Food + Gravity = Messy

Last night at work I was sitting on the couch feeding Skylor, who was sitting in the chair next to me, a calzone. I dipped each piece into a small dish of marinara sauce before feeding it to him. Everything was going fine and the only mess was on Sky's chin, which was ok, cause that means he was enjoying it.

Well, he ate the last bite and let me know he wanted more food. Fine, there's plenty more. Somehow, in my movement to put down the plate so that I could stand up I ended up dumping the marinara container on my lap. Here's the weird part, I was sitting cross legged and ended up getting sauce all over both knees, but not the couch in-between. I shouted "oh no, uh, oh, grr!!!" as it tumbled off my lap and down over the edge of the couch. I loudly said "oh crap, I got it on my pants" to which Skylor giggled.

Then as I stood up I saw the sauce hadn't merely dropped off the edge of the couch as I had thought, it landed smack dab on my book-bag. My OPEN book-bag. Marinara sauce all over my laptop charger cord, a big clump in the small outer pocket, and even traces all along the zippers and a little bit even got on my binder & papers in the main pocket. I noticed this as I was rising from the couch and said "on man, it got all over my bag," to which Skylor's giggle became a soft laugh.

Then, in my movement from the couch to the kitchen a little marinara sauce dropped off my pants onto the carpet. The light colored carpet, and I said "oh you've got to be kidding me!! I just got some on the floor too!!!" to which Skylor lost all control. He laughed and laughed and laughed (everyone who knows Sky knows exactly what I'm talking about).

I scrubbed the floor, my pants and my book-bag, but the smell of Marinara sauce still wafted up at me from all directions as I fed him the last bits of his second helping of Calzone. Needless to say, the bit of Calzone I ate was NOT accompanied by Marinara sauce.

I got off work at 11pm and, not ready to go home, I picked Anthony up and we drove around for a while and I told him all about my night, Marinara sauce incident included.

I decided I needed some dessert and we stopped at Burger King for an ice cream cone. I was admiring the sculpture in a cone the kid had given me (didn't really resemble the beautiful upside down cyclone of ice cream it is supposed to look like) and took a little bite out of the side and thought to myself "huh, it's kind of soft." I held the cone in-front of Anthony and asked if he wanted a bite and he said no. He never refuses ice cream so I held it there in-front of him longer and asked why he didn't want any. Just as he was answering that he 'just didn't want any" the ice cream, which I had earlier thought to myself was soft, gracefully slipped over the edge of the ice cream cone and landed with a satisfied plop right on Anthony's belly and slid down his coat onto the seat of the car. His first reaction was anger, why hadn't I just moved it when he said no the first time?? My first reaction was to push his bum out of the way and take a large scoop of ice cream into both hands and throw it out the window. Just then the kid who worked at BK came to the window and asked if there was anything else we needed, as I'm flicking ice cream off both hands. I began uncontrollably laughing and said "you didn't tell me it was soft! Can I have some napkins please?" He handed me a gigantic stack of napkins and I began wiping off my hands, the car seat, Anthony's coat, my coat, etc. He reappeared at the window with another ice cream cone and said something about making me another one. I asked him to put it in a cup for me cause neither of us had hands free to hold it. He seemed very confused that I wanted him to tip the cone over into the cup and hand it over to me, but after very concise instructions he did what I asked. I was hysterically laughing the entire time. After a little while the boy came back and asked if there was anything else we needed and I said no. He went back inside and I saw him staring out at us and talking to someone out of my sight, then his supervisor with a little "manager" tag came to the window and asked if there was anything else we needed, more napkins or anything? I said no again, we were just staying there until we got everything cleaned up. It was 11:30 at night, no one was in line behind us... were they afraid the ice cream spill was a distraction so we could rob their Burger King??

