The WONDERFUL Wonder Tee

Yesterday I was at CTR Books in Bellingham. It's a fabulous store. And the fact that the closest Deseret Book to Bellingham is by the Seattle Temple which is about 2 hours away makes it even better. I wish it was here while I was growing up, but it's only been around for a couple of years. Anyway... I've been looking for an undershirt that has a scoop neck. All of my other undershirts are crew neck. I have a couple of shirts that tend to leave a gap sometimes between my tank top strap and the shirt but I don't want a crew neck underneath the shirt. So I basically was looking for the neckline of a camisole in t-shirt form. And I found it at CTR Books!! It's the Wonder Tee from DownEast Basics. The neckline on the model looks higher than it is on me. It's a lot lower really, on the model that nearly looks like a crew neck. I highly recommend it. I think I might have to buy more. Yea for modest clothing companies. I don't know how I'd dress without them! And yea for the current style of long t-shirts and knee length skirts, that helps a lot too.

NOT back to school

My friends have to start school on Wednesday and the students start after labor day. I'll be out of town the rest of the week. So that left today to go to school and finish cleaning out all of my crap (the math department head prefers to call them "treasures".) I had a whole closet and 4-drawer file cabinet full of treasures. It took much longer than I thought it would, but it's finished and I never have to deal with it again. Yea! I've been thinking a lot about school lately and have come up with two lists... what I'll miss and what I won't.

WHAT I WON'T MISS ABOUT TEACHING
7. Drills (lock down, fire, and especially earthquake)
6. Construction (the main building has been demolished and half the school is in portables this year)
5. Annoying students
4. Grading papers
3. The commute
2. Waking up early (and staying up)
1. ANNOYING PARENTS I vow to never be an annoying parent

WHAT I WILL MISS ABOUT TEACHING
6. football practice outside my classroom window and hearing the cheers of "B-O-T-H-E-L-L"
5. fun assemblies
4. Homecoming week
3. doing lots of math
2. fun students
1. my friends

Notice, the "will miss" list is shorter than the "won't miss" list-even if only by one. And I'm definitely happy with my decision to stay home. Because if I was teaching, the biggest and most important thing I'd miss would be Kaylin.

I want a new camera

The shutter speed on our camera is SLOW. I've been especially annoyed with it since Kaylin has been born. It's hard to catch the cute smiles and things that she does. We've had it for 3.5 years, which must make it ancient by technology standards. Our computer is the same age as the camera, but I can live with the computer. I think I want a new camera for my birthday. I NEED RECOMMENDATIONS. Any kind of recommendation would be great: brand, model, number of megapixels, zoom, other must have features. I like this Kodak Easyshare M883, and it even comes in red which is cool. The Kodak Easyshare M753 looks alright too for a less expensive version. HELP!!!

Vegetables are gross

I have a hard time making vegetables for dinner. Neither Eric nor I are very big fans of vegetables. In fact, Eric is even less of a fan than I am. I like the basics: lettuce, carrots, and corn. I will at times eat peppers and I had steamed broccoli yesterday (with cheese on top of course) and it was fairly decent. I love ketchup, but don't care too much for tomatoes. Anyway, I was getting the lettuce ready for tonight's ceasar salad (our favorite "vegetable") and was thinking about how I make Kaylin eat sweet potatoes and squash. I don't like either. But she LOVES them. I was thinking that it's pretty sad that I'm getting this girl hooked on two vegetables that she won't eat again, well, except perhaps Thanksgiving dinner. I was also thinking about how the "baby experts" say that you should feed your baby a new food 10-15 times in order for them to develop a taste for it. Then the question came to my mind... what if I ate a vegetable I don't like 10-15 times, let's say peas. What if I ate a serving of peas every day for two weeks? Would I like them at the end of my trial? I know that people can acquire tastes, I've heard many stories from returned missionaries about that. But I don't really want to find out. I'm fine not liking peas.

Beware the Moose!

I know that subject will get at least one person's attention (and you know exactly who you are). While Barry Bonds did hit homerun number 756 last night, I'm more interested in the Mariner Moose "controversy". Yes, Jen, a moose did nearly run over a member of the Boston Red Sox. Two of your favorite things not getting along, so sad. I guess the other MLB teams should take this as a warning ;-).

BJ: August 15, 1988-August 1, 2007

My two babies

I received BJ for Christmas in 1988, I was 8 years old. It took me awhile to figure out a name for her. I almost named her Martha (what was I thinking??) and then settled on BJ, which I am embarrassed to admit, stands for Brianne Junior. Remember... I was 8! According to my family, the name was fitting because she was always a feisty, stubborn cat. But she was a sweet cat. She slept on my bed with me and was always there for me when I was lonely or sad. In elementary school she would follow us, along with her sister Wilma, to the corner when we walked to school. I missed her terribly when I was away at college. Her sister passed away when I was a junior in college, but BJ just kept on going. I graduated from college, and she was still there. I got married, she was still there. I had a baby, she was still there. I'm glad that I got so much time with her, she was such a special kitty to me. Although it was hard, I was glad that I was able to be there with her as she passed away. I know that she is having a fabulous time in kitty heaven with her sister chasing birds and mice and lying in the sun.