Vacation Summary

Last week we went to California for a Miller family reunion, so I got to meet a lot more of my extended family. I decided they are just like my extended family, or anyone's probably. You have your cute kids, the sweet old people, the crazy relatives, the funny ones, the quiet ones. And we're the "normal" ones, of course. Or cool, you can classify us either way.

On our way down we stopped in Reno for a night with all the immediate relatives going to the reunion. Since it was my birthday they made a cake for me out of a stack of donuts. The funniest part was when the fire alarm went off from the candles at the hotel. It wasn't even that many candles. Probably my favorite part of Circus Circus was playing DDR (dance dance revolution) I even got Brandon to play and he creamed me, even though I am more experienced and more in love with the game than he is. Beginners luck. We'll see who wins next time.

After good times in Reno we spent a day at Lake Tahoe, which was beautiful! I got to swim my heart out in cool, clear water. What I love about swimming in a lake is that you don't have to stop and turn around like you do when you're swimming laps in a pool, you just keep going and going. I really want to swim across a lake sometime. I just need to figure out a way to do it without getting run over by a boat.

Then we were on to the reunion, which was full of camping, food, more swimming, card games, lots of family socializing, and the olympics. I never got a gold medal, but I did get a couple second places. Definitely not in the donut eating contest (bleh) but I did pretty good in the airplane throw and the water balloon toss.

Card fanatics

I'm a fan of card games. I played the speed games as a kid and I learned hearts later on in college, and love it. At the Miller family reunion I learned a new game, Blackout. We got their Thursday night and got to enjoy a friendly "pre-tournament" game. The next day was the real tournament, followed the day after that by the finalists tournament for those who qualified. yeah. This was serious business. It was a really fun game, although one family member, that I just barely met, got mad at me because I didn't understand one of the rules and kind of messed up a hand. (I was going to win it either way, I don't know what the problem was) I was creaming everyone in the first round, but lost it in the second round and didn't make it to the finalist tournament. I'll have to practice for the next reunion.

Shaved Head?

Brandon said he was thinking of shaving his head. I'm not so sure this is a good idea. I like his hair. I said I would photoshop him to look like he had a shaved head. I did the best I could. (it helps if you squint while looking at it) What do you think? Hair? No hair?

Plates

I just received a package in the mail from Cedar Fort: a whole pile of plates that I illustrated! So maybe you will see them in the stores somewhere. (I'm hoping they will be in stores somewhere, otherwise I will never get any royalties off of them)

Talent Show

We had a ward camp out this weekend. We didn't plan on participating in the evening talent show, but they were actively recruiting and I figured we could come up with something simple. Then I remembered how Brandon is a really good song whistler. I thought it would be fun for us to get another couple and just whistle a patriotic song. Brandon refused. He insisted that he would laugh and you can't whistle and laugh at the same time. (that is very true) Fortunately I remembered the croquet set in our car, with 6 colorful balls. So we performed couples juggling! We didn't do anything fancy like throw the balls to each other while juggling, but maybe that can be added to the act for next year. Or whistling while juggling.

(special thanks to Beth for providing this blog with a picture)

Moods

Typically I'm not a big fan of organizing, I don't know what to do with stuff and I especially have difficulty finding a place for papers. Today I suddenly just started organizing a filing box that we've had for almost a year that had piles of junk in it but now contains all those little green folders with labels like: Wells Fargo, Taxes, Contracts, etc. It happened before I even realized what I was doing.
I wonder what causes these "moods"? I don't mean things that are common daily, like being in the mood for eating ice cream or going water skiing, I mean the unique moods. They seem so unpredictable. Sometimes I'll be in the mood to just clean and I'll scrub everything in the apt. just because I feel like it. I didn't think it was even possible to get into a filing mood. That has never happened to me before.

Miller Smell

When we came home earlier I thought our apartment smelled pretty bad. Brandon said, "We just have a smell now. You know, like people's houses that always have a certain odor and everyone in the family kind of smells similar. We have our own smell now." He had a big smile like this was an accomplishment we had been working towards for a long time. I'm pretty sure we just need to empty the trash. I hope that's not "our smell".
The only people's houses that I've noticed with a certain smell are either incredibly filthy people who don't bathe, wash dishes, nor do laundry, (not us) OR people who have everything spotless clean, brand new stuff all the time, and constantly use air fresheners or candles (also not us).

Weekend adventures

We went with the Miller family to a cabin in the Park Cityish area. It was really nice and we had over 15 people staying the night. We had a great time. When we were driving up the long windy mountain road we had to stop suddenly because there was a moose right in the middle of the road! It just stared us down. It was huge. I was scared for a minute until it turned and casually trotted up the really steep mountain side and into the woods.
I really wanted to go running in the morning, I run so much better when I am away from home with new surroundings, and being in the mountains made it even better. Not everyone else thought I should go though and continued to persuade me that I would be eaten by a bear. Even though I thought this was illogical and less dangerous than driving down University Ave, I was definitely influenced by what they had to say. When I took off down the road for a beautiful run, every time a bird or chipmunk would rustle the bushes by the road I would jump and my heart would start racing. It was ridiculous, but really hard to not be freaked out. Needless to say, it wasn't a very long run.

Red for Yellow

So we bought a car. It's a 2002 Mazda Protege that we got from some guy in Salt Lake. I had never bought a car before, just my little scooter. I love my scooter. It was exciting and scary to purchase something that costs so much. I have a hard time spending money. We got a good deal though, and it's great to have.
It's kind of a bright car, don't you think? It sure makes our Honda Accord look bland. We're considering names, cars that stand out that much deserve some sort of nickname. Brandon said Old Yeller. My dad has a car the same color, (funny, huh?) and they call it Mellow Yellow (Mel for short). All I could come up with is fruit: Pineapple, Banana. What do you suggest?
And if anyone is in the market for a scooter, it's for sale on craigslist. (tear)

Salesday

Yesterday Brandon and I decided to venture out from looking at cars online and actually go to car dealerships to look at cars. We had to put up with a lot of salesman talk, a lot of things that they would say that didn't make sense, contradicted themselves, or just sounded stupid, to try and make a certain car sound good.
Some favorites were: the long shpeal about how awful Ford's are while looking at Hondas and refusing to sell one to his worst enemy, to 20 minutes later asking if we wanted to look at a Ford Taurus he has because Ford has really improved in the past few years.
Another: It's a little over $10,000, it's just $15,000.
After our fill of car salemen we went over to 24 hour fitness to check things out, and we got some "this is a great deal" "this is the absolute LAST day we have this offer" talk. However, we like the place, so we signed up. New gym membership for us!

