Memory Lane!

I can't resist being a copy cat! =)

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Miracle

I was shown this picture in a class at BYU, and it has been one of my favorites ever since. I think it is one of the most incredible things I have ever seen. The picture is a uterus of a pregnant woman, and the baby is only 21 weeks into development, just into the second trimester of pregnancy. The surgery is being done to try and alleviate complications that were occurring early on.
It's pretty hard to say that a baby is not considered to have "life" until after birth, when this child is actually holding onto the finger of the surgeon. I'd say that's a miracle.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary...

About six weeks ago, Austin and I decided to turn a little patch of dirt in our backyard into a garden. It was quite a task, since the previous occupation of this area was a landfill for prior tenants of our apartment. Treasures included an old fridge that still had food in it, including milk, two broken windshields, bags of cement, a hundred cigarette butts, and other unidentifiable objects we unearthed in the process. Plus the entire thing was overgrown with weeds. I wish I had taken a picture before, because the clean-up was a feat of miraculous proportions.
So after digging, fertilizing, planting, watering, tending, weeding, thinning, and a lot of praying, we have ourselves a little vegetable garden. Even though a couple of things we planted didn't grow at all, the things that did grow make up for it.
Here's a few pictures. I know it's just little, but I love it!














These are our strawberries. They're doing really well, but every time a strawberry even starts to grow, the robins eat them! So we have to net them if we want them to be more than just a bird feeder.

Our tomatoes have done exceptionally well, we're having a hard time keeping them tied to the cages


This is our corn...I don't know why, but it's just gone crazy growing back there! They say knee high by the 4th of July, but I think most of them were up to my hip by then.















And last week for Family Night, we finally planted my very favorite... PUMPKINS!!! They'll hopefully grow out of these three little mounds.

I'll make sure and update all of you after the big harvest! =)

Loving economic turmoil

Ashton and I have been talking a lot lately about how many things we worry about now. Things that we never gave a second thought to before we were old, married, and out of the house. (Old being a bit of a stretch since we're both only 21). Things like gas prices, cost of housing, food costs, and the biggest one of all lately...RECESSION. It's our time to start worrying about grown up things.

But then I found this article online today. It is honestly one of the best articles I have read in a very long time: "10 Reasons to Love a Recession". Just ten simple things that we can all look forward to as our economy plummets into ruin. The ultimate example of looking on the bright side.

Never actually out on my own

As of my graduation in December, I have been supposedly "cut off" from the wallet of my parents. It's been a harsh reality as I find out the costs of car insurance, health insurance, tuition, cell phone plans, etc. etc. There is no way to know how much your parents take care of you, until they're not doing it anymore. But the truth is, they are still taking care of me.
Just last week, they hooked up a trailer to their car, loaded up all of our wedding presents which they have been storing for us for two months, an amazingly nice couch, and loads of other great things they gave to us for free. Then they drove down from Washington to Utah, an unbearably bland and long drive, only getting 12 miles to the gallon because of the weight of the trailer. Then they came to our little apartment and unloaded all of our things for us. AND, after all of that, they bought us dinner every night they were in town and took us to Lagoon.
So I think "financially independent" is a very loose term for what I am. I still could never do anything without them, not only because of money, but because of how willing they are to take care of me in every way that I need. In the last years they have transitioned from being embarrassing, burdensome, fun-killing parents, to being my very best friends. And it wasn't them who changed to make that happen, it was me.
And I'm the luckiest daughter in the world.

Best In Show

The moment we've all been waiting for has finally come...the World's Ugliest Dog has been crowned for 2008! There was some stiff competition at the show in Petaluma, CA this year, but here's the unfortunate little pup that took home the grand prize!
This dog won a couple of years ago...













And this mangy mutt won three years in a row!!

I'm sorry, but this is seriously the ugliest dog I have ever seen. I actually screamed when I saw this picture, and he will now haunt my nightmares for weeks to come. Could you honestly love a dog like this? He looks like something out of those "Scary Stores To Tell in the Dark" books. You know, those ones by Alvin Schwartz with really dumb stories, but horrifying illustrations?

Here's a little comparison for you...























I can't believe this competition actually exists, but it's airing on Animal Planet in October. That channel is really stepping up their game lately.
First they somehow managed to get A-lister Mario Lopez to host "Pet Star", and now they won the bid to air the Ugliest Dog in the World competition. I think we can really expect to see a lot out of this station for years to come.

A little reminder

Every once in a while I see certain things that make me realize what a baby I am for feeling like I have any problems in my life at all. This morning that definitely happened to me. I can't lie, it was on the Disney channel, which I was watching shamelessly in my pajamas. They do this thing where they highlight kids that are really involved in sports or something, I don't really know the whole premise. But today it showed this little kid Rudy. He's only 13, and he had both of his legs amputated when he was little. And this kid runs, swims, skateboards, bikes...everything. He does triathlons all the time, and he can run a 6 minute mile on prosthetic legs. And he seems like the nicest little boy. As soon as his legs were amputated, he just started figuring out ways that he could still do stuff like everyone else. His dream is to do an IronMan competition. If you don't know, like I didn't, it's a triathlon in Hawaii where you do a 2.4 mile ocean swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and THEN you run a marathon, which is 26.2 miles. I mean, are you kidding me?? My dream is to be able to run like 5 miles on a treadmill, and I have both my legs. Rudy is my new inspiration, and makes me realize I can gripe a lot less about my own, not so difficult life. Here's a link to his thing on the Disney channel website if you want to see how adorable he is!