The road to my house

is paved with good intentions.

(That was a very poor pun.)

Recently I was very lucky in that two of my best friends from home in good ol' Buffalo Minnesota came to see me!

Okay, fine, so their intentions were not exactly based around visiting me, but more around finding somewhere free to sleep in Utah on their road trip home from California.

But whatever.

I accept.

It's been over a year since I've seen anyone from home (except the three or four family members from MN who came to my wedding last October)

and it was a refreshing change to see them here instead of in Buffalo.

Hey. The rest of you Minnesotans thinking to yourselves "I wish I could see Becky," take a leaf out of Logan and Eli's book and come stay here.

I will let you sleep in my house and I will feed you.

It's not too bad a gig.

I miss all these folks.

p.s. Logan looks like a teeny tiny little person next to Eli and me.

Matt and Lana crouched under a tree

K-I-S-S-I-N-G!

I am very excited about Lana being married.
Especially because it is to Matt.

When we found out they were talking marriage Travis said, "Well, she'd be a freaking idiot not to marry him, since they're clearly awesome together."

Good thing Lana is not a freaking idiot.

Today I got to take their engagement photos, which was aaawesome! They are a really fun and super attractive couple, which made today work out, despite all the mishaps.
Mishap example: A perfect dusky cloudy day went from perfect to raining to REALLY harsh sunlight in about a half hour and remained really harsh until we were pretty much done.
It is possible that I made them huddle under a tree in the semi-shade.
I think that really annoyed poor Matthew.
Mishap example 2: We had planned on doing the photos in a canoe, but the canoe rentals were closed because it was so very windy.
Mishap example 3: I had an allergic reaction to all the plant life surrounding Utah Lake.

We seriously finished these photos less than an hour ago, but I already want to share a few of my favorites.
I can't wait any longer!
Aren't they a good-looking pair?

10 Happenings

Things that have happened since my last blog post:

1. Harry Potter's birthday party was on Saturday night. As always, it was full of tasty treats and a few people in costumes and more people NOT in costumes. But it was fun, and the ability of my friends to answer HP book trivia was somewhat amazing.

2. I went berry-picking with Lana, but forgot to bring money and so I only got 2$ worth of berries. But that was still a pound of berries.
We used some (along with the apricots we picked off a big free tree) to make raspberry-apricot lemonade which I would highly recommend.

3. Oh, Lana has become engaged.

4. I have had several freak-out incidents concerning the fact that my best friend is now engaged. Many of which are highly selfish. They deal with the following facts (lettered, not numbered - to prevent confusion)
a. I now have a best friend with whom I can discuss all things martial, because she will be married and understand all my gushing and loving, and wantings and snugglings and my want to cook the best dinner for him every night because I love him, and how I love to make a schedule like Ma Ingalls like "Wash on Monday, Iron on Tuesday, Bake on Wednesday" and how I want a baby but am "being unrealistic" and how I want a garden but am lazy and allergic to plants and don't like to get dirty. And she might think I'm silly, but she's silly too and so we understand each other. Which I like.
b. Travis actually likes Matt, which means that he will not complain when I hang out with Lana and be like "I'm a boy, I need friends who are boys. I don't just want to hang out around girls all day." So now when Lana AND Matt come over and Lana and I are like "blah blah blah girl stuff."
They can be like "Cars, hunting, hiking, we are manly and discuss many manly things. Muscles, pooping, sex."
(Boys are gross.)
c. I get to go to California! For the first time in my memory, although I have apparently been there before. (Nobody in my family remembers the trip to Disneyland, but we have pictures. I think they were forged by the FBI after erasing our memories of a sensitive incident. What could have happened on that trip to California that the government SO wanted us to forget?)
Anyway, I get to go to Lana's wedding and Travis and I get to be their photographers. Huzzah!
d. I get to go through the temple with Lana. (I said before I am excited for selfish reasons and this is one especially selfish reason.) Being that Lana is a convert to the church and her Mom is not a member, she needs a best friend who can go to the temple with her the first time she goes... and that person is ME!
e. My other married best friends Cole and Suzie have left me and never ever call me or pretend to remember me. So I shall replace them.
Just kidding.
Lana and Matt have a new married place in my marriage-biased heart. They are not taking the Nielsen's place. I still have the Nielsen's in my heart.... for the time being. They should call me and secure their place more firmly, though.