Name Game

Every now & then Brandon and I will throw out names for our future children to see what each other thinks. So last night we started reading the New Testament, which has a nice genealogy list to start off with. After reading verses Matthew 1:4 & 5

4. And Aram begat Aminadab; and Aminadab begat Naasson; and Naasson begat Salmon;
5. And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse;

I asked Brandon what he thought of the name Salmon. He thought for a millisecond, "Salmon Miller, hmmm, no, I don't think so....... but what about Booz?"
Good thing we're not naming children anytime soon.

Running Dilemma

Almost a month ago I had a horrible 7 mile run in my half marathon training (Aug. 11th) and I haven't been the same since. My foot is really messed up. I'm guessing it's another neuroma, like what I had surgery on 2 years ago, because it hurts in the exact same spot. lame. If I run over 5 miles it is just torture. It would be so sad to give up on the race, but what can I do? Walk the rest of the race? I guess the 60 year olds always seem to pass me anyways. Maybe I could sneak in some roller blades?

The sad truth...

The sad truth is when you wash your ipod in the washing machine, it will break.

Parade Shmade

We have quite the 4th of July location this year. The parade goes right in front of our apartment and then turns to go down 100 S. I've always thought it was funny to see people make their parade territory 5 days before the parade, but now it's even funnier because it's right in front of us. Parades just don't seem like the most entertaining thing to me. I kind of wonder how many people stake out their spots because they actually think it's fun to see a bunch of high school bands and some guys walking around on horses? I think more people reserve their spots because of the element of competition, getting the best spot. That, and, everyone else is doing it.
That's my personal reason. It's the biggest holiday of the year in this neighborhood. They party from 6 tonight with games & BBQ, outdoor movies, and then crepes in the morning, then everyone watches the parade. So, like all the funny people with their chairs & blankets, we've got our spot too. And a little space left on our lawn if anyone wants to join us.

Youth Trip

I went on a temple trip with the youth in our ward last Thursday-Saturday. We went down to St.George. It was the first time I went a day without seeing Brandon since we started dating. Before I left I stuffed a large comforter under the blanket on our bed to try and make it look like I was in there and Brandon didn't have to feel abandoned. Only it is a really fluffy comforter and even though I tried to squash it down Brandon said it looked more like Shaq had crawled under the covers. I got to see a lot of historic places and do some fun activities, like lots and lots of pool time. The kids were funny, we had a good time, but it was nice to come home.

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unexpected slot machines: two cases

So I was at the Post Office the other day trying to buy a packet of postcard stamps, which turned into quite a challenging task. The line inside was too long to even consider so I had to battle with the post office vending machine. After a series of frustrating events and many tries to get the machine to accept my change, I was forced to use a twenty dollar bill, and the second I hit the button for my stamps I could hear the clanging of 19 gold coins spilling out into the metal change dispenser. Although it was annoying to get the pile of gold dollars that I didn't know what to do with, it was kind of fun to hear the money fall. It was like I had just won at the slot machine.

Ironically, a couple days after the post office slot machine experience we went to Cedar City for a basketball tournament. It ended earlier than we expected, so we went to Vegas. I had never been before, so it was fun to see what Vegas is like. We had a lot of fun, and as we walked around I was surrounded by slot machines, which kept making me think about buying stamps at the post office.

Art Exhibit: Bodies

While we were in Vegas we got to see a really great exhibit at the Tropicana. The exhibit was about the human body and it was so informational. They had bodies that were preserved and cut open so you could see how the body functions, and as you went room to room it would focus on different aspects of anatomy, like the digestive system, a developing baby, or the circulatory system.
For the circulatory system they somehow had an arm and various organs that were made of only blood vessels, they took out the skin, bones, muscle, everything else, just tons and tons of little tiny veins and arteries that formed the shape. 60,000 miles of blood vessels in each person!
They had a lot of smaller cases with different parts of the body, like lungs and smoker lungs. Next to that display was a big glass container for people to drop in their cartons of cigarettes. There was also an aorta cut open, one that was healthy and one that was full of fat deposits- disgusting.
Overall I was really impressed and reminded of the complicated, amazing bodies we have. So if you get the chance to see it, it's a little pricey, but well worth it.

The Pet Issue

Brandon really wants to have a dog someday. I say, absolutely not. I'm not really a pet fan in general, and I hesitate to say it because sometimes I think people are offended by this, but I think dogs are one of the most annoying pets there are. I think the only way I would ever allow a dog is if my kids were training it to be a seeing eye dog. And it stayed outside. And I didn't take care of it in any way. And we didn't buy it presents, Christmas or not. And someone bathed it at least every other day. Only in that situation would I consider, the slight possibility, that we might get a dog. And I'll take a dog over a TV.

Painting classes

I have a friend from high school that I ran into who became a photographer. Sometimes she teaches classes at Sundance. I think they are typically one on one classes, sometimes a small group. She said they could use another watercolor teacher and asked if I would be interested. I said, sure. Doing anything artsy at Sundance sounds fun. Then I started thinking about the kind of people that want to learn how to watercolor at Sundance. I pictured people like this:
And then I realized I don't usually watercolor like this:
This could be a problem. I better go practice painting roses and study up on Thomas Kinkade's watercolor pals.

