beavers and ducks

The Chaser's War On Everything

2007-05-30T15:46:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd share the laughter...I discovered this Australian comedy show a couple of weeks ago, and it's so hilarious. ***WARNING*** There is some bad language in other segments, unfortunately.

Here's a few of our favorites:

Cracked Pepper

Nicorette Ad Road Test

Stocking Head

mini-me

2007-05-30T15:34:00.000-07:00

Things are getting better. The first weeks are really rough, and now it's starting to improve, but if I don't get to bed when Jenna does, or if she wakes up a lot, I'm dead the next day. I still don't get enough sleep, and I guess that's the price you pay for being a mom, but I'm hoping that I'll be able to adjust to getting less sleep.

We can already tell Jenna's a smart kiddo. She's very alert, and she's just starting to become more socially aware. She smiled at me today! (Her first smile at me was on Friday) When she was a new-newborn, she didn't focus on me very much at all, which worried me, but I guess that's normal at that age.

There's this Ben Folds song he wrote for his son that goes, "You're so much like me. I'm sorry." Very apropos! :) No, but Jenna has so much in common with me. She's got my eyebrows (the same color, even!), nose, mouth, eyes (they even change color depending on what she wears, just like mine), long feet, black hair at birth (still waiting to see if it will come in white-blond later like mine). She also has a long torso in proportion to the rest of her body, just like me, which means she'll be in between sizes a lot, b/c she fits into stuff with her upper body, and then she's so long that the legs in a lot of her clothes are too short for her. She's already grown out of a bunch of clothes that fit her even a week ago because of that! :) Thank goodness for layettes (they don't have legs; they're just open at the bottom, which also makes for easy diaper-changing...wonderful during the night, especially!) Anyway, I could go on and on...she's great. Crazy to have a mini-me.

hoo-ah! hoo-ah!

2007-05-04T18:34:00.000-07:00

So we got Jenna's hospital picture in the mail, finally. It's an 8x12 and very nice, uh.

Jenna is such a cute baby! Although she keeps me up at all hours...

She has this habit of pooping as soon as you take off her diaper to change her, so I'm always waiting for a few minutes after I take it off to make sure there are no surprises. This is a little bit annoying, since, as I have said to her, I wish she would do this "on her own time", but we do have some hopes that she will continue to do this when we try to potty train her... :)

She also has the habit of eating 1 or 2 oz. and then falling asleep before finishing (she seems to have graduated to 3 oz or more) and then waking up and crying (i.e., gee, I'm still hungry) as soon as I lay down to take a nap.

Here are some pictures to alleviate some of the craving for Jenna pics:

This is obviously in the hospital, or I got a new weird bed, one of the two. :) It's one of the few pictures within that timeframe that I like of myself. There's something about just having given birth that doesn't make one particularly photogenic. I'm sure the ladies will agree with me on that! :)

This is the lovely Taggies blanket that Dan & Carolyn got for Jenna as a "birthday" gift. She doesn't really know to do with it yet, but we put it on her a couple of weeks ago, and she reached out and grabbed it in her sleep. WAY cute. I imagine she'll have a lot more fun with it when she gets a little bit older.

This picture is one of my all-time favorites of Jenna, if not my favorite. It's so CUTE! All curled up like that. Look at her little feet, too! The Boppy pillow will be great in the coming months, but I've found it's not as useful for feeding as I thought it would be. But it will be nice for helping Jenna sit up and such things.

blogger can go somewhere i can't say

2007-04-26T14:22:00.000-07:00

i just wrote a big long post and lost it b/c blogger sucks. and it sucks for everyone that wanted to know how things were here b/c i can't sit any longer. sorry.

still no bebe

2007-03-30T08:21:00.000-07:00

Jenna must be quite comfortable in the oven. I tell her to enjoy her last days in there. Braden asked me how I was feeling early yesterday morning as I crawled back into bed after getting up to go to the bathroom for the fourth time, and I said, "Big and luggy." That's it in a nutshell. :)

Today is yet another weekly doctor's appointment. I was hoping that Jenna would get me out of that, but no luck so far.

I finally got paid for my freelance work...I got 3 checks from 3 different companies, all on Saturday. So it's nice to know that I haven't been working for free. I had done work for 2 of those companies since late January and hadn't been paid for anything that I'd done this year, so I was relieved to know that I don't have to start calling peeps up and asking where is my money, yo. :) And then I also received confirmation that I should be receiving a check from a different company within a couple of weeks. So all in all, I will only be waiting on the one just mentioned and another one from one of the companies that just sent me a check for January's work (I still need February's check...probably another month for that..grr).

Braden's job interview went really well, and he aced their computer test on Tuesday, so we're crossing our fingers that they offer him the job.

We celebrated Braden's birthday last night (as a surprise to him). I wanted to do it while I was still semi-functioning, as opposed to April 8th, when Jenna will almost assuredly be here already (I sure hope so, anyway), and I'll be sleeping and breastfeeding and not-so-inclined to celebrate.

I got him a Juanes t-shirt that says "Tengo la camisa negra" that he'd been wanting, and a t-shirt that was for me to wear but "for" him that says "I love male nurses". I also got a bunch of Sue Grafton mystery books and hid them around the apartment, so he had to find them with some clues. Mom got both of us 24, Season 1, so that means we have seasons 1 and 3 now, and in a few years we can watch them again when we've forgotten what goeth on. We're currently watching Season 5 and wish that the prez on there would get into a car accident or something. Lo, he buggeth. :)

Mom and I watched Stranger Than Fiction yesterday afternoon. I wasn't too impressed with it; it was okay, I guess, but if I had seen it in the theater, I would've regretted spending the money on it. I think that the trailer was misleading, intimating that it would be much more funny than it actually was...not that it HAS to be rip-roaring hilarious, but I just don't like that it led you to believe it would be. And it didn't really go anywhere and took a long time to do it. I guess "meandering" is a good adjective to describe it. Today we're going to watch The Devil Wears Prada. Mom's seen it before and said she liked it. And I guess The Pursuit of Happyness just came out on DVD, so we'll have to see if that's any good. It's one of those movies that you don't want to spend the money to see it in the theater but you want to watch when it comes out on DVD.

Gina (s-in-law) is within 40 minutes of the hospital as of Tuesday, so I'm trying to have this baby while she's here, so she doesn't have to turn around and drive back from Central WA next week...but I don't have a lot of control over that, unfortunately. Maybe Jenna will get us out of General Conference! jk. :)

Jenna has definitely dropped as of probably a week ago or so. She's so much lower! She kind of dropped down and out, so that now I'm measuring 40" around instead of 38". We haven't been measuring consistently, but it was 38" about a couple of weeks ago, and there is definitely a difference now.

I told the peeps at the front office that I had a week left, and their mouths dropped open. The one was like, "I thought you had a few months left!" Nope.

Well, can't think of anything else to say...later.

oh, come all ye jenna

2007-03-27T14:35:00.000-07:00

false alarms = HOO-AH! HOO-AH!

let's just get this party started....come, jenna!! I am pretty much as ready as I'm ever going to be, I think. Which means that I'm not entirely ready, because who ever is, but I want to just do this thang...

I'm pretty sure that Jenna has dropped as of a few days ago. And really, I just feel that she's a lot lower down than she used to be. I kind of thought it would be more noticeable, like a bowling ball or something when I walk around, but it's not too terribly worse than it was before.

I think my body is storing up as much sleep as possible. Do not call me before like 2pm, no joke. And yet, when I tell one person not to call me, then the next day someone else calls me and wakes me up. Grr. I need my sleep, trust me.

Braden has a job interview right after work today. It's downstairs from where he's currently working. I hope it works out, since he hasn't been too happy with the current work situation.
He's been hoping that Jenna would get him out of work this week, but then yesterday, he told her to wait, b/c he wants to have this interview. Ok, so fine, I waited. :) I guess she's allowed to come after 6pm tonight.

As of today, 3 of the Ellisi sisters-in-law are 29. Happy Birthday, Teresa! And yesterday was Braden's mom's b-day. March and April are just insane birthday months.

So I was in Relief Society on Sunday for the first time in a few weeks, since it's been hard for me to get through all 3 meetings lately. On the bulletin board behind and to the right of the teacher was this announcement that at first glance read like this, no joke: SIMPLY CRAPPIN
I mean, I guess it's a brand name, so a lot of people would be familiar with it if they're into scrapbooking, but I'd never heard of it. You really shouldn't have a ribbon partially obscuring the "S" in "SCRAPPIN". :) It was pretty hard to contain my laughter.

schtuff, O

2007-03-11T17:25:00.000-07:00

So I have dropsy. I drop things...no, really, I think that I have a good grip on them, and then they just fall out of my hands. My stomach gets in the way, too. I opened the fridge the other day and hit my stomach, b/c I thought that I'd given it enough room, and I hadn't. I forget things, like putting away food so it doesn't go bad. That's particularly annoying, since I hate wasting. I had this nice chicken avocado sandwich that I was going to eat today...yummy! And then this morning, Braden said "Uh oh" and picked it up from where it had been all night (the shoe rack, of all places). Grr. :)

I've been watching Lost, Season 1, which I believe I had requested from the library back in June or July...a looong time ago. So I've really gotten into it, and plan on getting Season 2 from Blockbuster with my month pass that Braden got me for my birthday. It's like pseudo-suspenseful, and I made the mistake of watching Part 1 of the finale last night at midnight--alone. So I crawled into bed scared and kept grabbing Braden's hands. He laughed this morning when I told him, b/c he doesn't remember any of it; he was out as soon as his head hit the pillow. Anyway, so I am looking forward to Season 2; if any of ya'll have spoilers, don't tell, or death cometh.

Last night was the first time I've had insomnia during the whole pregnancy, I think. I'm hoping that was a one time thing. It was a pretty crappy night; insomnia's no fun...especially when a TV show scared the crap out of you! :)

We forgot about daylight savings...oops.

Happy Birthday, Kevo-bobby!!!

Braden cleared out a good portion of Jenna's room yesterday and did general straightening, etc, of the car and apartment. You can actually walk through most of Jenna's room and sit in the chair and read. Yay!

We also bought our tickets yesterday for the family reunion. Turns out there is a direct flight to Cleve-o. We won't be bringing a carseat, though, so we will need one when we get there.

another year, another dollar or two

2007-03-08T08:06:00.000-08:00

So I have this habit of getting up a little before 7:58am, if I don't happen to be up already for work or school (this is the first year in a while that that isn't the case), and watching for the clock to turn those magical numbers...and not wanting it to. Like it even matters!!! For some reason, I've not much cared for getting older since my teen years; I remember doing this when I turned 18...maybe I didn't want to grow up, I don't know. But I never have to grow up in spirit! :)

The baby shower went well. We had a lot of fun. Jenna's bottles will be VERY clean, since I got 3 bottle cleaner-things (it looks like a little toilet brush, really). :) I got some way cute clothes, and some essential stuff for breastfeeding, like pads, lotion, a privacy wrap, etc. I'm sure my brothers wanted to know that. We got a baby book, too, which we'd been talking about getting one, so I'm glad we held off. We played a game where everyone cut a length of yarn that they guessed would go around me measurement-wise. April from our old ward and Teresa (sister-in-law) were almost tied, but April won. Everyone was like, "You're so small!!"...so even when they thought they were guessing small, they really weren't.

I have to admit, my favorite gift was a $20 gift card to Olive Garden that was to Braden and I, saying that it was for us to get out and enjoy some time just us before the baby's born. Needless to say, we were all over that last night when I got home, b/c I was STARVING by the time the shower was over. So we went and had soup at 9:30 last night, and then Braden asked if we could have some of the soup they were just going to throw away, and, since we had a cool waitress (and apparently a lenient manager), we also got two bowls to take home. Score!

April (sister-in-law) and Braden's mom really did a great job with the shower, especially considering what's been going on with Granna (stroke a few weeks ago). Everything looked fantastic, and there were little green cookies and a cake that said Happy Shower and Happy Birthday! So that was cool. Neat decorations, too. We took some pictures, but the ones of the cake are on the in-laws sd card, so those will have to wait for postage (they're leaving for SLC this weekend for a bit).

On a side note, I keep meaning to mention this, but on Fast Sunday, this nervous teenager got up to bear his testimony, and he said something to the effect of, "That'd be cool, to have God as the head coach, and Jesus as the star running back...we probably would've made it to States." And then when everybody laughed, he looked surprised...I really don't think he meant it to be funny, but it was hilarious. Aw...he was so nervous!

Well, I got up to mark the passing of 28, and now I retreat back to the comfort of my bed, for, lo, I am an tired. (That's like "an hungered")

jenna jenna bo benna

2007-03-07T12:26:00.000-08:00

so, as a lot of you already know, everything seems to be fine. Jenna is approximately 5lb., 6oz. Braden guessed 3,12, and I guessed 4,2, so we were quite surprised (pleasantly, of course) that we were so far off. But that's great! The ultrasound tech said (although the radiologist needs to confirm) that from what she could see, the placenta looks fine, the amount of amniotic fluid is good, and Jenna looks good. The umbilical cord blood flow seemed to be a little bit erratic, but the tech explained that that was because Jenna was moving around. From what we could see on the measurements, Jenna seems to be pretty consistently about 1 week (and maybe a couple of days) behind her gestational age, but the tech said that babies can measure up to 3 weeks behind, and it's perfectly normal. She also said that Jenna was right on my bladder, and then added, "but I probably didn't need to tell you that", and she's right! :)

in other news, yesterday was GORGEOUS, with temperatures in the 60's. It was beautiful. So of course I overdid it, since I had the car after the ultrasound. I mean, I hadn't been out by myself in quite a while, the weather was great, and I had some errands to run that probably should've waited. But I had some stuff waiting for me at the library, and I'm never over in Lacey anymore. Also, I needed to stock up on some food, so I went to the grocery store. But yeah, it was too much. So today I am not doing ANYTHING! :)

I told the Dallas translation company last week that I can't take on any more work from them until the risk of premature labor is over...they just send too much stuff, and I'd be at the computer all day. I may just not contact them until after Jenna's born, IF I'm feeling up to it. I'll have to play that by ear. I need to contact the NY translation company about a kind of maternity leave, also. I haven't gotten anything from them for almost 3 weeks, but apparently that's because their client is just being slow about some jobs that are pending. In any case, I'm not complaining about that at all, b/c the rest has been great and much-needed.

My baby shower is tonight! It's at Braden's parentals' house. I'm a little nervous, just b/c I'm not a huge fan of being the center of attention, but it'll be a lot of fun.

Well, ya'll, today is my last day of being 28. Carolyn and I will once again be the same age for 2 1/2 months. :) Although, she's got a little bit of a head start in the children department...not that there was much I could do about that (I was just waiting for Braden all those years, really)! :)
All of the Ellisi sisters-in-law turn 29 this year. We were thinking of throwing some kind of party or having a girls-night-out for when we all turn 30...we can all commiserate the loss of our youth together! just kidding.

ultrasound

2007-03-05T21:14:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't know, we're having an ultrasound today at 2:30 to try and figure out why I'm measuring small. For some reason, I seem to be stuck at around 32 when they do the measurement of the uterus, even though I'm coming up on 36 weeks along on Thursday. I measured 31 at my 32 week doctor's appt, then 32 at 34, and it's stayed the same ever since. I think I already mentioned that the doctor at the Family Birth Center was concerned about it a week ago, and then on Friday, I mentioned it to my doctor, and she requested an ultrasound to see what's going on. According to what I understand, possible reasons could be that Jenna is just small (but healthy), she may not be growing like she should (whaddyacallit...I forget the initials), there may not be enough amniotic fluid (which apparently is a genetic factor and has nothing to do with how much I drink), she may not be getting enough nutrients, or the placenta may not be functioning properly. While Jenna really seems to be perfectly healthy (every doctor I've seen has commented on how healthy she is) and is moving around a lot...as her mommy, I can't help but be a little concerned. I hope that everything is all right. Please keep us in your prayers...

Thank goodness I was able to schedule the ultrasound at a time when Braden has to be at the hospital for school anyway, and his supervisor agreed to let him start clinicals a little bit late today. I'm grateful for that; I need the support, and...he's the daddy and has been there for the other ultrasounds we've had, so it will be special for both of us to see how much she's grown.

a little good news

2007-02-27T23:17:00.000-08:00

So here's some good news: I finally found the Anne Murray Sesame Street album on CD!!! YAY!!! It's called "There's a Hippo In My Tub", and I got it from an Amazon seller. It actually doesn't mention Sesame Street, and it's a new compilation from 2001 that has 3 "new" songs on it. You know when you have a really strong childhood memory that you just love, and it makes you feel all warm and cuddly inside? Like "Scuppers the Sailor Dog" for Dad G. Anyway, i LOVE this album and remember listening to it not only as a young child, but occasionally throughout my middle and high school years. I've been wanting to get it for Jenna, so I can play it for her, and she can love it as much as I do! And if she doesn't, I'm shoving it down her ears...just kidding. :) No, it's a wonderful kids album, and Anne Murray's great. I just got it in the mail today, and I told Braden that I hope he likes it, since he's going to hear it a LOT. :)

"Watch them catch their UNDERWEAR!!"

"Why won't you answer my questions??? 'Cause I don't know the answers!! Good night, good night."

"Two and two are four, four and four are eight..." As a young child, I always thought they were saying, "Do unto others, more and forever..." LOL. For YEARS I thought that. ahh...misheard lyrics.

