Graduation Presents

Do people get graduation presents?
I don't really care ultimately.
But if someone wants to give me a present,
I would like some new pajama pants- all of mine are at least 3 years old
Probably 2 or 3 pairs
And a white BYU hoodie
not a Cougars hoodie- one that says BYU.

Like this one.

Tacky

You know what I think is tacky?
Taking something as incredibly tragic as the shooting in Aurora CO
and turning it into a huge political statement about racism in America
or the effect of violence in the media
or when they 'glamorize' it (for lack of a better word) by giving it a catchy title
like the Colorado Movie Massacre.
Whether that is the purpose of what they are doing or not,
it is what seems to happen.

You know, I hate racism as much as the next guy
I don't believe that the color of your skin
or home country defines the person that you are
but don't take a man that has a mental illness
and use him to tell the world that we are unfair and racist.

Remember how before they claimed mental illness
it was called domestic terrorism
and oh my goodness- he is white.

Bleh.

I get easily bugged. My bad. Please forgive me.

**Note: I am not saying that racism is not a problem in this country or in this world.
I am not saying that the media is evil and is ruining the world
But, it still bothers me. Think of the people that have been so profoundly
affected by this tradegy and imagine how sad they must be
that the world is turning it into something catchy and a huge statement.
Can't it just be sad? Can't people have a little time to mourn? At least a buffer period?

Picture Update- Enjoy!

So I stalk peoples facebook and blogs and I realized that I am absolutely terrible at posting pictures. You know why? I hate putting stuff online- not because I am worried about a creeper finding a picture of Mikey and then finds him by way of shadow trigonometry and the location of stars but because it takes a long time and frankly, I have other and often better things to do. But! Then I realized. His poor grandparents! One set lives in Alberta and one in Hawaii and I know how much they must love this little stinker -and his parents too :] - and how they don't get to see him. And why not share this precious face with the rest of the world- it can only make it a better place.

Now get ready- I take lots of pictures. This is not even a drop in the bucket compared to how many I have on my photography harddrive.

Auntie Shelly's graduation! I picked this one because Mikey was just as crabby as Alicia but he is such a camera baby that I don't think he can not smile when a camera is pointed at him, kind of like not being able to say to food.

We took Mikey to the duck pond because the kid was scared of grass and we had to put a stop to that right away! And instead of feeding the ducks, he fed himself. (good news- no longer scared of grass, in fact, he now likes to eat it- surprise surprise)

For Father's Day I was trying to think of a nice gift that Jake could have that would be inexpensive and maybe a little sentimental- bear in mind, I am the sentimental one in this relationship so I knew it had to be pretty good for Jake to really want it. So! I found this cute poem online:

I love to wear my Daddy's shoes
Though my feet are small
When they are in my Daddy's shoes
I feel 10 feet tall
Someday I'll grow to fill them
I only hope to be
As fine as a man and great a dad
As my Daddy is to me

Cute right? Well I made the picture black and white and put the poem on it, framed it and voila! It is now hanging in a place of honor (over Jake's desk) and Jake says he loves it.  Below is the picture that I used- I took maybe 10 and this one worked the best.



Also for Father's Day I made them matching shirts! Really simple- Just Dad or Mikey on it and number 1 and 2. It is cute when they match- you can't tell here but I swear Mikey looks just like his dad

 

One day, when I was resting in my room (I get so tired, yay for being pregnant) I hear Jake say Baby come and look at your son. I walk out into the front room and almost fell over I was laughing so hard. Mikey found food coloring - which we didn't know we had - and ate it. It was all over- his leg, behind his ear, his feet, hands, face (this picture was taken after a few clean up attempts) Eventually after vinegar, baby wipes, soap, scrubbing, a bath, nail polish remover and oil he was just a faint tint. Aren't kids fun?

Baby Contest! He didn't win- I know, shocking right?- but it turns out that it was more a pagaent and less a cute baby contest and if you know us, (which I assume you do or why else would you be reading this- unless you are that before mention creeper- watch out, my husband is a big guy) you know that is not our cup of tea so to speak. But it was still fun.

Auntie Shelly showing that she is browner than her "brown" nephew. They are basically best friends.

Mikey did not love the princesses walking around the baby contest, but they loved him.

Caught red handed! Look at this cute face- how does one get mad at this face? (I mean, it has happened but seriously)

 For Jake's birthday, we asked his parents for a kiddie pool for Mikey to play and boy oh boy what a good idea that was. We have a little water baby if there ever was one. He loves to stand in the pool- I think because Jake does and he wants to be like Daddy- but he just splashes and talks and screams and its great!

He was yelling because Jake splashed him- what a bully. But don't worry- Mikey can hold his own

This is his "Mom,  I am playing, stop taking my picture" look.

