She Makes Me Smile

And now, for your viewing pleasure, pictures of Nyah.


Because she's cute.

Missing School

Often at work, or when people ask me a chemistry question, I realize how much I've forgotten and how much I never knew in the first place. That's the problem with getting a degree; the more you learn the dumber you feel as you find out about more and more that you don't have a clue about. Awesome.

I often get the urge to review my chemistry just to keep it fresh in my mind, and I've never really acted on that urge because I didn't have many of my books from college. It's one of the only things I regret from my college years: selling back my chemistry books. Now, I realize that this was necessary in order to afford the books for the next semester, but I wish I would have found another way, because now I don't have them and I miss them terribly.

But the other day, I was itching to review some chemistry, and I remembered that I am The Queen Of Internet Shopping, and I decided to see if I could find my old books online. I made myself a list of the chemistry courses I had taken (I still remember each course and its course number, yes that's sad) and went down the list, searching online for the book I had for each course. This wasn't easy as I had forgotten which books I had in the first place, so I spent a few hours doing this. But I did it!

The next step was finding the books for sale online. This is why I am in love with Amazon.com. I found all of my books. All of them. The best part? Three of them were under $10 (including shipping) in very good condition from sellers of used books. I went home and checked to see what books I still had, and I had several still, and a few that I didn't have I had some good replacements for (due to inheriting all the books in an old professor's office one time), so I only needed to actually buy five books. So I'm keeping a close eye on Amazon to see if the other two books come down in price. Even if they don't, I will be able to get them for about $20 each, which isn't bad considering they were originally hundreds of dollars. Let me tell you, upper level chemistry books are some of the most expensive textbooks out there.

So I started with my general chemistry book, which I still had. When I was in college I was so busy that I pretty much learned what was going to be on the exams, and there were bits and pieces that I missed because I was strapped for time. This time around, I have all the time in the world, so I am reading each chapter slowly, highlighting and practicing the chapter exercises. I'm in nerd heaven. I remember now why I chose this as my major: it's very interesting, and there are numbers involved, and I love math and I love knowing how things work and interesting applications of different chemical processes.

So the plan is to go through and review, class by class, until I feel I have fully refreshed my memory, and even learned more than I did in the first place.

Now. This has brought all sorts of good memories to the front of my mind, and I am remembering how much I loved school. I've always loved school, since the very first day of kindergarten. Yes, there were times when I was stressed, but I love learning. I love the smell of books, I love buying new school supplies, I love sitting in class and listening and debating and asking questions, I love sitting and doing homework (believe it or not), and I love taking tests, because they are challenges and it's very gratifying to get good scores, which I almost always did (because of loving school so much).

All of this made me want so very badly to go back to grad school.

But one of the things I've realized about myself is that I can't be in school full time and be healthy at the same time. It's too much. I don't handle stress well, and if I don't sleep enough it throws my brain chemicals (and my whole body) into utter chaos. I thought about doing a master's with night classes, just part time, but chemistry is one of the few disciplines that can't really be done at night. There just isn't enough demand for chemistry classes to extend them to night school.

I wouldn't want to quit my job, either. I love my job. It's amazing. It's such a perfect match to me and my needs. Getting a master's would involve time-consuming research, and I would probably have to quit to be able to devote enough time to it.

The other thing to consider is that I wouldn't know where to go. BYU's chemistry department was AMAZING in resources, classes offered, and staff. I loved it there. I didn't like BYU in general, but the chemistry department was always wonderful to me. So, naturally I would want to go there for grad school. However, not only is it an hour and a half drive from my house if there's no traffic, but I couldn't get back in to save my life, since I've become a heathen.

So, my other options would be to go to the U of U or Weber State, which are closer to my house, but not close enough to be convenient, and I don't honestly know much about either chemistry department, except that the U of U was the place where that cold fusion thing took place years and years ago, which didn't make them look too good.

So, basically, it won't happen. It can't happen. And I need to be ok with that.

