So Productive a Day!

Let's see.... How shall we start this post? I totally stayed up until 3 a.m. on Friday night/Saturday morning watching the rest of Season 2 of The Office. So I could return it to Brad and borrow Season 3. Can I just say I loved the last episode of Season 2? Can I just say that I ended up borrowing it again so I could watch it again! I have since moved on. I watched the first 3 episodes of Season 3 last night. I was up until 2 this morning doing that. Yes, I know the show isn't for everyone. My mom didn't care for it. I didn't think I'd like it when it first came out in 2005. In fact, at first, I thought it was the newest addition to reality TV. But it has really grown on me. I crack up.

So, in spite of my relentless Office-watching, yesterday was ultra-productive! Oh, before I get into that... Check out my feet tan-lines :). I so know you wanted to see this. They look more noticeable in person, just FYI. And don't judge my toenails. I need to re-do them. Elka. :).


Okay, so anyway, I was supposed to get up at 8:30 yesterday morning. With staying up until 3 a.m., it didn't happen. I was impressed that I got up at 9:10. But, we still didn't leave the house until about 10. And then we went to pick up Christina and Desiree, because Nick was working. And then we finally got to Brad and Tarylyn's an hour late... at 10:30. But Tarylyn spent her time waiting for us by making and canning blackberry jelly. It came out so cute! She did a great job. And I tasted some of the finished product that was left on the ladle. It was good. Just FYI. Then we got to work. Christina and I peeled the apples while Tarylyn sliced them and cored them. Mom and Saria went to the store to get a few things we still needed (like more sugar... jelly takes lots and lots... and lots!) of sugar to make. Our first creation was chunky applesauce. We got 4 and a half big jars of that. Then we made the apple butter. That had to cook and reduce a really long time. So, we ate lunch and then started on the grapes. The grapes I told you grow wild in Brad's yard. Let me just say, WOW. This was the coolest thing. We had so many more grape jellies than we ever anticipated! This picture is just half of the grape juice we got... without the sugar added!

So, after cooking the grapes on the stove, you see we got the appropriate color. The smell smelled like grape juice! However, this juice was still tart. I know, because I tried it. But, after 18 cups of sugar (you see, I wasn't kidding), it tasted just like grape jelly from the store!!! I was so excited. We had this grape syrup that we all tasted. Yumm-o! I'm excited to eventually try our homemade grape jelly!

Here's a picture of all of us around the stove. This was our assembly line :).


The last thing we did was prepare and can the blueberry part of blueberry cobbler. Now all we'll ever have to make is the crust stuff. We have the inside part done and canned! Of course, we did have a few casualties. My mom was smart enough to wear black. Christina had on turquoise, so not so noticeable when stained. I made it most of the way through without any grape on my white shirt. Tarylyn got grape on her too. Syrup. Bleach pen seems to have worked for me. But here we are, showing off our stains :):


Anyway, we left at about 5:20, because Christina had to go to work. Plus my mom and I went to the Relief Society Broadcast, which was very good. One final picture: These are the fruits of our labors! (Tell me we weren't productive!):


Click on that picture, because you can see more that I posted. But, the two jars of peas were actually canned last weekend, but weren't ready when we were leaving. And not pictured here are the blueberry cobbler jars, because they were still immersed in the boiling water bath. But, you can see all the other stuff that was done, and so you see we got a lot done! It was so much fun too!

Okay, Juliebean... There's lot of pictures, just for you :).

Feeling a Bit Daunted

Okay, so I heard back from Seattle Public and will be going for my pre-interview on the 2nd of October (which, though it sounds like it should be eons away, is now less than one week away! Where the heck did September go?!?!). Let me just say I feel daunted. I will be interviewing to qualify for all three librarian positions: Adult Services, Young Adult Services, and Children's Services. In order to qualify for YA, I have to present a 5-minute book talk. No big problem there. In order to qualify for Children's, I have to present a 5-minute story. I was unclear on what they meant by story, so I emailed them. Could I read aloud? Or did this have to be me telling a story without a book? Basically, the answer is that there are no restrictions, but that I should expect the interviewers to respond as children if I request it. What!?! I'm not really sure what that even means. Either way... I'm going with reading a story. Why? Because the other way would make me even more nervous! So, I called my trusty and wonderful friend Kristin who is the Children's Librarian at HLML. She's awesome, people. If you don't know her, just trust me. She is awesome. She suggested several titles. I was only able to find 2 of the ones she mentioned and then another by the same author that she didn't mention. Then I took them to Brad's house and used Samuel and Saria as my guinea pigs. I read to them and let them tell me which one they liked best. So, I will be reading aloud Dooby Dooby Moo by Doreen Cronin. Really cute stories if you are looking for something cute for kids ages 3 to about 8. So thank you to Kristin!!! You are wonderful!

In other interesting news... While I was in the library, I spoke briefly with the Children's Librarian. I mentioned why I'm getting the books, and she perked up and ended up telling me that within the next 2 months they will be posting a position for a Teen Services librarian here in this town. The downside is that it's only part-time. Apparently they are creating the position. And trust me, they need it badly. I went into the teen section to select a book to read and on which to write a book-talk for the interview. Their selection is really awful. I was very surprised. Of course, I hope to get a full-time job. And I certainly hope to get one before 2 months from now! But, it's always good to know these things, and I thought it was most excellent (to quote Bill & Ted) that she would tell me something like that. I guess we just see what happens. I know the right thing will come along, so I'm not really sweating it. I just apply for the jobs as I find them.