Now I just have to get Anne Murray's old school album on CD with the songs, "Easy Love", "Wintry Feeling", "You'll Never Be A Stranger At My Door", etc. Mom, you have it on a tape somewhere. That's another great childhood memory. I'm also looking for, "Be patient, be patient; don't be in such a hurry" and the Sesame Street one with numbers: "Well, the alligator king said to his seven sons, I'm feeling pretty down.." It had a bunch of different numbers songs on it. Great stuff.

contractions feel quite lovely

2007-02-27T22:31:00.000-08:00

this is a pretty detailed post about my medical travails that is basically intended as a sort of journal for me to remember what went on today, as well as to inform those who want to know what's going on with the pregnancy. if you don't wanna know...don't read it!!! :)

so some of ya'll have heard about the craziness inherent this past day. we went to labor & delivery at about midnight and stayed till 3am, because of some sharp pains i had, general (very much) increased abdominal sensitivity, and the fact that Jenna was seemingly not moving much, which worried me. got conflicting reports from nurse and doctor; the nurse seemed to think it was a UTI (b/c of bacteria they found), and the doctor latched onto a miscommunication that i was dehydrated (which i sincerely doubt, b/c i've been better about drinking the past few days at least), and, let's just say, other indications, as well as possible ligament stretching. the miscommunication was that the doctor asked me how many CUPS i'd had of fluid, and when i answered, i was thinking FREAKING BIG GLASSES in my head, although apparently i said "cups". the mistake was pointed out later when we were on our way home. anyway, the doctor didn't seem to think it was a UTI. i'm supposed to get a call tomorrow about the urinalysis, and whether i do have a UTI, in which case they'll get me started on some antibiotics.

so we got to bed about 3:45am, and then i woke up a little after 6am with pretty severe cramping and pain. no position seemed to lessen the pain, and it even increased sometimes. pretty much i was having regular contractions, 5 minutes apart. last night, the nurse gave us the impression that i was pretty effaced, and then when we went in this morning, the new doctor said that last night the nurse put 25%, and he was guesstimating 40-50% effaced...and yet, they said i wasn't in labor b/c the contractions weren't doing anything, i.e. causing dilation. whatever. anyway, of course, when we got to the hospital, the contractions had stopped. i did not have a single one while i was there, which was another 3 hours or so. it bites, b/c last night on their monitor, i was having some mild contractions, but the ones i had this morning were significantly more painful, and i really would have liked to see what they were registering on the monitor. anyway, this morning, the diagnosis was, "we don't know why you're having contractions. go home, rest, drink lots, eat and come in again if x, y and z happen". boo. i suppose every couple goes through the "go home, ya freaks, you're not in labor!" but i AM very glad that i'm not in labor; it's not time yet! Jenna is doing great; the nurses and doctors all commented how wonderfully healthy she looks (on the monitor), with one nurse even saying that she is "perfect". so that's great news.

anyway, i'm still having the constant dullish pain in my abdomen, which increases to very sharp pains when Jenna moves or when i shift position at ALL. so that is a little worrisome to me, b/c no one can give me an answer as to what that is, but it is definitely a new thing for me, and i don't know what it means. it's not contractions, though. and when i asked if what i was having before were actual labor contractions or braxton hicks, they said "contractions are contractions". so they don't distinguish b/t the two. i'm pretty sure that the dull cramping i was having since last wednesday were braxton hicks, and if what i had today and yesterday are also BH, then they are certainly manifesting themselves differently.

oh, and the doctor today mentioned that one thing that worries him is that i'm measuring small (when they measure my uterus), and i actually have been for at least a few weeks. he said that he would recommend an ultrasound to my doctor, who i am seeing Friday. so that's a concern; mom seems to be concerned about it, too, so i hope everything's okay. that could mean that the placenta is not functioning properly, or that maybe the baby is small or not getting enough nutrients...i hope they do an ultrasound to see, and i will discuss that with my doctor on Friday. and i know i've been measuring small for a little bit, so i wonder why my regular doctor didn't mention that or seem to be concerned. i wasn't concerned before this morning because i had heard that the measurement wasn't really that accurate anyway. dunno.

so that's the lowdown. for those of you who made it this far and maintained interest...my guess is that you've probably been prego yourself! ok, probably not everyone. :)

ya'll want this party started QUICKLY, right?

2007-02-25T23:28:00.000-08:00

Well, we are now done with the childbirth classes and newborn care/CPR class. All that remains in terms of classes is the breastfeeding class in a few weeks.

on a side note, I hate transcription. I will occupied with it probably all of tomorrow, and then I hope to never do any again, or I shall have no hair left, for it will all be torn out.

I received an email last week from a translation company (I really think it's just one guy passing himself off as a "company"...) wanting to know if I could translate 799 pages of sci/tech PDF documents in 8 days. Sure, I'll just run it through a machine translator...oh, wait, I can't, because the original files are PDFs. Shoot. Had to turn that one down. And I didn't even mention that it was for slave's wages. Braden and I figured out that it would be working for less than minimum wage. I do hate to turn down work, especially since any work at this point is experience, and it's good to have stuff to add to your resume, but GEEZ. Did I get a Masters degree just to turn around and prostitute myself???

We had a very busy week last week, and even today was pretty eventful. Tomorrow, as I mentioned already, I'll be occupied trying to "proofhear" my transcription, which will take a long while...and THEN, I hope I don't get anything for a few days. I'm just worn out, and I need to rest. I think my body is clamoring at me to get a lot of rest right now, and I need to listen to it!

My hub is the bomb-diggity, yo.

one and a half

2007-02-19T09:36:00.000-08:00

Happy 1 1/2 year anniversary!!! Wow, can't believe it's been that long already, and here we have a -6.5 week daughter, too.

Our last childbirth class is on Thursday, and then we have a Newborn Care/CPR class on the 25th. The breastfeeding class isn't till March 15 or so, and trust me, that was the only time that worked... Things are winding down. The stuff that seemed like forever away is now very close.

I started packing my labor bag on Saturday; I need to go through and see what I still need.

Braden got me a freaking huge monitor for an anniversary/birthday/Christmas present. I'm not worthy of such coolness. Now I can actually have two documents side by side to compare Spanish to English! That will be very helpful for freelance jobs.

I feel bad for those peeps out East that are getting large amounts of snow...I don't miss that at all! But it is raining out here, which isn't my favorite kind of weather either.

Braden's granna had a stroke a week ago last Thursday...please keep her in your prayers. She's hanging in there so far. I don't think her number's up yet.

I am needing more and more sleep. Good night everybody! (You forgot Uranus)

the long anticipated prego pics - 31 1/2 weeks

2007-02-11T20:44:00.000-08:00

ok, these pics were taken a week ago yesterday after a very long day, so if i look tired, that's why. :)

31 1/2 weeks along:

the swamps of sadness

2007-01-30T19:13:00.000-08:00

ok, so not really of sadness, but of wo, i've had so much freelance work come my way lately! i applied to a translation company last week, took a test on friday, and starting monday have gotten a flurry of requests from them to do proofreading and translation. i'm not complaining at all; i like proofreading, especially, but it will just take some getting used to in terms of having a ton of work to do versus a lot of free time. i should've enjoyed the first couple of weeks in january more! :)

now i'm about to embark on the joyous quest of invoicing. yay! billing clients is one of the necessary evils of freelancing, but that doesn't mean i have to like it! :) guess you have to do it if ya wanna get paid.

had my checkup yesterday; things are going well. jenna's healthy (and starting to kick me in not-so-comfortable places), and I measured right at 30 weeks, which is where i should be, since i hit 31 weeks on thursday. the doctor showed me how to feel where the top of the uterus is, which was not a pleasant sensation (imagining digging and pressing on an already sensitive area), but cool nonetheless.

as of a couple of days ago, i'm finding it hard to sleep, b/c jenna can reach further and further up and also to the sides. it's increasingly difficult to find a comfortable position. haha, lil' baby, you've only got a little bit until you're too big to move around anymore, so enjoy it while you can! :)

i went for a short walk today, and man...suffice it to say that i am not as limber as i used to be. i had to force myself to slow down, so that my pregnant body didn't die! ah, the (back)aches and pains of being prego! :)

happy happy survey day to you

2007-01-24T11:29:00.000-08:00

1. Is your second toe longer than your first?
No...should it be? Are you trying to insinuate that i'm abnormal? :)

2. Do you have a favorite type of pen?
I've always liked Papermate. But I think I've proven in the past that if someone gives me a pen, I will use it. I am indiscriminate when it comes to free stuff.

3. Look at your planner for March 14, what are you doing?
Waiting for my brother to get his booty up here to visit me so we can have a Law & Order marathon and make cannoli and pinch-me cake. Ah yeah.

4. What color are your toenails usually?
His Royal Gay-ness Purple. just kidding.

5. What was the last thing you highlighted?
Probably something churchy. I don't highlight much anymore now that I'm not in school.

6. What color are your bedroom curtains?
I'm not real big on curtains..they're okay, I guess. We just have white blinds in there.

7. What color are the seats in your car?
Tan/Beige.

8. Have you ever had a black and white cat?
I'd have to be a pet person to answer that in the affirmative, and I'm not, so no.

9. What is the last thing you put a stamp on?
Um, a letter? Unless you count when I stepped on Braden. :)

10. Do you know anyone who lives in Wyoming?
No. If that changes, I'll be sure and let you know.

11. Why did you withdraw cash from the ATM the last time?
Ok, some of these questions are pretty freaking dumb...because I needed some cash!!

12. Who is the last baby that you held?
The cute and ever-irrepressible Amy Jo, my niece. I put "Jo" to distinguish her from my other niece Amy, who is 6 and would probably run away if I tried to hold her. :)

13. Do you know of any twins with rhyming names?
Not off the top of my head.

14. Do you like cinnamon toothpaste?
Yuck. I don't like cinnamon gum or altoids, either. That's a little too much mouth action.

15. What kind of car were you driving two years ago?
Chevy Prizm. She was a good little car, but she bit it.

16. Pick one: Miami Hurricanes or Florida Gators
Like I even care. I choose based on the color, usually, IF I'm watching, which is only if someone else is in control of the TV.

17. Last time you went to Six Flags?
Have I ever been to a Six Flags? I don't know. I wanted to go to the "Geauga Lake/now we're Six Flags/oh, look now we're Geauga Lake again", but we ran out of time last May before we moved here.

18. Do you have any wallpaper in your house?
This is an apartment...take a guess.

19. Closest thing to you that is yellow:
Christmas thank you cards that I still haven't written.

20. Last person to give you a business card?
Well, it was actually given to Braden, but it was from a guy in our ward who invited us to dinner tomorrow.

21. Who is the last person you wrote a check to?
Probably to the management at our complex for January rent. Aside from rent, I don't really write checks; I'll go with a debit card over a check any day.

22. Closest framed picture to you?
There are some wedding pictures of us close by. We'll hit a year and of half of meh-wage next month!

23. Last time you had someone cook for you?
Braden made me some eggs on Sunday morning, and then I couldn't eat all of them b/c they made me feel queasy. I hate that about scrambled eggs, and I don't what it is that causes that reaction...I've always been like that. But Braden makes delicious scrambled eggs!

24. Have you ever applied for welfare?
No.

25. How many emails do you have?
You mean in my inboxes, or email addresses? Please be more specific. I have 2 addresses that I use regularly, and one from school that I hardly ever check, and it's probably full.

26. Last time you received flowers?
Last year. (hint, hint) :)

27. Do you think the sanctity of marriage is meant for only a man & woman?
Yes.

28. (insert question below)
Why am I in such a blogging mood right now?

29. Do you play air guitar?
If I feel it's warranted. I used to a lot more when I was younger. I always play it left-handed (which I am), but if I'm messing around on an actual guitar, I play right-handed. Go figure.

30. Do you take anything in your coffee?
I don't drink coffee. So I guess I take cyanide.

31. Do you have any Willow Tree figurines?
What, is that like CareBears or Precious Moments? :) I have no idea.

32. What is your high school's rival mascot?
If I remember correctly, from reading Ryan's blog, it is the Westlake Demons.

33. Last person you spoke to from high school?
My friend Jenny, who graduated a year after me.

34. Last time you used hand sanitizer?
Dunno...I only use it if there's nothing else around. Otherwise, I go with hand soap.

35. Would you like to learn to play the drums?
I would love to. I just don't have enough patience to learn to play. We attempted it when I was 16, but it got so that I was only practicing on the back of the seat in the car as we were driving to the lesson.

36. What color are the blinds in your living room.
white.

37. What is in your inbox at work?
I work from home, and I haven't actually set up my desk all the way yet. Nothing in there so far, but pretty much everything's on the computer anyway.

38. Last thing you read in the newspaper?
I read about the kid who was found after being kidnapped for 4 years.

39. What was the last pageant you attended?
Hill Cumorah comes to mind, but that's just b/c it goes along so well with the word "pageant". That was eons ago, though.

40. What is the last place you bought pizza from?
pizza hut.

41. Have you ever worn a crown?
Oh, probably a Burger King one.

42. What is the last thing you stapled?
My hub! :)

43. Did you ever drink clear Pepsi?
Yeah, I tried it. They went to all that trouble to make it clear, and so what? It still tasted the same.

44. Are you ticklish?
Yeah.

45. Last time you saw fireworks?
July 4th of last year.

46. Last time you had a Krispy Kreme doughnut?
Last year some time. I LOVE them!! Now THAT is a glazed doughnut.

47. Who is the last person that left you a message & you actually returned their call?
My mom. And I was going to call Ryan back yesterday, but then he beat me to it.

48. Last time you parked under a carport?
Yesterday.

49. Do you have a black dog?
I refer you to question #8. Some dogs are cute...on TV.

50. Do you have any pickles in your fridge?
Yes. Now as for the overall edible-ness of said pickles, I cannot say.

51. Are you an aunt or uncle?
Aunt.

52. Who has the prettiest eyes that you know of?
Braden. And a lot of old ladies think so, too! What a hot nurse!

53. Last time you saw a semi truck?
Umm, anytime I'm driving?

54. Do you remember Ugly Kid Joe?
IIIIIIIIIIIII hate the rain and sunny weaaather... I even remember the album art, b/c my friend owned it.

55. Do you have a little black dress?
Yes. Although if we're talking "little" in terms of today's standards, then no.

tried to post this yesterday, but blogger had major probs

2007-01-24T11:19:00.000-08:00

be careful what you wish for! i got a call from the translation company in NYC on monday morning letting me know that they had sent me some files to typeset, 6 documents in all. so i put in a very long day yesterday and finished up late this morning, Outlook and gmail inability to send large files notwithstanding. i need to find a better way to compress/zip my finished files, b/c the way i had to do it was very roundabout and frustrating on both sides, i'm sure. outlook outright rejects sending large messages (we're talking 4-5MB and up, i think), and gmail has issues, too, although it did a better job than outlook. braden suggested maybe uploading files to our website, but it would have to be in a secure location, and i'd have to figure out how to do that. anyway, i've logged about 14.5 hours so far, which is cool, since i'm billing by the hour. it does, however, contribute to my overall tiredness. so i'm taking it easy for the rest of tonight. when i receive work to do, i can't rest until i've got it done, or at least as much as i can do for that day. so yesterday was a 12 hour day. bleh! but, that enables me to have a quick turnaround time and impress the client. i won't always be able to do that; i actually had an eye doctor's appt, but i canceled, b/c that's easy to reschedule. i won't/can't do that for other appts that may conflict with freelance work coming in, such as medical doctor appts, pregnancy classes, etc. i guess right now i'm trying to impress this company, but i can't totally rearrange my life for them if i have other stuff i need to do, and that's something that i'll need to deal with in the future, since there are bound to be conflicts. anyway, the finished files that i sent back to the company are going to go through a proofreader and then to the client. if the client doesn't have any changes to make, i can then upload the files back to the printer's ftp site where i got the original files from.

i had another tutoring session today, which went well. i really like my student; she's very nice and eager to learn. she's doing great, too, and i'm amazed that she's as far as she is considering the amount of exposure she's had to spanish, which is only about a year of college.

i had a wonderful, reassuring blessing given to me last night. it eased my mind about jenna coming and being able to handle things, etc. D&C 6:36 "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not."

things are well in the ellisi household. life is good.

Braden versus...the BUFFALO

2007-01-23T19:38:00.000-08:00

who won? ah, the mysteries of the Olympic Game Farm.

and she doth pass

2007-01-19T23:38:00.000-08:00

yea, verily, kerry hath passed the glucose tolerance test with flying colors! i got an 81 on a scale from 65-130. so i'm pretty happy about that. yay!!

please, suh, can i have some more orange pop?

2007-01-17T19:43:00.000-08:00

the 1 hour glucose test is done! the drink really wasn't that bad; tasted just like orange pop, only much more sugary. my results come in tomorrow, so i'll call over there and see what the deal is. i hope i don't fail and have to take the 3 hour test, but if i do, oh well. i did feel a little lightheaded immediately after having my blood drawn, but i had something to drink and some jello, and then i was ok. i was over in lacey for the rest of the morning running errands and such. at the library, i was in full teenage nostalgia mode, so i got 11 young adult books out, plus a regular one on the history of blogging, just b/c it looked interesting.

i asked my doctor a ton of questions about this and that, including signs of preterm labor, etc. apparently, if i do go into preterm labor, i would be transferred up to tacoma (if it's before 36 weeks along), since i guess the hospital here doesn't deliver preemies. not that i think i definitely will have jenna early, but it's just good (and reassuring to me) to have all my bases covered and be as prepared as i can for that kind of thing. not that you're ever fully prepared for it.

i have another tutoring session tomorrow. talk about a sweet deal. i know i don't need to bring in money (we're doing well enough that i don't have to work, and jenna's coming soon), but it is nice to bring in a little bit. i guess that's one of the hard parts of being stay-at-home for me...i do miss the independence of fully supporting myself, having a job, etc. which is not to say that b/c braden brings home the money it's not OURS, b/c it is, and i know that, but it is hard to get used to it. i was planning on setting up my freelance business and getting a PT job or something when we first moved out here, but i got pregnant with jenna way sooner than we thought, and our plans just totally changed. this pregnancy has been rough in some ways (but overall not too bad), and one of them is just not being able to work out of the home...the energy levels are not consistently there. i did that stint up north for 5 weeks and came home and crashed; i wouldn't have been able to do it for much longer, and i think i was blessed with enough energy to be able to do it, since we needed the extra money at the time. i think i've been blessed for things to come in at the right time, and when i've been available and able to do them (unlike my earlier semi-gripe about uk english jobs)...and this freelance typesetting gig should work out (hopefully stuff will start coming in soon), and the tutoring sessions should go at least until summer, i think. but it has been hard to sit at home waiting for the freelance stuff; i've developed this habit of trolling craigslist for jobs, and yesterday braden was like, Kerry, stop looking for jobs...it's okay if you're not working; you can prepare to be a mom and do other things that will be good for you... (he didn't yell, no worries) :) and he's absolutely right. i can review spanish, set up the apt. more, brush up on my desktop publishing/graphic design skills, read mommy books, be healthy, exercise and just relax if i need to, which i haven't been doing. so i am going to try to do those things and chill out on the job front. things will come when the timing is right. everything will be okay.

i love my hubbin!!! (that would be braden)

what's a nopple?

2007-01-14T23:18:00.000-08:00

so this loud old man asked the mexican waitress in El Nopal, "So what's a nopple? El nopple...what does that mean in English?" And the waitress was trying to say cactus (El nopal), but was having a hard time pronouncing it (cact-OOCE), so the guy was like, yeah, but what does it mean in English? She tried to say it several more times, and the guy just stared at her and said, "I don't know what that means." So I was finally like, from 10 ft away, "CACTUS!!", and he goes, Oh. Then as he was walking away, we could hear him saying, "She was saying 'cactoose, cactoose'". Ah, good times with the gringos. I felt bad for the waitress, but honestly, their English is hard to understand even for me. I had to ask one of them 3 times what she was saying, and I finally figured out that she was asking me if I wanted gravy on my burrito, and then I realized she meant the red enchilada sauce. Um, I'm not ordering mashed potatoes here. :)

i'm going to start tutoring a local college student in Spanish a couple of times a week. we're meeting for the first time tomorrow in a public setting just kind of to get to know each other, and i assume from there we'll figure out a schedule week by week, depending on what's going on with both of our schedules. hey, trolling craigslist does pay off once in a while! :)

still haven't heard back about any freelance work from the translation company in NYC that should be sending me some work soon...i was thinking it would be last week, but nothing so far. maybe the folks are still working on getting the files ready to send to me. the not knowing is the most frustrating part about freelance work...you just don't know when it will come in, or how much, or how fast they need it, etc. i'm trying to find out as much as possible ahead of time, but i can't bug them about it constantly. i just have to wait and see for now, which is hard for me to do.

our ward seems pretty cool. we had kind of a ward conference thing going on today, so church was a lot of talks. they were good, though.

we just got back from the parental ellisi household, where we had coconut chicken rice and played 'pass the pigs' and 'personal preference'. braden wanted to watch the seahawks game from this morning, but his dad didn't get a chance to tape it, so suerie for braden.

oh, and we played beethoven's 9th and 'there can be miracles' (prince of egypt soundtrack) for jenna this evening. she wasn't responding much at first, but then she almost kicked the phone/mp3 player off my stomach! not sure if that means she liked it or wanted it to go away! :)

good night, everybody!

please stay in the oven for twelve more weeks, Jenna

2007-01-12T14:14:00.000-08:00

Hi all. I have some rather shocking news, for those of you who aren't aware, which I imagine is everyone: My friend Jenny from the home ward, who was due April 10th to my April 5th, had her baby at 24 weeks, on December 19th. Baby boy Preston was 1 lb., 1 oz., but has steadily been fighting for his life and continues to hang on. He goes for surgery pretty soon to close his PDA (the opening that should close after birth). Please keep them in your prayers.