(moving on)

5. I have practically become an expert at my baby photographing job which is the best job in the world. The only problems?
a. I cannot go in the patients room unless they sign the consents first.
b. The patients do not sign the consents until after the nurses give them to their patients to sign.
c. The nurses do not hand the consents to their patients until after I have harassed them for many hours.
d. I spend many hours waiting at the nurses stations saying things like "What does the mom in room 413 want?" and getting responses like "Oh, I forgot to ask her."

6. I got seriously rained upon.
Those raindrops yesterday were like little bullets!

7. We reinstated dessert-night Wednesdays. So last night Sienna and Amalia came over and I learned the best way to make pudding EVER. Do it like this:
Mix one packet of pudding mix with a can of sweetened condensed milk and 1 1/2 cups of water, and 2 cups of whipped cream.
Gah! You might have a seizure from sugary goodness. Mmmm. Then put it in a bowl and top with sliced bananas and Nilla Wafers. You will not be disappointed.

8. I slept awesomely last night and the reason why is this: It was thunderstormy and chilly. So I snuggled up in a real blanket and Travis let me curl up against his warm body and touch him with out going like this "Nnnnooooo... *moaning sound* It's too hot. Don't touch me. Stop touching me. It's too hot. Turn the fan up more and don't touch me again."
He's quite the bully at night time in the summer time past bed time, when it's so hot that we both nearly die.
But I hate sleeping when I'm hot.
And I hate sleeping without blankets (but one must, in the summer heat.)
And most of all, I hate sleeping over on my side of the bed and not being allowed to snuggle, touch, or remotely harass my husband while he sleeps.

It is my main reason for sleeping poorly.

9. I learned that we are just as broke as we ever were. Amazingly, this came as a shock to me. Here's why:
a. Travis lets me buys things like several cookbooks when I say "Hey, can I buy this cookbook?" (I have to ask for permission, not because he's really bossy or controlling. But because he's the only one who ever looks at our bank account and is the decider of what to buy and not to buy. Maybe I have learned my lesson and will look at my bank account for once.)
b. When Travis said, "Do you want to go out to eat every week for the rest of the month for Friday's date night or get 7 Peaks Passes?" and I yelled "7 Peaks! I hate date night!" (not true, of course. I LOVE date night) he just BOUGHT them. Despite the fact that they were pricey.
c. When he said "Hey can I buy a 300$ lens for my camera that I really want, which is a 28mm, so I know you also really want it?" and said "Umm, I don't know. Can we afford it?" and he said "YES!" so I said "YES!" and so we bought it, and I thought "Can we afford it?" meant "Do we have several bazillion dollars?" but he didn't know that I meant that. So I should be more specific with my questions. But I do love that lens, and it was quite an amazing deal.
d. We can still pay our bills and buy expensive groceries since I have high tastes and lots of "food morals" concerning how my food is made and where it comes from. And when we went to the store to buy me a plain black t-shirt for work and I became distracted by all of the very very many things that I want but do not need Travis said "We'll come back soon and go shopping."
So I was maybe mislead concerning our money.
I mislead myself by not totally understanding money (at all), and believing that two good, nice people like us probably had endless supplies of cash lying around. Despite the fact that we just went on a very expensive trip to Africa and were not paid to go.