Also while at Brad and Tarylyn's, we went outside and picked wild grapes that grow in their yard. They are edible, though they taste very strange. (Well, I assume this is true since I've eaten several over the last month and have not died yet... I keep eating them to see if they taste more like "real" grapes.) Nothing like what a grape should taste like in my mind :). But, we are going to turn them into grape jelly. Because we can (can) and I love doing this stuff! Here's to hoping they will taste less sour when we add the 7 cups of sugar per 4 cups of grape juice. Of course we are also going to be making applesauce and apple butter tomorrow. Along with canning the blueberries for blueberry cobbler stuff. Christina is going to go over and help too. It will be very fun, if you ask me :).

Oh, and also while at Brad and Tarylyn's, we watched more episodes of The Office. Elka... It's hilarious. Michael gets on my nerves. He's such an idiot. But then that is what makes it so funny. Brad lent me the rest of season 2, so I'll be watching some of those after I finish this blog. I figure I need to play catch-up so I know what's going on rather than just start in on the new season. And since Brad has them on DVD, I get to do just that. I have watched through the one where Michael cooked his foot on his George Formann grill and Dwight got a concussion. Oh my gosh I laugh so hard in some of these episodes.

Oh, and for those of you wondering... I'm still working on reading The Name of the Rose. It's finally starting to pick up. It took a little while to get into it, because it has a lot of descriptions. But now that I'm about 170 pages into it (and I have a very long way to go!), I'm starting to pick up speed. It just seems like I never have much time to read. And then I end up watching episodes of the Office when I do ;). Of course, I'll have to stop on that book until I read Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. I have to do a booktalk on it before Thursday. Hopefully it will be a good read. I'm pretty sure that book is on my list of books I want to read at some point in my life (the list that always gets longer and longer and longer!). I don't have that list easily accessible at this juncture, as it is packed in my nightstand drawer in the garage. Although... If I were to get a job in Seattle, I wouldn't move there. So I would have an hour commute via the ferry. I'd say that's good reading time!

Oh! Went to my first night of Institute here. The teacher is very different from my last teacher in Tuscaloosa, but I still learned a lot. We are studying the New Testament this year. It seems as though sometimes there are little nuggets meant just for me in some lessons. I think I will enjoy this class and learn a lot, as I have the past 2 years. Annie, you'll have to tell everyone that I even used my Alabama sweater already! Wednesday was drizzly and cold. It never got out of the 50s. I figure the 4th floor will enjoy knowing I'm already making good use of the good-bye gift :). Of course, today cleared up nicely and was perfect weather this afternoon. And I'll tell you what I have noticed: I sleep the best when I'm snuggled up under comforters and blankets because it's cold! I get such wonderful sleep these days! Although my tootsies are like ice cubes, even under the blankets, for quite a while. But eventually they warm up nicely :).

Well, I'm off to watch some of The Office. Perhaps I'll post pictures of our canning joys tomorrow. We'll see how I feel about it. I know my mom and I are going to go to the General Relief Society Broadcast. But eventually there shall be pictures. Because you know me... I'm a picture fanatic (or fool... Brad would vote the latter).

You May Call Me Master Nilla

Would you believe that a university somewhere actually gave me a Master's degree?!?!

Hahahaha!!! (That's my evil laugh :) -- to go along with my evily-arched eyebrow).

Yeah, so I finally got my diploma!! Woohoo! I was excited. I will say this... UA really cheaped out on me. Apparently the glory of walking at graduation is to get the little folder for your diploma to look all pretty. Troy actually sent me my diploma in that little holder thing all pretty like in mail. I didn't walk with my B.S. either, but they still sent me that holder thing. I was suprised UA didn't send my diploma like that too. What cheap-os. Oh well. My mom thinks she's going to frame this for me. I didn't frame my other one. It's currently in a box in my grandparents' garage, along with all of my other stuff (including my piano). Oh, and I was so going to do pretend mug shots with this diploma. I even took the pictures. But my profile shots make me look like a hag. So, I nixed that idea. Would have been funny, though :). If I had a different face!

Those of you who have been looking at Christina's blog know that she did have her appointment yesterday and that she did find out what she's having. If you haven't checked, go check out her blog :). She and I also baked cookies, which is also mentioned on her blog. Today I watched Desiree all day. She is funny. I told her she had to take a nap, and she never much cares for that. So I don't force her to stay in her room, but if she doesn't, then the rule is she has to lay on the couch with Aunt Hila and she can't play. Today she ended up falling asleep on me. It was so sweet. I was watching some TV and noticed that she had gotten still and quiet. I knew then that she was asleep. She can be a little pill, though, when she hasn't had her nap. She had to wake up, though, since Brad called me this morning to see if I could go to his house to meet Saria getting off the school bus since they were going to go to Northern WA for the day for his job and he didn't know when they'd be back. So, Desiree and I went and met Saria getting off the bus, and then I watched them there at Brad's until they all got home. So, while the girls did their thing and played, I watched episodes from Season 2 of The Office. I stayed a while after Brad and Tarylyn and the kids got home so that Desiree could play with Samuel and Benjamin. But eventually, I had to take her home to her mommy. I do love the kids. They are all the cutest little munchkins.

