The Finals! The Finals! The loads and loads of Finals!

Oh picture, what are you doing up here? I'll talk about this later.

Hey-o! I'm just avoiding studying right now. Not a bad idea, I think.

These pictures aren't in order at all. Oh well. Here you see us wearing our free beat BYU shirts, and shamefully, BYU won. Oh! To Christmas tree pictures now!

Here is my spectacular bow. I'm quite proud of my bow-making skills. They used to be non-existent and here they are, obviously awesome. Enough of that.

Behold the glory of our Christmas tree!! It looks like we have a lot of presents. That is because I placed all our board games under the tree. Both to appear like we've got a lot of presents, and to promote family game time, unity, and fun. So far it has worked.

Featured on our tree is a tickle me elmo keychain, monkies from my Barrel of Monkies, and some other fun things. I wanted to make ornaments this year, but alas! I do not have any time at all! So perhaps next year. I'll try to start earlier, too.

I put up our Chrsitmas tree the Monday before Thanksgiving. I thought Mark was going to kill me. Or the tree. But we live! I said I needed Christmas Cheer. Also, I said it was my birthday. I didn't think I'd ever be one to commit such treason. Christmas is a different thing when you are an adult, I guess.

Us again.

That drawing up there? I finished it finally! Its of my in-laws and it is given for Christmas. That's a load of the 'ol mind. I'm not sure I dig the background, but I give up. At least Pete's face stopped looking like that of an alien's. That's all I can ask of my drawing skills lately.

I have just two more to finish while studying and all that. Oh well. I hope I do...

Any other news? I had a good birthday. I got some prismacolor pencils (yay!) and Cranium. Also some favorite Christmas cartoon classics on DVD. Supposedly there were twenty-two presents, but Mark has hidden them well. I assume they are candybars. Mark said I found all the big ones. Oh. And I got a puzzle! But I could use some chocolate just about now.

This post is oddly incoherent. Or perhaps only more so. I'm going to get back to studying for physics. It is a class that I like, but I'm really not looking forward to the test tomorrow. For some reason its just not clicking for me. As tigger would say, ttfn! ta-ta for now!

Tuesday

I forget that other people's lives don't often revolve around things like

But mine does. Its been playing since we bought it last night.

Lately I've been assessing my nerd levels.

They are really high.

I'll give you some reasons for my saying so.

Last spring I had a professor that said "nerd" was just a semi-mean way of saying that you love certain things too much.

More than the average person?

Like Star Wars

And Stargate

(I've seen every episode. 11 seasons+5 seasons+ three movies+the begining of a new and weirder series)
Lord of the Rings

(I couldn't imagine watching the theatrical releases)

And many more. But these are only movies.

I'm also nerdy about books.

Like when I come home from the library with a fat stack of science fiction and fantasy books.

Also non-fiction science books.

All books. Classic Lit, YA Lit, non-fiction, poetry, textbooks.

Perhaps books have become inherently nerdy.

People don't seem to read much anymore.

But I keep reading. And re-reading.

I need to own a library.

I'm an art nerd, too.

And a music nerd.

I married a nerd. We overlap in a lot of places.

Here are some exclusively Mark things, though.

He gets excited about physics and rocks and designing and math.

Airplanes

Basketball

(are sports even nerdy? I just know they are when Mark talks about them)

United States Military

History

Cars

(remember that time when I found out he can identify the make and model of a car by the shape of its headlights in the dark?)

But we both know a lot of useless and random facts.

He tells me that the first death star in A New Hope is not the same as the death star appearing in Return of the Jedi.

I tell him that once you cut lactose out of your diet, after a while your body stops producing lactase, the enzyme necessary to breakdown lactose. So if you want to always drink milk and consume all things dairy,

drink on.

Did you know that the diamond from my ring was picked off the wall of an old mine in Africa

by Mark?

Being Spiffy after church.

Mark's hair is sooo short. He did something silly that required a haircut to fix is. A short one. Oh well. He wants to shave his head. I say no!

The iPod

Wahoo for Halloween!

We didn't dress up, just handed out candy while we played scrabble! Its the newest addition to our game collection. We love board games!

Today was an interesting day. I went to the library to pick up some more books, and recieved book four of Percy Jackson and the Olypiads but I haven't read book three yet! Hahaha. That's really boring. But I also bought a big piece of paper to draw a portrait of a little cutie for his adopted parents to give to his biological mom for Christmas. Its forest green, and I'm debating on drawing his face with white charcoal, with a few dark charcoal highlights, or maybe colored pencils? I'd like to utilize the green the most, so it will probably be the white option. I'm really excited to start working on it. Oh! I forgot about the interesting part.

