Paigey Pig

Spamalama

2012-02-07T15:44:00.006-07:00

Fun fact: the benevolent Nigerian millionaires who keep trying to give you a large part of their fortune in exchange for helping them move their money into the US have gotten into the mortgage business. This came through our fax machine at work:

I don't know why people are giving their payments to HGIH but if you can't even spell foreclosure or interest correctly I am doubtful of your abilities to handle the legal paperwork necessary to assist someone in the "forcloure" process.

Speaking of spam, anyone else think it's mildly creepy how gmail reads your stuff and tailors the ads on the side depending on the content of your mail? It cracks me up when I check my spam folder though:

It always makes me hungry!

Before & After

2012-01-04T19:31:00.008-07:00

Is it just me or are before/after posts really awesome? I try to keep my blog-stalking to a minimum of people I actually know, but I like reading this blog for DIY inspiration.

I have been SEARCHING for some good metal bookends for a while now, but even at goodwill they usually run $20 for a set. I found some marble ones that were only $6 ANDDDDD they were rabbits! [Joseph rolled his eyes when I showed him but I likely would've also bought them if they were anything else too--I tell ya I've been SEARCHING--however I cannot deny the lucky opportunity to immortalize my beloved pet!] Anyways, they were dark brown but when I washed them to prep for getting painted all the brown stuff came off in clumps... weird. It made for some funky fur-like texturing in the after state, but not too bad. Before:

After:

And here they are in-use:

Also, I did this one probably a year ago but never posted about it. We needed extra seating in our apartment & I found this solid li'l chair for $5. I just sanded off that weird crusty milk looking stain on the seat, took the casters off, and added a coat of Martha Stewart's 'Blueberry Pie' ...aka 'purple' paint. Now that I know better I would've added a primer to make the paint stick better since it has chipped off a bit on the legs from lots of use, but hey that whole 'shabby chic' thing is in style now, right? Before:

After:

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T01:11:00.002-07:00

This was our new years eve. Hope yours was a good one too!

Um, what?

2011-11-05T14:28:00.003-07:00

I just had an experience that was so incredibly strange, I don't know what to do except write a blog post about it.

This morning we took some of the youth at church to Peppersauce cave. I just parked at the church and got a ride up there. After the activity I drove one of the girls home and then pulled over to check the oil on our car. (it leaks oil so the light is ALWAYS dinging--agh!) Anyway, I popped the hood and what did I see staring back at me with the most terrified expression?

A rabbit. A LIVE RABBIT. IN MY CAR ENGINE.

So of course I screamed because I thought it was dead for sure. And then when I realized it was alive but not jumping out I worried that its legs were probably melted to the inside car parts. I didn't want to get too close for fear of rabies so I started searching for a stick or something to gently pry/nudge it out of our engine. But in the end, as I approached stick-in-hand, it just hopped out on its own and ran into the nearby park.

(the orange circle is where it was hiding when I opened the hood)

My best guess is that it got inside the engine to stay warm when I left the car parked at the church.

Soooooo then, did that rabbit really ride 10 miles inside my car engine from the church to that park?

My baby

2011-09-11T20:54:00.003-07:00

Time to meet the newest addition to the Ricks family:

What is that? Can't tell?

Okay, how about now?

THAT. Is a lion-headed bunny. Her name is Lily. We got her from a friend who was moving. And I love her. She is litter-box trained and everything. The only hard thing is that rabbits are natural "prey" animals, so she is absolutely terrified of me. And all I want to do is snuggle with her ALLL day. Because I love her.

Time for a close-up. She is sooooo perty!

year 1

2011-05-29T13:27:00.004-07:00

So we had our anniversary last Sunday (22nd) but we were busy making preparations to go backpacking to Havasupai so I didn't get to post.

Anyways, being married is cool. This photo is a representation of all the happy joyful lovey-dovey times of wonderfulness we've had in the last year.

Since getting married I think we've learned a lot of funny little things about life and each other. Aside from the fact that I talk in my sleep Joseph learned that I will love him more if he watches a girly movie with me than one of his action/explosion movies. I learned that Joseph makes the most fabulous grilled cheese sandwiches EVER. Joseph learned that I can be kind of an electricity nazi. I learned that Joseph never turns the oven off after he uses it (ok, not never, but like 9 times out of 10--who does that??).

Something I suspected before but definitely learned in marriage: Joseph is always right. Not that he has to be right, he just is. Joseph is also ALWAYS cheerful. I learned that Joseph never gets angry. He doesn't even get upset. However, Joseph learned that I get upset. And grumpy. Pretty frequently over lame things. Like electricity.

Nonetheless, being married has been pretty awesome. By residing in closer proximity to Joseph on a daily basis I have discovered that he is even cooler than I thought when I married him. Sometimes despite my best efforts he has been nothing but patient and loving and nice to me and just an overall total sweetheart. I love him bunches.

**end mushy-gushy stuff here**

For our anniversary present to ourselves we decided to take up camping/backpacking as a hobby and bought some sweet gear:

We decided to test-drive everything in our living room the week before our trip.

Happy anniversary to us! :)

TGIF

2011-04-15T16:38:00.005-07:00

Like I've said before... I love my job most days.

Tuesday was NOT one of those days.

But today was. When I got in to work this morning the computer program we use was down. It wasn't working for 2&1/2 hours. And, consequently, neither was I ;)

ALSO: Today was our site's annual "Stress-free day". Catered lunch. Massages. Acupuncture. Games. Did I mention no appointments with clients the WHOLE afternoon? It was a good end to a not-so-great week, and a great start for a pretty cool weekend.

I did good despite my intense needle phobia

(Minute to win it and Wii games)

Now if we could just get them to do this monthly instead of once a year...

Blues Clues: pt cruiser edition

2011-04-12T19:18:00.006-07:00

Over the last 4 months or so we've had about 6 separate "incidents of irritation" with the car. Nothing major but, needless to say, last week when the car started being shaky for all speeds in excess of 10mph... I was more than putting off taking it baaaack to the mechanic again. In addition to the shaking I noticed that we were getting HORRIBLE gas mileage too. Like dropping from 26 mpg to 17 mpg. Shaking I can handle. But sucking all the expensive gas out of the tank?! I put on my detective hat and solved blues clues.

high speeds + shaky car + bad gas mileage = ???

Now, at the risk of being a stereotypical "I-have-no-idea-how-to-work-a-car" female I will reveal to you the problem:

Yup. Flat tire.

(Side note: this is a picture of our other flat tire from a few months ago... only 2 more to go baby!)

So to recap: I was driving our car 10 miles of freeway to/from work every day, for like 8 days, on a flat tire.

I wish I could say this was a one-time thing, but I am notoriously bad at car care. I'll never forget the dumbfounded look of my father when I (in high school) told him I had been driving my car with the oil light on for a whole month. Apparently that destroys your engine.

And do you know what else (besides a flat tire) will give you really bad gas mileage? Driving with the parking break on.

But I digress...

Springtime!

2011-03-20T16:20:00.004-07:00

This time of year means, among many other things, annual spring sinus infection for me. Yay.

Up until now, Joseph has been the only one allowed the pleasure of witnessing "the white mustache".

Everyone else outside of my blog readership will just have to witness the regular "red mustache" of my sore under-nose.

PS: See that shirt I'm wearing? It's the reason I don't allow myself to go to the Gap outlet anymore. It's one of my addictions. Every time I find it on sale I buy it in another color. I have it in coral (as you can see above), purple (here and here), striped purple (<--also see our engagement photos), white, green, and light pink. No más.

Work

2011-03-08T20:55:00.005-07:00

Sometimes I hate my job and think what would it be like to work in a place where I don't get yelled at and treated like dirt by ~~crazy people~~ those who are mentally ill...

But most times I love my job. Usually when I feel like I've helped people who couldn't help themselves. Or when my clients tell me I'm an angel. But most of all when awesome stuff like this comes up...

Feb 28, 2010

2011-02-28T20:16:00.004-07:00

Exactly one year ago...

It was a rainy Sunday evening and we just got out of a fireside hearing Pres. & Sis. Gilliland of the Mesa Temple presidency speak. Joseph asked if I wanted to go for a drive and talk.

"About what?"
"Um... the fireside."
"Oh, okay!"

So we drove out to Tucson Mountain Park. [which happened to be the same place Joseph first told me he loved me] It had been raining all day but stopped just before we got out of the car and started walking. Joseph started talking about how much he liked dating me--nothing out of the ordinary, he has always been good about trying to make me feel appreciated--and then he gave me a hug. And his heart was POUNDING. And my mind was thinking... Nooooooooooooooooo!

And then he knelt down on one knee.

And I turned away from him and hid my face with my hands.

"Paige... Paige... ... ... ... Paige, please turn around."
"No."

"Paige... pleeeease? Please turn around."
"No."

"Pleeeease Paige?"
"Okay."

Then he asked me to marry him.

And I said nothing.

Finally he asked... "Well, what do you say?"

"What do you want me to say??"
"Well not that."
"Oh, right. Um..." And then I said yes.

As we walked back to the car... "Did that really just happen?" "Yeah, I guess so." "Cool."

And thus marked the end of a tumultuous boyfriend/girlfriend thing and the beginning of a pretty freakin cool committed relationship.

PS: for those who are wondering... I took a bite of the marshmallow and it was disGUSTing! It was not at ALL like an oversized lucky charms marshmallow. It was a bunch of little marshmallow bits smushed together. Tasted like dust. Blehh

My valentine...

2011-02-14T08:04:00.003-07:00

...knows just what I like:

Homemade card
tons of chocolate
mexican chili powder candy

not pictured: the twix I'd already eaten & the flowers he sent to me at work :)

Lucky lucky

2011-02-04T18:06:00.002-07:00

I poured myself a bowl of Lucky Charms for breakfast this morning and found inside...

a gigantic marshmallow! [upper left... the one on the bottom right is just an optical illusion]

I would probably have eaten it already if it had come in any color except mold green. But it looked too unappealing so now Joseph & I are left to debate whether we should eat it or not. Stay tuned people. Things are gettin crazy around here.

PS: In an unrelated note, I regret cutting my hair now. Ok, regret is a strong word. I did like it. But I'm bored with short hair and I want the long stuff back now.

Christmas time is here

2010-12-11T13:01:00.002-07:00

This is our Borris. Short for árboles.

He smells good.

15 inches

2010-11-19T13:48:00.009-07:00

So a couple weeks ago Joseph was getting his hair cut and I decided "Hey, I think I want my hair cut too!"

Ok so yes it was WAY impulsive but I regret nothing. I had no idea what I wanted but I feel it turned out to my liking. Plus, I donated it. Win-win-win, right??