Oh, here's a little video of Desiree from yesterday. I want to explain the video... One time Desiree was laughing and she snorted, so I pointed at her and said, "I heard you snort! I heard you snort!" She thought that was so funny, so she laughed even harder. Well, I, too, have a tendency to snort when I laugh sometimes, so the very next time she heard me do it, she pointed at me and told me, "I heard you snort! I heard you snort!" Only the way she does it is so cute. And then she got to where, if she snorted, she'd point to me and say, "You heard me snort! You heard me snort!" So, I was trying to get her to say it for the camera. She kind of did, but it's so much cuter the way she usually does it. But, you can watch this video and hear her cuteness and endure my horrendous (purposeful) snorting.

And in the job-search news... I got an email back from Seattle Public Library telling me that I qualify for a pre-interview. I can set up the time on any Thursday afternoon that is convenient for me. I just have to email someone and set it up. With SPL, it's a long process, apparently. What this means is that I can go in and interview for 3 different types of librarian positions. If I want to qualify to be on the list of possible Children's Librarians, then I have to have a story prepared for the interview. For YA, I have to prepare a 5 minute book talk. I can also interview for Adult Services. I can interview for all 3 on the same day and then, if I qualify for them (all or any), they put me on a list for a year as being "qualified" and then as job openings come available, they can call me in for an interview in a specific branch. Of which there are something like 28 (I think) in Seattle alone. Whew! Seattle is a huge city! Okay, I just double-checked... It's 27 branches and the bookmobile makes 28. HUGE!

Because I Can (-Can)

Sometimes I really crack myself up.

I flexed my homemaking muscles yesterday by canning peaches and peas. It was really fun! Probably mostly because I was doing it with family :). Let's see... I don't even remember the last thing I told you. Friday I baby-sat again all day and also took grandma to the doctor's office. That about summed up the day for me. Saturday morning, my mom and I went to the produce market in Tacoma. Totally awesome!!! And some really really awesome prices. We got red, orange, and yellow bell peppers for 50 cents each! Too cool. Usually you pay over 2 bucks for one red pepper. I know, because I have to get one every time I make those confetti pinwheels at girlie parties. I just don't think green peppers (though cheaper) would taste the same. So this was quite the bargain! Anyway, so now we'll have to get the other ingredients to make those. Maybe Tarylyn will host a family girl night at her place since she has a pretty good-sized house. But I digress... As usual. We also got 40 peaches for $10 (yep, 10 dollars!) and 1/2 a flat of blueberries for $17. If it wasn't the end of the season, they would have been $2 cheaper. But, we know for future reference. We also got a bunch of apples, some fresh corn, snow peas, sugar snap peas, bananas, canteloupe, baking potatoes, fresh chicken breast (a huge whole one), and a huge hunk of M&M white fudge (hand-made there at the store) -- because Grandmas and Aunt Hilas always take treats or provide them in some way to the kiddos :). (Plus we get some too ;)). We might have gotten other stuff that I just can't remember right now. But anyway, it all came in under $90! I was highly impressed! After running a few other errands (including a run on Costco... a place I hope to never again go to during the afternoon -- masses of people... it's unreal), we went to Brad and Tarylyn's. The kids were very excited that we were there. Brad was working his weekend of Reserves with the Air Force, but he got home before we were done canning the peaches. This was my first canning experience. What a messy job! But it was lots of fun! And we're going to do applesauce and apple butter next weekend with the apples! As well as making up the stuff for blueberry cobbler and then canning that stuff (kind of like canning pie filling, I guess). We also freezer-locked some of the blueberries tonight to just freeze them whole. So anyway, here are our pictures :):

Do be sure to click on this picture to get others. Otherwise you'll miss the blueberries and also the pictures of the kids eating fudge :). Along with others :). When we got back to Grandma and Grandpa's house, the snails were out on the wall! It was really wild to open the car door and see them all like that. But, yesterday was a rainy day, so I guess that brought them out to "play." The cold has set in for the most part. It will only get colder, of course. Yesterday it rained all day and the temperature never left the 50s I don't think. Of course, with us boiling water in the kitchen all day, we were content with it.

I cooked dinner last night and just made the chicken stir fry with the ramen noodles. Everyone liked it, so I was glad about that. I also called and talked to my dad for about an hour. Told him how things are going up here and all that. He says Dothan is getting cooler weather, which I've also read that on some of my friends' blogs as well. Yay for cooler weather!

Today was church. I helped in the nursery, since it was short-handed and my mom is the Primary President here. It's really weird to go to church at 1 p.m. I like the 9 or 9:30 church times.

