Marg and Rob: Mythbusters

The following is a real event which took place in Margaret's bedroom, sometime last summer.  We had just gotten back from doing something epic (naturally) outside and were happily sipping away on slurpees inside to cool off.  

Marg:  Did you know that it's impossible to swallow something while you're upside down?

Rob:  No way, I don't believe that.  You could totally swallow like a grape or something while hanging upside down.  The human body is stronger than gravity. 

Marg:  No, it's true!

Rob:  False!  I'll prove it right now!

[Takes a giant mouthful of slurpee and jumps up on Marg's bed and dangles backward off of it.  Swallows.  Slurpee goes up nose.  Jerks upright, coughs and chokes, spews slurpee gloriously all over Margaret's bed.]


Myth:  It is impossible to swallow something while upside down.  PROVED!

Chunky Monkey

This year for Christmas I went through and scanned every single family photo from our childhood and gave each of my family members a digital copy of their own.  It took a lot of work (we literally had thousands of photos), but it is pretty neat to have (I think).  And I found some pretty classy family photos . . .

Unfortunately, I can't post any of them on here because I don't have their permission.  Instead, you'll just have to be satisfied with an illustrated guide to my early childhood. 

This was me on the day of my baby blessing.  I worked hard at an early age to develop a healthy set of lungs . . .

Believe it or not, I was a chubby little kid . . .

I think it's because I had a very healthy appetite . . .

I remained fairly chunky through my first year . . .

 . . . and my second . . .

 

 

. . . . and my third . . . 

And then suddenly one fine day the baby fat vanished, never to be seen or heard from again!

 

Merry Christmas! .. Sorry Robby

Merry Christmas everyone!  So to begin with I have a funny story:

A few days ago my favorite nephew Cannon was over at Marg's house (who is, in fact, his REAL aunt) and he saw a Christmas present sitting on Marg's desk and Marg explained to him that it was her present for me.  And he got very excited and wanted to hold it and carry it with him all over the house.  Well, a few minutes later Marg walked into the living room and found that he had ripped open my present and was happily sitting and looking at it.  Marg made him re-wrap it and it was basically the greatest wrapping job I have ever seen in my life, I wish I'd taken a picture.  AND she sent me this cute little video right after it happened:

In my family we have a Christmas Eve tradition of going to my grandparent's house and spending it together with them.  We usually have dinner, exchange one present from each of us, watch my grandparents open their Christmas gifts, and sing carols and talk the night away.

This year in a slight break from tradition we decided to hold Christmas Eve at William's apartment instead.  It was the fanciest Christmas Eve Dinner that I have ever had - and I would expect no less from William.  This is us sitting down to Christmas Eve dinner.

This was my Christmas Eve feast:  That is an entire roasted cornish hen on my plate - William baked one for each of us.  Every single bit of the meal was absolutely delicious, William is the best cook I know.

His entire apartment was extremely beautifully and elegantly decorated for the occasion (I wish I had taken pictures to share).  We spent an absolutely delightful evening together.  I love my family and am so grateful for them.

Merry Christmas everyone!!  I hope your day is filled with the very best things of Christmas - peace, love, and family & friends.

Compassion

I decided to take advantage of all this time I have while waiting for my tonsils to recover by reading the first four Gospels (Matt, Mark, Luke, and John) in the 10 days leading up to Christmas.  I thought it was fitting to read all about the Savior's life and ministry right before we celebrate his birth. 

One of my favorite parables that Christ told is the Parable of the Uncompassionate Servant (Matt 18).  It goes like this:

Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants.  And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.  But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.  The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.  Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.

But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence:  and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest.  And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.  And he would not:  but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.  So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done.  Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:  

Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on they fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee? 

And his lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.  So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.  


This story gives me pause for thought every time I read it.  For perspective's sake, 10,000 talents (the amount the servant owed his master) is the equivalent of $300 billion in today's market.  And the master freely forgave him all of it.  100 pence (the amount the fellowservant owed) is the equivalent of about $5,000.  If our Heavenly Father is willing to forgive us ALL things, how can we even think to be so petty as to deny forgiveness to anyone who wrongs us?

 

Mini Robyn

I'd like to introduce you all to my twin.  When we were in Elementary everyone called her "Mini Robyn".  She hated it, because she wanted to be known as her own unique self, rather than as a copy of someone else.  But I didn't mind it, I thought it was cute. 

You'll have to judge for yourself whether or not they were justified in calling us twins - here's what we looked like in 2000 (I was in 6th grade, Samantha was in 3rd).  

When we were younger we used to dress alike, too.   It was so cute.

Aw, I miss my little twin . . .

