R. I. P.

TO MY FAVORITE 5-YEAR-OLD KELLY GREEN GAP LEATHER GLOVES
(Well, one of them is somewhere in Seoul; the other is here with me, but what can I do with just one?)

___

in other news, we shared a wonderful traditional thanksgiving with the missionaries.

and tonight, we hit the streets of Myeong-dong for 12-inch mango cones and glasses for Ben.
(But Ben and I threw away our cones after a few licks. They weren't very flavorful).


*Notice that Ben's strawberry cone matches his new fucia Uniqlo zip hoodie. And the giant rainbow place is where he got his glasses... pictures of his new frames to come...

OLIVIA IN KOREA / BEN IN KOREA

O, heeeeere we are together, together, together:

Ben is wearing Kurt's awesome tie, and I am a shorty-pants.

Ben played RingAroundTheRosies after the Temple session.

This is Pen Heaven where I almost fainted.

(Really. I really felt light-headed).

Mom gave me some special pen orders for the family, so I bought LOTS!

The ladies had to scan each of the 108 pens individually!

(Check out their uniforms, and my bald spot/scar from the 1999 Family Move)

Ben has made some awesome purchases. (Panda hat being one of them) But he held back on this red BYU sweat-shirt-dress and settled for just a good photo.

All this is not to mention the Japanese tape, MUJI, UNIQLO, the AMAZING missionary lesson where I was crying the whole time and missing my mission, glass milk cartons, inside-out salt shakers, fabric paper, turquoise nail polish, giant asian pears, fabric stickers, every color of felt, and pleated or polka-dot hole ribbon.

But none of it compares to being with Korean Knudsens again!

(For up-to-date images, click on the Master Father Blogger)

I 'DESERVE' IT

(I know I have a load of things to do right now, but I'm telling myself I deserve to blog right now. I can hear some sort of authority in my head saying something like I never can deserve anything in this life; I think in the context of Christ, and my eternal debt. But still, for lack of a better word, I deserve this blog therapy right now.)

We got to school around 8 tonight, with the intention of staying for a good late night of homework. The Aytch-Eff-Ay-See, as Ben likes to call it, (H-FAC to the rest of us) closes at 11, but late passes are available by endorsement of a teacher. Ben spends so much time with me there that the Security Guard girl now considers him one of the rest of the design students with late passes.

Awesome.

Tonight we sat in a room not endorsed by the late pass. So at 11, Security Guard Girl asked us to pack up and move two doors down to the BFA studio. But it was full. It turns out there were 13 other students just as dedicated to the night of homework that we were. We awkwardly walked in, then walked out; there was no room in the Inn. But really it's probably better this way, the BFA studio is probably not for married people after all. We're the only marrieds that ever really stay late. (The others must know how to be productive at home or something?)

Ben and I are trying it. We each have a little desk in our "work room". Ben was a dear and, to make my small corner more inviting (after my mumble of complaint), he lit two candles for me. Now I'm so happy and comfortable, how can I not just write about it? I was just rejected from the Inn, I deserve to write.

I'm connecting my random thoughts on a theme: Gratitude (it's November).


I'm grateful for Ben being a dear. After compiling this flora to the beauty above, Ben did me a favor of gathering my school bag, and bringing me the car in exchange for the brrrr! scooter I took to work. After a full day of work then class, I came home to a clean house and dinner on the table. Parmesan salad, spiced hamburgers, spaghetti squash, then egg nog and fruit snacks for dessert. He was so happy and hot. He made good jokes all evening, and I asked him why I loved him so much today.

I'm grateful for my passport. I know, I already told you I found it, but was it anticlimactic for you too? (Ben mentioned, two minutes after finding it, "That place was kind of anticlimactic.") I don't know if you realize the miracle. I was pushed to the very edge. I had looked everywhere for days, then I made all the calls, looked up the online info, filled out the proper forms and printed them out. I had a folder with all the prices and phone numbers and appointments and requirements. I wondered if it was silly to make the post about it. But if I hadn't, Ashley would never have known of my dilemma, so she never would have chatted me with the long list of unthinkable places, mentioning 'endtable' in passing, and I might never have thought to open the bottom drawer on my way to bed. Now, Korea's stamp will be in the same book as England, Germany, France, and the Czech and Dominican Republics. And I can buy stationeries and pens and things in Seoul. I think of the analogy that the Lord requires us to take a few steps into the dark before he'll light the way. I'm grateful He lit the way after my steps in the dark.


I'm grateful for Nu Skin. In the past 2 weeks, the Nu Skin has payed me to taste nearly every item on Communal's lunch menu, to golf for 5 hours, and to draw elves with wide faces all day long. Not to mention: they pay me to get internship credit hours at school. One day I'll show you what Nu Skin pays me to design.

Oh, and this whole time Ben deserved to look for new Christmas music with the $30 of iTunes gift cards from none other than our good friend Nu Skin.

Now we are cracking down on homework. Nothing can stop us.

HURRY! BEFORE YOU MISS IT!

HAPPY 15TH BIRTHDAY TO:

PRAYER + FAITH

I'm sorry. I lied. I said I checked every drawer. I really thought I'd checked every drawer.


But I must not have checked inside the bottom endtable drawer (yes, I think I checked the top drawer), under the Sacrament talk papers, under the Bonds That Make Us Free book, under the Goonies DVD. At some point, months ago, I must have known a box or bag or bin was not a good place for a passport, so I put it in an undeniably safe place—even safe from myself.

Special thanks to ALL prayers, the blog, and Ashley Thalman who racked her brain over a good 30-min chat with me so I could rack my brain. I'd checked many places she suggested, but still had a new list to check when we were done.

