Maggie Graduated!

This is my sister-in-law-to-be, Maggie.  (And my silly husband.)

Last weekend Maggie graduated from Gonzaga University, so we had a nice time visiting with her and lots of family.  Below is Maggie with her fiancee, David.  He is Greg's younger brother.  Greg and I love hanging out with the two of them.  It's great to have in-laws that you would be friends with anyway.

Greg's parents came to stay with us for the weekend, and his uncle, Bob, from California.  It was fun getting to see them too.  We only get to visit a few times a year.  And we see Bob even less.  Greg and Bob got some special time together going out for a movie after the rest of us went to bed one of the nights.

I've really enjoyed hanging out with these guys since they moved to Spokane.  It's about two hours from our house in Pullman, but we go to Spokane about once a month to go to the temple anyway, so we can usually meet up with them sometime that day.  I will really miss them when they move away.  I think they should come back and David could teach at WSU.  That way Maggie and I could hang out all the time.

Congratulations Maggie!

Flat Hunter

My nephew's class in Texas is doing a project to learn about different places by sending a small and flat version of themselves in the mail to visit friends and family.  "Flat Hunter" came to visit us in Pullman, so we showed him around.  We showed him the rolling wheat fields of the Palouse, as well as the dam on the way to Ellensburg.  We had a good time.  

We had so much fun we decided to make flat versions of ourselves to send back to his class!

Thanks for coming to visit Hunter!  See you next time!

Craigslist--$5

I was about to go to bed one night and I thought, "Eh, I'll browse Craigslist for a second while I wait for Greg." I saw this picture and thought it was pretty, so I emailed the lady. Not 24 hours later it was hanging on my wall. Cool.


I plan to get a few other pictures to go with it--it looks kind of lonely there on the wall by itself.

Happy Easter!

I think this may be an Easter miracle. The rainbow maker mom gave me a long time ago finally started working! (Or maybe it's just that we are heading out of winter and there's finally enough sunlight getting through to my window.)



Here's our Easter fun.


We went shopping together last night and picked out the chocolate we like: Reece's Peanut Butter Eggs and Cadbury's Eggs--the kind with the thick sugary "egg yolk" in the middle...Mmmmm...

Then we watched "The making of the Labyrinth" while putting together our Easter baskets. Jim Henson was a pretty talented guy. It's really too bad he died so young. I wonder what other movies he would have made if he were still alive.

After we finished that, we spent some time before bed putting together one of the puzzles Summer sent. That was fun. 100 pieces is just right for an evening project. And I like the picture a lot too.


I had kind of forgotten about Greg's basket. I made this a couple years ago. It still looks funny to me.


And of course, let's not forget the thing we are celebrating at Easter. I love this picture. My parents have a similar picture in their home that I liked to look at. The Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of those things that is important to remember year-round, so I keep this picture on the wall in our living room to help me remember.



This weekend there's a page about Easter on Mormon.org where you can comment and share your thoughts and feelings about Jesus Christ. I thought it was kind of cool to see that there are thousands of comments already. There's also some neat Bible Videos on this website, and a Facebook page with some Easter cards that you can comment on too.



Watching that video and reading the scriptures about Christ kind of makes our Easter basket and egg traditions seem silly and nonsensical. I've been trying to think of some good traditions to have (besides Easter baskets) at Easter so my kids will know why we celebrate Easter. What kind of Easter traditions do you have in your family?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It's a little late, but here's our St. Patrick's Day fun.

First, I had a little get-together at my house with some lady friends. I didn't have the camera to get pictures (Greg took it camping), but here's a picture of what he left for me. The flowers are primrose.


At the party we frosted sugar cookies and played games. I was glad I finally set a date and invited friends over. I've been wanting to for a long time and always talk myself out of it for whatever reason. It was really nice to have Maggie (my sister-in-law) over for the few days before the party too. It gets forgotten sometimes, but girl-time is very important. And of course, it was more fun having her here to help decorate and get ready for the party than being by myself. Greg and his brother went camping for the last half of that week, so we both would have been home alone if she hadn't come here.


The other fun thing we did this month was our ward's family dance at church. The Young Women were in charge of this activity, so they voted Greg to be the DJ again, and they decorated and advertised for the dance. Do you like my poster? I don't want to throw it away now--the bright colors are so pretty. =)


We had fun at the dance, although I wish more people came. I think next year we should invite all 3 wards in Pullman so there's more people, and then they won't be afraid to dance. The kids had fun though. The little kids were the best dancers there.