So I think what I will do is to keep reviewing my books, and then branch out. I learn extremely well from books, and if there's anything I don't understand I can always internet. The internet knows everything; you just have to know how to sort through the garbage to get to the real stuff.

Oh, 'Stang, How I Love Thee!

Remember this old thing?



Well, Mr. Amazing Scott has been working hard for months now, just in his spare time, doing body work and then priming and priming and priming, and then spent several weekends in a row working on the paint, and then polishing all the chrome and getting new parts for the markers, and putting it all together and here is the nearly finished front end:



And its incredibly sexy rear end:



Next up is the interior! But can you believe it turned out so amazing? And he painted himself! He turned our garage into a painting booth and it was so very very cool!

Those ER Docs...

Well last time I talked about a hospital visit it was wonderful because I became an auntie and Nyah is just precious.

This time it's sad...

Last week Mim was having headaches, but they weren't unbearable and they went way after a few days, so she wasn't too concerned about it. But then yesterday she was driving up to see Kwiddens and Nyah and on the way she had another headache come on. This time it was unbearable. Just to give you an idea of how tough Mim is, she once had a nail go through her foot and then her brother just yanked it out and she didn't even cry. I would have been bawling, but that's not the point. Anyway, by the time she got to Kwiddens's house she was crying because she was hurting so bad, and the pain was starting to spread to her whole body. She also started to develop a fever, so Kwiddens gave her some Tylenol to see if that would lower her temperature and help with the pain, but the pain stayed and her temperature kept rising, so she gave her some ibuprofen, and same story. Her temperature got up to 102.8, so they took her into the emergency room around 8:00 last night.

When they got her there they did the usual: hook her up to IV fluids, get vitals and medical information, take urine and blood samples, then send them to the lab. And then we waited...and waited...it could have been the slowest lab technician in the world. After about three hours the results came back from those and they were clean, and her white blood count was totally normal, so the next thing was to do some x-rays. Those came back clean as well, so then they did a CT scan...also clean.

The suspicion was some kind of meningitis, since it manifested as a severe headache, then body aches with a sudden, high fever. So they then did a spinal tap, and Mim does NOT like needles so it was really really hard to watch her go through that...After another hour and a half they got the results of the spinal tap back, and big surprise, it was completely clear.

Medical mystery, that woman.

Anyway, they decided there really wasn't anything else they could do diagnostically, so they sent her home with instructions to drink lots of water and keep taking Tylenol and ibuprofen, and if it isn't gone in a few days they told her to come back to get an MRI. Fun times.

So Kwiddens and I got her and the cars back to Kwiddens's house, where Mim's van was parked, and we drove the van and my car down to Bob's house in Orem (the boyfriend...I'm not sure if I've mentioned him yet) where she would be able to crash and have someone keep an eye on her. Kwiddens and I then set off to IHOP, because I was STARVING, and the other option was tacos from Del Taco, since they're open 24 hours a day, and it was 4:00 in the morning...yes, they have one of those 4:00 thingies in the morning, can you believe it??

I did get to work on time though. I just went straight from dropping Kwiddens off to work, and I was actually there early, so I was able to get done very quickly, put in for a few hours of PTO, and go home and sleep.

There were only two good things about this entire incident:

1. Even though she was in terrible pain, Mim, Kwiddens and I had a blast just talking and keeping each other company. We're all cool like that.

2. This masterpiece:

Cheesecake pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream.

Plus the Rock Star, large cappuccino, two glasses of diet Pepsi, and diet Mountain Dew I had throughout the night and morning.

That was a crazy crash...

Ramble Ramble Ramble

Tuesday we came home and there were weird red spots on the carpet in the living room. It was pretty late so we didn't worry about it until the next day. It turns out, Buster threw up his (red) dog food all over, and then ate it, so all that was left were smelly red spots. Fabulous. So Wednesday Scott went and rented a RugDoctor, and we cleaned the spots the best we could, and even though it didn't get the stain out the nasty junk was out of the carpet so we were ok with it and we returned the cleaner and went to bed.

