This is just too cute to not show everyone I know

The Apathy and the Irony

I forgot how much I hate elections. I think it is WONDERFUL that people have differing opinions, because no ONE person or ONE group can be right all the time. (Well...except Jesus Christ - I look forward to the day that He rules the earth and we don't have to worry about elections anymore.) I think there is rightness and truth on all sides (or should I say "both" sides) and that we need both sides to balance each other out. It's natural that there should be disagreements about what's best for our country or what's the best way to reach those goals for our country, but it just makes me sad to see people and politicians be hateful toward one another or attack their moral character for not having the same political opinions. I just want these elections to be over...stat. I plan on voting and I hope that the person I vote for wins, but if he doesn't, oh well. America won't fall apart. That's the beauty of our system. There are checks and balances to make sure one person can't screw it up too badly. And even if they do, their time in office will expire and someone else will take over and America will still be free and we will all be ok.

So I guess I could say I don't really care what happens tomorrow. And you could call me apathetic...but I probably wouldn't care. ;)

Halloweeeeeeeeeeen

Introducing...Burger King and Dairy Queen!

So...the costumes. We had been tossing around ideas for a while and finally decided on these about a week before Halloween. I knew I wanted to make some sashes, so I went to the fabric store and bought some cheap muslin, ribbon for edges, and gold glitter paint. They turned out alright, although they were a little too short and I did a terrible job on the sewing. But that's pretty much what I expected. I don't know how to sew. I want to learn, though. Anyway, the day before Halloween, I went to DI (Deseret Industries thrift store) and wandered around for at least an hour, hoping something would just jump out at me. I almost bought 2 matching shirts with a picture of smiling cows. I'm glad I didn't get those. They were really ugly. Luckily, I ran into an old friend and told her I was having a hard time coming up with a costume and she suggested robes. Brilliant! Don't know why I didn't think of that before. DI didn't have crowns and I didn't have time to go anywhere else, but lucky for us, Jared's neices (who we took trick-or-treating) had some that we were able to borrow! Isn't Jared's crown perfect for a king? I love it.

Other Halloween-related things that are somewhat noteworthy:
1. Caramel apples are really easy to make. Just melt some of those square caramel candies in the microwave (with a little bit of milk - 2 tbsp for every 14 oz of caramel) and dip the apple. You can even roll it in desired confections.
2. I don't like scary movies. I always think I can handle them, but I can't. I end up covering my face most of the movie and then having to ask what happened after everyone screams.
3. The Halloweiner is the cutest Halloween book ever. It's about a weiner dog named Oscar that saves the day.
4. I really like leaves on the ground. It kinda makes me sad to see people rake them up and put them in bags where they cannot be enjoyed. They are so pretty! And fun to step on!

Picture Tag! If you're reading this, you're it.

The rules of the game: Go to your pictures folder and take the fourth picture from the fourth folder and post it. Its fun! :) Then give us a some details about the pic.

Ok, I have lots of pictures and I am crazy about organizing them into folders, so I actually had to click on my 4th folder and then my 4th subfolder and then my 4th picture. I was actually surprised there weren't more folders I had to go through.

Anyway, this is my mom on Christmas 2006. Um, this is at our house. In the living room. That is a plant in the corner, not the Christmas tree. I really don't remember anything about this picture. But I love my mom.

fUn WiTh JaReD

Jared came to visit for the weekend and we did lots of fun stuff, but somehow I only got pictures of a couple of things. Oh well. Most of these are from when we drove the Alpine Loop (scenic byway connecting Provo Canyon and American Fork Canyon).





Jared knew about this statue garden in Salt Lake that has a sphinx with the face of Joseph Smith, so we had to go check that out. It was such an odd place. It's called Gilgal Garden.

We also went to the Body Worlds exhibit (the one with all the human bodies), ran a 5K (Jared won 3rd place! but that didn't surprise me cuz I think he might be some sort of superhuman), and went to the BYU-UNM football game. It was a great long weekend (but somehow still not long enough).

Lake Powell

This past weekend, I finally got to experience the splendor of Lake Powell. I went with 7 friends and spent Thursday through Sunday boating, wakeboarding, camping, and exploring. It was hard to believe how wonderful the weather was, considering it was the end of September. It was perfect and beautiful. I'm kind of a sissy when it comes to cold water, so I thought the water was a little chilly, but it didn't keep us from having a great time.

Weekend in North Carolina

I went to Raleigh, North Carolina to visit Jared this past weekend. Here's some photos of fun things we did.

1a) Free expression tunnel, i.e. graffiti wall. Totally legal. Totally fun. We spray painted tons and tons of things on the wall. We figured that gave us the best odds that something of ours would survive more than a couple of days. Turns out we were right. Jared walked through the tunnel a couple days later and nearly everything we painted was already covered up by other people's graffiti.

Here's where we tried out our tagging skills to see if we could ever be in a gang.

And here's where I drew a picture of myself so Jared won't forget me.

And here is lady liberty that Jared painted. She is winking. (Don't mind the pancakes. Those are part of someone else's picture. But aren't they amazing?)

And here is a portrait I painted of Jared. Jared wears bowties.

1b) This was not a planned activity, but we happened to see the Isaiah-man on campus while we were at the free expression tunnel. Here he is, standing at his portable podium, preaching to whomever will listen...which, at the time, was no one.

2) Beach. Always fun. But more fun in the Atlantic Ocean than the Pacific Ocean. Because it's warmer. The water couldn't possibly be more perfect. Unless it didn't have salt in it. That would make it better. But I'll deal with the salt if it could always be as warm as it was this day.



I love jumping pictures. So here we are jumping off a lifeguard tower.


3) The Aquarium. For those of you that don't know, I LOVE aquariums. And I really love octopuses. By the way, octopuses is the more correct plural form of octopus. "Octopi" was just a mistake that caught on too well. In hopes to maintain the illusion that I am not a nerd, I will cease writing octopus trivia and just show some pictures.

I also love carnivorous plants. Well, as much as one can love them without really knowing anything about them. Anyway, we saw some venus flytraps. They were really small, but still carnivorous.


Ok, that's enough.