High Adventure Photos

Here are a few photos:

First day
Church parking lot:


Unloading upon arrival:


Taking a rest along the trail:


Second day
Huddling around the campfire in the morning (at Slide Rock Lake):


Hiking along the trail:


Snow covering the trail that had to be dug through for us to get by:


My tent (at Echo Lake):


Third day
Ralph loaded down with extra stuff from the guys going off to get our food:


Ralph's under there somewhere munching trail mix:


Ralph bringing in the firewood (a whole tree!) at our Sheep Lake campsite:


Fourth day
Our campsite, with He Devil Mountain behind (elev. 9393), which Ralph climbed later that day:


Ralph having breakfast:



Fifth day
The view of Shelf Lake from our campsite:


Our group at the Dry Diggins Lookout:


The view from the lookout down to Hell's Canyon (the Snake River):

High Adventure Report

HOORAY!!! We're finally back from our hike in the god forsaken mountains in the plum tuck middle of nowhere. So, here is a brief (don't I wish) overview of our trip. Well, Monday morning we got to the church at 5:30 am (ick) and left about 6:15. We got to the Seven Devils at about 12:30, and started hiking. Ow. We took about three 5-minute breaks the whole way (all 11 miles), and got to a lake at about 7:00. We were all jubilant until we were told that this wasn't the lake, that the one up the boulder mountain about 1/2 a mile away. Then, when we got there close to dead, it was freezing, with a huge wind chill, and we went to bed. Papa and I woke up in the morning with ice cold condensation on the inside of the tent. EEEEEEEKKKKKKK! Then we started hiking to start a 15 mile day. We made it to the lake after a couple gazillion switchbacks, and we all collapsed in bed (if you can call it a bed). The next morning, we woke up, and for Papa, 4 others and me, it was a 7 mile day. For the other 6, they had an 18 mile day because they had to go to the cars, pick up our next three days food, and another person who was coming late. After 4 miles, we hit a crossroads. There, we each took about 10 pounds of the people's stuff who were going to the cars so they could get our food. Ouch. We went up a "modest incline" as the guide described it. Might be modest for Superman! It was a ton of switchbacks with snow, which was a very steep hill. Then we went down to the lake, and got there at about 5:00. The others arrived at about 8:45. The next day, we went up the switchbacks to the top, and I started the climb up He Devil Mountain. Papa stayed with our gear. The climb was boulders to start with, then a spiral path around the mountain to the top. At the top, there was a logbook in a canister that we got to sign. We then went back the way we came, and stopped back near the crossroads. Then came Friday. Ugh. It was a 15 mile day, but part of it was the 2 mile mountain nicknamed "The Beast". By the time we got to the top, we were all ready to drop and die. But, we could see the cars about 1/2 a mile down and a mile up, so we reluctantly started moving again. We made it up the final hill, to find the bishop with fresh fruit and ice cold drinks. HOORAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! We then drove down to the banks of the Salmon River and camped there. In the morning, we started down the rapids. BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! It was really fun, but ice cold. This was the only part I got sunburned, and that was a patch on my left foot, a patch on my right knee, and a small V on the front of my neck. Then, we went to the "Pack & Shove", namely Granny's Buffet. I ate 3 plates and dessert. Plate 1: Fried Chicken, 3 fish nuggets, cinnamon roll, mashed potatoes with gravy, chocolate milk. Plate 2: Pizza, 4 fish nuggets, cinammon roll, mashed potatoes with gravy, chocolate milk. Plate 3: Fried Chicken, 4 fish nuggets, cinnamon roll, mashed potatoes with gravy, apple pie, chocolate milk. Dessert: Ice cream with fudge, caramel, sprinkles, and M&M's, 2 pieces of cheesecake, apple pie, 2 cookies, and a piece of plum pie. OOOOOOOOOG! I was lying face down on the table for a good half an hour. Then, we drove to the church, and we went home (after kissing the ground). That is a VERY brief summary of our trip, though it doesn't look it. Hope your week was a lot less stressful than ours!

