Summer activities

The basil is doing great.  I introduced a sister plant to the pot and now I have a little basil bush.  It really needs harvesting but I keep putting it off because I want to make sure I have enough to make a batch of fresh pesto.  Pesto takes a lot of basil.

Other than cultivating a houseplant this summer, I went to Utah and witnessed this:

and went to Idaho and witnessed this:

and my husband made me this, which I'm learning to ride:

Yay summer.

Back by popular demand

I actually wrote up this post weeks ago, but work has been so busy the last few weeks I didn't have time on my lunch break to pick out and upload photos.  Things are slowed back to normal now, so no more excuses.

Christmas and New Year's were nice, though sandwiched with madness.  A water main broke in an office building in our work complex and flooded the basement level floor to ceiling and part of the garage with a million gallons (literally) of water December 23.  Our office didn't suffer any damage but power was out in the whole complex.  It took some ingenuity and merciful people to do my job that day since I couldn't use my work computer or phone.

But then I got to leave it behind temporarily to fly to the Inland Northwest and spend Christmas and the New Year at my parent's home.  Brought a Christmas surprise with me too.  Nobody knew about it till we got there, but apparently my parents were the only ones actually shocked.  I was still quite please with myself, keeping it all a secret.

The week home was mostly enjoyable as we visited some of my good friends and did lots of family stuff.  I say "mostly" because nearly everyone took turns suffering from a brief yet violent viral plague.  I will spare the details.  Or perhaps you know the details, having already become acquainted with the little bug.

Work has been very busy so far this month dealing with the aftermath of the flood and changes we're making at other locations in addition to my usual workload.  I had some flashbacks to last July and August's work insanity, but I'm happy to report everything parking is back under control and I'm officially caught up with all my work.

Birthday shout out to my dad.  His birthday was yesterday but he's on a Mexican cruise with my mom celebrating their wedding anniversary, so I didn't get to talk to him day-of and he probably didn't see my card before he went out of town.  For the record, I remembered.

And birthday countdown for me!  10 days!

East, West, Home's Best

Two posts in a week?  Gasp!  Yes, it's true.  Now that the most stressful nine weeks of my life are behind me (complete with 10 min lunches, going home "early" meant going home an hour late, poor posture, scrambled brain, tears, and a few outbursts at the futility of it all) I'm coming back to life and happy to be here.  My workload is back to managable levels, and I got to run away from it all and take a trip home to Idaho!

Yay!

I don't make it there very often these days.  I think I've spent a collective 12 days in Coeur d'Alene in the last year and a half and most of that time was during the winter.  August is definitely the time to visit the great Inland Northwest.  Perfect weather, warm water, and still green green green everywhere. 

And then, of course, the North Idaho Fair and Rodeo!  Yep, I made it back to help out at the Elephant Ear Booth this year.  Our family worker roster was a bit lean this year, so I went home to help out.  I had a blast.  I went boating twice, worked at the fair everyday with a mass of relatives whom I love, went running and hung out with my dad at Tubbs Hill, played my harp, met my newborn nephew, hung out with friends at the fair, went to my brother's cross country meet.  I think it was so good because it was the most engaged I've been in being home and taking advantage of all the, well, advantages. 

Photo collage of the trip, because it's a lot easier than uploading pictures individually.  And it takes less time to load.  And you probably wouldn't care to look at each picture individually anyway unless you're my stalker.  Or bored.  Or my dad.  

Click on collage to see it larger.

Jackie Came to Play

My former roommate Jackie came to visit me last month.  We lived together our last year at BYU.  I actually wrote this post a while ago, but delayed publishing because I wanted to include pictures.  Sadly, my camera went MIA a week ago and I still haven't downloaded the pictures.  For the sake of talking about his while it's still relevant, here is the post minus the pictures.  She put pictures on her blog though, so if you're curious to see what the following looked like wander on over there.

****UPDATE 8-9-2011: The camera is found!  Accompanying pictures now posted below.********

The weekend started with an uneventful ride home from the airport (which is notable because with CO's weather, it can be very eventful) followed by pizza and a good ol' late-night conversation in the kitchen like old times.

Saturday morning we went up to Red Rocks to hike.  The area is most known for it's concert venue, but the amphitheater is actually part of a large natural park.  We walked around the amphitheatre for fun and watched crazy people exercising all over.  Then we hiked a short-ish trail below it.  No lemonade stands this time, but still legit and only about 2,000 ft lower in elevation.

