28 March 2010

PLANTIES CONTINUED


It's fun to watch them grow!

Ben's photos a week ago:

Peas

Brussels Sprout

Tamaters


Photos I took today:

Peas grow fastest!

Brussels Sprouts have coolest leaves

Tall tomatoes...

And basil grows the slowest...

27 March 2010

GIFT OF GIVING

One of the best things in life is when you know a gift you gave is appreciated and used.


I stressed over designing and sewing this fleece together to make a blanket
for Ben on Christmas 2003. (It's over six years old?!)
Somewhere I think I still have my sketches... each shape representing something that meant something to him or us. (All I remember now is triple dot and the Radiohead reference).
I know, I know, I'm a sentimental sucker.
It is a little small for his long body, so I don't think he's used it too much,
but I was so happy to see him nap with it that day!
(It was some day in early March?)

26 March 2010

TO YOU

KINDA LIKE CHAO'S...




except Indian!

I snuck these pics on my walk to work a few weeks back.
I finally got to actually go inside last last week with Ashley.
She got moth beans and I got a mint chutney yogurt sauce mix and frozen samosas.
(Which happened to be our dinner that night!)

25 March 2010

POOR WEATHER





Pretty sure this was the day after we had our lil' spring-y family night.

Hoping for better weather today!

24 March 2010

YOU'RE INVITED


to our house tomorrow
for some birthday snacks
because i will be


and if you want to play soccer at Kiwanis, I want to do that too.
At 5:30-ish.

And the birthday snacks are from 7:30ish to 11ish...

for this once-in-a-lifetime golden star event...

23 March 2010

PLANTIES


just days after scooter crash,
HusBen called the family (me) for a spontaneous non-Monday family night:




BK had gone to the greenhouses that day for garden supplies.
He decided to take the opposite direction from last year's flower garden.

This year, we get:

BASIL (the summer staple)

Red and yellow tomatoes.

and...
BRUSSEL SPROUTS!
(or is it brussels sprout?)
.

and can you guess what my job was?


to make use of my favorite Korea tape.

16 March 2010

YES, IT IS JUST ONE MORE THING, BUT I FEEL BETTER ENDURING STRESS IF I JUST GET TO BLOG SOMETHING


at times like these (times of 3am bedtimes and 8am wake times),
i think back about times like those
(morning canyon drives & private screenings at sundance)









and then i blog about them at 3:45 am

(fun winter saturday courtesy of nu skin, naturally).

14 March 2010

LIL' ACCIDENT: PART II

. . . So . . .
My dad showed up shortly and delivered us home in the middle of his morning rounds.
(Side note: Papá plays the stay-at-home dad role these days while applying consistently to jobs across the country.)

With our looming back pain, we both just wanted to lay down.
We examined Ben's open wounds, and I noticed a sprained feeling in my ankle.
When taking off my shoe I realized that ankle had been a point of impact.
Behold, one of my favorite "scars" of the crash:



I don't remember skidding enough to melt metal, but all I can say
is that it was a fluke (blessing) that I wore socks and shoes!
I think 90% of the time, I wear Chacos or flats.
I distinctly remember changing my mind that morning and deciding on socks and Simples.

Ben called insurance who said we'd get a call back from a Claims Rep within 24 hrs.
I made calls to Mom and Papá who gave good advice as to "what to do next."
(and to Nu Skin who gracefully dismissed me of work that afternoon),
And then as we prepared to get into the covers, Ben pulled out my laptop with the declaration,
"Well, if we're stuck in bed, we might as well watch some hulu!"
But his exclamation was quickly followed by an "Uh-oh. . ."

". . . your computer got dented."




When opened, the computer still worked, but the dent happened to be
on the one corner needed for charging.
In order to save battery for later when I could transfer files from it,
the dented laptop stayed closed.

So there we lay on our sunny bed, trying to relax, and recounting
the minutes before/during/after the accident
until our thoughts just stayed in our head and turned into dreams.

We didn't wake until later in the afternoon.
After those hours of still, our bodies ached now in movement!
My ankle and back/hip pain felt so intense that it was hard to walk to the bathroom.

I was just crawling around and getting dressed again,
(Ben agreed to take me to the Health Center to double-check for serious injury),
when Insurance Claims Representative Lady actually called.
Ben sat next to me while they recorded his version of the story and asked questions.