10. The tenth happening. The one you've all been waiting for.
I have learned that Travis Pitcher my tall, blond-haired, blue-eyed, handsome, manly, too hot to let me touch him at night, protective, eater of lots of food, and maker of cool documentaries and slam dunker extraordinaire (although he did tell me that its embarrassing to him when I say Slam Dunk because I sound like an 8-year old boy after watching Space Jam and I should just say dunk. Like, "so last night I dunked the ball twelve times in a row.") super extra the best ever husband is... leaving.
Not permanently. But as you may know from previous evenings when he has gone off on film-related business trips (sketchy, right?) I have melt-downs and cryings and cannot fall asleep and am afraid of being home alone without him.
So I am sad because he's leaving tomorrow WAY too early in the morning, so I don't want to take him to the airport, but even if I did want to... we don't have a car. And even if we did I am needlessly afraid of driving from the city by myself.
And he'll be gone all day Friday. And all that night and all day Saturday.
But then he will be home.
So he's only gone one night but Lauren and maybe Lana will spend the night at my house in my bed and I will snuggle with them if they let me because I am a snuggler. I cannot change who I am based on whether or not we are married.
And we will go see Letters to Juliet at the theater because Travis was like "That's a girl movie. Have fun with your girl friends at that movie. I'm bored but I don' t want to see it even though it's only a dollar. I want to eat red meat because I'm a manly man and hate girl movies."

So good riddance to him.
(I am already sad and miss him and he's just at work.)

28 days in Africa

A picture for every day?

And maybe a story for each one.

Oh, blast. You know I've just realized that I have at least one CF Card at home with morepictures on it. Things like giant anthills, and Freddy the Boda-Boda driver, our cook Edith, and pregnant Aberforth, and Travis trying to eat sugar cane and feed Nutella to the goats (which they didn't like at all.)

So here are 25 pictures for now, and nope, they are no longer in order:

aaaand, I still can't crop. So if they look like they ought to be horizontal then click for the full picture.

It would seem wrong to start this photo flood with a picture of someone besides Osito. Unfortunately, you can't see him unless you click on the picture.

So Osito was one of our drivers. He told us he was 26, but he also said he thought he was born in 1987. So we don't know how old he is.

Osito has, as he mournfully told me the first time we met, "never even touched an aeroplane," yet his greatest ambition is to be a famous singer in America. If he becomes a famous singer in America then he will send his giant fortune to a Kilifi orphanage.

This is a picture he asked me to take to go on the cover of his Demo Cd.

If you are wondering, Osito's "band" is really a small gospel choir.

He is not the main singer, but intends to be the only one photographed for their cover.

Oh Osito, I love you. But you also drove me nearly crazy.
This is Squeegee, our favorite wiggly skinny little puppy. He did have fleas, but we still let him in our room and I carried him around quite a bit.

I couldn't help it. Have you ever seen such a cute little guy? He is also the puppy that I mentioned being harassed by monkeys in Kilifi. I'm glad to say that he is still alive and well.
This is my cute husband filming a burning pile of trash.

First, imagine the worst smell you have ever smelled.

Now set it on fire.

There isn't a garbage system in Kenya (or most of Africa, I think.) So people throw their garbage in the woods, or if that's too big of a pain, they burn it.
This is Kilifi! Doesn't it look just perfect?

Yes, the picture below is also Kilifi, combine them into a rural and gorgeous town and you got Kilifi.

This picture was taken from the BoatYard, a little tourist restaurant that served absurdly delicious crab samosas, while you sat with your feet in perfect white sand, shaded by palm trees, and looked out at the sun setting over the Indian Ocean.

Can we talk about ideal? This was our special treat for our last day in Kenya.

We went with our friends Leah and Rajiv, our personal Kenyan tour guides, they introduced us to our favorite parts of Kilifi, like the people, and the alleyway market, and --of course-- crab samosas.
This is Osito again, in front of his Tuk Tuk. It's basically a motorized rig-shaw. He would drive us around town in it for super cheap.

I said to him, "Osito, can I take your picture in the Tuk Tuk so my family can see what it looks like?"

"Of course, of course!" he said

So I took a picture of him sitting in the Tuk Tuk seat.

"One more," he said, and he got out and crouched down next to the front.

"Another?" he asked, posing in the above position.

"Would it trouble you to take just one more?" he asked.

A dozen photos later and I am confident that I have pictures of both Osito and the Tuk Tuk from nearly every angle.

