Pictures, Wedding, Dinosaurs, and Primary

So this last week was quite busy.

On Wednesday, Aaron and I had our anniversary pictures. I know what you're saying, "But your anniversary was in March!" Well, you're right. We held off on the pictures till after Aaron's semester was over. I think overall it went well. I'm not very happy with my hair cut, but I made the best and I think mostly it looked okay. There were some pictures where the angle or something made my bangs look funky. We went to JCPenney and I found out that they have gone digital. The plus side: We got to have lots of pictures taken rather than the 12 limit they had when they used film. The down side: They got rid of most of their backgrounds so we only had one background (don't ask me why. What does that have to do with digital) and they no longer have stools and such to sit on, so all the pictures were either standing up or sitting on the floor. Weird. Also, they no longer have a sheet that has a 5x7 with wallets, only two 5x7s. I really wish they would have the option of one or the other. Having two 5x7s on a page would be nice if you want multiple for parents and such, but isn't so much when you just need one, and wallets would be nice to give out to family. Whatever.

But the photographer was really fun and we did some fun poses. She didn't always follow exactly what I wanted her to do (and, of course, I didn't know till afterward when we looked at the proofs), but overall I think she did a great job and I think the pictures turned out well. They'll be put up online soon, and when they are I'll send out an email letting people know how to view them.

On Friday, my cousin Josh was married to Katie. Very exciting. You could tell when they looked at each other that they are very much in love, and I'm so glad that Josh found someone wonderful to marry. The reception was quite an experience. I've never been to one that had real plates and waiters and such. The food was all right, but a little fancy for my taste. The desserts were interesting—they came on plates about an inch square. I needed three of them to feel like I actually was eating anything.

I got to see my grandma, which I was glad of. She's real sweet and an awesome grandma, I think. I'm glad she was able to come from Oregon for the wedding.

One thing that I really liked at the reception was that they had a photo booth where you could take your picture (the old fashioned kind with four black and white pictures on a stip). You were suppose to take your picture then paste into a memory book for Josh and Katie. It replaced the registry book. You could also take extra for yourself to take. I was so excited about this, and then forgot the pictures there. I could kick myself.

On Saturday, I went to my aunt's to see my grandma and spend time with her before she left (and my aunt and uncle as well). They were headed out to the dinosaur museum up at Thanksgiving Point, so I tagged along. It was pretty interesting. They had a lot of dinosaur skeletons, including two T-Rexes and two Supersauruses. I have to say, I thought the T-Rexes were bigger, from what they looked like on Jurassic Park, but they were probably onl 15 feet tall (and not the 25–30 that I was thinking). I'm glad I got a chance to there and see it.

Then Sunday I had my first time teaching my Primary class. I was called to teach the CTR 6 class last week. We only had three kids in the class, so it wasn't so bad, but they were pretty wiggly. One of the girls in the class impressed me. I'm not sure if she is 5 or 6 years old, but she can already read most words (not just the basic cat, ball, Jane, etc.) and she knew a lot of answers to the questions. It was pretty fun to be in Primary rather than Sunday School and Relief Society. I just stress about giving lessons to kids because I don't really know how to make it interesting and not bore them out of their minds (although, I know that participation and activities help). I think I'll like it better than when I was the Primary Chorister. At least as a teacher I have a lesson manual. Plus I only have to worry about a few kids rather than 20–30.

About Me

This is a survey my sister wanted me to do on my sister-blog on MySpace. I thought I would post it here too:
And since I do try to be a good sport . . .

TAGGED!!!

Here's the rules: Once you have been tagged, you have to write a blog with 10 weird random things, facts, or habits about yourself. At the end, you choose 5 people to be tagged, list their names, and why you chose them. Don't forget to leave a comment that says "you're tagged" on their profile and tell them to read your latest blog. ENJOY!!!

So, weird and random, huh? This might be hard.

1. My favorite fairy tale character is Beauty, and I love the many reiterations of the story (my favorite being Beauty by Robin McKinley). So I have a dream to one day have a rose garden as close to Beauty's as possible.

2. When I'm happy, I like to squeal and clap my hands. I think if someone saw this who didn't know me, they might wonder if I'm "special."

3. I think I might be ever so slightly dyslexic, especially with numbers. I frequently mix up numbers either switching or replacing (like earlier when I was trying to call a 442 prefix and instead called a 422 prefix, and had to look at it twice before realizing it was wrong).

4. I know someone who has been an actor on The Bold and the Beautiful, General Hospital, One Life to Live, and All My Children. Can you guess who?