Elementary School Match Up

I was going through old family photo albums and I came across this class photo from 3rd grade.  As I was looking through the faces I remembered quite a few funny stories about each one.  Let's see if you can pick out: 

• The three boys that I made cry during this school year

• The boy who proposed to me at recess (he had a ring and everything).  I accepted and wore the ring the rest of the day, but the next day he asked for it back so he could propose to someone else.  I told him I'd lost it.

• The boy who came up to me at recess one fine day and started wrestling me to the ground.  He was about twice my size and he did manage to pin me to the ground, but I was all fired up and I did not like that one bit.  I grabbed him by both arms and kicked upwards with all my might and literally threw him over my head - he landed on his back in the grass five feet away with the wind knocked out of him.  I calmly got up and resumed the conversation I'd been having with my friend (whose eyes were as big as saucers) and we walked off.  I swear to you this is a true story.  His grandma and my mom were visiting teaching companions and he was terrified of me for the rest of the school year.  It was his own fault though.

My Tonsillectomy Experience: Anesthesia

I got my tonsils out yesterday afternoon and it was the first time I have ever been under general anesthesia.  I can only barely remember being in the recovery room afterwards, everything is really hazy up until I woke up a second time in the car on the way home.  But here is what I do remember:  I had been having a really good dream, and when I woke up from surgery I felt perfectly calm and extremely content.  I woke up smiling and was almost immediately lucid - I'm told that the doctors and nurses all loved it.  I kept trying to tell my mom about this delightful dream I'd had, but apparently every time I started to tell her then a nurse or doctor would walk in and I'd stop talking about it.  Too bad because I certainly can't remember any of the details now so I will never know . .  .

My mom says that they gave me a packet of post-op instructions and apparently as I read over it I found a sentence that was poorly worded and pointed it out to the nurse, and recommended how they could fix it, and the nurse called over the doctor and they actually agreed with me and were really amazed.  We discussed other possible wording choices/sentence structures for a few minutes, and they asked me if I was an English major ha ha.

So . . . that was my first experience under anesthesia.  I was kind of nervous going into it because as I was sitting in the little room waiting to be taken into my surgery I could hear someone else waking up from theirs and it was not a very pleasant sound.  They were pretty panicky and disoriented, and at one point they started hyperventilating, and then they started throwing up (all of which I'm told are very common reactions to waking up from anesthesia after a tonsillectomy).  It was definitely a tender mercy that I had such a delightful dream and that it carried over to when I woke up - I can't imagine a better way to wake up from surgery.

Fun facts about anesthesia:  Apparently nausea and vomiting are extremely common side effects of anesthesia.  I looked it up and these are all the factors that put you at higher risk to experience this:

• Female Gender (check)
• Younger age (check)
• Nonsmoker (check)
• History of motion sickness (nope - thankfully)
• Family history of post-operative nausea and vomiting (check)
• Any surgery lasting longer than 30 minutes (check)
• Type of surgery.  Tonsillectomy = very high risk (check)

How on earth I avoided THAT when I woke up I will never know since apparently I fit every single criteria except one, but happily I didn't even feel the tiniest bit nauseated when I woke up.  All in all, another tender mercy.

P.S.  I just realized that this marks the 50th post that I have posted on this blog.  Happy birthday to me!

A typical day at work

I love my job.  It is never the same two days in a row, and my job seems to contain a lot of "all other duties as assigned" so it keeps me entertained and challenged.  It's difficult to explain how awesome and all-encompassing my job really is.  Here's an example of a typical day at work (today):

• I began my morning by presenting a data report that I had created to the School Readiness Team.  The report was basically awesome and contained some pretty statistically sound data, all presented in really sharp looking graphs.  I created every single step of it, from tracking all the data in Excel to figuring out what exactly we wanted to show with it to writing complex formulas in order to analyze everything to plotting it all in cute little graphs to writing it all up in a report.  
• By this time it was time for lunch so I went to Chic Fil A with my coworkers and while we were eating our delicious food we got laughing so hard that several of my coworkers were in tears.  My coworkers are SO cool.
• After lunch I got to problem solve:  there was a crockpot lid that had fallen down into this giant gaping hole in a corner of the kitchen between two 8 foot tall cupboards and had been given up for lost.  I built a contraption out of a pole, several rulers, a heavy duty magnet, and lots of packing tape, and then using a stepladder I was able to hoist myself up and there was just enough room below the ceiling to stretch out across the top of the cupboard and go "fishing" for the lid.  It took a few tries but I managed to hook the lid and carefully pull it all the way up and out!  Then I made a makeshift hole cover out of poster paper and tape so that hopefully this won't happen again  :)
• Next I met with one of my favorite new coworkers to go over her 45-day orientation.
• Finally I finished up my day by doing a random assortment of odds and ends - updating the staff roster and printing off a new copy for each employee, writing up a requisition for some needed program supplies, editing a few reports, fixing an error on our database, updating the staff calendar through Dec 2013, etc.  

