What do I know.

My birthday has come and passed.  I am 30 years old.  It was a fine birthday, I rushed home from my ABPA Conference in San Antonio to have dinner with my brothers, sisters, sister-in-law and Ana.  They brought my chocolates, flowers, a desk ornament of a man on a toilet, and a purse.  It was lovely.   I enjoyed making a list of 30 things to do before I'm 30.  It gave me something to work on that was challenging, and added that last bit of stress I was missing while trying to juggle everything else going on in my life.  I wasn't able to finish everything, but I don't regret the things I accomplished and I hope it doesn't diminish the things I did accomplish.  To make myself feel better about my shortcomings, and utter failure, I compiled a list of everything else I did instead of everything I thought I wanted to do....... Visited Mexico and ate lots of new things. Went to Disneyland and didn't freak out...too bad. Taught myself Joo...

I didn't quite finish the Book of Mormon, I have no good excuse, there was plenty of time.  By my birthday I had about 100 pages left, and meant to read it on the plane ride home from San Antonio, but instead I fell asleep.   I never get tired of reading this book. Every time I open it I find reason to hope, I feel the love of my Heavenly Father, and I'm able to continue forward with a more confidence and faith in the future and the blessings instore for me and everyone else. Here are a few thoughts from my reading that I really enjoyed: My soul standeth fast in that liberty in the which God hath made us free. Begin to be up doing. ...only let your sins trouble you. ..God ceaseth not to be God, and mercy claimeth the penitent. ...deal justly, judge righteously and do good continually wickedness never was happiness time only is measured to unto men. some have wrested the scriptures, and have gone far astray because of this thing... there are many mysteries wh...

I went scuba diving just before Christmas.  This was a special dive, my very first in the real, live ocean.  Instead of sinking in some hot spring in the snowy mountains of Utah I swam with bright, colorful fish, slimy eels, fat turtles, and playful dolphins.   I got to see what a real life ocean shelf looks like, as I accidentally dove the deepest I've ever been, to the chagrin of my dive leader/instructor man.  But as a result I did get to scuba dive while holding hands the whole rest of the time.   In the course of the adventure I became friends with a single older lady, and a (newly) single young Australian man who's ex-girlfriend missed out on the most amazing dive of all time.  Nothing brings people together like a lively, languid, sea sport. Joey and me snorkeling. The closest picture I have to scuba diving.

Done and Done. Check it out, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the pitiful.

The only lovely and delicious egg foo yong is at Utah Noodle.  This recipe I found is the most common type of egg foo yong, I"m not a fan.  I prefer a block of egg fo yong, not a pancake.  Pancakes are for seniors.

The successfulness of the task is self-explanatory, but I did try.

My hope is to be able to write these on the plane home later today.  But since I'm still awake I may have to just dream that I wrote them while I sleep the entire way home..... Keep holding your breath on this one, it's do-able.

FAIL! **I'll try to unfail, but I don't know what the recovery time is at this point.

The Irises in their second original home in Riverdale. Irises in their new home in Draper. The Irises origination is unknown, they became known at a home in Riverdale, Utah, built in the early 1900's.  Much later a small portion of the Irises were transplanted by a Master Gardner to a new home in Riverdale, Utah built in the 70's.  Thirdly, the Master Gardner taught her favorite niece how to transplant them and a small portion were moved about 600 ft to a new home in Riverdale, Utah.  A little over a week ago the Irises were separated again, one group finding a new home in Riverdale, and the other group migrating south to Draper. There is no flourish guarantee, I guess we'll see how much they really care for Draper climate....happy first birthday Draper Irises.