And to the nay-sayers who actually told me I should not have cut it...

Um, thanks! But life's too short to have one hair style the whole time ;)

Redbox

2010-11-02T20:20:00.001-07:00

I get a free Redbox code texted the first monday of every month. So Joseph & I skipped off to get a movie for FHE. I was super-tempted to use it on this:

mostly because I love this:

Anyways. We turned around randomly...

and saw that our car had rolled backward about 8 feet because someone forgot to put the parking break on.

I'm not gonna say who...

but it wasn't me :)

Sweet November

2010-11-01T14:11:00.001-07:00

Halloween Eve

2010-10-30T23:16:00.009-07:00

We had a ward trunk-or-treat/harvest festival. Candy first then we went inside and played games. OF COURSE we took the opportunity to dress up!

Joseph came as...

The HAMBURGLAR

And I was...

Giselle! (from Enchanted)

Allison came to visit us in Tucson so today we watched Enchanted (thus my costume--I'm lacking in the creativity department this year) while we made sock puppets... and then made costumes for our sock puppets. I made a puppet for Joseph too (because he was at work).

We used the sock puppets later on to hand out candy to the kiddies at the trunk or treat. Surprisingly, it was a pretty big hit! :)

(you may recognize her from this post... I just made her a halloween costume)

Howdy!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Date night

2010-10-27T21:34:00.002-07:00

Last Friday as I drove home from work I passed one of those parking lot carnivals. I ignored my mother's voice in my head saying "just think how many dirty bottoms have been on those rides!" and called Joseph... "Wanna go on a date?"

Whew. Those rides are scaaaar-eeey. Oh and everything you've ever heard about carnies is true. Everything.

This boy. I am glad gambling is against church rules because I would NEVER take this boy to a casino! He absolutely loves those carnival games.

For this game you had 100 bb's in a gun to shoot out ALL of the red from the star. Joseph was pretty close to winning [left card]. I got a little too impatient to aim for mine...

BUT we did not leave empty handed. Behold our prizes:

Just what we always needed!

24

2010-10-19T17:30:00.003-07:00

Happy birthday to this hunk :)

worst. candy. ever.

2010-10-14T14:41:00.004-07:00

And today I finally found where it comes from...

Walgreens: the mecca of gross old-people stuff.

I haz un problem

2010-10-05T19:36:00.006-07:00

As I was going through a patient's chart at work I noticed a self-scoring substance abuse worksheet. I didn't think it applied to me... until I looked at my monthly spending report for "restaurants" in September.

Answer true or false for each question and give yourself one point for each true answer.
Do I have a ~~substance~~ Taco Bell abuse problem?

1. My use of ~~alcohol or other drugs~~ Taco Bell has increased over the past year.

2. I have attempted to cut down on how much or how often I ~~drink or use other drugs~~ eat Taco Bell but have not been very consistent.

3. I have lied or minimized to family or friends about how much, or how often I ~~drink or use other drugs~~ eat at Taco Bell.
(To be honest, I knew I was eating there A LOT so I started buying it using my old debit card to keep it from showing up on our joint account as often ...I'm so ashamed)

4. I ~~drink or use other drugs~~ eat Taco Bell even when I have planned not to.

5. In the last year I have said to myself, or others, “I can quit any time,” or, “I don’t have a problem.”

And I know what you're thinking: "Taco Bell?? Gross!" But seriously, ever since they added that "fresco style" option to the menu I am craving it all the time. And, in my defense, fresco crunchy tacos are not all that unhealthy...ish.

Anyways, October is going to be Taco-free month for me. So far I've made it 5 days. Which is fantastic when you see that last month at this time I had already eaten there 3 times. It helps that I am cooking dinner more often too... leftovers for lunch have been helpful in reducing my burrito-lust. But I'm worried about a relapse.

Know of any 12-step programs that can help with my special problem?

Meet Bud

2010-10-04T18:37:00.000-07:00

Bud was my cactus. The most handsome in all the land. His favorite activities included watching the cars in our parking lot from the windowsill and being forgotten frequently.

In other words, I killed him :(

This means I am less nurturing than a desert.

So if people ask when Joseph and I are gonna start having kids, I will just reference the aforementioned incident and ask them if they think that would be very responsible at this point.

Jealousy

2010-10-02T11:35:00.003-07:00

Joseph has a new love interest.

Her name is Celeste. (previous owner's choice... Joseph is considering a rename)

Anyways. He's been spending a lot of time with her lately.

Just hanging out. Looking up new guitar tabs on the internet together. Jammin' out. She's been a lot more supportive of his dream to drop out of school and become a rockstar than I.

Then we saw Jimmy Eat World last week. That did not help deter Joseph's dream AT ALL.

In fact... It might have actually helped me buy into it too. I guess it wouldn't be so terrible to be married to a rockstar. You know, Celeste, I can kind of see the appeal... Welcome to the family.

But you're still sleeping in the living room.

being lame: a mathematical representation

2010-09-25T12:52:00.004-07:00

[note: this graph represents the number of interesting blog topics and not necessarily the excitingness of each one. So don't worry, I found getting married to be very exciting... I just don't have anything fun to write about after the fact. Also note: graph not to scale!]

So... to fill in for the lack of blogposts that represents that flatline on the right of the graph:

Joseph is teaching early morning seminary for Tucson High School, working 25 hours a week, and going to school full time. And he is the ward mission leader. I am working as a case manager at Cope and... that's it. I also, after 4 months of marriage, finally decided that it was time for me to start cooking dinners this week. [Joseph has been doing it up til now, despite his crazy schedule. I'm a nice wife, aren't I?] And I made some curtains for our bedroom. So that is our life.

I will try to blog more about our random happenings because who wants to hear about how everything is going good and has been for a really long time blah blah blah--booorrr-ring, right? So stay tuned. I'm gonna go make some mischief so I will have something to write about...

Fried brain, among other things

2010-09-09T12:08:00.002-07:00

So I haven't blogged in awhile... and I even have things of interest in our lives to talk about. But I'll save that for when I have more brain power. For now, a little public service announcement for you:

Check your appliance cords to be sure they are not frayed/have wires exposed before you use them.

I was curling my hair on sunday before church and my curling iron exploded in my hand. Literally. Sparks shooting out, everything. I was absolutely terrified. It gave me a tiiiiiiiny little electric burn/exit wound on my thumb (looks more like a mole).

I knew it would happen some day, I should have been more prepared. That curling iron was the cheapest of the cheap and I've had it for about 7 years (the off button doesn't even work and, as you can see, it's held together with althletic tape) so this event was a long time coming. I guess that could be another PSA for you: quit being so cheap.

Anyways, I'm rambling. This is a blog about a very momentous occasion: my first electric burn. As an adult, that is. [As a kid I had a lot of trial and error experiences with metal objects and electric currents, but those are other stories for another day]

In conclusion, here's a random Tucson pic for you:

Just driving home from work. You know. No big deal.

It's my fault

2010-08-11T08:34:00.000-07:00

Since we've been married I can count on one hand the number of times I've cooked dinner. I have a number of explanations for this, but the short story is, I'm lazy. It is for this reason that I cannot get upset when Joseph resorts to eating otter pops as complete meals....

Good weekend

2010-08-10T09:01:00.001-07:00

Joseph & I went to Utah to hang out with his brothers/sis-in-laws Sam & Janae and Paul & Stephanie. It was lots of fun... so much that I forgot to take pics. No pics = boring blog post. So here's one of when we got back:

While we were off galavanting in the mild 70s weather at a lovely cabin in Heber hiking... playing games... enjoying nature...

Tucson got a nasty spill of hot/muggy weather, the kind that turns pools that radioactive shade of green. Glad we missed it :)

Grab your tissues

2010-07-31T18:05:00.002-07:00

and in an unrelated note, go read our blog!

goo!

2010-07-01T13:54:00.008-07:00

I misplaced my license back in April and didn't have time to wait to find it because I needed ID for my new job ASAP. So I paid the $4 and got a new one. They asked "Do you want to keep your old picture or would you like to get a new one?"

Since I look 12 (it's the braces) in my old one and had actually gone through the effort of doing my hair that day I decided, why not? Gimme a new picture! :)

And it was a pretty cute picture, if I do say so myself.

Then in June I needed to get a license with my new married last name on it. So I waited at the DMV for 2 hours, paid the $4 and got a new one. I told them I'd just like to keep the old picture this time. But no. "If you change your name you are required to take a new picture." Which is why I now look like...

a convicted felon on my drivers licence.

PS: If you haven't already, check out our wedding pics! Stephen Zank did a great job!! :)

Abandon ship?

2010-06-06T09:42:00.003-07:00

So uh... due to some recent changes in life and marital status I may or may not be blogging on here very often any more. I will probably be putting most of the interesting life updates on the blog Joseph & I started oh so long ago. Come check us out...

http://deadlymedley.blogspot.com

I even put up a couple wedding/honeymoon pics... oooooh ahhhhh

The following picture sums up my life:

2010-04-30T12:38:00.004-07:00

1. I hate planning a wedding.

2. I have a SUPER COOL job!!!

This sign is actually on the doors leading to the psych ward at one of the hospitals I visited today. (Apparently, most hospitals have a psych ward--lots of mentally unbalanced people in this world)

I miraculously (<--yes miraculously, but that's a whole nother story) got a job as a case manager at a community behavioral health service provider. So far it's really boring (because I'm not trained yet) but sometimes I get to shadow my co-workers when they do in-home visits or go to the hospital. This week I got to witness people yelling, staring at the wall, talking to themselves, hearing voices, everything. It was pretty cool to actually see real-world examples of the the symptoms & diagnoses I studied in school. Sooo cool.

Adventures in food storage

2010-03-30T17:37:00.004-07:00

This is a can of green jello aka "lime gelatin dessert":

It is over 40 years old. Yes, 4-0. I found it while we were cleaning out my grandma's cabin. I wanted to see if it was any good because, really, how could that sort of stuff ever go bad??

Let's take a look inside:

Hmmm... not too shabby. A little hard and partially congealed, but other than that... oh and it looks like it's mixed in with dark black sand or something too. But who knows, maybe that's how they did it back in the day. Let's see how she reacts to a little hot water:

Looks good enough. Everything seems to be dissolving A-OK. Except for that mysterious dark sand. It just sinks to the bottom. Weird. Well, now for the real test. Leave it in the fridge.

Viola! It has solidified! [And makes a nice reflective surface] Apparently gelatin does not lose it's ability to gel-i-fy over the years. Hooray! However that dark black sand is still looming on the bottom. Hmmm... Interesting. Anywho, let's see how she tastes...

