Reading day?

BYU giving us a reading day on Saturday is akin to having a national holiday on Saturday, it is just wrong. I threw a sledding party as a last "hurrah" before I left. Deb and I white-washed each other several times (she started it), Heber made the perfect jump (which Deb bravely went off of), Dave took great pictures, we made a sledding train, and we made hot cocoa and soup. It was a fabulous day. Here are some highlight photos courtesy of Dave.

Five more crazy days until I will be home, sweet home!!!



One of the best pictures ever.

Thanks to Deb's white-wash job just before this jump, my face was numb so it didn't hurt...much.

Introducing Sarah Preece. She will be my Patagonia pal in Argentina next semester. She is awesome.

Deb almost made her jump a clean run. Almost.

We actually kept the train together, all the way until the crash at the end.

We were up by Aspen Grove behind Timp. Lovely day.

A weekend of theatre

The cast came off Tuesday! Whoooo, hoooo! Unfortunately the foot is not as happy about that as I am. It is slowly but steadily improving, and I have a neat scar, so all is well.

Last night Crys and I went to see Dana in her last production with Divine Comedy. It was fantastic! For all of you who have never gone to one of their shows you are missing out on a great chance to wave glow sticks and laugh hysterically at BYU life.

Today Diane, Karen, Jeff (the Bowns' brother), and I went to "Devdas" at the International Cinema on campus. We all are big fans of Bollywood (the Indian Hollywood) films, but this one was a bit different. It was the most depressing love story ever; I wouldn't necessarily recommend it. It did, however, have classically good Bollywood costumes, dancing, and music (all Bollywood films are musicals). If you want to experience a Bollywood film you must watch "Kal Ho Naa Ho." Roughly translated it means "tomorrow may never be." One of the best movies I have ever seen. But be prepared with a good pile of tissues.

Today it snowed, snowed, snowed again! I love it! I was sitting on the couch trying to read about the battle to save the Rainham marshes, but kept on getting distracted by the snow falling through the street lamp beams, and the Christmas tree lights. I remember back when I was a kid living at home; I loved when the time came to put up Christmas lights. From my bedroom window I could see the big colored ones lining the roof and the small white ones draped in the trees. The only thing prettier was when they reflected off fresh snow. On those nights Mom would let me leave my window blind open and the Christmas lights turned on so I could look at them from my bed. I remember fighting to stay awake just so I could watch the splendor a little longer. It was as if I was being sung to sleep by visible Christmas carols that put a spell of enchantment over my home. Sweet dreams and Merry Christmas.

P.S. Next time it snows, take a moment to notice the size and shape of snow flakes, and the speed and patterns in which they fall. Watch the falling snow a few different times as the night goes on and gets colder. Focus in on one flake and watch it fall, and then another, and another. You may be surprised at how interesting a bunch of frozen water can be; I was.

My Green Cast

This is mostly for my out-of-Utah family that doesn't get the pleasure of signing my cast. (I know you are disappointed). The snow in the mountains is making a cast extra frustrating, but it comes off in two days so I think I will make it. (Whooo hoooo!) A big "thank you" to my aunt and her family for taking such good care of me. And, Mom, despite what it looks like, I am taking it easy. Love you all!

The day after the surgery was Hunter's birthday!
My toe "hat" I wear around the house.
The thought was that a cast is like a mountaineering boot in that it has a stiff shank. Unfortunately, other differences could not be overlooked.




The snowshoe worked much better. All that is missing is a few toe socks and a few plastic bags.

Here it goes

As I sit down to write my first blog post I am starting to feel the pressure. Do/write something every few days that is interesting enough that someone would want to read it. Hmmmm.... I hope my small audience doesn't have any grand expectations.

Stayed up too late last night (normal Friday occurrence) and had a rough time getting out of bed this morning. I woke up to snow, snow, snow this morning which set everything of on the right foot. I wrapped my cast up in saran wrap to keep it dry and broke out my new down coat. I went with Jodie and Jeff to get a Christmas tree for our apartment and then headed off to work. Three months later and I finally entered the last page of phenology data from this summer. Whoo hooo! At the store they let me drive around one of those electric carts. One of the perks of being a gimp.

Tonight I went to a White Elephant party and I think I got the best gift out of the bunch; a marsh-mellow gun. A use for my new bag of cowboy and Indian plastic toys (a price from a ward activity) came to mind: target practice.