Do you like Greg's hat?

Libera me, Faure Requiem

This last weekend I sang in three choir concerts, and the main event for the choir was the Faure Requiem. It lasts about 40-45 minutes, and by the end my feet were numb. Anyway, I was on youtube looking for a good video to share since it will be at least a month until I get the CD recording to send to my family. I just planned to share my favorite part of the song, but I got distracted by the director in this video. I'm not usually one to criticize other musicians, but I think she is have a seizure. haha. (If you don't want to watch both videos, just skip to the good one below.)



The comments below the video made me laugh too.

"It's great to see a female conductor. I can't think of many, apart from Jane Glover, so this is very refreshing."

"It's good to see female conductors but it's certainly not good to see anyone conducting like this! I don't understand any of her gestures! Do you know what an orchestra player does when someone is conducting like this? He ignores the conductor!!"

Anyway, I really do like this movement. You're supposed to hear the orchestra and imagine a heart beat while the soloist is pleading for God to "Libera me"--save his soul from hell on the day of reckoning when God comes to judge, and when heaven and earth are moved.

Singing in this choir has given me a new way of looking at music. I've really gotten into what we sing and it feels more like we're part of a musical that tells a story than just singing pretty songs in a choir concert. I'm glad to have these neat experiences.

Here's a really good version of the movement.

The snow finally came

We got one big snow fall a little before Thanksgiving, and then it's just been cold and dry. I was starting to feel like it's spring time, but tonight it finally decided to snow again.



It's kind of fun to have snow I guess, but not fun for driving. While we were on the other side of the state for Christmas we bought a car. It's a lot easier for us to get to our jobs with two cars instead of one person driving the other--especially when our start and end times are variable every day. Now that the snow has come we will have to drive each other to work again though. We haven't gotten snow tires for the new car yet, and you can't put on chains.

We're just grateful the snow came a half hour after we got home from our trip to Spokane today. It would not have been fun driving on the highway in the snow with regular tires on a new car...

(Isn't it funny--really I should be worried about sliding off the road because I don't want to get hurt, but somehow the money it would cost to fix the car seems like a bigger deal. The whole drive home to Pullman when we first bought the car was nerve racking. I kept imagining getting in a wreck just because it's a new car. Do new cars really get in accidents more often than old cars? I think it just feels that way.)

Guess what?

Like Ali said, I knew when it was the one, and this is the one. Hooray! Finally!

Robotic Surgery

If you watched the video you saw a little news report about the hospital in my town. We have a new robot in our community! Of course Greg was very excited about it, so we stopped by SEL in the morning and got to try it out.



You put your hands in these little controls that have two loops. Two fingers slip into the two loops--like a thumb and forefinger, and then you can move the robot arm by moving your arm, and open and close the robot "pincers" by pinching your fingers closed or opening them. There are three arms that you can control, but of course you can only really use two at a time. If you want to use the third arm--perhaps because it has a different tool on the end--you push the toggle button on the floor with your foot to switch arms.

Greg and I were wondering what happens if the surgeon sneezes during surgery...Does his arm flinch and cause the robot to use it's amazing strength to rip open the patient? Well, no. The fail-safe is the eye sensors in the control station. The robot is activated when it can see your eyes, but if you move your head and look away, the robot will freeze until it sees your eyes again. Another helpful thing is that the robot filters out "noise" in your movements. For instance, if you are an aging surgeon and your hands shake, the robot will not mimic your shaking. It makes all movements fluid and smooth.

You can see in the picture that there is a screen that shows live what the surgeon is doing, and then you can touch the screen and point out something to the surgeon. The surgeon is also able to control where the camera arm is, and zoom in or out according to his needs.

I just can't get over how much it makes me think of science fiction. This is the thing the aliens use to dissect the people they beam up from earth. Right? That's the image I get in my mind when I think of this robot. The helpful thing to remember is that the robot is not acting of its own accord, it is just a tool being used by a surgeon. (They don't program it to do anything--it responds directly in real time to the surgeon's hand movements.)

I could tell you more but this post might get too long and boring. If you're interested you can find a lot online about this guy--including videos.

A Book of Mormon Story

I was preparing my lesson for Sunday when I came across this video on the church website. I thought it did such a good job of explaining what the Book of Mormon is, and the "story part" is cool. I like the animation. Mostly I just like the way he explains his testimony and how he learned about the gospel, because it is the way I feel too.