We got up in the morning and everything seemed fine, and we both headed off to work. When we got home and opened the door the stench was overwhelming...bleh. I think the RugDoctor just kinda spread around the nast instead of totally sucking it up, and to top it all off it didn't pull out enough of the water in the carpet, so it got mildewy and gross and smelly (so pleasant) while it was "drying"...so that was a complete waste of $30.

So today we called around and found a guy who could do the whole room and the stairs for $50, which is a pretty awesome deal, and he was able to come over an hour and a half after we called, which was also awesome. So, now our carpet is very very clean and smells NICE. He even got the traffic spots out.

Moral of the story?

RugDoctors suck. A lot. Don't bother.

Today I was reading some chemistry history (nerdy...) and I was talking to Scott about it and I was saying how if there's an afterlife with a heaven or maybe even a Chemist Heaven (and when I said that Scott about died from laughter...) the guys up there must be like, "I told you and you guys totally didn't believe me!" and they must feel so...vindicated. What a nice feeling. Good job, Avogadro.

I am getting better at playing Plants vs. Zombies. If you haven't played this game you MUST. It is SO MUCH FUN and SO CUTE and THE PLANTS HAVE FACES. I mean, come on. What other game lets you throw butter and popcorn kernels at a zombie to kill it?

Scott and I are now both on fatsecret.com. It's a daily food and exercise diary that keeps track of calories, portion sizes, and all the exercise you do. If you're dieting, it's definitely worth checking out. We're both in love with it. Scott's phone even has an app for it, so when he scans in a bar code on whatever food he's eating it automatically logs it in his food diary. Very cool.

Mim and I are going to go to a family reunion up in Sandpoint, ID later this month. We'll see how that turns out...either way we'll get a band saw out of the deal (more explanation later). The fam is also coming up to our house for July 4 for fooding, a movie, and fireworks (the little baby ones that are legal in this horrible state).

There were several other things I thought about today that I wanted to write about but I've completely forgotten them. I suppose that's what I get for not writing things down.

10 Reasons

Here are ten reasons I love Scott:

1. He squishes spiders for me when they attack me in the shower.

2. He lets me buy yarn whenever I want.

3. He's dieting with me. Go Team!

4. He can tell what mood I'm in before even I know what mood I'm in and he knows how to make the bad moods go away (or at least get a little happier).

5. He squishes spiders for me when they attack me from behind the couch.

6. He doesn't let me carry heavy things.

7. He does the dishes when I leave for the weekend.

8. He likes spending time with me, even if we're just grocery shopping.

9. He picks the peas (that he's allergic to) out of casseroles so we can get the ones I want to eat.

10. He squishes spiders for me when they attack me in our bedroom.

This, of course, is not a comprehensive list. I just like things in multiples of ten.

The spider in the shower this morning was one of those giant, really fat, hairy, black ones.

No Babies!

So I don't like kids. I don't want kids. Anyone who knows me knows this.

But oh boy do I love being an auntie!

On Saturday I went over to Kwiddens's house and spent some time with her and Nyah and Isaac. When she was born, I didn't get much of a chance to hold Nyah because everyone else was HOGGING her...

I got there at about 11:00 and we talked while they got ready for Isaac to take Nyah over to his grandfather's house to visit. While he was gone, Kwiddens and I decided to go out shopping for baby things (my new obsession) and then get some lunch. We did, and at lunch I ate rolls with honey butter (pure heaven) and then when we got home I spent the next ten hours playing with the baby, holding the baby, feeding the baby, burping the baby, loving the baby, and fortunately, still not wanting my own baby.

But let me tell you people:

Having a little baby niece of my very own is just heavenly. She came out perfect. She looks perfect, she smells perfect, she feels perfect...you should touch her cheeks. And her hair. They're...well, perfect. Perfectly smooooooooth and soft, that is.