The whole way home I was laughing and laughing and Anthony was pouting cause he'd gotten ice creamed and he crunched away on the remaining ice cream cone. I don't know how he got that cone... did I hand it to him before I scooped the ice cream up? Did he grab it out of my hand? I don't know. I do know that while I enjoyed an ice cream cone in a cup with a spoon he did not enjoy an empty cone with the ice cream all over his coat. He hadn't even wanted to get ice cream in the first place.

White bread

I stayed up really late last night working on homework and got up around noon to work on my study guide for an exam due later in the day. After hours and hours of studying I got a phone call to do a favor and run an errand for someone. At first I was really bothered because I'm not in studying mode very often and knew I would have a harder time getting back into study mode afterward if I went. However, I knew I needed to run the errand for them so I said yes. I put my computer and books aside and debated whether or not to wake Anthony and ask him to come with me. He'd gotten home from work at 7am and it was, by this time, about 2pm so he'd had nearly 8 hours of sleep, so I decided to ask him to come.

I walked into our bedroom and he was laying on his stomach so I put my hands under his elbow and knee that were facing me and gave them a little push. Anthony quickly rolled onto his back and stuck his arm straight out to the side... the way he does at night because it is my favorite way to cuddle. I couldn't resist and nestled into his open arm. You know how everyone has their own "natural" smell? When they're laying in bed and roll over and you can smell their natural smell in their hair on on their skin that was against the bed? Well, Anthony's smell is bread. White bread. Home made white bread. There is no mistaking it. As I nestled up to him I inhaled his scent deeply and whispered "I love you bread" and my sweet half asleep husband whispered back" I love you too butter."

Snow, slush and cold feet

Yesterday I went w/ Anthony & Doug to see Avatar, and almost directly afterward Max, Wyn & Cami came over to play Wii. After they left (12:15am) I got some homework done and FINALLY went to bed at 2am.

I only vaguely remember the 7am alarm, but luckily I had also set one for 7:30am, which I remember hitting snooze on once, but I really must have turned it off because I didn't wake up again until 8:25, and class was clear across campus at 9am.

I didn't have enough time to shower so I threw on a sweatshirt and beanie. It snowed again last night and was still snowing big flakes so I decided my rain boots instead of snow boots would work for the day.

As my rain boots are just a layer of plastic and my feet always freeze I decided to wear two pairs of regular socks and one pair of nice big wool ones.

Good news, my left foot stayed nice and toasty.
Bad news, my right boot apparently has some sort of hole or crack or something in the bottom because as I trudged through the slush I felt my foot getting wet. At first I thought it was just cold, but on the trek to my second class the toe of my boot filled with freezing water and I knew I was in for it.

All through Stats my foot froze and sloshed. Luckily after that class I have an hour break so I came home to change my socks.
Did you know taking off 3 pairs of drenched socks is not so fun or fast????

Oh well, at least I have nice cozy snow boots to wear until I figure out the rain boot lack of protection situation :)

My recent projects

Often times I see the craftiness and artistic abilities of other people and wonder "why the heck can't I do that??" For real, I can't even draw a straight line.
You all know what I'm talking about. Those people who can make amazing jewelry, or clothes, or scrapbook, or photography, or painting, or drawing, or decorating, etc.
I can't do ANY of that. Most times I don't mind, but then there are those times where I feel like a failure because I can't DO anything. My "talents" don't lie in thing you can see.

Well, a few weeks ago I was FINALLY traded from a Sunday morning shift at work to a Sunday night shift. The person I am with likes to watch a lot of television (even with offers of drives, walks, games, etc) so I've had quite a bit of down time there.
As school hadn't yet started, and I can't read with distractions, I decided to start crocheting again.
I'm not very good at it, but I enjoy doing it. Following are a few things I've made.

