FYI

There is no Crisco at Costco. Ha . . . Crisco, Costco, Crisco, Costco.

There is powdered sugar, but you have to buy 50 lbs of it. That surprised me, but it shouldn't have.

The purchase that made the trip to Costco worthwhile was a package of 44 uncooked tortillas for under $7. I just made a quesadilla with a couple and, man . . . they're good. (And trans-fat free.)

Tagged

So, I typically ignore it when people tag me, but for some reason I decided to do this one. I won't tag anyone else, though. No pressure. :)

Ten Years Ago
I was 17 and almost graduated from high school. I even pulled out my journal to find out exactly what was going on because, honestly, I had no idea. I found an entry from April 4, 1998. Apparently I had just gone to a high school musical ("Once Upon a Mattress", which I don't have the faintest recollection of) with my friend Shea. I'd found out that I'd gotten a $1000 scholarship to Ricks College and a bunch of my friends and I had already set up housing in Rexburg. (Yes, that was when it was still called Ricks.) I'd been looking for a job and hadn't found one yet. And I was getting ready to go to Seattle for a journalism conference the following week.

Five Things on the To-Do List

1. Go go Costco and get a commercial-sized tub of Crisco (Gross, I know, but I'm in a cake decorating class and we'll need to bring a cake and a big bowl of frosting every week.)

2. Wash Sophie's bibs

3. Get my sewing machine fixed

4. Finish decorating Sophie's room
5. Vacuum

Three Bad Habits

1. Spending too much time online

2. Biting the inside of my cheek/lips

3. Not taking very good care of my fingernails or toenails

Places I've Lived

Idaho Falls and Rexburg, ID
Logan and Provo, UT
Moscow, Russia
Graz and Vienna, Austria
San Leandro, CA

What I would do if I Suddenly Became a Millionaire

1. Finish putting Steve through school and set up his practice when he gets done
2. Go to all the places I've always wanted to go with Steve (The list is pretty long.)

3. Invest whatever's left after I buy a house (with a custom kitchen), a car, a new wardrobe and buy Steve this hypoallergenic cat he's always wanted. It'll stay outside, though.

Five Things you Probably Don't Know About Me

This is going to be hard because I'm a pretty open person and tell everyone just about everything about me...
1. I'm a very self-conscious person. Especially about my weight. It drives me crazy that I'm not the size I was when Steve was deployed, which is about 25 lbs lighter.
2. Before Steve and I started dating, I made a big list of what I wanted in a husband. I even included superficial things like height, hair, and eye color. Steve matches about 95% of my list.
3. When I eat a bag of M&M's or Skittles, I separate them into colors first. Then I form columns, in rainbow order, and eat some until all the columns are even. Then I eat one of each color until they're gone.
4. It may not look like it, but my kitchen is very organized. I put the same things back in the same places every time. And I always keep my measuring cups nestled together.
5. I've kept a journal since I was 8, and I've never gone longer than 3-4 months without writing.

Back to the Office

Psh, no. I'm not getting a job.

Tomorrow is an important day. First it's my Grandma's birthday. Happy 68th Grandma! (She's young, huh?) Second, it's the day I've been waiting for since the writers strike began. Having to wait months and months for another episode of The Office has been torture. It's finally on tomorrow. It's on at nine if anyone wants to drop by and watch it with us.

In honor of its return, I took a quiz:

Of course I'm most like Pam. Every other female on that show is nuts. If you want to take the quiz, here's the link. The questions are pretty funny if you watch the show a lot.

I really like Dwight's blog. I keep the link to his over on the right. Creed's blog is funny, but mostly weird. He's a strange man.

Stowaway

This is a page in a quiet book that my grandma had from when we were little. I wanted to share it with you because you may not have heard this version of Noah's Ark.

Here we have Noah's Ark, complete with a zip-tight entrance.


A sheep. A tiger. (How did they keep them from hunting each other when they released all the animals?)


A pig, of course. And that hot pink blob on the left is a cat-shaped eraser. My weren't we creative?


Don't forget the yak!


Hmm. Probably my brother's idea.

Feeding Time at the Zoo

I have three reasons for posting this video.

1. To show you how excited Sophie gets over food. Particularly over a Chicken Tortilla Stew I made last night and just posted to my recipe blog. No matter what I give her to eat, she's always more interested in what we're eating. I've started giving her food right off my plate, which she loves. Even food that's slightly spicy. Her second tooth popped up yesterday. You'd think she has a mouth full of molars with the way she chews up food.

2. To let you hear her growl if you haven't already. Yes, Sophie growls. She started doing it around the time we moved here. She mostly does it when she's excited or anxious for something. Or while she's climbing stairs. It surprises most people who haven't heard it before. (Especially during church.) They expect dainty little sounds to come out of a dainty little girl, not ferocious animal ones.

3. To show you that Sophie finally learned to clap. She does it on command when we start saying "Pat-a-cake..." My grandma taught her that while we were at their house on Tuesday.