We had a bonfire on the beach one night and it was a blast. Luckily Rajiv and Travis were both boy scouts or we never would have gotten the fire started it was so windy! We ended up all crouched and huddled around it, holding a blanket over our heads to block the wind. When the papers and sticks finally caught fire my eyebrows (and everyone else's) were nearly burned off.

Lots of teeny tiny crabs (think nickel-sized) would venture near to see the fire, but become frightened and try to scurry away.

But the boys kept herding the scuttling little guys into the fire where they would scream, start to bubble, and then die.

Then the boys would pull the crab out and eat it! they said it was pretty good, but I was too squeamish to have a bite.

I think this monkey is in the Nairobi airport, although I assure you they were everywhere.

The guards in the airport absolutely hated them, but they kept sneaking in somehow.

This is Osito's band. Can you see him back there?

We have his cd if you would like a copy, and if you are feeling generous I think Osito would love to get a few US dollars in the mail.

He might even donate it to a near-by orphanage.

This picture was taken in Uganda at one of HELP Internationals Eye Camps. HELP pays for doctors and nurses who come to very rural places and give out free eye glasses and perform dozens of cataract surgeries.

Travis made good friends with the man above and followed him through the whole procedure.

He spoke very good English for living somewhere so rural.

This is us at the NILE river. We were right near the head of it, visiting some pretty little falls.

I have never been anywhere that is mentioned in the Bible, and I know it was silly, and we were very far from Egypt, but it was a very neat experience to see the Nile.

I just kept thinking about Moses, and after I thought of that (of course) I felt the need to take off my shoes.

And then I finally understood (I think) how sweet it was for Christ to wash the apostles feet. Since every day we came home and our feet were dirty and sweaty and aching, but mostly dirty, and I would have to sit down in our disgusting cold shower and try to rub my feet semi-clean.

And sitting there at the Nile with water washing over my feet just felt so heavenly.
This man is at another Eye Camp.

Travis took this picture.

Isn't it gorgeous?

This is me.

This is our driver Peter, who, if you've read other posts in Africa you will know was a very good friend.

When we were in Uganda he actually called us and once I was on the phone said "Becky, please. I miss you so much. Please, please return to Kenya."

"I would like to," I said.

"Then please come back. Come back now if you can."

It's nice to have friends who want you to visit.
Remember when we broke down in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere in the middle of Kenya.

We took some pretty long-exposure shots.

You seriously wouldn't believe the stars you can see in Africa.
Remember when the Kenyan women couldn't stop laughing at me? They helped me tie my skirt and then babbled on in Swahili and then laughed until they cried?

These are a few from the group. The girl in the black and green is the one who finally helped me.
This is a photo from when Rajiv and Leah and Travis and I had dinner with Kadzo and Bahati and they gave me my Kenyan name and then showed us their farm --which we would have destroyed if they let us keep working on it.

These are the mud huts they live in and you can see their make-shift tables and communal plates.

It was perfect. I want to do it again.

Today.
This is Elvis, Bahati's baby. All of the babies (and I even saw children who were at least three r four) are carried around like this. The fabric used is the same fabric they use as skirts (Kangas) and often the woman will wear a skirt that matches her baby-carrier.

This is Kadzo and Bahati laughing at someone (I think Leah) trying to hoe.

Don't be fooled though, they laughed much harder when I tried to hoe.

Repeatedly they took the hoe away from me and tried to reshow me how it's done.

And repeatedly I failed.

This is just a little baby tree.

And little baby me.

Uganda!

Can you believe it?
It's our last day in Kenya. I still can't totally take it in, but we've been here two weeks already.
Tomorrow we'll get on a plane for Uganda, where we'll stay for 8 days, and then off to England for 2 days (Oxford, hurrah!)
And then home, where I'll be thrust into the second week of summer school and work.

And suddenly I realized that we took dozens of hours of video footage and like... 6 pictures.
So today I'm trying to fill my camera.

Maybe I'll put on different shirts every few hours so it doesn't look like we were only in Kenya one day.

And friends at home... STOP.
Do not get married without me. Do not get engaged without me. Do not up and leave forever to New York without me.
Too many things are happening there that I don't want to miss.