I spent hours just like this. She's such a little cuddlebug. If you put her down in her bassinet she wakes up and makes little baby noises, but if you hold her she sleeps soundly until she gets hungry.

One of the reasons I don't generally like kids is that they're noisy. But this particular baby isn't! She cries a little bit when she gets hungry but as soon as she gets a bottle she just snuggles back into your arm and eats, and then she's back asleep.

If you can't tell, I'm in love.

Am I a baby convert? Eh. Not really. But am I a Nyah convert?

Abso-freaking-lutely.

On Being Crazy

So I briefly touched on the fact that I had a manic phase last week when I posted about my trip to Lava Hot Springs.

Which got me thinking. I have never on this blog been able to just come out and say what exactly is wrong with me. I think I've been a bit ashamed of it, a little embarrassed, a little bit afraid of what people might think. Which is stupid, now that I think about it.

At this point I think you guys all know me well enough to understand more about mental illness than I've given you credit for in the past. You all know that:

1. It isn't my fault. It's a combination of faulty genetics and lots of crap I went through. Mostly it's the genetics, though.
2. My soul isn't "defective". I have a beautiful soul, and it's whole and very special.
3. I can lead a relatively normal life as long as I take my medicine. People would never know there was anything wrong unless I told them. And I generally don't tell people who don't need to know. But telling people things is what the internet is for, so here we are.

Besides, the antiquated views on mental illness are...well, antiquated. I'm not posessed by demons, I promise.

So here it is:

I have Bipolar Disorder. Bipolar Disorder usually fits into one of two categories, named Bipolar 1 and Bipolar 2. I have a rare form that doesn't really fit into either category. To put it into perspective, it's about as serious as Schizophrenia. In addition to Bipolar Disorder, I have Clinical Depression, an anxiety disorder, and a few OCDish tendencies (but I like the last one because it makes me do everything with mathematical patterns and I am ridiculously good at coming up with organizational systems).

I take pills 3 times a day. 3 medications (or 4 if I have a panic attack), 5 pills, some taken morning, noon, and night. I'm also on a continuous dose of birth control that prevents periods completely so I don't have to worry about the whole PMS thing (thank heaven...).

I love my manic phases because I feel FABULOUS. I feel like I have so much energy. My moods soar. I get so much done. I go out and do things and actually enjoy life for a few days (not that I don't enjoy life in general, it's just a really intense enjoyment I'm talking about here).

I hate my manic phases because when it ends, it ENDS. Abruptly. And I crash below my baseline. My medications usually keep me at a good baseline, which makes me feel pretty good every day. But after a manic phase, I just...can't. It's hard to explain. This is why it's a good thing that I only have 1 or 2 of these a year.

So Friday night I felt fabulous and I got home around 2:00 a.m. and went to sleep, and by the next morning I had crashed. I woke up and didn't want to do anything. I just wanted to lie on the couch all day and eat junk and be lazy, and so that's what I did. And I ate half of a chocolate silk pie and too much ice cream along with it. Sunday was similar, but I made myself get up and do some yard work. I'm slowly climbing back up out of this hole, but I still feel lethargic and blah. That's really the only way to describe it. Blah. And poor Scott has to put up with me being down on everything and moody and sleepy.

At least I'm not being a jerk this time.

The thing about being below my baseline is that it feels like I could fall further at any moment. It's like I'm on the edge of a cliff. I'm on solid ground, yes, but my toes are hanging off the edge and all it would take would be just a little push from anything, really, and down I would go. Fortunately, my antidepressant makes the cliff a lot shorter. (Thank you Mim for the awesome analogy.)

Fortunately, I have a weekend that starts at 3:00 this afternoon, and I can just chill out and by next week I will have gotten plenty of sleep and my moods will be back to normal.

