must. blog.

I've reached that point again. I feel like someone else should be updating this thing. It has been over a month. I'm an exciting person. I have things I could be talking about. Right? Right. About that...
-I went to New York. I checked something off my bucket list. I went to Guilford Lake. As spell check is telling me that Guilford is spelled wrong, I'm guessing the rest of you are looking at that and wondering where on earth this place is.  It's a small lake upstate in New York. My uncle's family has a cottage on the lake. They built it somewhere around 1920. They've been going there every summer ever since. I've always had an open invitation to come visit, but let's be honest.  How often do I spend time in upstate New York?  My cousin got married there so I booked a flight and had one of the best weekends of my summer. I spent a little time in the city-went to the Manhattan LDS Temple and saw Jim Parsons in HARVEY, but the bulk of it was at Guilford. I will go back someday.
-I have the BEST. CALLING. EVER. I work in special needs mutual. It's a new thing. I'm still not quite sure that I know exactly what I'm doing, but I am having a good time.  I'm looking forward to working with the other leaders and the kids are FANTASTIC. I'm sure you'll hear more about that later.
-I love good food. I don't think I can really express how much I love good food. I'm always on the lookout for something tasty. Roommate and I made some delightful fish tacos the other day. That also took us to a Latin market. I've forgotten exactly how much I love all things Latin. I should go back. Soon.
-I LOVE HARVEST TIME!!! Yesterday after church I picked 8 cucumbers, 6 tomatoes, and a green pepper. Today's lunch was a quesadilla filled with cream cheese and jalapeno peppers, topped with fresh tomatoes. I have no words.
-Apparently I am incapable of NOT talking about food so I guess it's okay for me to mention that we picked plums today. And made jam. Roommate may have cried when she dropped our last jar from last year. We are now replenishing the supply. I feel good about that. It's yummy stuff. Just don't ask about the sugar content. Ignorance is bliss.
-The nephews are always good for a chuckle.  The highlight of the 4-year-old's 4th birthday was getting to use scissors for the first time. The 2-year-old (who thinks he is 3) thinks they should name their new baby sister Sally Djibouti.
I think I have a recurring goal. Every 3 months or so, I decide I need to blog more. I'd like to think I could, but as of this point, I'm making no promises.

Epic Fail:

So I tried to bake rolls today.
-spoiled milk.
-not enough flour.
-no emergency reserve of flour.
-substitute bisquick for flour?
-shut off oven and cool ridiculously warm house.
-scrapped bread however doesn't look too bad.
-tried bisquick biscuits.
-didn't count something right because this isn't biscuit dough.
-scrap it.
-start over.
-remixed biscuit dough, careful to not over mix-there's nothing worse than tough biscuits.
-throw biscuits in the oven with 5 minutes to spare. (awesome!)
-timer goes off.
-check biscuits-they're still really white. weird.
-give them another 5 minutes.
-still. no color whatsoever.
-touch biscuit.
-still doughy.
-check oven.
-IT' NOT ON.
-turn on oven.
-set timer for 5 minutes.
-timer goes off.
-biscuits overly brown.
-ARGH! there's no winning this one.
-throw biscuits in a bowl
-arrive 20 minutes late for dinner. highly apologetic.
This is why bread is still on my bucket list of things to learn before I die.

post script

My mother reprimanded me for throwing licorice.
I am thoroughly repentant.

Cool points of interest from today:

*We picked our first tomatoes in our garden today.

*I had an interesting conversation with a Buddhist friend today. We talked about death. I know...slightly morbid. But it was kind of cool.  He's Buddhist. And a doctor.  We were discussing the actual moment of passing.  He asked me if I had ever seen anyone die. (I was there when my grandfather passed away.)  His first death was actually in surgery.  A man died on the operating table.  He asked me if it had felt like something left the body when it died.  I said yes.  He said he doesn't believe in souls (because he is Buddhist), but the scientist in him wants to know if something actually leaves the body and how much it weighs.  He wants to weigh the body both before and after death to see if there is the slightest change.  Oh Oscar.  Just because you can't see it, it doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
*I went on my first actual bike ride in about 15 years tonight. My bum hurts.
*I took dinner to a family in the ward tonight.  They have a 4-year-old little boy.  When I ran in and dropped off food, the little boy said, "are you mommy's teacher?" I said yes, but I wasn't teaching, just dropping off food this time.  He said "Thank you so much for this wonderful food!" He's adorable.  Bless the 4-year-olds.
*I may have maimed my roommate this evening. I tossed a piece of licorice to her and apparently threw it harder than I thought. I heard it across the room.  It also left a welt and a lump on her forehead. I'm a bad person. I promise I won't throw licorice, ever again.