Actually, part of the reason we are starting to jump on the wagon of doing lots of canning is because of what has happened with the economy in the past week. It has pretty much scared me. My plan had been to work on getting food storage and all that up and ready once I got my job and got all this debt paid off (including the student loans), but I don't think there's time to wait, and I need to do both at the same time. It frightens me what has happened over the past week with Wall Street and all these banks and mortgage companies, etc. It's not good. And I have talked to my mom and Brad and Tarylyn about wanting to call a family meeting to discuss things and get our plan for how we can be prepared... to pull together to help each other and become prepared as we have been told to do by prophets for years. What a blessing to be warned and given counsel so that we are prepared. For if we are prepared, we shall not fear. Anyone interested in what to store, how long to store it, and how much you should have can visit my "provident living" link under "places I visit on the Web." It's full of great info.

To leave on an up note, tomorrow I take Christina to her doctor's appointment. She's scheduled for an ultra-sound, so maybe she'll know what she's having after tomorrow. I won't share that news, though. That's her news. I'll try to force her to blog about it :).

I'm Certifiable!

No, not for the looney bin. Well, perhaps, but that's not what I'm talking about :). Great news! I finally got my Washington State Professional Librarian Certification! Woohoo!


Basically this means I can officially be a librarian in the State of Washington. And it also means I could finally apply for jobs in Seattle online. The application asked for my certification number. Well, now I finally have it. Oh, and it also means that I did, in fact, graduate. I still have not received my diploma from UA, so I was getting a little worried about it :).

I'm rather annoyed that I can't get slideshows to work in blogger anymore. Perhaps I need to download Firefox onto my mom's computer. But, as always, clicking on any these pictures will take you to an album, so you can see if there are others there. I will, however, intersperse them throughout the post, since I have a story to tell behind each one :). Nothing particularly exciting really. But a story nonetheless.

Sunday, Aunt Sue got back from her Alaskan cruise. Here's a picture of her with me, Christina, and Desiree. Aren't we a bunch of beauties?

If you really want to do a comparison... Take a look at the picture above my Aunt Sue's head. I'm the little girl on the right in the blue dress. Brad is the little boy in front of me with the green and black striped shirt. Christina is the little girl sitting on Grandma's lap. My how 20 years changes ya!

Random note: sometimes I really want to write a novel. Sometimes I come up with funny ideas. I have a really funny idea right now. Who knows if I'll ever do it. And perhaps it would only be funny to a few people.

So Monday night we had a full-moon. It was actually quite large as it came up over the horizon. It was very pretty. I got a couple of shots of it, but when I zoomed in, it got blurry. But here's one that I didn't zoom in. It's coming up over the Navy Yard down the hill from my grandparents' house.


I applied for another job yesterday. Again, it's a part-time position. But if it gets my foot in the door, I'm all about that. Oh, I also went to find out about being a substitute teacher here until I found a librarian position. Well, turns out you have to be a certified teacher to even be a substitute. Wow! So, I can take the emergency certification, but they probably won't offer it until November, though. That's what they told me. But, I put my name on the list. It can't really hurt to be a certified teacher. She told me I would qualify since I have a B.S. and a Master's degree. So that's good news. I wonder if that would qualify me to be a full-time teacher? Hmmm... Something to look into. It never hurts to have lots of options!

Anyway, mostly life has been more of the same. I introduced my mom to the wonders of youtube last night. I think I created a monster :). I do enjoy the time I have to spend with my mom. We really do have a lot of laughs together. I miss my dad, though. I wish he'd just move closer. He knows he wants to :). (That's for just in case he is reading this :)).

In other news, I'm glad tomorrow is Friday. Why? Well, because my mom will have the weekend off and we'll spend time together. It's fun :). We're going for sure to a produce market and then she's going to teach me how to can stuff. I'm pretty excited. I have big plans for a garden... I want to grow broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers, lettuce, strawberries, canteloupe... And all of these things grow here, so that's so exciting! We'll see how green my thumb is. Oh, and just for a side-note about the weather. After 3 weeks of mostly beautiful weather (did you see the sky in those pictures in my last post?!), today was overcast and cold. I think the high of the day was 60 degrees. No joke. But it wasn't bad. I still wore flip flops. In fact, I wear those pretty much everywhere (except church) right now. And I have the tan lines to prove it! So funny. That will all end when I have to be a professional and actually go to a job though ;).

Okay, well, that's enough about my vaNILLA life. Right now it is mostly vanilla :). Love to all!

P.S. Does anyone know how to rescucitate (sp?) a dead mouse? My grandmother's computer mouse died (we think it's the mouse), so we'll be replacing it tomorrow. Here's to hoping a new one works. We plugged in another one and it didn't work either. But the two mice we had here both have the USB plugs, whereas the computer has the circular thingy, so they had an adapter. So maybe the adapter went out. Who knows? Like I said, here's to hoping we can fix it.