Just. Kidding. Unfortunately, my Dad won't let me eat it. He thinks the soothing lime smell (hello it's lime flavored!) reminds him too much of detergent and is convinced it's poisonous. So I'm saving it for my engagement party.

No, no, not to serve. To throw. That's right. I wanna have a food fight. Seriously. I highly doubt I'm the only one who has ever watched a bride & groom shove cake in each others faces and thought "why are they the only ones who get to have all the fun?" So I'm gonna wear a Goodwill wedding dress and let people throw poisonous jello and refried beans [and whatever else they wanna bring] at me & Joseph (and each other, obviously). It's gonna be sweet! And salty. And mushy.

May 1st. Save the date.

Date night

2010-03-28T19:13:00.000-07:00

So last night for a date we went and registered at Target. Yay.

Yes folks, those are Pokemon cards...

And a giant Star Wars coloring book...

Don't worry. Despite these pictures, Joseph was actually very conservative with his use of the scanning gun. In other words, he didn't scan anything unless I told him to :)

We tried to keep things practical for the most part. But that doesn't mean we didn't have a little fun. I'll be honest, we registered for a lot of candy & a slip n' slide. And those weren't even Joseph's ideas... What? I like candy. A LOT.

It was SUPER tiring and by the end we were definitely ready to go home. But now I can check another thing off the wedding to-do list. Thus far we have invitations and... that's it.

So at this point in my wedding planning process, you are cordially invited to buy us candy at target and show up to an empty backyard on May 21st.

I'm so not cut out for this.

A few reasons I love Joseph

2010-03-01T09:24:00.006-07:00

10. Everyone else does!

Joseph is the life of the party. He's kind to everyone he meets and he's always in a good mood. Who wouldn't wanna spend time with him??

9. Piggy back rides

I make him give them to me all the time. Like, daily. And he's sweet enough to oblige without complaint.

8. He is constantly doing nice things for me.

I have to be careful not to abuse his kindess, but he is always asking to help me. He is currently storing half my wardrobe in his closet because I have some... "space constraints" in my present living situation. He's constantly offering to give me a foot massage, make me breakfast, give me a ride to get groceries, [give me a piggy back ride] etc. He tries to go out of his way to do at least one really nice/thoughtful thing for me each day... But usually it's way more than that!

7. Simple tastes :)

He is an excellent cook and doesn't mind my lack of culinary skill. He seems happy enough to have pigs in a blanket, cheese crisps, or Mac n cheese any time. Score.

6. He's always looking out for me

Back when I used to have a job I had to work late sometimes. Joseph would always come visit me, and one time when he couldn't, he brought me hot chocolate to ease my night :)

5. He does whatever I ask him to

Literally. And he'll kill me for posting this picture. But I told him, "hey, try that on I wanna see if it fits you!" and he did. He'd do anything to get a smirk out of me :)

4. He understands women or, in other words,
The "chocolate orange" incident

I never did blog about this but here's how it went down:
I get really really really grumpy sometimes. Crazy PMS hormones or something. This evening I had been in a particularly bad mood and was being rude and grouchy to Joseph all night. Not nice at all. Joseph finally decides to call it a night and then...
[Paige] I am seriously craving a chocolate orange. I want one right now.
[Joseph] But it's 11pm on a school night.
[Paige] Right now.
[Joseph] Would it make you happy?
[Paige] ... ... ...yeeees.
[Joseph] Okay, let me change real quick...
[Paige] No... {I get a sinister look in my eyes and an evil smirk} Wear that.
[Joseph] My superhero pajamas? ...um... o...k. Are you sure?
[Paige] Yes. Wear them.
[Joseph] On a scale of 1 to 10 how happy would that make you?
[Paige] 11.7
[Joseph] Ok. Let's go.
He drove me to the store when I should've let him sleep, he ignored the curious staring of strangers at his super PJ's, hunted down the last chocolate orange they had in stock (fyi: they're very hard to find after Christmas), and then loaded our cart full of a lot more chocolate than I thought necessary. (PS: it was necessary) He brought me home and patiently sat with me as I ravenously devoured massive amounts of chocolate and made sure I was happy.

What I learned from this situation: I never knew I could be such a brat! But wow, Joseph handled it perfectly. He is awesome.
What Joseph learned from this situation: Keep chocolate on-hand to cheer up a grumpy-Paige. When the next month rolled around, he was already prepared with 2 king-sized candy bars stashed in his desk haha

3. He's a great friend

Even before we were dating [and during... and after... and again during] he has always been a great friend to me. Wise beyond his years. Great at listening and giving advice. Always there when I need him. Everything you could ever want in a friend.

2. He's just a good person

Joseph has worked hard his whole life to be better. He is ever-striving to improve on his talents so he can use them to benefit others. Joseph gives 110% effort to anything that is remotely important and sets a remarkable example for "the rest of us" lazy people :)

1. And if you wanna know the number one reason I love Joseph, you're just gonna have to visit our blog... :)

Next time...

2010-02-10T15:29:00.005-07:00

I will check the forecast before I go on an 11 mile run. It started POURING around mile 6 but I had to keep going because I was still 5 miles from home.

Oh do I not look completely drenched in that first picture? Consider that my shirt is supposed to be light green:

I had to wring out ALL of my clothes when I got home. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I had to run home through campus and everyone I passed most likely thought I was nuts. And I saw many smirks and chuckles at my mascara... which probably ran further than I did. I looked like a member of Kiss.

I cleaned most of it off on my sleeve before I got home, but you can still see a little...

Countdown to Ragnar: 17 days
[I'm runner 12]

Night Sledding

2010-01-30T22:42:00.004-07:00

Scary, but waaaay too awesome to not do it.

[remember, Tucson is only a quick 35 min drive to the snow--neener neener] :)

Optimism

2010-01-27T16:29:00.004-07:00

The bad news: I am definitely locked out of my apartment right now because it's not as easy to break into my* apt as it used to be.

The good news: it's not as easy to break into my apt as it used to be... and at least I can blog about it from Joseph's computer next door :)

Contrary to what the sign says... it isn't.

[*Hey Kenzi, I live in your old apt now!]

Mustachio Bashio

2010-01-22T21:53:00.006-07:00

It's a mustache party. YEAAAAH! Most people who know me have learned that I have a fascination with novelty facial hair. This was my kind of party! EVERYone had to wear a mustache, regardless of age, gender, race, or... um, hormonal ability to actually grown one. Draw, grow, make, or buy a mustach. But you couldn't be admitted to the party without one.

The guys who hosted the party decorated by putting mustaches on everything they could think of in their house:

Random statues on the mantle

This is an ASU shirt the guys took out for target practice one time and then hung it up on their wall:

It also got a mustache.

As did the house itself:

Jessica & Joe

How do ya like my Tom Selleck?

Caitlin (one of my roommates) & Nick (one of the party hosts)

One of the activities played was "Pin the mustache on the pretty boy":

And we played Rock Band

Adventures

2010-01-21T15:59:00.006-07:00

Every month I get to go to the temple 2-3 times. Once with my ward. Once when Joseph wants to go. And one more time with my amiga, Kami.

Over a year ago we [Kami & I] decided to start taking monthly temple trips on our own--as a bit of a girl's day out type thing. Somehow the trips are never without incident. I don't know how it's possible, but something always goes awry. Whether we get lost looking for somewhere to eat, lock the keys in the car, or forget the temple recommend... something always happens.

Last month was CrAzY. We left Tucson around 10:30am, ran into a massive dust storm, and almost got to Casa Grande before traffic stopped. We were turned around and informed that the I-10 was closed in both directions due to a 20-car pileup a few miles ahead.

Here's what traffic looked like as we turned around... a 5-mile long parking lot.

We got about 10 minutes down the road in the other direction when traffic stopped again. Another accident. Freeway closed in both directions. So we were trapped between 2 freeway closures in the middle of a huge dust storm (You have to see these things to believe them--they are CRAZY).

I got out of the car and walked around a bit because traffic was NOT going anywhere

Luckily Kami had an AZ map so we found a random side-highway and took that through the back hills of AZ and made our way to the temple. 5 hours later.

This was our view. ZERO visibility. It was like driving through dirty fog.

If you live in AZ right now then I'm sure you know that much of the state is having some crazy storms. Northern AZ is getting snow and has declared a state of emergency due to possible flooding in areas near creeks, Phoenix is getting hammered with rain, and Tucson... well... we get dust. Lots of it. Hooray :)

Kami and I should really check the weather when we plan these temple trips because we were having deja vu from last month as we headed through the crazy winds and dust on the I-10 to get to Mesa today.

This is a picture of one of the accidents we encountered today. Oh well. All worth it to be able to get to the temple. And I have to say I feel very fortunate to be able to make it safely every month. I'd like to think that it's because we were going to the temple that we've been able to avoid all of the crazy disasters along the way. Prayer definitely works ;)

Welp...

2009-12-19T08:58:00.003-07:00

Here I am.

I'm done! :)

Oh you want some background story about the day--like why I look so dang tired? Okay here goes... (but if you don't feel like reading the details, you can just skip to the comment form & congratulate me--I don't mind)

First I have to say thank you to everyone who has supported me & encouraged me to get through school (My sisters, Mom & Dad, Allison, etc.) but I have to say that I wouldn't have graduated if it weren't for Joseph. Literally. I-would-not-have-graduated.

No Joseph = no college degree.

You see, being the genius that I am, I procrastinated a 10 page research paper until the day before graduation (it was due Friday at 5) and, after staying up ALL night working on it [for 14 straight hours] I only had 4 1/2 pages done. YUP. I wasn't even half-way done and I felt like I'd run out of things to write about. I was freaking out, to say the least. I was going to call my parents and tell them not to drive down for commencement at 8am because I needed the time to finish my paper. In other words, if I went to commencement I wouldn't graduate. How ironic.

Anywho, Joseph called me at 6am to see if I had finished my paper and to make sure I was up getting ready so I'd look nice at commencement. But when he heard the unexpected frantic distress in my voice he got out of bed & came over, calmed me down, and made me take a short nap while he (the Creative Writing major) figured out how to expand my paper another 2 pages. Yes he showed me how to make it 50% longer (all I needed to do was explain everything I'd written--which I hadn't done because I was too tired to comprehend anything at that point). I was amazed at his skills and because of that I felt comfortable going to commencement and waiting to finish the last 4 pages til afterward. [and I did, with 2 hours to spare--hooray!]

Since I was graduating mid-year the commencement ceremony was small, so they convened all of the Psychology majors (who are usually in the college of Social & Behavioral Sciences) with the College of Science majors for graduation. That means I was graduating with people who majored in Molecular BioPhysics and Applied Mathematics and Biochemistry...