Shipping

Isn't it ridiculous how the items you buy online cost just as much to get to you as they do to actually purchase? Or twice as much? I love that Amazon has some of my favorite illustrator's books for $2 or $3 instead of the typical $16 at a store. So it still makes spending $7 on shipping worthwhile, it just seems odd.
Has anyone ever ordered paint brushes before? I ordered some that came in a box that would fit 2 toasters, and all it had in it were 2 tiny little watercolor brushes and a couple of bags filled with air. Thanks for the air, what is that? The free gift with my order?

5k

I go running quite often. Almost daily, well, until the last week or two I've slacked a bit. So I dragged Brandon to come run BYU's 5k with me, which was an anti-pornography and abuse run. (Instead of wearing numbers we all had quotes about abuse, etc. and standing up for what is right, I thought it was pretty creative.)
Anyway, I know I am not a very fast runner, but I run 5 miles all the time, and it's not a big deal. 3 is even easier. Somehow, Brandon who goes running about as often as we have general conference, finished 7 minutes before me. And that's counting the 2 times he just stood in the shade waiting for me until I told him he should just run and I would meet him at the end. He said it was so much easier running a race than running by himself because it was really fun to keep passing all those people. I think passing people is fun too, but for some reason I just let everyone pass me instead. I guess I'm generous like that. Or just plain slow.

Nutritious, Delicious

This morning for breakfast we ate whole wheat crepes (we're all out of regular flour) with strawberry yogurt, frozen banana chunks and microwaved frozen strawberries. It was great.

America's Cure

There are two large problems that face the US. (well, lots, but I'm just going to talk about 2) There are too many overweight people and we rely too much on gasoline for energy.
So a few weeks ago I decided these problems should work together. Lots of the weight comes from eating too many calories (a.k.a. energy), so the solution: take energy from people when we eat too much and use it to fuel the country. Healthier people, with transportation- yeah! I have no idea how you transfer that energy, but it's got to be possible.
The funniest thing about it, I was just watching the news and they were talking about some cattle place that uses excess fat they cut off the meat they produce to fuel the factory. They're more than half way there! Now they just have to figure out how to use that excess fat without cutting someone open. I don't know about you, but I'm willing to eat more ice cream to fuel my car.

Top o the mountain

For Memorial Day we went mountain biking with some friends in Bountiful. It was so pretty, and really challenging. I wasn't very good at the uphill part. Or the downhill part. I only fell once though and it wasn't too bad. I fell into some large bushes and then hit a tree stump that kept me from continuing my roll down the mountain.
And check out my hair, I guess that's what a helmet does for you. I think that's the best whispy hair fro picture I've ever taken.

No bears...

...just bugs. Our beehive camp out on Friday did not include any bear sightings, however we did have piles of little silk worms falling from the trees everywhere. On us, on the food, the tents, just covered with them. A few managed to make their way home with us because, like I said, they were everywhere. And the black bugs and huge beetles were a little gross too. I guess they were spraying for bugs right after we left. Lucky us, we made it just in time to have a bug covered camp out. The campsite was really pretty though, so was the hike. And overall it was still fun, and it will definitely be memorable for the girls.

Cheers

Today I went to my mother-in-law's 2nd grade class in Salt Lake to talk to them about being an illustrator. I brought some of the books I've done and a few other little visual aids, like a pile of sketches and a grasshopper. But the best visual aid was the large drawing paper I pulled out and asked for requests of what to draw. I didn't do any masterpieces, but I'm not going to lie, I can draw fast. The kids were so excited and cheering and frantically trying to get me to pick them to decide what I would draw next. It was really fun. When I'm not doing very well on my art I should just invite some 2nd graders over so I can be motivated by their cheering.

Hazel & the toaster

I help take care of Hazel, a sweet 90 year old that my friend April used to work with. For mother's day her granddaughter sent her a new toaster oven. It was really nice and looked like it would work great. However it was digital and the most complicated toaster oven I've ever seen. Too much for a 90 year old, so we're going to exchange it for a normal old school one.
She has a great sense of humor and sometimes she says funny things. Like when she can't get the lid off jars because her hands don't function very well, she'll ask me to do it for her. And as I quickly twist it off, she says, make it look hard.

Mmmmm Dinner

Crock pots are the best dinners ever. You dump a bunch of stuff into a pot, and then it sits there and becomes nutritious and delicious and you only have to wash one pot. It's perfect.

Too close for comfort

So it was a beautiful Friday in Provo and Brandon was kind enough to not worry about watching the Jazz game, so we grabbed all kinds of supplies to go to a nice secluded area in a park to play chess and watch a movie on our laptop. It was dusk and getting pretty dark in the shadows of the trees as we were walking through the park. We got a camping lantern for Christmas that we had just rummaged to find batteries for. Even though we didn't really need it yet, I had turned it on and was carrying it out of excitement for having the new toy.
We were staring to the left while we walked so we could look at a large burrow in the bushes, when we heard a rattling noise and a hiss. We glanced forward and stopped suddenly as we looked down at the ground in front of us and the lantern lit up a large rattle snake coiled up ready to strike, right in our path. We were just a few steps from walking right onto it.
We were spooked. We froze, then I slowly backed away while Brandon tried to find something to throw at it until it slithered away into the bushes. Even though the snake left, we couldn't manage to lay our stuff down. If we hadn't had the lantern, I don't know if we would have paid much attention to the noise, we were in the woods after all, and the snake would have been hard to see because of the shadows and the long grass around it.We usually enjoy camping, but yesterday we couldn't even handle relaxing on a blanket in the woods. We had to go home to watch the movie.