Aspartame

So I was in Wal-Mart yesterday doing some grocery shopping. Scott and I are trying to be healthier, so we were picking out light yogurt-the kind that's fat-free and has artificial sweeteners in it. So I was picking some out and telling Scott how that yogurt has fewer calories and no fat so it's better for you and good for digestion, and a man nearby turned to me and said, "May I add something?" I expected him to chime in and agree with me that it was a healthier choice, so I said "Sure". He pointed to the word "aspartame" and (pronouncing it incorrectly) said "Aspartame is really bad for you."

I restrained myself. I just said "I have a degree in chemistry and I don't agree with you". And then I walked away. I said it as politely as I could with a smile on my face.

Here's what I wanted to say:

The only study that has ever shown an artificial sweetener to cause cancer was many years ago in California. Not only have those results never been replicated since, but the original "results" of the study were on rats, anyway.

Now let's pretend..I mean assume...that aspartame does have a teensy tiny chance of causing cancer.

Even if this assumption is true, the risk is far overshadowed by the damaging effects of eating too many refined sugars and too many calories. I mean, come on. Obesity, which is caused by too many calories in the first place, causes coronary diseases and diabetes. It's a walking death sentence, and it cuts quality of life drastically. Trust me, I know. I was obese, technically, and I was always sick, always tired, always physically miserable in some way or another and it was horrible.

Now let's take a look at diabetes. If a person eats too much sucrose (table sugar) he or she risks developing type 2 diabetes. If this person instead indulges in naturally sweet items containing glucose and fructose (plant sugars), these sugars have a less pronounced effect on blood sugar. This effect has been shown to be directly related to the development of diabetes. Artificial sweeteners, like plant sugars, also have a less pronounced effect on blood sugar (as do sugar alcohols, in case you were wondering), and so are a better option than table sugar in that regard.

So let's recap. Aspartame (and sucralose, and saccharin, etc.) offers a person with a sweet tooth the option of having something delicious that has fewer calories and a less pronounced effect on blood sugar.

Let's see. If I have the choice of eating something healthier that has a 0.0000000000001% chance of causing me cancer vs. something with more sugar that will give me diabetes and gain weight, am I going to choose the artificial sweetener?

Hell yes.

Oh, BP, Grow Up...

This makes me happy.


Not because oil spills make me happy, but because making fun of people makes me happy, and these guys are deserving it right about now.

Welcome To The World!

I hurried at work yesterday and got finished around 1:00 p.m., went home, changed, grabbed some snacks and headed down to the hospital. Kwiddens had gone into real labor around 1:00 a.m., and was at the hospital and all hooked up by 4:00 a.m., when she called me. Unfortunately, there was no way I could take the day off, since my boss is on vacation and wouldn't be able to cover me (hence the rushing at work), but I got there around 2:30 p.m. so I hadn't missed much. At that point she was at about an 8 and she stayed there for a few hours, all the while having good contractions. She was ready to start pushing around 5:15 p.m. and went for an hour before she was a new mommy.

Here is the very first picture of Nyah:



She was born on June 14, 2010 at 6:15 p.m. and was 8 lb. 3 oz., 21 inches long, and had the most ginormous feet I've ever seen on a baby.

She has her mommy's nose and dark hair.

Here's Kwiddens holding her, all swaddled up like a cute little bundle:


Having a baby doesn't make you look super pretty so I didn't post a picture of Kwiddens, but I'm sure I'll get some cute ones of her and Nyah later on when she's had a chance to shower and do a little hair and make-up!

Labor!

Kwiddens went into labor at 4:00 this morning!

I'll update later :)

Lava Hot Springs

So the past few days have been one of my rare manic phases (which I'm coming down from pretty sharply at the moment) (I'm thinking of taking Klonopin and going to bed for the next week) and so yesterday after work I called Mim and told her I wanted to do something crazy. Usually I would do a road trip, but seeing as Kwiddens is going to pop any day now we didn't want to be too far away for when that happens. But Lava Hot Springs is only a two hour drive from my house, so I asked her to go nuts with me and have a spontaneous trip and she said yes!

