Slug Nun Blue!

So I served a mission in Spain years ago.  When you spend all day, every day, walking the streets of Spain you find ways to entertain yourself.  Some missionaries would challenge each other to incorporate some random word in the next conversation they had with someone. (For example, let's say you're challenged to use the word "alligator."  The next person you talk to you need to find a way to make the word alligator fit into the conversation.  You can't just say:  Alligator!  You have to say something like, "I have a pet alligator at home.")

One thing that I did was play "Slug Nun." It's just like "Slug Bug" but instead of slugging your neighbor when you see a VW Bug (I don't think I saw a single VW Bug while in Spain) you slug your neighbor when you see a nun.  You also have to name the color of the nun.  In this case it would be 2 "Slug Nun Blue"s.  Also, this is the first time I've seen a nun since moving to Washington.  It was super cool.  Their habits were gorgeous.

Life, the Universe and Crisp Beef Burritos

 

The number Taco Time gave me.  What does it mean?

When you're helping, you're happy

 

A few weeks ago I saw this flyer at church.  I took a picture of it and sent it to Erin and asked her if she wanted to go.  She did.  The day came and we went to get pedicures and some pizza before heading out to North Bend.  It's always a bit surprising to me to realize just how large my Stake is.  It extends from Mercer Island to North Bend (at least 25 miles).  It's a lot larger than my stakes in Boise and Utah but even more than the physical distance, the cultural difference just seems even larger.  It was like going from the city to the country.  Just a little disconcerting.  

 

Erin, not being Mormon, was not aware of Mormon Standard Time.  We arrived 15 minutes early.  We helped set up and then got assigned to be pill breakers.  Were you aware that by giving 1/2 a zinc pill to a child for 14 days gets rid of their diarrhea for a year three months?  There was someone at our table that told EVERYONE that stopped by about this amazing miracle.  Erin had to correct her about the length of time the zinc miracle effect has on diarrhea.  Both Erin and I paused our conversation each time the woman told the story, waiting to hear if she would get the time period right. 

 

We broke the pills in half and put 14 halves in these little bags that we had placed stickers on with dosage instructions.  We went through 6 - 8 bottles in the two hours we were there.  At 250 pills per bottle that's 3000 - 4000 pills and  214 - 285 dosage packs.  Which means some little kid is going to be diarrhea free for 53 years!  It was fun.  We chatted with the woman who is going to Kenya to distribute the health care packs to clinics in villages there with The Imani Project.  Soon the cultural hall was filled with people making dosage packs of ibuprofen, acetaminophen, band aids, chewable vitamins, etc.  

There was one interesting take away.  One of the ladies was talking to another woman, telling her that her 20 year old daughter is engaged to be married.  The other woman asked the first woman:  Do you like him?  The mom rattled off:  He's alright, he's done with school, he's got a job and he's never been to jail.  Erin took it as: My daughter got the last good man in the county.  And I took it as a Mother's reluctance to accept that her daughter was getting married so young.  I know I had some concern when the first two kids got married at 20-ish.  Being so close in age to my nephews and nieces, I would look at them and see all that they had yet to experience, that I had just experienced.  I knew how selfish I was in my early 20s and how much change I went through between 20 and 25.  I was very concerned for those two couples and the struggles I knew they were going to go through as they grew up together.  Loving them as I do, I wanted to protect them from that inevitable pain.  I'd always wanted to protect my sisters' kids from any and all pain.  Because pain hurts and I didn't want them to get hurt.  

What I've learned over the past few years is that I can't protect those I love from pain.  That there is going to be some kind of pain always.  All pain is inevitable.  And often times we learn best from the pain that we go through.  I've also learned to express myself better and to try to not give my opinion when my opinion truly doesn't matter.  Because though I want to protect the kids, I also want them to be happy.  And how can they be happy with an Aunt always telling them what to do?


Also:  14 year old-ish girl that was breaking zinc with us said that the people from the Capitol in the Hunger Games look as if anime and Sephora had a baby.  Brilliant!

Random Things in Hallways

I came home one night to find:  TV!  HUGE TV!  Just sitting there in the hall with some FREE signs made from spiral notebook paper and taped to all sides of the TV.  It was there for 3 days.  I phoned the office and told them about HUGE TV and by the time I got home from work that day it was gone.   Thank goodness!  I figured someone was moving and after moving all of their heavy boxes they just couldn't bring themselves to carry the HUGE TV down the one flight of stairs to the moving truck.  Turns out no one from my floor had moved recently.  Now I think someone from my floor got a new TV and didn't want to pay for someone to come pick up HUGE TV and rather than take it out to the curb with the FREE signs, they figured the hallway was just as good.  Hilarious.

 

And this note in a plant in a random hallway at work just cracked me up for some reason:  "PLEASE DO NOT POUR ANY LIQUIDS ON THIS PLANT.  THANK YOU  THE MANAGEMENT"  I work in a 6 building complex.  Our company is in the majority of the buildings.  And this is the best we can come up with?  A hand-written index card?  Stuck askew in the plant?  LOVE IT!  Long live the plants!

World Tour

My absolute favorite app on my phone is the World Tour app.  What it does is gives me a screen shot from a webcam somewhere in the world.  That picture changes every hour.  I love checking my phone and seeing a new picture.  Here are a few of my favorites. 

Charles Bridge, Prague

San Francisco, CA

Minack Theatre, Cornwall

La Tour Eiffel, Paris

Positano, Italy

I'd love to go to all of these places.  San Francisco I've been to, but I enjoy.  Positano, I'd give anything to live there for a few months and Minack Theatre...I SO want to see a play there.  It looks to be SO much fun!