You May Have Had Higher Winds Than We Did...

But I'll bet you didn't have anything like this-- fire!! (eek!)

Above our apartments---------------^
One of the about 75 people either in the field or parked along the road taking pictures. No, that is not a black and white photo, the smoke made the light filtering through at times orangey, greenish, and grey.

Yup, that's all smoke, not storm clouds ---------------^

Scary, huh? There was a big wildfire near the Idaho National Labratory.

Not Long Left

Only 3 1/2 weeks of school left, as Zac keeps reminding all of us. I've packed up all my warmer clothes and about half of my bedding, and am trying to figure out what else I don't need in that time period. The weather is gorgeous; I wish they would invent laptops that have screens easily readable outside in the sunshine so I could do my homework out there.

In my capstone class yesterday we watched this video (and then moved on to talk about standards we believe should be applied to art we/the university/museums display):

Those Darn Dogs!

Look at that! The last pillow we added to the couch was that pretty green one behind there, feather filled, very comfortable. Next thing we know, Dapple is on top of it, beating it into shape for him to snuggle down on. Talk of doggie opportunism, right? It was his favorite spot on the couch after that. So here I got two new supersoft neckroll-style pillows for Mother's Day, and guess who just discovered it? Gotcha! There's Dapple all over again, with a new pillow to smoosh. Doesn't he look as though he knew exactly how to best fit on it? No flies on that dog!

Busy Week

It's been a crazy week in Seattle. I've had five interviews with five different companies and have another follow up interview scheduled for Monday already. The third round interviews with Swedish hospital where I used to work 10 years ago went well, so I'm hopeful that might lead to an offer. They are supposed to be making a decision by the end of next week, so we'll see.

Peter finished up his finals today with Kaplan since he was sick yesterday and will have A's or A-'s in all his classes, so he is happy to be done.

We have our annual Elder's Quorum rocket launch tomorrow, so that will be fun assuming our rocket makes it back to the ground in one piece. At least the weather is supposed to be sunny for a change since it wouldn't be much fun in the rain.

We even bought pumpkin plants finally to put in our garden, so how is that for being optimistic?

Weather

Our weather's been a little crazier here than even usual lately. Monday night Kristin and I drove out to grab some soda, and saw a big wall cloud (the beginnings of a tornado). They'd had a tornado in Idaho Falls on Sunday. We picked up Mel and drove out towards it a little ways, till we hit heavy rain and wind, and then we turned back (no, we're not entirely stupid, Kristin knows from experience how close one can get, and kept us well inside the safety zone). Tuesday it was gorgeously sunny so we went out to the sand dunes and wandered around, but there was also significant flooding along the way; we're currently under several weather warnings- A flood warning, a flash flood warning, a hydrologic outlook, and a hazardous weather outlook (hail, tornadoes, strong wind, dust storms, snowfall, extreme cold temperatures, freezing rain, heavy rain, dense fog, flooding, ice jams). Sounds lovely, doesn't it?

Ten Miles

Ralph's teacher's quorum is scheduled to go an a "high adventure" 50-mile hike (over several days) in July, and I'm planning to go along. I've been trying to get ready so they don't have to drag me along behind them strapped to a couple of saplings. On Tuesday, I went for a 6-mile jog. Yesterday, I ran and walked a total of 10 miles. I probably ran 6 and walked 4. It took me 2 hours, and I got a bit of a sunburn. Maybe I need a hat.

I think I'm slowly getting there. . . . Now I just have to hope I'll survive the heavy backpack and sleeping on the ground in a sleeping bag.

Memorial Day

The weather was pretty wet most of the weekend in Seattle, but we finally found a sunbreak to visit the cemetery where Opa's parents are buried. Here is a picture of the grave stone and the flowers from our garden.

