introducing....Charlie!

Whew! That 9 months flew by fast! (pun INtended) I know it's been a while since I wrote last but I thought, what better occasion than this to begin blogging again. After all, Ben and I did just add a new little addition into our family!

stop. I said 9 months because that's how long it has been since I blogged last. No, Charlie is not our child. He's our little baby birdie:)

He is 10 weeks and 1 day old today. He loves to snuggle and bury himself in between my hair and neck. Lately he's been bonding with Ben a bit more but he still prefers my neck and hair to Ben's anyday:)

Don't you worry! This blog is not going to turn into an ode to my pet, I promise! This entry serves 2 purposes; first to introduce you all to the newest member of the Bare family. Second and probly more crucial, it gave me something to write about after not writing for eons.

I know this picture is awful of me, but of Charlie...it's adorable!

people do this for fun?!

First off, keep in mind that I have never been a big fan of heights. My family can attest that the extent of my favorite Lagoon rides was the Scrambler, Puff the Magic Dragon and the highest I ever went was the SkyRide-even that one terrified me!

I can thank cousins Ashley and Brittany for helping, well forcing me to throw aside my fears and ride Screamin at California Adventures at the ripe old age of 12. They were both at least 4 years younger than me and I couldn't let them know I hadn't even ever gone on the old White Rollercoaster at Lagoon.

And now, at six flags I had the time of my life! On Tatsu (above) you fly like superman, relying solely on the safety restraints. While Ben was looking into the eyes of death with complete and utter happiness, I was terrified and fighting it to the bitter end. Hopefully this isn't an indication of how things will be when we really are dying... Well yes for Ben, but for me? Shutter.

The next near death experience was X2. This is my favorite picture of Ben ever! If I looked scared on Tatsu, he looked mortified on this one:) Neither one of us screamed for very long, the ride took our breath away and it was dificult to get any air past the stomach that was lurching in our throats. Oh and pardon my immodesty in this photo. I was rapidly approaching death and keeping my shorts down was the last thing on my mind. It was more on how on earth my sweaty palms were going to continue holding onto the handgrabs.

My favorite thing about Six Flags was that I learned that Ben is actually scared of heights too! He didn't put on this macho-guy show (but wasn't a sissy-boy either) which I really appreciated, it made me feel much less like a coward. Good thing Kirt, Ben's dad, told him to scream on scary rides or else I think he would've exploded:D

i've taken my "chill-pill"

a new school year, basically a new life.

Okay, maybe that's a bit dramatic. But really, I have had to change a lot this year and it's only the second week. I've always lived close enough to campus that I could leave 5 minutes before class and I could make it on time. now I have to adapt to a bus schedule. Yuk! Buses don't wait even just one more minute. Buses don't let you out right where you need/want to be. It's all on their time table. And I don't like having zero control over my schedule.

I've always been slightly anal about this kind of thing but now trying to adapt I'm noticing that it's slowing down my life. Last year and even this summer has been a constant rush. But now when I'm waiting at the bus stop or just sitting on the bus-waiting for Franni to take her coffee break when I'm losing valuable time to get to class- it's forcing me to just relax and take a "chill-pill." Surprisingly enough, I kind of like it. Sure it's frustrating but it forces me to be organized in a different kind of way. I'm definitely hoping it comes in handy one day.

there's my venting for the month.

gone fishin'

Something I've learned about fishing, you've gotta have patience. Ben thinks it's good for me. I disagree.

I don't like bobbers. That means I can't reel it in immediately. I just have to sit there.

I don't like sinkers. They pick up all the icky lakeweed (we weren't at the sea thus it is not seaweeed). And then you get all excited cause you think you've gotta a fish but then nope. Just green slime.

But I LOVE casting and I LOVE the baby ducks and I LOVE the sunshine and best of all, I LOVE the stories!

Answer: No, we didn't catch anything. But as always, we came away with many a fish stories...well, more like tree stories.

We caught a total of 3 trees. Wait... no, technically 4.

The first one I will admit, was my bad. With Ben's pole. (whoopsie!) It was actually almost immediately following this picture. (And by the way, when I left the house my hair was completely straight-not frufy(pronounced: Fruuu-feee). blasted humidity.) I was getting frustrated attempting to attach a bobber to my line when Ben ever so graciously agreed to do it for me. And I, in return, agreed to reel in his bobber and cast it again.

Problem: We were surrounded by trees, big ones, hanging over us and the water. I attempted a very fashionable side cast. The line whipped up beautifully and then ever so gracefully wrapped itself around the numerous tree branches.

