Consider my brain wrinkled

Did you know that the plural form of octopus is octopuses? I had always assumed it would be octopi, after the latin tradition (e.g. radius to radii, etc.). But because the word is derived from Greek, octopous, you add an -es to the end and call it good! Crazy, right?

Now in honor of my newest brain wrinkle, I submit for your approval the video that caused it. It's crazy what you'll stumble upon when you can't sleep.

It's starting to feel real...

Yesterday, we bought our car seat and stroller. So, we now have two strollers (one jogging, one standard), a car seat and a base. On the way home from the store, it really hit me hard that there will be a new little person coming home with me. Soon. I've always intellectually known this. It's hard to forget. But it just doesn't feel real to me. It's almost like it has been this romantic idea that maybe, might one day happen, but probably not. It's hard to remove myself from the whole pregnancy equation and really know that there is a whole new being coming... and that I'm going to be responsible for it.

WHAT WAS I THINKING?! I CAN'T EVEN KEEP TRACK OF MY SUNGLASSES! HOW AM I GOING TO BE IN CHARGE OF A HUMAN BEING?!?!

Needless to say, I am completely and thoroughly freaked out.

Dreams are the windows into our souls...

Well,if that's the case, then I'm in trouble! I recently had a dream starring myself, my husband and my good friend (and roommate again!), Shelly. In the dream, we stole a cruise ship. Yes, the three of us managed to break in and operate a cruise boat without any help! And we all had designated jobs: Matt was the pilot, Shelly was the Cruise Director and I was the chef.

In our newly acquired vessel, we sailed all over the world, stopping in some interesting places. For instance, did you know that the port in Key West was a maze that only the native cart vendors knew how to navigate? Neither did I! And every time we would ask for directions on how to get into Key West, it seemed to get us more lost.

I also found out that Shelly is an accomplished aldergator fisher. Oh yes, you heard me right: aldergator. It's a cross between an alligator and a crocodile, don't you know? And the only way you can fish for one is with you rear end stuck in the water. Eventually, Shelly was pulled under and I, of course, had to jump in and save her. But, in the end, everything turned out just fine.

I cannot explain my subconscious sometimes. I honestly don't know where it comes from, but I'll tell you this: sleep is never boring. :)

Crazy pregnancy horomone-induced dreams

The other night, I had the strangest dream. I attribute this craziness to the pregnancy hormones, that instead reducing me into a blubbering mess, make me rage like the She-Hulk. In fact, my new favorite thing is a tea-towel that says, "I chant, I meditate, I do yoga... and I still want to smack somebody." I think that sums me up right there.

Any way, the dream started out with me, my sister and my mom huddling in this little cinder block house for safety while 5 or 6 tornadoes start whipping around our little house. Just our little house. They just kept turning around and running over our house again and again. I was pretty terrified.

After the tornadoes subsided, my mother got this secret encoded message for our next door neighbor. She said I had to take it to him and go with him on his mission. I was pretty confused, but took it next door any way. Once there, the captain person heard the message, got all flustered, kissed his wife and two kids goodbye and dragged me behind him to his parked jumbo jet, waiting for us at the curb on the street.

Once in the plane, he proceeded to drive it, like a car, to the nearest airport. Once we got there, he was stumped by the air strip. It wasn't your normal long, flat and straight affair. It was on a raised plateau. So in order for planes to take off, they had to get up to speed, hit the ramp on the one side of the plateau and take off. In order to land, you had to hit the ramp coming back down and slow down on the other side. It was crazy.

The pilot guy was complaining and while hopping out to talk to somebody, told me to park the plane. Park the plane? I don't know how to park the plane? So what did I do? I got out, tied a rope to the front of the plane and pulled it along behind me like it was a radio flyer wagon, no problem. I proceeded to "park" the plane and went inside to catch up with the pilot guy, but we must've missed each other because when I came back from the bathroom, the plane was gone.

I woke up pretty soon after that. I was pretty dumbfounded by this one. First of all, the airstrip made total sense to me in the dream, but upon waking, became the most absurd thing I've ever heard! Secondly, why did this guy have a jumbo jet just parked outside his house and why did he drive it on the road like a car? Any way, I'm just grateful that I'm able to sleep enough to dream. Sleep is so much harder when you're used to sleeping on your stomach and you just can't do that comfortably any more!

I am a dead-eye shot... sorta

So, this last week, I spent in the "wilds" of Randleman NC at girl's camp and let me tell you, it was quite a week. Several things went wrong this year and I am really glad to be home. I was telling my mother that I am so glad to be home, but I would definitely go back again, next year.

Don't you just love the way those harnesses are so flattering?

