About time

Three months later, NY Times gets it right.

I breastfeed.

Okay, not really. I don't breastfeed, and there is no one for me to breastfeed aka I do not have a baby. BUT there is a giant billboard on my way home from work that says just that: "I breastfeed." I was even behind a bus today with the following ad/PSA:
There is a link on the bottom that I can't read, but after using my friend Google I think that is for the PA Breastfeeding Coalition. Apparently August 2008 was even proclaimed Breastfeeding Month. Nice. I guess that it's good to know that there is so much support out there if/when I need it!

Phillies Phriday

Forget Halloween, around the office it was all about the Phillies!!

After the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series in a suspended game five Wednesday night, our boss Tony declared it Phillies Day on Friday and brought in all of his garb to help get us decked-out for the occasion. Go team!!

I just couldn't resist

Dilemma

Here’s the scoop. I got a voicemail Saturday morning from a ward member telling me that she is throwing a candle party the following Thursday, and wanted to invite me. She said she had an invitation to give me, but hadn’t seen me in church the previous Sunday to give it to me personally. Also, because she’s in Primary, she never ‘sees’ anyone. Note: This is The Assumer from this post. We aren't super chummy.

On Sunday I anticipated the exchange where she gave me the invite and I feigned excitement while trying to come up with a conflict of why I couldn’t go. Well Sunday came and went, and besides seated during sacrament meeting I only saw her at a distance down the hall between classes.

So here is my dilemma:
I know that I will not be buying any candles at this party (there’s not really any spot in the budget for party purchases, especially ones that cannot be eaten or used to cover the body).
Do I go ahead and attend, giving the appearance of being interested, but the disappointment of not buying? What if the peer pressure is too much and I give in and buy one? Then I have to come home and tell my husband I was too weak to say no. Or do I just go as an attempt to branch out and make more friends, just to learn that there is a reason why I am not friends with the party hosting/attending type?
OR
Do I just not go? The hubby and I can always use the QT (quality time), right? When I see the hostess next I can just small talk it like always and ignore the fact that I didn’t go to her party. It's not like we ever discussed it together. It is very easy to not get voicemails, right? And with not actual invitation (paper or e-vite), I don't even know what time it starts! These women’s husbands will eventually graduate Med school and move away, right? And if not, then hey, we’ll only be here for19 more months, right?

I guess it really comes down to what is ruder:
A: Go, eat the food, and hang out, full well knowing that you will not be making any purchases.
B: Being a no show.


Please, sound off.

Happy Early B-day to Me!!

I've been doing some research on healthy eating, and really wanted to get a blender so that I could start making Green Smoothies.

Well, Stas wasn't too thrilled with that, because I had sort of {cough, cough}, given away {cough, cough} a blender that we had gotten for a wedding shower gift. No-I didn't re-gift it!! We hadn't used it in the first ten months of our marriage, so in an effort to get rid of all the things we hadn't used before we moved across the country, I had sort of given it to Stas's best friend Eric. Okay, so I am totally guilty.

Well, while we were at Costco, earlier this month, I spotted a red blender!!!! Oh beautiful day, I hadn't seen a red blender anywhere (especially not one under $100, much less at this reasonable price!). I convinced Stas that it would be an excellent option for my birthday and he agreed. Wow. I really never thought the day would come when I would want a home appliance for my birthday. Well, here we are, not to mention the bread machine I want for Christmas.

Armed with my red blender and a fridge full of veggies I embarked on my first adventure in the world of "raw" eating. Here I am with my very first green smoothie! I have had 1-2 green smoothies every day since then. I can absolutely tell a difference in my energy and my body. I can now go much further for my morning runs and I don't come home wiped-out, I haven't once had a sore muscle, and I find it much, much easier to get up in the morning. Which says a lot coming from me!!

Yesterday Stas even joined in on the smoothie loving. He also said it tasted pretty good, which is HUGE coming from someone with such a refined pallet, seriously!

While I am not 100% converted to the raw diet, I am definitely learning a lot.

Here are a few of my favorite food links (consider it 'food for thought,' ha!):

• Green Smoothie Girl (Robyn's infertility struggles did a complete 180, when she started eating raw. Oh yeah, and she stopped having to wear glasses!)
  
• Anne (not actually a food site, but has a ton of good recipes and tips)
• Running Raw (a professional athlete who eats a completely raw vegan diet!)
• Raw Food Art (how she overcame cancer is a miracle!)

Apartment Up-date

When Stas got back from his internship this summer we made a few changes. We flipped the living room around and added a new cozy chair and ottoman.Note the beautiful impatients. We started these babies from three tiny seeds. They are gorgeous!!