Audible Commercial

As I have mentioned before, I love audible.com. I used to never read books. I enjoy reading, but I usually feel like I'm not being productive just sitting there moving my eyeballs- almost like TV but not nearly as bad. When I discovered that for $15 (or $7.50 if they're having a deal) I could get any book I want on my ipod, I thought it was a perfect solution. Hopefully now I won't be an idiot my whole life. I listen to books while I drive, paint, run, do the dishes, clean or whatever. I've gone from reading maybe one book since high school to having read 13 books in the past year including:
Freakonomics, A Short History of Nearly Everything, Mere Christianity, The World is Flat, Guns Germs and Steel, Collapse, Blink, Angels and Demons, 1776, A Walk in the Woods, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Screwtape letters, and I'm in the middle of 60 hours of Les Miserable, and I have Wicked waiting for me when I finish that.
I am a big fan of C.S. Lewis and Bill Bryson. So if anyone has some good book recommendations, I'm always looking for new books to check out.

Joy of Camping

I'm helping plan a Beehive campout that's coming up. It made me think about my beehive campout in the mountains in California. When it was really late there was a tent of girls still laughing and being crazy when they heard bears walking around our campsite. They heard the bears scratching on the big metal food boxes that each campsite has to prevent bears from getting into it. One of the girls in the tent felt like she was going to vomit, but there was no way she wanted to go outside with the bears. So she threw up ... in the tent. Then they all huddled close together away from the vomit and eventually went to sleep. D i i i s g u s t i n g. Glad I wasn't in that tent.

the solution is...

I usually keep a pretty good reign on my email inbox and archive daily to keep a nice organized 15-20 emails in my inbox. However, it has gotten out of control lately and I am thinking the best solution is to get a new email address. Wouldn't that be easier? Kind of like when your house is such a mess it would be easier to move. Or so many clothes are dirty you just want to buy new ones instead of washing the old ones? It's like that.

Boise is fun, believe it or not

We went up to Boise for the weekend for our friends' wedding. On Friday we had time to do whatever, so we went to the lake. It hasn't been warm that long, so even though it was pretty nice outside, the lake was still 54 degrees. I sat on the boat for hours watching my friends brave the cold (we at least had wet suits) so they could ski & wakeboard. Finally, after much indecisiveness, I too accepted the physical challenge and jumped in. Besides my fingers going numb, it really wasn't too bad. I couldn't do any great tricks or anything, I was happy just to stay above the water. Overall, it was a blast.

Pringles perfect match up

Brandon has such long arms he can reach a can of Pringles from sitting in the drivers seat, that are all the way in the back window of our Honda. And I can slide my hands all the way to the bottom of the can to get out the last hard-to-reach chips. What better way is there to compliment each other?

My husband is so funny

I was taking engagement pictures for some friends and I think Brandon was getting a little bored so he slid himself into the picture. It was my favorite one.

Ode to the perfect brown bag

For my birthday a few years ago, April and Marissa gave me the greatest gift ever. A brown bag they bought in NY. I loved it immediately. It was the perfect style, the perfect size, the perfect color, it was just meant to be. So years have gone by and I have dragged that bag everywhere. I always throw in my phone, my wallet, and a clipboard of paper (a.k.a. my sketchbook) and I am set for anything. It is getting holes and needs repair, which just gives it more character. I think I have been given more compliments on that bag than any other item I have ever owned. What excellent taste Ape & Maris have.

The all new illustration site

Thanks to some great help and support the layout was finalized and my website is complete. Here it is: rebeccamillerillustration.com
Tell all the art directors you know!

Costco Churros

They are delicious. Whenever we need to go to Costco that is the first thing that comes to Brandon's mind. One time when discussing with a friend how great Costco churros are, she mentioned that they really enjoyed them but they just didn't have enough sugar on them. I thought it was a little strange since usually you get sugar everywhere with each bite because it is so caked with sugar. Then I realized it was a joke. So if you haven't had one, you should try it.

First ER trip (picture included)

Here's the summary:
Saturday I went running while Brandon was at work and I locked myself out. I thought I could just slide the window open from the outside and climb in, but our windows are thin and old so when I pushed on it the glass broke and fell on my hands and gashed my wrist pretty good. I ran to my neighbors and banged on her door and she took me to the ER and Brandon met us over there. I've never seen someone look so pale. He had to step outside so he didn't vomit, which really isn't like him. We both survived the experience and now I will have a scar that looks like I want suicide attention, but really I just did something stupid.

Honda Accords aplenty

Honda Accords have got to be the most common car there is. We have one that Brandon has owned for a few years. When we were dating I never knew which car we were walking towards because his car looked like half the cars in the parking lot. So I memorized the first 3 letters of the license plate so I wouldn't look dumb walking to the wrong car all the time. And I still use that technique to this day as I try to find our car in parking lots.
Last night when we were leaving a friends house late in the evening we were walking towards our car from the side and there were two cars right next to each other that both looked like our car, but I couldn't see the license plate so I waited for Brandon to stop at one of them. He couldn't get the key in to unlock the door for me, but then it didn't matter because it was already unlocked so I just got in. As he walked around the car to the drivers side I noticed there was something different about the car. As he sat down we both realized it was not our car. We felt pretty funny as we laughed and jumped out of the random car and found ours about 6 cars away. So if that was your car we sat in, uh... sorry about that. We really weren't trying to steal it.

Deserted Island

Brandon and I just finished watching Cast Away. It brought up a discussion about which 3 items we would choose to have if we were going to be left alone on a deserted island. I chose fairly practical things like a really large swiss army knife, box of seeds for planting vegetables, and some kind of fire starting device. He chose a generator powered by pedaling, a TV, and a satellite dish. That way he can watch BYU games, and general conference. (that is exactly what he said) He is pretty certain those are the best possible choices.

Real Life Cartoons

Woodpeckers are one of those animals that I tend to associate with cartoons because they're not very common. I just picture this bright blue bird with a big floppy mane of red hair like Woody Woodpecker.
Another creature I affiliate more with cartoons than real life are fire flies. Growing up I thought they were fake, like fairies or something. I never saw a real fire fly until I spent the summer in NY. I was with a bunch of friends at Central Park and we were leaving just as it was getting dark (not a good place to be after dark, that's for sure) and there were tons of them, all these little lights floating around. Just like they show in Robin Hood, only they were real. I was amazed.
And by the way, we're looking into hiring a hit man. Not the normal movie kind, but more like the cartoon kind (only real) that shoot little woodpeckers out of the tree with a beebee gun so you can sleep past 6 in the morning. Let us know if you're interested.

so tricky . . .

