Relay for Life

This last weekend (June 26 and 27) I had the great opportunity to serve at the Relay for Life in Murray. It was a great opportunity and so much fun to see how much good a few people can do. My team raised $1,180.00! It was fantastic. Thank you to everyone who donated. The whole event raised $30,000.00. It will go to fund cancer research and programs here in Utah. Thank you also to all of you who came and walked for my team. Candi came and walked around the track for 2 hours in the middle of the night! You are awesome. Izzy's cute family came and walked on Friday night and Saturday morning and they had a bake sale (raising $80.00). My mom came and facepainted and we raised a bit more money there. It was great. I got to make some flower arrangements for the Survivor's Reception and make a cool backdrop of the Hollywood mountains. I never got a final picture of it, but you can see it in the works below. Tom walked a lot and helped with setting up too. We got totally dumped on on Friday night, but it was followed by a beautiful double rainbow. People kept going too even during the rain. I am excited to be involved with it again next year.

Sitting on babies

Babysitting is such an awkward term, that's why I had to make fun of it in the title of this post. I don't really sit on babies. However, Tom and I did get to watch a couple of them recently.

From May 18-June 4, I had the opportunity to tend my next door neighbor's little girl, T. My next door neighbor teaches school and her husband was starting school, so they had a weird overlap of time where neither of them could watch her. It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. She would come over with her Mighty Mouse lunch box in hand (a very popular item with J's and J's boys) and we would just have a great time. I got her to take naps by putting her in my room, shutting the door, letting her cry, coming in to console her, and then she would fall asleep on my shoulder. We watched Sleeping Beauty almost everyday. In the car we would sing "I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream"...she would sit in the back and yell "I know you, I know you" until I started singing. Her other favorite phrases were "No way" and "Thank you". We got to go to the zoo (thank you J), where we rode the carousel and saw the elephants. She also had a wicked sweet pair of Ranger Rick binoculars (another popular item for the boys). We only had one incident at the zoo, when W(?) threw part of the binoculars into the giraffe cage. J risked life and limb to retrieve it for me and even gave me a wet wipe to wash it off. What a great friend. I was glad to give her back to her parents at the end of the day, but I do kind of miss her now. This was the only picture she let me take of her.

Tom also had the opportunity to watch a youngster (just for an hour or so). He got to hold our little nephew E, while his mom and dad and older brother went on the Alpine Slide. He really liked Tom and sat there cuddling him just like this the whole time. Just darling. Tom may or may not have been glad to give him back. I'll have to ask him. He looks like he's having fun to me. :)

UP

T and I just got back from seeing the movie UP. It gets like 50 stars. You have to go see it, if you haven't already. We loved it and don't be late, the first 15 minutes are the best. Happy watching.

It's a sign

Click on this site
http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/
Then go to the one titled 'Elimination'.
I've been wanting one...and I really think that this is my cue.
Sorry Jessica! I just read your post, but I can't help liking the Mac) :)

Swaner Nature EcoCenter

For Tom's birthday (which isn't until the 28th), my Dad and Shawn gave us tickets to one of the Bird Festival field trips. It was so much fun! We saw a lot of birds...two life-listers for both of us: a Sora and a Savannah Sparrow. We were the youngest people there and we met a lot of lovely people. Bob was my favorite, his license plate said 'Bird Nerd' and he wore a wicked sweet jumpsuit. He knew a lot about birds and had all sorts of bird calls programmed into his ipod. He had a little speaker that would project the sound and call the birds, which is how we got to see the Sora. Birders are very interesting people, it was fun hanging about with them.
Part of the field trip took us to the Swaner Nature EcoCenter. I highly recommend it. It is a beautiful place and they've done a lot of neat things there AND its free. They are on their way to becoming the first Platinum LEED certified building in Utah. I think they are going to be the first one anyway...they seemed pretty confident about it. Pretty cool.
Here are some pictures.

Two promises

I said I would post a picture of the 3rd grader picture from my Mom's school that illustrates the power of graphic communication. Here it is.



My second promise? I promise not to get my doctorate. That was just a little jokey-joke.

Oh yeah, I defended my thesis

I can't believe I haven't written about my most favorite recent event. Hello? Get with it. April 23rd was the BIG day. My Mom, Bill, Tom, and I drove up to Logan on the 22nd by way of Syracuse where Tom gave a bid to work on a deck. We then ate at Cafe Rio and (upon my Mom's insistence) bought me some comfortable black kicks (shoes) for the defense. We stayed at the Crystal Inn in Logan and got some rest.
The next morning I woke up around 6:30, got ready, tried to eat some weird rubber eggs, and headed up to the school. I got to the room at got everything set up. I had no problems with the projector or my presentation file, which is unheard of, right? I also set up the most important element of my presentation...Dunford Doughnuts! I didn't even need to prepare or write a thesis I'm sure. The doughnuts speak for themselves.
I met up with my professor, John, and we laughed at joked about how I wasn't going to pass. My other professor showed up with a box of Kleenex. Ha, ha. I picked some "funny" people for my committee. My third professor came and I found out that his father sat on my Grandma's committee when she was getting her Masters from Utah State. Small world.
Anyway, the presentation went fabulously! I used the following graphic to illustrate a certain point in my thesis. A kid at my Mom's school drew it and it drove home the power of graphic design in communicating a message (which is what my thesis is all about).
After I presented they asked me a few questions (which I knew all the answers too) and then asked me to leave the room. I waited outside for a moment and they finally let me come back in, made me sweat a little and then told me I passed with MINOR revisions. Whoo hoo!
They loved it and they want me to try and get it published. That's a weird thought...but it would be really cool to say "Yeah, I've been published". :)
After the defense and all the paperwork we went to Angie's in Logan and then Bill and Tom dropped my Mom and I off at the DI where we totally scored. We found brand new shoes, darling teacups, a dress for my sister's wedding, and some giant iron candleholders for my Mom. In the meantime, Tom and Bill found the Logan River, they caught 3 fish.
My Mom and I found so much cool stuff and we started to walk up to the mall and realized that our bags were really heavy...so we went back into the DI to try and find something to carry our purchases. We finally found a luggage cart and strapped our stuff onto it. We looked pretty funny. We stretched my Mom's sweatshirt over all the bags so they wouldn't be flying all over the place. :)
Tom and Bill finally came to pick us up and then we headed to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. Check out my bird nerd list on the side. It was so fun!
A very happy day...I feel so much lighter...now all I have to do is decide to join the real world or pursue my doctorate...?