So the weather was pretty nice Wednesday and we had a great time. Thursday started out horribly, having had the lights thrown on at 6:30 in the morning and our ward ended up with an incredible amount of free time that day. The girls were bored and we didn't have enough for them to do. Finally, the stake leadership pulled all the ward camp leaders together for a meeting to let us know there was a girl at camp found with lice. Everyone had been exposed as we were all sharing helmets for the high ropes course. I was really happy that they let me go up (being pregnant and all) and the zip line was amazing!

They wanted to send everyone home, but left it up to us to decide for our wards. I figured we would stay but I would give them girl's individually the option to call their parents to go home. None of the girls wanted to go home since they'd all already been exposed.

The next morning, we were checked for lice and none of us had it (or had it yet), so we went about our day on Friday. Friday was incredibly hot, but at least, we were occupied! We had archery that day and I'm incredibly proud to say, that this happened on my first shot.

Can you say dumb luck?

Any way, after dinner, the stake leadership wanted to send us home again, but most everybody wanted to stay (because what's the difference between packing up that night or packing up in the morning?) We had a lovely testimony meeting and bishop's night, which ended up with ice cream sundaes and cracking up to funny stories into the wee hours of the night.

We woke up the next morning, did our cleaning assignments and pulled out! And we weren't the last ones to leave (like every other year I've been to camp)!! I was so excited! We brought the girl's back, and then I came home, threw everything I could into the wash (to kill any little critters), lice shampooed my hair (which smelled awful), having Matt comb out my hair, then collapsing into my bed for the next two and a half hours. It was glorious. I think I'm still slightly dehydrated, because I have a nagging headache and I've thirsty all day today and yesterday.

Any way, I'm glad to be home (hopefully lice free) and only a little worse for wear. And I'm seriously considering taking up archery. :)

Put some windex

Image from www.cetaphil.com

Funny story from the beach. My mom insisted that we go to walmart with the express purpose of buying some cetaphil cream in the tub (coincidentally we ended buying a ton of food too, but the main reason was the cream). Not in the tube, not in the pump bottle, the tub. She claims it's different and works much better than all the others. Any way, the whole week, my mother kept telling us to slather our sunburns in this cream and trumpeting it's virtues any time she could.

I, being the oh-so obedient child, put the cetaphil on my burns. And when I got stung by a jellyfish (in a rather delicate spot), again my mother cried out, "Use the cetaphil!"

Now, cetaphil on the burns didn't really help them feel any better, but amazingly, it did help the jellyfish sting. I continued to put cetaphil on my burns until they stopped hurting, at which time I became lazy (I mean, I'd burnt my entire body pretty much and putting lotion all over takes forever) and stopped using the cream.

The amazing part was, she was right! Our beach trip was over 2 weeks ago and I'm just now peeling. And instead of the color peeling away (which is what normally happens), it's just the top, colorless layer! Amazing! I got burnt, kept my color, and didn't peel for two weeks! I think I'm a converted cetaphil user. No more aloe for me!

And the whole time my mother was telling us to use the cetaphil, I kept thinking about the father in "My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding" telling everybody to use windex on everything. I laughed every time she brought it up!




P.S. - I'm not going to apologize for the lack of pictures of my sunburnt body, or the creepy peeling that's going on right now. You're welcome.

Unexpected things

So,  you know how I talked about auditioning for Hello Dolly? Well, it bore some unexpected fruits! I was talking to a friend of mine at church about it and then her son piped in and asked if I would be the head director for a musical our church is putting on. I was so excited and nervous at the same time! I don't have a lot of experience and all of that experience happened years ago, but I love musical theater so much! However, I know how the youth can be and told myself that it really wasn't going to happen and for a while, it looked like that was going to be the case.

But is isn't! It's actually happening and I'm so excited for the opportunity to work on this! We're doing a 40's musical review that will be set in the 40's during a ward bond benefit dinner. I'm writing the script (there will be very little dialogue) and we're using most of the music from another review called All Night Strut. I wish we could just do All Night Strut, but we're keeping it to a one act show and ANS is two.

Our first meeting is this week and I'm scrambling to get things together and to thing of a story that can flow easily in between the songs. I'm also equally grateful for the prescence of Courtney, my "assistant (which actually will be her telling me what to say and sound director-ey) director. Honestly I think she should be the head director and me be the stage manager or something, but she's leaving on a mission a few weeks before the production so she declined.

Any way... I can't wait to get into this project and I'll try to post pictures periodically about the show! I hope you all will come! I'll definitely let you know when the show dates have been finalized!

Wish me luck!

Just when you think you're life is boring...

Some crazy stuff happens. And doesn't it always seem to happen all at once?

Last weekend, my roommate moved out. No, I don't mean my husband (although he's gone enough I might sometimes consider him as such). I mean, my good friend Shelly. It's been such a blessing in my life to have Shelly living with me while Matt's gone. There's something creepy about sleeping in a house by yourself and it's been so wonderful to get that much closer with her! I'm really going to miss her!

