I found my twin!

Believe it or not, this is not a picture of me.  However, I was reading the Annual Report for the SLCO Library System (for one of my classes, not for fun), and I came across this picture and did a major double take.  I literally thought, "Is that me??  Do I have a shirt like that?"  I want to hear your vote - does she or does she not look exactly like me?

I'm going there someday . . .

Perfect wife. Just add vitamins

Oh is that how it works?  Oh Kellogg's ad from the 1930's . . . .

You will know you have found the right person if . . .

Recently I have been pondering dating (go figure) and the various stages that my friends and I are at.  The trickiest thing about dating is that it is not enough to find someone, get them to start going on dates with you,  and then mutually like eachother enough that you continue dating, build a strong relationship, and get to the point where you could marry them.  

No - after all that effort you then come to the trickiest part of all because you must then ask yourself the question of whether you have found the right person for you (aka Mr. or Ms. Right).  As chance would have it, I was searching for a quote today and I came across this site entitled "How to Know if you are Marrying the Right Person."  

For all my friends, in all the stages of dating/marriage that they are in:     

• You will know you are marrying the right person when you feel support and encouragement about your own growth both emotionally and intellectually. The right person will want you to be emotionally healthy and able to stand on your own two feet. When you are with the right person you will feel good about yourself, safe, and fulfilled.

• The right person will not be negative, selfish, wishy washy, silent, embarrassing, critical, or a slob.  

• You will know you are marrying the right person if your future spouse says "I love you" not only in words spoken, but by loving actions. We define loving actions as doing things such as noticing when you are tired, remembering your birthday, wanting to spend time with you, listening to you, showing you respect, calling if you are running late, showing you affection, being patient with you if you don't understand something, kissing you hello and goodbye, and hugging you for no special reason.  

• The right person is someone who you like and who is your friend. The right person will enjoy spending time with you.Your love and your marriage will slowly fade if the two of you are not friends.

• The right person is kind, considerate, and polite. Little things in life such as saying 'thank you' and holding a door open may seem old fashioned, but they do reflect the amount of caring and kindness in a person.  

• Having different likes and different opinions is okay as long as the two of you agree to disagree. Although you may not always agree with one another, conversations with the right person will be interesting and not boring. The right person will communicate thoughts and feelings with you and will not keep hurts and concerns bottled up inside.  

• Understanding that the only constant in life is change, the right person is willing to discuss marriage issues, questions, and topics with you both before and after you get married.  

• The right person will encourage you to make decisions to live a healthy lifestyle by eating healthier foods and getting exercise. The right person will want to work with you to balance your work and personal lives.

• The right person is willing to share in the responsibilities of your home and future children.

•  The right person will trust you and not monitor your phone calls, or computer usage, or limit the amount of time you spend with others you care about. You will know you are marrying the right person if your future spouse does not try to isolate you from your family and friends. You not only need to belong to family, friends, groups, etc., you have the right to do so. The right person in your life will not try to control your life but will want to share a life with you. 

• You shouldn't have to defend wanting privacy or time alone. You will know you are marrying the right person when you are not questioned about your need for time alone or personal space. 

• Finding the right person doesn't mean that the two of you won't have difficulties or differences to deal with. However, with the right person you will know that the two of you will be able to work through the issues that could hurt your relationship. The way you handle disagreements and conflict shows psychologists more than what you fight about.  

Taken from Marriage.About.Com - How to Know if you are Marrying the Right Person

On my way to FHE on Monday . . .

My car was hijacked by two drunk people.  I'm not kidding.  I was peacefully driving to FHE, about to turn out of my neighborhood, when I noticed this poly guy and girl on the sidewalk walking towards me and the guy started gesturing frantically at me, flagging me over.  Thinking it was an emergency, I naturally pulled over and automatically rolled down the window to inquire what was wrong.

To my astonishment, the guy said, "Hey can you drive us home?  We just live a couple blocks from here and we've had a little too much to drink."  And before you could say "It is NOT a good idea to let strangers into your car", they had hopped into my car and were thanking me profusely.  (For the record, I HAD the doors locked, but I had rolled down the window too far and the guy wasted no time unlocking the door and hopping right on in.)

At this point, what could I do?  They were already in my car, telling me at least twenty times that they were Tongan, not Samoan, and asking me over and over if I was LDS.  So I drove them literally two blocks back into my neighborhood to their house and they got out of my car (kindly offering me a cigarette as a token of their gratitude), and I continued on my way to FHE . . . with all the windows rolled down because my car smelled like a brewery.


Do things like this happen to anyone else??

P.S. Note to self:  It's probably not a good idea to roll windows down very far when pulling over to see if people need help . . .
 

The 6 Greatest Things about doing Grad School Online

6.  No group projects - ever!  This means not having to find times that will work with all of your schedules, so that you can sit together for three hours trying to compromise on how the project should be done, so that then you can ultimately do all the work when your projectmates don't follow through.

5.  Despite what you're thinking, you still get plenty of opportunities to interact with your classmates.  Only instead of knowing someone as "that freakin annoying kid who stops the teacher seventy times during lecture to have them re-explain things", I know my fellow classmates as "he's the kid who is interested in Russian History" or "that's the woman who takes the time to read and comment on everyone else's paper."

4.  There are no surprises.  You know exactly what the entire semester is going to look like, including when everything is due.  Even quizzes are announced most of the time.

3.  You can work on school literally any time you want!  If I choose to wake up at 3 in the morning and listen to my professor's lecture for the class, I can do that.  Not that I would . . .

2.  You can skip a day or two, anytime you need to.  Because classes have assignments, lectures, and readings by the week, if I go out of town on Saturday and don't come back until Wednesday I don't have to worry about missing important lectures or assignments - as long as I catch them by Sunday I am good to go.

1.  I think I'm going to go listen to my professor's lecture for the week.  And you know what?  I think I'm going to take a nice long bubble bath while I do.  And maybe eat some ice cream while I'm at it.  Mmmm that's my idea of a good lecture.

Have I convinced you all yet? 

My mancub

Check out these beautiful flowers that my mancub gave me for my birthday.  He picked them out himself, isn't that sweet?  He really wanted to give me a Cars toothbrush . . . but decided on these instead.

Isn't he the sweetest little mancub ever?  You can't see it in this picture, but I'm holding a picture frame proclaiming "Favorite Aunt."  Oh how I love that little guy - it is going to break my heart the day he realizes that I'm not actually related to him . . .