Thinking of You

I went to that Relief Society meeting on Saturday night and as I listened to all those speakers it made me miss all of you like crazy! I guess these women meetings make me think of all the women in my life and so I enjoyed remembering our unique experience at BYU. I am just so grateful that I know all of you. I thought about all the different things we do during the day: some changing diapers, others studying like crazy, a few coming home tired after a long day of work, reading, quiliting, running, illustrating, some dating, some trying to encourage husbands... I am just proud to know you. I could keep being sentimental, but I will spare all of you. Just know that I think of you and miss you and want to go for a run sometime.

As for me and my life - we had a great summer traveling all over the country and now I am back home trying to teach my kid how to poop in the toilet. It has been pretty interesting....I would definitely not recommend it. My new hobby is cooking and while Cory has been away I have tried to make bread and pizza. I am looking forward to my Thai and Indian food classes at the local adult center. I know, pretty dorky, but don't worry there are still plenty of homemaking tasks that I have yet to try...As for reading, I loved the book Freakonomics, I recommend reading From Beirut to Jerusalem- it is helping me understand the insane politics of the Mid-East. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was absolutely awesome and if you want to fall in love with characters and cry real tears, you should read that one.

My kids keep me busy and a bit crazy. Rachel destroys everything in her path and likes to beat up on Blake. That is the first thing she does in the morning- finds Blake, punches him and flinches knowing that retaliation is coming. She is the typical annoying little sister. I am pretty sure that if I timed her she could do a 400 in about 10 minutes, so I think she will be pretty fast one day. Blake's new passion is snakes - the best field trip of the summer was to the Berkely Vivarium, home of the largest collection of pet reptiles in the nation.

I did get to see Sarah Ellis for a few minutes on one of my adventures and she is dating a police man and making serious cash working as a dental hygienist. I am hoping that by writing her name she will be inspired to post something.

Anyway, all you gals need to post again! I want to hear how you are doing.

I think I am going to put some links to personal websites on the side of this thing. So please email me the links to your websites or better yet, just leave them in the comment section of this post.

The Sunflower State

In the last few weeks Nate and I have discovered why the sunflower is the Kansas state flower. They grow on the sides of the roads in huge clumps. When I drive to school I see fields of sunflowers. It's been really fun.


The sunflowers are much taller than I am.















It looks like we really do live in Kansas.

















I am now back in school. This semester I'll be reading a lot about Cubsim. So far, it's been pretty fun. I'm glad not to be one of the new students anymore! I hope all of you are well. Kansas really is a beautiful place.

JoLee