Ode to a Dog

I regret to inform the rest of the world that our 15-passenger van, Clifford, will be with us no longer.  He died and we are choosing to not seek outside medical help to bring him back to life.  I'm not sure if he signed a DNR before he left us but my parents are just going to assume he did.

Clifford was a great van for us.  We got him back in 2001 (?) when our family expanded to five children.  My parents had the choice between a gray or red one and we obviously chose red.  We were the only large, red van in Green Bay so everyone that saw our van somewhere knew our business.

First picture I could find of him.

Clifford has caused us some problems in his life but I guess that's what happens when you become a member of a family.  On our way back from our big family vacation to Idaho and Utah, his transmission died in Idaho Falls, ID and we were towed to Blackfoot, ID.  Very long story short, we were stranded in Blackfoot for an entire week waiting for him to get fixed.

Getting Towed

Our family stranded in Blackfoot.  At least there's a park there....

 He's hauled us to Utah, Idaho, Wisconsin, Ohio, North Carolina, Niagara Falls, Georgia, and numerous other places.  He's been on high adventure, to girls camp, on a 50 mile bike ride (as the medic, of course), and to Seminary and back a hundred times.  Kings, Queens, Presidents and Prophets have ridden on his noble seats (well maybe future ones...).  When gas was enormously expensive a few years back, the pump wouldn't let us fill the whole tank because it cost over $100.

In Green Bay, about to move to Ohio.

Our family with a couple who's name was Clifford.  They wanted a picture with our license plate...duh.

I loved driving him because he made me feel powerful!  I was five heads above everyone else on the highway except the semi-truck drivers.  When the bigger car got the right-of-way it was always me.  We would turn heads, he and I, because we're just that cool.  Once I backed into a parking spot in Wal*Mart and the guy whose truck was next to me came back and inspected his truck because he thought I hit it.  Idiot.

I know I have been "changed for the better" and not just "for good."

Well this past weekend has been an emotional roller coaster for two major reasons.  I guess the best thing to do is start at the beginning...Friday morning.  

BYU-Idaho has been growing and changing for so many years now.  We celebrated our 10th anniversary of becoming a four-year university last spring.  I feel so blessed to be a part of this great work that is taking place!  I don't think you can truly appreciate it until you have experienced it for yourself.  On Friday, the new BYU-Idaho Center was dedicated and there aren't words to describe how awesome it was to be in that building during that sacred event.  The building seats 15,000 people and is modeled after the Conference Center in SLC.  

President Eyring speaking in the new BYU-Idaho Center during the dedication

One of the reasons I love BYU-Idaho is the fact that living prophets and apostles of Jesus Christ come to speak to us so often!  President Henry B. Eyring, first counselor in the first presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was the one to dedicate the building (as well as the addition to our student center).  In addition, we heard from Elder David A. Bednar, a former president of BYU-Idaho and current member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and Elder Russell M. Nelson, also a member of the Twelve.  I know that these men are apostles of our Savior.  They lead by inspiration and they teach us the things that He would have us know.  How wonderful it is to know that Christ not only had prophets on the earth hundreds of years ago to lead his people, but they are on the earth today!  And I have been in the same room as them so many times and heard their words of comfort, peace, and joy, along with their words of warning and caution.  

The words spoken at the dedication made me even more grateful for the university and its mission.  I didn't cry but I sure came close to it a few times.  No offense to anyone who goes to BYU but sometimes I wonder why I ever even considered going there.  I can't comprehend the things that I would have missed had I not gone to Rexburg.  It is the best decision I have ever made and I have not regretted it once.  