I keep waking up very distressed by my dreams.
A dream where Suzie says they're leaving before we get back and we'll never see them again.
A dream where both the Haggen girls get married, but a terrifying Gollum-type creature tries to sabotage them and kill their new husbands.
A dream where a friend at home gets engaged and decides to get married while we're still in Africa.

I do not approve of all this. Just pause all activities at home until I can come back and be a part of them.
Deal?

Then I don't have to make Travis come snuggle me since I wake up suddenly and find that I'm crying.
I miss you all.
And I will try to write as soon as I can, but who knows what the internet in Uganda is like?

love
becky

Being Mormon

I forget what it’s like to be a Mormon.
I forget that we’re different, peculiar even, anywhere outside of Utah.
In Provo I’m just another leaf on the tree, and believing in Christ doesn’t set me apart, it helps me blend in.

But I am different.
Here I feel it.
All our friends go out and have a glass of wine at dinner, and we don’t. They ask us why.
Travis says he lived in Argentina for two years on a mission trip and they ask why.
They say, get used to a lot of handshakes in Kenya and we say, we’re very good at handshaking because of our own culture. Why?
We say, Oh, we’re mormons.

I forget that it comes up every single day outside of Utah. And that saying “We’re mormons” isn’t enough because then they want to know:

Do you eat any barley or is it just beer you don’t drink? Do you drink caffeine? Are you against birth control? What exactly makes you different from other Christian religions? Do they just send you out on missions with a Bible and a good luck?
Our Muslim friend asked about our schedule and beliefs concerning prayer.
An agnostic friend wanted to discuss the nature of God and the spirit of the law, versus the letter of the law.
And after I was feeling a little guilty, like maybe they’re all sick of hearing about our beliefs or they feel like we’re judging them for drinking one girl said “I’m glad that you came, even for just two weeks. Before you came God was just a running joke. I didn’t feel like I could keep my religion here. ”

And a line of scripture came to me. Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God.
And I thought, I cannot stop being a mormon, or toning down my mormon-ness to make people feel more comfortable. I need to remind them, even if just through my own belief that God is real, that someone out there cares about them.
It's weird to think that maybe me being more makes people feel less uncomfortable.

I guess that’s what I miss most in Utah. I miss feeling like God can use me for something.
If he needs a tool in Provo to work a miracle or save a soul or just say a kindly word, he has hundreds of people to do it. People more qualified than me.
But in Kilfi, if he wants someone to feel like maybe it’s okay to be a Christian, or be reminded that there is a greater power than them in the world, or just discuss and ponder God…
he can use me.

My bishop isn’t here, my good roommates aren’t here, my entire University isn’t here.

Only I am.

And I like when it’s only me. Or, you know, me and Travis. Because that’s when I remember that we aren’t like other people and we don’t want to be.

We want to be like Christ.

Mormon.org

Land of many blondes

Today when Travis was driving me to work we passed two girls with straight blond hair. They were lightly make-uped, brightly dressed, and laughing and talking to each other.
I said, "Those girls look like Laestadian Lutherans!"
And Travis started laughing before I realized I'd said it.
Oops. Is that okay to say?
Maybe I should have said those girls look like Swedes (or Norwegians?)
Lutherans in Minnesota are like Mormons in Utah: They're everywhere.
There might be a few Catholics or Evangelists here or there (maybe even one lonely Mormon girl), but it's mostly Lutherans, and all different types of them.

Just like Minnesotans are descended from Swedes and Norwegians and Utahs are decended from Danes and Brits.
I was looking through my friends on facebook, trying to figure out if anyone from my high school besides me is married and saw first names like Ingrid, Lena, Linnea, Lindy, and an absurd amount of Anna's.
Lana used to say that everyone in Minnesota had CRAZY last names and I was always like "Yeah right, none of us have weird last names."
But two of my best friends were Krumholz and Abramoski.
And looking at facebook again I saw
Briesemeister
Groenke
Liska
Roushar
Tuchenhaggen
Haglund
Haggen
Ostvig
Olinger
Engle
Bongaarts
Lindborg
Herdklotz
Pulvermacher
Logas
Wulfenstein
Lenczewski
Schwietering

There are more but I have to give up. Because you don't want to read that list any more, you get the point.
I went from Froelich (very weird) to Pitcher (not weird).
But the extra amazing thing about looking through facebook was that most of my friends from Utah had last names like Brown, Williams, Welch, Stanley, Stokers, Jackson, Lee, Bingham, Pewitt.
Those are very normal names.