Ben just stared at me.

But I fixed it! I daringly jumped from rock to rock (okay, there were only two, but I did lose a flip-flop in the process-don't ask why I was wearing flip-flops) to reach as far up the line as I could and Ben pulled as hard as he could while hiding behind a tree so he wouldn't get slashed when I cut the line. But we did it! We saved his bobber.

That was number one. The next one was all Ben. About two casts later, he beautifully executed an "Elizabeth cast." This happened two more times, once on a huge piece of tree floating right next to us, before we decided we needed to move to more open spaces....

We fished for a few more hours until I decided that I was only a good fisherwoman in Washington. But at least we didn't lose any more shoes, have to tromp thru anymore ice cold water or hook anymore trees! And best of all, I didn't have to eat any fish!

(To the left: the bobber just gleeked out water on my face. SICK!)

another one for Terri's list...

I've been through my share of traumatizing experiences in my life, Terri can attest to that. She's got a list of things that I cannot participate in. Snowboarding, horseback riding, river rafting, etc. I guess I just feel as though I have to go home with a more exciting story than the people I left home with. ya know? It's actually been speculated that perhaps I shouldn't even participate in the common art of walking. So what? I trip...a lot...

Anyway, Ben bought me roller blades for my birthday.

He wanted to be with me when I went for the first time just so he could make sure I picked it up okay. (That's what he said anyway, but I think he foresaw this catastrophe and simply wanted to be there to witness it.)

Don't worry, I wasn't foolish about this new experience. I've learned from my previous mishaps. I knew I shouldn't try to conquer the majestic hills of Logan without being comfortable with bladeing on flat surfaces first. So I started small.

I was headed to work about a mile and half away. Right outside our apartment there is a gargantuan hill so obviously I didn't start out with my new blades right away. I had every intention of putting them on at the bottom of the hill.

However, at the bottom of the hill was a rather busy street. I didn't even know if I could get up from putting these treacherous things on. Obviously I was NOT going to do that while people were driving by (with my luck they'd be so intrigued watching my struggle they'd drift off the side of the road and hit me. My wouldn't that be a story! Imagine, "I was just standing...well sitting there... well actually....falling there Officer. Over and over again. Right on my face each time. When out of the blue! Wham-o! They ran right into me! Did they not see me?!").

Back to the story, so there's lots of church parking lots in Utah right? (churches too obviously, but all I needed was the wide open, very flat, asphalt.) So I simply continued on my walk (about a mile later, I was almost at work and I hadn't even put on my blades yet!) until I found the perfect parking lot. It was ultra flat. I pulled myself up a lovely peice of curb and began dressing up my feet.

To my utmost HORROR a truck pulled in, with not just one or two but three people! They came to watch my awkwardness! I was and still am positive about this fact. But you can't just casually take off your blades when they've seen you only just putting them on. You'd look not only foolish but cowardly! A look that most assuredly does not compliment me.

What did I do? I finished lacing myself up and I boldly stood up. I did it! I stood up! I was completely stable! I shot them a smug look. Ha! I knew preciscely what I was doing. I glided past them, with my arms flailing and in awkward little almost-jumps.

After a long, and very agonizing few minutes, I finally made my way past them. I started to gain speed as I passed Martha's old house and my hair began blowing behind me as I just kept both feet on the ground, letting the slight slope do all the work. I was coming to a turn. Can you feel my terror? I still can feel my stomach in my throat when I think of it. I had no idea how to slow down much less, turn! I was about to die. My life as I knew it, was relying on an itsy-bitsy peice of plastic attached to the back of ONE of the blades.

I tentatively touched that tiny peice of plastic to the ground. Felt it grinding against the cement, noticed that I wasn't stopping and leapt out of death's grasps! Right onto grass. Oh sweet grass! Freshly cut grass! Very freshly cut.... the nice gentleman simply stared at me from behind his lawn-mower. I smiled, regained my composure and casually got back to my professional roller bladeing.

I knew I had to find somewhere casual to stop and take off these death-bringers. I did. Finally.
Only after another memorable encounter and countless jumps to the grass and the following awkward little baby jumps I found myself a lovely peice of ground to stop this terror. It had been one block. One blasted block.

Moral of the story: Don't leave your life in the hands of an itty-bitty hunk of hollow plastic.

uh...april fools...?

I've never been one to get into the whole April Fools day thing. I mean, why pull a prank on someone on the one day they are expecting it right? Well, I decided at the beginning of March to pull the prank of all pranks on Ben. Whether or not it was "fair" is up to you to decide...