 Isn't my job AWESOME??

Cute little kidlets

Little kids are basically the greatest ever.  This weekend I got to drive to Wyoming and hang out with two super cute ones (pictured below).  These are my cousin's kids and I got to spend basically the whole weekend playing with them.

This is McKinley (aka Kinners).  She is three and a half and has the most adorable little curls.

 

And this is her sister, Katie.  She is 13 months old and has the cutest scrunched-up face grin.  I could listen to her giggle all day.

On Saturday I got to unexpectedly babysit them for a good chunk of the day and we basically had a party.  We made a "cupcake" out of corn, grapes, artichokes, and all sorts of other deliciousness.  We played with bubbles.  We got attacked by blanket monsters.  And we painted our nails.  Kinners did mine - not bad for a three year old right?

Now if only I could find some nail polish remover . . .

 

More Random Tidibts (Illustrated version)

1.  Given the choice, I eat donuts with a knife and a fork. 


2.  When I was in junior high I trained my dog, Cookie, to jump so high that she could literally jump up and lick people on the lips.  Very entertaining.

3.  Today I wrote a formula in Excel that was so long it filled up the entire formula field - and what's more it worked! 


4.  I am a skilled pop up card maker.  See proof below.

5.  It takes every amount of concentration for me NOT to run up the stairs two at a time when I'm in dignified company.


6.  I once made a cake out of meatloaf and mashed potatoes (decorated with ketchup and mustard) for a roommate who didn't like cake.

7.  Last week I paid $25 for a single song. I fell in love with it and it wasn't available any other way so what could I do? 


8.  While I was at Geology Field Camp I went to a testicle eating festival.  It was the most hick thing I've ever done. 

9.  If I were a Who, this is what I would look like:

I'm dropping my major again . . .

And this time I'm going in to photo editing! 

Pencilized Krohn family

For comparison's sake, here's a before picture . . .

                                And here's an after picture

 Again, here's before . . .

And after . . .

And  here's a pretty awesome one, if I do say so myself.  Please note that we are all in color while the background is black and white

 

Here's basically an awesome picture of Samantha . . . 

And just for fun here's a glamorized shot of me . . .

And here's a charcoalized one of the whole fam!

Breath of Heaven

One of my favorite Christmas songs is "Breath of Heaven" by Amy Grant.  It is a fairly unique Christmas song because it is from the perspective of Mary, the mother of Jesus.  I guess I like to imagine what it would have been like to be in her shoes, and I can't help but wonder in awe at the amazing person she must have been.

Tis the Season

What an awesome idea to remind people what the Christmas season is really about.

My Type

Today I sorted through twenty years' worth of memories and I came across so many gems - I was literally laughing out loud at some of the funny things I found. 

One of the papers I found was a letter I wrote in Young Women's when I was 16, addressed to my husband, to be read the day before we get married.  Let me tell you, it's pretty classy - it begins:

"Dear Hubby,
Right now I feel like all boys are dirt and I'll never marry, so if I'm getting ready to marry you now you must be one pretty amazing guy."

Apparently I was having boy problems at the time, ha ha. 

Along the same lines, I found two pretty interesting lists - one I wrote in junior high of all the attributes I wanted my future husband to have.  For a thirteen-year-old, it was surprisingly thoughtful.  The full list has 27 characteristics, but some of them include: 

• treats inferiors with respect
• good with children
• not cocky; humble
• likes knowledge
• can admit he's wrong or sorry
• compromises
• believes in equality
• faithful; has integrity

And then I found another, less serious, paper entitled "My Type" - written sometime in high school.  This list also has 27 items such as:

• can't have large nose
• last name must start with a cool letter - l, d, c all good - and has to go well with my name and all my kid's names
• first name must go well with Robyn (e.g. Bob and Rob)
• must have clean fingernails
• no facial hair (feels weird when kissing) - as if I knew that then
• must like our six children's names
• preferrably not a lard, though slightly lardish individual body parts okay (ie knees, pinkies, big toe, etc) 

Together that makes 54 characteristics that describe my future husband!  Anyone who has ever asked me before what my type is, feel free to see me and I'll give you a copy of the full list.

Holiday Dreamin

Don't you wish that the holidays could extend all throughout the year?  Think about it - wouldn't life be so much sweeter if every day you could

• Express gratitude and pray as if it were Thanksgiving

 

• Be filled with compassion and charity for those around you as if it were Christmas

 

• Be inspired and bursting with exciting goals for life as if it were New Year's Eve 

 

• Express your feelings for loved ones as if it were Valentine's Day

• Feel full of awe and wonder at the beauty of mathematics like it was Pi Day.  He he.

