FOURTH OF FOURTH IN THE FOURTH

I was tagged.

This is my first response to a tag. I know it took me a while, but thank you Katy.

Assignment: to post the 4th photo in of my 4th album.
Problem: I don't really have organized albums. At least not lately.
I kind of did pre-mish. So I'll show you a few that could qualify:

Fourth Foto From the album of the Fourth month in my only Foto archives (2005).
Because it was April, it was moving-out time from the Annex.
I took pictures of my roommates during our last night together--talking on the kitchen floor.
This is Elisa Thelys Bushman and I love her very much.

This is the Fourth Foto From the Fourth album in those same 2005 archives.
Who knew? Another fabulous roommate:
Abby Annette Lyman. I love her lots too. And the face she's making.

This is the Fourth Foto From the Folder of most-recently uploaded pictures.
This was from early December 2008.
Ben took this picture himself.
One day I came home to find Ben had spent some time
that afternoon searching local greenhouses for Paperwhites.
I didn't learn until then that this was a Knudsen Christmas tradition...

I love tag.

"You're it!" to the Following Four:
CALVIN, KATIE ANN, DEVIN ANN & MEREDITH AMELIA.

JUST PICTURE IT

Yesterday I saw a guy in semi-best dress, cleaning windows while holding a book. I walked by again & saw he was actually reading it while wiping the windows.

Today I ventured outside of the HFAC to the bookstore for the first time in a WHILE:
On the third floor, I dropped $85.39 on a power cord.
Then I remembered I was craving chocolate and, at the candy counter on the second floor, I spent $0.98 on a quarter pound of chocolate-covered cinnamon bears. (I like them thanks to Jenna.)
Then I saw an ad for 20% off on Sarasa pens. It's been a long time since I owned a Sarasa. I went downstairs and got it. They weren't even that much cheaper, but I was on a splurge roll.

*OH, here's a kicker: I used my debit cards on all those 3 separate purchases in the same store. The last girl at the register asked for my ID. ! ? What? I was surprised, and a titch annoyed. It's BYU. If anything, I should have been ID'd for the $80 purchase. What do you think?

And I no, I don't have any cool photos to go with this, but I really wished I'd had my camera to take a picture of that multi-tasking window wiper. Picture that in your head.

A POST ABOUT MY BROTHER

(ok, i know it's still a photo of me, but keep reading:)
This photo was taken in the country side of a certain land.
A land where my brother Calvin will soon live.
He opened his mission call in recent hours, and it was far from what anyone thought.
It will blow your minds. But I'll let him tell you.

CLICK HERE!

ONE OF THE COOLEST (OR HOTTEST) THINGS ABOUT OUR APARTMENT

The water heater behind our bathtub/shower faucet is AMAZING. We have to turn on the water and wait for it to get cool enough for us to get in instead of waiting for it to turn from cool to hot.

I like it a lot.

KIND OF LIKE SIM-ANT, EXCEPT REAL

Ok--back when we first moved in, I started to notice some ants in the bathroom. Then they made their way to the kitchen, where they invaded the mesh metal garbage can. I was solving the problem by attacking them with housecleaner spray. (A little trick I learned from the DR that kills ants much faster than the special ant-killer spray.) We changed the kitchen garbage to a solid plastic pail, and it eventually got cold, and the ants disappeared.

THEN,

right about Christmas time, (yeah, it was still winter, who knew?) I noticed some in the bathroom again. I was fine spraying them but they slowly became more frequent and found their way to the kitchen where they munched on the crumbs falling from our food prep. Sometimes they'd roam the bedroom floor. I was kind of ok with all of this, seeing as I'd lived with them on the kitchen counter for 18 months...

But when the Provo ants found the Provo kitchen counter that was it. I was sick of ants, and sick of feeling like every black little speck everywhere else was an ant. So I found these trusty things, and it took care of the problem in just days.




I won't lie, I still see about one straggler a day, but it's much better then a billion a day.

Thank you, Raid.

MY RESOLVE THIS NEW YEAR

I became aware of a certain stereotype of blogs after my mission: the new wife brags about her husband, maybe a baby & about their wonderful life. I did not want to become that blogger.

Mostly because it might have something to do with my instinct of 'over-honesty'. The same instinct that leads to my real answers when someone says "How are you?". This question is asked everyday in greeting. But how many people are really wondering how the other is? Oftentimes the greeting is sludged into one: HiHowAreYa? But sometimes, they don't even expect an answer. For some reason, it is hard for me to answer with the typical "GoodHowAreYou?" reply. When people ask how I am, I want to tell them. But every now and then, as I unravel how I'm really feeling, I also get the feeling it's way more than they expected when they first asked the question. So... naturally, I thought my blog might just really tell you how I am. The good, the bad and the ugly.