She said it was clearly her insured's fault and eventually it unfolded that:
  • Utah law prevents insurance from paying for bodily injury on anything less than $3,000
  • seeing as the price of a Vespa is pennies compared to a car, the insurance might prefer to replace the scooter all together instead of paying for the intense repairs that might accrue to the scooter's value all together.
  • Similar to the issue with the scooter, depending on the cost of repairs for the computer, they might choose to replace the laptop as well to avoid responsibility for any future malfunction even after the repair.
So, not confident that my mild injuries could reach $3,000, I settled on walking
around with a golf putter as a cane and we made the errands to get a price quote for the laptop repair, photos of the Vespa damage, and homework photos (of "his trees") for Benjamink.
While Ben printed tree photos at school, my family came to bring us Quizno's dinner,
include me in a Family Night, and to ask questions and give me attention
while I unfolded the whole story. Thanks Fam!

As much fun as stories are, I realize long blog posts are often not fun,
so, I practice my summarizing skills to describe the events since that day:

The pain and soreness has slowly decreased after that next morning. Blessing!
We made several phone calls, estimates, faxes, call-backs, and more,
and now know that they've decided to replace the computer.
(Apple store explained that the repair is classified as "4th tier"
or the very high-costing, intense replacement of the entire frame.)
!
They're sending us money for this one:


Another blessing.

Ben was just looking at these after reading the requirements for grad school.
Now, we've taken wire cutters to the bent aluminum to allow for my charger.
I still use my computer, albeit cosmetically challenged, and Ben shall get a freebie.

We have yet to hear about the Scootie since having it towed to the Vespa dealership
where an Insurance designee went to assess the damage.

Overall, we feel blessed from the lemonade come from this lemon.

06 March 2010

LIL' ACCIDENT: PART I

So we were all excited to say goodbye to February
(yes, I can spell that awkwardly-spelled/pronounced month, despite proof of the opposite on Ryan's birthday tribute...)

Ben and I had high hopes for March 1st,
particularly because it marked the end of "No-Spending-Month"
(we could hardly last through the shortest month of them all!)

But March's Monday had other plans for us.

Before we had even been awake for an hour,
our high hopes were shattered.


Crushed.


Mangled.


Thrown.

Along with our scooter, bodies, and all the debris from our little scooter compartment
when Mr. White Camry didn't see us after stopping at his stop sign, and crossed over 700 North right in front of us.

Ben braked as hard as safely possible, avoided swerving into the opposite line of traffic,
but we still collided with the very tail-end of the Toyota.

By that point, we had probably slowed to 10ish mph, and the other car really was hardly hit.
So it really isn't that big of a deal... just a lil' accident, but also a story.
That's why it might seem like a big deal, because it's a big story, and I like telling stories.

And drawing stories:


During a boring class the day after the crash, I drew out the scene,
just to see if I could figure some things out.

The little circle/dot in front of my hand is my button.
It is one of the first things I remember noticing after the fall: it popped off my coat. :(

The pain in my back was so sharp initially that I knew it would hurt more if I tried to move.
Ben was soon hovered over me and I rambled quickly, "I'm OK, I'm OK... I just feel like I fell out of a tree, but 10 times worse, and you know how you just need a little time before you get up?"
Several other faces appeared asking if I was OK, and luckily I was right—after about 30 seconds or a minute, the pain wore off and I could get up, back pack and purse on me too.
I tried to help the helpful passersby to clean up the debris, noticing the scooter
had already been wheeled to the corner by someone. (Thank you nice zoobies!)

Mr. White-shirt-and-tie came over to say he was so sorry and that he hadn't seen us.
We shook hands and smiled and waited as he called the police.
Along with two police cars came an ambulance and firetruck.
We signed some papers to verify that we didn't feel bad enough for a ride to the ER.
The big vehicles roared away and the other police car went with them.
The student traffic died down, now that class had started,
the sun came up and we filled out papers with our shaky hands.
Then it felt like a lot of waiting and wondering why.

Police Officer Man delivered a citation to Mr. Newly-wed-in-January,
who then gave us his insurance info, and we said goodbye.
Then Policeman lent us his cell phone because ours wouldn't work.
Luckily Papá answered the strange unknown number
and could drop everything to come give us a ride home.

Police car left and Ben, Deformed Scooter and I waited alone in the cold sun.

And we'll leave you waiting there by your warm computer until Part II of Lil' Accident Story.

FOR MJ!


A while ago I was chatting with my friend MJ who I met in the early years
of my Graphic Design degree. We discussed little freelance projects—
I declared church design projects the funnest of them all!
Why is designing for church stuff so fun?


Mom was in charge of invitations for their ward's New Beginnings,
and she asked for my help. She knew she wanted to include the newly-released
Young Women theme "card" (seen above), and needed a companion card with the invite info:


so that's what I made...

05 March 2010

BEST BELATED TO RYAN!


*Sorry, Ryan, the 5 asterisks or 70's-looking daisies are not to represent your character/interest,
but your 5 darling daughters.

WEDDING DAY PHOTOS BY MY COUSIN JORDAN JUAREZ