So, I took Shelly out to Kanki the other night (her favorite) and I missed three phone calls from my mom. I jokingly said that when someone calls that often it never means something good. Oh how I was right. It turned out that my sister had to have some emergency surgery and mom wanted me to drive out to Burlington to take care of my niece. So of course I ran home, packed a bag and drove out there. My sister is fine and the surgery went well, but it was a little scary for a while. She came home yesterday evening, which meant I got to play with E for a whole day!

Unfortunately, Megan ran a high fever Sunday and I was called back in for round two. I'm going home tomorrow and I can definitely say I've learned a thing or two about what it means to be a mom! Even though E is the most well behaved child on the planet, she still is a handful sometimes! I love her to bits (even though she tried to pee on me). I'll post some pictures when I get back to my camera!

The latest crazy dream:

The other day, I had a dream and the guys from Top Gear made guest apperances! We had to build a car that could both fly and go underwater. I can't remember who's team I was on (it was either Richard Hammond or James May's team because I don't think I could ever get a long with Jeremy Clarkson). The entire time, they made fun of me because I am a girl, I didn't know anything about cars, and I am American.

I don't know if watching Top Gear right before bed is the wisest idea any more.

Photo Courtesy of TheNeave.com

It's a small world after all...

So, in the process of putting in new shelves and getting a new dryer, we were stuck with the problem of having our old dryer sitting in out kitchen. So we did what most people in our situation do: put it on craigslist. I love craigslist. You can find anything if you're patient enough.

Any way, we put the dryer up about a week ago and today we sold it. When I got the email, the name at the bottom was Tom Kennedy. I thought to myself, "I know a Tom Kennedy. I went to high school with his kids." But then I thought there has to be dozens of Tom Kennedy's in Raleigh, so it can't possibly be the one Tom Kennedy that I know. When I called him up it turned out to be the same Tom Kennedy that I know! Crazy how small a world it is, isn't it?

It was legen, wait for it....

...DARY!!!

As of December 19th, 2009, I am officially an alumna of North Carolina State University (Go Wolfpack!). I can't believe that I made it. I thought the day would never come, but it did!! The ceremony was awesome. It was the most low key graduation I've ever been to (and mostly likely will ever attend). There were less than 20 graduates from the entire Food Science, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Science department and some of them weren't even there. We didn't have to line up and walk in. We just sat in the seat with our names on them. And when we got our diploma (covers), we walked up, they shook our hand, handed us the mic and asked us to say something. The speaking part took us all by surprise. I don't think they've ever done that before, but since there were only about 15 of us, I think they were trying to draw it out (but I can't figure out why they would want to do that). Any way, after that, we adjourned to the cafeteria at St. Mary's (which is surprisingly nice and well decorated) for Holwing Cow ice cream. And that was it. We mingled for a few minutes and then went to Village Deli for lunch.

I was glad to have my family there, but it was so stinkin' cold that we didn't want to take a family picture outside. Actually, that picture is one of the 12 pictures taken the whole day. I don't have any of just me or me with my family. Craziness.

Any way, I'm glad to be done. So, Happy Christmas everyone!

P.S. - If anyone hears of any nutrition related jobs, let me know! Thanks!

Bad news then good news

So, Matt recently "lost" his job as level one support manager at RedHat. I put quotes around lost because he actually stepped down from the position due to differences with his boss, but all the same, they gave him 4 weeks to find another job within RedHat and then after that, he would be out of a job completely. Well, that occurred about 3 weeks ago, so we were starting to get a little anxious about not having income. We had some stock options etc. that we could've lived off of for a little while, but not for too long. Any way, today we got word that Matt has secured another position within RedHat. It's been a possibility for a while now, but today we got word that it was going to happen! I cannot express the emotions that I have felt and that I'm currently feeling. It's a terrifying thing to know that your income isn't always a constant. I am so grateful for this position and I'm so grateful to Heavenly Father who has looked after us and protects us. I am so grateful for everything He gives us, especially this job in the area (the other big possibility was a job in California). While I'm sad that I don't get to move to California, I'm relieved and happy that we've found something here. Any way, here's a reminder that anything could happen at any time and that you shouldn't take what you have for granted. Thanks to any of you who had been praying for us. I know that it helped.

Well, I've got to run to class! I just wanted to share the news!!

I think I have an overactive imagination

Some of you may not know this about me, I have incredible dreams. And the best part about it is that I can mostly remember them. Of course, many of my dreams are like this, but nearly ever time, I can remember them in vivid detail. Now if only I could take a page from Stephenie Meyer and write a best-selling book about them, I think I'd be set for the rest of my life. Would you like to hear the most recent dream involving a foldable motor-scooter and gang activity?