Hope I Don't Get Chased Today

Since I am now permitted to wear arch-friendly footwear, I no longer wear the stabilizing running shoes around the house (or with any outfit that doesn't involve jeans). I purchased these arch-friendly flip-flops (for more than I care to admit). Unless I'm in bed or in the shower, these are on my feet. The other morning I was getting ready for work and went to the front room to gather my bags and then to the hall to put on my Danskos only to completely forget to put on my Danskos. I left the house like this.

I made it down the hall and the stairs and all the way to my car before I realized that I was going to work in flip-flops and socks. Thank goodness I didn't make it all the way to work like that, though it would have been hilarious, quite frankly. Since then, I've made it down the hall twice prior to realizing I was more of a fashion don't that day than normal.

I think that when you get dressed in the morning,

sometimes you're really making a decision about your

behavior for the day. Like if you put on flip-flops,

you're saying: "Hope I don't get chased today.

Be nice to people in sneakers."

- Demetri Martin

Welcome

I've had this welcome mat for years. I thought it was absolutely hilarious. An unwelcoming welcome mat. But most people took it very literally: that I wanted them to go away. I hung on to the mat through various negative comments, disapproving looks from neighbors and an attempted mat-napping (I found it a few doors down the hall in my building). However, after what must be close to 8 years, the mat needed to retire.

It's been replaced with this flowery IKEA special. Which is nice enough. It serves its purpose of removing dirt from the bottom of my shoes before I enter the apartment, but it lacks the humor of my previous mat. One thing I've learned through my search for a replacement welcome mat: the world is LOUSY with cutesy welcome mats.

Outside the VA in Boise

Come to the sunset tree!

The day is past and gone;

The woodman’s axe lies free,

And the reaper’s work is done.

Tyrolese Evening Song

Felicia Dorothea (Browne) Hemans (1793–1835)

Hooray for Admin's Day!

It was Admin's Day last week, and I was terribly spoiled.

From gorgeous flowers

to hand-written notes of appreciation

to super cool frames and yummy lotion and gift cards a-go-go. Many of those cards will disappear on the trip home for Dad's surgery - Katherine says I seem to enjoy sharing the wealth, which is a fair assesment.

I really enjoy my job and will be sad when it goes away. I am very blessed to work with such great people and that they are so appreciative all the time (not just on Admin's Day and not with gift cards) is one of the many reasons I enjoy working there. I hear sincere "Thank You"s more often at work than I do anywhere else.

Interestingly enough, the day after Admin's Day was one of my lowest points ever at my job. I cried. At work. Grown woman. Crying at work. It was mortifying. The last few months have sure been quite taxing...

Here's hoping that the low point last week is not repeated anytime soon!

Mini Eggs

What's your favorite Easter treat? Mine? The Cadbury Mini Egg. Not the chocolate egg filled with corny syrupy fake yolk? No, not those eggs.

I'm speaking of the small, pastel candy coated, be-speckled eggs that are crunchy candy perfection. I was reminded that a few years ago I read an article about Cadbury being M&A-ed and there were rumors that the Mini Egg was going to go away. I believe half of my freezer was full of bags of Mini Eggs. My first attempt at food storage, I believe.

This may have been near the time Steven was living with me, which may explain his addiction to them. I try to send Steven and Karley a bag every year, Julia too. Sometimes they are difficult or impossible to find. It's like luck when you happen upon them. This year, Target got the mother lode. Happy Day! I have purchased MANY bags.

Tyson called while eating from a bag of Mini Eggs to remind me that I had introduced him to the Mini Eggs that he now craves. Just one of the services I provide: introducing new food addictions. Try them, if you dare.

Louboutins they're not

Not that any of my other shoes are Louboutins - or even close. But these certainly are not a shoe I want to wear all day every day for the next 3 weeks.

Turns out I have plantar faciitis. Which causes severe heel and lower arch pain for me. I noticed it the last time I was at Disneyland. And it was quite bothersome in NYC and Italy. With another trip to Disneyland just around the corner, I thought it best to get it checked out. I ended up getting x-rays, a shot and a perscription for some stability running shoes.

And I have to wear them ALL DAY, EVERY DAY for the next 3 weeks at least. I never thought I was much into shoes. A bit difficult to be into shoes when you have as much difficulty finding shoes as I do. But these shoes or any other stabilizing running shoes are really going to limit my wardrobe options. Obviously no skirts - unless I want to bring the 80s back entirely. And did I mention I can never go barefoot? Not even at home? Guh!

The doctor says it will go away. It had better...or I'm going to have to take to spray painting.

WAS a jolly, happy soul

I got some non-melt-able ice cubes. Poor Frosty.

Oliver!

Meet Oliver

He's a 2010 Hyundai Elantra

and he's so much fun to drive.

A few of my...

When the boys were here a few weeks ago we went to the Wallingford Dick's for burgers and saw a park(Meridian Playground) on the fake TomTom and decided to give it a go...see if they had picnic tables or something similar. What we found was the funnest park I've been to in quite a while. The swings are always my favorite but there was all sorts of amazing equipment. And then there are the sculptures from children's storybooks. I think this one is from Madeline. She lived with nuns or went to school with nuns or something, right? I'm thinking I might want to move to Wallingford, if I can find a great deal on an apartment and a good bus schedule that'll get me to work easily.

I may have known about Tangrams when I was younger, but I don't think I really knew about them. Because now...with the advent of this wonderful G1 application, I have been completely addicted to tangrams. I play for what seems like minutes but ends up being hours before bed. I solved all of the puzzles on the Lite version then paid 99 cents for the Pro version. Solved those puzzles in about a week. I keep checking back for the promised update. No luck. Bummer. On the plus side, I have been getting more sleep.