That question tag thing

What were you doing 10 years ago?
Ten years ago I was in my second year of law school. I was managing a BYU student housing complex with 80 students in it, and working as an assistant to a professor whose passion was religious liberty. I got very involved in a conference dealing with religious liberty, in which I got to meet a bunch of very high mucky-mucks, such as a Supreme Court Justice from Portugal, a South African intellectual who was instrumental in ending apartheid, and a law professor from Kazakhstan who flirted with me (I still have the bracelet he gave me).

5 things on my "to-do" list today :
1-Visit with a friend who came over
2- Drop off cards to the ladies I visit teach since we didn't visit them this month
3- Load of laundry
4- Eat
5- Spend lots of time outdoors with Mr. Boo
(Does anyone else write to-do lists backwards? These are five things I did today. I didn't have them on any kind of a list in advance.)


5 Snacks that I enjoy:
1- Bread and jam
2- Cold cereal
3- York peppermint patties (must be name brand)
4- Dove dark chocolate (must be Dove)
5- Chocolate milk

3 bad habits:
1- I dunno. Ask Dirk. I'm sure I've got some, but I'm so used to them I don't notice them anymore.

Places I've lived:
1-Utah - all over the Wasatch Front
2-Connecticut
3-Wyoming

5 Jobs I've had:
1- Attorney
2- Newspaper stringer
3- Research assistant
4- Apartment manager
5- MTC teacher

5 Things people don't know about me:
1. I'm sick and tired of special effects in movies. I want to see shows that are good stories about believable characters. I don't care if the CGI team can blow up a building and crash a car with maximum flames and multiple camera angles.
2. I have depression. I'm off meds, and mostly stable, but I have a few quirks. For example, noise and crowds will frequently set me off, which makes me seem somewhat anti-social at family parties. I love the people; I can't handle everyone all together at once unless I'm having a really good day. Dirk has learned to recognize the expression I get when he's got 20 minutes to get me out of there before I start to cry. He didn't make it at the Porter farewell party, but I managed to hide before bursting into tears, and afterwards everyone thought it was because I was worried about Dirk. Mmmm, no. It was just too much noise and too many people. I have the same reaction in the mall at Christmas time.
3. I think taxes are really interesting. I have nifty monologues about why the death tax is a good thing, why a flat tax just can't work, and how stupid it would be to try and replace the income tax with a national sales tax. Sadly, not many people want to hear my monologues. Sigh. But every so often, someone does question why the Church can run on 10% tithing, and the government can't just impose a 10% flat tax, and so I get to tell them all the differences between taxes and tithing. That makes me happy. Probably makes the person wish they'd never brought it up, though.
4. I have really good hearing. I hear a lot better than Dirk does (based on a website test we took). This means I always want to turn down the radio and the tv. I have yet to find an advantage to excellent hearing.
5. I have memorized several entire books, such as "Jamberry", "Sheep in a Jeep", "The Belly Button Book" and several other important childhood classics.

Bye Sweetheart. Stay Safe.

We saw Dirk off at the Air Base this morning. It was an early morning. We got there early enough to get a couple of chairs. The departure point was an airplane hangar with about 200 folding chairs. The other 400 people had to stand. There were many, many soldiers and families there.


We got there about 7:30. Dirk had to have his final duffel bag weighed, and then we mostly just sat around and waited. Benji played with his stuffed fish, because every boy needs a stuffed fish.


Dirk and I had already talked ourselves out about his departure and the upcoming year. There wasn't much left to say that we hadn't already said forty times. But, you know, it's nice to have someone you can talk to about something forty times. I will miss talking to Dirk about nothing in particular, even if we've already said it. Sometimes you talk just because you want to hear each others' voices even if there's nothing to say anymore. That's easier to do when you can lean on each other, rather than just talk on the phone.



Quite a bit of family came to see Dirk off because my sister and her family had another soldier to say good-bye to. My brother-in-law's cousin, Kindy, has been living with them for the past several months, so their family came to see Kindy. Giving Dirk another hug was a happy bonus for all of us.





Susan, my folks, and my brother Mike also came. I'm sure Kelly felt bad he couldn't get off, and we missed him too.



It was odd to watch Dirk walk away towards the plane. There were so many soldiers, and they all blended in to each other. That camouflage really works! Benji hugged a couple of knees dressed in 'daddy pants' before looking up and realizing it wasn't Daddy after all. He had a hard time with the early morning combined with the noise and crowds. I don't think he knew what was going on, but he knew it wasn't all happy.