And I'll be honest.
I like the unpronouncability of our Midwestern names best.


p.s. haha, I just spell-checked this and NONE of the Utah names I listed popped up as misspelled and ALL of the Minnesota names did.

Hope and happiness and joy

A few months ago the Visiting Teaching lesson was on Personal Scripture study.
It was very sweet and after hearing my companion Sarah teach the lesson three different times, I started to think "Maybe I should try to read my scriptures, since that is something I am very bad at remembering to do."
So I've been trying.
Trying, mind you, not always suceeding.

But when I do set aside the time in the morning, I usually read a chapter from the Book of Mormon (get one for free here!) and then an article from the Ensign. Being as this month the Ensign is filled with talks from General Conference, I find this to be particularly wonderful.

Today I read these words:
Hope and happiness and joy are not products of circumstance but of faith in the Lord.

I cannot stop rereading it.
I am not happy merely because my life is good, or because I have a job, or because I have a perfect-for-me husband (though trust me, all those thing contribute) but one by one those things could disappear.
The only thing that would keep me happy then, and what keeps me happy now, is the gospel of Christ.

Today it is snowing, so I found this scripture to be especially apt as well:
Remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his might winds, yea, his shafts in the wirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which you are built, which is a sure foundation, whereon if men build they cannot fall.

I would highly recommend reading this conference talk if you have some time. It will only take about ten minutes, and even if you're not Mormon, it is beautiful to read. You know I don't often ask you to read these sort of things, and although I have a strong testimony of Christ, I hardly ever mention it on my blog for fear of turning people away.
But this is worth it.

If you're feeling down, or maybe cold and wet from the unexplicable snowfall outside, this will help you feel better.
I'm sure of it.

My Weekend

was a very good weekend.
I will tell you all about it.
It began with going to the farmers market on Saturday with Travis and Lauren and a boy named John. There were hardly any veggies, since it's only May. But we did buy two dozen beautiful eggs and some fresh meat. Also radishes, but we ate them all before I could photograph them.
Mmmmmm.
The egg yolks are so ORANGE! They're crazy.
Don't they look pretty? Like they're already painted for Easter, especially the green ones.

Then we went to Travis's parents and picked all the rhubarb out of their garden (Thank you very much!) Then Lauren and Suzie and Emma and I canned some Strawberry Rhubarb Jam.
Delicious!
It was the first time any of us had canned something and we were very successful!

We went to see Babies that evening with Travis's parents and I LOVED it. It was exactly like the preview. Short clips, back and forth between babies.
There was no dialogue and if there were parents talking in the background it was not translated or important.
I don't think Trav's parents liked it very much because there were lots of boobies. The African women never wore tops and we saw all of the women breast-feeding. But it was pretty tasteful, so Travis and I didn't really mind.
On Sunday I used my new jam and new eggs and made Swedish Pancakes. We went through an entire jar of jam the first day.

For church I dressed like a forties reporter... kind of. I wore a white button up shirt and a grey high-waisted pencil skirt and I wore a skinny little tie tucked into my skirt.
I wish I had a picture. I had many compliments, on account of, I looked adorable.
Sunday night we had Cole and Suzie over for hamburgers, using the meat we got at the Farmer's Market. (The cattle was slaughtered just three weeks ago. It was so terribly fresh, and it was free-range and it was local.) And we ate it with homemade spelt-flour buns.
Then the left-over strawberries and rhubarb went into my first ever Lattice-Top pie.
YUM!

What a successful and delicious weekend.
We spent the evening watching Charlie and Lola on Youtube, which is a past time I would highly recommend.


p.s. Listen to Travis talk on the radio here.
He thinks he sounds dumb, but I do not. Lets take a poll. Do you think Travis sounds stupid? Yes or No?