Pictures

I was finally able to get my computer to recognize my camera card for the moment, so here are some pictures from the last few weeks.

Here's poor Jared caught napping by a couple of my roommates:

Here's my new favorite sandwich:

Here's a bizarre penny:

Here's me:

Here's my cactus when it bloomed:

And poor Kristin (from Kansas) in that blizzard I mentioned yesterday:

Blizzard

Literally. I can't upload pictures because my computer's still malfunctioning, but we had horizontal snow, vertical (as in going up) snow, and difficulty seeing the field on the other side of the parking lot. Right now it's calmed down, but it is still snowing. Luckily it's not sticking.

I'll probably be doing homework all day today, unless I greatly underestimated the amount I have to do. (So the snow is a bit of a non-issue, but still). I'll have to see if I have time to make the strawberry rhubarb pie I was planning. Hahaha, now I see blue sky.

I went with Kristin to buy her a new computer yesterday evening (it must be contagious). She got a Sony Vaio from Best Buy, and I had to help her figure out all the paperwork cause she had no idea if she wanted/needed antivirus protection, etc. She wants a Mac, but since she's graduating within two years, she figured she'd just get another regular laptop for now, and then buy a Mac desktop when she's living in her own place after college. I'm hoping my laptop lasts a good while longer, but I don't know that it will. Let's just say I keep adding stuff to my external hard drive just in case.

I've been trying to brainstorm places to go when she and I come next weekend, for when you would like us out of the house. Papa suggested the arboretum, I was thinking the valley behind Oma's house, and Riverfront Park/downtown, maybe Manito Park. (The sun just came out). If you have any ideas, would you let me know?

It actually RAINED for once

We had a real rainstorm here tonight, not just the sprinkles we usually see. Very windy, too. News reports indicate a "weak tornado" picked up a barn near Moses Lake.

Round Table Riddles

In school we got some Round Table Riddles since we are studying the Middle Ages.

Riddle 1:Why did King Arthur have a round table?

Answer:Because he didn't want to be cornered.

R2:Why are there more nobles in the library than at court?

A:Because the books all have titles.

R3:Who sings in the middle of a hurricane?

A:A knightingale.

R4:Why were the dark ages so dark?

A:Because there were so many knights.

R5:What is a knight's favorite fish dish?

A:A swordfish.

R6:What did the king's knights face if they were bad?

A:The can opener.

R7:What kind of insect bugs a knight?

My Answer:A knight crawler.

Real Answer:A dragonfly.

R8:Where did King Arthur go to be entertained?

A:The knight club.

I hope you got as many laughs out of these as I did.

Sincerely,

Teddy

Braces are off!

Peter got his braces off today and has very shiny white teeth again. He said it was pretty painful getting them removed but he is happy to have them gone. Now he gets to deal with retainers for a while but those shouldn't be as bad.

Radishes already

I had to water our p-patch today since we seem to be having a minor heat wave (upper 60's) and checked the radishes we planted a few weeks ago. It turns out there was one section that was big enough to be picked already, in fact there were some huge radishes hiding in the middle. So we have a bag of big radishes hanging out in our fridge waiting to be made into salad.

Spring is always a nice time of the year, although summer is always best ;)

Happy Mother's Day!!

Have a great Sunday, Mama and Oma! :) I love you!

