Memorial Day

I have been looking forward to Memorial Day for weeks. With no holidays (at least with time off from work) from the middle of February through the end of May, Memorial Day is always a much needed day off. Unfortunately, sometimes we focus on all the things we have planned for weekend (i.e. yard work, BBQs, etc) without pausing to think about the reason we have Memorial Day. Today I stopped to ponder and give thanks for those who have valiantly served our country and died protecting us and our freedoms. I really liked this thought I found online, and decided to share it here. I have modified it just a bit, but I give credit to the author Kevin Drawdy.

Today, Americans across this nation and citizens located around the world paused to observe Memorial Day. Since its first official observation on 5 May, 1868, when it was called Declaration Day, it has been a day of remembrance for those who sacrificed and died in our nation's service. And while it was originally dedicated to honor Civil War soldiers, we know it today as a celebration in memory of all who have fought for and defended our right to freedom.

In 1968 the observation of this day was established to be the last Monday in May. Today it remains a time of observation to honor and to respect those who fought to protect the liberties that our Founding Fathers proclaimed with certainty in the Declaration of Independence and that were thoughtfully and carefully framed in the Constitution of the United States. In his proclamation to set aside this day in 1868, General Logan instructed there to be thoughts to "...cherish tenderly the memories of our heroic dead who made their breast a barricade between our country and its foes."

To those who died securing peace and freedom; To those who served in conflict to protect our land, and sacrificed their dreams of the day to preserve the hope of our nation - keeping America the land of the free for over two centuries - we owe our thanks and honor. It is important to not only recognize their service but to respect their devotion to duty and to ensure that the purpose for which they fought will never be forgotten.

Weekend Projects

Wow, I had another BUSY weekend. I was going non-stop the entire time. Here are a couple of my projects.

I planted my garden! I planted tomatoes (roma, grape, and yellow pear), bell pepper, butternut squash, cilantro, onions, jalepeno pepper, and peas. That was a lot to cram into my little garden space, but I'm hoping for some yummy veggies this summer!
A few weeks ago, I took the afternoon off work to get some rock to landscape my backyard. BJ and I hauled three truckloads of river rock and lined each of the beds. I hadn't really prepped for the work, so we just laid the rock right on top of the grass. Well, as you can imagine, grass started to grow up between each of the rocks. I spent several hours on Saturday rolling out the rock, digging out the grass that was under the rock, cutting and laying strips of weed barrier, and then putting the rocks back. My back and shoulders are sore from shoveling and working with the rock, but it was worth it. I love the end result!

The Rides That Weren't Meant To Be

Katrina and I decided to take full advantage of this Memorial Day weekend and go mountain biking not once, but twice! We decided last week that it would be cool to do the Hidden Springs Duathlon this fall... In order to prepare for the race, we wanted to practice on last year's mountain bike course. We went with map in hand, but couldn't actually find the beginning of the trail. Bummer. Instead we decided to just ride up and down Seamans Gulch road. I was excited to know that I can ride that road, but Katrina and I were the only ones on the road with mountain bikes (instead of road bikes) and without clips!

This morning we headed back out. We went to Hidden Springs again, but decided to do a trail we had done before. I pumped up my bike tires right before we left and didn't get 20 yards before I could tell it was COMPLETELY flat again. Katrina to the rescue - she had this really cool stuff that sprayed sealant or something into my tire and also completely filled it up with air.

After fixing my tire, we were back on the trail... only when we got to the top of the first hill, we saw this:
What??? The last time I rode this trail, it was all foothills and trails. Who put that road there? So we had to detour to another trail, which was shorter than we were hoping for. We didn't get too far along that trail when my chain started having problems. Every time I shifted gears, the chain fell off. Ugh, how annoying. After putting my chain back on three times, I decided my ride was over for the day. I finished my ride in 1st gear (I felt like I wasn't going anywhere!) because that's the only gear my bike would stay in.

I decided that I wasn't meant to mountain bike this weekend! I guess I'll be taking my bike in to the shop this week to get it in tip top shape for my next ride. Since I finished my ride earlier than Katrina (I told her to go ahead and finish the trail - no sense in us both having a short ride), I just goofed around and took pictures. I decided I love my cool gorilla tripod:This tripod is bendable and will literally form around anything to hold your camera. I took this picture...
... by bending the tripod around this stick. How cool is that!?!You can't tell from the picture, but it really was a pretty wimpy stick. Here's to a better ride next time!

It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Summer!

Disc Golf

I really stink at throwing frisbees, footballs, baseballs... basically anything. I wasn't always that way though. I think I'm just out of practice. I was excited when my new friend Cami bought a couple of disc frisbees and invited me to join her at the disc golf course on our lunch breaks earlier this week. Wow, I think it might take more than the one lunch break a week that we have planned for me to get good enough to play in a group! Good thing the course is within walking distance of my work. Maybe by the end of the summer, and with enough practice, I might even be able to make par on one of the holes! Just gotta watch out for the water!

