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?