She drove up from her house and got here around 7:15. We immediately left and since neither of us had eaten, we drove thru at Del Taco and got a Fiesta Pack (6 burritos and 6 tacos!) and we were on our way. Here's me, in my car, in the drive thru:

I think I need to wear my hair down more often; I look like a boy.

We drove, and while we drove we talked and talked and talked and when we talk we talk about everything. Last night topics included the Crusades, word origins, math, philosophy, God, the stupid whore who stole away my father and broke up my family, hauntings, boys, and being crazy together.

When we got there around 9:00 (we made really good time, and I wasn't even speeding!) we found a parking spot RIGHT THERE, which was FATE, and we changed and went to the hot end of the springs and just sat and soaked and talked and talked and talked some more, and here are our toes in the water:

Look how skinny my ankles got! I have to say, I wore one of my really cute two piece swimsuits and I looked good for the first time since college.

The springs were open until 11:00, so at 10:40 we went to the locker rooms to beat the rush and changed back and headed back. We got gas and caffeine, and then we had promised ourselves pie so we found a diner and we were getting tired, which meant we were getting giggly, and it was just so fun!

We ordered a quesadilla (which wasn't that good, but had excellent guacamole), and I had chocolate cream pie and Mim had banana cream pie and it was heavenly:

After that we headed home, and we pulled into my driveway at 2:00 am (and poor Mim had to drive another 2 hours to get home) and I went straight to sleep and didn't wake up until noon today.

More Aftermath

So apparently when I fell yesterday I also smashed something into the sensitive area of my chest and it didn't start to hurt until I got home from work today. I love internal bruising. I didn't make the connection between the fall and the pain at first and had a minor but short-lived freak out that I had breast cancer or something. I'm just paranoid like that. Either way, complaining about it got me out of doing the dishes...Scott spoiled me and did them for me.

I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday. I need a weekend.

Text Time 6

Today's Text Time is brought to you by Jaxon, who is Kwiddens's nephew. He isn't very smart and his parents don't really parent him, so interesting situations arise...

Kwiddens: Jaxon is having Count Chocula and pistachios for dinner.

Kwiddens: I seriously can't understand a word Jaxon says.

Me: That's because he's made of goo.

Kwiddens: He's like "Pennin nee dot".

Me: Is he talking about penguins?

Kwiddens: Jaxon is wearing underwear and a heating pad.

Me: Um yeah that is super awesome. And sad...

Kwiddens: I can't believe his mom and grandma think he is normal...

Me: Well it's not like they are normal!

Kwiddens: Jaxon is still in his pajamas and Rachel's like "No he's wearing that as clothes today!!"

Kwiddens: I'm sick of hearing Jaxon fake cry and having Isaac's mom coddle him. Every time he fake cries, if Isaac tells him to stop, she makes an excuse for him.

Me: Pathetic.

Kwiddens: I'm seriously going to live in a box behind Wal-Mart.

Kwiddens: I got chewed out for saying "Jaxon, that's a fake cry."

Me: You need to get out of there.

Kwiddens: I know. I'm going to go insane. I took lortab and benadryl and only slept for 3 hours. I was so disappointed.

Nothing Special Today

1. Today is a Diet Mountain Dew sort of day. So was yesterday. I had to fight to convince myself that I didn't need to call in so I could sleep all day.

2. I've been exercising every day. It's infinitely easier when the basement is clean (Thank you, Scott) and I have Gilmore Girls playing on the TV in front of me. I won't say anything else or I might jinx it.

3. I'm almost done with Mim's blanket. It's just a small blanket, like a throw, and I want to keep making more of it so I gave the pattern to Mim so she could expand it for me. Appparently there are mathematical patterns in it, and those sorts of things make her very happy.

4. Remember a while ago when I snapped at my boss? I think he's still acting a little cold towards me. I might be imagining it, though.

5. I bought bananas, intending to eat one every day, but I didn't, so they're getting quite squishy, so I see some banana bread in the future.