5. I'm extremely stingy. I don't understand how people can have thousands of dollars in credit card debt, and still continue to spend money. That would stress me out so much! So instead, I'm conservative with my money. Right now we have a student loan for Aaron's schooling, but it's government subsidized, so we don't owe interest till after Aaron's done. That's the only debt we have. Even when we were living on $600/month, we still avoided debt. I got a student loan my last semester at BYU ($2500) and it was paid off within 8 months of graduating. We rarely buy "luxuries" or go out to eat. I'm just glad Aaron is with me on this.

6. I'm all about sleep. I always have been. I was sleeping through the night at two weeks old. Of course, my mom LOVED that (especially with 4 other kids to deal with). She said that I would wake up at 6 a.m. to be fed, and go back to sleep for three hours while she got the other kids ready for the day. It was PERFECT. My freshman year of college, there was this required GE class that most students took as freshman called American Heritage (talked about the founding of the US and how the government works). We had a pretty tough professor and there were about 800 in the class. The night before the final, a lot of girls on my floor stayed up all night to study for it. I, on the other hand, took time to study during the day and then slept my normal 8 hours. After the test the next morning, one girl commented that she didn't even remember what the questions were or how she answered and that she fell asleep during the middle of it. I can't imagine she did well (or at least not her best). I got an A-. I just really believe that sleep is important to you functioning and doing well each day.  (I'm not trying to brag, just saying that sleep really helped me in concentrating on what the questions were asking, especially since some were kind of "tricky.")

7. I'm quite a messy person, I admit. I've two or three bosses actually ask me to clean up my desk because it wasn't very presentable. And my apartment is a perpetual mess. Now, this isn't to say my apartment is dirty or gross. There's a difference. I do clean the dishes, I do mop the floor, I do vacuum, I do clean the bathroom. It's just messy again by the next day. And, most importantly, I really make an effort to have a clean and orderly house when I have guests over, so they aren't uncomfortable by my messiness.

8. I have recently starting having a crush on British TV star Paul Blackthorne (who's been on ER, 24, and Monk). I mean just his name is AWESOME. Why can't I have a cool last name like Blackthorne (and it's not cool unless you're born with the name, which I assume he was). He's currently starring in The Dresden Files, a fun show on the Scifi channel about a private investigator who just happens to be a wizard (my favorite genre--fantasy). He's hunky and tall and . . .*swoon*. Well, here, judge for yourself:

Additionally, the character of Bob, played by Terrance Mann, is absolutely delightful and they play off each other very well. And if you're worried, yes my husband knows about my recent obsession with Paul—he's not worried one bit. *Swoon* (They haven't announced if the show will renew for another season, so check it out. The more fans the better, and I think I'll die if it doesn't come back for a second season. Also, just realize that the show has some rocky moments, but really comes into its own around episode 9 or so. Then it absolutely rocks!)

9. I can touch my nose with my tongue.

10. I'm so boring, I can't think of a tenth one, but my sister wants me to post this, so oh well. Maybe I'll think of one later.

New Job, Sort of

So today has been an interesting day. My company has been bought out by Symantec (it was announced in January, but became official last Friday). Today we had a 3-hour orientation that frankly left me quite confused. There was a lot of information to go over and a lot of Web sites reviewed that I can't remember (although now that I'm back at my desk and able to go through them, I'm starting to get where everything is).

In some ways, I'm really excited about this opportunity. With a bigger company comes the ability to do more. I'm also excited to see how professional their style guide is and I'm pleased that most of their decisions are in line with Altiris' Style Guide (which I helped to create).

In terms of benefits, there are ups and downs, but I think there are more ups. The insurance is like 4 times as much, but we had just about the cheapest insurance ever, so it's still not that bad, and they cover SO much. Plus, because of the transition, we're basically getting 2 months of free insurance (we're already on Symantec's payroll, yet we're still covered by the insurance through Altiris till the end of the month. So our pay isn't being deducted for the insurance. And we have till the end of May to sign up for insurance through Symantec, even though we'll be covered on May 1, no matter when we sign up (retroactively). Even so, they said they wouldn't deduct our wages retroactively, thus giving ustwo months of free health insurance). Additionally, even though the insurance is more, they'll be reimbursing us quarterly for the difference between the old insurance and the new insurance until the end of the year (since when we signed up last December, it was supposedly for a whole year), so we won't really be paying the higher premiums till next year. I still think they're rather reasonable (between $216 and $288 a month for a family, only $27/month for an employee only).