When you go running it is hard to breathe without keeping your mouth open. But if your mouth is open then bugs can easily fly in.

Healthy Steps

I'm always trying to motivate myself to be healthier. I think it mostly comes down to my fear of pain from health problems that could come up in the future.
My latest plan is to take steps to gradually improve what I eat. The first step is writing down what I eat for awhile. It's pretty simple. I eat fairly healthy anyways, but it's no big deal if I eat some junk food. I just write it down. This is a great step. I think after I decide to analyze what I eat and start changing things, then it will be harder. One thing at a time.
So far I have noticed I really like hot chocolate, I don't eat enough vegetables, and I need to eat more whole wheat stuff. bleh
And just as a side note, when I came home from aerobics today I realized my pants had been on backwards the whole time.

teenage spazzes

YW basketball last night. I had no idea the YW are so crazy. And they don't stop talking for anything.
Their basic strategy was to run like 6 year olds after a soccer ball and then when the crowd is too intense they lob it into the air (without even looking) so everyone has to go running after it again- and hopefully their team runs after it faster.
And this cute little 14 year old told me how excited she was because this cute boy walked in right when she made a really great play. I'm not sure if she really knows what a great play is, but I'm glad she was excited about it. And then she informed me that she already knows he likes her. And she likes him. I had never met this girl before, but I guess she doesn't have any problem with shyness.

Fun?

I go and watch Brandon's basketball games all the time. He has some good friends he has played with since high school and they all play really well. So it's common for them to have games when they win by 20 points or more. It's really fun to see them win all the time.
Last Tuesday I played with a combined ward team at regionals. This was our first real game because when we played with the stake we never kept score and the teams didn't really matter since we were lucky to get 8 or 10 women out from the whole stake to play. So on Tuesday we had a good time but we were the ones that lost by 20 or more points. not as fun.

Vote for my website

I have been trying to come up with a design for a new front page of my website. These are the ideas I have so far. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Some of them might be hard to see because they are really small, just click on them to enlarge.

Juvenille

I don't remember the last time I checked a book out of the library that wasn't from the children's section.

More on bananas

I eat a lot of bananas. My mom used to buy a whole grocery cart of bananas when they were on sale because our family ate them so much (and froze them). And every time she did, people at the grocery store thought it was funny to ask her if she was raising monkeys. My goal is to someday buy enough bananas that someone asks me that too.


Here are some great ways to eat bananas:
And before you say ew, that is disgusting, you have to try it. (ie:#5)

1. chopped bananas with a little yogurt and a crunchy cereal like rice crispies, chex, or corn flakes. additional fruit like apples are good too.

2. peel the bananas, break them into chunks and freeze tons of them in ziplock bags. frozen bananas are delicious plain, or dumped into smoothies because they make the smoothies really thick.

3. Bananas are essential for any good smoothie: just add bananas, a cup or 2 of milk and maybe sugar or honey (and ice if they are not frozen). Or add to that a spoonful of orange juice concentrate and/or yogurt, preferably vanilla, but any kind works. Frozen strawberries and bananas are great combination also. And if you want to be really adventurous with your smoothie add a handful or so of fresh spinach. You get more vitamins and it doesn't really change the flavor of the smoothie but it will look green and gross but taste great!

4. toasted bread, peanut butter, sliced bananas

5. bread, ham, sliced bananas, grated cheese, cook it in the oven or toaster oven until the cheese is brown and it tastes SO good! (Some people prefer a ring of pineapple instead of the sliced bananas- weird, huh?)

6. lay the banana on its side and cut a v shaped trench and pour in chocolate chips and marshmellows in between the cut open banana. Cook in the oven until the banana peel is black and the middle stuff is melted.

7. mix bananas with canned pineapple, apples, pears, or whatever fresh fruit is on sale, with some strawberry yogurt. optional: add cool whip.

8. chop up bananas and put them in waffle batter, then make waffles. (I learned that from Ape)

9. banana crepes: eggs, flour, milk, sugar for the crepes, fill with bananas and either yogurt, cool whip, ice cream or frozen strawberries that you microwaved and chopped so they are more liquidish.

10. banana muffins or banana bread or bananas in jell-o.

Happy banana eating! I just decided I'm going to eat a #5 with maybe a #3 for lunch. And one more tip: don't leave bananas in a warm car. gross.

Borders: for people without real jobs

I went to Borders to hang out and draw the other day because when I'm at my apartment all day long I just want to fall asleep or write blogs. There were a few other freelancers there and I realized that it is a great place to work. And some random old guy came in and just sat in a chair for awhile too. I don't think he was a freelancer, but I don't think he has a real job either. So anyone out there without a real job, you should really join in.

Turnip Day

Tonight we're eating a tax deduction. I bought a turnip because I need to paint The Giant Turnip. It's great how you can buy anything and paint a picture of it so it's a tax right off. I should paint my dinner everyday.
I used to love eating turnip in Canada. I read on a random site though, that what people eat in Canada and call turnip we call rutabaga in the states. And the turnip I ate in Canada wasn't purple like that stuff I just bought at the store. So maybe I don't actually like turnip... I'm a little nervous. And I don't think Brandon is very excited about it because when I told him we were eating a tax deduction for dinner and he figured out it was turnip and not steak he said, "ew, gross."

My husband, the artist

Who knew that Brandon could paint? Last night I pulled out an old sketch from "The Monkey Story" that was printed on watercolor paper, gave him a couple of pointers, then let him go for it. Look at the natural talent. He's better at watercolors than I was when I first got into them as a 3rd year art student. Although, I did have to help him out when he wanted to give the kid red hair and used all red paint. I had to inform him that red hair is actually orange. So he fixed it up and it looks great.