All through the ceremony the speakers kept talking about how we're gonna cure cancer and fix the energy crisis and invent awesome machines etc. etc.

Uh. I'm a Psych major. We don't do that stuff. I felt like such an impostor. Like I was impersonating a genius scientist just by being there. Oh well.

I had fun texting Allison & Joseph throughout the ceremony :)

Afterward Mom & Dad took us out to lunch at BoBo's... and they had this hanging from the rafters:

How cute :)

Anyways, aside from the sleep deprivation, it was a very fun day and I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. Thanks Dad, Mom, Grandma Holyoak, & Allison for driving down for commencement--it meant a lot to me! And thanks to everyone else who was there in spirit ;)

Oh and CONGRATS to my sis Carla & her husband Brigham for graduating last week too--
woo-hoo! We be wun edjookat'd fam'ly!

... and here's to now being officially "unemployed" :)

MistleToga 2009

2009-12-15T13:23:00.004-07:00

Prepare for a wild ride...

Ok not really. But whatever.

Side note: Don't you love "guy" togas? Super-wrinkled & Spiderman. Wonderful haha

So this was my 3rd annual Tucson MistleToga Christmas party. I don't like being around large groups of people for long periods of time so I ducked out after about an hour and hid at my neighbor's much quieter apt for much of the rest of the evening. I am pretty good at the whole absentee hostess thing.

I didn't take many pictures. Sorry. We had a good turnout though...

This is my home teacher Ammon:

Side note: he is the BEST home teacher. Ever. He's always checking up on us and begging us to find stuff he can do for us. I'm pretty busy so... I'll admit: I don't often clean out my rotten food from the fridge. In order to give him "an opportunity for service" as a good home teacher I asked him to dump my leftovers for me... He cleaned our fridge, dumped a TON of nasty food I had made like 3 months earlier, AND washed the dishes. The next week he brought us roses--one for each girl in the apartment. Yesterday he brought us ice cream. This kid hasn't even been on his mission yet and he's already got a leg up on how to treat a lady ;) What a stud!

Okay back to the party...

This is Jillie. You may remember her from past performances such as she-hulk

The most awkward moment of the evening came when some of these kids (who were friends-of-a-friend-of-a-friend type thing):

showed up with... uh... something that you would find at probably any other college party except a MORMON one. As soon as I saw them bring it in I explained that this wasn't one of those kinds of parties... so they went and put it in their car. It was SUPER awkward though because all the other 40 people in my apt just stopped talking. It was silent. No one knew what to do...

It was shortly after that when I snuck out to go next door :)

So yah, the night of awkwardness shall be summed up in this next photo:

:)

Heat

2009-12-14T12:45:00.001-07:00

My apartment does not have a heater. So when my hand starts to cramp up from frostbite on the 3 days a year when it's actually cold in Tucson...

this must suffice.

PS: Check out this lovely Christmas card I got in the mail from the wonderfully talented Allison :) :) :)

Bed. Head.

2009-11-20T10:09:00.002-07:00

Yeah. It was a good day.

Random Phone Pics II

2009-11-16T11:11:00.005-07:00

Not much goin on. Chuggin' away toward finals. Here are some phone pics from the past few weeks:

Shopping at Goodwill. Sign says THIS IS A FITTING ROOM NOT A RESTROOM. I don't even wanna know why they had to put it up.

SO bored in class I started drawing on myself. That hasn't happened since, like, 8th grade with the yellow-highlighter Midas hand incident...

Hanson randomly came to play at the UA bookstore last week. They were promoting Toms shoes/charity stuff. Mmmbop!

Carved a pumpkin for halloween with Katie, Anjuli, & Kim

Pic of me wearing my friend's classes. I thought they were cute & asked to try them on... and this is how I discovered that I actually need glasses. I just thought my recent (over the past 2 years-ish) habit of squinting in class was a weird idiosyncrasy.
Monica? Jim? a little help please...? ;)

Went to the CeHS homecoming game with Allison. Her little sis won Homecoming Queen! Good memories... :)

Just walkin' around campus...

Too literal an interpretation? You tell me.

Happy Halloween

2009-11-06T23:55:00.001-07:00

Here is my official halloween post. Technically my halloween was spent working on a paper so these pics are from the institute dance the night before. These were some of my favorite costumes:

Ali Hayes as Hot Rod
It was amazing! She had EVERYTHING... This was prob my favorite costume, but I might just be biased because I did her hair and made her cape. But it was legit. Too legit.

[and if you've seen Hot Rod, you caught my reference ;)]

(left) Twins Cody & Clark as Thing 1 & Thing 2

(right) Random guy as "Bonas Jonas" a.k.a. the 4th Jonas brother

(left) Jacob as Kung Fu Panda

(right) Joseph as Inigo Montoya (one of like, a billion of his costumes this halloween)

Brady as R2D2... genius!

Aren't you curious what my costume was?....

Behold!

Simba... riding a unicorn!

No further explanation needed.
But if you want one: why wouldn't Simba ride a unicorn??

Jillie: She-Hulk!

Together Jillie & I decided to see how many pictures we could creep into throughout the course of the night:

Favorite couples' costume of the night:

John & Kate + 8 (season 1)

Yeehaw!

Boys.

2009-11-03T21:32:00.003-07:00

This kind of stuff only happens at their apartments...

I was over there studying and we needed to move this lamp. Note my laptop hanging out on the nearby chair. Well we moved the lamp and out fell a bunch of dead bugs...

All over my computer.

Dear Professor,

I couldn't finish the homework last night because I was concentrating too hard on suppressing my gag reflex. Hope you understand.

Paige

PS: we should cancel class sometime, maybe in celebration of the soon-to-be-world-series-2009-championship Yankees? Yes?? :)

It's been one of those weeks

2009-10-30T16:09:00.002-07:00

I lost my hairbrush this morning. After frantic searching for many minutes I finally found it. It was in my drawer... where I put it away when I was cleaning my room last weekend.

Yes, that means I didn't brush my hair ALL week.

Oh the things you learn from reading my blog.

Oldie but goodie

2009-10-16T23:45:00.002-07:00

Until I get to posting about my happenings from this week, enjoy this classic SNL clip--a Gavin family favorite ;)

PS: my poll is still open ------------------------>

People are asking

2009-10-12T13:32:00.004-07:00

"So what are you gonna do after graduation?"

And I have nothing to say. Because I have no idea. Okay so I have some idea, but nothing is set in stone so I still welcome your input.

Thoughts?

I think you should vote in this poll ------------------->

Oh and sorry I keep blogging about graduation graduation graduation blah blah blah but I am pretty excited about it (way more than I thought I'd be) and it's the only real thing of interest in my life right now :P

I fought the law

2009-10-09T12:34:00.000-07:00

I found myself in a courtroom again for the second time in 2 weeks. This time, however, it was City of Tucson vs. Myself--not as ideal a circumstance as jury duty.

On August 13th, I received a $175 ticket for parking in a totally legal and legitimate spot--or so I thought. Apparently it is not okay to park within 5 feet of a driveway. Who knew? There was no way I could combat the actual validity of the ticket--because honestly I was parked within 5 inches of that driveway--and they say ignorance is no excuse from justice. So my best bet was to attempt to get the fine reduced or suggest an "alternative method" of payment... Fresh baked cookies, your honor?

I got there early so I listened to a few cases before mine came up. I was relieved to see that the judge had a good sense of humor and was joking around with most of the defendants: good sign. But then I realized that he wasn't reducing or dismissing anyone's charges: bad sign.

Finally he called my name. The result of a thousand prayers to help me not cry: I smiled and I admitted responsibility and calmly asked if I could have an alternative payment method.

To my delight he said that would work just fine, "How much a month would you like to pay?"

Pay?? By "alternative" I meant different means not in a different way! So I swallowed hard and I asked if I could do community service instead. He began to assess my finances: Oh you're a student? How do you pay for school? And rent? Which dorm do you work in? How many hours a week do you work? etc. etc.

After thinking for what seemed like forever...

Verdict: 18 hours of community service with a church or nonprofit organization, to be completed by the end of the year.

It'll probably take me 18 hours alone to organize that dusty old Relief Society closet in the institute. Awesome :)

Pink eye

2009-10-08T00:14:00.003-07:00

Don't fall asleep studying with an uncapped pink highlighter in your hand...

Results can be unpredictable.

To-do List

2009-10-07T13:04:00.009-07:00

Because I don't really have anything more exciting to blog about.

~~PSIO exam~~
~~Meeting with boss~~
~~shower~~
Work
Study for physiology practical, submit psych paper, & do english homework
Buy food to feed the missionaries at 5pm
Finish journal entry started 2 days ago
Write letters to: Parker, Mikey, Kyle, & Neela
Update visiting teaching
Set up appointments for RS presidency visits
Clean room [yeah I almost made it a week]
Hem dress
~~blog~~

I lead a glamorous life. Just be glad shower got crossed off the list today.

How many hours do you think this'll take?

2009-10-05T06:34:00.000-07:00

(9 tests + 8 papers + 2 presentations + 47 homework assignments) / 11 weeks

Oh and forget all those previous anxieties.

I'm definitely ready to be done now :)

Life on school

2009-10-01T12:00:00.005-07:00

This is my [side of the] room:

This is my side of the room on drugs:

How do all you moms out there do it??? In my defense I had just come back from camping, I was sick, I had a lot of homework/work/churchy opportunites, and my roommate was gone so I had no real external motive to keep it tidy. I'm so not yet faithful over few things.

Someday...

[current goal is to keep my room looking like picture #1 for a week]

Grand Jury Duty

2009-09-28T16:31:00.005-07:00

This is the Federal Courthouse for Pima county in downtown Tucson. This is where I spent my Monday this week. I was "randomly selected to be a potential federal grand juror" which, as they emphasized, is a bit different from regular jury duty. Namely in the fact that, if one of the 23 chosen grand jurors, I would serve every other Wednesday (9am-5pm) for a year. Grand juries help decide whether or not there is enough evidence to let a case go to trial, thus they (hopefully) protect people from being wrongly accused/investigated. On a given day they decide on 60-70 cases, which in AZ are mostly dealing with illegal immigration and drug trafficking.

Sadly I was picked to be one of the 10 alternates. The 10th alternate to be exact. So unless 9 people on the jury randomly move away or die in the next year my services will likely go unused.

It's too bad because I can't picture a time in my life when serving in a grand jury could be any more convenient: no children, no real job, an excuse to miss school every other Wednesday. Dang my luck.