Today was a good day

Kristin and I wanted to go shopping today, just kind of have a day of relaxation, so we left at 5:30 this morning (yes, we were awake) and drove out to Idaho Falls. We wanted to have breakfast at IHOP, so we drove around for a while before we found it; we got there at 6:15. It was supposed to open at 6, but the door was locked, so we figured we'd wait a while and see if anyone came. At about 6:30 someone with keys came and let us in. We ordered, and then he (waiter cum manager) told us that today would be on the house for us, because, he said about himself and the restaurant, "we're obviously retarded" and don't open on time. He kept coming back every few minutes to see if he couldn't talk us into ordering more. So free breakfast was a pretty good start to the day. We drove around for a while after that, because none of the stores opened until 10, and went to Walmart so I could get cash from my debit card (and I ran into Nicole!). At 9 we went to the Idaho Falls farmer's market, where I found rhubarb which I've been wanting for about a week and couldn't find anywhere. I also got some jalapeño bread and honey sticks. Then we went to the biggest used bookstore I've ever been in; it was wonderful, we were both in there for quite a long time (Kristin loves books too). I bought, I daresay, too many, but I'm very glad that I got them. One of the ones I bought was a bit of a risk, it was a Saint book (Leslie Charteris), and I didn't know if I already had it or not, but they're so hard to come by I figured I'd buy it and I could give it to Mama or put it on Paperbackswap if I already had it. I checked it when I got home (this will take a little explaining)-- the book Featuring the Saint is supposed to have 3 short stories in it, but the version Mama has only has 2; the book Alias the Saint, which I have, has the same problem. The book I bought today, Wanted for Murder, has those two missing short stories in it. Jackpot :) After the bookstore we went to DI because I wanted a couple nicer things to wear to school besides grungy old t-shirts (and Kristin wanted to look too); I got a couple very nice things-- one still had the Ross price tag on it. We got lunch at Arby's and drove home. At home, I got a letter from Mrs. Nagle, which was fun to read, and an email from Mama. It's only 5 pm, and already it's been that nice of a day.

Snow and Such

It snowed 4 inches last night. In May, for goodness sake. Luckily, it had all but melted by the time I had to walk to school.

Yesterday I had pork for dinner, that I'd marinated for a couple days in the fridge with orange juice, pineapple juice, cranberries, and a little curry powder. It tasted so good, and was nice and tender. I also made chocolate and butterscotch chip cookies that were about 6" in diameter (hey, I wanted big cookies). Everybody thought they were really good (me too!).

I didn't go to school on Tuesday or half of Wednesday because I was sick. I'm still not feeling very good today but I knew I couldn't miss any more class.

Rexburg

It's been windy pretty much every day since March started. I've gotten used to that, though I don't particularly like it. But now? Today we've got a steady wind of about 32 mph. That's just the regular wind speed, not even the gusts. Bleh.

Antonia's birthday visit to Spokane

Finally! Sorry this took so long, but better late than never. This is Antonia's official birthday present from Opa and Oma; we went to show it off when they weren't home, so we promised they'd at least get to see a picture of what it looked like with Antonia in it, since she had to go back to Rexburg before we could try again. We got it at a store someone in the ward recommended that opened up across from the mall, where they actually have dresses with sleeves, or short shrugs and jackets to go over those which don't. For this one we sewed the shrug to match because they didn't have anything but white or black that would have worked over this one. And a pain in the neck it was! But it looks okay, I think. Enjoy!

Murder at Club Swing

On Thursday the 22nd, Mead High School put on a play called Murder at Club Swing. This is the poster.

Not very explanatory. What happened is there was this murderer. Every time somebody died they found a card on the body. The characters are Inspector Quirk, Eduardo Cillen, Ella Goose, The Jester and his Three Stooges, The Jones Siblings, Sybill Pretawney, Angus MacByron (a very bad romantic poet), Lady Ha Ha, Thirsby and Thelma (The Creepy Twins/Jacob and Rachel Sok), Linus Tree and his golf club toting wife Penelope, Colonel Ketchup, General McPattonhower, Scarlett Anastasia Prynn, Downtown Sinclair, Jeeves, Bacca the Bouncer, and Leon Pluott. The deceased are Ella Goose, Nick Jones, Colonel Ketchup, Thirsby(Jacob), and Lady Ha Ha. The suspects were The Jester and his Three Stooges, Sybill Pretawney, Angus Macbyron, Scarlet Anastasia Prynn, and Bacca the Bouncer. The card for Ella after she tripped over a bucket said, "She kicked the bucket." The card for Nick after being electrocuted right when he started to sing said, "He sung his heart out." The card for Colonel Ketchup after being found in the kitchen with the candlestick said, "He didn't relish his life." Thirsby's card after being given a swirly said, "He was all washed up." I do not remember the card for Lady Ha Ha when she was found in the kitchen holding onto one of Bacca's Klondike Bars. The killer was Angus MacByron. The reason they think it was him was because everyone before they died had insulted him and because only someone so bad at poetry could come up with so horrible puns. Opa took me and he didn't take a camera so there are no other pictures. It was a hilarious play and Ralph was a waiter named Scott Hindenberg from Scotland who has had the most sightings of the Loch Ness Monster therefore earning the nickname "Ness". Too bad you weren't here to see it. Well, anyway, bye-bye!