6. I've been doing very well with my food goals. I did have my first french fry craving in like six months the other day, and it was weird, and it went away quickly so I'm not concerned.

7. Kwiddens's due date was yesterday and she still hasn't popped. She doesn't want this pregnancy to go any longer. Neither do I!

8. When someone hurts someone in my family I get all protective and it takes every ounce of restraint I have not to call whoever hurt my family and tell them exactly what I think of them. Even if it's another member of my family.

9. After I exercised this afternoon I got in the shower, and when I was getting out I slipped, broke the towel rack, got rug burn on my chin and bent my neck at a horrible angle. My head and neck and chin still hurt and I feel a little dizzy...but that might be because I didn't eat for several hours.

10. I've been very busy this week at work and I LOVE it!

Deck Party, Part 5

So, I'm sorry for the long silence about our giant deck project. We were on a roll, and then it rained for like two weeks straight! After that we just felt a little...procrastinatey.

But finally I convinced Scott that I really wanted a deck and he decided to work on it some more. All that was left were the railings and the fascia. Scott spent quite a lot of time on the railings, and they turned out very well!

Here's Scott working on one of the posts:

Putting the balusters into the railings:

After it was all done (on the main part of the deck; the stairs will take a full weekend themselves) he let me (very ceremonially) put on the last post cap:

Ignore my muffin top and look at the new me: ONLY 150 POUNDS.

So the main part of the deck is finished! It looks so nice, and it's nice and spacious and I am really excited to get a little bistro set and sit outside, sipping something sweet and cold and doing something fun with yarn!

Doesn't it look relaxing?

A Perfect Sunday Afternoon

Our deck isn't completely done yet, but I still like to sit outside and eat snacks and enjoy the sun in my awesomely favorite plaid capris:

I love peanuts.

Mim's Room

This past Memorial Day weekend, aside from dying Em's hair Mim and I spent hours and hours and hours talking and talking and talking and brainstorming and plotting and planning and we decided to paint Mim's room.


This seems to happen a lot. We will be talking about something totally random and all of a sudden we decide to paint a room in Mim's house! This time we needed to do Mim's room, because we're trying to create a sanctuary for her in there where she can go sit down and lock the door and think happy thoughts involving the happy colors her walls will be.


So every time this happens, Mim has already chosen a color to match the "mood" she is trying to create. It's always a very specific mood, or a feeling...it's hard to describe. Anyway, she has already attempted to pick colors, and sometimes she has already bought a little sample color and painted swatches on the walls, and sometimes she has already painted the entire room and it has turned out terribly in either case, so I have to step in.


So next we head down to the hardware store down in Payson, where we start browsing for colors. We pretty much start from scratch because I am WAY better at this than she is. So we spend about an hour looking at colors and I make lots and lots and lots of suggestions with different combinations and make sure every suggestion coordinates with the pillowcases we brought with us to make sure everything in the room matches.


Finally, after bickering and lots of "Well, um, hmmm, I'm not sure...maybe?" I suddenly hit on The Perfect Combination Of Colors, and the heavens open and you can hear angels singing really awesome rock songs.


So this time we picked this very serene pale blue (with just the teeniest bit of green mixed in) and a slightly darker version of the same color, but with just a teensy bit more green than the light color, and the dark color is going on one wall and the alcove above her bathroom and the light color is going everywhere else.


I tried to take a picture, but the best part of this whole process is that we don't decide to do this until the hardware store is about to close, and by the time we get home it's dark, and we stay up very very late painting, until we are all giggly and we finally collapse into bed and pass out.


So, here are some pictures, some taken in the dark, so you can't actually tell what colors they are so I'm really not sure why I bothered but I love putting pictures here, so there.



Now, Mim has a really nice room with all sorts of architecturally interesting bits, and one of these is this cool alcove above her bathroom. This was definitely the fun part to paint, especially because by the time we got there we were already in the giggly tired phase.


So the only way we could paint it was to climb up there!