Keeping Busy

It's amazing. Even without a job, I stay crazy busy. My grandmother had to return to have her burns dressed on both Thursday and Friday. And I take her back in tomorrow. My grandfather's foot continues to get better. He is up walking on it here and there. So, news is good on that front. On Thursday, I watched Desiree for a couple of hours in the afternoon. We played Supergirl and I flew her around on my legs while I was laying on the couch. She thought that was great fun. Friday I watched her from 9 until about 1. We picked more blackberries. This batch is what I call my Julie batch. They will be saved until Julie gets here (in case she comes not during the summer) for a batch of blackberry lemonade! While out picking blackberries, I got two phone calls! One from Tammy, and it was great to talk to her. The other from Movie Gallery in T-town, telling me I hadn't been in for a while, so they put a free rental on my account. See Julie, I even get those free rentals when I'm not living there ;). They just like me. Needless to say, I don't think I'll be using the free rental. Anyway, Desiree had some lunch and then we drove to Great-Grandma's house (my grandmother) so Grandma (my mom) could watch Great-Grandpa and Desiree (she came home from work to do so) while I took Great-Grandma to get her burns re-dressed. I told you I stay busy. Then, since we were close to Christina's house and she had gotten off of work by that point, we swung by to pick her up after my Grandma's appointment and brought her back here. My mom went back to work, then I took Christina to the bank, and then we went to Brad and Tarylyn's. Brad was at work, but the rest of us just hung out. So here are a couple of pictures.

Oh, I should also say that I watched a few movies with my family on Thursday night. Or was it Friday. I don't even remember anymore. But we watched The Great Debaters. That might have been the only one. Oh, the other thing I should say is that the Friday nurse that dressed Grandma's burns made my day! She looked at me as I was back there with Grandma and she said, "Now, are you the daughter?" And I said, "No, I'm the grand-daughter." And she said, "How old are you?" And I replied, "I'm 27." And she said, "27! You don't look 27." Now, this could be one of two things: very very bad, or very very good. You never know which way it's going to go... But I had to ask. "How old did you think I was?" And she said, "Honestly? I thought you were no older than 22." SCORE!!! Woohoo!!! I wanted to stand and do cheerleading cheers (not that I know any) right then and there! Take that you Houston County clerk lady who asked if I was Desiree's grandma! Hahahaha :).

Saturday morning I woke up early and my mom and I went to Costco and Fred Meyer, which is kind of like Super Wal-Mart, only the prices aren't as great. But they don't have a Super Wal-Mart here. Oh, so here's something funny... All week long, I told my mom about how Safeway had Fruity Pebbles on sale for 1.99. And all week long she told me she'd buy me Cocoa Pebbles, not Fruity Pebbles. I'm 27 years old (even if I do look 22 :)), and my mother still won't buy me Fruity Pebbles! It was a flashback to the days of yore. But my mommy loves me. She bought me both :). Hahahaha.... It was just a hilarious story about that. Also, you need to know this as well. I like Kraft American cheese (and I can also tolerate it's name brand "equivalent"). My mother, though she used to buy it for us, calls it fake cheese. So I had to buy some of that for my sandwiches. I just don't like "real" cheese on my sandwiches, including grilled cheese. Shopping with my mom is fun. I love my mom. We get lots of laughs. We bought another juicer at Fred Meyer (where some punk kid pulled the fire alarm in the middle of our shopping escapade, and that thing run for like 5 minutes, and it was awful!), and then when we got home, Mom and I juiced all the lemons and froze the juice so that we'd have the juice ready to go for the blackberry lemonade for the reunion!!! Right now, the lemons are cheaper, since it's the end of summer. But, without squeezing and freezing the juice, the lemons would go bad before November. So, that's what we did. Oh, I should also mention that on Thursday, Mom and I totally cleaned out the refrigerator. We dumped lots of stuff. Ick. Just for reference... in the pantry (it's gone as of last night) there were 2 cans of bean dip that expired in 2004, a can of chocolate sweet and condensed milk that expired in 1998, and some other treats. Yuck!

Anyway, Brad and Tarylyn brought the kids over yesterday and Brad cut the grass in the front yard. He's a good brother. Even if he's a dork ;). You'll see why in a moment. So, we took the kids down the hill to the park at the elementary school here. The kids had a blast. We adults sat and gabbed, of course. And somehow, Brad brings out the best in me (because that's all there is of me, right Brad??? :) :) :)... he won't read this, but hopefully Tarylyn will tell him I said that :)). So I was joking around telling him that "[I] can turn the world on with my smile. [I] can take a nothing day and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile." These are the lyrics of the Mary Tyler Moore theme song. And of course, Brad laughed and shook his head (again). And then he pulled his Sharpie out of his pocket (what kind of a dork carries around a Sharpie?? A pencil or pen, okay. But a Sharpie!?!) (Actually, it's for his job, so that's cool, but I have to make fun of him, it's my job). He started writing something and hands it to me. So check out these pictures:
Here's proof Brad is a dork with a Sharpie:


Here's his present to me (with Mom and Tarylyn laughing about it in the background):


Here's how he tried to pull off the shot of the driftwood I gave him (he thinks he's so smart):


And finally, here he is admitting the truth :) :


And these are the pictures of the cute kids (and me!) at the park. They are so funny.

Of course, all kidding aside, Brad is an awesome brother. And he knows I'm totally playing with him. But seriously, I'm going to keep my "conceited" driftwood from the park. It's a great memory and will make a great story one day. And hopefully he keeps his "dork" rock too :).

We picked more blackberries yesterday on the way back up the hill after the park. We got 2 more quarts. Yay! I don't even know what we'll do with them all, but they are free! And it's hard to not pick them.