We also got some new seating (I love the double X's on the backs of the chairs!), tablecloth, place mats, and napkin rings! Check out our snazzy monogrammed napkins (thanks Mom!!!).

Random cell phone photos

Back in July I saw these beautiful hydrangeas at Wal-Mart. They were so gorgeous I wanted them for our balcony (as if there is any space left, it's our own little Garden of Eden). Knowing that I was about to go out of town for two weeks, I decided against purchasing their beauty, but they will always be remembered!

What you can't read on this sign is "Gentle Family Dental." I, for one, am very impressed at someone's ability to rhyme gentle and dental.

One day leaving work a bunny rabbit was just hanging out, waiting for me by a tree. Well I was too slow getting my phone out, and this is the only shot I got of my furry friend as he (or she) scurried away.

I had never seen these stubby shopping carts until we moved to PA. They are really quite genius. They are so easy to maneuver around a crowded store, and they are just the perfect size for my quick trips to the market.
This photo of Dirt is from the 4th of July. Seriously, these shades are "all the rage!" Everyone I know wants to try them on. They say it is just because they are curious, but I know it's because they only wish they had enough confidence to wear them on a daily basis, right?
When we were all together for Bean's wedding we even took turns passing them around the table and taking everyone's photo wearing the stylish eyewear. This time Plip couldn't pull the "I'm embarrassed to be seen with someone wearing those sunglasses, so please find a different pair to wear or I refuse to get out of the car" card on me, like she did when she came to visit this summer!

FOG

The fog was incredible this morning!! All the moisture from the river sure makes a difference. I was very, very glad that I am so familiar with my route to work, because in certain areas the visibility was only 20 yards or so. You couldn't even see the stop lights, until it was too late to slow down! Here's a shot from my parking lot at work. There was not the worst of it, but you get the idea. Behind those trees is a huge seven-story office building completely hidden by fog.

Congratulations!!

Congratulations go out to my friend Kristi, her husband Christopher, and all of their family!


Abigail Katherine Malcolm, born at 2:29 on Wednesday October 8, 2008. She weighed 7 pounds, 9 ounces and was 20 ¼ inches long. She is a beautiful little girl with a head of beautiful dark hair.

Kristi and I met our Freshman year at BYU and enjoyed a lot of crazy-good times during the following few years. Then she moved back to North Carolina to marry the love of her life, Christopher. Kristi, I'm so happy for you and your baby girl!!!

I never thought this day would come

Hallelujah!!!!I am SO glad that gas is back under $3/gallon!

Happy Lief Erikson Day!!!

As a shout out to my Icelandic heritage, I would like to wish you all a very merry Lief Erikson Day!!

As a recent visitor to Columbus, OH and knowing that our local public schools get Columbus Day off, I'd say that my homeboy Lief's getting the short end of the celebratory stick! Amerigo Vespucci too, for that matter!

Leif Erikson Day is an American observance occurring on October 9. It honors Leif Ericson, who brought the first Europeans known to have set foot on North American soil. In 1964, Congress authorized and requested the President to create the observance through an annual proclamation. Lyndon B. Johnson and each President since have done so. Presidents have used the proclamation to praise the contributions of Americans of Nordic descent generally and the spirit of discovery.

In addition to the federal observance, some states officially commemorate Leif Erikson Day, particularly in the Upper Midwest, where large numbers of people from the Nordic countries settled. In 1930, Wisconsin became the first state to officially adopt this holiday, thanks to efforts by the Norwegian-American initiator, Rasmus B. Anderson. A year later Minnesota followed suit. In 1963, the U.S. Representative from Duluth, John Blatnik, introduced a bill to observe it nationwide. The following year Congress adopted this unanimously.

October 9 is not associated with any particular event in Leif Erikson's life. The date was chosen because the ship Restauration coming from Stavanger, Norway, arrived in New York Harbor on October 9, 1825 at the start of the first organized immigration from Norway to the United States.

Source

Click here, for more information on Lief.

I love Ruth!!!!

In an earlier post I had alluded to a very exciting phone call. Well that phone call was my brother Jeff calling to tell me that he had just proposed to Ruth and she said YES!!! My brother BEAN just got engaged!!! Wahoooooooo!!! This is cause for some serious excitement. Go Bean!! I am so, SO happy for you!!!

Well at this point I took matters into my own hands and started getting to know Ruth. It only took one email for me to like her, and just a few emails to love her! Ruth is a natural beauty who is absolutely fun and outgoing. She is super down to earth with no pretenses. I don't know how anyone could not love her!!!