 

• Be filled with gratitude and humility as if it were Easter

 

• Honor your parents and all they do for you as if it were Mothers or Fathers Day

 

• Be filled with patriotic spirit and pride for our nation as if it were Independence Day

 

Just think what a good person you would be if you could embody all of the spirits of each of the holidays all throughout the year.

Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone

As the Thanksgiving season approaches I thought it would be appropriate to take a minute and express gratitude for just a few of the many wonderful blessings I have in my life.  I'm so thankful for:  

• My incredible family.  I love every single one of them and each of them has unique traits that I look up to them for.  My siblings and parents, cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents are AWESOME!  I'm so grateful for the opportunities we have to do things together and I'm so grateful for their support.
• Fun-loving and supportive friends who keep my life entertaining.  I love each and every one of you and I'm grateful for the part you play in my life.  So many of you have been and continue to be good examples to me throughout my life. 
• The opportunity to pursue an education, and the guidance to find a career which I'm passionate about.
• A job which I enjoy doing, and coworkers which I genuinely love being around.  Last week I was honored to receive the Employee of the Quarter Award and as I looked around the room at all my coworkers I was almost overwhelmed by their excitement and happiness for me.  I work with the best people.
• The opportunity to date wonderful young men so that one day I can enter the temple to join in an eternal marriage, confident in my choice.
• The gospel and all that it encompasses.  My Savior and His ultimate sacrifice.  My Heavenly Father and the ability I have to pray to him each day.  The opportunity to gain skills and experiences by serving in the church.  The opportunity to live and grow and make choices (and repent) and learn some more.
• This awesome country that we live in, with all of its freedoms.
• The opportunity to see so many close friends (and most especially my best friend) find an eternal companion who makes them so happy.     

God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today.  Have you used one to say "thank you?"  ~William A. Ward

That's So My Life

Every once in a while I have these awkward encounters that just make me giggle.  For your enjoyment, here are three little scenes from my recent life:


At a gas station, washing windows while waiting for my car to fill up.  

Random guy walks by.  

"Nice car."

"Thank you."  Continue washing windows.

Guy walks a few more steps and turns.

"And by the way you're really beautiful."

"Thank you."  Continue washing windows.

Guy walks a few more steps and turns.

"If you don't have a boyfriend then I'd be really interested."

"I do, but thank you."  Finish washing windows and retreat inside car.  



At a Walmart buying medicine because I had an awful cold.  Stop at a movie bin to find a movie so that I can veg out for the rest of the day.  

Holding two movies, trying to decide between them.  

Suddenly, random guy next to me says, "Hey I'll buy both of those for you if you'll go on a date with me tonight."  

Stare.  Head about to implode from the cold.  Blink blink.  "Sorry, what?"

Guy grins. "I don't usually do stuff like this, but I'm really in the mood for some good company tonight and I'd love to take you to dinner."

Me:  [stumblingly] "Oh.  I'm so sorry.  I actually have this really bad cold and I just stopped by to get some medicine.  And a movie.  And now I'm going home to veg for the rest of the day."

"Oh, okay.  Well if you change your mind I'll be over in the Home Improvement section."

Starts to walk away.  Turns back.

"I really will buy those for you."

"Um, I'm fine.  Thanks though."   




Today.

Driving home from work.  Singing along to the radio.  Life is pretty marvelous.

Car pulls up beside me and guy in passenger seat grins and waves.

Smile and wave back.  

Guy blows kiss.

Smile and pretend to catch it.

Guy mouths question.

Do you have a boyfriend?  

Pretend not to understand.

Light up ahead turns red.

Begin to brake.  

Guy starts rolling down window.  

Oh poop.  

Smoothly transition into turn lane.

Don't look back. 

It's too bad I don't have an affinity for guys who pick up girls at gas stations, grocery stores, on the street . . . I'm sure I've missed out on some wondrous opportunities  ;)

A Thousand Years

I am in love with this song.

And if you liked that one, check out this awesome one below - it gave me chills.  I LOVE The Piano Guys

These are a few of my favorite things . . .

    I love snow.  With all my heart.  I love watching it, I love playing in it, I even love driving in it.  Crazy, I know.  But why do I love snow so much?  Because of all the memories that it brings back to me:

Of playing in the snow with my family, building forts and giant snow slides, having snowball fights, playing badminton in the snow
 

Of warming up in front of a cozy fire surrounded by family and friends, drinking hot chocolate and cider and eating delicious food

Of skiing and sledding with good friends 

Of fun winter adventures with past roommates

 
















Of holidays spent with family - playing games, eating delicious dinners together, and gathering around at the end of the night to sing Christmas Carols

 Of snowshoeing, hiking in the snow, and cross country skiing with friends

  





























Of Christmas with my family

 

How could you NOT love snow?