Pretty Sure Old English Makes Everything Better:

The Hokey Pokey

O proud left foot, that ventures quick within
Then soon upon a backward journey lithe.
Anon, once more the gesture, then begin:
Command sinsitral pedestral to writhe.
Commence thou then the fervid Hokey-Poke.
A mad gyration, hips in wanton swirl.
To spin! A wilde release from heaven's yoke.
Bessed dervish! Surely canst go, girl.
The Hoke, the poke -- banish now thy doubt
Verily, I say,  'tis what it's all about.

Thank you Facebook for sharing this wonderful moment with me.

Problematic

I have so many things to write about and very little desire to do so. I guess that's what happens when you get home SUPER LATE/EARLY and then have to recover quickly for the upcoming work week. Here's the slightly expanded bullet list:

• Just got back from Washington. Fantastic trip. Love my family. So much fun to spend time with them. Highlights: flying kites on the beach, family barbecues, hiking in Olympic National Park, sunsets on the Oregon Coast. 
• Ran my first 12k in Washington. Less than 13 minute miles. Kind of impressed with myself. The course was beautiful-basically ran through a green tunnel with the Puget Sound on one side. Downfall? There are no rolling hills to train on in Utah. Kind of had a hard time getting myself in the mental groove. Still can't run listening to music. Can't find a steady pace with it. I suppose that means I'm still on a quest for the ideal play list. 
• It rained. A lot. I know. The Pacific Northwest? Unheard of. I'd forgotten how wet it really can be. We still camped in it. I came home with a cold. It's okay. Ironically enough, the warmest we got was at Crater Lake (7000 feet with lots of snow?). Personal favorite moment was watching the two single guys dressed for Hawaii-not kidding fluorescent tank tops, shorts, and sandals wandering around in the snow with British accents. I giggled. 
• Miracle of the day? It happened. We actually got home around 5:00 am. It was a long, rough night. I couldn't really sleep until about 7:30 so I opted out of 9:00 am church. We planned on waking up in time for the 1:00 pm meetings at our building but at the last minute decided to go to church with roommate's brother to his singles ward. As we drove to American Fork, roommate commented about how her car felt funny and that she should go get her tires rotated tomorrow. Cue: Strange noise and tug on the car. She shredded her tire. We called her parents and her father and brother came as a rescue party. We were putting rocks behind the tires when a van passed us and stared backing up toward us. We assumed it was the rescue party. As it turned out it was our own Good Samaritan Couple. Cliff and Karen. Bless you both for your willingness to serve on a hot Sunday afternoon. He works at Les Schwab. We could have easily changed the tire, but he did it super fast. She stood and talked to us for a minute and told us that their church had a camp out earlier in the weekend so they cancelled their Sunday meetings. Maybe he wanted to get his Sunday worship in anyway? I was grateful. There are good people in the world. Pay it forward, yeah?

All in all I call it a good trip. I don't have plans for a while. I'm hoping that means my life will fall back into its general consistency which allows me to do such niceties as blog.  Happy Sabbath.


***Oh yeah. Update. I still don't really use the internet at home. It's SO NICE. Technology doesn't have to be such a huge part of my life. I'm okay with it.

Nebraska in all it's glory...

So I decided to come home for Memorial Day. Every time I come home I have that realization that I really do like this place. Nebraska really is a great place to live. I don't even mind the weather (ie, the humidity). Roommate and I are still training for the 12k in 2 weeks. I think after this trip we're finally convinced that we might survive it. We ran 6.2 miles through the biking/walking trails of Lincoln. Side note: they ROCK! Side note.5: I didn't say we were fast, I just said we did it. My legs were super tight after the drive. I think they were rebelling to 14 hours in the car. We'll have to see what happens after the drive home. They may not speak to me after it all. Wish me luck...