Anyway, aside from worrying about them, it also makes me worry a little that I could have Jenna prematurely. You just never know. Last night, before I even knew about any of this, I had really sharp pains in my side that radiated inward...so painful that it made me cry out several times. It wasn't in the right place to be labor, or so we think, but it worried us enough to get some things together right then in case we had to go to the hospital. Luckily, the pains went away after a few really intense minutes, but I was scared that they would return, so I didn't move for a while. It made me think, am I ready to be a mom right now? I don't know if anyone is at this point, or even when in actual labor. It's a sobering thought. I just hope and pray that I can handle anything that comes my way, and that things will work out the way they're supposed to, which I know they will. Anyway, Jenna was very good to her mommy, and reassured me that she was fine after I had those pains. She kicked and moved a lot just to let me know that she was okay, which I was very grateful for. Pregnancy and labor is such an unknown that sometimes you feel as if you're constantly questioning, is that labor? what does that pain mean? is the baby ok? Etc, etc. It's just a big unknown, and you try to be as prepared as possible, but there are always things that catch you off guard. It's like learning Spanish in school, and then going on a mission where you're speaking to native speakers...you realize you don't know ANYTHING!! Reading about pregnancy and labor is good, and it does help, but experiencing these things first-hand is totally different, and you always question if things are going the way they're supposed to, and what the ultimate experience will actually be like for you personally, since everyone is different.

Sorry to ramble, but babies and all that comes with them are just really on my mind right now. My cousin Pam just had her baby yesterday, Sylvia. Congrats go out to them; I hope that they're doing wonderful. I was at Enrichment Meeting last night, and in walked a juzzum that had just had her baby boy TWO DAYS BEFORE!! I know it was her second baby, but GEEZ. I wouldn't have been there, that's all I'm sayin'. I'd be like, I just passed a bowling ball, can someone make me some dinner, thanks.

On a related note, someone who shall remain nameless was discussing screaming during labor (this was a couple of days ago) and thought that doing that was just horrible and unnecessary (my own words). And I thought to myself, you know what, the person that she is referring to did not have any support people (at least in terms of family, husband) around her, she was in a great deal of pain and frightened...I don't fault her at all for letting out a loud scream. I don't judge anyone based on how they perform/performed during labor, I say BRAVO for going through that, and I think you're wonderful and will be blessed for that sacrifice. My two cents.

I will now end this baby mama drama post (thank you, Eminem)

so you want to realise your dreams of being a translator, eh?

2007-01-10T13:46:00.000-08:00

Someone from a translation company in Canada contacted me earlier this morning wanting to know if I could work on a project from Canadian English to UK English. I'm from the US, eh? So I emailed back saying that if they needed something done into US English, (or SP>EN, for that matter) I'd be happy to help, but as far as UK English, suerie. It seems like when I do get an email about a potential job, either it's not something I do, or I'm currently occupied, OR they send it to the wrong email, and I come across it a month later by accident. I'm crossing my fingers that the next time I'm contacted, it's a project that I can do! :)

So I've been listening to the "Forgotten Hits of the 90's" Launchcast online radio station for the past few days. Good times. I'm currently listening to Pump Up The Jam by Technotronic. Make my, make my, make, make my day.

It snowed last night, and we've been having strong winds again for the past few days. You can really hear it quite clearly. So far, no more power outages, though (knock on desk).

I still haven't gone to the lab to do my glucose test. We've just had so many things going on lately that it hasn't really been possible to get over there. I have a bunch of appointments coming up next week, so I should probably try to get over there either tomorrow or Friday.

The RS Prez and one of her counselors are coming over for a get-to-know-you visit later on today.

That's about it for now!

wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

2007-01-09T12:56:00.000-08:00

so i was oot and aboot yesterday at target, basically b/c i just needed to get out of the house. i was looking at some maternity clothes, b/c i like the target brand (liz lange). side note: i found some rad cargo-ish pants, but i just cannot justify spending that much on one article of clothing, for they were NOT on sale or clearance. i did find a pair of pants for $7, but when i tried them on, they were so tight as to be classified as stripper pants. i was way disappointed, too, b/c i thought that i'd found a steal. target has this problem with displaying a huge MATERNITY sign and then having a really small selection and mixing non-maternity clothes with regular ones. i did find a cute white shirt that will go well with all the shirts that must have something underneath.

anyway, so i'm wandering around, looking at bikes and trying to look for silverware trays (unsuccessfully), and i figure i'll just wander over to the electronics section, specifically to the wii stuff. no way they'll actually HAVE the hardware, but i'll just check. and lo and behold, they had like 6 in stock. so i snapped up that baby jonas. i surprised braden with it later that night. he knew something was up, b/c in spite of my best efforts, my poker face and actions leave something to be desired. it comes with wii sports, which has tennis, golf, baseball, boxing, bowling, etc., and teaches you how to use the wiimote and nunchuk. i also got a trial month gamepass from blockbuster b/c it pays for itself in less than two rentals and all the wii games are currently $50. so, anyway, i was astounded that target had the wii and told them so. the guy said this was the first time he'd seen them last beyond noon. he also dropped my wii when he took it out of the case, so i made him get another one. i was like, i don't mean to be anal, but....

i rented a pair of bolt cutters yesterday, and braden and i went over to the old place to try and get that bike lock off. it took over 20 minutes, but it finally gave. that thing was tenacious! so it does its job well...too well. but what's funny is that it didn't stop someone from stealing the back wheel and seat off of one of the bikes a couple of months ago. nice.

after my target stop, i wandered around the mall looking for various wii stuff, specifically a wii points card that allows you to download classic games from the old nintendo systems. nothing doing. no one has anything except storage cases, b/c who wants to buy a storage case? i tried ryan's trick of being on a cell phone when walking by kiosks, and that seemed to work pretty well. i know b/c when i didn't, i got some "how you doing" and "excuse me" crap. but actually all i did was open up my phone and hold it to my ear. lol.

i saw the missionaries in JC Penney and i was so surprised that i didn't say anything. b/c it was right by the hosiery section, and i kept doing double takes b/c i was like, what the heck are they doing here?? pretty funny. i was looking for maternity pantyhose, but i can't find any anywhere. i've taken to wearing knee-highs so that i don't cut off circulation.

so after my long, eventful day, i am back home and resting, b/c i thoroughly overdid it yesterday. my stomach started hurting after i carried the bolt cutters to my car, which in retrospect, i should've asked an employee to carry them for me. BUT, i didn't realize just how heavy they were until i was out of the store, and...okay, i'm kind of prideful in that i don't like to ask for help, especially with that kind of thing. i know i have an excuse, but it's still hard to use it. anyway, my stomach bothered me all day yesterday, and i can still feel it today. i guess i still don't know my limits.

oh, i forgot to mention: when we were using the bolt cutters yesterday, we parked around back and let the headlights shine on our back porch (and everyone else's) b/c we didn't have a flashlight with us. so we proceed to be there for 20-25 min, and we were both thinking that the police would show up and how are we going to prove that these are our bikes, etc. especially since the freeway exit ramp is RIGHT there, so people passing by had a clear view of our shenanigans. plus, red, our crotchety next door neighbor with the no parking cone, seems like the type of guy to call the cops at the slightest provocation. i was actually watching his blinds as we walked by to see if he was peeking through, which he would do almost every time we parked and walked in when we were living over there. however, to our surprise, no police showed up, and we finished our business and got out of there. $10 bolt cutters vs. $55-75 for a locksmith...not bad. just took some perseverance.

rachael ray and other thoughts

2007-01-08T09:56:00.000-08:00

so braden and i thought it was pretty funny that dan was annoyed enough by rachael ray's shenanigans on $40 a day to post about it. but you know what, i do agree that she can't just make it seem as if it's 3 meals a day (which is regular for most people, so you would think that when it's a whole day) and then only eat 2 meals a day, or have people take her out. oh, look, my husband is paying! besides, i find rachael ray annoying in general, just because of her overexposure. she must put out like 20 cookbooks a month! and then, when i was in the childrens' section of the bookstore the other day, she even had a few childrens' cookbooks, too. milk it while you can, i guess. it's comparable to iris by the goo goo dolls; they played it on the radio every 8 minutes when it was popular. also, whenever i see rachael spelled that way, i always think "rach-ee-el". color me bad-ded.

where are all the wiis??? they're sold out everywhere. we're toying with the idea of getting one with some of our combined christmas money, but i'm not camping outside of any store to get it! apparently, that's still going on. target said that they get 3 or 4 every saturday morning, and they're sold as soon as the store opens. geez. also, if you name your product the "wii", you can't expect people not to call the remote the "wii-mote". it's just inevitable. apparently, nintendo asked for people to please not call it that. come on, it's the "WII", for pete's sake. :) people that have camped out to get more than one wii are selling them for way more than retail on craigslist. how about let other people get one if you already have one. such is our society. :)

our nephew got baptized on saturday. congrats to steven! he is the oldest grandchild on braden's side of the family. afterwards, we had a get together at steve and april's (steven's parents; steve is braden's bro) house with fried chicken, yummy! i was pleasantly surprised to see my sister-in-law gina, who drove over with her two little girls for the occasion. another nephew felt it necessary to comment loudly, "her hair is way too long!!!" during the talks, about a lady sitting right behind us in the chapel. her response? "thank you, munchkin. now it would make me really happy if you would sit down." this same nephew also said loudly, "how big is he??!!!" about a larger gentleman in our other ward. ahh, the embarrassing things our children say. that's the kind of situation where you want to laugh, but you don't want your kid to know that you find it humorous. i'll have to start working on my poker face! :)

i just choked during my cocoa-bibbing activities. down the wrong pipe, i guess.

so people are still shocked when they find out that i'm pregnant. the most common response is, "I didn't even know you were pregnant!" lo, the smallness inherent when compared to other women, i guess. i feel huge! :) my explanation is that my stomach had to go out to a normal size first and then keep growing, so i look smaller. plus, it's a first baby, and your tummy tends to be smaller. i was reading some prego blogs for people due in april and came across this one that had a picture of this juzzum at 26 weeks or so, and wo, she was big. i can't even compare! for those of you who are not aware of what a "juzzum" is, it's a made-up word by my bro ryan for between a girl and a woman. that in-between stage when you're sufficiently old enough to not be called a girl, but feel weird calling yourself a woman. this applies to anyone who, in your opinion, fits in this category. ryan came up with it after i expressed my annoyance that the term "guy" existed, but the female equivalent was still "girl", which makes me feel 12 years old. he's great for making up words on the spot, even at 6 years old, right, gio regoarrarr? :)

my belly button is starting to come out. it's been increasingly less "inny" for a little while now, but yesterday, a bit of it was starting to poke out. weird! i've been an inny for so long. so i dreamt last night that it was all the way out.

braden mentioned last night that it would probably be a good idea to put together an emergency hospital bag, since i'm "at the point now where you could technically have the baby at any time". scary!! i'm not ready yet. i did sign up for childbirth classes, which start next month and extend to mid-march. i wasn't too happy about the schedule offered, b/c it seemed not well thought out by the schedulers. for example, one class is offered only on sundays during the time when i need to take it, so we essentially have to take it on that day. it just seems to me that some other options could be offered. but, i am all signed up and excited (and nervous) to start.

almost 28 weeks

2007-01-08T09:04:00.000-08:00

i know i haven't posted in a while...pretty much skipped december. oops. but we did, um, move, so i think that's a pretty good excuse. we are now in our new place, which i like much better. it's not even 100 additional square feet, but it's enough to feel significantly roomier. and now we have two bathrooms! now that we entirely need that at this point in our marriage, but it's nice to not have to worry about when guests want to use the bathroom.

we like our new ward so far. we're actually in another stake, if you can believe that...only in the western US would you move 20 min away and be in a whole different stake.

i have to go take the glucose test sometime this week. i said i would come in last week, but it didn't end up happening. i went to the doctor a week and a half ago, and i had forgotten that they were going to do that, and i was really feeling ill, so i asked to come in another time. let me tell you, i'm thrilled about taking this test. from what i've heard, it sounds like great fun! anyway, so after the appt, i had lunch with braden and then went home and threw up again (i had thrown up my breakfast about 10 min after eating it). must have been some kind of virus. i didn't eat anything until much later that night, and then i was on fluids until sunday. i couldn't keep anything down.

we watched "the notebook" last night. it was good; i give it an 8 out of 10. the end made me cry.

braden started school again last week. he'll have regular labs and clinics this semester, which is more conducive to his learning style. we're both hands-on learners.

so the nursing calendar that i got for braden for christmas is a bust. think family circle-type humor...need i say more? oh, well. when braden opened up one of his presents, he said, "I hope it doesn't suck", and i said, that's the kind of thing you could only say to me. to everyone else, you'd just be like, thanks! so that's become one of our jokes...i hope it doesn't suck.

we cleaned our old apt on thursday and saturday, so everything's done there, EXCEPT for the fact that i can't get the stupid bike lock off the two bikes out on the porch. i've tried every combination i can think of, and nothing works. i tried WD-40-ing the crap out of it, and that didn't work, either. so now i'm looking into renting a bolt-cutter or something, b/c it will cost $55-75 to get a locksmith to take care of it, which really makes me mad!!! all this for bikes we never even used, b/c we never found anyone to fix them up (where's dad g. when you need him?).

i should be getting some freelance work sometime this week. a friend/former classmate of mine hooked me up with a job as a typesetter (foreign languages and such) for the translation company she works for. the client is a major manhattan bank, so i'm hoping the work will be pretty steady. this job will allow me to combine my graphic design/desktop publishing skills with the foreign language skills, so i'm pretty excited about it. what a blessing!

in other news, we announced our baby's name on christmas: Jenna Marie. it was my compromise, since we had already decided on it, and i didn't want it to slip out accidentally. the caveat was: no poopy comments! but the responses were all positive, and if people pooped on it, they did it in private, which is just where that kind of thing should be. :) Go Jenna!

i am still fighting the ever-constant battle of dehydration. i really wish that i was a water-bibber, but i never have been, and even my attempts to drink more don't even bring me remotely close to where i should be. it is a constant source of frustration. i need to eat better, too, but that's another battle. i have said before, that i would almost rather just be hooked up to a couple of IVs that feed and hydrate me at acceptable levels!! ah, the joys of pregnancy. :) but, on the positive side, the baby is very active and healthy, in spite of her mommy's shortcomings. we just do the best we can, right? i HAVE become a cocoa-bibber to try and get some fluids in me....i drink at least two big mugs-ful a day for that purpose alone.

we're still working on unpacking, of course. ISIABS: i saw it in a box somewhere. that's what happened to the knives: ISIABS. so there was no tomato in the pasta the other day, even though i really wanted it...what am i gonna, cut it with a plastic knife? :)

bonuses about the new apt: washer/dryer in unit (YAY), close to work, so i can drive braden and have the car all day, plus have lunch with him. more room, and we can set up the baby's room how we want from the get-go, the office is out in the living room to make room for baby, bonus bathroom, close to the mall, so i can walk around inside if it's raining, close to a lot of stores/restaurants that i consider essential (olive garden, thank you very much, even though they always think we're cheap b/c we only ever get soup).
downsides: the walls are like cardboard...and the peeps above us are young guys who like to party (loudly) every fri and sat night. we can hear them peeing! braden finally went up there at 2am on sunday morning, and they were like, oh sorry, we've never seen jackass 2 before and it's really funny. they seem like nice guys, but they like to get wasted on the weekends, and when they do, they get really loud. i can learn to deal with everyday apt noise, even though it's not ideal, but i really wish they would quiet down...drink your beers quietly and don't pee ever. :) we will probably put in a noise complaint if it happens again this weekend. we're currently 2 for 2.

we have discovered an excellent mexican restaurant just down the street from us. $6.12 for an entree with chips and salsa, a "salad" (read: taco innards) with ranch dressing, spanish tomato rice and refried beans, plus an additional homemade tortilla. it fills us both to bursting. not bad for $3 each...not many people share their food all the time like we do, but we can afford to eat out more precisely b/c we do that. plus we're cheap, and get cheapo (albeit good) food. so this mexican place has a freaking drive-thru! it's all made fresh while you wait, and it only takes about 3-5 minutes to get your food, if that. and it's way authentic...taco bell ain't got nothin' on authentic mexican food.

i'm now going to end this post b/c it's way long. chao!

chipotle guacamole

2006-11-29T11:03:00.000-08:00

by the way, those of you who don't have to drive 45 minutes to get to a Chipotle, count your blessings. i'm way jealous. i sent an email to chipotle.com a few months ago, telling them to put one in lacey, and they'd make a killing. i did get an actual reply back, but it was like, well, thanks, we'll consider that. um, how about build one here, oh, oh.

anyway, i made some guacamole from this copycat Chipotle recipe, and it turned out really good. it's not that difficult to make, either.

from http://www.copykat.com (just look up chipotle guacamole)
Chipotle Mexican Grill Guacamole
Created by admin, November 11, 2006
Description They make everything fresh. This Guacamole is no exception.

24 ripe avocados
1 1/2 C. red onion, minced
1/2 C. jalapenos, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup lime juice
Salt
Methods/steps
Wash avocados. Cut in half and scoop out the meat into a large bowl. Partially mash the avocados. Add onion, jalapenos, garlic and lime juice. Mash together until well blended and fairly creamy in consistency. Salt to taste

(note: i should mention that i cut the recipe down to 4 avocados, and lo, it was plenty!! so don't use 24 unless you're planning to feed your whole ward at once...or the entire stake, maybe)

recipe site and delish orange drink

2006-11-29T10:58:00.000-08:00

i found a really cool site for recipes: http://recipes.robbiehaf.com/
i tried the following recipe, and it's really good, so i'll post it here:

Almost Orange Julius®
Cool, creamy orange smoothie drink.
Recipe Created By: Robbie
Prep. Time: 0:15
Serves: 2
6 oz. can frozen concentrated orange juice
1 cup milk - low-fat okay
1 cup water
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
8 ice cubes
-Pour all ingredients, except ice cubes, in a blender.
-Blend, adding ice cubes one at a time, until smooth.

my only difference is that i add 4 cubes in with everything, blend that, stop the blender, add the other 4 ice cubes and then blend that...i don't think it matters, but it does save me from splattering orange drink all over the kitchen, yo.

try it, it's delish!

almost 22 weeks along...and counting

2006-11-29T10:34:00.000-08:00

mom's coming as i write. her plane gets in around 5pm. as you may guess, i'm rather excited about seeing her, since i thought that i wouldn't until la bebé comes. and speaking of that, we are having a girl, although most of you reading this already know that. she's very healthy and active, which i know firsthand as her muscles get stronger and she kicks harder. Gladys Herdman hits too hard. :)
we got to keep 7 or so pictures from the ultrasound last week...5X7's, too, and pretty nice quality. at one point during the hour-long ultrasound, she crossed her arms in front of her, as if to say, all right already, peeps, go away!! it was pretty funny. i was shocked that it's a girl, b/c i was absolutely convinced it was a boy. but a girl is lovely!! and i'm excited for her to come and wear seafoam green cute stuff! also, braden won me a baby kermit baby beanie-ish thing, and i'll give it to her when she's born. cuteness! or maybe i'll wait until she's a little older so kermit doesn't die a slobbery death. we'll see.

so i think i had some braxton hicks contractions yesterday, which was mildly disconcerting, since at first all i could think of was, this is exactly how Gina described labor to me!! but then they went away. when i read up on the subject, it seems that they can be felt as early as the 20th week, and dehydration and heavy exercise, including lifting, can contribute to having them. so there you go...i've had some strenuous days lately, because of shopping after thanksgiving, errands and especially trying to get the house cleaner for mom's coming. it's amazing how fast the house gets dirty if you don't have the energy to clean some each day. grr.

also, speaking of dehydration, we had an impromptu trip to the ER on Thanksgiving around 7pm, since i was having increasing abdominal pain that radiated downward. i had felt it the night before, but it wasn't as bad then, and it was really bothering me on Thanksgiving, to the point where i started to worry about the baby. i told braden and called mom to see what she thought, and she said to go to the ER just in case. it was one of those things where i probably wouldn't go in if it were just me, but i wanted to make sure that the baby was okay. so we were there for about 3 hours, and at the end, they said, um, well, we don't know what's causing the pain, but you're a little dehydrated, so drink lots of water, mmbye. um, thanks. well, we did get to listen to the baby moving around, since the nurse strapped this thing around me to listen to the baby's heartbeat. haha, she's so active that every time the nurse would get a heartbeat, it would fade away almost immediately b/c she kept moving. she's perfect for the ellis baseball team! :)
so anyway, i'm trying to drink more water, but i've never been much of a water drinker, and it's near impossible for me to drink as much as they're telling me to. so i just do the best i can.

what else?