Question:

I think one of the funniest questions I have ever been asked was when this self publisher asked if I knew anyone with a private jet going to China that could bring her books back for her so she doesn't have to wait on the slow normal shipping. And she was serious. I had to tell her no, no I don't know anyone with a private jet. sorry. Maybe I should have told her that sometimes my friends buy airplane tickets to fly places, sometimes even to China. I don't know if that makes a difference, but it's the closest thing I could think of to owning a private jet.

sports apologies

I think I apologize too much when I play sports. I make a lot of mistakes. I'm not too bad at defense and being aggressive in general, but I have no aim for shooting in basketball or passing or kicking goals in soccer. So then I have to apologize to my team for missing. Even when I do things right, like setting a good screen in basketball, I feel bad when the opponent runs into me. Or when they set a screen on me and I run into them, I apologize again. It's just an instant reaction I have for colliding with people. Do I sound pathetic?

congratulations to me

Today I have made some big accomplishments. First of all, this is my 101st blog. Congratulations to me, thank you. And.... I did my taxes! What a relief. I love BYU's free help. Thank you to Nate for being my free accountant. We do have to pay a little, but I'm just relieved because I knew it had the potential to be a lot worse. And I have to congratulate myself for being incredibly honest by claiming a lot of freelance money that no one even knows about.

Funny funny childhood

I think everyone has funny memories from when they were kids and they thought their family was normal until they got older and looked back. (my sister recently wrote a blog about our funny rules of remind me of all this) So to anyone who reads my blogs, let's hear a few of your own:

rules: TV dollars, we had only so many TV dollars per week and we had to pay a dollar for every show we watched.
I think my bed time was 7:30 until I was 10.
We had to stay in our church clothes all day on Sunday to try and keep us from being rowdy.
We had to check out exactly 10 books at the library so we would know if we were missing one when we returned them. (I still use this technique)

family foods: we ate (and still eat) delicious open face sandwiches that are made of a layer of ham, then slices bananas, and cheese, then cooked in the oven. REALLY good. But not normal according to everyone I have ever lived with since I moved away from home.
Also: I thought waffles and pancakes were a dinner food until I was in high school or something because we always had those for dinner, never for breakfast- that would have been weird.

fhe: there apparently was a shopping cart problem in our area, the carts were all over the city, so we spent a monday evening loading shopping carts into our suburban and returning them to the correct stores.

things I wore: Punky Brewster bold red, green and blue tennis shoes, maroon corduroys, and a pink blouse with frills all up and down the front and on the sleeves. And what Brandon refers to as our matching "valentine" outfits that we always wore, as seen in a picture of me on Santa's lap in that outfit.

favorite activities: sitting in buckets full of water in the summertime. making mazes out of moving boxes. Throwing Heather in the shower with her clothes on. Running around our kitchen in Spokane that had 2 doorways, one person would start at each door and we ran in circles until one person caught the other. Dressing up our little brothers like girls. Pico-Fumi.

What a blessing: the hair straightener

Wow. Scary, I know. frizzy, wavy, huge. This was the best of the non-straightened hair pictures. Brandon said I looked like I was on drugs or something. I responded, good thing for hair straighteners or you wouldn't have married me. He assured me that he still would have married me but he would have wondered how I got a job at the MTC.

And so, I just want to say how thankful I am that we have straighteners, because 99% of the time I am really glad that I don't look like I am on drugs.

Tip of the day: Don't rub sandpaper on your face

Sometimes boys don't shave and then their faces get scruffy. When I try to get Brandon to shave I tell him, in the nicest way I can, that his face feels like sandpaper. I tried to demonstrate how rough it is yesterday by pulling out some sandpaper and rubbing it on both of our faces and told him the sandpaper was even softer than his scruff. But a few minutes later we realized it really wasn't that soft and we both had sandpaper burns on our faces.

When does water expire?

Sometimes I have water bottles that sit out overnight and sometimes I wonder if it's still okay to drink. It's just water, right? Can it ever go bad? What if I put it back in the fridge, then is it okay to drink? What about a water bottle that sits out for a month, or a year? Is it okay? What about water in a glass? A few hours? A few days? At some point there is at least some dust collecting going on, if not more. What are your water drinking strategies? Do you have a reason behind them, or just habits?

I'll know I'm successful when...

There are a few things, besides money and power, that I look forward to as ways that will signal to me that I have become a super successful illustrator:

A. Bethanne will call and ask me if I will take an intern.
B. I get paid to travel to cool places just to write my name for people.
C. I have to get mad at people because they are copying my style.
D. I learn about copy rights and actually care a lot about it because people keep stealing my images. Maybe I even hire a lawyer, or just talk to Aaron a lot. (I don't know if Ronnie still exists, otherwise I might have mentioned him in there also)
E. My work environment has significantly upgraded to include my own computer, an art desk not in the living room, paints that cost more than $40 and maybe even a couple of ipods.
F. I no longer frame my artwork in frames from the dollar store or Michael's clearance rack. (I probably shouldn't do that anyways, maybe that's partly why I'm not super successful yet.)

I don't believe in ironing

It just seems so unnecessary. It takes an extreme case for me to think ironing is required. My mom told me she didn't realize how strongly I believed in not ironing until I transported my wedding dress in the car from Provo to Seattle and still didn't see much of a need to iron. I think clean clothes are important though, to an extent. Sometimes clothes with artistic stains are just inevitable and that doesn't usually stop me from wearing favorite articles of clothing. Clean smelling, that is what really matters. (Unless you are going to an athletic activity in which case it's okay to put on clothes that smell from the last athletic activity because there are just going to smell again anyways. And then you shower right afterwards.... right afterwards.) Let's hear it for wrinkled clothes everyone! Maybe if we get rid of our ironing board we will have room in the closet for our Christmas tree.

