Tag-schmag

I-tag, cyber tag, tag-schmag. It's apparently okay to tag someone who is not even aware they are participating in the game, unless the mere fact that I have a blog unwittingly pits me in the playing field. As my competitive nature will not allow me to walk away and not tag back, I give you six unknown (or little known) facts/tidbits about myself. I think that's the game we're playing unless the schoolyard bully changed the rules. Here's to you Stef...

1. When I was little I always wanted to have a broken leg (or broken anything for that matter). Here's the crazy part--my family had a rickety ceiling fan in the family room. I would turn it on high and lay underneath it hoping it would fall and somehow break my leg. Jumping off the roof would have been the more sure bet but apparently I didn't want it badly enough.

2. Oral/nasal secretions (aka thick spit/snot) gross me out. Something about them gives me the heebie jeebies yet I get great satisfaction of sucking them out of small children's/babies noses. Weird. I know.

3. I learned how to drive stick on a tractor. On my 14th birthday I flew to Whitman, Nebraska and worked on a ranch for the rest of the summer.

4. I spent way too much time as a child playing Scrabble. One of the lasting side effects is that I continually count up how much words would be worth in my head. I also have a weird tendency to alphabetize words in my head. Strange idiosyncrasy. (21 points. acdiinorssyy.)

5. Before Fergie (Stacy Ferguson) was famous she was on Kids Inc. in the 80's and I loved her! I named one of my favorite stuffed animals Stacy after her. Don't love her so much anymore.

6. I love practical jokes. This is not an open invitation, I prefer to be the planner rather than the recipient.

I now happily tag Bethany, Kymi, Heather, Renee, Jami, Btittney. Blog away.

What the...????

I have spent much of my twenties in awe of those people capable finding someone to marry. I mean really, how does it happen? The only explanation I can come up with is divine intervention. It really isn't possible any other way, I would still be floating state to state, lamenting about my 104th blind date, wondering how in the world there came to be so many socially awkward 26-30 year old men. But alas, just when you least expect it, BAM, divine intervention and I'm left wondering "what the....????" And I'm not just talking about the proton pack vacuum he's wearing on his back. Yep-that's him. Scott.

And I have promised a brief version of the proposal story (for those of you who don't know, I got engaged last weekend. Please pick your jaws up off the floor.)

My cousin Clint got married on December 15th in Salt Lake. Scott dropped me off at the airport here in Portland on the 14th and I was headed to the Mother Land. I arrived in Sale Lake and hit the ground running. I went straight form the rental car pickup to the LDS Distribution Center where my good friend Susan works and we headed off to lunch together. After lunch I made my way to Primary Children's to return some keys that I no longer need since I am no longer an employee there. :o( After visiting with some friends I made my way to Shannon's, co-conspirator #1. There I met up with Sue and Becky, co-conspirator #2. For weeks I had been looking forward to Friday night because I knew I would be partaking of some delicious, addictive pork from none other than Cafe Rio!! We met up with some friends there and as always had a grand time. One of the highlights was when Shelley held my hand for the picture. Classic. Cafe Rio was also playing some great music that night, right Shannon?

After enjoying some scrumptious Rio we made our way to Christi's for the annual Whit Elephant Christmas party. I was stoked to find out I would be in town for the party, it would make seeing my friends so much easier being that I was only going to be in town for 24 hours. It's always fun to see what gift will be fought over. In past years Brian's autographed picture, Nate and Kedrick's creations and the shrine to Brian have been highly valued gifts. This year was no different and I ended up with one of the night's hot items, the Chuck Norris, Nate and Kedrick t-shirt. Little did I know that the best gift was yet to come. As soon as the gift exchange portion of the party was over, Shannon let me know that it was time to run over to Becky's new condo to get a quick tour before Becky had to go to another party. We had planned on doing this earlier in the day since the condo was close to Christi's. We drove up to the condo and didn't even seem to notice how Shannon was hovering over me as she rang the doorbell. Don't stop reading, this is where it gets good. The door opens and What the...???? there's Scott standing in the door. I can only imagine what my face looked like, I have the propensity to make really ugly faces and being that I've never practiced complete shock and surprise in the mirror, I'm sure it was a good one. Before I could even ask what was going on Shannon was gone and Scott was leading me away from my rental car and over to his. He mentioned something about going to get dessert and as much as like dessert I was pretty sure he didn't fly from Portland to go get a sundae. We started driving and made our way to Memory Grove park. Now, mind you, it's almost 11pm and it's cold but we got out of the car to go for a little walk. The lampposts around the park still had their Christmas lights on and the snow on the ground made it light enough to see. We made our way around the path and came to a tree where Scott said something about seeing something in the tree. The first thought that popped into my head was "if he planted a ring in a tree, I'm never gonna find it in the dark." But as we got closer I saw what he was talking about. There in the tree were 18 roses. I went to retrieve the roses and when I turned around Scott was down on one knee and he proposed! I obviously said yes and we then made our way back to the car to try to defrost our fingers. :o)

So, there you have it. We'll be getting married March 22nd in the Mount Timpanogos temple in American Fork, Utah!! Holy Crap! I'm getting married!