{Here's the ugly: I've had a cold for over a week now and my nose is CHAPPED.}


And I thought I'd tell it like it is: I'm not happy all the time. I get offended and I offend others. Sometimes I don't do what I know to be right. My life isn't perfect. My marriage isn't perfect. Even Provo is not perfect.

But that was back when I didn't understand.

It was after reading a NY Times article on Stephanie Nielsen that I understood. (Read the last paragraphs.)
Of course. No one's life is perfect. No one's marriage is perfect. We are all human & we're all on different levels, different courses and paths. So I have a new respect for those blogs I mentioned before - the new wives bragging. They are focusing on the beauty. And this new online show-off realm of blogging has become an outlet for the positive. Maybe it can really motivate the positives in our life. It can motivate hope.

And HOPE is a commandment.

So here's hoping for a more good, less bad & ugly life. This blog, and several other good habits (2009 goals), will be the means.

As my mother said, "2008 was sure great, but 2009 will be divine!"

TWO THOUSAND NINE SHALL BE DIVINE

Mom texted me: "2008 sure was great, but 2009 shall be divine!"

Ben got me a Present & Correct calendar for Christmas.

Ben & I get 9am church now.

TODAY

YES - THEY ARE REAL CALA LILIES. YES - BEN PICKED OUT THIS VASE AT IKEA.

in reverse chronological order:

1. Couldn't stay awake for all of Star Wars: A New Hope. (Which is too bad - I've been excited a while to see it again...)
   
2. Alma 44 at my family's house.
   
3. Ben's pork, broccoli, potato dinner w/ a blended lemonade & strawberry beverage.
   
4. Carmen coming to "job-shadow" for her Computer Tech class as I design Elise's announcement. (She also played Bananagrams with me & ate TWO meals here!)
   
5. Enjoyable 30-minute phone call with Mom.
6. My '62-'66 Beatles vinyl album playing on the turntable.
7. Fishstick/salad lunch.
8. Killing a spider and about a billion ants. In my little house.
9. Catching up on blogs - back to about August. My favorite catch-up: Lindsay's!
10. Sleeping in til 10:30
11. "You look beautiful," said Ben when I sat up from sleep to help look for the car keys.

(i could tell he wasn't just saying it...)

I HAVE A BAD HABIT

I always bite extra skin off my lips... which means the skin never has a chance to really grow easily & so there's always an extra piece I have to bite off. I tried once in November to stop. I think I'll try again for the new year...

SOMETHING NICE ABOUT BEN

As mentioned here, I haven't really posted much about my other half. And apparently when I have, the posts aren't nice things about Ben. This is a shame and UNintentional, because of course there are infinite nice things about Ben. Why do you think I've never had any other man? ;) Here is a prime example:

We both had long work-days today, and after picking me up at 5, we went straight to give the Mazda some new tires. While we waited we talked of our hunger & what we should have for dinner... (These work/break days have been full of eating out, eating fast, or eating at the Juárez home. It's been a while since we had a home-cooked meal in our apartment.) So we rolled into our little carport at 6, still undecided about dinner. I was tempted just to pour a bowl of cereal, but at the same time I wanted real food.

In a wishful thought-out-loud, I almost moaned on my way to the fridge, "I want... black bean soup."

I wasn't thinking of any certain recipe. I don't know if I've even ever had a black bean soup. But I like black beans and soup sounded yummy, and I said it all at once...

Before I knew it, Ben had it all out on the counter: cans of black beans, cauliflower, zucchini, red bell pepper, garlic, onion, and oil & water simmering in the pot. He boiled some chicken, and added the shredded pieces. I just cut the veggies and set the table while he did the magic seasoning. Not from any cook book. Not from any recipe. He just knew what to do. Right then and there on the spot.

Of course he didn't stop there, he warmed fancy bread in the oven & whipped (or blended) up a fresh smoothie with banana, strawberry & orange.

And that's what's nice about Ben.

OK, so it's not a Martha food photo, but at least you get the idea
of why we were so happy to eat healthy. . . all thanks to Mr. Nice Ben.

Ooh, and even more from Ben:
He took a better photo--just for this post.

ON DECEMBER 7, 2008...