The people here are great.  The students, the professors, the administrators, and the community.  There have been multiple times where I've walked into the testing center to take a test and there's a few students holding a large bag of Jolly Ranchers and wishing people good luck on their test.  Last spring, during national hot dog month, the librarians had a huge grill outside the library and were giving away free hot dogs. I randomly walked up to a girl that I did not know in the library and studied bones for anatomy with her for an hour. During midterms a few girls came by in the library and gave me a cookie while I was studying.  I can't walk to a class without seeing someone I know.  I only open doors for myself half the time...if there's a guy around he'll get it for you 95% of the time.  Most of my professors know my name.  My religion professor asks about my roommates by name (that may also have to do with the fact that I roomed with his daughter...).  My Biostatistics professor shares mini-devotionals with us before class.  All of my classes start with a prayer and a few have also started with a hymn.  The list goes on and on and on and on.  I love that I go to a school where we can combine secular knowledge with spiritual.  We can read talks from old sessions of General Conference for homework in ANY class, not just religious ones...biostats, general science, essentials of human nutrition, etc.  I love that professors trust the students to do what is right and to be honest.  I love everything and can't believe how blessed I am!

I know that it's because of the sacrifices of so many people that I am able to attend this university.  Everything here is funded by tithing money from members of the church all over the world.  Many of those members live in situations where they will never see a building as wondrous as the BYU-Idaho Center, they will never see a campus this beautiful, they will never receive the kind of education that we receive while we're here.  And yet, because of their willingness to keep the law of the tithe, I am part of a select few that has so many opportunities and blessings.  I will always be indebted to them and I hope that I can make them proud as I continue on through life striving to live it in Christ's footsteps.

Saturday I again got to go in the BYU-Idaho Center for Whitney's graduation.  HOLY CRAP!!  She graduated!!!  And I am so proud of her.  She's done what so many people in this country don't or can't do.  And even better, she's going to be a teacher and feed the minds of the coming generations.  It was a hurried goodbye but that's probably for the best because I just would have had longer to cry.  

A word to the wise- don't watch Toy Story 3 the night you say goodbye to one of the best friends you've ever had.  Tears will come.  I thought I was going to be fine but of course they came even without my permission!  I think I'll be okay in a bit but it really is going to be hard not having her around this winter.  We promised each other we'd go to our weddings so I'm trying to hurry her along so I have an excuse to come see her.  Sometimes I think we think a little too far ahead.  We've already planned that our kids will get married so that we can be grandma's together...it could happen.  

After our "Wicked" performance in the ward talent show.

I tell her I love her all the time so I don't think it's really necessary on a blog.  And whoever reads this is probably sick of hearing about our random adventures.  I'm sure we'll find ways to have fun even when we're hours apart!  Although I am quite excited that I can take showers in peace without worrying that a cup of sugar or ice cubes will be dumped on me...         

PS- sorry for the font on here...it changes and I can't figure out how the heck to fix it.... 

      

Smelly Pee??

My favorite part of college life is getting to buy my own groceries.  I can choose to eat WHATEVER I want.  A blessing and a curse at the same time.  I am pretty good about eating all my fruits and vegetables and come close to death when I don't have fresh, ripe, bananas in a bowl on the counter.  Ask my roommates.  I eat at least one a day.  Sometimes I eat one for breakfast and one for a late night snack with peanut butter.  Try it.  Love it.

(The only acceptable PB to use is JIF.  NO EXCEPTIONS.)

Well two days ago I went to the store and was going through the produce section when I saw some bright green, asparagus just calling my name.  I've had asparagus once...at band camp.  And it was delicious.  So when I saw that it was on sale I couldn't resist and bought a bunch.

(I have heard asparagus makes your pee smell funny...hence the title)

I had bought a bunch about a year ago but forgot about it and it went bad before I could cook it.  This time I was determined to cook my asparagus before it rotted!  So yesterday I got online to find a recipe.  I ended up coating them with olive oil, sprinkling on a little salt and pepper and baking them in the oven.  And for a finishing touch I added some lemon juice and parmesan cheese (not my idea, thank the internet).  My asparagus adventure was a success!    

Flying High...The Legal Way

If you’ve never flown in an airplane while listening to awesome airplane-flying-music (ie ET, Starwars, Stardust (my choice of music at the moment) etc) you are missing out…big time.  And if you’ve never flown in an airplane at all you are missing out…bigger time.  I love flying.  It’s a good thing I’m not scared of it since it’s basically the only way I can get to and from school…unless I want to drive 30 hours across cornfields and the great Midwest.  How amazing is it that I can travel the same distance in 5 ½ hours?!!?  Not including a 4 ½ layover in Chicago and waiting time...  But seriously.  Today I went 1,249 miles in 3 hours.  That’s 400 miles per hour.  When’s the last time you went that fast?  That’s what I thought.  I just gained a few points on the cool scale.  