Oh well, at least I got to hang out at the courthouse all day and see our constitution at work. And they have great panoramic views of Tucson from the upper floors. In this pic you can see the freeway and "A-Mountain". Hooray.

Ward Campout 2009

2009-09-28T06:34:00.001-07:00

It's always BY FAR my favorite activity of the year :)

Seriously.

We played an extremely heated game of Risk because SOMEONE decided to help out when he wasn't even playing. There was hatred all around after the person he helped nearly won the game.

See the anger in Benjamin's eyes (left) as Joseph helps Shelly (Right)

Don't worry, after playing for 3 1/2 hours (and not being in any better position than what we started out with at the beginning of the game) we voted on the winner to be: nuclear annihilation. And we threw the board over.

Friends again after 3 hours of war: Ali, me, & Tiara

Later that night after all the boys and most of the girls went to bed we had ritual female bonding time of screaming, taking pictures of ourselves, and having a dance party.

We had kindof a soul train thing going. All the other 50 girls who were upstairs trying to sleep at the time didn't really appreciate our bonding event... but we still had a BLAST!

And as per the rule of camping: NO PICTURES the morning after :)

It's happening

2009-09-24T12:24:00.006-07:00

I woke up this morning and realized I'm graduating in 12 weeks:

eek!

Then the thoughts came:
WhatamIgonnadowithmylife????
WhereshouldIlive?
Ineedtogetajob... wherecanIfindajob?!
Isittoolatetoapplyforgradschoolfornextfall?
WhereshouldIgotogradschool?
Idon'treallyevenknowwhatprogramIwant.

I realized I've been w a i t i n g for this since 8th grade (when we took those little vocational tests to see what you wanna be when you "grow up").

And I am

SO

NOT

R E A D Y...

I'm at it again...

2009-09-16T16:36:00.004-07:00

I don't spend inordinate amounts of time on facebook, but I honestly can't afford to spend any on there right now... nor do I have the will power to simply abstain. So goodbye for now: friends I haven't talked to since HS, classmates from Enlish 101 freshman year, random people from EFY 6 years ago, friends of my parents, younger siblings of my friend's freinds, and all you other wonderful people who enjoy social networking as much as I do.

Don't worry, I'll come back... someday.

NOTE: this is in NO way related to my previous post--facebooking does not interfere with my academics.

Life does.

No student ever wants to get an email like this:

2009-09-15T19:29:00.008-07:00

Dear Jocelyn,

I have not received the assignment from you, and the first one was, well, not great. Are you still in this class?

MPP

BaLaNceD life = FAIL

Sleeeeeep

2009-09-07T12:10:00.007-07:00

I'm having trouble sleeping. I hardly ever sleep through the night anymore because I'm always waking up with thoughts and inspirations that, apparently, can't wait til morning. Another problem is this everpresent feeling that I have something to do--and I do always have something to be working on--so I also have trouble allowing myself to sleep very deeply. And we all know what happens when I don't sleep very deeply...
That's right: a return of the sleep-texting and sleep-walking.

The other night I was sound asleep in my bed when suddenly I woke to find that I had walked across the living room with a determination to accomplish the extremely important task of adjusting the pillows on the couch to make them symmetrical. Uhhhh...? I'm not OCD, I promise.

Last Friday night I went to bed at 9:30pm because I've found that Friday nights are the only night of the week where I can catch up on my sleep--lame huh? I actually got some great sleep that night but the next morning I woke VERY surprised to find that I had responded to a text whilst in deep slumber. I have zero recollection of seeing/comprehending the text, let alone responding--coherently, I might add:
Kyle: You aren't by chance a really good singer are you?
Fully-asleep Me: Definitely not sadly.

I mean, I know I'm not a good singer, but I had no idea any part of my unconscious was actually sad about it. I also spelled "definitely" correctly, which is a tricky word to get right even when fully awake.

Oh and if you're wondering what that top picture is, that was the view from my bedroom window Sunday morning at 5:30am. I woke to lights and sirens as some guy--intoxicated, by the looks of it--fell over on his bike in the parking lot across the street from my apt. and required medical attention.

Gah I just want some good sleep!

"Steve interest mid some untested disco"

2009-08-31T09:39:00.000-07:00

This was, word for word, a draft text that's been saved in my phone for like a month. Cody, Ethan, & I played Scrabble for the first time ever last month and since we couldn't find a dictionary we used my phone's T9Word (predictive text) capabilities. Considering the fact that my phone doesn't even recognize the words "dang" 0r "freaking" this was probably not the best authority for determining whether a word really was a word. If it doesn't recognize a word my phone will give it's best guess as to what it thinks you're really trying to say (so I inadvertently get "dangers" and "freakhog" a lot in my texts) and thus we found out that "Steve interest mid some untested disco".

I wish I had bothered to remember which words we were actually trying to spell with that. Oh well, they probably were not legitimate words because at the end of the game we had voted to allow things on the board like "Eggland" and "Cox" which sound okay, except that apparently you're not allowed to use proper nouns in Scrabble. Whatever.

PS: Where the heck is Eggland anyway?

Summer report

2009-08-25T21:40:00.000-07:00

I had the perfect summer.
Places visited: Grand Canyon, NYC, Palmyra, Niagara Falls, Cali, and lots and lots of "camping" in northern AZ.
Monies spent: $600ish
Monies earned: $40ish
Books read: 0
Books read at least 1/2-way through: 7
People met: 100s
Old friends found: 2
New friends made: 4
Cares in the world: 0

View of the shore at San Clemente while visiting Allison

Cheap thrills

2009-08-11T20:38:00.006-07:00

I just got back to Tucson a couple days ago so I've been stalking the stores looking for things I might want for my apt. Yesterday during my lunch break I went to DI and found a super awesome toaster-oven for $6! It was more than the highlight of my day because I HATE microwaves (for some mysterious reason) and I really needed a toaster. It's wonderful! Here you see my toaster-oven performing it's "toaster" function while crisping some bagels.

I tried later to use its "oven" function to make myself a grilled-cheese sandwich:

I think there's room for improvement.

PS to my sisters: back to school = back to blogging... so you may stop harassing me at ALL of the family functions now :)

Back from the dark side

2009-07-22T17:07:00.003-07:00

Apparently it caused a big fuss when I did this:

Allison was so upset about it that she hung up on me when I told her. No joke :)

For the past 18 months since then Monica & Allison (and sometimes Carla & Brenna) have ALL been not-so-subtly dropping hints that I need to return to my original blonde. Well...

Here ya go!

I'm back :)

Gilbert Fun

2009-07-17T07:12:00.003-07:00

It's the summer so I don't do much. I help Chanda by day, providing a warm body to be around the house in case the kids forget how to dial 911.

Treyton playing with the neighbor kid known simply as "Nico's brother" since the kids can't remember his name is Darien. I guess that sort of thing is okay when you're only 6.

By night I do what I can to be social. They like the game nights here in Gilbert. This pic is from a couple weeks ago. This particular evening I was playing a game of Risk and Chess... at the same time. And I won both. I don't miss the deadlines, but I really enjoy the brain-stimulation of school. Kidding ;)

While Gilbert and Tucson are both magical places of lagging left-turn arrows on the traffic lights, Gilbert has something Tucson apparently can only dream about:

Oh yes, the safe place: QT. Home of the 59 cent Summer fountain drinks. And the Horchata smoothies. Oh and those delicious taquitos. And the doughnuts. Yummm... On second thought, it's a good thing QT is so far from me during the school year--when I crave unhealthy convenience food the most.

Lost post

2009-07-15T08:00:00.002-07:00

Did you miss me?

Yeah, I'm a terrible summer blogger. When I feel like I don't have a minute to spare I update my blog almost daily. But catch me on my time off and I just can't get myself to expend any extra energy. Blame inertia.

Well, to ease myself back into blogging, I'll start by finishing a draft post from about 3 months ago. It looks like a completely random post, but these were all just events that happened in the same week. It would've prob originally been titled something like "A week in the life..."

The Elder's Quorum in my ward did their 2nd "Dinner for the RS Sisters" this year. They do all the work. We show up and eat. They prepared all SORTS of fixin's for shish kabobs and all we had to do was decide what we wanted. It was wonderful. And delicious.

I don't remember feeling this way, but apparently I had a lot of free time to kill toward the end of the semester(?)... since I decided to recruit my friend, Marie, to make sock puppets with me one fine Saturday afternoon.

I even hand-stitched the eyelashes on. In retrospect, I wonder if I should have used this time to work on all those random end-of-semester papers so 2 weeks later I wouldn't have had to stay up for 52 hours straight to finish them...
...naaaah.
Time well-spent.

Lastly, while walking around campus one Sunday evening, a magical swing appeared, begging to be appreciated by childish girl who isn't really ready to grow up quite yet.
Don't worry, I put it to good use :)

Adventures in Public Transportation

2009-06-06T09:00:00.000-07:00

I recently had my first ever experience riding a city bus. How did this come about? Well, let's just say, certain circumstances left me stranded on one side of town without a vehicle while I needed to be on the other side of town. Cue: your tax dollars at work.

I have never known how the city bus system works but Chanda researched everything for me and told me where I needed to be and at what times, etc. and I was on my way... to adventure.

The whole thing was remarkably easy. I guessed that it probably would be considering some of the *ahem* kinds of people who tend to ride the bus. 'What kinds of people?' might you ask. Well, let me tell you. Almost every woman on there had, on average, around 6 piercings, 4 tattoos, and 3 teeth. The men must have slathered on heaping amounts of body odor before boarding because their scent perfumed the seats long after they had transferred to the next line. I'm personally glad it was just sweat and no other bodily fluids (that I knew of).

Anyway, about 30 min into my journey I heard the profane speech of an angered, dirty, meth-skinny male in his late 30s sitting a few seats behind me. His talk grew louder and louder and was soon a shout directed at a 20-something-year-old chica who was NOT about to let him talk to her that way. They began arguing loudly and both stood shouting in each other's faces while the girl's friend tried to pull her back down to her seat. The man said some unkind thing about the girl and next thing you know, she punched him in the face! I have to give the guy props for having the "decency" (not that any part of this fight was decent, however...) to remember that 'hitting girls isn't nice' and thus NOT retaliating. Anyway, the driver had to stop the bus and call the police... but none of this seemed to faze him. All in a day's work I guess.

The whole experience reminded me of the time I rode a Grehound from phx to tucson and sat between a transvestite and a guy who talked the entire tire time about every single place he's ever visited in the world. It was a culturally enriching experience.