Randomness

FYI: the following post is exactly how my journal looks when I haven't written for a while. Sporadic and all over the place... you'll see what I mean and I apologize beforehand.
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What a fun night!! We were going to see Avatar at 5:30 but it was sold out so we went to Sherlock Holmes instead. The two guys who went with us had already seen it, but their dates hadn't. Worth $7.5 I think.
Afterward we went to Chili’s and enjoy some delicious dinner.
Good entertainment, good food, good conversation... ah... a good all around night.
It's been a while since we've gone out with another couple, let alone two couples. It was nice. I think I’d like to do it more often.
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This led me to thinking about other married couple and the majority of them that we know and spend time with have children.
Anthony & I don't know if we'll have children. We'll have been married for 3.5 years in 3 days. By this time some couples have two children.
However, our school and work schedules just wouldn't permit enough time with a baby, even between the two of us.
We're poor as dirt (not quite destitute) and I hear babies are wicked expensive.
AND if we had kids we wouldn't be able to live in our awesome rent free, $200 stipend apartment.
Yes, many, many cons to having a baby.
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On the other hand, there was a pregnant woman and the restaurant and she looked ADORABLE!! Pregnant women are so beautiful. It's not so much the wonder and awe that there is a person in their belly, but it just looks so darn cute!!
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I enjoy my sleep. That is Anthony's argument when I decide I want a baby. I enjoy my sleep far too much to give it up for a screaming infant in the night. I just don't know if I can do it. So, as far as the next year or so is concerned, no kids.
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On a different note, school begins on Monday
Because of this all the girls are filtering back in. The girl who moved across the hall from us is SO loud! She does this high pitched squeal thing... and if you know me at all you'll know it takes everything I have to keep myself from stomping across the hall and dunking her head in a bowl of low fat yogurt. For real, I don't know how long I can stand it and it's only been two days.
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As far as school goes I am SO nervous about this semester.
I am taking the following classes:
SW 4150 - Practice II
SW 4160 - Practice III
SW 3350 - Child Welfare
SW 3650 - Mental Health
USU Choral
Stat 1040 & the recitation that goes along with it
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Choir will be a piece of cake.
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I'm concerned about Stat 1040 because that's the class I failed last semester. However, I only missed two days so I heard/saw all the material. Maybe the second time around it'll make more sense and I'll know what to use when & where.
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I'm REALLY excited for Mental Health. We'll have a little copy of the DSM and we're going to spend a lot of time just going over mental disorders and diagnosing people (fake of course). Because I already took Abnormal Psychology I'm hoping this class won't be so hard. Plus, my favorite professor is teaching and I’m SUPER interested in mental health.
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I'm nervous for Child Welfare because the professor does complete essay exams. That and (as discussed below) he is one of the people that place us in our practicum.
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Practice II & III are going to be interesting. It's all about interviewing groups of people and I hear we're going to do a homeless study, which is AWESOME!! However, we also have to begin thinking about where we would like to be considered in doing our practicum.
It's not like a practicum for teachers where the only difference is where you will be teaching. No sir, a Social Work practicum is different. You may do mental health, you may do gerontology, you may do child & family services, you may do school social work, maybe medical social work, or disabilities/rehabilitation, maybe correction, or community programs.
There are SO many options and guess what? You don't decide for yourself. They gave me a paper with all my options and I have to order them in what I'd like best, to least. Then, over the semester, they watch you and decide where they think you'll fit best. Then they decide where in that chosen group you'll go. Maybe Sunshine Terrace, maybe Bear River Mental Health, maybe Fast Forward Charter School, maybe the Children's Aid Society, maybe the Cache Valley Youth center or Juvenile Court.
There are LOADS of options... that will be chosen for me.
Later this semester they have a day where representatives for all the different options come to campus and it's kind of like a career fair for Social Work majors. You go around and see what you'd be interested in (of course this is AFTER the sheet you listen your options is already turned in) and then you sign up for interviews. So you have an honest to goodness interview with whichever groups you decided on and if they like you the people assigning you to your practicum stick your name on the list of people who have potential to go to that place. If they don't like you... I don’t know what happens, but I’m pretty sure you won’t be in the running for that practicum.
Practicum isn't even until next year and I'm already freaking out about it.
Some places, like Bear River Mental Health, only accept ONE person. The worst part is that there are some places in Brigham and Ogden that we may have to go to.
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Scary huh?
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Ug, I've got one of those annoying flat things from popcorn stuck between my tooth and my gums and I can't get it out... time to floss!!
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oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree....