2006-11-11T11:32:00.000-08:00

it rains a lot here, in case you were wondering about the general state of the weather here in the northwest. we went to central WA last weekend (well, for about a day total from Sat to Sun) and when we were coming back, it rained constantly and for the next 2-3 days...and i'm talking downpour resulting in flooding. a couple of days since then we've had a couple few hours of sunshine, but never a day without at least some rain. bleh.

we were in central WA for david and gina's baby's blessing. david got some virus the night before and threw up like 6 times, so i'm amazed he gave the blessing. then again, it's not like the entire fam was there...NO PRESSURE! oh wait, a lot of pressure. basically, everyone had come out for that, so doubtless he would've liked to wait, but then the rest of the family wouldn't have been there. we were glad to see the baby in her cute dress. crazy to think that that will be us in another 4+ months.

we have the date set for our big ultrasound: nov. 20! woohoo!!

muévete mamita (o papito)

2006-11-11T11:27:00.000-08:00

the baby is moving...or should i say that I can feel it now? i felt it on Wednesday morning and each morning thereafter. today braden felt it move, too, which is also exciting. i thought that there would be more time where only i could feel it, but i like it better that he can feel it, too, especially since then i know it's not gas!

more work

2006-10-13T17:12:00.000-07:00

so...just got a phone call a couple of hours ago asking if i could work on the same project up north starting tomorrow through the following saturday. so eight days with a lot of overtime. i'm planning on doing it, but i need to confirm with the woman i'd been staying with if the weekend is ok as well. she had said that next week i was welcome to stay with her again. she's so nice! i did work really hard to make it so she'd hardly notice i was there, and she said that i was very successful! :) so i'm just waiting for her to get home from work, and then i'll call and see. i don't really have a burning desire to be up there at a desk for the next eight days, but...beaucoup bucks. i'm hoping that i'll be healthy and able to do everything, but i've been blessed so far (the other three weeks). wish me luck!

phew...that's a relief :P

2006-10-09T14:17:00.000-07:00

You Are 36% Slacker

You have a few slacker tendencies, but overall you tend not to slack.

You know how to relax when the time is right, but you aren't lazy!

Are You a Slacker?

hmm...not quite the next foreign language i'd had in mind

2006-10-08T20:09:00.000-07:00

You Should Learn Swedish

Fantastisk! You're laid back about learning a language - and about life in general.

Peaceful, beautiful Sweden is ideal for you... And you won't even have to speak perfect Swedish to get around!

What Language Should You Learn?

Duh with a capital D

2006-10-07T13:47:00.000-07:00

You Belong in Summer

Energetic, creative, and very curious about the world...

You're not going to let anything hold you back, especially a cold day.

Whether you're chilling out at the beach or partying all night, you live for the warm weather.

What Season Are You?

yes, yes I can

2006-09-13T10:58:00.000-07:00

i am 10 weeks and 4 days along right now. the little pin that we got from the pregnancy center is the exact size and shape of the feet of a 10 week old fetus. it's cute.

and here's a picture of the baby right now, although it's from the web and not our actual baby:

my symptoms had been getting worse as of a week ago, but then yesterday wasn't so bad. when i called to make an appt. with the doctor, the person making the appt was like, oh, it's normal for symptoms to get worse during the 10th week, and they usually don't get better until after the 16th week. i was thinking, i really didn't need to hear that. but then i was reassured later by other peeps that it's more like the 12th week...i know that everyone is different, so i may be sick longer than that, but i just don't need to hear about it!!

i got a surprise call from a localization company that had interviewed me back in july for a freelance job north of the city. i had thought that for whatever reason they had decided not to give me a contract, just b/c i hadn't heard from them for so long, and i knew it was in september. anyway, the person called and offered me the job starting next week. it'll go for about 10 days, heavy on the overtime. and it pays really well. i felt good about taking it, and i'm praying for good health and the energy i will need to be able to work 11 hour days with a 2 hour commute. but, i asked braden's mom to ask around and see if anyone she knows closer to that area would be willing to let me stay with them just for those days. it's not like i'd be around much! anyway, i hope it all works out, but i feel good about it. it sure was an answer to prayer! we've been praying for more financial opportunities, and it looks like things are opening up. braden, despite getting mono last week, was able to land a part-time job that i found on craigslist. it seems like at least some benefits will come through after 90 days, and he'll be able to accrue some vacation as well. plus, it's with a really respected doctor, and braden will get the lpn experience he needs. we're excited. his school starts next week.

grandma s.

2006-08-31T23:13:00.001-07:00

so i've been thinking about grandma s. this week...i think it was 5 years ago this past monday that she passed away. i miss her very much. so here's an "ode" to grandma:

What I Miss About Grandma S

1. I miss watching Scooby Doo with her...I was always scared of the villains and wouldn't watch it without being on her lap.
2. I miss the Grandma smell...it's silly, but no one ever smelled the same and the house just isn't the same without her. (and i don't mean smelly..she smelled great!)
3. I miss rabbit in the hole...she would cut a circle into a piece of bread, put it in a frying pan and cook an egg in the hole. I tried doing it once, but it wasn't the same.
4. I miss the full Grandma kid library...it's been mostly dismantled now. Good ol' Jake McGee and His Feet, Sport and other great books.
5. I miss watching Jeopardy with both her and Grampa.
6. I miss sleeping over and waking up to doughnuts and sugar cereal.
7. I even miss her immediately asking, "Whaddya want taped?" whenever I called.
8. I miss her care packages to me in college...they came whenever I needed them most, and she always seemed to just know when to send them. I ate that squeeze cheese on crackers all the time in the dorms!
9. I miss her waving from the kitchen window whenever we drove away.
10. I miss her just being in the house...it took a long time after she was gone to not feel that she was just in another room and that you could just go down the hall and she'd be there.
11. I miss mud milk.
12. I even miss buttermilk...yuck! It was just normal for it to be in the fridge, not that I ever drank it.
13. I miss going into the bedroom and just looking in the closet to see what cool stuff Grandma had. Dress-up!
14. I miss ravine trips.
15. I miss Grandma's laugh.
16. I miss how she let me fall asleep during a conversation with her and mom one semester after finals. she knew that it was nothing personal, and that I was just exhausted.
17. I miss how she would call Mom and vice versa. I think it's great how close they were.
18. I miss her sweaters.
19. I miss the innumerable clothing magazines always around.
20. I miss her generosity. I still wear the dresses and skirts that she bought for me as an 18 year old (although I won't fit in them much longer!).
21. I miss her doing puzzles...there was forever a puzzle on the dining room table.
22. I miss how she would let us have toys in the kitchen and run and slide on the tiles.
23. I miss the silly picnic towel in the bathroom...and the cartoon frog on the wall.
24. I miss hugging her. What great hugs!

I just miss her. I wish she could have seen my wedding and graduations...not to mention my future kids. It's a good thing that we don't know when our loved ones will be taken from us, because I never would have left on my mission if I had known that that was the last time I would see her on this earth. I wasn't ready for her to go. But I know that I'll see her again someday, and that gives me comfort.

life

2006-08-04T11:29:00.000-07:00

so life is pretty much same old, same old right now. not much to blog about. braden is off at work now, and i'm waiting for a phone call from a potential client. it's always so much better to have them available when you call, b/c then you're prepared to say exactly what you've practiced. but when they are calling you back, you have to wait for the call and aren't as prepared. grr.

was supposed to go blackberry picking with marissa this morning, but she's not feeling well. she and her husband came over last night for fhe, except that it was mostly chatting and eating peach pie. we couldn't do it on monday, b/c braden worked the night shift that night. there's this section of blackberry bushes behind a dept. store not too far from our apt. and hey, free blackberries. but they've turned out to be quite bitter so far, so we've resolved to either make jam (with lots of sugar) or pies out of them.

i went to the huntamer (braden's mom's side) family reunion without braden last saturday b/c he had to work. braden's grandad was one of 12 siblings, but there weren't as many people there as i would've thought. i did have fun, though, since i played badminton for a while. i'd forgotten how fun that is. david and gina (braden's brother and his wife) were in town from friday until yesterday, and i went over to braden's parents on wednesday night and hung out with them.

we had an ellis family get-together on tuesday night and celebrated david, benny and sarah's birthdays. sarah is steve (braden's bro) and april's daughter and benny is devon (braden's bro) and teresa's son. braden gave david an interesting present, but i'll leave that story for braden.

in other news, we went to costco yesterday and were approached three times by random people while eating lunch. i felt like a celebrity. this lady in her 40's came up to us and asked braden to tell an older gentleman that his fly was down. she was like, "i just think it would be better coming from a man, and i don't want to embarrass him. it's not like i was looking or anything." she and her friend were directly across from us, and the old guy was diagonal and to our left. they then all proceeded to stay there way after they were done eating, which led us both to believe that something was a little off about it. braden thought it might have been a survey-type thing to see what different people do in that situation. anyway, then a few minutes after she asked, some other guy comes up to the old guy and starts chatting away, so braden's like, well, i'm not going to go over there and interrupt their conversation to be like, um, i noticed from behind you that xyzpdq. so then a guy that used to be in our current ward came up and started talking to us for a while, so we used that excuse to pretend that we'd forgotten about the zipper thing and walked away to do our shopping. oh, and the first time we were approached, a different guy came up to braden and said, you work at walmart, don't you? and when braden said no, he was like, oh, sorry, you look familiar, and then walked away. i was expecting an autograph request by the end of our meal, geez!! i'd like to hear what everyone would do in the zipper request situation...i told braden that i'd feel obligated to do it, but i certainly wouldn't want to and would try to get out of it. braden never actually agreed to do anything, though.

punk

2006-07-22T22:26:00.000-07:00

i know you've all been waiting with baited breath to hear what's going on here on the west coast. well, not much. except a heat wave that i'm loving. although it's getting a tad unbearable even for me...up to 92 degrees at one point. then braden's brother david said that it was like 110 or so in central WA, so i guess we have it easy here.

we went to a french restaurant with braden's parents on wednesday night, which also happened to be our 11th luniversary...almost a year, baby! i can't believe it's passed so quickly. weird how school consumes your life when you're in it, and then all of a sudden, you look around and you've graduated. anyway, the french restaurant was pretty good food, but it was small portions compared to what us greedy americans are used to. so when braden and i ordered our usual one plate/share deal, we were still hungry afterwards. avocados and chicken at home!

the new costco opened up on tuesday, so we went to sampling heaven. we saw our friends marissa and dave there, but quickly went our separate ways for maximum samplage. the place was packed...does that say something about laceians, that they come out in droves for free samples? is lacey so boring that the entertainment can be found at costco? ahh, the questions of life. braden and i went up and down every aisle systematically so as to partake of everything there, and i must say, we both were full to bursting when we finally got done. i don't know if anyone's heard of thomas kemper rootbeer and sundry drinks, but it's good stuff, and who can resist a rootbeer float sample? we ended up buying some of that, as well as some hot dogs that we hadn't planned on, either. so while costco ended up paying for our dinner, it was negated by those impulse items. but hey, i mean, rootbeer.

in other news, i was surprised to learn that someone besides dan and carolyn was giving grampa more great-grandchildren. yeah, um, it's not me yet; you can all be sure that i would have mom's head if she posted that about me, as she wisely realizes. rest assured that phone calls would be made.

braden and i are both speaking in sacrament meeting tomorrow. braden is, of course, looking forward to it; i, of course, am not. surprised, anyone? then braden teaches sunday school to his 13-14 yr olds, and in the last hour, i teach relief society. we ellisi are in great demand tomorrow. the bishop forgot to have me sustained for my primary calling last week, so now i have to stand up on the stand!! grr. i wouldn't mind so much if i could sit right back down, but i always get confused about how long i'm supposed to stay standing. my calling is like a coordinator for the 8-11 yr old girls' activity thing every other week. apparently there's 4 other peeps that do it, too, which is good, b/c i have very little idea of what all that entails.

dan, did i learn to bat right-handed b/c of you? b/c i can't remember; i just know that that's the way i've always done it, but now i'm trying to learn lefty, b/c that's how i should bat. i'll get more power that way, anyway. it's tough, though. it'll take a while before it feels comfortable.

we went to the ward service project today, to help out on the grounds of a high school around here. it was hard work, mulching, raking, weedwhacking, etc. but hey, free lunch. :) no, it was fun. but we are both very tired. i walked to the hospital yesterday, just b/c i felt like it, and i wanted to see how long it took. about 35 minutes, give or take. not too bad. but i definitely overextended myself. i'm trying to strengthen my leg so that i'm able to do things without it being a liability like it has been since i injured it on my mission. hopefully, i will be able to do so.

i was supposed to have a phone interview about a website testing job up north of seattle (a temp job for 4-5 weeks), but she said she was going to get back to me on tuesday, and it's saturday now. makeage-o. i'll have to email in a couple of days if i still don't hear anything back.

i have to go pick up braden soon...peace out.

taken from another bro

2006-07-02T23:17:00.000-07:00

99 Things About Me

1. Name: Kerry

2. Middle Name: If you're from the Pittsburgh area, chances are you'll not only know it, but call me by both my first and middle names together.

3. State: Washington, for now.

4. Place of Birth: Ohio

6. Male or Female: Female

7. Ride Bus: not anymore

8. School: NONE!!!

9. Occupation: translator
10. Initials: KJE

11. Screen Name: dieinahugefire

12. Hair Color: dark blond naturally.
13. Hair Length: A little past my shoulders.

14. Eye color: Blue, usually, but they change color depending on what i'm wearing. They can be varying shades of blue, gray and green.

16. Height: 5'5"

17. Braces?: mom asked me once when i was in middle school or high school if I wanted to get them, but i didn't want to have glasses, bad acne AND braces, so i declined. now i regret it, though...should've gotten 'em.

18. Glasses?: Yes. i've been wearing them more since i need a new prescription for my contacts (and glasses).

19. Freckles?: Some...more if i get some sun. but i have some that i've always had.

20. Dimples?: probably. nothing to stop traffic.

FIRSTS

22. First best friend: Melanie, a blind girl from when we lived in Oregon. She was cool, and I would help her during class in 1st grade.

23. First Award: i had some ghetto medal from around 4th grade that i don't even know what it's from. probably something like, “way to clean your desk, kerry.”

24. First Sport You Joined: i played softball for the "Sprouts" when i was around 5-7 years old. can't remember if i was the only girl, but i was one of the only girls.

26. First Real vacation: we used to go to Pymatuning on the pennsylvania-ohio border. ahh, good times. not good times when you had to make a stinky in the middle of the night, though. my kingdom for some decent indoor plumbing.

27. First thing you said today: "I'm going to go check if that lady emailed me back."

28. First Love: Braden, of course! i didn't know what love was until i met him.

FAVORITES.

29. Movie: Currently, it's Superman Returns. it's been a long time since i've been that moved in a theater. i absolutely loved it. "say, jim! WOOOOOOOO!" Enduring Favorite: hmmm...LOTR is up there, along with The Fugitive.

30. TV Show: Braden and i have really gotten into House, MD lately. Gotta love Seinfeld, too. Some of my guilty pleasures are Survivor and Amazing Race, although we don't get any TV channels.

31. Color: Blue

32. Rapper: Braden. Bray-don, Brayd-out.

33. Place to get groceries: Schmost-co. It rules. but you better like what you get, 'cause you'll be eating it for a year.

34. Food: Chicken Fettucine alfredo is up there. Buffalo chicken sandwiches with bleu cheese/ranch dressing. Mugzee's wings of gorgi.

35. Season: hmm. how about months? i love may and september. probably summer, though...i need to be warm. it has to be pretty hot for me to be death hot.

36. Candy: not much of a candy person anymore. when i was, though, i would eat sweetarts and butterfingers like there was no tomorrow. good thing i've always had a good metabolism!

37. Sport: to play? Softball, Ultimate Frisbee, Tennis To watch? any extreme sport, gymnastics, anything on the olympics.

38. Restaurant: Mugzee's wings are sorely missed here. Gotta say Chipotle, though, and that is even more sorely missed. the closest one's 45 min away.

40. Store: Record Exchange. any store where i can browse books, music and movies, either all together or separately.

41. School Subject: Spanish, Art

42. Animals: now, anyone who knows me knows that i don't like pets. however, i can think some animals are cute...far away from me. the puppy in Regarding Henry was cute. i thought it was cool when my friend marv stood on his turtle. (it doesn't hurt it)

43. Book: Jane Eyre was aws. Timeline, Ender's Game, Enchantment.

44. Magazines: i have this guilty pleasure of quick reading about celebrities...what can i say, i'm intrigued sometimes.

45. Doing before you started this survey: finishing a Jeffrey Deaver novel and pseudo-watching my hub play mario baseball and win 89 to 6.

46. Feeling: right now i'm tired...and wishing this inquisition would end soon.

47. Wearing: braden's pants, his shirt that shrank in the wash, and my pajama top over it. he had the fan on, and i got cold.

48. Crying about: umm, i'm not crying. if i do, it's usually hormones out of control; ladies, you know what i mean.

49. Eating: we've been on a chicken caesar salad kick since last night. we've had it the last 3 out of 4 meals. that's what you get when you buy romaine lettuce at costco; we used up 4 heads in a day (we had company over, though; we're not that piggy!)

50. Drinking: Apple juice.

51. Typing: the answer to this question.

53. Listening To: i was listening to miranda lambert and then josh turner.

54. Thinking about: bed, yo.
55. Wanting to: go to bed, yo.

56. Watching: the screen as i type.

FUTURE.

57: Where do you see yourself in 5 years: playing with mah kiddos.

58. Kids: um, duh, unless you skipped the above answer.

59. Want to be Married: i better want to be, cause i'm stuck now! :)

60. Career in Mind: translation...oh, look, here i am already.

OPPOSITE SEX.

