Friday, May 28, 2010

Em K.

Today is the birthday of the fabulous Emily Suzanne Kern, my hip.



There are no words to explain how much I love this gal! I'm in the midst of a whirlwind week, or else I'd create a photo-log-blog-shrine to Emmy. She's been my best friend for ELEVEN years!!! She has had such a profound influence on my life and is one of the people who knows me best in the world! I'm all about celebrating another year of Emmy!

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Plans

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

Oliver Wendell Holmes

This week I've been mapping out something that matters very little when so much that matters surrounds me. What a waste of time it's been! I love Scott. I'm so grateful for him. I'm so proud of him, and I'm grateful for the life that we live. It's a life that we love. We're lucky to have each other, lean on each other, and be in this game together.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

from kerouac to kate. from kate to me.

"We know time and we know that everything is really fine."

Then he whispered, clutching my sleeve, sweating, "Now you just dig them in front.
They have worries, they're counting the miles, they're thinking about where
to sleep tonight, how much money for gas, the weather, how they'll get
there- and all the time they'll get there anyway, you see. But they need to
worry and betray time with urgencies false and otherwise, purely anxious and
whiny, their souls really won't be at peace unless they can latch on to an
established and proven worry and having found it they assume facial
expressions to fit and go with it, which is, you see, unhappiness, and all
the time it all flies by them and they know it and that too worries them no
end."

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Running

Run, run river
Carry me to my home in the ocean
Carry me away
I know I have a home
Somewhere far
And I'll move like the stars that make you feel like you got friends
Stars will make you feel like you got friends

Follow the empty valley
Past the hill
To the marshes of the estuary
Come in peaceful river
In the light of the moon with the river
I do run in the hope that one day I will die
Beneath the ocean

And at this river we'll forever run

The Garbage (Jarbidge) River

Last week we drove to Idaho to run the Jarbidge River...

We played some hearts... made some repairs... endured a wee bit of rain...
We came across a couple tricky portages.. played some botchie ball...
The food poisoning count for this trip: 4...
We visited some 140 degree hot springs and had to be really careful about where we were wading...
We hit the river at the perfect time for the perfect flow and the perfect rapids! We had such a fun trip with fun friends, and we look forward to more!










Sunday, May 23, 2010

Back in the saddle again.

After a week of looking like this...



...Scott and I are back to showering semi regularly.



I love the river, but it's also good to be back... and to be warm! I have so much to catch up on! And so much coming up! Another day... some other day. Tomorrow seems like a good day for that.

Friday, May 14, 2010

For Me!

Even with everything going on for Scott, he has still managed to make birthday week the BEST week! I just love him so much for stretching one day into a full week of fun!

This week we have been preparing for company at our house and anticipating two trips to the airport...

We have been packing for our river trip, getting the car ready for the drive, and getting all the gear we don't already have...

We have been cleaning the house and going through the fridge so we don't come home to moldy food...

Scott has been poisoned by an evil Polish hot dog and spent an entire night and an entire day feeling absolutely awful while keeping up with everything going on at work and deciding on a masters program...

I don't even care if all I get for my birthday is a smelly sock! It's just so fun to be surprised!


...Tomorrow.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Happy Birthday G!

Not many people are lucky enough to be such good friends with their grandma. I am, however. Happy Birthday Grandma! I love you!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Polish Dogs

It was so fun to watch the boys watch the Buzz game. It's been years since I've been to a game, and I loved eating popcorn and dip n' dots and laughing at all of Ben and Andrew's baseball commentary. Thanks Dad! We had a great time.

We did not, however, have the best night's sleep. Scott's polish hot dog was barking until about 3am when Scott's body decided it wanted nothing to do with the dog. Poor Scott has food poisoning and was throwing up from 3am till 9:30am. He's working from home today trying to recuperate with ginger-ale and gatorade. I feel terrible! It's the first time Scott's been sick with something like this since we've been married! I was trying to do all the things my mom does for me when I'm sick, and unfortunately they weren't things that Scott particularly wanted! For example: when I'm sick my mom would hold my hair back for me and be there to rub my back and tell me I'm going to be okay. I tried to stand in the bathroom with Scott while he was sick. Scott, however, preferred me to be far far away in the other room! Ha ha... it made me realize that even though we're no longer newlyweds, we still have a lot of "firsts" ahead of us and learning how we have done things differently in the past.

It sure makes me sad to watch him be so sick and not be able to make it go away!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

It's On!

The rain has subsided. We're off to the BUZZ game! It's funny how excited I am! I haven't done this in years! We are meeting up with the mammy, the doddy, the sister, the brother-in-law, the wild children, and the little one. Why didn't I remember my camera?!?