...IT WAS OUR TURN TO HOST KNUDSEN DINNER.
BEN DECIDED TO HAVE "SOUP FEST 2008".
THESE WERE TAKEN WITH KOREAN KNUDSENS IN MIND.

ASHLEY SAID, "MAKE A SILLY FACE FOR DAD!"

EVERYONE TRIED TO BE HAND MODELS.

SEE JACOB'S SHOE

BEN TOOK A CAMERA TO THE DETAILS OF OUR APARMENT

AT THE BEGINNING OF DECEMBER...

LITTLE PALATE-CLEANSER BOTTLES ON THE LEDGE
THE LAPTOP - ALL TOO MUCH A PART OF OUR DAY

I LOOKED AROUND THE HOUSE, BUT COULDN'T FIGURE OUT WHAT THIS WAS...


LINOLEUM-CUT PRINT FOR A LETTERPRESS BROADSIDE FROM '06

BEHIND THE COUCH, IN THE CORNER, IS A BANANA TREE


BEN LOVES HIS TURNTABLE & I DO TOO


FRONT DOOR HINGES... HOW MANY TIMES PAINTED?

FRONT DOOR PEEP HOLE!

PAPERWHITES FROM ABOVE - JUST BEFORE THE FIRST ONE BLOOMED
LAMP MAN FROM ABOVE
LAMP MAN FROM BELOW
BABY BEN ALARM CLOCK
CLOCK FRIENDS
CHIME CLOCK FROM KNUDSEN HOME

I'M BACK.

Hi everyone.

There haven't been any 'endless hours' of free time yet even since finishing finals, but I DID finish! And I DO have at least a bit of blogging time. I finally got to do some Christmas shopping YESTERDAY... and right now at work (Law School again), since I've been through all the admissions mail & entered the info & filed away, I can post all that I would've posted. And I can tell you the outcome of some of my projects, eh?

• joytoeveryone.com has been a hit. Over 120,000 visits from 145 countries. People leave really nice comments on the blog. Someone even made some parody already on YouTube. It was really good to learn how to work with many different committee members, and it was nice to participate in something with such a pure purpose. We were gifted some copies of the DVD/card. Some of you might see one in the mail, but the rest of you can see it here:

• oliviation.com is live and kicking. You can go visit it on one condition. You may not use Internet Explorer to view it. IE is dumb and won't read my coding so it won't work. Use Firefox or Safari for a more usable experience. This is by far not exactly how I want my portfolio site to look like, but it's something. I owe much thanks to Calvin for his dear counsel, teaching, advice & time to help me finish this. I love my family! (You may see updates of the magazine re-design & Blade HQ re-design there under the "See what I do" tab...)
  
• In some "spare time", I quickly designed a card to accompany a lithograph print as part of the gift/Christmas card sent out by the Department of Visual Arts (one of the departments in the College of Fine Arts and Communications, who sent out the DVD above for their gift/Christmas card.) It was letterpressed beautifully by Rob Buchert of Tryst Press:

The print is a lithograph after a 17th-century Chinese painting by Mark Graham and was printed by master lithographer (is that even a word?), Wayne Kimball.

• Our Puppetry teacher was so nice to allow for an all-day presentation for BYU's Mask Club count for our final! I didn't have to worry about anything for that class during the rest of my intense projects. I'll miss that class. It was a nice 'break' and creative outlet. I also learned a lot! See our first 3 presentations HERE. And here's a blurry picture from our class show number, "Stone Soup." I'm the baker up in the little house. The poor traveler below is sitting on my longboard for easy-moving below the low stage...

• I liked the direction of my book jackets for Just So Stories, but it will still need refining over the next months, and I already have ideas of how to do so. For now, these are the documents... as if the jacket were unfolded with the back on the left, spine in the middle & front on the right... (got that?)

(If you haven't read those stories yet, you really should. The Armadillo, Leopard & Elephant stories are my particular favorites...)

As for everything else... it worked out. I'm still alive. Trying to tidy at home & maybe even put up some Christmas Decorations. I actually got to put lights on the banana tree on Saturday! FUN. Anyway, Merry Christmas, bloggers!

DEFINING THIS BLOG

This has potential to be a long-y. And perhaps has potential to offend some. I hope no one takes it personally... these are just my feelings. ;) (Intrigued yet?)