They also have cool benefits, like if you join a gym, they'll reimburse you up to $69/quarter for the costs (I haven't found out yet if they'll reimburse me, even though I prepaid for a two-year membership, but if they do, that'd be so cool). I also found out that they have paid maternity leave. I'm not sure how long I would get, if I were to have a baby while working here, but it's nice to know it would be paid (I was worrying that I'd have to use whatever vacation I had accrued and then go back to work).

One of the things I'm really disappointed about is I believe they said Timponogas hospital is not covered, which is the closest and nicest hospital in the area.

So, an interesting day overall.

I've Been Married 5 Years!

So as of last Thursday, Aaron and I have been married for 5 years! I almost can't believe it—it's gone by so fast. I still remember when we were engaged and I thought our wedding day would never come, and now we've been married for 5 years.

Well, I've been stressing about what we should do to celebrate. I wanted it to be really special because it's such a milestone. Even though I've been trying to think of something for a couple months, when it came down to it, I came up with NOTHING! On the day of, we didn't do anything because we wanted to wait till Saturday. On Saturday, I went to the grocery store in the morning and picked up a bed tray, some whipped cream, and canned blueberry pie filling. Then I went home and made Belgian waffles, bringing them on the tray to Aaron who was still in bed. He LOVES blueberry Belgian waffles. We pretty much just hung out all day, mostly in bed. Finally we did some productive things (if you call playing video games organizing my spice rack productive).

By 6 p.m. I decided I wanted to at least go out to dinner. I let Aaron pick and he chose Outback (which is the same place we went to last year for our anniversary). It was a good choice. Aaron go the mahi mahi and I got pork chops with grilled veges (their grilled veges are to die for. They're like marinated or something. Mmmm!). The pork chops were extremely tender and cooked just perfectly. Since it was a special occasion, I got a strawberry pina colada—so good! And to top it off, our waitress was awesome and very attentive.

So maybe we didn't do anything really special, but at least dinner was fantastic.

So do you want to know what else I considered? Well, one thing I thought of was going on a hot air balloon ride. How cool would that be? It's something I've wanted to do since living in Washington as a kid and seeing the hot air balloons sail over Puget Sound. Well, I looked it up and everywhere I tried was like $200 per person for about an hour ride. Worth it if you can afford it, but sorry if we don't have $400 lying around.

I thought about going to Park City or Salt Lake City and staying at a hotel, but that would be quite a bit, too. This one hotel, Anniversary Inn, has themed rooms where you sleep in a bed shaped like a carriage or a gandola or in a forest. It looked way cool, but was all booked when I looked (and I'm not sure Aaron would have wanted to spend that much, but Costco has a deal where you pay $115 for $230 gift certficate there, so half price). Maybe I'll remember that for a future anniversary.

I thought of just doing something fun like laser tag or miniature golf, but I was worried there'd be a lot of loud kids there, which would make it a little less fun.

I also tried to think of something creative we could do, like I could decorate the apartment with a Hawaiian theme, or starry night them, or rose garden theme, but I couldnt' think of anything really definite. I think I would need more time to plan something like that. Again, maybe something to do in the future.

Oh, well. All in all it was still a good anniversary and the important thing is that we're still excited to be married to each other.

Are You out There, Readers?

Okay, this might sound weird, but I'd really like to know who, if anyone, reads this blog. Supposedly some of my family does, but I wonder. (And if they do, how often?) So I would like it if when you read this, you leave a comment. It doesn't have to be much--just a "Yes, I read this" or a short comment about the post. Otherwise, what's the point in me doing this? I keep a personal journal, so it's not like this is my way of journaling. And since anonymous comments are allowed (that is, you don't have to sign up for an account to leave comments), you really have no excuse (although I do ask you to put your name or some identifier in the comment, so I know who is leaving a comment). 

Also, it'd be nice if this continued to happen on an ongoing basis, so that if you stop reading, I'll know by lack of comments. I just want to know if it's worth it for me to do this or if I should just quit! 

Thanks.

Newspaper Article about Author Friend

Brandon Sanderson, the friend I mentioned who is a published author, had an article written about him in the daily paper. I thought I would link to it and copy the contents: http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660202512,00.html

Wee-hour musings paying off for author

By Rosalie Westenskow
Deseret Morning News

      PROVO — For five years, Brandon Sanderson spent the quiet midnight hours weaving tales of fantastical worlds filled with magic, intrigue and secrecy.

Stuart Johnson, Deseret Morning News

Brandon Sanderson recently received a six-figure advance for a children's fantasy series about a boy named Alcatraz.