Our wonderful upstairs neighbor's son just turned 2 and had cupcakes and because that little guy is such a sweet guy he wanted to give one to Mikey- and did he ever enjoy it!

Well I hope you enjoyed this Mikey blog! And I hope that you made it to the end!

We just love that little guy and cannot wait for there to be two little rascals making messes and getting into things here at our little apartment.

An Update

Jake: working- lots. I think he likes it though- he has a friend that he seems to have a good time with and I know that he enjoys hanging out with people that are interested in the same nerdy tech stuff that he is. He is currently building me a website and since I have no idea how that works, what I want is pretty tricky stuff- but we are working it out. He is also being super dad because I am sick and tired and being pregnant is hard and guess what- Mikey loves it. Jake is so much fun with him. He has two games that they both seem to really enjoy- first there is Toss the Baby which is basically Jake dropping Mikey onto our bed and Mikey laughs hysterically and crawls back to Jake so they can do it all over again (not going to lie- I hate this one but they both seem to love it so much that I just deal with it, typically from the living room) The second game is Chase the Baby. Mikey crawls off and Jake chases him. But Mikey constantly stops and turns around to make sure that Jake is still following him, so if Jake hides around a corner Mikey will come back and Jake will jump out and scare him- boy oh boy does he love it.

Me: I am taking a class and I don't like it but its okay because I only have about 4 more after it. I am sick but it is exciting to feel the baby move and I cannot think of a better reason to be sick than for my baby. I am trying to get Jake to pick baby names with me but he doesn't want to- so far for a boy we are thinking maybe Adam (for my mom's maiden name) and for a girl either Isabelle (my Grandpa Merrill's grandma) or Emma or Jane (which, unless I am mistaken is just one generation above Isabelle-- I need to talk to Grandma Jan about this) and we don't know about boy hawaiian names because that is Jake's territory but for a girl, regardless of what Jake says, her hawaiian name will be Ku`uipo which is the equivalent to Jill in hawaiian (because they both mean sweetheart) And by "we are thinking" I mean Jake hasn't  completely shut them down but we do know that our kids are going to have family names- I think it is nice, something to live up to if you will.

Mikey: Oh he is crazy. Sleeps a lot, eats a LOT, plays a lot, makes a lot of noise and we love it. He is getting close to walking (according to Jake, I think he is a ways off still but I also thought that about crawling and Jake was right, so who knows) He loves his grapes and strawberries and! We have officially found the first food that Mikey does not like. I mean he will still take 4 or 5 bites before he stops opening his mouth but geez, is he unhappy about those bites- and the winner is raspberries! He hates it, its funny because he will still eat them. I don't think he knows how to say no to food.  (I am trying to feed them to him because I heard once that is takes like...uhm... more than one try (haha) before your dislike of food is solidified... I don't know, my aunt told me about it)

So all in all we are doing pretty good- we have a lot of good things going for us and we are walking for graduation in just three short weeks, the same day Mikey turns 1! We aren't actually finished school until december but still- graduation has gotta be cool right?

hmm, looking back this is kinda long... hope you made it through!

A Way with Words

When I was in high school I was constantly being complimented because of my way with words. Not going to lie- I loved it. I was told that I explained things well, I was clear, I was funny, witty, etc. etc. etc. I am not sure if I really believe it but still, always nice to hear nice things. Well then I moved to Utah and I started to date this guy- and he was terrible with words- he was constantly stumbling around and answered questions that were three comments old and he just really didn't get it. It drove me nuts- I liked him enough that it wasn't an instant deal breaker but man oh man, I just didn't understand how someone could have such a hard time. Sometimes he would tell me that I was good with words, and me being the ever so gracious person that I am would think "well I should hope you think so." Needless to say, we didn't work out.
Then I met Jake. Jake is a man of few words. But when he speaks it is clear that he has thought about how and what to say and if he doesn't think that he can adequately explain what he is thinking, he just doesn't try. And I have noticed something- now that I have married him, people comment less and less on my talent with words... hmm.
The point of this is I love to blog. I love to share things with the people that care enough to click on over to my page. But I get so annoyed because I do not have the talent with words that some people do. For example, my sister Shelly. She does great. Her blog seems so articulate and like there is a point. My Aunt Cheri is constantly sharing these stories and recipes in the most beautiful ways. My friend Michelle has the cutest blog and updates everyone on her life and its wonderful. My cousin Eden has a beautiful blog with a wonderful mix of her incredible pictures and amazing tributes.
Point: I am jealous, therefore I do not blog much. Sorry, that is just how it is. Jake says I have this problem where I give up on things because I am not willing to get better at them. As he says, I am not willing to suck for a while first. I suppose that is true. But here is my goal- I am going to be willing to suck at blogging for a while and, hopefully, I will get better at it.

Wish me luck.

I've been thinking lately...