Anyways, in all, the ride was quite enjoyable and entertaining so who knows, I might try it again sometime :)

Gavin Family Reunion 2009

2009-06-04T14:22:00.000-07:00

Grand Canyon style!

It was soooo much fun. Chanda & Brian planned the whole thing--thanks guys! We camped at Mather campgrounds for 2 1/2 days and rode the shuttle up and down the rim of the canyon. I'll just give a pictorial rundown of the happenings:

Friday night: set up camp

Carla & Aftynn, happy to camp :)

Carla & Brigham

Oh, please note the tent in the background of this (above) picture... it took FOREVER to set up! Which may be the reason why Jim is hiding his face in shame in this next pic:

I would too if I were him ;) jk Monica sure looks cute though!

Colton had ALL of the grandkids gathered around listening to him tell scary stories by the campfire. From what I heard... they were pretty scary

Sat morning: see the canyon, visit the um... visitor's center

The Canyon was indeed, quite Grand:

Me & Colton

Side note: 12 Kids age 10 and under + the Grand Canyon = many nervous mothers

Maci, Madison, & Elise

Brian, Treyton, Chanda [+baby], Elise, & Ethan

Sat afternoon: take cover

We didn't get very far with the touring before a storm rolled in. It was NUTS. The rain came down SO hard. Everyone ran for cover under this bus stop and waited to board the over-crowded shuttle back to camp.
It was also extremely cold. So much for Arizona in May.

Sat night: Mom & Dad, Weston, Brenna & Cody, and Rocky arrived
(Sorry no pictures... I was tired!)

Sunday: pack up camp, see the Canyon for reals, drive home

We had to wait awhile for the shuttle:

Treyton (creeped into this pic adorably), Brenna [+baby], Cody, Mom & Dad

Me, Brenna, & Cody

But the wait was totally worth it :)

Now in case you came to the Grand Canyon to see one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, here he is:
WestyBear: sexier than the Grand Canyon since 1990

And I swear, this picture was TOTALLY his idea:

Quite a lovely trip :) ...The End

Okay okay

2009-05-12T18:27:00.003-07:00

I'm back...

:)

Monday Memory: Miscellaneous Musings

2009-05-11T07:00:00.001-07:00

I like blogging about random things. That's no secret. Here's a collection of random posts from the old blog.

Wednesday, February 1, 2006 1:03PM

"I became enlightened this morning while getting ready for school..."

Current mood: Broke like no joke

...I received an epiphany, if you will. When you are a TA 4th hour and a tutor 5th, every day can be early release.
So today, for "early release", I went shopping for jewelery for 2 1/2 hours. It was fantastic.

Friday, September 15, 2006 11:59AM

"Kind of Twilight Zone-y"

Current mood: tired

I was bored and decided to Google my name "Paige Gavin"
an interesting fact I learned:
My name "Paige" is #51 on the list of top 1oo baby names for 2004 and #50 for 2005. Interestingly, BOTH years, the male name that shares my rank is "Gavin".

Sunday, July 29, 2006 5:49PM

"Cell Phone"

Current mood: good

I had to buy a new cell phone last week b/c I dropped/assaulted my other phone too much. I just found my warranty and was reading through it.
"You shall have no coveraged or benefits if any of the following conditions are applicable: your phone has been subject to: abnormal use, improper storage, Acts of God, maladjustment..." and the list continued.

[Later the same day]

6:08PM

"Just woke from a nap"

Current mood: sleepy

Sometimes when I fall asleep with my head/neck in an awkward position (happens a lot at school) I'll wake up with part of my skull numb. It's a weird sensation.

Friday, July 7, 2006 3:24PM

"I am not ashamed"

Current mood: blah

I've come to realize that I like Christina Aguilera. I know she's all skanky and such, but she really can sing--very well and I like a lot of her songs. The end.

Next week's MM: Fishy Fiction

Monday Memory: Forked Fiasco

2009-05-04T12:08:00.007-07:00

Sorry! I completely forgot to schedule a Monday Memory for last week so here's a longer-than-usual series of related posts titled "Forked Fiasco" to make up for it. Lucky you. Been kinda slackin' on the blogging lately, but after Elder Bednar's CES fireside last night warning the youth of today to beware of spending too much time in a virtual existence & neglecting reality I feel righteously justified in not posting for over a week... I've been too busy livin' real life! ;)

Friday, September 15, 2006 6:23AM

"Printing Problems"

Current mood: thirsty

I was desperately trying to print something this morning, but my printer kept loading the paper super-crookedly. It would only grab it from the right side. I thought that this was my punishment for buying such a cheap printer: it had already broken, barely a month into school. I opened it, examined it from all angles, tipped it on its side, and out fell a full-sized silver fork from my paper feed area. How'd that get there?

Printer fixed!

Monday, October 2, 2006 7:04AM

"I hate my printer"

Current mood: frustrated

My printer is a super crappy piece of junk. It keeps loading paper super-crookedly. All searches for metal eating utensils have come up negative.

It is actually so crappy because it only has a wheel on one side to suck the paper in to feed the printer--the way it was manufactured, not my fault (I didn't break it or anything). Basically this means that is only sucks in the right side of the page for printing.

I'm upset that if they could have taken the time to add the other wheel, I wouldn't have this much frustration. Seriously, I'm totally willing to pay $45 or even $50 for my next printer vs. the $40 for this one, as long as it has that stupid extra wheel.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006 11:20PM

"Revenge of the Printer Problems... 3"

Current mood: aggravated

My printer has decided to be a piece of worthless junk for the past couple of weeks. It refused to print ANYTHING even remotely well. It's favorite hobby was "start printing 1/2 way down the page and out of the margins, super-crookedly when Paige is in a hurry for class." I was clearing off my desk tonight when I had a little deja vu. I tipped my printer on its side to see if anything had fallen into the paper feed area (again) and lo, out fell another full-sized silver fork (again). I really need to stop setting dishes on my printer. Hopefully that was the reason for my printer's uber-crappiness. [side note from 2009: it was]

Monday, November 27, 2006 4:31PM

"Lost Keys"

Current mood: blah

I've been frantically searching my dorm room for my keys for the past 20 min. It shouldn't have been this hard to find them, especially considering that my room and desk are actually in immaculate condition (for once). I was checking behind my printer when I accidentally hit the "copy" button on it. as the paper was being sucked into the printer, I noticed it went in crooked: a characteristic of my previous fork-in-printer adventures. I peered inside the paper feed slot and lo: my keys.

Next week's Monday Memory: "Misc. Musings"

Ice Cream?

2009-04-23T22:35:00.003-07:00

Made a mid-of-studying break to go get ice cream tonight and found this:

It's so generic they're not even allowed to call it ice cream... Instead it's ''Frozen Dairy Dessert''. Well, whatever it is it only costs a dollar so I guess you can't be too picky.

Monday Memory: Bathroom Blunder

2009-04-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, January 31, 2006 1:26PM

"She came in through the bathroom window..."

Current mood: crunk [side note 2009: huh???]

(That's a Beatles song for all you uncultured folks)
As some may know, I lost yet another set of car keys; it really makes me go crazy. They've been gone for about a week now, but I still have faith that they will reappear, so I'm not making copies of the old keys yet. The only downside is, I keep forgetting to borrow my mom's housekey, or leave a door unlocked or something so I can get into the house everyday. For the past week I've had to squeeze my entire body through my bathroom window... yes, the little one used for ventilation that's 7 feet above ground. It's not easy. If anything, it's quite acrobatic and pretty artistic the way I huff and puff and wriggle my gigantic booty through the tiny opening. Not to mention, today I wore a skirt to school... I REALLY need to get a new housekey before I break my shower and/or arm. (or get arrested for indecent exposure...?)

Next week's MM: Forked Fiasco

Random happenings

2009-04-16T18:13:00.002-07:00

Here are some random pics from the past couple weeks...

I went to Allison's spring formal for her sorority. She planned the whole thing & did all the decorations and it looked soooo great... She had a "candy bar" with candy in flower pots that you scooped out with little plastic shovels--genius! I have never known anyone more creative & gifted than Allison. So yeah, have to give a shout out to her for planning yet another awesome event!

BFFLs in LBDs

Last weekend was the "Mr. Institute" pageant. We were all voting for Brady (see guy with his finger in his eye in the pic below). He was the runner-up. If only Colton Finch would've skipped his stupid field trip--he could have gotten his picture screened onto a t-shirt too!Me, Brady, Laurel, Maggie, Brandon

Our ward took a trip to the Easter pageant last saturday. We went up early to save seats... and it was rainy & cold & miserable for the 5 hours right up until about the start of the pageant--then it all miraculously cleared up. Pretty cool :)

Kami & Kacy enjoying pizza while we waited for the pageant to start

Also cool is that I ran into an old friend from Kingman...

Yes, miss Aubrey Key. I haven't seen her since Brett's wedding so it was great to catch up. I love that girl! She's living in Gilbert now. PS: check out that sunset behind us!

Alright that's all I got--my blog is now caught up with my life... sorta :)

Ode to Rest & Roommates

2009-04-15T11:07:00.005-07:00

I do not get much sleep it's true

It used to not matter, however

Since moving in with these odd two

I'm sleepier now more than ever

[kayla]----->

At day's end to my home return
Longing for pillow and bed
Glares of hate*--my roommates I spurn
When ambushed by both instead

<-----[Tacia]

*I don't actually hate my roommates :)

Pictures taken shortly after I was in bed trying to fall asleep

You know what I really love?

2009-04-14T18:35:00.003-07:00

The Temple! ...and everything about it :)

And every time I go I feel compelled to take at least one new picture for the background on my phone. This represents one of about 20 in my phone's "gallery". Ahh what a lovely place :)

[oh and this post is kindof an experiment in blogging from my phone--which is cool!]

Monday Memory: Love Letter

2009-04-13T07:00:00.007-07:00

Since it's Monday the 13th (don't look out your window!) I thought I'd post a creeeeepy monday memory--this one always makes me shudder... enjoy :)

Friday, February 24, 2006 7:12pm

"Interesting encounters of the Hollywood Video kind"

Current mood: amused

So my coworker, Alicia, found the following note while straightening movies tonight. [side note from 2009: Alicia & I later theorized that the author of this note had strategically placed it there for her to find--poor girl.] The front had, in lovely cursive writing "For you, my love" written on it. And within:

Looking for the love of my life...

I am looking for an honest, faithful, good, white woman, who believes in Jesus.

She must be weight-proportionate, under 35 years old, have a good sense of humor, and be interested in many things.

She must love good conversation, be romantic, quiet, and enjoy being feminine.

She must love to wear dresses.

She must have a sense of style--and fun!

She must be able to appreciate the romantic things offered to her.