I think I gain a greater appreciation for how monstrous our earth actually is while in a plane.  You can see so far, and yet it’s only a city or two.  And at the same time, I can go “through” Chicago in less than 10 minutes.  Talk about efficient.  I’m FLYING across the United States.  Can we really grasp how significant that is?  The pioneers walked, and walked, and walked, and walked, aaaaaand walked (were you singing the song there??  100 brownie points to you if you did!), and it took them MONTHS to get where I’m going in HOURS.  And I’m landing in SLC too.  How appropriate.   

I will admit that I am a little nervous during takeoff and landing.  For some reason I always think that the tail end of the plane is going to hit the ground before we lift off.  But I am always thankful when it doesn’t.

(Side note: I can’t stop eating these butter toffee cashews I bought earlier today…they are delightful)

Think about landing for a moment.  Again, I wish I knew exactly how long a runway is, but pilots have to be pretty skilled to get us to land precisely at the right moment.  Usually, if we were a few hundred feet lower a few hundred feet sooner we’d run into the highway, or a lake, or a neighborhood.  And of all the times I’ve flown, never once has my plane missed the runway.  For that, I am extremely grateful.

I like the people I meet when I fly.  I was just thinking how fun it would be to be a stewardess.  You’d meet so many interesting people!!  You’d get some weirdoes for sure but I’d like to meet myself if I was flying.  On my flight from Minnesota to North Carolina I sat a seat away from a guy that goes to BYU.  He’d only been back from his mission 3 days before flying out to school.  And he served in Provo haha  Of course the first thing my family asked when I told them was “What’s his name?  Did you get his phone number?!”  Sheesh.  You’d think I was 30 and unmarried with all the comments about marriage I get from them…mostly Zach.  The lady next to me was probably in her late 50s.  When she asked where I was from I said “Lima, OH.  There’s really nothing there.”  Then she exclaimed “Well GLEE takes place in Lima doesn’t it?!”  Apparently she and her whole family are huge Gleeks.  While waiting for this flight I talked to a girl who is also at BYUI (and from Columbus area), an old lady who used to be a nurse and knows the person with the highest IQ ever to graduate from WestPoint, and a girl on her way back to school in Wisconsin.      

Somehow on my flight from Chicago to SLC (which I’m sitting on now) I was lucky enough to get a row to myself.  I took my shoes (well commando boots) off and spread out.  It is now pitch black outside except for the occasional lights of the cities and towns down below.  I wish I knew where we were… So far I’ve been writing for 25 minutes.  I should rephrase that.  Since I’ve started writing it’s been 25 minutes.  I haven’t written continuously as I’ve had to take a few breaks to enjoy being thousands of feet about the earth.  If we’re going 400 m/h that means I’ve gone about 167 miles during this time.  HOLY CRAP!  (That was for Whitney…I had to work her name into this blog somehow)

An hour or so later….

I met another girl on the flight who going to BYUI.  We met outside the bathroom of all places.  And inside the bathroom all I could think of was the scene from Get Smart.  If you haven’t seen that movie you should.  My siblings and I can quote the whole thing.  You’ll never look at a bathroom on a plane the same way again.  And on a similar note…Boys: Is it really that hard to remember to put the seat down? 

 

By the way, Chicago O’Hare has the coolest toilet seat covers I’ve ever seen.  It was a plastic tube that covered the seat and when you waved your hand over a sensor, the toilet would rotate the part that was showing to the back so that fresh plastic was there for you to sit on…I’m really hoping that the old stuff just gets disposed of somewhere.  I guess the only down side to them is you have no idea where your seat cover is coming from….    