63. Hair color: sexy.

64. Hair length: short, nothing else.

65. Eye color: blue, but green's nice, too

66. Measurements: 36-24-36. Only if he's 5'3! (um, if you don't get the reference, you're not a child of the sir-mix-a-lot days. besides, how else can i respond to a question like that? what female gives her ideal man's measurements? here you go: good ones.)

67. Cute or sexy: both, yo.

68. Lips or Eyes: i've always been an eyes person myself, but like ryan pointed out, ya generally don't go kissin' the eyes. so both.

69. Hugs or Kisses: both....come on, peeps.

70. Short or Tall: i've always liked tall guys, but now i like 5'9 the best.

71. Easygoing or serious: easygoing, but serious when the situation calls for it. you don't want to be discussing a momentous decision and have your significant other say, "well whatever, i mean, hey, yo."

72. Romantic or Spontaneous: both.

73. Good or Bad: um, good. is that a real question?? i mean, i guess if you like bad boys.

74. Sensitive or Loud: i met this person the other day who kept talking just to hear himself talk, and i was like, i could not be married to someone like that. you may infer my answer from that.

75. Hook-up or Relationship: i never hooked up before i got married, and i certainly don't plan to now.

77. Trouble Maker or Hesitant: who came up with this question? cause yeah, if you're not a trouble maker, the first adjective that comes to mind is "hesitant". i like to have fun, but i'm not down with my hub committing a felony.

HAVE YOU EVERS.

78. Kissed a Stranger: believe it or not, i did. actually, it was this kid that kissed me when i wasn't expecting it on the playground at summer camp before 4th grade. i wanted to kiss tomas, though, so i was mad and chased him. ah, young not-love.

79. Had major surgery: the day i was born, for a bowel obstruction.

80. Gone commando: not that i know of. maybe if i couldn't make it to the clubhouse in the middle of the night at pymatuning? but not likely. :)

81. Ran Away From Home: i don't really remember the incident that ryan's referring to. i do remember dan and i attempting to train on bikes so that we could ride back to ohio from virginia one summer. but dan got mad at me because i'd get so tired going up those big hills in alexandria...but, i mean, come on. like a 9-year-old going to be able to ride up death hills the first try! those hills were like bountiful's. i also remember ryan and i going exploring grandma g's woods and being gone so long that grandpa went looking for us. grandma was really mad and of course blamed it all on me because i was older and of course ryan was the darling and never did anything wrong. :) i'm still indignant about getting the sole blame for that!

82. Broken a bone?: nope. i've had some problems with my leg since the mish, though.
83. Got an X-ray: of my leg.

84. Been on a cruise: No.

85. Broken Someone's Heart: Yes.

86. Dumped someone: Yes, a few times. I never liked doing it, though.

87. Cried When Someone Died: if you have to ask, then you don't know me at all.

88. Cried At School: i got stung by a freaking bee while i was taking a test in 6th grade! but i finished my test and then told the teacher. :)

BELIEFS.

89. God: Yes.

90. Miracles: Yes. I don't believe in coincidences.

91. Love at First Sight: I think it's possible.

92. Ghosts: Not exactly in the way that the world conceives of them, but yes.

93. Aliens: Do I believe that there are other worlds out there with humans like ourselves on them? Yes. I don't believe in Star Trek aliens and the like. But M. Night Ramalamadingdong is sure making a lot of money off of people that do. :)

94. Soul Mates: I live with mine. So yes.

95. Heaven: Yes.

96. Hell: Duh.

98. Kissing on The First Date: That would be so completely out of character for me.

99. Horoscopes: I think they should be used as toilet paper when you don't want to walk down to the Pymatuning clubhouse in the middle of the night. Poop!

what goeth on

2006-06-28T13:38:00.000-07:00

so Braden started his job on Monday. They have him working at 5am for the next few days...that's been interesting, especially we haven't really made a concentrated effort to get to bed earlier. Today I woke up with him and couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up and played on the internet for a bit. Then, when I went back to bed, I couldn't get to sleep for a while and when I woke up, I was cranky, still tired and had a headache. I thought to myself, "Self, this isn't going to work." I will refrain from further getting up at 4:50am.

I just sent off a resume to a former teacher of mine, and also sent an email to another former teacher (/classmate) indicating my freelance status. The former should be sending me a confidentiality agreement form to fill out/sign and the latter will send me a translation test next week. Hopefully both will pan out. At the very least, it will give me more work experience, so I can then apply to other companies and actually have references to give, besides just my professors. :)

I like our apartment, but the walls are really rather thin. We can hear everything outside, not super loud, but enough so that you notice it. One of our neighbors is rather crass, yelling at his daughter, swearing and playing really loud music with the bass pumped up, yo. He never seems to be gone during the day, either. I hope the situation improves.

We were playing catch the other day, and I got pegged in the shin with a grounder. Ouch!

muerte de la pimpera

2006-06-23T18:34:00.000-07:00

so this second draft of my translation is death slow...i just can't seem to make myself sit down and do it for very long. but, i am getting it done TONIGHT!

it's about a literary pimp-ess and a certain famous painter's fascination with her in his drawings and paintings. here's a hint: his first name is pablo. or was, since he done bit it. i guess i'm just tired of reading and writing about an old, ugly pimp-ess and her shenanigans. can you blame me?

in other news, way glad to hear that ry got a job. braden says, if ya gotta work fast food, quizno's is better than mcdonalds. but it's freaking expensive these days. good food, though.

i have decided to start reading literary classics. if they suck, i can (novel idea) put them down, unlike in high school or college. i devoured jane eyre in like 2 days. excellent book....and excellent movie. "ah, the helpful governess, a miss JANE EYRE!" "is grace poole another one of your...grand passions??" "hey nonny, nonny, hey nonny, nonny". "EVERY EVENING, JANE!!!" ah, good times. ry, you remember right? we used to watch that, and i just borrowed it from the in-laws. it's one of those movies that is simultaneously very good and very fun to make fun of. what is up with jane and mr. rochester never kissing on the lips? they like put their ears together and breathe... it's very humorous.

we just watched the new pride and prejudice with keira knightley. it was good, but i much prefer the bbc miniseries with colin firth. i didn't think much of the mr. darcy in this one, but he grew on me. and i was like, ew, get off. haha.

btw, kettle corn burns very easily, even if you think, i was listening and got there right when it stopped popping.

it was gorgeous today, but i've been in for most of the day. i did go out to the library to get some classics, though. i'm going to try out Kafka's Metamorphosis. nothing like waking up and realizing you're a giant vermin. makes your skin crawl, doesn't it?

well, back to work.

behold...a test

2006-06-19T17:20:00.000-07:00

testing, testing
let me know if you all can see this picture.

wa-sheet-chu

2006-06-19T17:13:00.000-07:00

hey all,
just wanted to say that for now my plans are to keep up this blog, and have WA chronicles for braden and i's joint schtuff.

i can't write much right now, b/c i'm working on a long translation that's due friday. i'm a little stressed to get it done. i hope my projects aren't always so stressful. but maybe that's just the nature of the industry, and i have a tendency toward that, anyway. everyone wants everything yesterday.

why can no one spell north olmsted right? even when you specifically spell it out for them? just a small pet peeve. nothing against those who in this particular case spelled it wrong. :)

it's cool that ry got a verizon cell phone! yay...convert, all ye who have not verizon! for kerry wisheth to talk to ye!

meh-wage

2006-05-17T05:10:00.000-07:00

marriage is cool, yo. carolyn said she hasn't heard much about it since i've been in school. that's b/c school has been this insidious leech that drained all my powers. but now i'm back, baby!! it's early in the morning, so if i don't make any sense, that's why.

we LOVE the medical drama House, MD. it's so cool. we have the first season on dvd. basically, once we started House, we disowned ER; it's that good. what's funny about that is that there was a really climactic moment on the last episode of ER, but we were like, meh.......let's watch HOUSE!! i wholeheartedly recommend it, even if it is a bit formulaic. it stinks that we have to wait a while for the second dvd to come out, seeing as how season 2 is still going on! (i believe the season finale is this tuesday). i haven't watched regular tv in so long, since we don't really get reception in our apartment, and also due to lack of time in general. so we will be going through house withdrawal in a little bit, especially the way we've been tearing through episodes in the past couple of days. i hope they don't wait forever to bring out the dvd, like ER. whoever's in charge of ER dvds is way lame...what is ER on, like season 13?? and yet, they're only on season 4 of dvd. how long does it take, really?? they're just keeping all those ER fans in suspense so they get more sales.

as of now, we are without: a kitchen table or chairs, dresser, office chair, desk, 2 lamps, 2 bikes and bedside tables. trust me, there's still plenty of stuff in here!! we're going to try and tear through some packing today. yesterday i was focused on getting some translation samples together for an interested person in WA. so i had to go through all my past translations from the last 2 years, decide which ones i wanted to use for samples, and then go about typing up the source (spanish) text if i didn't have an electronic version of it. since this laptop is not, shall we say, conducive to accents, it took a while to do all that. i would also like to put together some other samples from other classes. the ones i sent are mostly medical.

i meet with one of my profs today for some advice on getting started in literary translation. i'm going to pick his brain, since he's pretty well established in the field and has done well.

braden's still asleep, but i guess my body's pretty accustomed to waking up around 7:15am or so... i've never changed the time on my blog, and now it's pointless to do so, since it will finally be correct in a couple of weeks. it's kind of like the clock in my car...right for 6 months out of the year! lol.

what's up with the weather around here lately? you'd think we were already in WA!! nothing but rain. i guess WA's having great weather, nice sunny days.

grampa invited us, mom, dad and kevo out to dinner on monday. i don't know if that means no brunch the next day, since we told him we'd like to come down from cleveland and do that on our way to cincy. i'll have to ask. but, dinner will be fun!!

braden tried to blog about us being together again, meaning that now that he's done with work, and i'm done with both work and school, we get to spend a lot more time together, which is very nice. ah yes, it's-a, very nice-a. i remember days when we wouldn't see each other for 12 hours or more, usually when I had 8am work and he worked until 9pm. i hated those looong days. but we got through it.

i can't believe i'm done with everything. it's a good feeling, though. i'm totally done with school!!!

geep

2006-05-15T15:33:00.000-07:00

so the last grade finally came in....

it's a 4.0 for my entire career at Kent! that's pretty much since spring '03. don't mean to brag, but i am pretty proud of it; it's been a lot of hard work. i'm relieved that my final grade didn't come in as an A-. The university switched to a +/- system starting Fall '05, and it would've sucked to get a 3.999 or whatever.

we've had a lot of success with our "garage" sale...we've sold more than i thought we would. pretty soon people will start coming to get stuff, and we won't have anything to sit on or eat off of. the move is really close.

i sent off more than 20 resumes today to various translation companies in the U.S. I sent a bunch to WA, and some to UT, OH and OR. It really doesn't matter where they're located, though; it's a freelance contract, so the translator can live anywhere. i got a couple of replies back so far, but it's mostly "thanks for your resume; we'll contact you when we need your services". but i have some interested peeps. we'll see how it goes. braden's been applying to various job postings in WA. apparently, there's an open house at the hospital the day after we get there, so braden signed up for that.

we just got back from the farm in PA last night; grandma's doing pretty well and is as funny as ever. we took a lot of pictures, too. the miller relatives got together for a mother's day luncheon for grandma.

and oh yeah, i done gradjeeated. word. lots o' pics o' that, too. good times. you know how the university president says, "by the power vested in me...i confer your degree, blah, blah."? i think it'd be rad if she said, "by the power of greyskull...I HAVE THE POWER!!! to confer your degree". it sure would make the graduation ceremony more interesting.

that's all from here...gotta go do some moving schtuff.

yo yo

2006-05-06T16:13:00.000-07:00

I am totally done with the requirements for my master's degree as of last night. all i have to do is turn in a bound copy of my case study and a CD with the file on it to the main office. it's all ready to go; i just have to wait for the office to open on monday. i can't believe i'm graduating in less than a week. that is craziness. i look back and think of all i had to go through to get to this point, and i honestly don't know if i would/could do it all over again. well, at this point, i wouldn't, just b/c i need a long break from school.

i am, however, planning on studying french soon. i'm excited about that, b/c braden can help me. i went and saw mission impossible III today with some coworkers, and in the movie, there's a part where they speak some italian, and i could pretty much understand what was being said without any subtitles. it was pretty cool. the movie itself was good...not great. i'd probably give it a 7 or 7.5 out of 10. it was entertaining and kept you on the edge of your seat, but you'd have to wait a while before wanting to see it again, i think. philip seymour hoffman does make a great villain, though, i will say that.

in other news, finally got ahold of my friend rachel....she had her baby!! it was so good to talk to her; we haven't kept in touch like i wish we would. it's hard to do that after high school. i also sent an email to my old friend jenny; she's now living in orem, ut with her husband brad. crazy how we've all grown up and lead such different lives.

i'm in the midst of going through all my STUFF, trying to get through it all so we can pack up. we got an apartment!!! we had to get braden's parents to cosign so the guy would hold the apt for us; he was going to put it on the market, and since there was no way we could get the application to him before next week, we were kind of screwed, but then i came up with the idea to have his parents do that, and the guy relented. we just got the application in the mail today, so we'll send that off to WA on monday.

i want to work next week, which is finals week, but no one will get back to us whether or not we're approved to work, b/c the office doesn't know if they have the extra funding. finals week and the next three weeks are extra money, if the grad assistants want to work them, they can; if not, it's vacation time. i asked my boss if i could work it, and it's fine with him....we're all just waiting to hear from the higher-ups. so yeah....nice to have absolutely no idea of whether to go into work on monday! well, the thing is, i won't go until i get an email saying that it's approved, b/c, yes, i can use the money, but i ain't working for free!

up to cleveland tomorrow for a little visit after church. we'll get some boxes of stuff that i still have up there. more stuff to go through, yay! :) braden takes his lpn test on tuesday, so he's been studying a lot, and mom offered to help him.

well, i'm starving. off to scrounge around for dinner. :)

defense outcome

2006-04-29T17:48:00.000-07:00

so the big question on everybody's lips...chapped lips, chapped lips, is, did kerry pass her defense? in the words of my advisor, it was a "slam dunk". hooo-ah. hooo-ah. i was nervous as heck, both before and during, but afterwards, i realized that it wasn't as big of a deal as everyone makes it out to be. there were like 2 or 3 questions that i didn't really know the answer to, so i bs'ed my way out of them, which i am very good at, if i do say so my own self. my own advisor asked me a pointed question, and i thought afterward, dude, you're supposed to be on my side!! nah, it's ok, b/c, like i said, i managed to artfully change the subject and no one was the wiser. ah yeah. in all honesty, my advisor really helped me out throughout this whole process of getting ready for the defense. he's cool.

the 2nd reader for my committee is normally scary, but she was pretty cool during the defense and actually spoke less than the 3rd reader. the 3rd reader requested a copy of my translation and mom's sample text, b/c her best friend has fibromyalgia and is in a very similar situation as mom.

braden got me xm satellite radio for a graduation gift. it's rad. i didn't know much about satellite radio before thursday other than that it existed, so when i saw it, i just stared at it. braden was like, please be excited in some way! but as i learned more about the features and everything, i am very impressed. it's great.

i went and had chipotle with two of my coworkers at 11 this morning, but they both were late. i was on my way over to record exchange across the street when my friend called to ask where i was. we must have just missed each other. i figured that she had my # and would call when she got there, which she did. i then went from there to pick up braden at work b/c he is soooo sick. some kind of rabid, nasty head cold that i suspect has been passed on to me. surprise! it's pretty hard not to catch everything your spouse gets... but, i was praying that i at least wouldn't get it until after my defense, so that was granted. but it sure would be nice not to get it right when i'm trying to finish up my last assignments.

i have an interest in doing some mystery/secret shopping. does anyone know of any legit sites out there? i've been looking, but it's hard to tell what's a scam and what's not.

anyway, this is just more procrastination b/c i don't want to do my final project. i better get back to it.

my graduation is Saturday, May 13th at 2pm....all are invited. just let me know you're coming, if you haven't.

ruminations

2006-04-26T09:55:00.000-07:00

i'm sad every time i think about ry staying in vt...it didn't even occur to me that he wouldn't be back in n.o. this summer in time for us to say goodbye before we move. :( well, i know his plans are not definite yet, but still...i hope we get to see each other before the big move.

24 hours from now, i'll be in the middle of my defense. maybe i should show up with a sword and shield and fend off my committee members. OH OH OHHHH, i thought that's what you were supposed to do during a defense. my bad. where's a good list of funny things to do during your defense when you need one? maybe i could tap one of my committee members on the shoulder and say, nodding to my advisor, "he doesn't like you." [...] "i don't like you, either." [...] "you'll be ALIVE!!" how would that go over?
they say you're supposed to dress in your best clothes, so i'm busting out one of my suits. the jacket and pants are a slightly different color, but not enough for anyone to be like, what are you doing, you freak. i rather like the outfit. i'll be stylin'.
actually, i'm trying not to think about my defense much. it freaks me out. but, once i do it, i'll never have to do another one again. that's very motivating.

"if i'd been the size of a rabbit, it would have killed me."
great line from my case study. i had to change it to make it make more sense, but the above is a literal translation that makes me laugh. yeah, you know, if i'd been the size of a horse, i'd have weighed more. good observation.

right now i have to finish up my last workshop translation, do one last weekly critique of readings and finish my final project. the defense is over tomorrow and then i just do corrections and hand in a final copy. i'm trying to have everything done by tuesday, may 9th.

i'm still banished to the office. :)

defense

2006-04-23T20:02:00.000-07:00

well, in my defense, peeps, i'm finishing up grad school!! but yes, i haven't posted in a while. neither have i pooped on old yellow chairs. i'll leave that to my nephew. :)

actually, my defense has been moved to 12:15pm on Thursday, b/c of a scheduling conflict. so pray for me then... i'm a bit nervous, but i've just got to get it over with.

it's a month until we leave as of tomorrow. crazy. we went through our books tonight, discarding a bunch. we need to get rid of a lot of stuff.

i graduate in three weeks, and that really is no time at all. it will fly by, just like this entire semester.

i'm off to bed. sorry this isn't longer, but it's late.

case study

2006-03-30T18:24:00.000-08:00

so i was just reading ryan's blog, where he is talking about having to use the passive voice in technical language, and it quite made me laugh out loud. see, i've been doing almost nothing but my case study, which is so full of bull. here's an example of the drivel i have to write:
"While researching “Seiscientos”, the translator found references to the term as "600". To make sure that the English-speaking reader is aware that a “600” is a car, the translator explicitated in paragraph (#) (Delisle 139): [...]"

puhleeeze. i can't say, "i did this or that"; i have to say "the translator found it necessary to blah blah blah...and oh, btw, blah."

in other news, very sad to hear about sister z. (from church) passing away. my thoughts and prayers are with her family. apparently she was killed in a car accident on tuesday. the news came as quite a shock to me...really makes you think about how fragile life is and how we shouldn't take even a moment of it for granted. i love my family very much.

happy bday!