After an afternoon nap and a delicious lunch of pesto pasta (where Jackie is, so is good food), we did accounting/concocted enchiladas in preparation for dinner.  Jackie did the former.  Jared and I did the latter.  Some friends from church organized a picnic-style group date, which is what the food was for.  We attended said date with dates.  Good times were had by all. 

Sunday we attended church in purposely match-y outfits, ate more delicious food at a birthday dinner for a friend, took another nap (Jackie lives at sea level, so we blame the elevation for all the naps), and had more excellent conversation per our style.

Monday I had to work, but I worked just a 1/2 day and Jackie came along.  She had work to do too even though she was on vacation because accountants are cool like that.  We did our business simultaneously then spent the rest of the afternoon around downtown Denver.  We ate at the SAME Cafe, perused books at the Tattered Cover, sunbathed on benches, played tunes on a piano, checked out the City Library (pun intended), chowed down at Mad Greens, and wound it all up with a visit to the Denver Temple.

The fun didn't end there.  After we went back to the house we couldn't decided between making focaccia or ciabatta bread, so we made both and watched Despicable Me for the first time.

Thanks for the visit, Jackie!  You're the best!

August

This time of year makes me think of two things: elephant ears and school.

Elephant ears (the food, not the body part) are delicious confections often found at fairs, particularly the North Idaho Fair and Rodeo the third week of August every summer.  They consist of a sweet dough rolled out, deep fried, and covered in cinnamon and sugar.  Oh, and they're as big as the platters you use for the Thanksgiving turkey. My extended family has run an elephant ear booth at the NI Fair since time immemorial... or maybe just 30-something years.  Long enough to become an institution and a landmark with loyal customers the world over.  The profits from the booth go into a family fund of sorts and are applied towards things like helping send cousins on missions for our church.

This is my first year missing the fair.  Ever.  It's really weird.  It's always a party in the booth--a big, close, hot, sweaty, greasy, sugary, loud party.  I don't miss the greasy, hot, sweaty, sugary part, but I do miss seeing all the cousins and eating my fair share of EE's and chocolate milk.  I miss everyone ordering everyone around, complaining if someone doesn't roll/cook/sugar/mix the way they like it done (roll 'em nice and big, no holes, cooked blonde, and evenly coated please!).  I miss getting into the fair free, going to the rodeo after the Friday afternoon shift, bartering for MICA burgers, and watching the summer climax and creep to an end.

And then comes school.  Or not!  This is the first fall I will not start a new year of school in 19 years.  That's a long time.  It's like, 83% of my life.  I should feel weirded out, right?  But I don't.  I thought I might, but I'm over school for reals. I guess I have a talent for appreciating things while they last, then moving on when the time is right.  If I dwell on the past, I miss the exciting things coming up ahead.  I'm really so over and done it would feel weirder if I had to go back.

I still have the urge to buy new clothes and school supplies.

Hello again

Summer in Idaho is great. I wish it was still July and I had a month more of fun to enjoy. I had a lot of fun seeing lots of family and friends during the brief couple of months I had to be home this year. When I first got home I spent a blissful week not working. That weekend my brother and his family came to visit from Colorado for a few days before the Lee Family Reunion over the Fourth of July. The reunion was hot and fun. I got plenty of rafting in on the Clark Fork River this year as I was neither recovering from surgery nor suffering from debilitating injury--yet. I did end the reunion with a bang...and a skinned knee, scarred face, bruised hip, scraped foot, and sore muscles. My consolation is the assurance that running into that clothesline with my cousin looked AWESOME. Only five or ten of Grandpa's posterity was missing from the reunion. Josh and Chiu-Yi couldn't come because Josh has been having some health issues, and my cousins Kristen and Jimmy's families respectively were unable to attend. We all had a lot of fun.

I spent the rest of the summer working at Dad's dental office again. It's nice to have a job whenever I go home if I need it. I stayed active hanging out with friends, playing frisbee, and attending single adult activities with my single's ward. My brothers and I also crawled our way through the Lord of the Rings movies. We never did finish the last one. The summer ended with the North Idaho Fair and the world famous Elephant Ear booth. I only worked it 2 days this year because I had to leave to come back to Provo in the middle, but it's always a fun time seeing cousins and friends.