Special Skills

As many of my friends and family know I have a love of soap carving. I don't do it all the time, but I still really enjoy it. When I was in NY and saw people all over the streets by the Met selling art stuff I thought it would be fun to set up a little table and try to sell soap carvings. I only had time to go for an hour or so and no one bought any. However, I did have a lot of people admiring my carvings and people seemed really excited about it, especially the family from France who asked to take a picture with me. I have never lost hope that someday, somehow, this could be more than a hobby.
Well, every now and then I search the internet for people looking for illustrators. In the process I found someone starting a gallery in Salt Lake that is planning on exhibiting a variety of mediums from local artists. I emailed her about my soap carvings and she said she is interested in seeing my portfolio! I don't actually have my soap carving portfolio put together yet, but I guess I better get to work on it. I've heard they have professional soap carvers in Asia. I think it's time America branches out the art industry to include this great professional as well.

CM Party

Last night Brandon and I went to his Construction Management opening social. It was great, lots of good food, fun people to hang out with, even one of my illustration friends was there, a chicken wing eating contest, and the best of all: dance dance revolution. I have only played a small number of times in my life but I think it is incredibly fun. Even though I am not any good at it, no one else there was either. So I came away with 2nd place and a blockbuster gift certificate! oh yeah.

Partially eaten plastic spoon

We have a rice cooker and it comes with this nice flat spoon. It's wide and white and plastic and it works really well for browning meat on the stove because it's not wood and it doesn't scrape up the pan. Recently I realized though, that the spoon is getting smaller and is deformed around the edge. I guess when we scrape at a hot pan it melts and it leaves a little bit of spoon on the pan, which gets mixed in with the food, and then we eat it: the food, with a little flavoring of white spoon.

How to feel old when you're young

Recently I found out about my stake aerobics and yoga classes in the mornings, they are really fun and a great workout. Each day is a different teacher and I've experienced different areas of soreness on my body. After the workout yesterday I am having a hard time getting around, I have to move slowly and sit down careful, hold onto a chair when I pick things up off the floor, and my whole body aches. It's kind of ironic because these are the things that I hear you do when you get old. One of the reasons for exercising is that you are in better health so that you don't feel as miserable when you get old. But why wait for all those things when you can experience them now?

And that's how to feel old when you're young.

My basketball prime

I am pretty sure my basketball prime was when I was in 6th grade. I was really good in 6th grade and I think I've just gotten worse since then. Sad, I know. The other day I played some one on one with Brandon and I actually won! We played until 10, my shots counted as 5 points each, his counted for half a point, so I won 10 to 3 and a half. But let's be honest, he wasn't really trying. I'm planning on going to our Stake open gym night to play some more basketball, maybe what I learned in 6th grade will start to come back to me.

O Christmas Tree

Even though it is after New Years I think our little 4 foot tree still has pretty good odds of being up for awhile. Two main reasons:

1. we don't have many decorations in our living room and
2. we only have two places to store things, our coat closet (full) and under our bed (also full)

Santa Discovery

My friend Charlotte just wrote a really funny blog about how her little brother's comments about Santa and asked how other people discovered that Santa isn't real. I don't remember exactly how old I was, but I was already suspecting my parents from things like Santa's handwriting being exactly like my mom's.
Then one day shortly after Christmas I was over at my friend Karen's house wearing the sweatshirt Santa had given me with big Teddy Bear painted on it. Karen's mom said to me, "oh cute, I remember your mom making that sweatshirt!" My face kind of fell and I mumbled, "Santa gave it to me." Then I knew.

30 minutes please

I try to run everyday and sometimes it amazes me how it can take over 2 hours of my day to run 30 min.
First I decide it's a good time to go run and then I sit there and think about it for half an hour and try to get myself motivated enough to change clothes. I think about how far I will go and typically decide I will just go on a short run to make it more likely that I will even make it out of the house.
Then I change into running gear, that can take a good 5 minutes, then I stretch for awhile to prevent shin splints, further contemplate how this is really a good idea even though I'm not excited about it, and enjoy the warmth of my apartment a moment longer. (10 minutes)
Then there is the actual running part. Typically 30 minutes more or less.
Then I come back and stretch even more, again, preventing shin splints and just cooling down. (20 minutes) After that I usually think about doing some sit-ups and push-ups while laying on the floor for at least 20 minutes, typically longer though. Then I actually do the sit-ups and push-ups which takes another couple of minutes.
Then I have to shower and get ready for the day again because I smell from running of course and that puts me at well over 2 hours.
It seems a little ridiculous, I know, but what part am I suppose to cut out? The shower? The actual running time? Because I've already tried cutting out all the sitting around thinking and not accomplishing anything part and that just doesn't work.

new hobby

Chess is our new hobby. Maybe it has to do with not having a TV, but whatever it is we really enjoy it. Brandon and I are really evenly matched so every game is intense. I am currently on a losing streak, but that could change at any time - especially if I find a good place to practice online.
I like instantchess.com because you can play against people all over the world and the games can't last that long because some of those people get me in checkmate in 6 moves and also because you are timed. And I think it's funny how you have an option of 10 specific things you can say to your opponent like, hi or tell them they are good. You can say "blunder" too if you want. But you only get so many free games before you have to pay. Does anyone know a good chess site?
I know I may sound like a dork getting into chess but I recently found out one of my friends was the president of his chess club in High School.... at least I don't have a claim like that. Although I do remember that BYU has a chess club and if I can convince Brandon we might have to check that out.

"It's okay..."

Yesterday we had some nice Miller family time watching the Christmas devotional. Afterwards we went to Brandon's parents for dessert and visiting. Our little niece Lauren was telling us about how she cut her hair by herself recently (we think she's almost 5). I told her I didn't start cutting my own hair until I was 20. "You cut your own hair?" she asked. I told her that I did and she responded, "It's okay, it'll grow back."

So Sore

I decided it would be great if I started doing more push-ups and sit-ups. I figured I would be most likely to do them if it was a competition. So I invited Brandon to a weekly physical challenge. He graciously said that mine would count double, a necessary aid. I tried to do at least a couple sets everyday and kept track on our list. Then Brandon would just do 100 push-ups in one day and it kept things pretty close. On Saturday we were both doing push-ups all day long. I decided it would be a lot easier to just not let Brandon do anymore push-ups but that was not as easy as I thought. So by midnight (the cut-off time) I had 185 push-ups, which I am proud of even though I lost to Brandon's 380.