2006-03-20T15:23:00.000-08:00

And a big shout out for one of my favorite nephews, SCOTT!! Happy Birthday, Scott! so it's the big number 4. wow. that means that my four year anniversary of coming home from the mish is here in a few months. crazy.

we went up to cleveland yesterday for a few hours, to say hello to ryan, who's home on spring break (ours is next week) and also visit with the family. this meant that all of us were either reading or playing computer games on our laptops. ahhh, reminds me of the good old days! (that's not a dis; we enjoyed ourselves very much).

i currently have like 25 books out of the school library, with many more requested from other libraries, and they should be coming in soon. i need to start writing my analysis soon and will start that over break. i'm hoping to get a LOT done over break, since i have that week off of work also. i was telling braden that it will be the last real paper that i write, EVER. i've had it with college papers...it's all a bunch of BS!! i mean, what percent of the college population actually cares what they write about?? well, i guess i just have major senioritis, and i want to graduate and move on with my life. i've spent too much time in school, and it's time to go on to the next phase of my life.

k, well, i need to do some term research....later!

suerie

2006-03-16T06:25:00.000-08:00

hey everyone,
sorry i've been rather lax about posting lately. i imagine that things are just going to get busier until i graduate, though. deadlines for the case study are coming and going, and i feel like, yes, i'm making some progress, but i'm still behind where i should be. thus, i am trying to catch up.

congrats, dan and carolyn! i just heard the good news last night.

i had a great surprise birthday party on the 8th, thrown by braden and also planned by my friends andie and anna. it was way cool, and i was totally surprised. a bunch of my classmates, co-workers and friends came, plus mom, dad g. and kevin were there.

i was going to try and work over spring break, but apparently none of the grad assistants work that week...so in a way, that's a good thing, b/c i will work almost exclusively on my case study, and i do need that time to do it.

graduation is really close--May 13th, I believe (a Saturday). i need to get on the ball about applying for jobs and such.

braden and i borrowed an old-school nintendo from a friend a few weeks ago and have been playing dr. mario on and off. that game is so much fun, and so addictive. one night we played it for 3 1/2 hrs straight! but i haven't been playing that much lately, b/c of homework. (yes, yes, i know...i shouldn't play it, but it's nice to take a break once in a while)

we went up to N. Olmsted to celebrate kev's 18th b-day. with cheesecake of course, so dan, i know you are sad you missed it. :)

that's all she wrote for now.

salsa

2006-02-23T18:30:00.000-08:00

we've taken to making fresh salsa and are quite pleased with the results...so much so that i'm on the verge of being sick of it, but not quite. fresh salsa is soooo good.

we just got back from African Night on campus. it was, um, loud. but hey, free food. this old guy in a dress got up there and offered some sort of prayer to the gods. i leaned over and said to braden, wouldn't it be funny if he yelled, 'ahhhhhhhhh, sie bwetanyaaaaaaaaa...' a la Lion King.

he's 6 foot 4, doesn't drink, doesn't smoke and TELLS the truth!

Clark! You just described the exact contacts of my purse!

...how to SPELL cappuccino or espresso...

i mean, anyone that dresses up as a bat CLEARLY has issues.

happy valentine's day

2006-02-14T10:06:00.000-08:00

i guess i've taken to only posting on holidays. jk.
braden got me the 2004 billboard top 40 book at 12:05am this morning, so then of course i stayed up later!! it's awesome!!! it goes through 2003, so it has a lot of new stuff. i'm excited to look through it more. man, if i could only work for joel whitburn (the author).
so i went to the dentist yesterday, and it turns out i have an inflamed jaw and some sinusitis, so he gave me some antibiotics and steroids. so now i'm buff. :) he said i should feel better in 4-5 days. he goes to my ward, and we know his wife (better than we know him), so his wife and he hooked me up with a free visit, which was extraordinary helpful and generous.
things are coming together for the move to WA in May. we put down a deposit with wehaulmoving. we load up the truck and they drive it.
i just got an email on saturday from Jenny Wang, an old friend from the home ward days. she's doing well in utah with her husband. i need to write her back still, but i will do that shortly.

braden and i went to the LOTR concert with Howard Shore (we didn't go with him; he was just there!) on Saturday night. it was fun. i snagged some extra programs for ry and kev, because i thought they might like them. afterwards, there was a q and a session with Howie, so we stayed. during intermission, you could write a question and drop it in a box, and then maybe howie would answer yours. so braden turned in one. i didn't, b/c i couldn't think of anything to ask that wouldn't have something to do with bathroom humor. :) classic me. anyway, so this guy from case western who teaches film studies was the interviewer, and he was totally lame!! almost all of the questions he asked were his own personal questions, and then he looked down twice and was like, oh yeah, i have this huge pile of actual CONCERTGOER questions. so at the end, he goes, "i feel i would be remiss if i didn't mention that there were a ton of questions about "the hobbit", ie is howie going to do the score for that, and howie totally copped out. his answer was pretty much something like, well, gee, that would be really great to do that, and i certainly hope it does happen, etc, etc, but nothing concrete. he could be a great politician! :) no, i'm joking, i don't really care that he didn't say; i just thought it was humorous how he talked for a couple of minutes on it and essentially said nothing.
i just finished a translation on embryonic stem cells and cloning. it was pretty cool. it was interesting, i understood it, and i learned a lot about the subject, so i'm pretty excited about that. it's good to know that i like medical translation, since i'm almost sure that's what i want one of my translation specializations to be.
i talked to one of the deans here about putting in a good word for me to another prof who apparently has foreign language research grants that come in. i'm hoping that she has some spanish ones that she can send my way.
braden and i have been trying to be more conscientious about cleaning up the apartment. it's amazing how fast things can pile up if you slack even a little, like dishes, clothes or just junk! so we've been trying to do a little every day, instead of having a huge mess and not wanting to start at all. it seems to be working so far. we also want to start exercising at least 20 min. a day, but we'll probably work up to that before we actually do it every day.
that's all for now!

happy groundhog day

2006-02-02T13:17:00.000-08:00

i forgot that it's groundhog day. miss savel would be horrified.

i've been sick since saturday, and i noticed it on friday. this is not a particularly good week for that, but what week ever is? our translation for due on tuesday is a difficult one (our prof rated it 8 or 9 out of 10 on a difficulty scale); it's a patent from Spain. we have to work in groups, which i am never keen on. i have always preferred working by myself. but at least we each get to turn in our own draft.

i'm so out of it right now. home to bed. i really wish i could sleep well at night, but the last few nights, i've done nothing but toss and turn even though i'm exhausted, and that's unusual for me. i usually have no problems getting to sleep. i hope tonight is better.

i LOVE this weather!! YAY!! not like i can go out and do anything in it until i get better, but i sure do prefer it to regular jan/feb temperatures.

the rough draft for the case studies is supposedly feb. 17th. i better get crackin'. the problem is that we have so much homework for my one class that it leaves very little time to work on the case study, which is COUNTERPRODUCTIVE!!! but i've already shared my feelings on that subject.

k, i'm off to catch the bus.

my name is this translation class

2006-01-26T19:00:00.000-08:00

so my class is death homework. meaning, holy cow, can you go a little easier on us??? it really is two classes in one. but it doesn't have to be that way!

anyway, in other news, my case study terminology is not going so well. i met with a prof about it yesterday and she gave me some ideas, but they're still pretty vague. i think i'll just go through and pick a ton that i think she might accept and hope for at least 40...we'll see how that goes.

we just had a presentation on one of the translation computer programs that we haven't learned yet...and he went so fast that all of us stopped taking notes, b/c we'd just get lost if we did. luckily, it looks like the tutorial for the program is pretty easy to follow.

er beckons!!

tooth, part 2

2006-01-20T05:48:00.000-08:00

so braden had to have a root canal, which took a nice chunk out of our bank account. grrr. stupid ritz camera and oops, you're not actually full-time status so sorry, no benefits.

the weird thing is, we both thought that getting one is very painful, but braden said that other than the anesthetic actually going in, it didn't and doesn't bother him at all. we'll see how the second part goes in two weeks. we got some antibiotics for him to take until then.

the night before last, we both had a lot of trouble sleeping...braden b/c of his tooth pain, and i don't know why for me. so we went to bed early last night, which was nice. so now i don't feel quite so zombie-ish.

i was telling mom yesterday that i will really have to budget my time carefully with this sci/tech/med translation class, so that i have time to actually work on my case study. the first draft is due february 17, i believe, which is not very far away. and speaking of that, i had better go finish some homework.

chao! (that's the spanish way to spell it...it does exist)

tooth

2006-01-19T05:41:00.000-08:00

braden's tooth is really bothering him, so he needs to see a dentist asap. i have to work today, but if he needs to have surgery, i'll leave and drive him there and back. he's going to call his work and see what the deal is with benefits, b/c he never heard back and he should have them by now. i hope everything works out, b/c i'm worried about him.

my class on tuesday night lasted the entire 2 hours and 40 minutes, just like i knew it would. if i were a professor, i'd let my students out a little bit early the first class, but on the other hand, i know we have a lot of material to cover. we have a business letter to translate, a chapter to read, a 2 paragraph summary/critique of the reading and then also familiarize ourselves with the dictionaries available in the library. so there's plenty to do. i have to say, i really dislike doing the summaries/critiques...i feel like i write the same drivel every week! i recognize the reasons behind it; it's so we think critically about the article and also to make sure we do read it, but at the same time, it's my least favorite part of the class.

i went through the prof's recommendations of dictionaries and bought two yesterday. they should be coming in a week and a half or so. i wanted to get a couple more, too, but i want to ask his opinion on them, b/c they're both out of date...i hate to spend $90 on a dictionary from 1999, even if it is highly recommended.

in response to carolyn's comments about the unusual weather we've been having lately, i hope it stays! i would love to have a mild winter!

first day

2006-01-17T05:46:00.000-08:00

it's the first official day of the semester. we're having walk-ins for the next two weeks, so things will be crazy at work for a little bit. my only class is tonight, so after tonight i won't have class again for a whole week...that's really nice.

i got more done on my case study yesterday that in any one day during break, mostly because i knew it would be the last real vacation day to do it. but i'll work on it some today before class, too.

we've been checking out moving quotes. we've unofficially decided on a company, since their price has been the lowest by far. we would pack the truck, and then they would drive it. we will probably drive our car to Washington instead of having them tow it and us flying out there, just because, well, i want to go on a road trip, and it will cost essentially the same or maybe less than flying. it will be a good segue into "real world" life, i think. it'll be a long drive, sure, but we'll have fun and get to visit some family and friends we haven't seen in a while.

all right, it's almost time for the big rush to begin here at work, so i will catch you all later.

just kidding

2006-01-14T11:57:00.000-08:00

lame......the pics aren't showing up, like carolyn said. unfortunately, the internet hasn't been working on the desktop computer as of yesterday, so it will have to wait.

my computer is being really lame right now

2006-01-14T11:38:00.000-08:00

so we bought a laptop with our christmas money. i'm on the desktop computer right now, though, and wishing i weren't. but the desk space is so much nicer when i need to consult books, like i do when working on my case study. right now braden uses the laptop way more than i do, but i expect that to even out a little more when i start school again, which is on tuesday. i really don't want to go back right now. well, i'm just sick of school. but i do want to do something. i'm finding that being at home all day really sucks. i need something to do, and i haven't really been able to motivate myself about my case study, although i have worked on it some. i'm nowhere near where i wanted to be with it, but oh well. i really did need a break.

we may be leaving for washington earlier than previously thought, just because it seems to make more sense to do it that way as far as jobs go. then we both can start looking around for jobs earlier, and braden will be more likely to get a job at the hospital where he used to work if it's at the beginning of the summer.

braden's been studying for the LPN exam, which makes me happy. he'll take that...i don't know when he'll take it, but it will be before we move. he's already initiated the paperwork and should receive instructions on how to proceed in the mail. he'll take it here, but it will be for washington state.

vacation

2005-12-24T11:40:00.000-08:00

hey everyone! didja miss me? i know you did.
well, we are back from our honeymoon in not-quite-as-sunny-as-i-hoped florida! notwithstanding the weather, it was a nice break, and we enjoyed ourselves. i guess the hurricane a few weeks ago did quite a bit of damage; we took some pictures of that. actually, we took a ton of pictures, especially braden. he loves that sort of thing; everytime i turned around, he was taking another picture of me. :)

got my grades back...i've managed to keep my gpa the same, so i was happy about that. i really only have one more grade to get next semester.

the professor that was going to look at my case study to discuss an alternate glossary did not shoot it down entirely, so i was thrilled. i was kind of worried that she'd say, this bites, choose another text. but, she did say that i need to focus more on the author's life and experiences more than fibromyalgia itself, which means i need to go through the entire book and pick out different passages to translate. i'm glad i didn't have a ton translated already. it's not really the focus i want, but she's going to be on my committee when i defend, so i really don't have much of a choice about it.

i'm done with christmas shopping as of an hour ago. i basically did it all today, and by that i mean for extended family members. i already had some stuff for braden.

we will be up in cleveland tomorrow for church and to celebrate with the fam up there. in the morning, we'll have our own little christmas, which will be fun.

love and kisses and merry christmas to all!

no mo' finals

2005-12-14T12:06:00.000-08:00

so i'm done with this semester, as of monday night. woohoo!! i've been looking up various translation agencies on the web, since i'll shortly start sending out resumes for work. in the meantime, i need to continue translating my case study, which actually hasn't been touched for awhile.

we're packing tonight for florida. the frisbee's out, b/c we CAN'T forget that! i'm going home soon to look up schtuff to do in ft. lauderdale, but basically, if we're outside on the beach all day every day, i'm totally down with that. i need some gorgeous weather!!

k, gotta catch the bus!

segan to

2005-12-09T06:11:00.000-08:00

the title is a reference to a rather badly edited spanish document given to us by our translation prof. apparently microsoft word had a field day with the spanish. it should read "según lo". i pointed it out in class and was like, what the heck is going on here? also, all the accented o's were 6's. this is a prime example of why proofreading is a good thing.

so i've been reading dan's bbqtv blog, or whatever it's called. i may look around the apt. to see if i have anything to trade, but that's only if dan gets something that i want to trade him for. and josie and the pussycats, even in the actual movie form, is not something that i would even want given to me.

well, we have a meeting in one minute, so i guess i should mosey on over to where it is. we're having a student worker appreciation luncheon today....free food, gotta love it. :) this is my last day of the actual semester. i won't have to get up early for a couple of weeks, not counting sundays. i just have my one class on monday, and then the semester's totally over. all i need to do is finish a translation and write a critical analysis on it, which is due for that class, and then the semester is really and truly over. and good riddance, b/c i am quite in need of a break.

well, i heard back from the one translation company (had to remind him) and now i have to fill out a bunch of security clearance forms, and then they'll start sending me work. he apologized for not getting back, b/c things had been really busy for them.

oops, gotta run!

gone potty

2005-12-06T09:57:00.000-08:00

in the british sense, that is. sorry i haven't been real active on here for the past couple of weeks, but the semester's almost over and things are hectic as usual. this is just a quick note, b/c braden should be here any minute to pick me up.

i have a few more things to do before the semester ends, and it's just a matter of prioritizing. thank goodness this is the last week of class. only one more crazy thursday and then i'm FREEEEEEEEEE!!! apparently we're supposed to get another project for localization (handed out tomorrow), when i was given false hope by a couple of classmates that we wouldn't have anything. i hope that's not too time-consuming. i hope to be done with everything (school-wise) by Monday night, and then i just have to meet with some professors for work as well as clean out my cubicle (we're getting new carpeting) and then i'm free until friday when we leave this frigid state of ohio. i can't wait!!

love and kisses.........

back in the saddle agaaaaaaain

2005-11-17T09:11:00.000-08:00

did ya miss me?
the conference on the whole was pretty lame...they somehow thought 1200 people were going to show up and 1600 showed up, so everything was crowded beyond belief. (which, btw, i don't know HOW they screwed that up, since everyone had to register) i got sick of it by the second day, b/c i'd walk into a session and people were sitting in the aisles and standing up all along the back, etc. LAME. i didn't pay a boatload o' money to not be able to get into the sessions i wanted to. i guess a lot of hotels just don't have enough bigger rooms to accommodate that many people, so they put a bunch of sessions in really tiny rooms, and everyone and their dog tried to get in the door. plus, a lot of the sessions i did attend were boring and/or we already knew the material from our program here at ksu. i did get a few good contacts that i'm going to follow up on, but were they really worth $500? dunno. i did get my rings welded together, since braden bought them out in WA, and i like it much better. i also got to see a little bit of the in-laws, which was nice.
some happy news: my waiver form went through! i only have to take 2 classes next semester (sci/tech/med translation and case study in translation). the latter class is pretty much an individual investigation, so i'm reasonably sure we don't have to meet for that, which means i'd only actually have to physically go to one class. SWEET. i'm planning on devoting christmas break to my case study, since i haven't really had any time this semester to work on it, even though technically you're supposed to. i only know a handful of people who have, though, since we're all so busy. i found out that we're allowed to defend our case study as early as we want to, so i'm going to set a goal to get mine done early. we'll see how that goes. i'm considering not working at all during the break, so i can entirely devote that time to translating. i also want to start researching translation companies and start sending out resumes... it occurred to me this morning that i could see what internships are available for the summer and see what i could get...you never know. everything depends on where it is, for how long, how much it pays, etc, but braden's open to it as well. i wasn't able to apply for anything this past summer, b/c of my GA-ship, but i could next summer... we'll see.

so i saw the night before i left for the conference that we have this huge project due today: a 30 term bilingual glossary, plus 5 hospital forms translated into Spanish. And of course, i couldn't work on it while i was gone, so i started on monday. not only did i manage to get the entire thing done by tuesday night (with some help from braden, who went and got some forms for me and was freaking awesome), but i also finished our regular homework, which was doubled, since we didn't meet the week of the conference. that is some HIGH productivity. i love that sense of accomplishment. i still have plenty of work to do, as always, but i really didn't think i'd get all that done so quickly. YAY!

an fbi guy came and spoke to us yesterday. he was pretty funny, and had a lot of interesting things to say about becoming a contract linguist there. it sounds pretty interesting, but there are some drawbacks to it that i don't know if i could handle (i'll explain in greater detail later), plus the clearance/background check process takes at least a yr, but more like 18 months, so people have to apply and then get another job and quit that one if they finally get cleared.

well, i need to prepare some stuff for today, so peace out.

all my bags are packed, i'm ready to go...