At one point she needed to turn around so she could paint the other end of the alcove, and the alcove is only about 2.5 feet wide, so turning around involved some giggle-inducing acrobatics:



We only ended up getting only one coat of just the darker color done before we were so tired we decided to finish later. Which we didn't. So it still isn't finished, and probably won't be until I get the chance to drive down there for another weekend.


The awesome part is, we needed painting snacks, and since we're trying to be healthy we made our own salad. It has romaine, raspberries and blackberries and strawberries, and pineapple (which didn't end up fitting in with the rest of the fruits) and grapes and black olives and poppy seed dressing and OH BOY was it good, so of course I took a picture.



Just try to tell me that doesn't look like a bowl full of heaven.

Red To Blue

So this past weekend for Memorial Day I went down to Mim's to spend the weekend. One of the main events was dying Em's hair. When she's in school she has to stick to "natural" colors per the school dress code (technically, her shade of red is against the rules but the teachers all like it so much they never write her up for it!), but as soon as it's summer it's time to kick it up a notch.

So here is my beautiful sister Em with her old color:


It's actually more vibrant than this but you get the idea.

Right before we started:


Isn't she adorable? I mean, ahem, totally cool?

Anyway so the game plan was to bleach her hair as white as it would go and then put the blue dye over it to get an icy blue sort of color all over.

We applied the bleach and waited...and waited...after about an hour we figured we should probably rinse it out and this is is what we got:



Not quite as white as we wanted...that red was so stubborn! So, we had Mim go buy another bleaching kit... We applied that and waited...and waited...but it had faded all it was going to fade, so the plan had to change. We decided that the blue over the red would make purple and she was ok with having blue roots and purple tips, so on we went.

Right as I was putting the blue dye on Em had a stroke of brilliance and thought it would be awesome if we left a little bit of it reddish orange in the front, so I sectioned off some and left it while the blue dye did its thing.

So originally it was going to be all blue but I think this turned out much cooler:



Some reddish orange in the front with blue roots in the back and a frosty purple on the tips.

My sister is SO Rock 'n' Roll!

Now, short rant:

When I was Em's age I would have LOVED to have blue hair. Or really any color other than my own. But Dad was so strict...he didn't want us wearing any makeup or even nail polish, let alone dye our hair. Finally Mim convinced him that it would be ok for me to dye it a little, and so I got to dye it a slightly lighter shade of my own natural hair color. So exciting, I know.

Anyway, now that Dad is out of the picture (mostly, anyway) Mim has seen the light and relaxed and realized that it's FREAKING FUN to have crazy colors in your hair, and is a lot more lenient with Em and Jorg than she ever was with me and Kwiddens.

Totally not fair.

Just another gem of a memory from my childhood.

Rant over.

This Is A Total Cop-Out

1. How old do you act?
I act like a range of ages. I act like a very old woman because I knit and crochet (I particularly enjoy making lace) and I go to bed super early so I can get up super early (during the week, anyway). I act like I'm in my teens or twenties by dying my hair fabulous colors. Right now I have hot pink streaks. Obviously, the age I act depends on the circumstances.


2. As far back as you can remember, what did you want to be when you grew up?
When I was very very little I wanted to be a fashion model. However, my genetics aren't quite good enough (I'm only 5'3" and a little more than zero pounds) so I soon switched to wanting to be a doctor. I still would love to be a doctor, but I know myself and I know now that that isn't something I could realistically handle, especially while making time for Scott and my family.


3. If you were to write a book based on your life, what would the title be?
Did You Take Your Medicine Today?


4. What's something you do that's considered "childish" by most?
That's a really tough one, since most people think I'm older than I actually am. I suppose I get excited when I see cute things and squeal like a little girl, but I like that about myself.


5. The last question isn't a question. Write a story of a time of when you or someone you know overcame great adversity.
Once upon a time Mim raised a family almost by herself, and even under the most extraordinarily horrible circumstances I turned out ok.