Sincerely,

Teddy

Computer

So, my computer is trying to commit suicide. First, my battery decides that it needs to work fine sometimes, and be completely dead at other times. Then I lose my power cord for a day (okay, that was me). Then my memory card reader stops working like it does sometimes. Then, none of my USB ports work, which means no USB drives, no TV tuner, no printer, no hard drive, etc. I'm trying to solve this problem, when Mel suggests I just restart my computer, I call her a genius, and do so. The shutdown process is taking far longer than it should, when all of a sudden the blue screen of death pops up. It doesn't even stay up on the screen long enough for me to read half of it when my screen flashes a little bit like a miniature light bulb just burned out, and then it starts up again. When it finishes loading Windows and everything, it pops up a window and informs me that I saw the blue screen of death (gee, I hadn't noticed):

Problem signature:

Problem Event Name: BlueScreen

OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.768.3

Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:

BCCode: 9f

BCP1: 0000000000000004

BCP2: 0000000000000258

BCP3: 0000000000000000

BCP4: 0000000000000000

OS Version: 6_0_6001

Service Pack: 1_0

Product: 768_1

Files that help describe the problem:

C:\Windows\Minidump\Mini042510-01.dmp

C:\Users\Antonia\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-81198-0.sysdata.xml

C:\Users\Antonia\AppData\Local\Temp\WER7213.tmp.version.txt

Read our privacy statement:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=50163&clcid=0x0409

Fun, huh? Any suggestions?

Brentwood News

Well, today in church the whole Stake Presidency was on the stand, so I got it into my head that it was just an annual ward visit. Boy, was I wrong. They released Bishop Dodd and his counselors and called Bishop Bingham and his first counselor Graig Smith. Then President Larson said that they didn't call a second counselor because they were confident that he was moving in next week :) Hope you are doing well (I've been throwing up and such). Hope that you, Antonia, are enjoying your new semester. Burdette, hope you find employment soon and congrats on still getting unemployment benefits. See you!

Hi

I was going to post some pictures, but my memory card reader's glitching out on me like it does sometimes. So, I came home from Spokane and finished putting my room together (almost). I've now got my bookshelf right next to the door, and the mirror between the foot of my bed and the closet (so I stop kicking my books in my sleep). When I got here my bed was up on cinderblocks, so I took advantage of that fact and now have no big boxes or tubs in the living space of my room. I put up about 1/3 of my pictures, I've been too lazy/busy to do the rest yet.

Monday (my birthday!) Mel and I drove down to Salt Lake. I got myself a pair of shoes that I'd fallen in love with in February at a store that had had only one pair left on clearance, the wrong size of course; in Salt Lake they were the 'these just came in' shoes, they came in my size, and they were 40% off. So I got them as a birthday present with some of what I got from Oma and Opa :) We picked up Mel's boyfriend and his twin brother from the Salt Lake airport, then bought stuff we needed for our apartment at Ross (e.g. garbage can, shower curtain, and a backpack for me), and groceries at Winco.