Yes, I'm back in Provo for my last year of my undergraduate education. I moved back into the ward I lived in before I went to Jerusalem, so it's been a lot of fun seeing old friends and making new ones. I have great roommates too. I knew one of the girls from the ward before, and the other two are new to me. The football season is off to a great start and if you haven't heard, BYU is #7 in the country right now! Boo-yah! Provo went nuts after we beat Oklahoma: people driving around honking, cheering without restraint, spontaneous partying in the streets till the wee hours of the morning. It was great to be part of it. Our first home game is next week and I'm excited.

That's all for now. Life isn't super exciting right now, but it's good. My title claims this is about my adventures too. With a long semester of intense academia ahead of me that you probably don't want to hear me complain about, I'll try to keep future posts restricted to true adventures for the sake of entertainment. I always appreciate reading a fun blog post.

Free Fallin'....

Time for the monthly report. I can't believe it is already November. That means Thanksgiving is coming soon! But that also means my 15 page midterm paper for my anthropological theory is coming due the day I leave. Eek! Gotta get it done.

One of the life decisions I've been trying to make is where to go and what to study for my field project for my major. We have to do a project where we go out and do real, empirical anthropological research on a topic of our choice. I'm on track to do it next summer and then the next school year is spent writing my thesis and finishing up all my remaining classes. I was presented with an opportunity to possibly go to India on this really awesome program that my advisor is currently trying to get approved, but it never felt right and didn't really fit into my academic plan well because it would take up my fall semester and it would just complicate my life all the more. So, I kept looking around for ideas and I told my mom to think of something for me. Last week she called and she and my dad found me a project! The plan is to go live with my grandma in Orderville, Utah, and study her community. Orderville was one of the places the United Order was practiced and was quite successful. I'm interested in studying how living the United Order way back when still affects the social dynamics of the community today. This project fits my timeline, is NOT oversees (which my parents appreciate), I can live with my grandma, she knows everybody, I'm related to half of them, and it just feels good. I thought my advisor would be disappointed about me not going to India, but it turns out that the United Order is one of his areas of research interest that he has had for a long time and he wants to collaborate. He's also teaching a class next semester on intentional communities in America and one of the units is on the Order! I'm going to take it in preparation for my project. Everything is working out just right.

BYU football won again yesterday against SDSU and our defense was back! It went missing the last month and a half. Maybe SDSU was just not very good, or we were doing something different, but either way we were looking a lot better comparitively and I hope the upward trend continues. We need all the help we can get against Utah this year. Basketball season opens this week and the first tipoff is Friday night. I missed basketball season last year because I was in Israel, so I'm very excited for it this year!

Halloween was fun. I was inspired by Michael Jackson's Thriller and dressed up as a zombie. I've never dressed up as anything scary before so it was really liberating. I brushed and ratted out my hair into a fro, had scary makeup, and had so much fun! I freaked a lot of people out. I'll put up some pictures. I also watched a scary movie that night and survived. I'm not a scary-movie watcher, but I sat next to a girl who had seen the movie before and she'd warn me of all the scariest parts so we could hide our faces. I got though it with flying colors.

The happiest parts of my fall are when I get to meet up with friends that I haven't seen in a long time. The Jerusalem and Nauvoo reunions continue all the time. Last night we had a big Nauvoo reunion that we've planned for a month. We probably had at least 40 or more students come over the course of the evening. Many brought husbands or significant others. Some kids came down from Idaho, Logan, and Salt Lake City, and even Arizona. It was so fun because all the boys but one are home from their missions so I saw many of them for the first time in almost three years. One kid got home the night before the reunion! My semester in Nauvoo was such a formitive part of my life. Whenever I see people connected with the experience it's like seeing long lost relatives again, and it makes me happy faster than almost anything can.

I'm still here

So, uh... how is everybody? I'm still alive, in case you were wondering. I've been so busy that I have not had the luxury of blogging. But this weekend is General Conference and I have no other obligations today.

Nothing much to report on for the last month. I've just been working and school-working all the time. I got a job at the Museum of People and Cultures here at BYU as a collections aid. Right now I am working on doing inventory for lots of collections that we have in storage. Really exciting, I know. But it's only a block away from my apartment, and I get to set my own hours.