Christmas morning I awoke with a sense of exhilaration... wait, no I didn't!! I didn't wake up on Christmas cause I had never gone to sleep!!

I was supposed to get off work at 11:00PM Christmas Eve but the girl who was coming in for the grave slept through her alarm and didn't make it in until 12:30.

I was supposed to have driven home and swapped the car with Anthony so he could get to work by 11:00PM but he had to ride his bike because I was stuck at work.

Ordinarily we have enough time for a quick hug, kiss and 'I love you' as I get out of the car and he gets in, but not that day.

Our house was a wreck so I spent quite a while doing laundry, cleaning up and organizing everything.
We didn't have a christmas tree so I got creative and made one out of some green printer paper I had. I got some crayons and drew strings of cranberries about the tree and an orange star on top because the yellow wouldn't show over the green... kind of pathetic, but better than nothing!!

I had about 15 minutes until it was time to pick Anthony up so I taped the tree to the computer desk, hung our stockings and arranged the presents below them then changed the laundry over.

I picked Anthony up from work and was surprised at how excited I was as we exchanged Christmas greetings.

At home I covered Anthony's eyes as we walked into the living room (I didn't remember this was an Eversole tradition until after) walked him up close to the computer desk and uncovered his eyes.

His first comment was something about the tree looking like the Grinch's, then noticed the apartment was clean and said it was great to have a clean place to open our fun Christmas gifts.

Anthony changed into pajamas and we sat down and began opening gifts, and got some mighty fun things!!

As soon as the gifts were all opened we headed straight for bed and slept until late afternoon when it was time for me to go back to work.

I got off work at 11:00PM and we decided, since we were both wide awake and we had the next day off, we'd drive to Bear Lake and visit my family, which is exactly what we did.

We didn't arrive until 2:00AM and accidentally woke everyone up upon our arrival because of the Christmas bells on the back door. Oh well, it was surprise enough!!

The next day we enjoyed eating, talking, playing games, movies and napping before heading back home for Anthony to work at 11:00PM.

Thanks to everyone who helped make this Christmas one of the most enjoyable and memorable Christmas I've had since I was a kid!!

Next year we have a few new decorations to put out, and we for sure want an actual tree... though our paper one was pretty fun!!

"Does Anthony always sing around the house?" Why, yes he does!

After Anthony has a competition or recital or something people always come up to me and ak "does he always sing around the house? Do you love it?"
Yes, my husband is AMAZINGLY talented, but I don't think people really put two and two together that he doesn't pick up a song and sing it perfectly the first time through.
As it is competition time for Anthony, and he was preparing for his Juries, I decided it was time to take action and show everyone what life is like when Anthony is first learning a song... before he sounds magnificent.


This is what he does to make sure he's singing the right notes, etc.


This is when Anthony knows the words, notes and rhythms but is practicing them over and over and over and over and over in order to memorize it.... needless to say by the time he has a song memorized I know it nearly as well as he does ;)

So, here is the answer to the question I get asked ALL the time... yes, Anthony does sing as home. And yes I do love it. Any yes, he always paces like that.

Love you babe!!

Mills Christmas Party '09

Every year my family gets together around Christmas time and has a weekend long party. We make yummy food, go caroling, act out the Nativity story, etc.


Caroling around town. We actually had this sled and another one pulled behind the truck.























Mom & Ayva with the horses


Singing to construction workers


Caroling to cows


This year we drew parts out of a hat for Nativity story parts... no swapping!

The "ladies" and Mary


The "grooms"


Mary (Sean)


Zechariah & Elisabeth


King Herod & his servant (ME!!)


The innkeeper and his wife (it's hard to tell in this photo, but Spencer had pans in his shirt. It was HILARIOUS!!)


