Sunday, January 27, 2008

Farewell...

President Gordon B. Hinckley
You will be missed!

Thursday, January 24, 2008

You Can't Be Serious!

Just when you wonder if you've heard it all...

They're PAYING high school students to STUDY!!!

Enjoy.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080125/ap_on_re_us/paid_to_study

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

I'm IT

I mean, I've been tagged. Again. Wendy, this one's for you.

10 years ago (Jan 1998):
I actually consulted my journal on this one, and to be honest--I'll be fine if my posterity NEVER reads it. I seemed so...silly then. Anyway, I was living in Salt Lake City, rooming with my brother, Ben, and working two jobs: Family Advocate for Head Start and in the evenings at a sheet music store. One nice thing about keeping journals is being able to read back and be so grateful for who you are NOW! (Or who you're NOT anymore, as the case may be.)

5 things on my to-do list today (or tomorrow):
1. Feed "Amelia", the pseudonym for our cute foster baby. She's 8 1/2 months old.
2. Play and read with Amelia
3. Play "Bouncing Balls" on Yahoo Games during Amelia's naptime. :) I've been needing to play games lately, so that's my fix when there's no one around to play with me!
4. Send Amelia to a visit with her mom
5. Go to mutual.

Snacks I enjoy:
1. Leftover garlic bread from dinner.
2. Popcorn--any kind.
3. Swedish Fish
4. Avocado in any form
5. Lemon Bars
6. Homemade caramel (let me know if you need the recipe. Its easy.)

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
1. Move into a newer home--one with a Master Bath and with a more open floor plan
2. Make sure this home has land and maybe a few horses and a river nearby for Ray, the fishing fanatic
3. Go new places, starting with Ireland, Holland and Africa, and ending with somewhere south of the border
4. Fly family and friends in regularly to visit, since so few will pay to come to Idaho
5. Use my money/power to improve the foster care system

3 of my bad habits:
1. "Bouncing Balls" game, these past three days
2. Watching "24" if it ever comes back again
3. Neglecting to practice the piano and speak Spanish. Kind of makes learning those things a waste, don't you think?

5 places I have lived:
1. Morelia, Mexico (only for a month, but still)
2. New Zealand
3. Hollywood, CA
4. Beverly Hills 90210
5. Boise, ID

5 jobs I have had:

Where haven't I worked? Here are some of the more memorable...

1. Chinchilla caretaker for our neighbors who raised them when they travelled. Around age 11. They actually gave me one. It died after having a baby. Come to think of it, there were always a few "casualties" when the Roddes' would get back in town. They are delicate little rodents, but it may have also been the start of what could be called "poor pet caretaking". Not sure.
2. Activity Leader at Little Hills Picnic Ranch. Celia, remember when you worked there too? Wasn't it only for a few weeks?
3. Server at Pier 54 in Provo
4. Photo Developer at the BYU Bookstore.
5. Ice Cream Scooper at Leatherby's in Provo

5 things people don't know about me:
1. I once called a radio station to find out who sang this one song and the DJ said, "You're caller #10! Congratulations--you just won tickets to...(some concert)!" I said, "Oh. Well I just want to know who sings...(some song). I was on the air, live. I was also on a pay phone outside Longs Drugs store. I never picked up the concert tickets.

2. At age 16, I was in the Sun Valley Mall when a plane crashed into it on a foggy December 23rd night. Me, Celia or Kim??, Dane and Todd were there Christmas shopping. We were in the back of a record store when this kid came running back, trying to hide in the back storage room. He said he thought he heard a gun shot. I looked out towards the mall and saw a mass of people running towards the outside doors of the mall. It was a moment in my life that I think could be aptly described as "surreal". When we got to the front of the record store I looked down towards the center of the mall and could only see black smoke. We realized we had been where the plane crashed only five minutes earlier.

3. I was almost strangled to death in 1999. I worked at the SLC Youth Detention Center. I was taking a 12 year-old (yes, she was not even half my age) delinquent into the "strip search room". (Yea, I know what you're thinking: Yikes! Thankfully no cavity searches.) Before I knew it, she had her shoe lace around my neck and I couldn't breathe! I couldn't pull it off. As the door to the room had almost swung shut I got my toe in the door. When I finally somehow managed a blood-curdling scream (as described by my co-workers later) Kurt came hurtling in and tackled Angel (her actual name) to the ground. Turns out Angel had nothing against me personally--she was just trying to make her offense worse so she could go to the more severe, long-term youth detention center elsewhere where her girlfriend was likely going to be sent.

4. I love bread of all kinds. My favorite is Pugliese--an "artisan" bread. Its so chewy and crusty and holey. I could almost live off it.

5. If/when I find a song I like, I can listen to it over and over. Thankfully, I usually only do that when I'm by myself.

When I started this blog, it was mostly to show off cute foster babies. It was a bummer when I since learned that I can't post a picture of them at all. Takes all the fun out of it. Anyway, since I don't like publishing posts without a photo, here's one of my mom and dad. They're sporting the shirts I found for them last March in the Alamo Thrifty's. So funny!