Lost

This is not about the TV show.
This is about how I have been very good about cleaning out folders on my computer.
I have been good about deleting old files and moving edited files to my external hard drive and then deleting them off my computer, since I have little room.
I am also good at constantly emptying my trash,

Or so I thought.

Sometimes I am apparently good at just deleting everything and not saving or moving it.
and THEN emptying my trash.

Good thing I got Richard and Amy's engagement pictures on to disks for them before I deleting all their photos from my computer.
Dang it.
I literally do not have their photos on my computer any more.

It's seriously stressing me out since I gave my only copies to them.
Sorry you don't get to see them

A few short letters

Dear Shots and Malaria and Typhoid Pills,

Thank you for costing well over 400 freaking dollars.

Becky and Travis

Dear Sienna,

Thank you for teaching me how to make bread rise. The bread I baked (successfully) rose up double its size before I punched it down little. When I baked it in its pan it rose up like three inches over the top. It is golden and beautiful and delicious.

Love Becky

Dear Provo,

Somewhere out there someone should hire me. You should pay me lots of money and not make me work through June. I'll be in Africa.

Mrs. Pitcher (more professional, you know)

Dear Visiting Teachees,

Sorry I haven't been by to see you yet this month. I promise I'm coming.

Also, I'm planning a girls night for us since I got Bright Star via Netflix, and Travis doesn't want to watch it. Plus its PG, I know you ladies like that.

Sister Pitcher

Dear Avatar,

I saw that you're out on DVD now. I will not buy you. Avatar the last airbender is much better, and totally unrelated to you.

Becky

Dear neighbors,

Sorry I've been listening to that Pop mix Suzette made me so loudly. I know there's a lot of Beyonce and a heavy beat to most of them. I hope it doesn't upset you, I just want to pump it since school's out.

Becky (and yeah, "pump it" is the correct term)

Dear blog readers,

I keep promising you pictures and you're just gonna have to trust they're coming soon. Or don't trust that, that might be safer.

Heart Breaker (Becky)

What? your heart isn't broken at the idea of no pictures from me??

Whitney is funny

This is my friend Whitney, she is in Divine Comedy.

Today I was listening to Beyonce and I kept chuckling and thinking of this Divine Comedy video.

Watch it. Besides beyond being just as addicting as any Beyonce song, it is much funnier.

I really love her crazy faces. Her face is so pretty, but she can seriously look crazed.

And that, I suppose, is a compliment.

Also, Whitney is one of the many people who inspired me to have short hair.

She just rocks the pixie cut too much to not envy.

2 the 9s Giveaway

This is not a giveaway of mine.
But my good friend Sarah Pearson. For all of you in Provo who know the Flower Shop Boutique, you might recognize some of Sarah's handiwork since she sells her sweet products there.

The giveaway is a custom pair of shoe clips (which I've never even heard of! How creative, right?) so you can just clip the cute little flowers on to your favorite pair of heels or flats.

Check out her blog and enter to win the giveway!

Ryan + Kathryn

Today I took the engagement pictures of my friends Ryan and Kathryn.
Unfortunately, after I coerced them into taking *gasp* a kissing picture, they made me swear not to show anyone a single photo until they had approved it.
Not just the kissing pictures.
All pictures.

I decided I would anyway.
But since you can't even tell who's IN this picture I don't feel bad about it.
Here's a sneak peak:

It was a pretty day on Utah lake.

Jack

I may be able to pose as Mary, but never as Jack, even though we actually look and act completely the same.
I love to talk to him on the phone, because it goes like this:

me: Why are you home?

Jack: I'm home sick

me: Me too. So what have you been reading while you're home?

Jack: ummm, I'm starting the Hunger Games.

me: I heard they were really good.

Jack: What have you been reading?

me: I just finished the Lightning Thief, so we can go to the movie this weekend.

Jack: The movie's okay. You know that scene where Annabell plays with Cerberus, though?

me: Yeah.