She must want to be submissive and obedient to her man, who loves her, and would die for her.

Yet, she must have her own mind.

Once, I had a girl like you... and I loved her deeply.

I had only to feel her touch, hear her voice, look into her eyes, smell her perfume, and I was in a universe of bliss.

If I find that kind of woman again, I will never let her go.

We were very happy, alive, and growing.

But now, she is gone forever...

I would love to love again.

Do you believe in love?

Do you believe in grace, meaning , and beauty?

If so, please send me an email with a recent photo of yourself, and hopefully we can see each other soon.

"Love never dies,"

-Searcher

**All I have to say about this is, I think I've found my prom date**

Commentary from 2009: The note starts off innocent enough, but about half-way through the stalker radar starts going nuts. Creepiest sentence ever: We were very happy, alive, and growing. Eeyeeesh. That one always haunts me.

Side note: I think I've met at least 3 suspects capable of authoring this note at the Institute down in Tucson...

Next week's MM: Bathroom Blunder

It's 2am

2009-04-10T02:12:00.003-07:00

And I'm tired. I have a 10 page paper due in 9 hours so I won't be sleeping tonight. Assignments like these make me a little excited for this:

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.7is7.com/otto/countdown.html?year=2009&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;month=12&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;date=19&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;hrs=13&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;ts=12&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;min=00&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;sec=0&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;tz=local&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lang=en&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;show=Wdhms&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;mode=t&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;cdir=down&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;bgcolor=%23CCFFAA&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;fgcolor=%23000000&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;title=Graduation%21"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Graduation!&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

So which is worse: pulling an all-nighter to write a 10 page paper on Russian Literature or having to grow up & be out in the "real" world? :)

Monday Memory: Car Crash

2009-04-06T07:00:00.000-07:00

As promised, here is the 2nd installment in the Monday Memory series:

Tuesday, January 31, 2006 8:47pm

"I got in my first car 'accident' today..."

Current mood: shaken--car accident, duh!

I was backin' out the driveway this morn and it was all dark and such. I blame Weston for putting the trashcan so close to my car, but I hit it w/ my passenger mirror and bent the mirror backward. I was like "Weston, snap my mirror back into place please" and he says (think like how it sounds in a horror movie) "Paige... the mirror ain't there..." So I was all "dangit" and "fooey" and such because I just realized that I had snapped that sucka clean off. Darn. My Dad wasn't mad or anything. He just told me I had to pay for it. Darn it all.

Next week's MM: Love Letter

April Fool's

2009-04-01T10:05:00.004-07:00

Yesterday there was a chili cookoff at work between one of the residents, an RA, and the complex director's boyfriend (Torry) who also happens to be my supervisor's supervisor (did ya catch that?). Anyways Joseph was hanging out with me at the desk during the cookoff so we got to participate in the tasting and voting. I think the following email indicates which contestant was NOT the winner...

----- Forwarded message from Torry B-B -----
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2009 09:33:39 -0700
From: Torry B.
To: Paige G.
Subject: Paige is Terminated - ineligible for rehire!!!

Paige;

Please accept this email as official notification that your employment status at the University of Arizona, and within Residential Education is considered TERMINATED.

Due to your inability to decipher good chili from great chili I'm left with no choice but to remove your position as Desk Manager effective immediately.

Ok that's all a joke, but honestly I lost by two votes (deservedly so because I was lacking meat). Had you voted for me it would've been a tie and had your friend voted for me also I would've won!!!

Torry B.
Assistant Director - Residential EducationHall Operations - Student Staff Selection and Training - The University of Arizona

"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves"
----- End forwarded message -----

Reading this almost gave me a heart attack at first because if I really was getting fired, it would be by Torry! Whew, happy april fool's day

Monday Memory: Dance Dance

2009-03-30T14:54:00.009-07:00

Last night I happened upon a printout of my old myspace blog from my senior year of HS/1st semester @ the UofA. It's funny to see that the kinds of things I find humorous haven't changed a bit :) A few of those posts are absolute gems and since every blog needs some sort of catchy alliteration series (e.g. wordless wednesday, friday face, etc.) I feel to present...

Monday Memories

excerpts from my life in 2006

Friday, February 3, 2006 2:30pm

"Anything you can do, I can do better..."

Current mood: cheerful

I guess I would say I'm sort of a competitive person. Today in dance, Bobby Walters and I were just talking about being able to kick our legs really high. He said that, back in the day, he could probably kick his foot over my head. I was like, "Well I'm sure I could kick my foot over Trisha right here and now..." BAM!!!

No, I didn't hit her in the face. That loud noise was the sound of gigantic white girl booty crashing onto the stage floor and reverberating throughout the auditorium. I kicked my right leg up with so much force it pulled my left leg out from beneath me (the slippery ballet shoes didn't help either). A quite hush fell over the stage and the silent, piercing motion of all heads turning simultaneously in my direction was enough to have knocked me over again, had I been standing. Surprisingly, I injured nothing, except maybe my pride... meh. I did what I had to do: laughed it off (really hard) and kept dancing.

I like to think of the positives of the whole situation:

1. I got quite the humbling come-uppance from Bobby

2. I haven't laughed that hard in a really long time

3. I am now a living legend within the 1st hour dance class as the first person since the class started (4 weeks ago) to fall (especially with such style)

Currently listening to: "Hands Down" by Dashboard Confessional

Tune in next week for "Monday Memory: Car Crash"

UofAbomination?

2009-03-26T18:54:00.004-07:00

The UofA must be a wicked school... because we're always getting called to repentance. Today we had the wife of Brother Jed (<--#4 on this post) come speak to us. She talked about how she used to be a "Feminazi" back in the day when she first met her husband. [In fact it was she who first asked him out on a date--how atrocious!] But she has since changed her ways and today sported a t-shirt with "~~feminazis~~" on the front.
And then she talked about the evils of designer jeans... "Do you know what deeeee-ziner jeans ARE deee-ZINed fooor??? ... ... ... ... Luuuuuuuuuuust!" It was all very dramatic... especially the visual aide of her ankle-length skirt. I will make sure to rid myself of all potentially lustful jeans when I go home tonight.

Self-fulfilling Prophecy

2009-03-25T13:23:00.007-07:00

I've been trying to read the same 31 page article on ADHD for the past 2 hours but it's just too pretty outside to do homework...

and I'm hungry...

oh and GoogleReader said I have new blogs to read...

which prompted me to write this post. And to look this up...

and then I got lost in Wikipedia for an hour.

3/22/1974

2009-03-22T15:10:00.007-07:00

March 22, 1974 these two lovebirds got married.

Now, it's 35 years later...

And you still can't keep 'em off each other!

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!!!

(They wouldn't stop kissing even after I took the picture! blech.)

Spring Break

2009-03-19T12:52:00.003-07:00

Not much going on here.
So far I've uh... read 3 books, run about 15 miles, spent a whole lotta money shopping, and um...
That's about it.

Highlights so far:

Visiting Grandma my first day back (Tuesday). It was St. Patrick's Day and her visiting teacher brought her some festive decorations to put her in the "holiday" spirit

I think she has a shot at a modeling career ;)

I went hiking with Rocky today on Hedgepeth Hills. It's right by T-bird Mtn Park but it doesn't have any trails. It was basically a hike straight up a mountain. We even had to do a little rock climbing at the very top--dangerous, but fun--would you expect any less hanging out with Rocky?

Happy Blog-iversary!

2009-03-18T00:30:00.000-07:00

It has been a year since that fateful day when Jim (my then-anti-blogging compatriot) abandoned me to go to work for the day and left me in the clutches of my loving, peer-pressuring sisters who forced me to make a blog.

Not that this should be a significant event in anyone's life--the one-year anniversary of their blog--but I can't help reflecting on how much (I hope) things in my life have changed over the course of a year: What have I done? How am I different? What have I learned?

I mean, a year ago I was single, I lived in a run-down apartment complex, I worked as a desk manager at one of the dorms, I wasn't too fond of school and I was stuck in Tucson anxiously awaiting graduation... wait wait... none of that stuff has changed yet. Poo.

Okay okay I'll be serious. Well, as serious as I'll get over the Internet anyway because, again, this is just a blog after all ;) Brace yourself. It's lengthy. And a bit narcissistic.

I feel I've learned & experienced more over the past year than I have compared to any other year of my life thus far. I enjoyed my happiest moments ever. I also experienced the most excruciating trials [in my experience... not ever known to man--my life isn't that bad]. Unrelated to the aforementioned trials, this past year I had my heart broken a few times; I force myself to learn a new song on the piano each time that happens. I met and got to know some of the best people ever to walk this earth--no exaggeration. I now better comprehend and love what the Gospel has done and does for my life daily. I changed the way I write in my journal--from simply recording experiences to now expressing my feelings about the events in my life--I hope that makes it more interesting/relatable for my posterity. I gained an appreciation for silence & meditation. I learned to like country music. I lost 15lbs. I read 20+ books. I learned that there is no such word as "alot" (only "a lot" and "allot"). I came to understand why Visiting Teaching is important. Last semester I experienced what it's like to actually appreciate my education and LOVE learning for the sake of learning... and then proceeded to forget all that after trudging through the academic difficulties of this semester. I undertook my first "major" sewing project: an apron; 6 months later, still unfinished. I learned how to be better at public speaking. This year I watched the last of my first Tucson friends disappear into the land of the marrieds; I stopped worrying about when I would do the same--I'm kinda enjoying my current circumstances :P I rode on a motorcycle for the first time. I listened to a lot of Latin-American music with the hope that it would help my Spanish; I can now sing a lot of songs in Spanish, but I still don't know what they mean. I tried squid for the first time ever. Oh and yesterday my roommate had me try honey on cheese--I can't say I'll do that one again, but I'm always glad for new experiences.

Alright, enough about the past. I feel content with the things I've learned, the experiences I've had, and the people I've been given the opportunity to meet. Here's to a year from now being able to blog about:
-graduating
-running a marathon
-overcoming my fear of needles
-what I'm gonna do with my life :)

PS: I am now a co-author (with Joseph) of another blog--it kind of details all things that have to do with our daily running experiences. Feel free to check it out.

It's official!

