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?