Jack: They took the whole thing out. It just like all of a sudden they're with Hades, in the
underworld. No three headed dog to get around.

me: That makes no sense, you can't just walk into the underworld!

Jack: YEAH! I know, its like anyone who knows anything about the underworld would be
expecting to see Cerberus. It doesn't make any sense. They're just like ZIP! We're in the
underworld, ZIP! now we're not.

me: That's stupid. What else have you been reading?

Jack: How to Train Your Dragon, which is nothing like the movie, at least what I've seen in the trailer. I mean, in the movie they apparently kill dragons, but in the book every kid has to catch a dragon when its a baby or you're banished, so this kid catches one, but he gives it to this other guy so he doesn't get banished. I mean, when movies take stuff out, I'm like 'Okay, maybe they didn't have enough time to make it right,' but it's so stupid when they take stuff out just to add different things that never happened!

I love it. When I was a kid I just wanted a best friend who cared about books as much as I did. After the midnight showing of HP6 (which we both went to separately) he called me and we talked for almost an hour about the changes they made and how we felt about them.
And I mean, RIGHT after. We were on the phone from like 3-4am.

The first book ever ruined by movies for me was Tuck Everlasting, and it was a devastating, heart-breaking time for me. I love having someone who knows exactly how it feels.
And has read all the exact same books as me.

It doesn't matter that he's only twelve. He's one of my best friends.

Sad, sad, sad

Today I was on a friend's blog and was (I admit!) skimming a little.
If there are pictures, I tend to look at all the pictures instead of reading the whole post. (a habit I got into when Lana was in London writing SUPER long posts, with SUPER great photos.)
I saw this picture and was momentarily confused.

This is what I actually murmured aloud:
"Is that the J. Crew model?"

I scrolled up and read the rest of the post and good eye, Becky! It was a photo from the most recent J. Crew catalog, which I have yet to get (because I accidentally unsubscribed and keep stalling to REsubscribe because it feels wasteful, even though I love it.).

This seems rather pathetic to me. I don't even totally read my friend's blogs but I always read the J. Crew catalog cover to cover.
Often more than once. To the point that I saw this picture and knew who it was.

Can I help it J. Crew catalogs makes me feel happy?
I vow to try to do better. I will legitimately read your posts, friends. Not just look at the pictures.

I did not make the cookies

Okay? Suzie and Sienna made the cookies.
I was just THERE.
I took some home, yes.

But it's not my fault that they've been added to the sugar-overload that is my home.
They were practically forced upon me.

Besides, lemon bars are fruity, not desserty. The donuts are CAKE donuts, not frosted or sprinkled or cream-filled. And the other cookies are still just dough. I gave all the cooked ones to the Neilsons and Spencers.

So the chocolate chip cookies I brought home tonight are completely validated. Right?
The other desserts needed chocolate chip cookies to balance them out. Something normal and basic.

But the cookies I brought home were neither normal nor basic.
In fact, if I hadn't been raised on some pretty darn good cookies I would say that the cookies Suzie and Sienna made were the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever had in my life.

Maybe it was because the rolls of dough were golf-ball sized.
Those cookies came out big and delicious.

Maybe it was because they were somehow crispy around the edges and soft and melty in the middle.

But I think it was the salt.
Normal cookies have a teaspoon of salt.
These cookies had two teaspoons of salt, and there was kosher salt sprinkled over the golf-balls.

Is that blowing your mind? Because it blew mine.
Salt? Salt shouldn't make cookies better! It should make them weird and gross.

But it didn't. It made them into the best cookies I've ever had.
Or, at least, they're tied for best with Mrs. Fields 300$ cookies. (aka, the cookies I fed on while drinking my life-milk. Because what's milk without cookies?)

a few of my favorite things:

* being with my friends
* taking pretty pictures
* playing and experimenting on photoshop
* Sophie, Maude, and Casey

Today all those things came together. I got to be with my friends: Sophie, Maude, and Casey and take their picture, and then play with the photos on photoshop.
I am having a lot of fun still.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day:

...and there are more pictures on our photoblog.