Monday, May 10, 2010

Eyeballs, Coconut Toilets, and Cross-Pollination

What do these things have in common? My husband. You know him as Scott. Most people get on their blogs and talk about all the hillarious things their kids did that week or some of their kids' extraordinary talents. I don't have any children (as I was reminded on Sunday by the cute down syndrome girl in our ward who did not want to give me a chocolate covered strawberry in church for Mother's Day), so I instead document the funny moments and extraordinary skills of my husband.

Last week I walked into the bathroom to get ready for bed to see Scott dabbing my little plant with a piece of toilet paper. Was the plant sad? Was Scott trying to dry its tears? Scott usually has a very well-thought-out agenda behind every one of his actions, so I asked him what he was doing, eager to hear his answer. "I'm cross pollinating," he told me. It was Scott's belief that since we have no bees in our home that he could act as the bee and carry pollen from one flower to the other. It's a good thing one of us thinks of these things.

A couple nights ago we were watching a movie in bed. Scott was eating one of those frozen sorbet treats that you get from Costco - the kind that comes in a hollowed out orange peel, or coconut shell, or pineapple rind. He told me he was carving something very special for me. "Is it a throne for me because I am the queen?" I asked. He laughed and told me, "Yes it is a throne," as he revealed to me his artistic creation pictured below.















I don't know why or at what point during his dessert he decided it reminded him of a toilet, but he was really excited when he showed me how the toilet lid could go up and down. Very well-thought-out. And this next little announcement is me bragging about my husband's secret and blossoming talent, just as mothers brag about their kids' abilities to roll over or climb the stepladder in the kitchen. My husband can do this with his eyes:



Which is a special skill I was unaware that he possessed for the nearly two years we've been together. We were exchanging awkward glances across the table today and this one kind of threw me for a loop. "Everyone can do it," he says. But Scott thought he was going cross-eyed when he really was doing it with only one of his eyes. I know that we will find someway to put this talent to good use. I have a blast with Scott, and I'm so glad I get to be with him all the time. What a fantastic gift, to be able to spend eternity with my best friend! I think I'll go ahead and catch up on the other parts of this weekend in another post or two. Sometimes such a huge post can look pretty daunting. I admit that I skip most of those when I'm reading your blogs. I expect you'd do the same to me! Somehow when I put them into smaller post sizes they seem less intimidating.

Ocho de Mayo and Killer Bunnies

Our Ocho de Mayo party was a huge success. Our Young Men and Young Women worked really hard to raise money for their Youth Conference, Rough Out Camp, and Scout camp outs. We far exceeded our goal! The party was a lot of fun, and it was a product of everyone's dedication. Those kids were there all day Saturday helping to set everything up. We had a live auction and a silent auction where the kids auctioned off their services: 5 hours of babysitting, 10 car washes. They also auctioned off baked goods, bracelets, hats, and other things they had made. The ward chipped in and donated some amazing items for the auction: paintings, a raft, a ride in a private airplane. Scott and I auctioned off a day of rock climbing for a family or group of friends. A really fun couple won the bid, and we're excited to take them climbing in June! I feel kind of bad... since they're paying us to hang out with them I feel like I need to be really REALLY cool (like I'm not already really REALLY cool, right?). We would have taken them climbing for free!



But it was all for a good cause, and it was one of the best get-togethers we've had at our ward with a huge turn-out. Scott and I are sure loving our ward. we've been there almost a year and a half now (since we've been married so a year and four months) and we love it! We've had the same callings - Young Mens Counselor/Scout Master and Young Women's Counselor/Camp Director since we moved in, and we've loved making so many friends in our ward.

Speaking of which, we just had some friends over for an intense and emotionally stirring game of Killer Bunnies. Don't Mock. We mocked. But oh, were we wrong! I can tell I am at high risk of becoming addicted! (That could have something to do with the fact that I won the game in the end having used no strategy and having been the recipient of great luck in the final second. I was the least schemy - the adjective we use to describe one who schemes - player at the table; I did not deserve to win!) We were introduced to the game by a couple in our ward who we've had a lot of fun getting to know, Trevor and Kate. Our long-time buddy Eric joined us as well. I should have gotten some pictures! But I was too deeply entrenched with all the Killer Bunnies to bother with erroneous thoughts.



Kirst and Nick. This is precisely the kind of game we would play with the two of you. There is a magic prune danish that can feed your bunny so it doesn't starve to death. There's a cyber bunny that plagues all of the other bunnies until death! There's an alien card that allows you to abduct a bunny and then have it returned safely at the end of the game. So many possibilities! You never know what to expect! But we'll have to play after the boys are asleep. I don't want them getting any bad ideas about cutting the head of their bunny Peeps at Easter.

Right now I'm catching up on the blog while Scotty plans my birthday surprise. I am such a lucky girl! I'm looking at his committed furrowed brow and thinking, "What kind of guy goes to so much trouble to make his wife's birthday absolutely perfect?" I have a million moments a day that make me stop and think about how lucky I am to have Scott. I'm having one of those moments. '