Thanksgiving anxiety: true or false

While we were helping prepare Thanksgiving dinner at his parents house Brandon informed me that he was nervous. Nervous? I asked. What could you be nervous about? He explained that he was nervous he wouldn't be able to eat as much as he wanted to, like his stomach just wouldn't have room or something. And the funniest part was that he wasn't completely joking. He said he bets a lot of people get nervous about that. I'm skeptical. Anyone else?

problem with paper

I have a disability. I do not have the capability of dealing with paper. I know I have never been the cleanest person to live with and I have realized the core of it is lack of knowing where to put paper. I create piles and piles on desks, the floor, under my bed. And then I clean up and they get put into boxes because I still don't know what to do with them.
Maybe I'll start drawing on every piece of paper I have, that way I can just bind all the paper I own and put it on my bookshelf as a sketch book. All paper will fall into the same category and I won't have to debate if I should throw it away or not.
When I need some old banking information, or notes from an important meeting, I'll know exactly where to look. Sort of. I have over a thousand pages of sketches so far. I think my life goal is 50,000 pages of sketches. Which means I need to stop throwing so many pages away. And I better stop getting carpal tunnel.

tis the season

okay, it's not quite the season yet unless you're from Canada, (they start their Christmas season after Canadian Thanksgiving, which is before Halloween) but yesterday we were a little tired of the same Sunday music we always listen to so we turned on Christmas music. It was great. And there's no turning back now.

new lifestyle

Recently I went to Costco and thought it would be a good idea to pick up some basic items like shampoo, conditioner and laundry soap. Of course, being at Costco everything comes in enormous quantities. I wasn't so sure about going for the cheap generic brands with these items. I said "why not, we'll give it a try." I was then informed by Brandon that buying so much of each of these items was not just "giving it a try" but actually accepting a new lifestyle. Well I went for it, and so far the new lifestyle is going fine.

voting confessions

When going to vote yesterday I realized I should have prepared a lot better for the day. I knew very little about the candidates, which is important of course. I had browsed through the websites and did some reading on the major issues. Everyone sounded pretty similar to me, probably because the lack of time I had to study in depth on each person. In the end, whether I wanted it to or not, I think the design of their websites played more of a role in who I favored than it should have. Next time I will have to be more involved before voting day.

I was really tempted to write in some random friends for the write-in spaces where there was only one candidate. Did anyone else really want to do that?

celebrity sighting

When I interned in NY my apartment had a list of celebrity sightings, it was a pretty impressive list as you might guess. We lived on the same block as Regis so it was pretty easy to run into him. They probably had 50 or so.

We all know there are a few differences between Provo and NY. Provo still has it's own collection of famous people though. For example: When Brandon and I stopped by the post office the other day we saw Lavell Edwards. Brandon was probably more excited than I was. (actually, there is no doubt about that at all) As we were leaving Lavell was leaving too and as we walked by he smiled and asked how we were doing. What a nice guy. (He didn't always look nice in his pictures) And one time we saw Willie Nelson at Smith's, complete with his Willie and friends van in the parking lot.

And I've decided I'm going to be famous too. I haven't worked out all the details yet.

Halloween confusion

As you can see from the picture, for Halloween Brandon was dressed as 3 hole punch Jim and I was Halloween Pam. (both from the office of course) Unfortunately, not enough people have seen that episode and everyone kept trying to tell me I was a cat. I guess I should have expected that though, not everyone is obsessed with the office.

I heard the greatest thing yesterday though when I showed a couple friends our picture from Halloween. One of them told me that on Halloween he saw this girl dressed up just like I was and he had gone up to her and said "Cool! Halloween Pam!" And she responded by giving him an odd look and saying, "No. I'm a cat"

Most of you probably didn't think that was as funny as I did, but that's okay.

2023

I have married into a very organized family. Every family does things a little different for the holidays. Each family has different traditions, different gift giving methods and amounts. My new family has the rotation system going on, which makes sense, and I just recieved an email that informed me of everyone that I will be buying and recieving presents for until the year 2023. I think I have the present I'm giving for 2015 figured out but the rest I'm still not sure on. I have had a request for a teleporter in 2018, I'm not sure if I'll be able to pull that off or not. Anyone know the year those are suppose to come out?

a story with a moral

Last week I ran out of gas . . . twice. The first time was on the scooter. It was a bit ridiculous because the gas gauge said it was on empty for about 3 days while I drove it around everwhere. When Brandon asked if we needed gas I told him the gas gauge was broken. I thought it was broken because I had just got gas a couple days ago.
What I had forgotten was that although I went to the gas station, I forgot to bring my wallet and therefore did not buy any gas. Somehow though my brain misplaced that information and all I remembered was that I went to the gas station. Then when I was walking my scooter 3 blocks down University Ave. on the sidewalk, suddenly that information came back.
And the second time Brandon was driving the truck and we just pulled off the freeway while we were headed to Costco when the car started dying. We glided for a little while but it started slowing down so Brandon got out and pushed the truck about 100 ft. until we made it into the gas station. I thought it was funny.

And the moral of the story is: check your gas gauge. And I apologize to Brad for not posting this blog before Monday.

the slipper transformation

I knew there would be a lot of things that I would learn from being married. I have to say that what I learned most recently is kind of embarrassing to admit. The other day I learned that my pink slippers are not pink, they are gray. They are so gray Brandon was shocked when I mentioned something about them being pink. Not just shocked, I think a little disgusted as well, and rightfully so. I got them as a present on my mission, they look like pink slippers your grandma would wear. (Only gray not pink, as I have now realized.) It was kind of like that story about the frog that sits in the warm water that is gradually heated up until it is boiled but he doesn't realize it happening. My slippers turned gray so gradually I thought they were still pink. I tried washing them. I think it helped.