Mark and I ride our bikes to and from school. Today, Mark was in front of the art museum on campus (I get really excited about museums, and there's two on campus) and he spotted a wreckless biker listening to an iPod swerving towards him. He quickly egded off the sidewalk in order to avoid the meanie, and braced himself for the guy to pass by. And the biker rammed into Mark and his bike. The meanie went flying, knocking Mark into two girls who knocked into a professor carrying a stack of tests which went flying. Tests were retrieved, girls were alright. Mark's bike damaged. Mark bleeding in several places, but mostly okay. The meanie was injured the worst. An EMT heard the commotion and helped him out, he couldn't breathe (meaning he got the wind knocked out of him, not that he punctured a lung or anything like that) and had a concusion, but ultimately walked away.

I can't help but chuckle, because I've been feeling like it was about time for Mark to incur another injury. Maybe this sounds heartless, but Mark's mom said the same thing. If there is a bus that is going to run over someone, it will be Mark. If someone's hair is going to catch fire in lab, it will be Mark. If... well, you get the picture. It sort of feels like all is right with the universe. I still feel bad for him, though. He's limping everywhere. I would have been so mad! Mark said he was weaving in and out of people and bobbing his head to the music. His $400 iPod shattered on the sidewalk. Vindicated.

Its one of those nights, where I've actually finished my homework (it took episodes IV-VI of Star Wars, as I like to have some background entertainment for the non-analytical side of my brain) and Mark is at work. I probably should be cleaning or studying some more (no way, Jose!) so this is why I am blogging.

Speaking of Mark's work, they've asked him to use some of his engineering experience to run calculations that will save the owner of the store where he works approximately $79,000.00 and this has been preoccupying my mind. Where did I find such a brilliant hubby? Also, can I have a slice of those savings? (Did you know that Mark's place of work employs 3 civil engineers to determine traffic patterns and best placement to build new stores? My hubby thinks this would somehow be an embarrassing job. Oh well.)

My muscles hurt from all of the intense exercise that I am doing, as prescribed by my last pretend physician. I call him pretend, but my check from the study came in the mail and that's pretty real.

Other things going on in my life? I'm mad at the snow. Its hot in my house, which is making me uncharacteristically happy. I'm working on a special drawing for Christmas. This, coupled with the snow, and seeing my first holiday season commercial, has me wishing Christmas was closer. I'm very anxious for this semester to be over. Even though Mark's life will be much crazier next semester. One of the classes he's taking is taught by a crazy man who assigns a 25 page paper a week, along with many assignments and quizzes, daily. His friend who took this class (Rock Mechanics I, I think) once stayed at the university for four days straight, working on his homework. All these stories that he tells me seem to insane to be true. But after witnessing the daily life of Mark this semester, I believe it. I just wish I could help.

Ta-Da!

Of a Thursday

Wahoo its time to put off some homework and update this blog!

It was Fall Break last week, which was awesome. So I went to Missouri and stayed at my parent's house. It was good fun, and excellent to see my family. Mark toured some mines on field trips all week. He took some amazing pictures and videos of things being blown up, but they're top secret so I can't post them. So he did a lot of homework and I got to play! A random (hopefully) non-top secret picture of somewhere Mark went but is not here to describe:

I'm still on a reading kick... I returned a whole bunch of books that I read and its sort of scary. Sadly the library didn't have Percy Jackson and the Olympians book 3 available. But I have a lot of books on hold waiting to be delivered. What else can you do when your back makes you a couch potato? Minus TV. I've decided that reading is much better than TV watching. If only I could avoid movies...

Anyways, while in Missouri I went to a football game to see my senior brother play one last time! That was cool. They lost, but Christian had a great game. Its cool to hear the announcers say his name over and over. Wahoo! I took a lot of video, but with my mom's camera, so you can't see it here.

I spent an eternity at the Denver airport on Monday trying to get back to Salt Lake City. It was okay, though because of aforementioned reading kick. The only problem with airports is the lack of readily available delicious food. So I consumed many pricey morsels, and was unable to feel sustained. Airports=perpetual hunger. Thinking about it makes me hungry...

This sort of brings me to another thing. On Wednesday, I went to my sister-in-law's State Cross Country meet! That was neat. She did very well, placing 16th overall. I can't even imagine running 3 miles up and down hills. Steep hills. Yuck. So this video is of Lisa finishing, the first part of the race was in this park and it wound up and down hills, over bridges, across the street, finishing on the track that you see.