I didn't cry. I'd already done some crying, and I'll probably do more later, but not at the air base.

I've skipped a lot of the details of exactly how the procedure went, since Susan did such a great job at describing the ceremony on her post. Be sure you read her post too.

Dirk just called me from his training base. The flight was about an hour and a half long. Just before they landed, the pilot had them look out the window. They were below the peaks of Mt. Ranier on one side of the plane and Mount St. Helens on the other side. It was quite a breathtaking view. He's in transient barracks (which means they're in lousy condition) with lots of other soldiers. The weather there is warmer than here, but it's still about in the 60s. He does not have Internet access yet because the provider is charging an arm and a leg. He may go in with a bunch of other guys for shared access, or the battalion is talking to someone about getting a better rate. He did not give me a snail mail address yet either. When I get that, I'll send it around on the email.

When I got home, a couple of friends in the RS Presidency dropped by to see how I was doing. I live in a good ward, and I have good friends here. With my wonderful family too, I am surrounded by a lot of love and support and I think we'll make it through this year just fine.

Many thanks to my brother Mike who took most of the pictures I've posted. I'll get the rest of the pictures into the gallery in the next day or so.

Boo's Favorite Bye-Bye destination

Note: this was originally written and attempted to be posted on Thursday Feb 21st



Mr Boo loves fishies, fishy was one of the first non food signs he really learned well. And be it Cabela's or the fish tanks at Petsmart or Walmart, he goes crazy for fishies.

What's funny is, as usual when we get to Cabela's and he starts his hand waving like crazy, someone always thinks he's just being really friendly. Tonight when I videoed him at Cabela's, there was a mother there with a little girl about the same age. The mother was saying to her little girl, "He's saying Hi, can you wave hi back?" to her little girl, until I explained what he was really doing. At which point she was even more impressed.

And of course this isn't the first time I've come home from work, to a little boy just dying to go bye-bye. He doesn't really care where to, just as long as he gets to go somewhere. Sometimes mommy comes along, sometimes she stays home, and sometimes like tonight she takes the opportunity to go to the library, which isn't really easy with Mr. Boo as one of his favorite games is to pull every book he can reach off the shelves. And Lil Boofer does not make it easy for Da to pick up after him.

Once Spring arrives, these stir crazy days will be less common as they will be able to go to the park, or just for walks, but currently, Boo and Da get tired of being at home all day every day.

Oh and I spoiled him, as usual. He now has a stuffed Rainbow trout to go with his Buffalo, two bears, and wolf; each known as Buffalo Boo, Boo Bear(or blue bear as it is blue), Car Bear(It stays out in the car seat), and Wulfy Boo. Fishie has yet to be named.

Okay I surrender. I've been trying for the last two days to get the video of him visiting the fishies uploaded. But it refuses to finish the process so I can publish this post. So here is the post sans video.

Confusing the Toddler

People frequently ask how Mr. Boo feels about being a big brother soon. Well, he has no opinion on the topic. Just for fun, we've occasionally told him, "here's your little brother!" while patting my stomach. We thought it was quite funny when we'd ask him "where's your little brother?" and he'd pat my stomach.

I just asked him, "where's your little brother?" and he patted his own stomach. Now we have a vocabulary issue. He thinks "little brother" and "stomach" are synonyms!

Home Teachers and Heavy Equipment

Our new home teacher described his job as "moving dirt." It sounds like every little boy's dream job! Imagine getting paid to play in the dirt all day. He owns most of his own equipment. Over Christmas, he parked a front-end loader in his front yard and they strung Christmas lights all over it. Not your typical Christmas lawn ornament, but definitely festive.

About 7 inches of snow dumped on our driveway from this morning's storm. About an hour after Church got out, our home teacher drives his bobcat up our driveway, and plows out all that snow in about four passes. Our driveway is scraped clean down to the concrete. I waved; he waved back. It's a noisy bobcat, so that's all the conversation we have.

Five minutes after he finished, a pick-up truck full of the teacher's quorum pulls up. The teacher's quorum piles out and goes after the sidewalks. I walked out to thank them, and one of them points at the driveway and says the hard part's already done. I'm not so sure about that. We have a third of an acre on a corner lot, so we have a lot of sidewalk! They did it all. It took them about 15 minutes. Many shovels make light work.