The stable


Animals in the stable (Isn't Anthony a cute sheep?)


The star shines down on the stable


Dad as the Baby Jesus


Angels sing & the Angel Gabriel speaks with the shepherds


The shepherds worship the Baby Jesus


Mom as the Narrator


The three Wisemen


King Harod & his servant speak with the Wisemen


The Wisemen give gifts to the Baby Jesus




The teenagers...


Rebecca enjoys her nap


And Anthony enjoys his nap


Ayva enjoys her nap too


Santa's visit!


Hailey & Abbie liked playing with the blocks from santa


This one speaks for itself


Conner is a stud!!


Kevan & his family weren't able to come... that spot in the middle is for him.








Nice to see everyone's happy smiling faces in all the following photos... none of these are really usable... see Chris, Curtis, Rebecca & Susann. Nice guys!!














Handsome boys!! Kevan's spot is on the far left


Sandy is mid blink


Twila is mid sentence


Rebecca's eyes are closed


Finally!! A good photo of Mom & Dad's beautiful daughters!!


Mom & Dad


Mom & Dad


Mom & Dad


Myles (Frank & Jessica's baby) got blesses on Sunday before everyone headed out


Myles

FINALS ARE OVER!!!

FINALS ARE OVER!!! This means I can relax until January 11th when Spring semester begins. Ok, relaxation isn't really attainable at the moment, but I can pretend it is!!

This semester was good... and bad all at the same time.

I blatantly failed Statistics 1040. I know because I was doing so poorly on the exams that I decided about half way through the semester that, because I was doing so poorly, I was going to re-take the class, no matter my final grade. I was a trooper and finished out the class... but I skipped out on the final exam. I know, I know, you don't need to say it.
The really crumby thing is that I understood everything on the quizzes and rarely did poorly, but when it was all together on the exams I just blanked when to use what.

On to happier news.
My Abuse, Neglect, and the Psychological Dimensions of Intimate Violence final was a cinch. I got a 96% and ranked 3rd out of 73 people who took the test. Yay me!! Thanks to extra credit I am sitting at a pretty 103% in that class.

That was the last Psychology class I have to take... I've finished all the requirements for my Psychology minor!!

My Social Work classes were awesome!!

My Practice 1 class was really cool. We learned how to interview people. For the second half of the semester we got in groups of three and all we did was practice interviewing using all the stuff we'd learned. Then for our final we were videotaped interviewing a pretend client for ten minutes... it was torture!! Our pretend client had been raped by four men... We had to watch the video and write a paper critiquing ourselves. I was a little worried because watching the video I saw quite a few things I could have done differently. Our requirement was two pages... mine ended up being three pages single spaced. I took the critique seriously!! But in the end it was good cause my professor wrote "Well thought out paper. You show me that you will be a wonderfully reflective social worker. GET YOUR MSW." (MSW stands for Masters of Social Work... he knows I'm not sure if I want to get a Masters or not)

However, my Social Work Research class was SO hard!! We have to bet a B to be able to continue on in the program. We learned how to write research papers, which was hard but awesome. Our "final" was writing a research proposal. The focus of my research centered on the difference between homeless clients who receive training in hard skills compared to those trained in soft skills versus those trained in hard and soft skills. Sounds a little lame, but I'm SUPER interested in working with the homeless. I haven't gotten the grade for that back yet but right now I'm getting a 91% in the class. I finished the final up quickly so I'm a little nervous, but I've got my fingers crossed.

Next semester I'm taking Practice 2 and Practice 3. We actually get to go out in the community and interview real people!! I talked to my professor and we're going to do a homeless study!! YAY!

Next semester I'll also take Mental Health, Child Welfare, Stat 1040 and Choir.

I'm super excited about Child Welfare but I'm nervous cause I know the teacher's tests are strictly essay and that makes me a little nervous.

I'm INCREDIBLY excited for Mental Health too, as that is primarily what I want my emphasis to be. Plus I've already taken Abnormal Psychology so I shouldn't have too hard of a time.