2005-11-08T09:56:00.000-08:00

actually, my bags are only partly packed. MOST-ly dead.
Anyway, i got my business cards from kinkos on friday, and they didn't put a spaces where they should have in "Spanish<>English Translator". they had it like i wrote it just now, no spaces whatsoever, even though that was specified. grr. it's not horrible, and it's not like i can't hand them out, but it's just annoying that even when they were told that, and i also asked if they had any questions, to which they replied no, and they still messed it up. plus, every time i talked to someone, their estimated delivery time kept going up and up (3 different times, 3 different employees). when i pointed this out to the one guy, he very quickly started explaining, "well, blah, blah, blah.." whatever...just pick one and tell that to everyone. i don't care which it is; it's the inconsistency that bothers me.

i leave tomorrow way early in the morning. i hope i can get to bed early tonight. i'll have to get up at like 4am or something crazy like that. yuck. :)

i made "rabbit in the hole" yesterday for brunch, just like Grandma S. used to make, except she probably never had to recook it after noticing that it wasn't actually cooked all the way. it's where you cut a hole in the middle of a slice of bread and then cook an egg in there. delish. i saw it on ER the other day, although they called it something else, so i had a hankering for it. a hanker for a hunk 'a cheese. who remembers school rock or whatever it's called?

for one of my exercises (ie, homework) for healthcare interpreting, we have to find 4 derogatory terms and 4 vulgar terms in our languages and then try to find equivalents in english. i had fun telling braden yesterday (when he asked what i'd been doing) that i'd been looking up ethnic slurs (that's all i said). lol. the point of the exercise is that in an interpreting situation, you have to translate EVERYTHING, including swearing and derogatory terms....thus, you have to know what they are, and how to translate them. that wouldn't be my favorite part, b/c it's one thing to hear a bad word in a foreign language, since it doesn't mean anything to you and it's not as harsh...and another if you have to drop the f-bomb numerous times to a doctor b/c your hispanic patient has a foul mouth. mmm, good times.

well, probably no new posts for a week, although we'll see...

wish me luck!

one more thing

2005-11-03T13:56:00.000-08:00

i may be able to only take two classes next semester instead of 3, b/c i have 8 more credits b/c of the web design classes i've taken last spring and during the summer. apparently there's a waiver form that will enable me to still keep my assistantship even if i'm not a full-time student. that will rock the hizzouse. i just need 3 signatures from deans, and i need to check with my graduate coordinator to make sure that i can count the web courses toward my degree and still be able to graduate in the spring. i hope it all works out, b/c then i will be able to devote more time to my case study. :)

update

2005-11-03T13:26:00.000-08:00

i finally finished the localization midterm late tuesday night...and then in class yesterday, the prof gave us ANOTHER project that looks pretty time-consuming. he's not very popular right now. more than half the class is going to the American Translators Association (ATA) conference in Seattle next week, including him, so how about not giving us homework, or at least giving us until a week after we get back to turn it in. grrr.

so yeah, i'll be gone from Wed the 9th to Sun morning the 13th. i'm looking forward to it; it will be a great chance to network and make some contacts so i can get some freelance work after i graduate. hopefully i'll be taken more seriously this year, since i'm about to graduate in May and haven't JUST started my program, which is how it was last year (or so it seemed to me).

braden has noted that he got me DDR a few days ago, and that has been very fun to play. aside from story mode, that is. story mode was pretty lame...toad's solution to everything was, "dance, Mario, dance your way out of trouble!" one of the dance routines was WHILE mario and toad are sledding down a mountain trying to outrun an avalanche. yeah, b/c it's so easy to dance and sled at the same time. :)

a bunch of us old married couples with no kids are going out tomorrow night. we may play miniature golf or go out to eat or both. nobody's really sure what we're doing yet. but it should be fun, since we've only done something with herman and anna (herman's a 1st yr in my program).

gotta get back to work!

lotr

2005-10-25T08:56:00.000-07:00

we've been watching "return of the king" the past couple of nights just because. it's pretty cool. i haven't watched it in awhile. it's soooooo long, we have to break it up into manageable parts. i have to say that eowen ROCKS!!!

well, i finished the menus, dialogs and string tables for the second part of my localization final, not that that means anything to anyone but me, but it's a lengthy explanation. now i just have to look at whether any icons need to be localized. i'm really not sure if i'm doing any of this right. and it's not like we can ask the prof in person, b/c he's at a conference starting today, and said that he will check his email as often as he can...um, yeah, b/c there's lots of time for that at a conference. so basically i've been asking classmates if i have a question about something...that's really all i can do, since it's up in the air when i'd get a response back from the prof. i guess it's going ok, but i'd like to be more sure about what i'm doing. i also need to go back through the first part and correct the terminology, b/c i wasn't using microsoft's spanish software glossary for that, and now i figured out how to align it, so i have to make sure everything is consistent.
my appointment's about to come here in a few minutes, so i can't write a ton more.

this semester is really flying by, i do have to say. and i'm glad for it! the faster time goes by, the faster i finally graduate. i still haven't heard from the author of the book i'm translating for my case study. i sent her an email through the book publisher last week or the week before, but have not heard anything yet. i don't know how long i should wait. my advisor said the next step if i don't hear anything would be a phone call to the publisher, but i really would rather not do that unless it's a last resort. i LOVE phone calls!! especially in a foreign language, b/c that reminds me of my lovely job last summer calling foreign countries, trying to get them to come a conference in Miami. mmmmmmm, fun. and here, Kerry, you can call Portugal and Brazil, too, b/c hey, they're right next to spanish-speaking countries...you should be able to communicate with them, too, right? :) the idiocy of that just astounded me. anyway, i have another email which may be the author's direct email, but i'm not sure. i would like to try and send something to that email before calling, but i don't know if it's "kosher" to do that.

and you thought midterms were over

2005-10-23T15:35:00.000-07:00

WRONG!! We got our localization midterm on Wednesday, and i promptly passed out. it's so labor-intensive!! i spent 9 hours in the lab on saturday and got the first part out of 3 done, plus a little bit of work on the 2nd part. braden was working until 9pm anyway, so he just met me at the lab when he got off work.

so the ATA (american translators association) conference is coming up nov. 9-12...really not that far from now. it's in seattle this yr, which means i can hang out with the in-laws at least one night. i thought about staying with them, but they live an hour south, and i didn't feel comfortable asking them to drive me back and forth to seattle, plus braden's car there is pretty much shot, so i would have to rely on them...i just thought it was asking a bit much, although i would love to stay with them. it just works out better for me to stay close to the hotel where the conference will be held.

so batman begins came out last week on dvd...would love to get it, but we'll wait until we can snatch it up at a record exchange. i watched the terminal (tom hanks) the other day back when i had time to catch a few minutes here and there. it was all right...i guess i expected it to be better, or maybe i got annoyed with tom hanks' accent. sorry for those that don't know that movie; i'm not in the mood for links today. :)

i'm really looking forward to thanksgiving and, well....vacation in general. i won't get much of one since i have to work on my case study for a lot of it, but at least it won't be as crazy as it is now.

man, last week was pretty boring....sorry there's not much more to say! :)

HAPPY 21, RYAN!!!

ooops

2005-10-17T10:49:00.000-07:00

so my translation prof emails us all last night to say, oops, i looked at the syllabus wrong; you actually have until next Monday to turn the special project from heck. sorry about that. but actually i don't care all that much, b/c i have my midterm from localization coming up on wednesday and i wouldn't have wanted to have two huge projects due the same week. thanks to his oversight, i'm pretty much done with the special project a week early. so rock on.

sorry to hear shocktober was crappy. one wonders why they did away with boofest. guess it's time to go to mr. bulky's. haha.

still no word on the job front for braden. i have no idea how long it will be before we know. braden's probably going to call on his lunch break to see if they've made a decision.

i was assigned to speak next sunday, but then we found out it was only me and some high council speaker, and braden and i really want to speak together. so we asked the 2nd counselor if he could work something out, which he did....giving us Jan 15th instead! woohoo! that actually works out much better for me, since i think that's the week before school starts and then i'll not be so stressed, hopefully.

i can't wait until i graduate. i'm finding it's pretty difficult to juggle all of my different roles, especially now that i'm married. it's not like i can tell braden to go do his own thing ALL the time when i'm swamped, nor do i want to. so i pretty much can't spend all the time on my homework that i want to, but i consider that a sacrifice that i'm willing to make for braden. he's more important than an "A" to me, and i'll just do the best i can with school, but i'm not going to neglect him just so i can go over my assignment one more time.

well, i will post again when i can.

midterms

2005-10-11T11:21:00.000-07:00

the title pretty much describes the general atmosphere at school, and it also means i probably won't be posting much in the next week or two. we have our special project for commercial/legal translation due next monday and he gave us another text to do on top of that, also due monday, along with the optional extra credit assignment... regoarrarr.
localization's been pretty low-key, but the midterm is coming up in another week and is worth a lot of our grade, so that will likely take a while to do.

braden has his interview with the health center today at 4pm. cross your fingers!! i feel really good about it...i hope he gets it. :) yesterday was the longest we've been apart since he moved here back in late July....we didn't see each other from 8:30am until 8pm last night. :( but if he gets the health center job, we can at least have lunch together everyday, which will rock the hizzouse.

k, well on to the homework!

one week

2005-10-07T09:36:00.000-07:00

well, it's been one week since i posted. let's see, i'm dead tired, and also tired of getting to bed way too late and then having to come to work at 8am. tomorrow we're going to do grandma's work in the Columbus temple. i'm hoping that all goes well, and that she accepts it. i miss her very much.

i have one more thank you card to do, and then i just need to address and stamp them and SEND THEM FREAKING OUT OF MY HOUSE. they're like the bane of my existence. it'd be one thing if i weren't in school full-time, but finding to time to do them is death by fire.

well, i will post the good news since braden hasn't: he got a job!! it's not in the healthcare field, which obviously he would've preferred, but at least it's something. he'll be working for Ritz Camera in the mall full-time. sounds like it'll be M-F 9-5, since most of the other employees are KSU students, so the manager's pretty happy to have someone that can work a regular shift. plus braden has a lot of experience in photography, so he's coming into the job knowing a lot more than the average person. and then we found a position in the health center on campus as a nursing assistant, which braden is perfect for. the problem is that you have to go through human resources instead of just going to the health center directly, which he did anyway just to introduce himself, and they seemed pretty impressed. however, they did say the process takes a long time, so braden is taking this other job in the mall for now, and then hopefully the health center will hire him once they get their rears in gear.

it's rainy right now in these here parts. hope it clears up. tuesday thru thursday was beautiful!! and of course i was inside all day. ah... :)

all right, well, i'm off to try and decipher my homework assignment for monday. i'll write more about the case study and possible research topics for next semester...which means that i would only have one class i'd have to physically go to!! dulce.

regoarrarr

2005-09-30T11:00:00.000-07:00

what, my husband posted today and i didn't? i can't have that. :)

we are having a few friends over tonight for some games and possibly a movie. we have plenty of movies to watch, so that should be fun. maybe it can be a LOTR extended edition party!! jk, b/c like we have time for that. besides, we're not starting until 7:30, since i work all day.

yesterday interpreting class seemed to drag...it's just that by that point, i am so ready to go to bed. and yet i still don't seem to get to bed before 11:30 or later.

so the freelance thing didn't turn out. i guess the company found someone who willing to do not only the translation, but also the training session (on the drug-free company policy) itself for the spanish employees, and all for so cheap it's freaking ridiculous. apparently this person is a certified translator and screws over everyone else in the profession by taking jobs for 1/10 of the normal price. nice. at the same time, i was a little relieved that it didn't go through b/c i have so much to do anyway, and that would have made for a really stressful weekend. but i do want experience to put on my resume....it's just, where is the time??

i sent off the check to the woman who contacted me about selling her dictionaries/books. she said she'll mail it over the weekend. i'm pretty excited about it, b/c it's a law/business dictionary that is very highly recommended by a lot of people and just happens to be out of print. so i am snatching up that baby jonas. i called the lady, who has a rampant pittsburgh accent, which i thought was pretty cool. i just wanted to say rampant. thank you.

so it's gotten freaking COLD over the last couple of days!! i think i'm actually going to put on a sweater when i go home for lunch. fall is upon us!! can't we have a little more of an indian summer, please??

the interpreter comes out on dvd on the 4th...i've pretty much been waiting for 6 months to see it. it probably won't live up to my expectations, but that's ok. i want to see it anyway.

and the missing hormone is...progesterone?

2005-09-27T08:34:00.000-07:00

so one of my classmates was giving a presentation on the male reproductive system and said that the hormone for females is estrogen and "the hormone for males is.......progesterone." and NOBODY said anything!!! even the teacher didn't say, whoa, whoa, what?? another classmate and i looked at each other in amused confusion, but that was about the extent of it. pretty funny.

i got two interesting emails last night, and i'm glad i checked my email right before i went to bed, b/c maybe i got a leg up on things. anyway, the one is from my old roommate, who sent out an email to about 6 of us, saying that she got a translation job, but needs help b/c it's due Oct 3rd. so i said, count me in! apparently it's a company's policy on a drug-free workplace from English into Spanish. it's something i can put on my resume as freelance work, at the very least. so hooray!
the other email was from someone at U of Pitt who is selling off her spanish books and dictionaries. i did some research to see which ones i wanted to buy, and one is recommended by my prof and also happens to be out of print. so i emailed her back and told her i wanted to buy it. however, before i send money, i think i'll ask for a phone # or something to make sure i don't get gypped.

we saw flightplan on saturday night and decided to only see movies in the theatre that are to die for, not just oh, this looks good. b/c, dude. $16.50...we could just go to record exchange and get 2 or 3 used dvds for that price!! anyway, i gave the movie a c+ or b-, but braden liked it a lot better. it was ok/good, but there were some things that got on my nerves. i thought some scenes/ideas were drawn out for too long. plus peter sarsgaard is annoying. he looks like he's going to fall asleep in every scene he's in.
rock the world.

hmmm

2005-09-23T08:35:00.000-07:00

You Are 50% Boyish and 50% Girlish

You are pretty evenly split down the middle - a total eunuch.
Okay, kidding about the eunuch part. But you do get along with both sexes.
You reject traditional gender roles. However, you don't actively fight them.
You're just you. You don't try to be what people expect you to be.

How Boyish or Girlish Are You?

so i got the same as ryan. i'm surprised by the results, considering you are only given two choices and at least a couple of times i didn't agree with either choice. for example, "when you pick a new car, you pick something a)powerful or b)cute. i was like, neither...i usually go by somewhat of a coolness factor combined with economical concerns, ie will it get me where i want to go and last a freaking long time, etc. i'll take a honda anyday.

i wanted to watch an ER, but we had no time. ah well, probably tonight. i'd like to go see a movie or something....or just get out of the house. seems like i'm inside all the time. i'm talking about a drive-in movie, not inside, in case you were like, wait, but a movie is still inside.

so i guess medline is showing a live c-section on the internet today at noon: go to the middle of the page here. part of me wants to see it just to see if i can handle watching actual surgery, but i think i'd rather not see what i could possibly have done in the future (you never know). i'll probably forget anyway, and that's during my lunch hour. but i am curious about surgery in general.

tee hee, tee hee, said kerry without thinking

2005-09-22T09:43:00.000-07:00

so our teakettle is the rockingest cool thing ever! it gets the water so hot that i have to wait an hour and a half to drink my cocoa. wow.

this is only going to be a quick post b/c i have a lot of homework that i want to try and tackle today. did i mention that i don't like thursdays very much? they're soooooooo loooooooooong!!

so i have a mini-presentation today in healthcare interpreting class. we're in groups of 3, and we each took a system of the body and each have about 2 minutes to explain it to the class. we got the skin & sense organs, and the muscular system whatever. we were just glad we didn't get the reproductive system. the person that got the male reproductive system is someone that....shall we say...likes that subject, so that should be pretty entertaining.

in other news, braden is not feeling well again...some sort of stomach bug, headache thing. lately it seems like if we're not both sick, one of us is. i'm still recovering from my bad cold that i've had since we got married, but it's mostly gone now.

no news on the job front. braden's going to start looking for some temp jobs...as soon as he is feeling better. i hope that works out soon.

two of my friends/classmates want to make a regular thing of getting together and cooking new meals. they wanted to know if braden and i want to do it with them, to which i replied, heck yes! so we're going to try it out on saturdays. not every saturday, i don't think, but we'll see how our schedule is. the two days that are worst for them are the best for my schedule, so saturdays are the only other day. sounds like fun!

we watched ER, season 1, episode 7 last night. good stuff. we're still into stuff that i remember watching, probably with mom. this was back in the day, like '94, i think. i'm excited to see episodes that i haven't seen at all.

food poisoning! cold food poisoning heah!!

2005-09-20T09:04:00.000-07:00

in case you were wondering, that's said by a random employee at a baseball game.

so i went out to lunch on friday to see one of my old co-workers (there were 8 of us total that week) and ended up with a bad case of food poisoning. well, honestly, it could have been a lot worse. i mean, i did only throw up the entire contents of my stomach once, and then i was just not feeling well. i could've thrown up every time i tried to eat something after that, but i didn't. so i'm grateful for that. the food was a buffet, and i ate broccoli & cheese, pineapple-glazed pork, salmon, tried a piece of clam fettucini alfredo (wasn't a fan), and a couple of red potato slices, plus bread and salad. so i was pretty full. my guess is that it was the salmon...freakin' seafood!!! i have to admit, now i'm not only wary of all seafood (salmon and codfish were the only things i "used to" eat from that category), but buffet-style food as well! Throwing up SUCKS!!! and i never throw up. i seriously can't even think back to the last time i threw up before last friday. i suppose that i'll get over the buffet wariness, even though buffets really aren't that cost-effective for someone like me, but i think i'll pretty much stay away from seafood from now on. i've never liked the majority of it anyway. i still don't know if anyone else got sick, but i've been asking around.

we've been renting ER Season 1, and it's been really fun to watch it together. it's like Alias and 24 for dan and carolyn. but with ER, we pause while braden explains medical terminology for me. it's awesome; i love learning it, and it's a double benefit, b/c i would like to have medical translation as one of my specializations.
we also rented the simpsons road rage for gamecube; it's pretty fun, but there's a couple of words that i wish homer wouldn't say. overall, pretty entertaining, though. it's evil, though! you can totally run over little kids, and kick old ladies! but you don't kill them though; you run them over, and you'll hear various things like: "this is the worst town in america" and "how'd you like a newspaper upside your head!!?" Yeah, that's what i'd say after being run over by a mack truck!!! lol.

one more story i want to tell. we took back seat cushions for our kitchen table chairs (to WalMart) b/c they were too small. so braden gets to the front of the line at customer service, and says to the guy (early 20's, probably), "i'd like to return these...my butt's too big for them."...and the guy doesn't even flinch, just goes right into, "ok, and...blah, blah..." (i had told braden to say it, but didn't think he really would). so in the meantime, i had to leave, b/c i was laughing so hard. see, braden can keep a straight face if i do, but if i start laughing, it's contagious. anyway, this was a couple of weeks ago, but i wanted to write it down for posterity. :) aren't you glad?

sleepiness

2005-09-13T08:39:00.000-07:00

so a couple of days ago, braden was on the phone with his dad, and so i gave in and fell asleep waiting for him. so when he came to bed, i was totally out of it, but still wanted to pray and read scriptures. so he read, and i don't remember anything. and then apparently it was my turn to pray, and so i tried, but i was so tired that i wasn't really speaking up or making sense. so then i all of a sudden woke up, and it seemed like hours since i had been praying, but then in my haze i couldn't remember ending the prayer, so i asked braden, "did i say amen?", and he said that i was in the middle of saying something and then i just stopped. i guess it had only been like 30 seconds b/t stopping and waking up again. he said he was like, "...?" waiting for me to go on. so then we both started totally laughing. that was pretty funny. i've fallen asleep praying before, but never out loud with someone else there. lol.

we were invited to dinner at a couple in the ward's house on Sunday night. it was really good food, but there was soooo much of it that i was glad that i was good and hungry. it still was a lot even if you'd been fasting all day. so we were pretty stuffed when we left. the bishop and his wife were there as well. the ward we're in right now is really friendly, and i like it a lot so far.

in related news, braden and i have callings!! i've been called to the nursery, which i asked for, and braden was called to the primary to teach the 7 yr olds, which he did not ask for. :)
the lady in the nursery right now is older, and sounded disappointed when she was told that i wouldn't be replacing her. but i need to learn from her, so maybe in january they'll release here and just have me in there, since there will be only 1 or 2 kids in there at the end of January. The primary requested Braden for the CTRs, b/c i guess there's 4 boys in there that can get pretty rowdy. i'm sure braden can handle it.

well, my classes are keeping me plenty busy...lots of homework and the like. my commercial/legal translation class is coming with quite a bit of homework....the prof gave us more homework due in a week than he gave us when we had a 2 wk break b/c of labor day! but it is good practice, and we will learn a lot. :)

that's all for now, follllllllks!