Good people live around here. :)

Responding to Jamie's Tag

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
My middle name is from my Grand Father and/or an Uncle.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?
Earlier today. When Shawn called with the news, or maybe it was a little while later after Mom called me. Either way, that's twice now that Shawn has had to be the bearer of Sad tidings to me.

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING
No, er really it's poor but I don't care since I rarely write by hand anymore anyway.

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
Beef

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?
1.5 see the top of the Blog for details on the .5.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
Probably

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT?
Who me? NEVER! I don't even understand the concept.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS
Yup, still there.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
Probably not. It's similar to skydiving in my opinion, why jump off a perfectly good bridge/platform/whatever.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?
Any fruity kids cereal

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
Shoes no, Boots yes.

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE strong?
Nah, I'm a wimpy geek.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?
Vanilla!!!

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?
That they exist. It's really a constant surprise to me that there are others who keep intruding into my little world.

15. RED OR PINK?
BLUE! Go Cougars (Actually I just put that in for Jamie's hubby) of the given choices, Red.

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?
Hmmmmm, my Hypoactivity.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST
the guy at 150 meters on the pop-up target range at Camp Williams. I can hit the guys farther out and closer in consistantly but him I miss every single time.

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU?
No.

19. WHAT ARE YOU WEARING NOW?
Camoflage pants, and a brown polypropolene thermal shirt. Oh and tan boots.

20. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE?
Da's awsome Cinnamon Lasagne.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
The news coverage of President Hinckley’s death. Static in my ear phones, since I just killed the music and haven't taken them off yet.

22. IF YOU WHERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?
Purple of course, like any Wildcat should be. Oh wait wildcats don't suffer from school spirit, so Blue.

23. FAVORITE SMELLS?
Fresh Cinnamon Rolls

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
My mom.

25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?
I found this on another persons’ blog. She seems like a really interesting girl.

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
Basketball

27. HAIR COLOR?
Short.

28. EYE COLOR?
Brown.

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?
Not anymore, best $2500 I ever did spend.

30. FAVORITE FOOD?
Rare Peppered Sirloin Steak.

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?
Happy endings, I don't do scary.

32. LAST MOVIE YOU SAW
National Treasure, it was on the USA channel last night.

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?
Brown

34. SUMMER OR WINTER?
Depends on what I wanna be doing. i.e. snowmobiling isn't much fun in the summer.

35. HUGS OR KISSES?
Depends on who it’s from. Da = kisses, family & friends = hugs.

36. FAVORITE DESSERT?
Anything that contains what others may consider to be unhealthy amounts of sugar.

37. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
Jamie

38. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND
Dirk

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?
Just finished Hood by Steven Lawhead.

40. What did you watch on TV last night?
See #32

41. Your favorite method of relaxation?
Cuddling with my wiffy.

42. FAVORITE SOUND?
Mr. Boo saying No, he has such a cute little chirpy No.

43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES
Beatles

44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME?
Let's see, Korea is probably farther away than Thesoloniki Greece so I'll take S. Korea, Though I'll soon be setting a new farthest.

45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?
I can harass Jamie via the Internet. I have the magic geek touch for fixing computers. I touch the machine and it starts working correctly. And I amaze Da with how I can surf the web, and watch tv at the same time.

Husband quiz

What is his name? Dirk Willden

How long have you been together? We started dating June, 2005.

How long did you date? Just four and a half months.

How old his he? 36

Who eats more? Me. Dirk tends to think microwaving leftovers is too much effort. If I don't set it in front of him, he doesn't eat.

Who said I love you first? He did.

Who is taller? Dirk.

Who can sing better? Dirk.

Who is smarter? It depends on the subject matter.

Who does the laundry? I do. Dirk has to put away his own clothes, though.

Who pays the bills? I do. But he earns the money.

Who sleeps in the right side? I do.

Who mows the lawn? Dirk.

Who cooks dinner? I do. See the answer to the question about who eats more. :)

Who drives? He does usually, especially long distances.

Who is more stubborn? Um, I don't know.

Who kissed who first? This point is under dispute. I made it easy for Dirk to kiss me, but he did have to move the final 1/16 of an inch. Therefore, he kissed me.

Who asked who out first? He asked me out after I told him I would twist his arm until he asked me out. He's pretty good about taking hints like that.

Who proposed? Dirk did.

Who has more friends? Me. We both have really good friends we've had for a long time. But if you counted them up, I think I've got more.

Who is more sensitive? Me. It's nice that Dirk is such a good listener.

Who has more siblings? Me.

Who wears the pants? I wear skirts on Sunday . . .