I have a kink in my neck...

I have a trip planned with my little sister Beki to go to Rexburg. We have made all sorts of plans, including touring the BYU-I campus (where she hopes to go to school next year), doing some kind of fun snow activity (i.e. riding snow mobiles), seeing my friend Sunny's baby get blessed, and going to the Rexburg temple open house. I decided this evening that I wanted to see the hours for the temple open house so we could arrange our schedule. When I googled the open house, I noticed that you have to have tickets to attend (although it's free and open to the public). I tried to reserve tickets online, but it looks as if they are gone. So I decided to call the reservation line to tell them my sob story (trip planned, hotel booked) and see if they have any extras. I was immediately placed in a queue telling me to please hold - that all operators were busy. So I held, and continued to hold, and continued to hold. There was pretty music playing the entire time, and the message came on periodically telling me to continue holding - so that's what I did... hold. Since I was trying to be semi-productive during this time, I held the phone between my ear and shoulder. I totally wish I had called on my cell phone - it has speaker phone! Oh well, so after 2 hours I gave up. My neck is sore, and I decided I didn't know if there really were operators that were going to answer my call :-) Anyway, I'm totally bummed. I'm really hoping it works out that we'll get tickets. Does anyone have any extras???

Little Miss Hailey

Just another pic of little miss Hailey. So funny - I got an email from TJ yesterday with pictures of Hailey and "Grandma and Grandpa Nye". My first reaction was, "What? I didn't know Grandma and Grandpa Nye went up to visit Mandi & TJ!" It took me a little while to realize he was talking about my parents and not my grandparents! :-)

I Hate This Strike!

The Writer's Guild of America is on strike, and I have nothing to watch tonight! Ugh. I look forward to The Office every Thursday night, and all I have to watch is a rerun! "That's okay", I thought to myself, "I'll just watch Grey's Anatomy." It's a rerun too! Why couldn't the writers go on strike in the summer???

Fan at Four

It's not the greatest quality, but had to post this. I love how excited my nephew gets when he sees something that reminds him of Boise State! We start them young :-)

I'm an Aunt!

Welcome Hailey Nicole Harris! My newest little niece was born yesterday - look at that dark hair! Isn't she a cutie?! Just wanted to say congrats to Mandi and TJ. I can't wait to meet Hailey this Christmas!

Computers for Sale!

I bought a new toy tonight - a Macbook Pro :-) I'm pretty excited about my purchase. I got a great deal on this slightly used, 6 month old machine, and it is exactly what I wanted. I have fallen in love with macs, and with boot camp I get the best of the mac and windows worlds.

So needless to say, I have some computers for sale! I have decided to simplify and just keep the Macbook. I think I already have a buyer for my HP desktop, but if anyone is in the market for an older Dell laptop or a 20" iMac G5, let me know!

Invitation Blog

Okay, fellow bloggers. Check out how cool this is - the Christmas party committee in my office set up this blog to invite us to the party. What a great idea! I love it!

Empty Bowls

I decided yesterday that I'm starting a new tradition! There is this awesome program in Boise called Empty Bowls... People from around the community make bowls (ceramic, glass, metal) during the month of November and donate them to the Empty Bowls project. Then, the day after Thanksgiving, chefs from all over Boise donate soup, and community members can come purchase a bowl of soup starting at $10. One hundred percent of the proceeds benefit the Idaho Food Bank. Yesterday was the Empty Bowls 10th Anniversary - where have I been that I've never heard of this?

Anyway, after a fun game of racquetball yesterday morning, Emily and I stood in line, found the bowls we wanted, and then enjoyed some delicious soup. Next year I'd love to get a group of people together to make and donate bowls prior to the event... Just one more reason that I love Boise :-)

Here's a picture of the bowl I picked out - I love it! It's glazed red (or course) and natural stone.

Have you ever seen one of these???

Okay, I'm old enough to remember floppy disks for the computer... and I mean the 5 1/4 inch floppy ones before the small square hard ones. Today at work someone found this floppy with some old test scores on it - it's gotta be 8" square. Crazy! I just thought it was funny - if it had important information on it, I have no idea how we'd get it off!

7 Random Things About Me

I was tagged a week or so ago & am finally getting to posting. Here are seven random things about me :-)

1. I love listening to music, but I am absolutely horrible at identifying the artist of a song. I can pick out a few of my favorites (like Rascal Flatts), but beyond that, I can't for the life of me remember who sings what songs. I have had several people try to help me out on this one to no avail.

2. I can't help but to count panels on garage doors. I know, that's weird... But it bugs me when they aren't symmetrical. For example, garage doors with 4 or 6 panels don't bother me, or even with 3 panels as long as there are two doors. But there is this one house on McMillan near Maple Grove that has five panels. I hate that garage door!

3. I love everything red. My favorite piece of furniture in my house is my red sectional. I have a red leather jacket. I drool over those red upright washer and dryers. I just love red.

4. I hate when people don't wash their hands after using the restroom. I will literally be standing in a public restroom washing my hands and watch people walk straight from the stall out the door of the bathroom. Eeewwww! Come on people! Humor me and spend a few seconds to wash up! This is one of my biggest pet peeves.