I learned a valuable lesson last night: Don't watch a suspenseful scary movie all by yourself on your mom's computer in your bedroom in the basement at midnight. It's spooky. I watched I am Legend last night, since Aunt Sue had brought it up (she comes back from her cruise today). It got finished around 1:15 this morning. And so I get everything turned off, and then I start hearing walking around upstairs and thumping. Now, I know that it was my night-owl grandmother and her dog the shadow who follows her everywhere. But still kind of creepy after watching a zombie movie. Those are the kinds of movies you watch with someone with whom you can snuggle up. Lesson learned.

Also, my mother continues to embarass me. Every time she introduces me to people, she tells them about how I have my master's degree in library and information studies and about how my name means "the aura around the sun" (I have since informed her that it also means praise). Does she really have to add all those details??? And then, like the other day when I went to her office, she said, "This is my daughter, isn't she beautiful?!" So then later she tells me about how everyone tells her I'm beautiful. I said, "Yeah Mom, because you kind of coax it out of them. What are they going to reply: 'Actually, she looks like an old hag.'???" Yeah, I didn't think so. Hahaha... Although I will say that it occurred to me the other day that it is wonderful to have a mother that is so proud of me. Not that I think I'm this great person who deserves pride, etc. But to know that my mother is proud of me, it's a blessing. Embarassing somewhat when she does that. But it's an important thing to know. Turns out someone told her that she has a beautiful daughter (without her bringing it up) and then asked if I was single because he has two single sons. Hahahaha... Hey Elka, maybe my mom will somehow be involved in finding my future husband, just like your mom was! Hahaha ;). So kidding ;).

Okay, well, let me get ready for church! But I wanted to update you all and tell you about my crazy life!

Burns, Gout, and Licorice

Okay, so some of this post will be for my family members far and wide. Mostly so they can stay up-to-date on the goings-on here with Grandpa's health. Because I've learned one thing over the years (and it has been confirmed by 2 of my aunts): my mom is a terrible informant. So, I'll take over that job :).

Grandpa has had gout twice now. He got it in his right foot about 2.5 weeks ago. It went away after a few days. Then Sunday night, Grandpa's left foot started bothering him. By Monday he was in severe pain and couldn't walk without two canes, and even then it was severely painful for him. His having gout is a particularly bad sign, because it has to do with too much uric acid building up. And it's building up because the kidneys likely aren't functioning properly. And the pain is phenomenal from what I can tell. Any slight touch of the affected area (no touches by me, though, as I don't want to hurt him at all), would earn a huge jolt from Grandpa. So I know it was very very very tender. Which further helped the home health nurse to determine it's being gout. And, though there is medication to help alleviate the gout, they cannot prescribe it to him in good conscience because of his heart. The nurse later called and told me that that medicine could send him into heart failure. So, he's been sitting a lot, taking 2 extra-strength Tylenol, and keeping his feet elevated. I have noticed a marked difference the last couple of days, so that has been good. I hope he doesn't get any more gout, though. That looks like incredibly terrible stuff. However, if he does, he now has a wheelchair. Which is also probably good for him to have for trips to, say, Ivar's, or something. It's really just not good for him to put any unnecessary and abnormal strain on his heart anymore. So I think having the wheelchair is a good thing, even though I'm betting it will be a battle to get him to use it in public.

I made Grandma her herbal tea last night (with a teaspoon of honey). I took it to her and set it on the tv tray she has beside her all the time. I walked away. I got halfway back to the kitchen when I heard a gasp and dishes clank. Grandma had somehow spilled piping hot tea all over herself. Oh my gosh, it was awful. I cleaned it up while she changed and we got her some cold washcloths to lay on her badly burned legs. They were very red. Also part of her stomach. This morning, she was blistered, but good. You wouldn't believe how badly. In the end, I ended up taking her to Urgent Care (thanks Aunt Hila for telling her she needed to go!). The blisters had gotten even bigger. And, it turns out she was close to being hospitalized because they admit you if the burn goes all the way around your arm or leg. YIKES. So, Grandma had a lot of 1st and 2nd degree burns. She has to go back tomorrow to the Burn and Wound unit there, but the Urgent Care people dressed her burns for the night. Thank goodness it wasn't any worse! I was shocked when the physician's assistant came in and said she almost landed herself a night in the hospital!

And this is just random. You can consider it something else you now know about me, since I haven't kept up with those 100 Things About Me posts since I have been back in the blogging world. I hate licorice. Yuck. And I hate anything that tastes remotely like it or reminds me of it. That list includes rye bread and molasses and cane syrup, which tastes like molasses, which tastes, to me, like licorice. Ick. Also these malta goya drinks my dad used to drink in Panama. Ick. It was like carbonated molasses water. Anyway, why do I mention this? Well, I started using toothpaste the other day that I got from the dentist in T-town before I left. Free. It always left a bad taste in my mouth. The whole 3 or 4 times I used it. Monday morning, as I was headed to Christina's, I realized that it made my mouth taste like licorice. And then I asked myself why I was still using it if it tastes so gross and is such an unpleasant experience... So, I don't use the Crest Pro-Health anymore. But, if you like licorice, give it a whirl. Ick.