Turns out we even have some of the same tastes. Guess who registered for the same platter as I did! And we both share a love for OCD-type planning, documentation, and organization. We were just bound to be buds.Jami did some beautiful engagement photos for the couple. Bean looks like such a stud, check him out! Ruth ain't so bad either!

I just love this one of Bean. He doesn't look so tough now that he's in love!!

Can't wait to meet her this week!

Work-a-holic!

I've been going like crazy for the past few days trying to get a bunch of stuff finalized and turned in at work.

Wednesday - ten hours
Thursday - eleven hours
Friday - eleven and a half hours!!!

Three super long days later it feels GREAT to have it all done! Hoorah!

Bean Comes to Town

Bean was able to do some fancy footwork and arrange work so that he'd need to be out in Lancaster County, PA, which is just an hour away from us. (LOVE those Amish!)

I was able to pick Bean up from the airport last night for a whirlwind visit of about ten hours. It was great to get in some quality talk time with my "twin." Thanks for making it all work out. Love you Bean!!!

Now all of my siblings have visited me out in PA except one. No pressure D, I know you've got a TON on your plate!!!

Tooth Excavation

Today I got to take my hubby into the oral surgeon's office. Oooh sounds intense. It was. Stas had a little extra friend that was no longer very friendly (aka he had a tooth and associated cyst that needed to be removed). See below:The surgery went fine, but because the tooth was so close to the nerve that runs along the jaw bone, they gave Stas extra sedatives so he wouldn't move during the procedure. I was glad that they were taking precautions, not wanting permanent numbness for the lower half of my husband's face, but also a little concerned because no one filled me in. Thirty minutes after they told me he would be ready, I still hadn't heard my name called. (I was waiting patiently like a good wife, cough-cough, reading Breaking Dawn). Turns out that it just took longer for him to wake up because of all the extra drugs. Go figure. I got him safely home, and while getting things ready for him, found him taking this photo of himself:


I mean, if he didn't want it posted on the blog, he shouldn't have put it where I could get to it, aka, on the camera. (He used the same excuse about deleting files. That I shouldn't save files where he can get to them if I don't want the deleted. Ridiculous!)

I had planned on going back into work around lunch time, seeing how we went in at 7:45 and they told us it would only take 1.5 - 2 hours. Well when it was already 9 and he still wasn't under, I had a sneaking suspicion they underestimated.

Here are a few highlights from the office:

• Seeing the crazy 4-d image of the lower half of Stas's skull. Technology these days, man, it's pretty neat stuff.
  
• The anesthesiologist asked if I was the mom or sister of the patient. When I said wife she seemed shocked. Somehow she got the idea that she was going to be working on a young girl. Wrong, very wrong. Then she double checked the chart and said, "hmm 26, I guess that's possible." What the heck does that mean? Anyway, she was actually quite nice.
  
• Again the anesthesiologist, after checking Stas's breathing with a stethoscope (putting it on his chest on such) she asked if he was a body builder. What can I say, my husband's got great pectoral muscles!
• The dental technician/assistant/hygienist/helper/male nurse looks an incredibly lot like Stas's friend Eric (minus the green eyes) that I totally felt comfortable. They even had the same build, coloring, facial features. It was nuts!
• The doctor kept calling Stas "bud" and "buddy." It was awesome. At least he was friendly!

Right now, and for the next several hours, this is what Stas will be up to (well in between changing gauze and popping pills!):


We didn't even get home until after twelve. Then I had to fill the prescriptions, replace the gauze, change the ice packs, shop for popsicles, Gatorade, frozen treats, etc. it was after two by the time all of that was done and time for the next round of pills. I decided it best to take the rest of the afternoon off and help out my hubby. But now that he's sleeping and I've got some free time, I feel like I'm playing hookie. I should be at work, yet, I'm not. But I don't mind one single bit!

Bruised and broken

Well maybe not quite broken, but feeling just as awful.

The morning started out just like any other Monday. The alarm went off too early. Me, dragging myself out of bed for a jog, convincing myself that if I can just make it outside, then I'll feel a lot better about life. It's always true, but I never believe it until it's done. I have such little faith in myself!

As I got dressed I spent a long time deciding what to wear. It has gotten quite cool in the mornings and I'm pretty much a wuss when it comes to cold. But then again I hate running in too much clothes. It is just annoying. Well somehow I decided on leggings and a long sleeve tee.