      A graveyard shift at Provo's Best Western CottonTree Inn yielded a total of nine books for the budding writer, a student at the time, who pounded out page after page until 5 a.m. each morning while working at the hotel desk.
      Two published novels and 12 book deals later, the 31-year-old author can afford to devote daylight hours to his work — although his wife, Emily, tells stories of late-night writing binges.
      Sanderson recently received a six-figure advance from Scholastic, the "Harry Potter"-series publisher, for a children's fantasy series about a boy named Alcatraz who does battle with a cult of evil librarians.
      These recent writing successes, though, resulted from years of hard work — a fact Sanderson likes to point out to students in his class, Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy, at Brigham Young University.
      "A lot of people say my 'debut' novel doesn't feel like a first novel," Sanderson said. "Well, that's because it's not. It's my sixth novel."
      The day Sanderson received an offer for "Elantris" from an editor at Tor Books, a publisher of science fiction and fantasy, made all the late hours worth it, he said.
      "I just about fainted when I got this news," Sanderson said. "Finally somebody bought one."
      "Elantris," which hit bookshelves in May 2005, was one of 13 "practice" novels he wrote while attending undergraduate and graduate school at BYU.
      "A lot of people give up after writing a book and not selling it," Sanderson said. "My opinion is, just keep at it."
      And keep at it he has. Sanderson currently has 80,000 copies of his books in print. The first of a trilogy called "Mistborn" appeared in bookstores in July 2006, and the second is slated for publication on Aug. 21.

      The first of the Alcatraz series, "Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians," will come out Oct. 1 and other books are planned for May 2008 and early 2009.
      Unique plots characterize much of Sanderson's writing, said his literary agent, Joshua Bilmes.
      "It was clear looking at his work that Brandon had more ideas in one book than a lot of fantasy writers have in their entire career," said Bilmes, of JABberwocky Literary Agency. "This was just stunning to me because it was so beyond what other writers I was reading were capable of doing."
      Both of Sanderson's published novels include maps to help readers orient themselves in the kingdoms he has created, and "Mistborn" even has its own alphabet, designed by Isaac Stewart, who also drew each of the maps.
      Stewart, a close friend of Sanderson's and a prolific fantasy reader, said he likes Sanderson's fresh take on the genre.
      "My favorite thing about them is that they haven't been done before," he said. "Brandon's books aren't the derivative Tolkien."
      The complex magical systems and mysterious characters of "Elantris" and "Mistborn" seem worlds away from Sanderson's neat townhome in south Provo, his casual jeans or innocuous hairstyle.
      But fantasy appears to take up a large chunk of Sanderson's mind, and random thoughts often lead to the next project, he said. The entire "Alcatraz" series, for example, resulted from a line that just popped into his mind one day.
      "And that line was: 'So there I was, tied to an altar made from outdated encyclopedias about to be sacrificed to the dark powers by a cult of evil librarians,"' Sanderson said.
     After a mere 16 days of writing, that line turned into a 50,000-word novel — that's about 300 pages.

Stuart Johnson, Deseret Morning News

"Allomantic Table of Elements" is one of many illustrations by Isaac Stewart in Sanderson's books.

      The series, Sanderson's first attempt at children's fiction, tells the story of a boy who discovers he's part of a secret group of freedom fighters who battle librarians, an evil cult that controls the world by restricting information. Each of the freedom fighters has an unusual but surprisingly powerful magical skill, such as the ability to arrive late to appointments.
      By focusing on less-obvious talents, Sanderson said he hopes young readers will realize their hidden abilities.
      "I think everybody has talents that don't immediately come out ... and sometimes those can be more important," he said. "One of my talents was daydreaming, and I've turned that into a career."

Taught Primary Class

So on Friday I was asked if I could teach a CTR 8 class. The teachers are having health problems. So I prepared for a few hours on Saturday and Sunday morning. When Aaron and I finally figured out where to go to teach, I found out that we onlyhad one student. I had No idea when class was suppose to end, so I had no way to gage how much time I had to waste, or whether I needed to hurry. So the lesson ended 30 minutes before the end!

I guess when you have one student, who is very quiet, you don't get much discusson. The last time we taught, we had the 4-year-olds and there were like 10 of them. Right at the beginning of class, they all wanted to go to the bathroom and get drinks. I think we spent half of class just doing that, especially since only one of us could go with a couple of the kids while the other stayed with the rest of the class. So we only got through half the lesson that day. I think we also had less time (like 40 minutes, rather than 55), and so when i prepared the lesson, I wasn't worried about not having enough to do.

So after we finished the lesson, we talked about the Friend magazine, which I had brought and went through a couple things in there, a story and an activity. Then Javiera, the one student, suggested playing a game of hangman. Then finally it was time to go into sharing Time and Singing Time. What a relief! I'm just glad this happened with an 8-year-old, and not 4-year-olds.