I belong to the greatest church. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is the best thing in my life. And that says a lot- I have a pretty amazing husband and a beautiful child with a second on the way. But guess what, I wouldn't have ANY of that without the Church.
It is a beautiful thing. We are taught the importance of family, honesty, love, compassion, service. We have an incredible humanitarian program that shows exactly what my church teaches. We have strong beliefs and values. And we respect other peoples rights to having different beliefs.
Now, why can't we have that too? Why can't we stand up for our beliefs and values without being told we are wrong and narrow minded? Why can't people be as open- minded as we (at least try to) strive to be? Don't get me wrong- I am not perfect, and besides that I don't know a single member of my Church that is perfect. But we try. We try to be respectful of opinions. We try to express our beliefs and values without demeaning others.  I just want to have beliefs and values without being told that I am narrow minded, disrespectful and ruining people's lifes. Is that really too much to ask?
It would be a beautiful thing. My dream is that when Mikey is an adult, people act the way they expect everyone else to be. Being open-minded doesn't mean being liberal. It means being willing to consider both sides of the argument. And even more, being close-minded is not synonymous with conservative.
Anyways, it is just something I've been thinking about...

A Curatorial Internship from the (slightly) cynical view of me

In order to get credit for my internship, which is essential to me graduating in December (well an internship or study abroad), I have to write a review of my experiences and submit it to my internship counselor. Here is one...

For the past 5 weeks I have been a curatorial and registration intern at the Springville Museum of Art. I have to complete 140 hours and I have completed 101(I am dancing about this as you read, I assure you), with my final day to be June 14- hopefully. (the first 30 hours of that internship were spent taking pictures, editing them and importing them into a document all alone in the cave for the 88th Annual Spring Salon People's Choice Award- that binder took years off my life- it was rough and I am unconvinced anyone besides me sees it for the true masterpiece it is- no joke, its perfect- not a typo or spacing error in the whole 52 pages- my dad taught me everything I know about perfect computer layouts-way to go Pops, I am making the curators of the museum proud- what with all the signs and forms I make that I'll never get credit for- pfft)

I walk around the museum with an air of importance when in reality I am about as low as you can get there. I spend the majority of my time struggling with the outdated and on the verge of breaking computers in the intern room (also known as the cave), being expected to answer questions about things I have never heard of, I walk up and down the stairs constantly because I have pregnancy brain SO BAD and forget everything from the key to the cave to my water bottle to the forms I need to complete my condition reports.

Ah, condition reports. Another one of my wonderous tasks- a fellow intern and I spend 15 to 20 minutes staring at a work of art, our noses almost touching the canvas and record every last imperfection- all the while being careful not to get a drop of sweat, spit on it or breath on the work too heavily. A little speck of dirt? We write it down. A miniscule piece of paint flaked off, on just the top layer of the paint making the overall color in that area uneven? (even though the work looks so perfect to the throngs of people beating down the museum doors to look at it) We circle it on our black and white pixelated image of the work and hope that we wrote it in the correct location. On one painting, a beautiful piece by Zimbeaux (a Utah artist, the SMA's area of expertise) there was a pin hole in the painting, I kid you not, no bigger than half the eye of a needle and we freaked out! It was a travesty- a hole THAT big! A sin, an error beyond comprehension, what kind of monster would do such a thing to an innocent and lovely work worth more than my car? When it was new. After I calmed down, I laughed about how this internship is making "problems" in my life blown out of proportion. A tiny error and the world is ending. If someone had a hole that size in their wall, chances are good they wouldn't even notice. I have to wait more than the typical 3 seconds for my email to load and I am about ready to grab a baseball bat to smash the thing to bits. 

Also, one of my other typical assignments- research. The three curatorial interns spend a lot of time researching random artists and you know, that is not half bad. I enjoy learning random facts about people and seeing how it effected their art. And since I am sick from the pregnancy I get to do research hours at home (score- no idea how excited I am about this) so this aspect will only continue to get better. Of course, the major obstacle with regards to this is that we have some incredible works by incredible artists that no one cares about outside of the 20 people that work at the museum (well in reality the finance department and operations don't care about the artists- they can tell you how much the work cost and how significant the work is to museum attendance but the artists? Not so much) You know how hard it is to research someone that the internet thinks is a  15 year old skateborder from Cody, Wyoming that loves punk music and video games? Just in case you don't pick up what I am putting down, it's tricky. 

Overall, I am not sure if I love it- most days I don't even know if I like it. I still like art, studying art and I am glad that I picked this as my major but if I could go back in time 4 years, I would pick the study abroad- and somehow, even though I would've been in Europe, Jake would've magically wanted to date me and marry me all the same so I could have my wonderful family. (Sigh- wouldn't that be awesome?)

Turns out this internship has taught me that as much as I love art and museums and all that jazz, I just do not have the right temperment for the job.

So what do you think? Is this the review I should turn in?