I started noticing smells...very strong smells. I began feeling sick at random points of the day. My whole body was achy. Or so I told Ben;) Oh! And I had my good (pregnant) friend, Camille, take two pregnancy tests for me...

Now I was shocked that Ben didn't ever mention April Fools that whole day, but it was a pretty stressful day for me (I had to lecture in my fellowship course) so even if he knew he wasn't planning on pulling any pranks on me. This definitely worked to my advantage.

As Ben walked in the door from one job, with only enough time to change and head off to his other job, the conversation went something like this...

Ben: Why didn't you answer my phone call?
Me: (slowly turning around) Ben...I'm
pregnant.

At this point a slight smile came to my mouth. But I just brushed it off and buried my head in his shoulder. As he patted my head (yes, patted) and my back I began crying....YES! crying on demand! I can do it! Genuinely! Hollywood, here I come!

Ben: Well...how are you?
Me: I don't know...
Ben: Are you feeling okay?

Isn't he sweet! Only thinking of me as I'm so mercilessly pulling his leg....

Me: I don't know Ben, this is supposed to be a happy
thing. But I don't know if it is yet...
Ben: (Still hugging me)
Me: I just don't know... But I have to go to work and
so do you.
Ben: I'm sure they'll understand you being a bit
late.

The prank was going so well I was just going to let him go off to work believing it. But then...his eyes started watering. I began to feel the pricks of guilt...

Me: uh...april fools?
Ben: (staring at me, completely blank)
Me: (talking rapidly with much stammering) I'm sorry! I
didn't think I'd be able to pull it off so well! I thought it'd be funny! I'm so
sorry! I love you!
Ben: (just standing there)
Me: Ben? I'm sorry! Didn't I do good? I mean, I cried!
But I'm sorry! Ben?
Ben: uh...

Well, considering he hasn't served me with divorce papers and it's been about a week, I'm pretty sure he's forgiven me and gotten over it. But I don't know that I would suggest this kindof prank to anyone else...

journal entry #58

October 29, 2009

So much has happened, I don't even know where to begin! I guess I'll just start from the beginning. Logical - huh:) School's going okay...I don't ever do homework...which isn't good. But I'm starting afresh with everything. Studying, exercising, everything. I work at Shopko but I won't for long. They won't give me any time off for christmas and Target promised me $1800 just for working 3 weeks. So I'll be quiting Shopko before finals, I think...

People are amazing. Can I just say that?! Everyone up here is so great! There's 3 of us that hang out all the time together. Jennifer (Fern, Jeffiner), Jenna and me. We have so much fun together! (The following sentance was scratched out rather vicously yet I've managed to read what it says) I think I'm in love. No! I'm not! I really shouldn't be writing this. His name is Ben. (End of scratched out writing) There is also a lot of fun boys up here. The one we hang out with the most is Benjamin. He's a fun kid.

I should probly give a spill on each of these people.

Jennifer- She's pretty much my best friend. She's super fun and we fight like sisters. You'll be hearing much more about her I'm sure since we spend pretty much every minute together.

Jenna is definitely the more studious of the three of us. She's the RS President so thus very organized and congenial. She's a cutie. (Whoa! Did I really just say that?) College has made me such a girly girl. She's a cool dude. There we go, that's better.

As for me, everyone up here calls me Klepto. Oh! That leads to a good story! So Ben works at Shopko too right?! Well one day he got a car from his ...wait for it...sister-in-laws brother...yeah, I think that's right. Well I hadn't driven since moving up here so I asked him if I could drive home from work. He said yes. So we drove around... and around some more because he needed gas and some snacks for his long trek 2 hours north to see his fam. At smiths he bought Sunchips. Why do I mention Sunchips you ask? Well I will tell you...later. Just remember that he got Sunchips, they play an important role later in the story...

We went home and up to the 5th [floor] and talked for a while with Jennifer, Caitlin and Heather. Then went to me room (ok-now I'm Irish, that was weird) and he borrowed some cd's to keep him awake. Well during this time, we had been eating my Doritoes and I wanted some of his Sunchips. (Da da da) So Ben gave me his keys to get some chips while he grabbed his stuff from his apartment. Me and Fern decided it would be fun to take the car for a little spin. Nothing too crazy mind you! Just maybe park it in another stall to freak Ben out. But then Caitlin and Heather called us and wanted in on the joke.

So we drove out of the parking lot and this leads to that and 4 girls in a car eating sunchips leads to chaos, speeding and not stopping at stop signs. Policeman saw it. Pulled me over. Jokes on me. Bummer.