Mayor Bieter Unplugged

Tonight I attended a BYP function called Mayor Bieter Unplugged. Mayor Bieter was gracious enough to join us for an hour in a casual, open forum setting and just let people ask questions. Questions ranged from transit and transportation, to energy, to support of the arts, to technology, to the state of the economy, etc. I have always been impressed with the mayor, but I appreciate him even more after tonight. I can tell that he truly loves Boise and honestly cares about making it a better place to live. He is aware of the needs of his constituents and does what he can to serve us. I know that the mayor is a busy man, and I think it is great that he would take time out of his schedule to just chat with our group. This event was just one more reason I am glad I got involved with BYP - what a neat opportunity!

Paintball

Tonight we celebrated my uncle and cousin's birthdays by going paintballing. I'm not the best shot, but I had a ton of fun... and I did manage to hit a few people! I made it out of there relatively clean and with only three welts (they are all on my upper leg, thus no pictures)! Happy birthday Kevin & Sena! Thanks for inviting me to join in the celebration!

Geography of Jobs

Check out this site - it shows a map of the US and then shows jobs gained and lost over the last few years. It's really interesting to watch as everything progresses. Let's hope the we see some more green dots soon!

Lesson Learned: Read the Label

So a few weeks ago I bought some cool new white linen pants. Not only did I love these pants, but they completed a cute new outfit. They were a total splurge, as I forked out more than I normally would on a pair of pants.

Well what happens when you wear white? Of course, the pants got dirty, so I threw them in the laundry. What was I thinking? I always check the labels on my dress pants (most of which are dry clean only), so why didn't I check this label? I ended up washing my "dry clean only" pants with the rest of my whites. When I pulled the pants out of the dryer this weekend, I found that the pant legs were now several inches shorter than the liner. Ugh! Seriously, I think they shrunk 6 inches! In one wash! They are now completely unwearable (after only wearing them once) and are in my DI sack. I'm totally bummed.

Chuck Renewed!

Hooray! In case you haven't heard the exciting news, it looks like Chuck is set to be renewed. I guess it won't really be "official" until tomorrow, but the rumors are enough to make me happy! My day is made!

Jam Packed Weekend!

This weekend has been SO busy (and it's not even over)! I got a message on Facebook a couple days ago that my college roommate Sunny was coming into town for the state track meet (her husband is the head track coach at Madison High School in Rexburg). They weren't planning on being in Boise for long, and most of the time they spent here would be at the meet, but I was excited that the track meet was at Boise State! I spent my lunch break yesterday with Sunny and her family - it was so fun to see her and just chat for a bit. It wasn't long enough, though, so I'm looking forward to another visit this summer!
My sister Mandi and her family are in town for the weekend for her sister-in-law's graduation. So after work last night, I headed straight over to my parents' house for a big family dinner. The food was great, and I had fun playing on the swing set with my niece Hailey.
I couldn't stay at dinner long, because I had previously planned a game night with some co-workers. We've been getting together about every other month and we have a blast. Someone hosts and provides the games, and everyone else brings drinks and appetizers. I can't wait till our next get together!

Finally, today has been all about graduation! I worked at Boise State's commencement ceremony this morning for about 5 hours. I had a couple of fun jobs this year... First, I gave instructions to the graduates before they processed into the ceremony. And then during the ceremony, I told the graduates when to go up to the stage to have their name read. Good job Mandy for putting on such a successful ceremony!

The best part about graduation was that my boss Kris graduated with her Masters in Public Administration - great job Kris! I am so proud of you. We had a big party after commencement to celebrate! I thought it was funny that Jenny, Mara, Kris, and I all ended up dressing alike :-)


Tonight I'm headed to a comedy show and ice cream social... tomorrow I have meetings and church, and then Beki and I are getting together to make baby shower invitations. I think I might need to take Monday off work to recuperate from my weekend!

Administration Building

I know I've said this before, but I LOVE working on campus. I love the students and their energy. I love that everyone is dedicated to education. And I love is that campus is so beautiful. I work in one of the coolest buildings - the Administration Building. It's an old building (built in 1940), and it just has so much character. I snapped this picture yesterday morning as I headed into work. It's rare to get a picture without a bunch of students in it (especially with the great weather!), but with finals over and summer classes not yet started, it was a pretty peaceful morning!

Um, Ever Heard of a Lawn Mower???

Or how about weed killer? Seriously, come on people. It's the middle of MAY! The rest of us have been mowing our lawns for at least a month. If you don't own a lawn mower, I am positive a neighbor kid would love to earn $20... or if you don't have an extra $20, I would be willing to guarantee that someone will lend you their lawn mower so you can get rid of your dandelion forest.

