good views of the E. WA nature scene. We didn't concern ourselves too much with sunscreen, and all of us got burnt because of it. I just wanted some sun, Vitamin D, yo! We finished out the day by stopping at Finnegan Frost-an organic Fro-yo place that had some tasty flavors. And I deemed it the most hipster place in the TC. Complete with hipster music, organic fro-yo, and Polaroids on the wall a la "Sammy's" in P-town. I didn't know the TC could be hipster....

Anyway, after mowing the lawn that night I was dead. I made it through Sunday and now I am still recovering from last weekend. It was a blast and I feel like I rocked my little summer vacation and then some!

so..

I'm pretty sure all the people on my committee hate me. Oh well, I'd hate me too if I made myself do stuff that I didn't want to. (oh wait, that's called life)

Blerg.

my lunchtime office

So I eat my lunch in the backseat of my car when I'm at work. For a few reasons. One is that I need some alone time which the lunchroom cannot guarantee. Another is that I like to eat outside and see the sun. My current workplace doesn't have a good patch of grass so sometimes I'll go to the park down the road. But when it's cold or weathery outside I just chill in my car. This week I realized that all the hanging out in my car has redefined my backseat. Take a look:

I've inadvertently nested in my car. It started with the pillow in case I wanted to take a nap during lunch. Then I ran out of books to read so I got my three Olympics issue magazines to have something to read. Harry Potter is back up for when those are done. Then I got myself some mints in case I want to freshen my mouth after I eat lunch. This is either genius or madness, but I gotta spend 60 minutes doing somethin'!

overheard

Dad praying over dinner tonight:"and please bless Meagan and Michael in Arizona...."
(I'm not the daughter married to a Michael-we had a hard time staying reverent!)

K-"how are you doing?"
J-(2 yrs old) "Good! I'm playing with Me-yi-yo!" (Read:Megio)
Man I'm gonna be sad when they leave!

i've got dental

-went to the dentista now that i've got my very own grown up health insurance, my favorite part about going there, besides the clean teeth, is that I get restocked on my dental supplies-toothpaste, toothbrushes, floss and the like. Keeps me set for like the next couple of months. New today, gum. The hygenist said that chewing sugar free gum helps stimulate the gums. Ok.

-I've got an idea for the 4th of July celebrations at my house, hint #patrioticpanda

-Got some new Sara Bareilles musica. Love her songs. She will be in WA on labor day for a concierto with One Republic. Should I goooo? (not convinced I should yet)

-SYTYCD has fulfilled this hole in my life that I didn't know I had. For some reason I missed a lot of last year. Just watching the auditions has made my life happier. I love seeing people doing amazing things with their bodies and the art they create to tell a story, portray a character, or just relay an emotion. I amazed at the different people they get on the show. Tonight they had a chica who did this Mongolian balancing bowl dance. It was graceful and artistic and unlike anything we would do here in the states. Just being able to see the talent and power is inspiring. Tuesday night is SYTYCD night.

-how much spanglish can I put in one blog post. Yo puedo put more I guess.