So, after next semester all I have left is Social Statistics, and my practicum (unless I'm forgetting something). Not bad huh?

All in all we're doing pretty darn good. I'll try to talk Anthony into posting something about his semester... but don't hold your breath for that one!! He's enjoying his time off!!

The cold is setting in

You know those days where you just feel . . . blah?
Sleep deprived and a backwards sleep schedule to boot, grumpy... you know.

So, I'm having one of those days. Except, all throughout the day I'm getting picture messages from Anthony with all the things he's doing and seeing in NYC. The Statue of Liberty, the Met, the Yankee victory parade (I'm a Red Sox fan but a parade is a parade), Times Square, etc.

Not only is he doing cool stuff while I'm grouchy but I had a crappy/tired day at work and didn't have him to cuddle me when I got home around midnight.

Then, there were about 3 people I talked to individually that asked if I wanted to do something today or tomorrow and when I called tonight they were with other friends. Sure, we didn't set up a plan, but you'd think if you knew someone was lonely and you went out of your way to offer to spend time with them you'd actually put effort into it; not just say "oh, that's just my friends making noise in the background. What are you doing?" or "well.... you can come here if you want" when I already invited you over and you said it sounded fun...

It just bugs me. If you're going to offer to do something with someone then do it!! Down just blow hot air to make them feel better because the blow off in the end is worse than no invitation at all!!

Especially when that other person (who gives you a fake invitation) answered your lonely phone call and you actually spent the entire time listening to their story (particularly obnoxious of it is something that made a decision to do and it came back to bite them) and giving them advice which they pretend to listen to, but in the end don't take... and you've just spend an entire 3 hours listening to someone gripe about something they had complete control over and knew exactly was going to happen, yet still chose the path that would hurt them in the end, while you are still completely lonely and now even more depressed than before cause you have someone else's burden to bear.

The truth is this happens all the time, and for the most part it doesn't bother me. I actually enjoy listening to people's problems and helping them realize there is a way to deal with them. However, there are just somedays (like yesterday) when I just want someone to listen to me. Those don't happen very often... hardly ever... and it seems each time the other person is so used to me LISTENING TO THEM, that they don't LISTEN WHEN I TALK about my own issues... then I just stop communicating my own issues and problems and fears with that person.

I don't want to seem invincible. Everyone has their hard days. It's just... I only give people one shot to hear me out. If they're more interested in talking about themselves then I don't bother talking about mine ever again. Once spurned, never again.

True, I am absolutely running out of people to talk about my issues to. I have very few left, and the majority of whom I don't want to talk about personal things with. It's hard for me to talk about my own emotions, anyone who knows me well at all knows that my emotions are shown in private (in the closet w/ the light off) and on a very rare basis.

However, I really like talking with people about their emotions/problems/whatever you'd like to call them.

I want to be a Social Worker and the more I learn how to properly interview people the more I realize I've been doing it my whole life. I ask far too many questions, and I'm blunt and straight forward, but I think that it is something I'm sorta good at, and I want to get better.

I want to be a person everyone knows they can come to. I don't judge. If I'm disappointed or think it was a dumb thing to do I'll tell you, but I'll still listen. I see things from both sides of the fence in most situations... maybe that's why I went through some of my own trials... to help other people.

However, more often than not I feel like people only call me when they need something. To borrow a movie or game, to get someone else's phone number, to ask me how someone else is, etc.

Sure, it makes me feel good to know that people call me cause they know I'll have what they need, but it still hurts me. I hate when people call me and say they've wanted to talk to so-and-so for a long time, do I have their number... then they're gone. What about talking to me? Sure, there may be no point asking me how I am because by this time I've shut you out because you don't listen anyway, but you may as well treat me as a person instead of a human phone book or library.

I'm jumping around and venting a lot. As soon as I press "publish post" I'll probably regret it.
Oh well, I'm human, and everyone has their right to gripe!