So that was cool! I got back to the apartment and rolled out my gingerbread cookies! And then our friends, the Stanley's came over and we decorated them into haunted houses! (I also did this at home with my little brothers and sister and her friend, with sugar cookies). I couldn't find a lot of the candy that I wanted to use, so they're more icing decorated than candy decorated. But they're fun. After this we watched Garfield's Halloween. (from 1985!) You can't go wrong with Garfield.

And now here I am, on a Thursday night about to finish my physics homework, while Mark is at work. I have no shortage of things to do, unfortunately. Especially dishes and laundry. And maybe pick out a birthday present, which is a lot more fun. All this after physics, of course. I hope I finish soon... my assignments usually take hours.

Any book suggestions?

*Sorry about that crazy box underneath the video. I've tried to fix it to no avail!

Also, I forgot to mention that Mark recieved a job offer for when he graduates (one year, and one half of a semester... you can't come soon enough for me). Its from Arch Coal, which is cool. The plan is to work somewhere for two years, and then move somewhere crazy and explore the world. After this, Mark wants to switch to a non-coal company and do something... non-coal. For the record, he wouldn't mine coal in Africa if we lived there, but platinum and diamonds. But I digress. The job offer is to live in Price! I don't know if I can do this. I have a whole year to think about it, and maybe I'm hoping for more job offers. But the compensation... who can argue with that kind of money? You see, they were very impressed with Mark's interning skills this past summer (in Price) and want to keep him. I'm impressed, too. He's pretty amazing. I suppose I'll just write a list of positive things Price has to offer, and post said list where I can see it all the time. Yes, this is a good idea.

I'll complain about school another day.

Random images

We had crepes for conference.

The big window in the corner of our living room faces this tree, and this fabulous bird is taking up residence. I haven't seen him since yesterday, but I hope he comes back!
Mark sleeping during conference...

Our lovely abstract painting! Those fuzzy parts are shards of magnetite held in place with paint, in the shape of magnetic fields. This is how one interests Mark in artistic endeavors.

Thoughts to Myself

Its been a weird sort of week. One of those times when I feel scarily lazy, but I need to do a lot of things. Somehow, homework is completed just shy of the deadline. Somehow, I learn the things necessary to pass a quiz or two. But the imminent doom of future exams loom on the horizon, and I realize I should be studying a lot more.

On monday I had my final appointment with the experimental back pain study people. Their advice: exercise. I'm not the best candidate for passive therapy. And that's the kind I like. You know, relax in a steamy bathtub while you read an entire book. Lay down on a heat pad. Hook yourself up to your machine of electrical stimulation. I like those kinds. So I worked on my stretches and did some yoga. Until tuesday, which was the day that something felt very wrong inside my ribcage. I have several theories, and they may or may not be related to sneezing and tearing and then infecting the lining that lines the outside of my lungs. It hurts to breathe. And I can't tell if I'm hungry or not, or even if my back is hurting. Basically the pain is all-consuming. But actually I feel a whole lot better today. Which is nice.

On friday I went to the library and signed up for a card. I grabbed a fat stack of books and got in the car. Upon gazing at the flyer I received with the card, I decided to go to the grand location on 4th South and 2nd East. What a great library. Great as in huge and also amazing. So I have two fat stacks to read. And I've read four. Oh dear. I reeeeally should be studying or something. After all, fall break is so soon!

I'm very excited for fall break. I just feel bad for Mark because he has field trips and has to work and can't come with me to Missouri. There is going to be a super-cool comet or something during break so I'm coming back to Salt Lake to see it with Mark.

Also we made a very awesome abstract painting with magnets and magnetite and paint. I tried to take a picture but somehow misplaced the camera. But we decided it was a fusion of science and art. Gotta decorate the ugly cinder block!

Cache of Cash. Sometimes I think I'm so clever. Cache like... stored memory. Which is what a blog is, no? I suppose I was also born in Cache County, Utah. And Mark lived there at the same time as me. I wonder if toddler him and baby me passed each other at the grocery store or something like that.

It was a happy conference day. We ate tasty soup in bread bowls. I really like eating soup when I don't feel well. Also its nice to know that I can just lay down for church tomorrow. Conference always reminds me how amazing it is to have a real-life prophet. And also that I need to be a better version of Jamie.

I suppose that sums it up.

I wish the floodlight outside the window that illuminates the creepy branches swaying in the wind would burn out. They fixed it last week. Sillies.