2009-03-13T13:28:00.006-07:00

Spring BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

um... now what? -------------------------------------------------------->

Good News/Bad News

2009-03-09T14:03:00.004-07:00

The Good News:
On a whim I ran a 5K saturday with some of my friends. It was put on by the UA's multicultural club or something. We basically signed up because registration was free and you got a t-shirt. Once we arrived we discovered they also had tons of water bottles & granola bars & fruit. Free shirt and free food? I believe you just made any poor college student's day right there. Well then I ended up placing 3rd so I also got a $20 giftcard to Nike! hooray (I love Nike)

The Bad News:
The giftcard came in this cute little mini-shoebox... it was so cool! Well, as I was walking across campus with Mallory, Joseph, and Jessica I decided to try and see how many free granola bars I could hide in this fascinating little box [only 3 in case you were wondering--but that has no relevance to "the bad news"]. The bad news is: I was too busy fiddling with my exciting box to notice where I was going and... BAM. Yep. I walked right into a pole. Hard. Seriously. Everyone I was walking with kept going and didn't realize what I had done until they turned back a second later to see me staring at the pole with a dazed look on my face & tears welling up in my eyes. Suffice it to say that one will NOT be on re-play in Heaven.

You'd think I would have learned to watch where I am going after this incident, but I'm a little slow sometimes... and now I'll probably even be a little slower.

To make matters worse it gave me a gigantic goose egg RIGHT in the middle of my forehead. Oh did I mention that later in the day I would be teaching at a 7-stake Priest/Laurel conference? It took some very strategic parting of my hair to hide that one...

Anyways... more good news!
At the youth conference they fed us (Jessica & I) lunch AND snacks AND dinner. If you didn't do the math: that's 3 free meals in one day. And, if nothing else, that is definitely something worth blogging about.

**Side note to my concerned sisters: Just so you know, I'm not starving down here... just being frugal :)

:-{D

2009-03-06T14:24:00.004-07:00

Found this drawn on the "no bikes" sign painted on the sidewalk in front of the student union.

Oh how I love mustaches...

I could probably just rename my blog "Random graffiti I find around Tucson" but that idea is already kinda the main focus of this one... except those are all commissioned. This made me lol.

Ragnar Relay 2009

2009-03-04T18:54:00.000-07:00

It was a blast! We ran from Prescott to Mesa and oh man was it fun. I'll try not to bore you with too many details but here are the highlights:
-->I was runner 1, which means I had to start the race... I hate starting races--too much pressure! I wish I could just be dropped into the middle of a race--or be unconscious for the start and regain consciousness a minute into it. But despite the nerves of the start, my first leg (3.6 miles) went well and I finished it 4 minutes faster than my goal.

[at the starting line--Yes the guy to my left ran with a viking helmet, sword, & shield]

-->The race went right by the WalMart in Prescott so I stopped to grab some last minute provisions and realized that this might be the one Jim works at... and it was! It was cool to talk with him for a bit--he was very very concerned that I was not in school on a Friday. I had to reassure him that I did not drop out. He still seemed uneasy about me playing hooky just to run a race :)
-->After my van finished our section of the race & the other van was running, we went to Rocky's house in Peeples Valley (which was conveniently located RIGHT near our exchange point) and chilled. We napped on his porch because the weather was just bEaUtiFuL up there :)

[view from Rocky's house--amazing!]

-->My second leg was awful. Yet so much fun at the same time. Many (if not all) of the problems I encountered probably could have been avoided if I had not been given the backup backup-headlamp (the one to use if the other three we had magically broke) which worked a few degrees worse than, say, using your cell phone for a flashlight. Where were the other three headlamps? On the runner before me, of course. All three. Anyway it was pitch black when I ran the leg from Congress to Hwy 93 on a trail that zigzagged in every which direction and took me through bushes, cacti, sand (have you ever run in sand?? horrible!), washes, and all sorts of other little "wonders of the desert" you forget about until you scrape your leg on them. Oh and said trail was well over .5 miles longer than stated in the race chart which means it was 6.9ish miles long. But that's okay. I'm not bitter. Well except for one thing--and it gets its own bullet point:
-->I ate it. HARD CORE on a railroad tie. Seriously my headlamp was so dim I could hardly see anything. Out of nowhere this railroad tie appeared and I was running too fast to catch myself when I stubbed my toe on it. Before I knew what was happening I was sailing through the air. My flight ended when I hit the ground--then the earth began rotating around my body (at least that's what I saw with my dinky little headlamp). I rolled a good 3 or 4 times. Luckily the slightest hint of civilization was miles away so my hip got bruised more than my ego--and even that wasn't too bad. Can't wait to see that one on replay when I go to Heaven... neither could my teammates once they found out the reason why I started my leg clean and finished covered in dirt.

[Richard: the thiever of the 3 good headlamps--1 for his head, 1 around his neck, and 1 attached to the back of his vest. In his defense we were supposed to provide a reflective vest for him but did he receive that?... vest yes, reflective no--which we didn't realize til we got out on the course. So he needed the extra headlamps (as well as the glow bracelets/mickey mouse ears) to make himself more visible to traffic]

--> After our van finished our 2nd section of the race Carla let us sleep at her house [Thanks Carla!] and she even made us delicious whole wheat pancakes in the morning. It was great to have a shower and a soft place to stretch out & sleep.
--> We were late getting to my last leg so Richard had to wait around 3 minutes or so for us to get there haha Van 2 ran too fast, what can I say?! :)
--> My last leg was SO HARD. It was 8.7 miles--all uphill--and the heat of the morning was starting to set in. Luckily I started running with this lady, Emily, who had the same pace as me and we helped encourage each other to keep up. We got to talking and not only is she LDS, but her mom is the secretary at the Institute in Tucson! We were so excited to make that connection I think it made us run even better. Okay maybe not. We were both dying by the end but it was great to make a friend along the way :)

[Emily & her mom Sister Rassmussen] :)

--> Mom came to see me at the finish! And then took me home so I could shower/freshen up and THEN took me back to the east side of Scottsdale to meet up with my team. Thanks mom!

[Me & Mom after my last leg]

--> We finished the 204 miles in just over 30 hours and enjoyed the free massages at the finish line! It was so much fun to have a reason to start running again and also to meet new people on my team. I am already excited for next year!!

[Annie, Lindsey, Jessica, Chris, Me, Carolyn, Greg, Kacy, Richard, Erica, & Noah]
(missing Kurt who had to leave after his last leg of the race)

...Anyone interested in forming the Gavin Gang Racing Team?

Today was a good day because:

2009-03-02T21:34:00.000-07:00

1. The two articles I was assigned to read for my Developmental Psychopathology class were only 7 pages each (as opposed to the usual articles that are 30-60 pages in length)

2. The first of many free samples I ordered (found on this blog Aubrey showed me [thanks!]) arrived in the mail today--a really unhealthy (but delicious) granola bar!
3. I went for a run after I got off work and my legs weren't broken like last year after Ragnar :)

4. I [accidentally] dropped my phone off the 3rd floor of the Koffler building onto the concrete below... and it survived! (3rd floor is labs=12ft. ceilings, 2nd floor is lecture halls=25ft ceilings, 1st floor is more labs so the total drop was about 50feet) It's a miracle! :)
The only damage was a little crack at the top right where the part where you listen is (does that part of a phone have a name? earphone? earpiece? I can't think of it...!)

Ragnar Relay

2009-02-25T12:48:00.000-07:00

Oh and if you don't already know, I've been getting up [ok truthfully Joseph has been getting me up] to run at 5 or 6am every morning for the past 4 months in preparation for the Ragnar Relay. It's this Fri&Sat 27-28th. And I'm excited. You can look at the website to see the course map (I'm "runner one" on my team)
It should be fun.
I love to run.
ok, I'm done :)

Happy Lent

2009-02-25T12:31:00.000-07:00

I think I'm gonna give up dating.

:)

Gma Gavin's 90th Birthday Party

2009-02-24T06:08:00.000-07:00

I don't really feel like puting captions on all the pics. You were there. You know what was going on. And if you weren't, you probably don't know half these people anyway so it doesn't matter :P

Basically, Grandma turned 90 and we had an impromptu dance party in her driveway that warranted a drive-by from the cops to see what all the commotion was about :)

(one of 3 photos with Brenna making a different creeper face in the background of each one)

Happy Birthday Grandma!

self-explanatory

2009-02-17T14:31:00.000-07:00

I just thought it was funny.

Secret Admirer?

2009-02-13T14:48:00.000-07:00

I came home from work the other day to a trail of hearts which lead from the front door...
...to my bedroom...
...and onto my bed...

So who did it?
a) ~~a secret admirer~~
b) ~~the guy I'm dating~~
c) my really really REALLY bored roommate Tacia :)

Me: So... were you home alone all afternoon?
Tacia: Yeah... why do you ask?

She even wrote the number to the Rejection Hotline on one of the hearts saying "Call Me!" (FYI: it's 602-230-4210--call, it's pretty funny)

Never a dull moment :)

Sidewalk wisdom

2009-02-11T09:10:00.000-07:00

Found this scrawled on a sidewalk on my way home from work:

"Boredom is a con! Fun is free!"
...the motto of my childhood :)

Fur shurr

2009-02-10T09:01:00.000-07:00

Remember this?
You probably thought that after the Gavin family white elephant gift exchange you'd never see it again right? (Obviously I'm talking about the coat here, not Rocky) Well, that's what I had in mind when I gave it away...

Anyway, we've had some unexpected cold weather recently, which may be the reason why this little number made a trip to the grocery store:

The white elephant gift's evil tiger-printed twin! Dun dun dun!

Did you know...

2009-02-07T12:42:00.000-07:00

...that you can make plasma in your microwave?? Yeah well, thanks to Joseph, I do now... And you can too!
Here's what you need:

a microwave

Any kind will do really... preferably a cheap one that comes with the apartment--not an expensive one you bought yourself... just in case things go horribly wrong, you won't be stuck with a radioactive microwave after you move out of the apartment.

matches

Really, I only included this picture because I figured out a new setting on my camera where I can manually focus on stuff--it's cool! Anyways... you need a match like this one:

stuck in some play-dough (of any color) to help keep it upright.

a mason jar

(This picture was taken after multiple repeated trials of this experiment... as you can see the label on the jar is getting pretty warped at this point)

Observe!

Yes... that is how it sounds in real life!!!

Somehow, by putting a lit match in the microwave, it super-heats the flame and creates a fiery ball of plasma which rises above the burning match. The mason jar is necessary, I assume, to keep the plasma contained & to prevent it from melting the roof off your microwave. I'm a little too scared to try this without the jar. Would it even work? I also haven't had the guts to leave it glowing longer than 5 seconds or so--it's about at that time when the buzzing starts to get MUCH louder and it makes you wonder just what is going on indside there...?? Why don't you try it and let me know how it goes? You can do a blog post about it :)

My poor frightened roommate, Tacia, was trying to make chocolate milk in the kitchen at the time & ran to the living room clutching her grocieries to protect them from the demon microwave