MIA

Doesn’t this picture give you text anxiety? That’s exactly what it does to me. I will be taking the GRE on Saturday which is why I’ve been MIA. It was sort of a quick decision, so I’ve spent the past couple of weeks studying like crazy. It practically gives me a panic attack thinking about all of the math I haven’t even looked at in 10 years. Wish me luck, and I’ll hopefully rejoin the blogging world soon!

I Wanna go to San Antonio!

Nicolas will be in San Antonio working on my birthday in a few weeks. Since it’s on a Monday, we decided to both fly out on Friday and hang out for the weekend. This has brought back a lot of memories from when I was a kid.

While growing up, I was obsessed with going to San Antonio. Neither my family nor I can recall what started my obsession where I would walk around the house and repeat, “I wanna go to San Antonio!” in a horrible imitation of a Texan accent over and over again. Did I mention this went on for YEARS?

The other thing that I used to accompany that phrase with was the fact that I was going to die in an alley in San Antonio before my 30th birthday. This fact has Nic slightly freaked out, and he’s now planning on taking his knife and possibly his nunchucks (that’s right...my boyfriend has nunchuck skills...I’m such a lucky lady) and avoiding any alleyways we may come across.

I believe, in typical youngest child fashion, I was going for attention and shock value, rather than actually believing that I would die in an alley in San Antonio. However, this has made me reflect on the things that I would like to accomplish in my life. This all culminated last night with a meeting I attended where we discussed how to meet our needs and reach for our wants in order to be happy. I’ve been thinking a lot about the reasons that I’m too afraid or too overwhelmed to go for the things I want. Some of them are quite small, and some of them are life-changing. I’ve realized that not only do I need to get over myself and make my dreams come true, but I also need to quit putting them off, thinking that I have a whole lifetime. After all, 30 looked a lot further away when I was turning 10.

Great Interview

I just heard a great interview with Greg Mortsensen and thought I'd share. He wrote one of my favorite books, Three Cups of Tea. You can find information about it here. It's all about Greg's mission to promote peace in the middle east one school at a time. You can access the interview with Greg here, but a couple of my favorite quotes are:

"...if you fight terror, terrorism, it's based in fear. But if you wanna promote peace, it's based in hope."

"If we put one percent of the money that we put in the war on terror into education, it could have a profound difference."

He's such an inspiration to me because, as he put it, he was just a dirtbag from California who followed his heart or his intuition and has changed many lives because of it.

It gives me hope that any of us truly can make a difference.

African Children's Choir

Nic and I went to see the African Children's Choir last night at Kingsbury Hall. It is a choir made up of children from Africa between the ages of 7 and 11, most of which have lost one or both parents. They are part of a program by Music for Life which educates a lot of kids in shcools across Africa. They pick a group each year to go on this trip. They tour all over the world singing to raise money to send more kids to school. It's such a great program and the kids did a phenomenal job. You can learn more and see videos here.

It really made Nic and me excited to go to Africa in May!

Proud to be an American

Tagged

Krystle tagged me with this random picture post.

Here are the rules:

1. Go to your pictures
2. Upload 4th picture in the 4th folder
3. Post (explain?)
4. Tag four friends

Below is a picture of the great ladies that I work with. This is from our big annual fundraiser, LeaderLuncheon. It was my first attempt to plan an event for 1,000 attendees, and it turned out pretty great!


I only know of 3 people who even read this blog besides Krystle (who tagged me), so I tag Amanda, Shari, Lisa, and anyone else. :)

P.S. Now that I have blog stalkers (Shari and Lisa, I'm talking to you), I guess I'll start posting once in awhile. :)

Have you Ever...

(Just copy and paste this to your blog and bold the ones that you HAVE done.)

1. Started your own blog (although I NEVER post)
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty (haven't been to the top, but have been there)
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa (purchased plane tickets to go in 2009)
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies (does it count if I love to buy them and eat them?)
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous (does it count if you knew them before they were famous?)
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake (actually, I've never been close enough to touch it)
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Eeeeeek!

City Creek is my most fabulous place to run around Salt Lake City. I was bummed when I moved here because Davis and Weber County have so many more running trails that are in nature and not just on the streets or in parks. City Creek is great because you don’t (usually) have to deal with traffic, and it’s a great place to be in nature and think.

Nic and I were running up City Creek last night, enjoying each other’s company and the pain that always accompanies running straight uphill for miles. Right before mile 1 ½, I noticed that he was slowing down. All of a sudden he screeched to a halt and held out his arm, so I was clothes-lined.

As he tried to block my view and push be backwards, I looked down to see a HUGE (about as big as a softball) tarantula (I’ll call him Mr. T) slowly crossing the road RIGHT BELOW MY FEET. If you know me, you know I have an irrational fear of spiders. I trace it back to my brother’s pet tarantula. I’m pretty sure he used to tease and torture me with it, although I’ve blocked out those horrible memories. :)

My first instinct was to yell “Kill it! Kill it!” Nic just looked at me like I was crazy since it probably would have just laughed in our faces if we would have tried. Mr. T knew he had us. He knew we were intimidated. He took his dear sweet time crossing the road, while we watched in awe.

Nic has been to all sorts of crazy places, including the Amazon where he saw all sorts of large, hairy, disgusting spiders. However, he said Mr. T was the biggest one he’d ever seen in nature. I felt this somewhat validated my freak-out reaction.

As soon as Mr. T had finally crossed to the other side of the road, we continued up the canyon. From that point on, I jumped whenever I saw anything as small as an ant crossing in front of me. A cute little deer even got me to jump backwards and let out a yell. It may be awhile before I am able to return to City Creek again, at least without Nic there to save me from nature. I think I’ll stick to the city parks and streets for awhile.