GUR = FUN!!!

So, originally I was supposed to do a triathlon this past weekend, but when I went to sign up for it, all the spaces were filled. Bummed and disappointed, I went in search for another race for that same weekend. I wasn't picky about where it was or how long, only that it would be on the same day. That's when I stumbled upon this. I immediately told Matt that we had to do it!!

So this last weekend, Matt and I drove down to Charlotte and stayed with some friends Friday and Saturday woke up and got ready. This was Matt's prep.


Mine was much less involved, but to explain, the race requires that you to either have matching uniforms, or complimentary costumes (like Batman and Robin). Matt and I went as Lindsay and Tobias Fünke from Arrested Development. If you haven't seen the show, stop what you are doing now and watch it. It is one of my favorite comedies ever.

Any way, Matt and I weren't really prepared for the magnitude of this race (ie. how far we would have to go) for prepared period. I'm glad we thought to bring out camelpacks because otherwise we would've been severely dehydrated after 4 and a half hours walking all over Charlotte, but I wish we had brought a paper map and pencil to map out our course before starting out.


Regardless of our unpreparedness, we had fun! We had to solve clues and riddles in addition to performing physical tasks. We actually teamed up with another team at one point to get done faster. The team of four were sisters who left their husbands and children at home (as apparently they do every year and this years event was doing this race). They were dressed as Thing 1's and Thing 2's. They were so nice!


Any way, we finished with a time of 4 hours, 15 minutes (which for walking 8.02 miles, I'm pretty happy with and if you want to see our route, click here) and although we didn't win the costume contest, I feel like we had the greatest costume ever. :) I would highly recommend this race to everyone! We're definitely going to do it next year and I hope you guys will too!

Late night ponderings

I hesitate to write this post, but I don't really have anything else to do. (Well, that's not true. I could always study. HA! yeah right!!)

Any way, I was wondering, why do guys slap each other on the bum to say good job? Why can't they just high five or perform a manly fist bump? I can understand why they don't want to hug (although I don't understand why hugging is such a girly thing to begin with), but why the butt slap?

Also, have you ever noticed that girls almost always instinctively walk through doors before guys do? If guys and gals arrive at a door at the same time, usually the girl will open the door (that is, of course, unless the guy was brought up right and opens the door for her) and walk through first. I'm pretty sure no one ever told me I was supposed to walk through a door first. So where did I learn this behavior? Also, is this a "Southern" thing? If I had been brought up in The Great North, would I still walk through doors before guys?

And finally, corn chowder is the most delicious of all soups. The end.

Image courtesy of bn.com

KKC

I am crazy. Certifiable, if you ask me. I decided a few days ago to run a race. And not just any race, mind you. I ran the Krispy Kreme Challenge. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this spectacle, let me enlighten you. The Krispy Kreme Challenge, or KKC for short, was thought up by some drunk NCSU students a few years ago. They thought to themselves, wouldn't it be fun if we were to run from the belltower on campus to the Krispy Kreme two miles away, eat one dozen glazed donuts and then run back!? Well, needless to say, their inebriated idea came to life. 12 students ran it the first year. This year, in it's 5th go-round, more than 5000 people ran the race.


There are two categories that you can run the race in: Challenger (in which you have to eat ALL 12 donuts and then run back in under an hour) and Casual (in which you can eat as many donuts as you want, 12 being the limit, and finish whenever you can). I ran in the casual category. (I'm crazy, but not completely without some sense) I ran, ate on donut, then ran back. I finished the race in one hour and 22 minutes. I think I did alright for someone who hasn't run on a regular basis for a couple of months. :)

You can see the results here: http://www.krispykremechallenge.com/

People go all out for this race. They wear costumes and hats and even paint their bodies. It's craziness. This year I saw:

• people with inflatable tubes around their waists that were painted like donuts
• someone dressed as a cup of coffee
• a gorilla
• a viking
• several Evlis' (long live the King)
• Superman
• Supergirl
• Wonder Woman
• a team that ran without shirts and had painted letters on their chests to say Krispy Kreme
• someone that had a fake donut dangling in front of their head
• pirates
• pirates in a shopping cart
• guys in suits and tuxes
• girls in prom and wedding dresses (modified of course)
  
• and so many more
  

ESPN even covered the race. I don't know when the footage will air, but I'm sure it will be entertaining. The reporter covering the race actually ran it in his suit. It was pretty cool.

This was my very first road race and I have to say that I enjoyed it very much. Yes, I am not in shape and had not trained whatsoever for the race (having decided 3 days prior that I would do it), but I had so much fun!! And the post race high was incredible! I am definitely hooked. I've been thinking I might eventually work my way up to running a marathon!! I told you, I'm crazy. :)