I Love

Well, since I am averaging a post every 2 or 3 days, with more time passing between them, I can do more song title posts, right :)? This one is. And if you watch it, you can laugh your butt off. I know I did ;). Especially the U2 part ;). Too funny.

So, let me tell you what I have loved (and haven't) over the past couple of days....

I've loved:
1. Having 2 jobs for which to apply. Yay!

I haven't loved:
1. That one of those is an hour away (the full-time one) and that the other is only part-time (although only 15 to 20 minutes away)

I've loved:
2. Knowing it will be okay and that the right job will come along eventually.

I haven't loved:
2. Eventually. It's another word for patience. Ugh. Not a fan of that P word. It should only have 4 letters in it. Someone dropped the ball on that one ;).

I've loved:
3. The time I have to spend with my family
and
4. my family!

There isn't an "I don't love" about this one. I baby-sat for Christina all day today, and I took Desiree over to Brad and Tarylyn's at around 2 so she could play with Samuel and Benjamin, and Saria when she got home from school. Plus I was able to hang out with Brad and Tarylyn and visit and laugh. Oh how I love my family! Oh how I love to swap stories. Oh how I love to hear Samuel and Desiree have intensley serious conversations with each other about chalk and the chalkboard. How I love the way the kids come up to me and sit with me and lay on me while I visit with B&T. How I love how, as I dozed at Christina's before going to B&T's, Desiree would come over to me and say, "Aunt Hila?" And I'd say, "Yes sweetie?" And she'd say, "I love you." How I love that these sweet spirits are a part of my life. How I love opportunities to be closer to Brad and Tarylyn and Christina. How I love being able to help them, and to be a part of my niece's and nephew's lives. How I love being Aunt Hila. Speaking of Aunt Hilas... How I love my Aunt Hila. How I love calling her and hearing a story I was told to call and ask about. How I love laughing with her. How I love sharing stories with her. And her daughters. How I love that I talked to Elka last night on the phone and she and I laughed our butts off (hey, Elka, they say laughter is a great calorie-burner ;) -- you can thank me later ;)) for about an hour. With dates to do it again in the future. Oh man that was a great conversation. How I love knowing that the family reunion is going to be one of the most interesting and fun experiences of my life. And probably funniest too :). And how I love being here and being able to spend time with my grandfather at this time. For those of you who don't know, my grandfather is basically in congestive heart failure. He is one of the sweetest and most selfless men I have ever known. And I am thankful I am here at this time to help with him and be here with him.

I've loved:
5. Catching up with Juliebean yesterday!

Nothing I don't love about this either :). It's great to catch up with her. I miss you Julie! I also miss all my other friends. I love to get my blog comments and my emails. I have felt like such a slacker friend lately, as I really don't spend much time on the computer doing email or blogging. Mostly I'm upstairs spending time with my mom and grandparents, and then spending my nights working on applications, resumes, etc.

And to end with a couple of chuckles, courtesy of four of the most adorable kids I know... So Saturday, my mom, Christina, Desiree, and I went over to Brad and Tarylyn's. All the kids were having a great time. Saria started complaining that she was hungry, and was told to wait until dinner, which would be ready shortly. She kept complaining about it and saying, "I can't wait! I'm starving!", so I said, "Well, I guess you're dead then." So she thought it was funny and dropped to the floor. Desiree ran over to her and laid down and hugged her. Then Benjamin came and sat on her back. So Desiree tried to also sit on her back, but she was too close to her neck, so we told Desiree to get off. So Saria gets up on hands and knees and walks Benjamin around, who thinks it's hilarious. So Samuel says, "Desiree, you can ride me!" So he comes over and puts his head to the floor for her to get on. But his butt is straight up in the air! It was hilarious! Tarylyn says, "Samuel, you have to put your butt down." Well, Desiree didn't care, she got on with him like that. So then Samuel gets up on his hands and starts going. And next thing you know, Samuel says to Desiree, "You have to help me!" Realize that Samuel is eight months older than Desiree, and right now, Desiree is slightly taller than he is. So then she started running with her feet while he ran on his hands and knees. They were zooming everywhere like that. Man I wish I had some video. It was hilarious! Christina got a couple of pictures, but she never could get the front of Sam and Desiree, they were too fast.

Also funny: Samuel is a serious kid sometimes. Very factual about what he tells you. So the other day Brad took him to the bathroom at the zoo (this was before I was here). On the way there, Brad told Samuel he was going to throw him to the wolves. Samuel looked at his daddy and said (very seriously), "No, you can't." And then when they were in the bathroom, Samuel saw some mayflies on the wall. He pointed them out to Brad and said, "There's some spiders, Dad. I don't like them." Brad said, "No, Sam, those aren't spiders, they are mayflies." So then Samuel said, "What do they eat?" And Brad said, "They eat mosquitoes." Samuel lifted his eyes up to Brad and very seriously said, "Do they eat kids?" Hahahaha... That Samuel is a mess. Can you tell I love my nieces and nephews?

Getting in Trouble

It's sad when you get an email from your best friend and a blog comment from your cousin and both are basically "getting you in trouble" for not blogging. I'm sorry. So here are my last couple of days :).