So the first week of school was interesting. We started on a Tuesday, which would of course happen to be my busiest day. My intro to foods class looks like it'll be fun; I got lucky enough to end up with one of the three guys in the class as my lab partner, rather than one of the girls whom I suspected would probably light the lab on fire. He tailors clothes. We made lollipops, which was a bit of an adventure. After those 3 hours, I went to my object-oriented programming class, where he just showed us examples of programs we should be able to write by the end of the semester. My last class that day was Book of Mormon, we went over the syllabus (we're going to have to read the Book of Mormon in 4 weeks starting April 27th). We also had devotional by Pres. Clark, on preparing for marriage (the singlemost popular topic on this campus...). On Wednesday I went to my operating systems class; I'm the only girl in there. We talked about digital logic and building switches (AND, OR, NAND, NOR, XOR). My teacher is tall. My next class was home and family consumer science education, and the teacher said anyone who isn't taking it for their major (that's me!) can waive the class. So I went and got a waiver form and frantically tried to find another class that I could take instead, because waiving this one would bring me down to 12 credits this semester, and I have to have at least 14 to keep my scholarship. After lots of hunting, I finally found a class I have to take, moral judgement and analytical thinking, though I didn't have the prerequisite and the class was full. I went and talked to the teacher, he said the prereq didn't matter, and if I showed up to class that day he would add me. So after going to my programming class (it's daily, and I forgot my laptop power cord, oh horror of horrors) I went to this guy's class (everyone calls it 'capstone' for short). It sounds tough but I think it'll be good for me. He told me he added me, but it hasn't shown up on my schedule or Blackboard yet, so I can't do the homework *sigh* That night my laptop died because of lack of power. Thursday I got to sleep in until 11, then had programming, where I actually understand the Java code we're writing (and at the beginning of class my teacher gave me my cord back), and Book of Mormon, which I'm going to absolutely love. Friday I went to operating systems. After that class I went and worked (I'm still working as a TA for my old web design teacher). Then I had programming. Then I went home.

Somewhere in there I also went to the library and got a card. I got my reading glasses in the mail on Thursday and have been trying to remember to wear them (I'm very good at getting fingerprints all over them, every two minutes). My roommates this semester are Mel and Shelby, who I roomed with last semester as well, Heather, who I've been friends with since coming up here, and two new girls, Kristen and Aleen. Kristen and I have already gotten to be pretty good friends, and Aleen is nice. I've gone back to the old apartment a couple times, usually to get mail, and I'm glad I'm not living there anymore. It smells disgusting, and they have random outfits of clothing hanging on the living room walls as decoration (e.g. an olive winter bodysuit complete with olive fake fur trim, a pink long-legged leotard, etc.). Saturday I spent most of the day doing homework, and work-work, and some of the evening watching Star Trek. Today I went to my new ward (48th), which I'm already liking a lot better than last semester's. The bishop (Bishop Westenskow) is really nice, I feel like I could actually talk to him rather than having a staring contest like with the last one. The bishopric came by Wednesday night, and on Sunday he remembered my name (wow). The counselors are Bro. Bennett (heehee!) and Bro. Rose. Poor Aleen had to play piano for sacrament meeting. Had a nice lesson in Sunday school on that funniest of all Bible stories, Balaam and his donkey *grin* Walked home after church. Took a nice nap. So now here we are :)

Vancouver BC Temple

We took a quick trip up to Vancouver on Monday to go through the temple open house. It's really pretty inside with a theme based on the pink Pacific dogwood since that is the provincial flower of British Columbia. It is one of the smaller temples at about half the size of the Rexburg one, but still very nicely furnished with lots of crystal chandeliers in the Celestial Room. Peter said he didn't want to leave it was so nice inside.

Happy Birthday!

Wow - 20 already (tomorrow)? That's a fifth of a century! Where has the time gone? For your 21st birthday, we'll have to upload a nice blackmail photo of you as a baby on the diaper table. . . . This year, we decided to be nice.

