Random Thoughts

I have so many thoughts running through my mind right now.

1)I can't believe haven't posted anything for two weeks. I think it's because I've been feeling "sick" for the past couple of weeks. Let me explain. Every time I try to consistently exercise I get "sick." I was doing pretty well when, a couple of weeks ago, I felt sick to my stomach. Not every second of the day, mind you, mostly just when I thought about exercising. Then I just felt really tired. Much too tired to exercise, of course. Now I am battling a sore throat and a possible loss of voice. I couldn't possibly strain myself in this frail condition.

2) I have a huge desire to bake. Maybe I'm just hungry. :)

3) I have four major goals that I that I want to accomplish this year. What are they you ask? I'm not going to tell you, because then I would have to be accountable to the few people who are actually reading this picture-less post. The truth is they are scary-hard goals, so I'm too afraid to share them with you.

4) Last week Erik turned six months old on my 32nd birthday. He has four teeth, a great laugh, the ability to sit up unassisted, and an army crawl that can compete with any good soldier! He does have a hard time eating food though. Every time I try to give him anything, he gets this look on his face like it tastes disgusting and he wants to throw up.

5) I MUST MUST MUST finish posting about our trip to the States and the trip we just took to Belgium because anyone who knows me really well knows that I'll never scrapbook the experience. It'll be lost in the far corners of our memories forever.

USA Via Space A Part II: Long Journey

Jonathan has a Living Scripture video of the parables of Christ. In the one about the parable of the talents, a servant of the Master comes to tell the other servants that the Master is going on a long journey. The way he says long journey is really exaggerated and funny sounding. During this trip we often imitated the servant's voice when we talked about our very long journey.

On Friday, August 1st, we headed off to the base airport hoping to catch a flight to McChord AFB (Seattle). Most of the seats on that flight were cut, so we took the next flight to McGuire AFB (NJ).

We flew on a C-17 (C stands for cargo.) I liked it because there was plenty of room, and we could sleep on the floor. The only down side was how loud it was. They gave us earplugs though.










When we arrived it was well into the evening and there wasn't any billeting (military lingo for lodging on base) so we had to find somewhere else to sleep for the night. The list of motels/inns that the airport gave us was limited to places like Days Inn which probably wouldn't have been so bad if it didn't cost $140 a night! We are way too cheap to spend that much for a silly night's sleep, so we asked for a recommendation from the lady working at the check-in counter.


We took the CHEAPEST taxi we could find ($20 as opposed to the normal $55 charge) to a place called the Royal Motel about five minutes away. Actually, it looked more like the Roy tel from the sign. It was only $60. We thought we were doing pretty well. The receptionist had us prepay with no refunds possible. Oh, oh. That should have been a big red flag! There were no towels, the phone didn't work, and we saw a few creepy crawlies. Yikes. We did manage to get some sleep though. Landon and I have really slept in a variety of places in the past three and a half years. From the psychedelic hostel with decorations from the 70's, to cabins, nice hotels, motels, a kid-sized tent, and, well...places like this.

The next day we took the Greyhound bus--yes you did read correctly--the Greyhound bus to Dover, Delaware. The cab to get there was $65. Insane! But we have been living in Europe, which is pretty expensive, so we didn't realize exactly how crazy these prices were until we continued on in our journey in the States.

I have to say that I really liked Delaware. The Best Western we stayed in was really nice with and reasonable rate, and they even gave us a military discount. The next day we flew to Travis AFB in Fairfield CA on a C5.

We spent the night in billeting, which was nice, rented a car and drove to Utah. What a long journey!

None Too Late

I posted the "Prediction" post just in time. Check this out!

9/11

As I was driving Jonathan to preschool, my mind drifted back seven years. I was driving to a school then too. I was substituting at Sunset Elementary School in Orem that day (this was just before my student teaching) when I heard about the attack on the World Trade Center. I couldn't believe my ears. I took out my cell phone and called my roommates and told them to turn on the T.V.

What were you doing on this fateful day?

Prediction

The mug says: Ask Dad, He Knows. And on the off chance he doesn't, he'll make up something pretty good.

When I saw this mug in the BX (Base Exchange), I had to buy it for Landon. It describes him so well. Before Landon became an analyst, he was an Intelligence officer. When we were first married, he attended training at Goodfellow AFB in San Angelo, Texas. There he learned the fine art of making an "educated guess" often referred to in the Intel world as a "W.A.G." (Wild A** Guess.)

All through our marriage, Landon has made all kinds of WAGS. I started calling him on it, asking him, "How do you know that?"

One time when we were living in Iceland, he came home all excited, telling me that he discovered something interesting at work that he could actually talk to me about (usually everything is classified). He then went on to tell me about the bird flu. I thought that it sounded crazy and weird. I forgot about the conversation until about two weeks later when I heard on the news about the bird flu scare. I couldn't believe it.

A few months ago, we were eating dinner at a friend's house. There were probably four other families there who we didn't know very well. The topic of conversation turned to the price of gas and oil per barrel. At the time the price was about $147 per barrel. Suddenly Landon was using his "SKILLZ" to predict that the price of oil per barrel would go back down to under $100, spewing facts about OPEC, greed, and economics. No one in the room believed this would happen--especially with the "China and India" factor. I have to admit that I was a little worried that he was so confident in this room full of intelligent strangers. He went on to qualify his statement and said that it would be within the next five years.

In the past few days, the price of oil has hovered right over $100 per barrel. Even though it's not quite under $100 per barrel I, once again, am amazed at how well he is able to predict these things.

He also predicted the housing problem long before it happened.

Flip-Flop

Yesterday at Stake Conference, I was sitting behind a cute little two-year-old girl. When the Stake President read the names of the Prophet and his counselors and asked for a sustaining vote, the little girl raised her hand. When the Stake President asked if there was anyone opposed she raised her hand again. I couldn't help but think, "She voted for it before she voted against it."

45 Years

Today my parents celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary. My Mom asked my Dad if he thought they would make it to their 50th to which he replied, "If you behave yourself!"

Chopping Broccoli

Do you remember Dana Carvey on SNL singing 'Chopping Broccoli'

song? Well, I couldn't help but remember that song as we were eating dinner the other night: Apple and Sage Pork Roast, sweet potatoes with butter, cinnamon and sugar, and (of course) steamed broccoli.

The better to chew with...

Yesterday I put my fingers in Erik's mouth only to find that he has two bottom teeth coming in! I knew it was coming, but I didn't expect it so soon!