     

Skull, Scapula, Patella and Phlanges (better known as Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes)

As many of you know I'm taking Anatomy and Physiology this semester.  It's been a very challenging and time consuming class as I figure I've spent at least 20 hours in the lab and library studying bones and muscles...plus studying for the lecture exams.  But it's been so rewarding!  On top of this class I'm also taking Essentials of Human Nutrition which is just a basic introduction to nutrition but I've already learned a ton in there as well.

The past two weeks in A&P we've been able to get in the cadaver labs and study the muscles on actual humans.  What a blessing it is to have those resources here!!  I can't help but feel appreciative of the people who gave us permission to learn from their bodies which is the most precious gift they have ever received.  They were each someone's mother or father, maybe they had tea parties with their granddaughters.  I'm not sure of their life stories but I'm sure they each had unique experiences during their time on this earth.  I will admit, it creeped me out the first few times I went in because they definitely used to be living, breathing people...just like you and I.  And I would look at them, then at myself, and realize all of that "stuff" was also in me!!  Holy cow!  Our bodies are amazing!

How anyone doesn't believe that God created us is beyond me.  Have they ever looked inside a real human?!  It's just a big mess of organs and muscles and fat and there's no way they could function together without a divine spirit.  There is absolutely no way that lump of gray matter in your skull could ever remember or learn anything without a divine spirit living inside.  Of course, our bodies are what houses our spirit while here on earth so they have to be amazing.  God obviously wouldn't let something so precious live in something sub-par.

And then if we think about how God created each of us to be exactly how we are, how could we ever not love our bodies?!  Sure, we should strive to be in great physical shape but if the extra 10 lbs doesn't want to come off then maybe God wanted you to have those extra 10 lbs.  In my nutrition class the other day a girl made the comment that "to think less of ourselves is to think less of God."  If we say that we aren't good enough then we are telling him that we are not pleased with his work.  Have you ever seen the seven wonders of the world?  I haven't.  But I've seen pictures.  And I've seen snow-capped mountains, the Appalachians in the fall, Niagara Falls, the oceans, sunsets galore, "spacious skies and amber waves of grain" and so many other beauties of the world that take my breath away.  God created all of those to be beautiful.  And yet, none of those are living and breathing.  Why would he spend time making our world beautiful and then not make sure that every single thing about us was perfect.  He wouldn't.  I'm sure of it.

I guess I've just been thinking a lot about this lately and felt like I should write about it.  We had an excellent discussion in my nutrition class a few weeks ago regarding eating disorders that really struck me.  That discussion led me to teach a lesson on self-confidence and womanhood in Relief Society that Sunday.  I was able to read talks on what modern-day prophets and apostles had to say about our bodies and how important they are.  Then as if that wasn't enough, last week in nutrition we got to read MORE talks on how special our bodies are and write a reflection paper on what we learned from them.  It's no wonder this has been on my mind.

I hope everyone can come to appreciate their body exactly as God created it.  Because he did create it.  He knows the hairs on your head as he knows the feathers of the sparrows.  Take some time and learn about how awesome you really are.  You don't have to study for 20 hours to learn each individual muscle and their function but you can appreciate how your body works together to make your hinges move and your food digest.

Here are a few talks I particularly enjoyed about our bodies and how special they are....
Elder David A. Bednar Ye Are the Temple of God
Sister Susan W. Tanner The Sanctity of the Body
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland To Young Women
Elder Glenn L. Pace Confidence and Self-worth
Elder Russel M. Nelson We Are Children of God (Great insight into the actual physical capabilities of the body)

Awkward-ness Runs Through my Blood

There are times in life where things just get awkward.  Sadly, I find myself in these situations quite often.  Case and point: A group of us were going to Extravadance Friday night and I hadn't picked up my ticket yet so I wanted to get there a little early.  Whitney, conveniently, had a date and he came to pick her up.  I was standing out in the cold waiting for Alexis and I honestly can't remember if he offered to give me a ride or if I asked.  I'm really hoping I wasn't dumb enough to ask for a ride.  BUT somehow I ended up in their car on the way to the dance.  How do you spell awkward again??  Let me tell you.  A.W.K.W.A.R.D.  Don't ever do what I did.  Learn from my experience.  It was only a five minute drive (less actually but we had to find a parking spot) and I felt like I should just curl in a ball in the backseat so as to not be seen or heard.  As soon as the car turned off I swung my door open, yelled a "thanks for the ride!" and bolted towards the door so they could walk in without an awkward third wheel.  It's a good thing they were already friends and it wasn't a blind date or anything.  Hey, I'm trying to look at the bright side!! 