First of all, my blog celebrated its first birthday on Thursday. The same day as rj's birthday. The day after Grandpa's 87th birthday. I did not have a celebration for my blog. We did, however celebrate Grandpa's birthday by going out to Sizzler and having the salad bar. The servers all sang to him and brought him a brownie with a candle. Here are the two pictures I took there :).




Also on Wednesday, I picked a quart of blackberries and then took Grandma to her doctor's appointment. They also wanted to go to Wal-Mart, so I took them there. If you are a member of my family, you can stop laughing now :).

On Thursday, I took Christina to get her set up with a doctor so she can have a healthy pregnancy. They told her they'd call her to set up an appointment in a week or so. Hopefully that will all go smoothly. Then I came back to G&G's house to pick them up and take them to get their hair cuts. We picked up Subway on the way back. Aunt Sue got in late that evening. And then she and I stayed up until almost 4 a.m. gabbing and laughing and "solving the world's problems" (in her words). At least, all the problems that Aunt Sue and Elka didn't solve in May when they were staying up into the wee hours of the morning. Let me just say, I'm convinced the family reunion will be a memorable event. On Friday I had to get up early, so I was exhausted. I baby-sat Desiree until 1:15. I was tired and tried to convince her that Aunt Hila needed a nap. She didn't care. Her response was, "Play with me." And who can say no to darling nieces and nephews? At least about that. Then I got home, changed, and me, Grandma, Grandpa, and my mom went to the Temple. We got home at about 10:15. Aunt Sue had gone shopping in our absence and got me some Moonlight Path Bath & Body works stuff. Mmmm... It's one of my favorite scents from there. We stayed up and visited again, but not nearly as late. I slept in until about 9:45 today, as did Aunt Sue. I talked to April for about an hour to catch up on how life is with her. And then my mom and I went to Christina's and got them and then we went to Brad and Tarylyn's. The kids are so cute together. Christina got some cute pictures of Saria and Samuel being horses and Benjamin and Desiree being their riders. I do love these kids. They brighten life.

Anyway, I must go. I must grab a quick shower and head off to Stake Conference. But that is the extent of my life at the moment! Now you are caught up!

Keeping You Updated

Well, in the interest of not getting berated by Elka and Juliebean again.... :). I will post a blog entry. But there really isn't much to say. Not that I ever had very much to say before, and yet I somehow always came up with something!

In addition to filling out applications for jobs (I finished one last night for the community college here as an adjunct librarian), I have mostly been spending time with my nieces and nephews. Monday was Labor Day, so my mom was off work. We spent the morning cleaning, and then we went to the grocery store. We got milk (at $1.98 a gallon!). We skipped the lemons (at 99 cents each!). I guess you can't win them all. But man, milk is cheap up here! Lemons aren't, though. Well, at least not in the regular grocery store. So, my mom took me by this little hole-in-the-wall type store called Cash and Carry. It's designed for small businesses, but everyone can shop there. So you basically buy in bulk, and it's a lot cheaper. We got a bag of almost 20 lemons for $5. A much better price than 99 cents per lemon! Anyway, then we went to Brad and Tarylyn's and spent time with them. Then it was back to a grocery store to get a rotisserie chicken (I think I spelled that wrong, but who cares?) for our salad. We had big beautiful salads with chicken in them :). Yummy. That made up for our Sunday night feast of homemade mac and cheese (made by my mom) and rootbeer floats for dessert :). Yesterday I went by the public library to see about volunteering. Let me tell you, they are serious about their libraries here! I even have to fill out an online form (with references) just to volunteer! It's crazy! Then I had nothing else to do, so I went by Christina's and dressed Miss Desiree up as a princess in one (okay several) of her blankets. Then we did her hair all pretty. She wanted all her hair clips in her hair. Both me and Christina got to be her prince at one point and we had to dance with her at the ball. And I had to sing the Ariel song while we danced. I left there and went to Brad's and picked some more blackberries and played with the kids. Benjamin is getting to an age where he'll interact with me now. Used to be he could take me or leave me, and Saria and Samuel were the ones all excited about me being there. I wouldn't say Benjamin is exactly excited, but at the very least he likes for me to pick him up sometimes now :). He's a cutie. We got attacked by bees, so we quit the blackberry picking. I got home and watched some TV with Grandma and Grandpa until my mom got home. Then she and I worked on dinner... including blackberry lemonade! Here was our final product:

And it was yummy! (As usual, clicking on the picture will take you to other photos :)). So, now the plan is to pick more blackberries so we can freeze them to have them to make blackberry lemonade for the family reunion!!! Yippee!!

And so I think I will go pick some blackberries in a few minutes while I wait until time to take Grandma to her doctor's appointment.

Oh, I will say I have been having some of the most vivid dreams as of late. And they haven't been good. They've been disturbing in a way. Last night I dreamed I was in Panama at Los Rios Pool. I was swimming there, and noticing that the floor of the pool looked really dirty and that of the three private showers in the ladies' room, only one of them was really private anymore, because the other 2 were missing their shower curtains. There was more to the dream, but it's hard to explain. Sometimes I wonder how my mind comes up with the craziness :).