I returned from my mission to find that everyone and their dog had a blog. I soon caught on that, at least with a bunch of my friends, it was a common newlywed thing to keep everyone updated on their new life--especially if there was a new baby included. Except it usually wasn't the newlyweds updating everyone. It was typically the girl. It was the girl telling about what the two of them were doing and how they were feeling. I thought about how if I were to do that, I think it would be pretty biased. I decided then that, as I was getting married soon, I would ensure that I was telling about my thoughts, my favorites, my feelings on my blog. And that if anyone wanted to know about Ben, they could learn from him so they could get it straight-up. Ben was just going to have to start his own blog. For the time, I was proud to get back to my blog--one I began back in '05, and somehow abandoned by '06. And it worked... especially since I wasn't really married yet.

But then two important factors hit me... well, one is a factor and one is a moment. I'll start with the moment. It happened on the very morning of our wedding. Kurt invited our siblings to stand at the mic and give whatever mini-speech or words of love they desired. I think Katy was one of the first to stand & I loved what she said. Of course I can't remember it exactly, but it was something like,

"...and we love Olivia because she tells us what Ben is thinking..."

or

"...because she tells us about Ben..."

or

"...because she tells us what Ben doesn't."

You get the jist/gist. It hit me: it was true. And this brings up the "factor": Ben isn't going to start a blog. (Believe me, I asked.) It's just not him. It's just a fact of his personality that he isn't the most open; most outgoing person. Of course, if you get to know him, he doesn't remain quiet all the time. He certainly knows how to carry on a conversation. And he can talk about very interesting things, and throw in amazing jokes that you can miss if you're not intelligent, or have a good sense of his humor. ;) That was one of the first things that tipped us off that we were a good combination. To this day, Ben says one of his favorite things is when I laugh at his jokes. It's something he wrote to me on a birthday card long ago--something about how I'm a "tight" girl, because I laugh at things "when other girls would just get mad." Now, I'm sure he meant that in the best way; not like I would laugh if he made some dirty joke! He wouldn't make a dirty joke like that!

Anyway... so no offense to you women who hold down the fort AND a good updating blog. I'm just a prideful person, and wanted my own blog. The url, afterall, is OLIVIAinprovo... but I've been humbled. (Thanks, Katy!) I think I can do this. Ben is certainly a big part of OLIVIA. And as a service to at least Katy, I'm happy to update the world on him too. Even right here. And, in an effort to avoid me describing his feelings, I'll try to pass off Ben-post by Ben himself so you know it's legit. Because we all know he probably won't be commenting or posting to tell you all if I report something with a bias.

So, welcome to the new "I HEART PROVO"... about what Olivia AND Ben are doing in Provo. (I guess I'm going to have to check if he really 'hearts' Provo too...)

THE COOL THING ABOUT STAYING ON CAMPUS ALL NIGHT

IS THAT YOU DON'T HAVE TO LUG YOUR BACK PACK ALL THE WAY HOME & BACK. YOU CAN JUST LEAVE IT IN THE NEW CUPBOARDS IN THE STUDIO BECAUSE THERE'S NO WAY YOU'RE GOING TO NEED ANY OF IT BEFORE WAKING UP IN AN HOUR...

(I tried to find some positive things about the crazy lifestyle...)

thoughts from dec 9

i'm glad it's at least sunny. it's freezing cold, but it's possible to feel warm with the bright bright sun.

sun chips taste 10 times better when you're really hungry.

my jaw hurts & I feel like I can't open it.

how is it that one day the periodicals lady says i can't check out magazines, then the next day, another periodicals lady says 'ok, but only for two hours,' then the next time, a periodicals guy says, 'sure, yeah, take them for the whole day.' ... ? ... i think i hate inconsistency.

i've continually maintained my gmail inbox at 1000 unread messages for the past 3 or 4 days.

i am freezing inside the HFAC

joy to everyone never ends

adrian buys us yummy truffles from the MOA (made by some utah company). i love truffles.

TAKING PICTURES OF PEOPLE TAKING PICTURES

So I have this favorite spot in the studio. It's been my favorite since before school started. I wondered if there was a way I could 'dibs' it. But there wasn't. So sometimes I sit there, and sometimes I don't.

But since most normal people don't come to the design studio over a holiday break, I get to sit here as much as I want. The fun thing: the holiday break seems to be THE time for taking family pictures for the next holiday. It was quite entertaining to watch the different photo shoots out "my" window that looks out onto the sculpture garden (named after my great-grandma!).

It may be creepy, but I had fun taking pictures of them taking pictures, and I was really mad when I didn't have my camera because I probably saw about 5 times as many... My favorite was when the Mom was the photographer & set it up all herself...