The endtable was one of them. It's been sleeping next to me this whole time.

Korea and Knudsens: Here I come!

COLORFULLY EMBROIDERED + S.O.S.

Did anybody else get this in the mail today?


-----

And, is anyone a passport expert? I spent the weekend looking in every box, bag, envelope, folder, bin, drawer, closet, bin, cupboard, car, and in every logical place and illogical place

for my passport.

And no luck.

My flight for Korea leaves in 10 days.

The Passport place in Provo said to pay $160 there, then take a sealed envelope to the travel broker in SLC, where for another $185, they might be able to get me a passport in less than 14 days. I told the lady that I have a 5-hour layover in San Francisco, and family there, but she said it would still be 14 days from there. What about the rumors that you can walk in to the office in San Francisco, and come out an hour later with a passport?

Anyone? HELP! I will pay the $345 because it's better than no Korea,
but if anyone knows the system in San Francisco, I wonder if I should aim for that.

And if you don't know, please just pray.

Thank you.

TO ACQUIRE SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE

Remember this?

It's kind of like this:
"(He) knew that you would face challenges
and be required to make some decisions that would
be beyond your own ability to decide correctly."

Here's more.

BIRTHDAY CATCH-UP #2

Photo taken on 8 October, 2005. What? It's been four years?
Devin is still that photogenic.

---

I used to love saying that "Devin and I have been friends since we were born."
For our growing-up years, we'd only see each other every several months.
I remember it always took us a bit to warm up to each other,
but by the time it was time to go, we'd never be ready to separate.

Then after high school, we never really had to seperate. We were together at DT (RIP),
where she introduced me to her friends as her "fake cousin."
Appropriate, I thought. Her family is basically part of my Mom's family,
not to mention several other life-long significant connections.
The next three years of living together turned fake-cousin-ship to deeper friendship.

Happy 25th Birthday | a month ago | Devin Ann!
Thanks for your constant initiative to keep that friendship going! You're ever o-so on top of it!

BIRTHDAY CATCH-UP #1

WOW. ABOUT ONE WHOLE MONTH LATE. AWESOME.

MY LITTLEST SISTER MAYA TURNED 13 ON 8 OCTOBER 2009.
BUT REALLY, WE ALL KNOW SHE'S 13 GOING ON 23.

WHEN SHE COULD BARELY SEE OVER THE COUNTER,
SHE WAS ALREADY THE MOST RESPONSIBLE IN THE HOUSE
(BESIDES MY PARENTS & I, OF COURSE).
WE COULD WALK IN THE DOOR AND HAVE A FULL ACCOUNT
OF WHO CALLED AND WHAT THEY NEEDED
AND IF WE NEEDED TO CALL THEM BACK.
(SHE STILL DOES IT BY SECOND-NATURE).

SHE KNEW ALL MY FRIENDS IN HIGH SCHOOL.
SHE KNEW WHO WAS DATING WHO;
WHO HAD A CRUSH ON WHO;
WHO DIDN'T LIKE WHO;
WHO DUMPED WHO;
WHO WAS RELATED TO WHO;
(SHOULD ALL THOSE LAST WHO'S BE WHOM'S?)

SHE KNOWS HOW TO WORK THE SYSTEM.
ANY SYSTEM—SCHOOL, THE FAMILY, TRENDS, MONEY...

SHE'S EVERYONE'S FAVORITE BABYSITTER.

MATURE MAYA HAS ALWAYS BEEN MY GOOD FRIEND.
I LOVE WATCHING HER GROW.

HAPPY TEENS TO GABRIELA ISABEL!

Happy Birthday Ashley!

I love this song but not as much as I love you!

DEAR ASHLEY KNUDSEN BAKER,

please forgive the bluriness; i tried FOREVER to fix it. click to enlarge for clarity.

DREAM COME TRUE

School during Halloween = my favorite Halloweenisms unfulfilled.
(i.e. corn maze, pumpkin carving, apple cider, roasted pumpkin seeds, playing in leaves)
But one long-time Halloween Dream did come true this year:

I got to be Frida.

Special Thanks to Elisa for helping conceive the idea o-so-long ago.
Special Thanks to Casidy for providing me the opportunity to dress up for something.
More Special Thanks to Hus-Ben for joining me.

OH, HEY.

Thanks to the dear ones who said you miss me. I miss the blog(s).

Too bad I let blogging turn into another one of those always-behind-in-and-trying-to-
catch-up-on things. I could just let it be what it is and help relieve me of the stress and yuck building up from the rest of those a-b-i-a-t-t-c-u-o things.

So I'm trying again.

But special sorry's to those I've disappointed: most particularly the birthday peoples. (You see, I think that's why I didn't do birthday shout-outs in the first place, because how was I ever going to keep up? And what if I missed someone without knowing it? Guess what: I did. Dear Deborah thought I was going to tell all about the wonderful influence she's had on me and even my hobbies to this day, but alas, I let her down! And that's only accounting for the soul that was brave enough to tell me that I skipped her. So, we'll see if I can't make up for that too.

As an update in general, schoolwork is still hard, but I still love school mates and class content and learning. I've chosen handwriting as my subject of research for the next year, and the basis for my BFA Final Show, (currently scheduled for the first weeks of May; mark your calendars). I'm loving it, though still hating the never-sleep lifestyle, and always being behind.

My True Love has been supportive as ever. Thanks, Dear.

Adrian, my Australian professor for design, wrote this line on the board at the beginning of class. He asked what we thought and I blurted,"The story of my life!" I copied it with my Sarasas in my sketchbook.
I'm working on replacing fear with faith.