And thank goodness I did!!!! Not a quarter mile down the road I totally biffed it over a drainage grate and went flying forward. Luckily my knees and palms where there to break my fall as I crashed into the asphalt. Awesome. My survival instinct got me out of the way of road traffic and I rolled onto a patch of wet grass where I proceeded to wallow in my own pity and hope that no cars drove by. I decided that I was better than that so I limp-jogged the rest of my route. Maybe not the best idea.

When I got home I assessed the true damage. I had patches of missing flesh on both my hands with oozing blood and the same for my knees and some serious joint sensitivity! Somehow my pants hadn't ripped, but my flesh had. Those are some good pants! After trimming the dangling dead skin off of my hands with scissors I braved the rest of my morning routine. The worst was of course was the shower. Open gaping wounds and running water do not mix kindly. Once I got to work I noticed the golf ball-sized purple-ish blue lump emerging from my knee cap. Not good. I limped around all day. The stairs to the apartment didn't go so hot, but I survived to get you these photos. Keep in mind it felt a lot worse than it looks. Blood and guts just don't shine through!

Life's just not fair!

Showing off my band-aids!

Trying to demonstrate the bump on my left knee.

All four of the open wounds look like this one. Gross.
And if you can't tell, my hand is somewhat swollen from the impact.
I was holding my keys, which actually played in my favor, because they protected the majority of the surface area on my hand! Whippy! I had my pepper spray in my right hand, and it really did protect me, just not from the type of danger you would expect!

YW Volleyball!

We had an awesome and very long day at the combined stake volleyball activity yesterday! Our first game started at 9am and the last one ended around four. Of course I didn't get any shots of the girls actually playing volleyball; I was too busy coaching to be the live action photographer!!

Here are a few photos from the day:

Team shot at the end of the long, long day

In our down time we like to work out the stress of being so awesome!

Chillin' in the hammock
(Watch out for Rachel, she looks a little angry!)

Braids & guitars. The makings of a lovely country music video

We -heart- guitars!!

True Story

Stas: Why did you bring your laptop home from work?
Julie: Because I wanted the convenience and luxury of blogging in bed. :)

So Youthful!

Tuesday night at YW's I was busy with calling #2, YW Volleyball Coach (I know, you are so jealous!). We were doing several drills and I was trying to impart what ever knowledge on basic v-ball skills I can to these young impressionable girls. Fast forward to the YM/YW scrimmage. I was helping my girls reminding them to rotate in at server, call the ball, move your feet, etc. Then a fellow YM leader asked me what the score was. He followed-up with "why aren't you playing?" This is when I proudly informed him that I was the coach! He appeared to turn that over in his mind and then had just one more clarifying question, "You're a leader!?!?" Yep, you read right my friends. I was again mistaken for being one of the young women. Let's add this one to the list of other times that I have been mistaken for a Laurel (I'm assuming no one would guess younger, but who really knows?)
List of times - to my knowledge - that I have been mistaken for a Young Women (under 18!):

• The poor young man in my ward who just after I moved in was asking the YW who I was. I'll save him the embarrassment by not pointing out his name.
• At Girls Camp I came up after work to bond with my girls in nature. Well, as I was walking up to camp I ran into a group of leaders who were heading out for the evening. When passing them, they told me to "Have so much fun this week!" Okay, so maybe they didn't directly say "hey I think you are a youth," but it just didn't quite seem like what they would have said to an adult. Especially with the odd smile they had on their faces as they said it. Something like, "oh you young and impressionable girl, savor this opportunity at your young age before you grow up and learn what real stress is." Just a guess.
• Also at Girls Camp, I was waiting by the flag as all of the girls filed out of the Mess Hall for flag ceremony. As I stood around feeling awkward not having anyone to talk to (yes, just like I'm sure many of the youth), I hear my name screamed and get stampeded with hugs. Seriously, I almost fell over. Then my YW proceed to tell me (1) how cool I am and (2) that all girls were like "who's the new Laurel? she looks cool." Their words, not mine. Then they very proudly informed their friends from the Stake that I was their bomb-dot-com leader. Okay, yes those are my words, not theirs, but I'm sure it was something to that effect.
• Helping out with youth Temple trip. I'll just leave it at that.
• The volleyball incident listed above.

Maybe there aren't that many, but enough for a good post. I've been asked to chaperon a dance, and honestly, I'm a little nervous about that one. Luckily I was going out of town so I dodged that bullet, but I am sure that it is only a matter of time. I don't know if I'll be able to restrain myself and just stand on the sidelines like a good chaperon should. Only time will tell.

Disclaimer - I am by no means complaining. I am in fact pleased that no one (but my loving husband) has seemed to notice the three perma-wrinkles that I've got going across my forehead. I count my many blessings that I have inherited my Mother's glow! Thanks Mom!!