Ward Talent Night

We had another talent night yesterday, this time for the Ward. Instead of taking the turtle again (although some asked about it who had seen it at the Stake talent show), we decided to take some of Peter's rocks and fossils he has collected. The display turned out pretty nice and was very popular.

Peter also played "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Edvard Grieg on the piano and did a good job. We are working on getting our digital piano hooked up to our new computer so we can record him and email those out. His piano recital is coming up in May and he is going to do two pieces this year, one of which will be "Chopsticks".

Yet another flower picture

The gentian we bought at the flower and garden show has one blossom but it's huge. It has a great pattern on the inside as well, so I thought it would be worth sharing.

Archery Practice

Yesterday I went outside with my bow and arrows and shot at my target. One of my arrow's tips got stuck in the ground and we can't find it. Here are some pictures of the first time I hit the target.

This is me pulling back the string to fire.

Here I am aiming at the target.

And here is the outcome of the shot.

As you can see, I hit the top of the target and knocked it over. Papa refers to it as I killed the target. After that I gave the target two leg wounds(As in I hit the the bottom corners of the target). And then the last shot I made before I got tired was a foot wound. I hit the very bottom of the foam target so I didn't even hit the foam.

Moving (better known as trying to kill myself)

Everyone in my old apartment is gone except for Janae, who's at work all the time. This meant that, again, I got to do all the cleaning for the entire apartment (not including the other people's bedrooms, and I didn't do the other bathroom either). Sometime after midnight I just said to myself, I'm done, if this isn't good enough, management can complain to everyone else, but they'd better not complain to me. This morning I woke up to the maintenance guy knocking on the door to switch my door lock over to my new apartment. I ate breakfast (pseudo-lunch, I slept in), and then went over to the new apartment to see when the girl whose room I will be occupying from now on would have her stuff moved out. She wasn't done until 3:30. At 2:30 I started moving my stuff into a different (empty) room, just so I could get started, since we had to be moved out by 6 pm. I was moving things from 2:30 until a little past 6, because I had to move everything I own, plus some stuff Nicole asked me to hang on for her, plus all of Mel's food and some things she forgot, plus some things Shelby forgot, by myself. Oh yeah, up and down a flight of stairs. So my body is just mildly complaining right now. After that, I had to rush back to my apartment and do all the cleaning I couldn't do before because my stuff was in the way (vacuum my room, wash the window and blinds, clean the bed frame and table and desk, and clean the bathroom). Then I waited around for the clean-check people to show up; most of the stuff I took care of passed. I just ate a freezer dinner and now I'm going to relax. I might unpack a little tomorrow, but mostly I think I'll leave it for next weekend, and sleep on the couch tonight (like last night).

YAY!!!

I passed Networking with a B!!!! I don't know how that happened. On Tuesday we had the final, and three last assignments due at at midnight, one of which was a lab cumulative of the whole semester. I took the final, I would've guessed I got a B on it. One of the assignments I did without any problems. The second assignment had a part I couldn't figure out, so I did most of it and left the rest till later that day. The cumulative lab I worked on for about 2+ hours, couldn't figure out about half of it no matter what I tried, knew that I wasn't going to be able to figure it out before it was due, so I just turned it in with half of it done incorrectly or not at all. While I was working on that, though, I figured out how to finish the second assignment. So... I got my grades back- 93% on the final, 100% on the first two assignments, and 83% on the cumulative lab (!!!). So I was very excited (and rather stunned, he must've been pretty lenient on that lab).

Also, my home and family management final opened up yesterday. I'd originally planned to study for it Tuesday night, and take it yesterday, but I ended up staying up until 5 am Wednesday morning just doing other homework, so that didn't happen. In that class on Wednesday, my teacher told us all to write our names on a piece of paper and turn that in. Everyone on the list didn't have to take the final!!! Hallelujah :) This is her last semester cause she's retiring, and she was getting very sentimental about missing us all, so I guess that was her going-away present.

Pant, pant...