My classes aren't hard, but they are time consuming. This semester is hardest I've ever had as far as time management. I have just enough time between class and work to get my homework done for the next day, but I have bigger projects coming up that I need to make time to work on and it is really hard to do it all.

I try to make time for some fun every so often. I always watch the football games and I'm on my ward's Ultimate Frisbee intramural team. My ward has had several activities and I've made lots of friends. I was able to attend the Relief Society General Broadcast last weekend and saw some friends from home there. Earlier this weekend I drove down to Saint George, UT, with a friend to support some Jerusalem friends who ran in the St. George Marathon yesterday. We stayed with my Aunt in Toquerville then went into town to watch everyone finish. All our runners did well despite the rain that came down virtually the whole race. My cousin Tom Gatten was also in the race and I saw him too. After the race we watched the afternoon session of conference before heading to the new In-N-Out Burger in Washington, UT. For three of us it was our first experience and I must say it was a good one! After that we all headed back north. It was nice to get out of town, if only for a day!

I added a new picture album of recent doings including the birth of Carson, reunions, India Fest, and other activities I've been up to. Enjoy.

Reunions

The last two weeks of August were super busy. I worked extra hours at my job, visited some old friends, and then the fair started. When I wasn't at work I was at the elephant ear booth working, so there were some looooong days. The next Monday my sister Sarah had her baby. His name is Carson and he was 6 lbs 7 oz and 18.25 in long. I was having my last day of work and training a new girl when Sarah left me a message that she was in real labor. Mom and I headed over to the Valley Hospital as soon as I got home from work and the little guy came only 2 hours later. I got to be there for the whole thing. Sarah had an epidural and felt nothing. She went from a 5 to a 10 in 10 minutes and got him out in about 3 pushes. No sweat, literally. Mom made sure to tell me MOST deliveries don't go that smoothly. He's really cute and looks just like his big sister.

I was very happy the baby came on his own on Monday instead of Wednesday because then I was able to leave on schedule for Utah on Wednesday. I packed all day Tuesday and Wednesday morning and then Grandma Blackburn and I headed out Wed at lunchtime. We went as far as Uncle Gary's in Rigby, ID, then continued the rest of the way on Thursday to Mapleton, UT, and Uncle Don's house. They let me stay a couple nights because I still had nowhere to live. A while ago I did but the landlord sold my contract before I had the chance to sign it. Friday I kept checking and finally snatched up a spot close to campus. The downside is I can't live with my friend Diane like we had originally planned. Another stressor was we found out our dog Annie had cancer. We had her home another week before she could no long eat or function so we had her put down the day I left for school

Friday night was our big Jerusalem Reunion. The "first couple" of Jerusalem, Kristi and Davey, was married and at least 50 of the 78 students made it to the reception. All the teachers came too and it was a great party. After the stress of homelessness and doglessness and new babies it was great to just have fun with my friends. Saturday morning I had another small reunion, this time with Nauvoo friends. Seven of us went out to breakfast and it was so much fun too! Four of the group have just got home from missions so I hadn't seen them in 2 years or more. I'm very excited to see many more who have returned home from their missions and will be around campus again. Seeing Jerusalem friends is like meeting up with best friends. Seeing Nauvoo friends is like meeting up with family. Saturday afternoon we had another smaller Jru reunion. Some kids organized a bbq before the game.

Saturday was the first BYU Football game! We played Northern Iowa. We didn't play too well, but still won easily. They'd better step it up for the ULCA game coming up soon. No more fumbles. After the game I finally got some groceries, then I went to the weekend swing dance with the swing club. I haven't danced any swing in 8 months, so it was fun to see all my dancing friends and cut a rug for a while. I'm a little rusty, but it's like riding a bike-- you really don't forget.

My reunions continued on Sunday. I left church a little early so I could ride with Uncle Don and Aunt D'Anne to take Grandma down to Aurora, UT, and Uncle Brett's house. We had a family dinner and Uncle Scott and his family came too. Neither Brett or Scott came to the family reunion this summer, so it was fun to see them. I love reunions. Nothing can raise my spirits as fast as seeing someone I love!

This is enough for one sitting. I'm hungry, my battery is dying, and I need to buy books. I'll update you when there is something new to tell.