I wish I had the pictures of my cemetery with me in San Antonio but I don't.  Maybe I'll find them and post them when I get home.   Here's the explanation.  We have some relatives in the Uintah Cemetery, which dates back to 1855.  The Firth Family Plot is a landmark in the cemetery.  The perimeter of the family plot is bordered with a knee-high   wrought-iron fence.  My parents must have made me go there with them for a Memorial Day at some point.  But I loved going there, not on Memorial Day, to sit in the quiet and think and stare and listen.   There is an empty spot in there, so I signed up with the sexton so he would know it was my spot.  The trouble is now the lovely fence is damaged and since my name is the name he has, I'm the one who needs to fix it.  Unfortunately I have no idea how to fix 100+ year old wrought-iron, but I drilled, and dug, and kicked it to bits until I got the broken piece to a guy at work...

Ana and my compadre, Jhonathan, already know how to Salsa.  They Salsad all over the place at her mom's house while I sat a foot or two away and watched. It was all very exciting, I learned a lot...about how to salsa, about how to handle awkward situations, about how to make up excuses to leave awkward situations...... Really though, my favorite compadre, did make me dance with him for at least 2 full minutes.  We held hands he pushed me around, my feet moved, there was loud music.  So consider this one done, and done.

A lot of you want to know what this means.....is it the actual sunshine? Is it my positive attitude? Is it some miscellaneous person you don't know? You may never know....but someday you might find out.  It will be a surprise either way.

January 7, 2010 I have yet to begin working on this goal.  After mentioning it to some co-workers I quickly adjusted my original goal of an 8 minute mile to a 10 minute mile.  Step 1:  Learn how to turn on my treadmill. I'll keep you posted. Ok, the treadmill works.....I heard Wendy running on it the other day. This one will have to be on my "during" 30 list, the only time for running I've had is to run from work to everywhere else and back again. Stay tuned.

Ok, here's the truth.  I've really struggled writing the lyrics for my one hit birthday goal wonder.  There are definitely words out there, but they are not here.  Well there are a couple words like.... Ox somewhere here someone you oooh ja booo etc.etc.  can you imagine it....when its finished you'll never forget it, I can promise you that.

Multiple times in my life I have saved up a ridiculous amount of old levis with the intention of making a quilt with them.  I'm not sure why I feel like I need to make a levi quilt, but I do.  Strangely, I think my sisters at different times have also felt this need, as far as I know none of us has done it. (well maybe Joey because she does everything). My guess is we were all implanted with the idea from our mom. She made a spectacular levi quilt at some point in her life.  It's been in existence as long as I can remember, much longer than me.  For a long time it lived on our rock fireplace, making time-outs semi-tolerable.   The rest of the time it was stowed in the trunk of the car for use on the grass, its the perfect blanket for laying around on the grass. So I have actually cut up a number of my old pants into squares, and all of my old work shirts have been chopped up too.  All that really needs to be done is the actual sewing, my guess is that w...

We did it!  One more off the list.  On Saturday, May 14, 2011 I visited, for the first time, the Hill Air Force Base Aerospace Museum.  My helpers were: Jeremy, Amber, Marlie, James, and Jack. It was a of fun, especially with a crowd.  I was surprised at how many planes and other stuff there is to see. I almost got tired walking through the big indoor hanger.  My sister-in-law told me that once a year they open up some of the planes so you can go inside.  That sounds like the day to go, although I'll bet it's really busy.   There were quite a few people there.  They have picnic tables around outside, I think someone was having a birthday party there.  Kind of a good idea.  The museum is free, outside is free, sign in at the desk if you go inside and donate a dollar or two if you're feeling generous.  Well worth the trip, especially with kids.  James really really loved it. Jack really only likes Je...

This item was added to my list as an easy cross-off.  I had rescheduled to take the GMAT just before Joey's wedding in May.  Luckily, before I failed miserably a second time, I decided to reschedule it due to lack of study time.  I'm hoping the extra $50 rescheduling fee was worth it, and I hope to never hear anyone try to tell me if I can't study for the GMAT an hour a day I won't be able to handle graduate school. Starting the new countdown to the end of June....wish me luck. I might really need it.