Last Saturday (the Saturday before General Conference), Papa and I went on a 10-mile hike up by the Whitworth College/Powerlines area. We were on a 2 mile loop that we went around 5 times. Papa stayed in the middle-back with the adult leaders and I was in front with Tanner Hardy. Boy, that was tiring! According to my pedometer, we'd taken 21347 steps, and by the end of the day, I'd gone 23049 steps. AIEEEEE!!!! That was a long walk.

Sob

There's about three inches of snow on the ground right now, and it's still practically blizzarding...

Cleaning

We had a 'pre-white glove clean check' this morning, so yesterday we were cleaning like CRAZY. I wiped down all the baseboards, magic erased all the spots I could find on all the walls and doors, mopped, vaccuumed, and scrubbed our bathroom floor, vacuumed and scrubbed the kitchen floor, cleaned up my room, vacuumed my room and the hall, cleaned the entire interior bathroom (toilet inside and out, tub, walls, etc) and picked up the bath mats to be washed, folded my towels, wiped down the fridges, dishwasher, oven, and cabinets, vacuumed the pantry, washed the stove burner bowls and helped wrap them in new foil, got all the tape and junk off of the inside and outside of the front door, and organized the storage closet. When I opened the storage closet, it was full from the front to the back and all the way to the ceiling, just this teetering pile of boxes and suitcases and tubs, with a 5' TV box on top threatening to smack you in the face. I took everything out, and put everything back in so that we people who are moving out in a week have our things at the front for easy removal. There's the same amount of stuff in there now as there was when I opened it, except now it's only taking up about 1/3 of the closet. Success :) For the REAL white glove check (possibly Saturday), we additionally have to wipe down all the blinds and windowsills, redo the bathroom baseboards, scrub the tub even harder (it's white and there are no marks- what do they want?), lift up the stove surface and clean under there, clean the inside of the oven, sweep out the corners of the hall carpeting and vacuum that (which entails buying a broom...), clean the inside ceiling of the microwave (someone tried and failed), clean the light fixtures, and clean the tracks (for lack of a better word) of the suctiony seal thing that keeps the fridge door shut. Wish us luck!

Free Food!

I was just sitting in the Crossroads eating my slice of pizza, when one of the manager/cook guys came over and handed me a free english muffin because they're switching over to lunch items and had extra. Yay! :)

Also, my management class is remaining consistent: this test was the one I studied the hardest for out of the three, and it's the one I did the worst on (88%, versus 93 and 96). When I was taking this one, I thought I was doing very well, as opposed to the other two, which I was sure I was going to fail while I was taking them. *confused*

It rained today!!! It made me so happy. (Expected 40 mph gusts though, with a steady wind around 28 mph *sigh*).

P.S. At a little after midnight it started POURING, in addition to those 40 mph gusts, and Shelby, Mel, and I went out in it and had a blast. It was amazing :)

Three Game Players

This is a picture from last week - three dedicated game players:

Tulips

Mutti got us some fancy tulips last week. Don't they look pretty?

The Brick

Teddy had his Cub Scouts Pinewood Derby tonight. He called his car, "The Brick." He won the award for "Most Humorous Car." He came in last in every race (he says he planned it that way.)

Orchids

I know, more flower pictures, but these are from our orchids that are blossoming all over. The first one is a Phalenopsis (Moth) orchid that I found at Fred Meyer for Valentines Day that I had to bring home. The other is a Dendrobium that I have had for 6 or 7 years now that blossoms each spring. Who says things aren't prettier in pink?

I Looked Out the Window and What Did I See?

SNOW! EEEEK.

Springtime in Seattle

I've been meaning to post some pictures of the bleeding heart bushes in front our of house and just now got around to taking pictures of them. We've never seen them this big and blossoming this early, it's been an amazing spring for us.

Not to rub it in for those in the colder climates, but it's hit 60 degrees a few times during the past weeks. Not bad for us ;)