This is a real house in my neighborhood. I could maybe understand if the house was for sale and was vacant, but people actually live here!
In comparison, here's my beautiful yard :-) I love how green the grass is right now. Don't get me wrong, this wasn't a quick or easy process, but I am so happy with how my yard is looking these days. I guess it's not hard to have a nice looking yard when you're comparing to neighbors like these!

Flowers!

A few weeks ago, Julie told me how the day after Mother's Day, the temple lets people come and dig up the tulips and daffodils and take the bulbs for free. It works out all around - people get free flowers bulbs and the temple doesn't have to pay anyone to come take out the old flowers. I thought getting free flower bulbs sounded great, so I took the morning off work to dig in the flower beds. I arrived at the temple just before 9:00am, come to find that basically all the flowers had already been pulled. People got there before 6:00am! Well, I worked for about half an hour and was only able to get about 15-20 tulip bulbs, but hey - that's something right! I was back home by 10:00am, and decided to go to Lowes to pick up some perennials to add to my front flower bed. The bed now looks MUCH better than it did, and I am excited to see the flowers grow and fill in the bed.

Well, tonight I went back to the temple! Our Family Home Evening activity was actually to plant new flowers. The temple always has such beautiful landscaping, so it was fun to be able to participate in the planting. And guess what we found in the flower beds as we planted the new flowers... flower bulbs that people had missed from this morning! I gathered them all up to take home - I'll store them this summer and plant all the bulbs this fall. I have no idea what kind of flowers the bulbs are from, or what colors they are, but I am excited to find out next spring when they start blooming!

27 Minutes!!!

For the second time ever, I ran an entire 5k race... but this time I finished in 27:05!!! I was stoked to have shaved 3 minutes off my Women's Fitness Celebration race time. In fact, I kinda wondered if the clock wasn't accurate - if for some reason they started it late, but I have been running sub 9-minute miles the last few weeks, so maybe I really did it!

Anyway, the Race for the Cure was a huge success this year, with over 15,000 participants. The race course is one big loop, so you start and finish at the same location. It was kind of weird to see some of the walkers so close to the beginning of the course when I was finishing the race - at the same time it made me feel good! Our team was formed to support a lady in town who recently went in for a mammogram for the first time in her mid-fifties and found out that she had cancer. I know so many people who have been affected by breast cancer, and I know it is so important to get tested early and regularly. Beki and I also ran in celebration of our Grandma who is a breast cancer survivor, as well as our mom's friend Collette who recently diagnosed with level 3 breast cancer.

Hangin' Out Downtown

I spent the last couple weekends downtown, and I just have to say - I love downtown Boise! Last weekend, my fashion designer friend Krista put on a Trash 'n Show (part of an Earth Week celebration). There were three different rounds of clothing. The first round were outfits from second hand stores that Krista helped put together. The second round of clothes Krista actually made from clothing that had been donated to her (she used the material and created new clothing). The last round was my favorite - Krista made clothes out of random household materials. The picture below shows clothing made from a shower curtain, potato sack, party streamers, balloons, trash bags, CDs, newspaper, and post-it notes... so creative! After the show, Andrea and I headed to Asiagos for dinner. I seriously think I may have had the best Italian food ever! I LOVED the sun-dried tomato pesto gnocchi. It was heavenly! I will definitely be back!
Tonight, Andrea and I headed back downtown where we watched arena football. The Boise Burn creamed the Stockton Lightning 68-18. Arena football is so much more fast-paced than a regular football game, and I loved it! In fact, it was so fun to watch, that I might consider getting season tickets next year! The Burn players wore pink jerseys tonight that were auctioned off to help raise money for breast cancer.
When the game was over, we walked over to Mai Thai and had yummy chicken lettuce wraps and the most delicious crab fried rice. Once again, we thought we were in heaven. Seriously - it just may have been the best fried rice I have ever had.... mmmm, I love crab! Not only was the food great, but the restaurant has a fantastic atmosphere. We sat right next to this cool water feature that ran down the center of the restaurant. It was also kind of fun to be the last people in the restaurant - we got excellent service!

Curb It

I don't know if anyone else is excited about the new trash/recycling program that is starting this summer in Boise (Curb It), but I am! Over the next several months, Boise residents will receive two new city-issued carts - one for trash and one for recycling. The thing that I am excited about is that I will no longer need to sort my recyclables! All recyclables can go into the one cart. Not that it is that difficult for me to sort everything, but recycling will now be just that much easier. I am sure that others who aren't avid recyclers will begin doing so since it will be so easy... plus, people who don't recycle will actually get charged!

So as part of the Curb It program, the city is selling home composting bins. I am kind of going back and forth on if I should purchase one or not. I have seriously considered buying one in the past, but they just seem like a lot of work, and I worry about the smell. Do you use a composting bin or know of anyone who does? What is your experience?