Bring on the blog wars

It has been brought to my attention that after a lengthy span of peace, the blog wars are resuming. Sad, sad day. Stef Star- I hope you are prepared for the onslaught that may ensue. Lohra- please don't disappoint, in my opinion you could be on the verge of victory. Shellinskaya- I'm asking that you take it easy on the rest of us, we are mere mortals.
Go, fight, win--Oh wait, is that football? Crap, we need a warcry.

Where Bees Come to Die...

"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man," said Albert Einstein.

I was quite intrigued this summer by all of the attention the disappearing bees were getting. Apparently we are on the verge of a "bee apocalypse" as one journalist put it. I believe the correct name for the phenomenon is "colony collapse disorder." Honey bees everywhere are not returning there hives, threatening mankind's very survival cue to their vital contribution to plant pollination. I spent my summer captivated by subject. Trying to learn more as to where the bees were going and how this would impact my life. Would I need to start a more vigorous food storage plan? I spoke with my friend Kelly who has her own bee hive (yep, she has her own bees) and she said that Bill the beekeeper (yep, Bill the beekeeper) had lost many of his hives this last year as well. There was an international summit held so scientists could analyze the problem and find a solution. In fact, they believe that "colony collapse disorder" may be related to a virus or parasite. Research continues.
I almost feel the need to hold a news conference. Because I know what's happening to the bees.

It goes a little something like this:

Bees enter house through window (we think)

Bees have unfortunate encounter with grease splatter guard

Bees Die.

More Bees Die.

Notice in the last picture there are 12 dead bees. 12. (it may look like 13 but one bee was cut in half.) That's a small number, in 2 days Krystin and my combined efforts resulted in the death of more than 30 bees.

"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man," said Albert Einstein.

4 short years, my apologies world. But we can't have all these bees in our house, especially when Bobby is ridiculously afraid of them. Although it is entertaining to watch him hide under covers and cower on all fours, it's just not okay. At least now we know where all the bees are going. Don't turn me in.

A Big Favor

UPDATE: The transplant has been postponed until next week. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!


This post will be quick and to the point. Next week my uncle is scheduled to have a kidney transplant, he will be receiving the kidney from my other uncle. It is a high risk transplant and my uncle could use all of the prayers he can get. If you wouldn't mind keeping him in your prayers my family and I would greatly appreciate it.

Gotta Get Ahead

I have a problem. I have what some may call a competitive spirit. It doesn't always come out but when it does, watch out! This morning as I was getting off the tram I found myself practically racing a woman into the hospital. When I realized what I was doing, I took a big deep breath and then sped up even more. The best part about this was this woman was not someone I should feel the need to compete with. She was probably 60 or so with white hair and wearing a reflective vest and rain pants. But darn it, she was fast!!! I did claim victory however, well sort of, we were actually headed in opposite directions but I reached my turn first. Ridiculous behavior. Absolutely ridiculous.
I don't know why it happens and I can never predict when it will appear. Although I have noticed a trend when it comes to sports, board games, fast walking and anything else that could have a potential winner. What's my deal? I like to blame most of my negative character traits on the fact that I am a middle child. Not that I rely heavily on the analysis of birth order but I have to blame it on something and my birth order was completely out of my control.
So, I'm going to try to turn a new leaf. No more speedwalking with old ladies, and maybe I will let Bobby win at a game of Scattergories one of these days. I can't let him win at Scrabble but Scattergories I think I could do. maybe. and if not, please don't hold it against me.

Forecasts and wet dogs

I like to think of myself as an optimist. Maybe this is why I am unable to believe the weather forecast unless it is predicting a nice, sunny 75-80 degrees with little humidity (that's really not too much too ask.) So, last week as I was packing for my trip to Salt Lake for my cousin's wedding I did not believe that Saturday would be 52 degrees with possible rain showers. I mean really, Friday was 75 and Sunday was supposed to be 72. How could the day sandwiched in between be so different? Did I pack warm clothing? No. Did I pack an umbrella? No. I thought the fact that I was traveling for a wedding would assure good weather. How can you have an outdoor reception if it's raining or snowing for that matter?

But alas, it was not meant to be. The forecast was correct. Well actually, it was a little bit off. The temperature never reached 52 and the possible rain showers turned into torrential down pours with intermittent snow. Perfect for a wedding.

Clint and I at Devin's indoor reception.

The forecast in Oregon has not been much better. It looks something like this: Monday-rain, Tuesday-rain, Wednesday-rain, Thursday-rain. You get the picture. I've been trying to stay positive about the rain. I keep telling myself- I love the rain, i love the rain. I'm sure it's going to start working any day now. It really isn't that bad but I never really gave much thought to what it would be like to have a dog, in Portland, in the rain. It looks a little something like this:

This is after a short walk, for those of you dog owners out there, you know that when dogs are wet for some reason their energy level is exponentially increased. So not only are the dogs wet and smelly, they are real contenders for the Shih Tzu 500. (I'm sure there is one somewhere.)

So, let the forecasts continue, I can take it. Wet dogs and all. It's gonna be great!