weird dreams

2005-09-08T08:25:00.000-07:00

so braden's been having some weird dreams lately. a couple of nights ago was a really funny one that i wanted to share, just b/c it's so..........dan. or what dan would probably like to do, but wouldn't b/c of social constraints.
anyway, apparently we were all at a stake conference singing Called to Serve, but the chorister kept changing the tempo, so the congregation was all confused. So right in the middle of it, dan yells, "GUNGA GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!" (except he(dan) pronounced it "GOONGA GAA" instead of the regliar way). I guess after that the stake conference kind of ended....how can you restore order after someone yells "gunga gaa"?? :)

i need to go look up some stuff for my case study....IT GOT APPROVED!!!!!!!!!!!!! i'm so stoked!!

surprise-ness

2005-09-06T08:28:00.000-07:00

so the surprise was the "Star Wars Concert" by the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra at Blossom Music Center, and it was rockin'. we had a really good time. Anthony Daniels, aka C3PO, narrated, and beat a dead dog to death by throwing in compliments to C3PO all the doo-lah-day. But other than that, he does have a good narrating voice and did well. He doesn't really sound like C3PO, which i thought he would more, but i guess with a mask on and a sing-song voice you sound a little different. we saw some people walking around in full rebel fighter or anakin gear. cool stuff. good thing braden brought blankets and coats, b/c i was freez-o-bobby.
they played "the stars and stripes forever" at the end, unfurled an american flag and set off a bunch of fireworks, which was cool. actually, they had the fireworks going for a long time while everyone was waiting for the tram to take us back to the parking lots.

the bbq was good, and we got some presents from my classmates, which i totally wasn't expecting. they pooled money together and got us a down feathertop thing for the mattress, another throw (can't have too many of those) and a little stress squishball, b/c they figured i'd need it this year (probably true). i met some new peeps, but mostly right before i left. i seem to have an easier time introducing myself when i can say, oh and by the way, i'm leaving right now, see ya. :) so...i should have been more social, but i did meet some people. and i figure i'll do more meeting in the lab as i see new faces. i wish it were easier for me to just go up and start a conversation with someone i don't know.
it seems like there's a lot more native spanish speakers this year, which is cool. i'm looking forward to getting to know them.

i'm going to just pick out some excerpts for my advisor for the case study, and send him what i have so far. i didn't get the whole book read yet, but i need to know soon if he will approve it, b/c i don't want to waste time and b/c we need to pick a medical topic for my healthcare interpreting class (in order to do an assigned glossary) and i figure i can just do the same topic as my case study. however, if it's not approved, then i want to pick another topic, and we need to pick it by the third week in September.

had a cookout with the parentals yesterday. good food! we couldn't stay too long, but we had fun. don't know when we'll get up there next, due to school and work commitments, but we hope to visit from time to time.

well, that's enough for now.
peace out!

bbq

2005-09-02T08:23:00.000-07:00

tomorrow is the welcome back BBQ for school, and it's also for new students in the program. it's going to be at my classmate's house, which is pretty big and has a pool and everything, so i hope it's good weather. i'm bringing braden to meet everyone, since i pretty much go everywhere with him, unless it's to work or school. i told the student organization that i would bring pop, so we need to get some.

we were thinking about going to see The Brothers Grimm tonight at the drive-in, but on second thought, i told braden i should probably get a good start on my homework for next week, plus we have our date night tomorrow night for this week. braden has a surprise for me! :)

hey all

2005-09-01T14:54:00.000-07:00

i have a minute here b/t students (there's a lull for now) so i thought i'd write a little. i have had 2 of my 3 classes so far, with the 3rd one tonight at 7:15pm. essentially it makes for a really long thursday, since i work all day thursday and don't get out from my class until 9:45pm. oh well...i would rather have it like this than have to work all day on monday or wednesday and leave early to go to class at 4:30 to 7pm. that would mean that i'd have to only have a 1/2 hr for lunch that day and i wouldn't be able to spend it with braden. braden turned in a work application for Robinson Memorial Hospital today. they told him a few days ago on the phone that there were several positions available, including evening hours, which would mean that he'd be working while i'm at school, which would be nice. we wouldn't eat dinner together much, but we would have lunch together. all i know is that he was going to turn the application in....don't know specifics yet. i'm waiting with baited breath!!

braden and i have been plenty busy just with trying to get the apartment all set up. there's still a ton to do, but i feel like we're getting somewhere. i finally put all my clothes away (we had to wait b/c maintenance waited until we were back from vacation to finally mess around with our air conditioner, etc, instead of doing it when we weren't there like we asked them to). so, since it's located in the closet, we couldn't put anything on the left-hand side. so yesterday i got sick of clothes on the floor and did mass cleaning, staying up way past my bedtime...but i sure felt better.

now we have to tackle the office and the kitchen, mainly. the office has been the room we've just kind of shoved stuff when there was nowhere else to put it, and the kitchen is haphazard, due to my living with a roommate, and we just put stuff wherever. i'll feel better when there's a place for everything, and especially when we get more counter space.

my classes seem really interesting so far. the Legal Translation one is going to be tough, but way interesting. I hope we don't do sight translation all class period EVERY class period, though, b/c that got old after 5 minutes. sight translation is where you're handed a document that you've never seen before and told to translate it out loud on the spot. and yes, they're full of terms that you've probably not heard of in your native language, let alone Spanish. so i gave it my best shot (we took turns), but essentially it means that i try to figure out which passage he'll call on me to translate and frantically try to translate it before he calls on me. this means that i miss out on some of the discussion b/c i'm working on that, so it's less effective, but i really hate being put on the spot like that. you might say, well why are you interested in interpreting....well, there is a difference, and also, you don't have a roomful of your colleagues staring at you while you do it. :)
anyway, long story short, i hope we do other things in that class. the prof seems way cool (i bought two business dictionaries/glossaries off of him for $15 total), and i remembered him from a seminar he taught at the ATA (American Translators Association) conference in Toronto last year. so i'm pleased that he'll be teaching us, b/c he has a lot of practical experience to share with us.
the software localization class looks fun, and it's the class i've been looking forward to most in the whole program. i want to learn about multimedia and website localization and how i can combine my graphic design/multimedia skills with localization and translation. i hope the class lives up to my expectations.
i didn't get much work done on my case study this summer...not like i wanted to. last semester i said that i wanted to get the majority of it done this summer, but that didn't happen...but, really, folks, i think i had a good excuse!! :) hopefully my advisor will approve the fibromyalgia book i want to do, b/c if not, i'm really going to be upset, since i'm pretty much banking on it, and i'll be out $42.
we lost all of our thank you notes in the flood, so we need to go buy new ones and get started on that. we will get those out as soon as we can. i also need to do a bunch of name change stuff, including here at KSU. we need to get an official copy of our marriage license for some of it.
bye for now!

new post....finally

2005-08-30T05:31:00.000-07:00

i know you all have missed me so....haven't posted in over two weeks. gee, i wonder why? :)
braden and i are settling into married life, and yes, there are many adjustments having to be made. we're still buying stuff we need using the gift money we received from both the reception and open house.
i am in the process of changing my name to Snowstar Bear. no, but i still need to visit/call some places to get the ball rolling, like the BMV, Social Security peeps, school, etc.
i found out just now that for some reason i can't get into my school email, which is annoying b/c i haven't been able to check it since last week b/c we moved the computer and haven't set it back up yet. so that meant that i took a risk yesterday by not coming in to work and hoping that i didn't have to work since i wasn't able to get the new schedule by email. so luckily when i called my boss he said that i don't work on mondays. PHEW! i just really didn't want to get up early early if i didn't have to.

tickets, please........tickets!!!

2005-08-15T11:32:00.000-07:00

so this is probably my last day in Kent until Friday the 26th, considering that i'm only working today, and then we go back up to cleveland tonight. i get my hair done tonight, and then tomorrow we have to get cracking on the wedding favors.

we leave on Thursday morning for Baltimore...

the in-laws are coming to check out the apartment later on today; good thing we gave it a thorough cleaning on Wednesday! :)

pics from dad

2005-08-10T16:24:00.000-07:00

i just got these pics from dad via gmail. i had to laugh out loud at the one with dan and i. i so remember those clothes. i really don't have a lot of pictures of me from ages 12-23, and especially 12-18, so this is a good one. i pretty much know that it's a pic from when i was in 7th grade, so it's gotta be Christmas '90 at the farm.

in other news, i finished my frontpage online workshop and sent in my website this morning. i sent the email to the prof at around 8:55am and she sent me her reply at 9:06am, so i guess that means either she doesn't care, or i don't. jk. no, i was just surprised at how little time she spent actually looking at it, although i guess she had already looked at it last week, and i hadn't added all that much, since most of this week's assignments were optional.

so dan's recents posts regarding bicycling have gotten me back in the mood to bike. i had wanted to bike my butt off this summer, but it just didn't work out with all the wedding planning and other stuff to do. i was looking at bike racks at walmart, but they were much more than i had planned on spending for one. i can't remember if dad got a bike for braden or not; if not, we need to get him one. i still have mine from back in '96, when we found it at a garage sale for $10 in Utah right before i started going to BYU. it has served me well since then, although i haven't used it much in the past few years. i want to remedy that. i would really like to explore the surrounding areas of Kent and beyond....Portage and Summit County, specifically. by car, too. we found a bike trail not too far from our apartment when we were coming back from Columbus a couple of weeks ago. it's always good to have someone else in the car with you when you try to go exploring; otherwise, it's hard to drive and see everything you're passing by...unless you like to crash your car, which i don't. i just like to hit large pig-like animals on country roads. it wasn't my fault...he ran out in front of me, and i couldn't stop! (that's another story from a few weeks ago)

braden bought another shelving unit, and our books (mostly mine, at this point) are up, although they still need a bit of organization. he also got copies of our keys and put on a new set of hubcaps on the car. the car has been missing a hubcap on the front left tire since around november 2003, when it all of a sudden came off with a loud bang! when i was driving back to Cleveland from my night class at Kent. it looks great!

i was looking for some necklaces and gloves online. the problem with online shopping is that you can't freaking try it on and kind of just have to hope that it is what you had in mind. so that's a little scary, but i'm for sure not finding anything in the stores around here. so that needs to be taken care of soon.

you all will probably notice a lack of postage in the next few days, probably until Monday, as we are going back to Cleveland tonight, and i really can't be bothered to post unless i'm supposed to be doing something else, whatever it might be. lol. but, i will try to keep you all up to date.

word.

hi all

2005-08-10T11:46:00.000-07:00

i'm just busy looking up some beauty salons in both Rockville and Kensington, MD for the morning of the wedding. i've found quite a bit, actually; i just need to figure out which location is best and who's not going to charge me an arm and a leg. candace, dave's wife, totally helped me out, which i appreciate very much. she's so nice and went out of her way to help.

more later.

it's the hard knock life for us, it's the....

2005-08-08T10:38:00.000-07:00

sorry...i have annie songs in my head, b/c i was just talking about it on university bus.
i'm at work right now, but i wanted to post something new for the masses. things are going well. it's hard to believe that i'm getting married next week. still haven't heard anything about the marriage license, so i'm wondering if i should call. i would need to find the phone number first, though. but the temple said that they would call us when they got it... i think i'll wait a couple more days and see. hopefully, it will go through on time and everything, considering that we can't have the ceremony until the temple gets the piece of paper. :) i guess i don't know how long the process takes.
with carolyn getting new glasses, i've been thinking about how i need new ones, as well. my eyes get worse every year, so it's rather depressing to go to the eye doctor and get a new prescription. i think it's been at least a couple of years since i've been, so i really do need to go. believe it or not, i still have contacts (unopened) from when i was getting ready to go on my mission. i've been interspersing those with some from a couple of years ago, but, really, i do need new contacts. to heck with this 2 week crap; i wear them until they hurt, which can be 6 months. i'm careful about it, though, and i'm more anal about cleanliness when putting them in then anyone i know. :)
i'm pretty tired today, due to lack of sleep. funny how that works. i would really like to take a nap, but i have to work all day. i'm taking off wednesday of next week, which means i have to make those hours up later on. don't know when i'll do that...once school starts, things will be nuts.

all righty, that's all i can think of for now.

BRADEN'S HEAD FELL OFF!!

2005-08-01T14:18:00.000-07:00

remember that beautiful, perfect wedding cake topper? well, i was putting it back into the plastic casing, and it slipped and hit the edge of the desk, taking Braden's head completely off.

IS THIS AN OMEN???? jk. lol. actually, i was dismayed at first, but then i thought it was pretty funny. i mean, what a hunk of junk!! come on, super glue!!

errands

2005-07-27T11:07:00.000-07:00

i wanted to quickly post something on here: i ran a bunch of errands yesterday and felt like i accomplished a lot, so i'm pretty pleased. i bought a TV, two tables (kind of bedside-ish, but they definitely go in the living room) and a 3 yr old stereo in great working condition for way cheap. i saved $17 by putting the haggling skills i learned in Chinatown, NYC to good use.
i found another Record Exchange near Chapel Hill Mall, which is dangerous, but i had a good time browsing.
i found a Michaels and a Staples, among other stores. I found the perfect wedding cake topper, which totally looks like Braden and I, so i had to get it. i also bought a tiara, but i'm waiting until i try it on with my dress, which by the way, my aunt shipped my cousins' dress, and i love it, so i'm using that, and i shipped back the one i bought yesterday. while at the post office, i did that, and also sent off the marriage license application along with the requisite money order and got some stamps to send out some more invitations. i found the right size envelopes at Staples, so i can put the invitations in those and send them off hopefully tomorrow, since i work all day today.
our tv rocks the hizzouse. it's a 27", less than a year old. i hooked it up to my VCR/DVD player last night, and sat back in awe. i didn't even have to lean forward to read the Spanish subtitles like i did with my roommate's way smaller TV. and speaking of that, i need to get a new prescription for my contacts and glasses. lenscrafters discount, anyone? :)
the only thing with the TV is that it's way heavy, and i put it on one of the tables i got yesterday, which is really not sturdy enough...it should hold out a couple more days until we can get something else to go underneath. in the meantime, it's balanced rather precariously. i recruited a guy moving in across the hall to move the TV from my car to the apt, b/c there was no way i could lift it...it was freaking heavy.
and that is good news, that my neighbors across the hall are moving out...the ones that moved liked to party every couple of nights. smoking, drinking, loud music, you name it. you couldn't really hear it from inside my apt, but when you stepped out, WO. nothing like cigarette smoke latching itself onto your clothes and never letting go. mmmmboy.
so when i go home tonight, i think that i will get the rest of the invitations together (at least the ones i have addresses for), get that all set to mail out...and then party hearty. i'll see if my friend Maru wants to do something, if she's off work. i'm not real keen on just hanging out by myself again...it's pretty lonely, and i'm anxious for Braden to come. I came home last night, and Terri had pretty much moved all of her stuff out (except her clothes, which i assume she'll take today), so the apt is looking pretty stark in some areas. she had some furniture with layers in the pantry closet thing, which, when removed, makes it so there's definitely not as much room for food, so i need to get some stuff to replace that so we can maximize our food storage space. Terri's room is totally empty, which makes the fact that i am getting married more real. especially now that it's just over three weeks away. AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! i was thinking last night that my husband will be the next person to move in. i've been waiting for so long to not freaking have a roommate anymore...it will be nice to move on to the next stage of life. imagine...being able to TALK to the person you live with! what a novel concept. :)
Bishop Kerr said that he would do a picture slideshow for free for the reception, so Braden and I need to get together 60 pictures each for that, as well as some music to go along with it (for August 7th). He said they usually run about 12 minutes. I also set up an appointment for a live sealing with him for Sunday, August 7th, since he won't be here next Sunday, and then I still need to call the stake prez about an appointment with him.
oh, and when i type "Kerr", as in his last name, it's just about impossible for me not to automatically add a "y" at the end. just so you know. :)
k, well, this ended up being more than just a quick post, but things kept occurring to me.
that's it for now. peace out!

annoyo-posts

2005-07-25T08:44:00.000-07:00

i'm writing my *true* feelings on this blog, since Wedded Bliss has gone live, and i subsequently feel like i have to be all PC on there, which, if you know me, is an annoyance. The first two posts had some negative stuff in them, which was totally not what we were going for by going live. The actual first post was by "anonymous" and criticized our grammar, punctuation and lack of capitalization, saying that we are educated people and it is distracting to try and read our posts. first of all, i rarely capitalize...does this mean that i don't know how, or that i don't when it is necessary? not at all. however, a blog is a blog is a blog. like i care about that. i've never had anyone complain about not being able to understand my posts b/c of that before. (btw, if anyone does think that, i really don't want to know, and it's not going to make me capitalize. no offense.) i do put periods at the end of sentences, and my grammar and punctuation are correct. i just don't generally capitalize. so sue me. i mean, do they think i use abbreviations in academic papers, like "btw", etc.?? i don't fault anyone for capitalizing if they want to, or refraining from doing so. it is a matter of personal preference. i was just so taken aback that someone would be so petty as to post something like that on our WEDDING BLOG, for pete's sake.
thanks to carolyn for her post. i vented a little to her, and i appreciate her response. the wedding blog is not to criticize...it's if people want to comment on what's going on, or specific comments about what we've posted, or if they have any other questions. i really didn't ever think we'd need to tell everyone to be nice...although, yes, i realize that going live opens us up to attacks. i just thought that people would want to congratulate, not point out every mistake.
for now, as you probably expected, i am vehemently against ever capitalizing on "wedded bliss"....if only to make whoever that was even more annoyed. :) teehee, teehee, said kerry without thinking.

schtuff

2005-07-18T09:57:00.000-07:00

well, i went to dan and carolyn's blogs to see if they had updated, but no such luck.

i love my family.

dude

2005-07-11T09:32:00.000-07:00

dude, i have like 3 blogs now. difficulty of posting on everyone. there's only so much to say when you're at work and school all day.

hewo

2005-07-05T09:27:00.000-07:00

yes, peeps, i will still be posting on here...probably not as much until after the wedding, but i'll try to keep it up to date.

we went to the Peytons' for 4th of July and hung out with Rick, Jackie, Jef, Sarah Leigh, Mary, David, Candace, Rebecca, Dale, Joe, their daughter Lauren, Pam, Greg, Patrick, Jessica, Jared, Grandma Smith, Jerry, April, and Katie. I think that's everyone, plus Mom, Dad, Ryan and Kevin. Jackie fractured her knee while she was in Maine for Jef's graduation, so she was still on crutches and will be until the 20th of this month. She was sitting on the cooler and tried to move a little, not realizing it had wheels and ended up on the floor...oops! she was okay, though; she didn't hit her knee.

We played Dance, Dance Revolution on XBox, which is really fun and great exercise. My roommate has it, but I have not really taken advantage of it, since I don't know how the heck to set it up. But I would like to get that...although I don't want Braden to have an XBox unless he can control himself!! ;)

um...stress

2005-06-29T02:24:00.000-07:00

nothing much going on here, except death. i'm soooooooo tired and as a result, rather cranky. i told mom that if this workshop that i'm taking right now were personified, i would defenestrate it. the last day for it is today, but i just looked at my other workshop schedule, and that starts next tues-fri, and then m, t, w of the following week. i really need to get some sleep.
PHIL??? PHIL CONNERS???

mah-wage

2005-06-28T08:56:00.000-07:00

it's official! I'm getting married on August 19th to BradenJohnMr!! i'm going shopping right now!! Yay!! Yippee skippy!! I'm happy!!