Now on to other business.  If you didn't know, Eli and are are pretty cool siblings.  We know how to have a party.  And also how to make a "killer" music video.  The singing gene kind of escaped our family but we can act and we can edit.  Last winter, the two of us made a video for The Killer's Spaceman and if I'm allowed to brag for a bit, I think it's decently awesome.  It took us about 3 months to make, although it's not like we worked on it every day...We aspire to be on Ellen one day so if you would kindly watch it and get our views up we would very much appreciate it. 

To view the video on youtube click here!!

Or you can just watch it on my blog because I've learned how to post videos on it!

Enjoy!

Times and Seasons

The time has come.  Rexburg finally remembered it's supposed to snow.  I'm glad it forgot for a while though, and let us have a nice long "fall".  It was a good fall for Rexburg, I suppose, but I actually missed having a Wisconsin/ Ohio fall where I can wear jeans and a sweatshirt and be perfectly comfortable, where the leaves turn all sorts of colors and slowly fall to the ground, and where the slight breeze blows your hair in your face.  I should have gone to a strangers house and just raked leaves for them.  I love raking leaves!  And this time last year I also remember feeling deprived of my leaf raking.  Fall's my favorite season so when it's not absolutely perfect I feel slightly cheated.  There were a few days of "real fall" but that's the best it got.  Anyways it snowed.  And I was not prepared.  It was raining in the morning so my natural thought process was "if it's warm enough to rain, I don't need gloves!"  Halfway to my first class it turned to slush-snow and continued on until that evening.  I walked into work at noon with clear sidewalks and walked out three hours later with over an inch of slush and snow on the ground.  Heels were not the best choice that morning.

Walking between classes with a cheap, purple umbrella that kept whipping inside out and utterly embarrassing me, I wondered why the heck I was choosing to stay here in the winter when I technically don't have school.  Not like Ohio is much warmer but at least there I have a car...well half of a car...wait, Eli has his license now so a third of a car...and it's being held together by duct tape, packing tape and staples and I don't think the heat works...so basically, I have a third of a box on wheels.  Whitney begged me to come to AZ with her but I'm not quite sure I want to spend my break shelving books at an elementary school library and opening ketchup packets during lunch with flu-stricken children while she teaches all day.  But it would be warm and sunny!  

I can't believe the semester is more than half over.  Well actually I can.  It's been a long semester.  I'm ready for some of my classes (okay, ALL of my classes) to be over but I'll admit I get a little teary eyed thinking Whitney is going to be leaving.  And who knows when I'll see her next.  I guess college is all about friends coming and going and it's her time to venture into the world and make a difference.  We've had a lot of fun times though and we're going to make every day count until the very end!!  Next week we're performing in the ward talent show...basically our talent is being awesome roommates.  If it turns out good then maybe I'll let the cyber-world have a little sneak peak at why we're so fantastic...and if not, then you'll have to use your imagination to make up something even more fantastic!!!

I guess I should give a shout out to some other people as well....Shout out to Alexis who has let me sleep with Steve the last two nights!!  To Cali for having the brains to know that she doesn't know how to drive in snow...yet.  To McKenna for putting up with some really crazy roommates her first semester.  To Lexi for being able to sleep through anything and for her adorable arm squeezes.  To Jamie, Kadi, and Audra because I love and miss them.  To the Demings and little Jaden for being the cutest family ever!  To Hillary for having a talent show to humor Whitney and I.  To my Relief Society for being the best girls EVER.  And to (insert your name here) for reading my blog and being awesome!

Life is definitely good :)