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.