5. I will never own a pet that sheds. Period.

6. I like my closet organized. The top rod holds all my t-shirts. They are in color order, except for my Boise State t-shirts, which are all together on the right side. The bottom rod holds my tank tops and nicer shirts that I can wear to work. All my tank tops are together on the left, with the rest of the shirts to the right in color order - purple, pink, red, orange, green, blue, gray, black, brown, white... in that order.

7. Videography is my secret passion. I love video taping and editing video on my mac. I have even considered starting a business one day. I don't spend nearly as much time as I would like doing this, so I'd better start practicing. Guess we'll see!

Rake up Boise

Did you know that I love Boise? :-) One activity that I enjoy participating in is Rake up Boise. This annual event benefits elderly citizens throughout the town as groups of volunteers spend the day raking their yards. I decided this year that I wanted to organize a team from Boise State Enrollment Services (Registrar, Admissions, Financial Aid, and Campus Community). Even though we ended up with a small team (it was game day so that made difficult to recruit), we had a great time and were able to spend a couple hours raking 2 yards. Thanks to my team - Jenny, Ryan, Madison, Kris, Chase, Sandy, and Mark!

How Does a Vandal Count to 10?

0 and 1
0 and 2
0 and 3
0 and 4
0 and 5
0 and 6
0 and 7
0 and 8
0 and 9
0 and 10

Just having a little fun before the big rivalry game with the U of I this weekend :-)

Free Rice

Want to improve your vocabulary while helping to end world hunger? Check out this site and get started! Can anyone else get their rice bowl to look at all full? I got to level 30 and there were still only a few grains in the bottom of the bowl! I found a site that says there are approximately 1000 grains in one cup of rice. So my 510 grains is just about 1/2 cup :-) Thanks Sally for sharing this site!

Oxygen Bar

I had one of the most interesting days! I am participating in a Shared Leadership program at Boise State. Part of the program is working with a mentor. I was excited to shadow my awesome mentor, Leah Barrett, for the day today. She is one busy lady! We went to a department head meeting from 10-11, a webinar on liability from 11-12, an informational meeting on the professional staff compensation project from 12:30-2, a one-on-one with a staff member from 2-2:30, a meeting with the ASBSU vice president from 3-3:30, and an ASBSU meeting from 4-5. Somewhere in between all that, we met with a student who needs a letter of recommendation, reviewed budgetary issues for one of her departments, discussed recent issues with several staff members, and even stopped by the oxygen bar sponsored by the student programs board. Have you ever heard of an oxygen bar? Well I hadn't, not until today anyway. It's kinda weird - they gave us each these hoses - we stuck one end up our nostrils, and plugged the other end into one of several flavored vials of oxygen. I tried the almond, lemongrass, and cherry. Supposedly different flavors should result in different effects (i.e. appetite suppressant, invigoration, etc.) From what I understand, there aren't any firm facts indicating that these actually work, but I still thought it was interesting! I didn't have my camera with me, so no picture of the hose up my nose :-)

All Jazzed Up

When I was in middle school, I attended my first jazz band concert. I don't think I had ever really been exposed to jazz music before that. I fell in love with the beat and rhythm of the music and was completely disappointed that the jazz band didn't have a flute - I wanted to be part of that! I still love to listen to jazz music, and jumped at the opportunity when I was offered free tickets to tonight's Gene Harris Jazz Festival Endowment Night. The night started out with some jazz numbers by local middle & high school students, followed by a couple of songs by the Boise State jazz band. For the main event, I had the privilege of listening to jazz singing legend Barbara Morrison, accompanied by Bill Anschell on the piano, Scott Reuser on the drums, Bill Ramsay on the saxaphone, and Jeff Rew on the bass. They blew me away. The music was incredible, and absolutely made my night. I even dressed up for the occasion :-)

PACRAO in Salt Lake City

I spent the first part of the week in Salt Lake attending the annual PACRAO conference for work. PACRAO stands for the Pacific Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. At the conference I learned about all sorts of cool programs/best practices that other universities have implemented. I am excited to gather my notes and see what will work at Boise State. I even attended a session on blogging! While I was in Salt Lake, I took the opportunity to walk around downtown, including temple square. The temple is so pretty, and I loved all the trees changing colors... thought I'd share this picture with you!

I Love Pho!

I love pho (pronounced "fuh" for those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about). Pho is a Vietnamese soup with a beef broth, rice noodles, and really thinly sliced beef that is cooked by the broth. Of course there's more to it than that, but that's the main idea. With cooler weather setting in, I think I could eat pho every day, or at least weekly. If you've never tried it, I recommend trying something new the next time you go out for Asian food... and if you don't like it, try it at a different restaurant (I didn't like it at the first restaurant I tried). Oh, and I'm looking for a good, easy pho recipe - if anyone has one, please share!

Who rules the West? Boise State

I was forwarded this article from a coworker - it highlights the successes of Boise State's football program. Just thought I'd share for all you fans who just can't get enough of Bronco football!