Marc's Birthday Present

All Marc wanted for his birthday was another cat. I was super against the idea and definitely didn't want to add another little one to our family. He kept insisting and I could see how much it meant to him. I have a very strange bond to our first cat and unless you have witnessed it, it is really hard to explain. But let's just say she is the best thing that has happened since we got married. I think Marc was still trying to find that bond with an animal and hadn't succeeded yet. I knew that he was just going to keep searching until he bonded with an animal and so I finally relented and we went to look at cats. We found one through the humane society that was just the sweetest thing. She slept in Marc's arms the entire time we were there and so super mild mannered. I thought that she would make a good addition because the other cats wouldn't be threatened by her. I mean this little puff ball would sleep just as much as the rest of them. So we named her Aurora after the Disney movie “Sleeping Beauty” and brought her home with us.

Aurora had caught a cold at the Humane Society and so she couldn't be around the other cats for awhile. We put her in the laundry room so she would be warm and she still was just the sweetest little thing though she meowed a little for being shut up in the room. Once Aurora was introduced to the other animals I felt a little tricked. This was not a cat who would just sleep all day, in fact I am still not sure she has slept since we got her! She is fondly known as “The Terrorist” in our home and is constantly finding new ways to drive me crazy!

Aurora is constantly amazing me at how demanding she can be. When we first brought her home she would wake up Carmel and demand that he give her a bath. Carmel would give her a bath and let her snuggle with him until she fell asleep in his arms. Carmel would then proceed to go back to sleep. I was amazed at how patient the other cats were with her.

Though the cats seemed to adapt nicely to having Aurora around the dogs didn't work quite so well. Aurora doesn't like the dogs at all! In fact if they even look at her she is spitting and hissing at them. In fact both dogs are now scared of her but that works out alright because they behave really well when she is around and Kovu no longer chases any of the cats.

All in all she has been a fun addition to our little family and Marc loves her bunches. I am glad that he is so fond of her and that he enjoys his birthday present so much! But next year he is getting something that isn't living, like weights, music, movies, something....

Happy Birthday Marc!

I had been planning Marc's birthday for weeks now and was so excited that I would have his birthday off with him. I quickly realized that even though I had Marc's birthday off that he would be working on his birthday! I still tried to make it as amazing as possible for him. I tried to have a surprise party for him but since most people had a three-day weekend then they were all leaving town. I then decided that it would just be a party for two.

Marc was able to visit China when he was younger and talks about that trip all the time. I wanted to use that as my inspiration for his birthday this year. I had a coworker, who lived in Japan for a few years, teach me how to write “I love you Marc” in Chinese and I practiced so that it would be right for the big day. I then folded a bunch of origami hearts that I would later use to decorate his car. I went to Cold Stone and had them write the Chinese characters on an ice cream cake and it turned out so good! I used the origami hearts to decorate his car in four 11's on his car. I wrote things that I loved about him and wrote messages through the hearts. It was freezing cold that night and it was so hard to finish decorating his car for him. He came home and we celebrated his birthday and just enjoyed being home together. Happy Birthday Marc! I can't wait to see what this next year will bring!

Term Papers

This semester has been the semester of term papers. Even scheduling the 6 term papers out that I had this semester I felt that I was always working on a term paper. Some papers were really easy to do and others made me want to cry. No one really wants to read 15 pages of how someone says one word. I mean sure it is cool to know how the muscles work and how the air flows through you but really? 15 pages? Not so much fun! I also had panic attacks as some term papers made me work with others in the community and the people in the community wouldn't get back to me. She finally did and could meet with me 4 days after the paper was due. Thankfully our professor gave us another route if we couldn't find someone to work with. I am so glad these papers are over and behind us and I sincerely hope that I never have to write this many term papers again!

Making Christmas Presents

Christmas has taken over our home. I feel like I have twenty different projects going on at one time. I am constantly trying to keep Carmel out of my crocheting stuff or trying to remember what tools I need for which present. Doing Christmas this way has allowed me to think about what is important to me and what I can truly get each person. The kiddos would have been happy with a LEGO set and it would have been so much faster to just pick one up. But these presents are coming from the heart and I hope the parties receiving them will feel the love that is being sent with them.

Pass Along Cards

Working at the library has been one of my greatest joys in life. I get to meet so many amazing people and I love going to work every day. One day I showed up and one of the first people that I helped that day was a mom with several older children. I helped her find a book for herself and then got her son a library card and then helped her other son find a biography. I didn't feel as though I had done anything special or gone above and beyond but she kept thanking me profusely for being so helpful. After I checked out their items she began to dig through her bag and I was a little curious as to what she was looking for. Eventually she pulled out a pass along card. Before I said that I knew what that was I wanted to make sure it was from my faith. I flipped it over to find that it was in Spanish. I was a little confused because everything we had said up until now was in English. I was reading through it and I must have had a puzzled look on my face. She brightened as she told me it was a pass along card and that she belonged to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I laughed and said that I knew what it was because I belonged to that church as well. She said that that would explain why I was such a saint. She then got a little embarrassed and left with her family.



That experience has left me with a lot to reflect upon. Am I really living my life so that others will know who and what I believe in? Am I a good enough missionary that I have pass along cards on me? Should I feel embarrassed that she didn't know I was LDS or should I feel honored that she wanted me to be part of this wonderful church? I know that since then I have tried to live in a manner that others will know who and what I believe in. I am so grateful that she gave me a pass along card that day. It really has made a big difference in my life.

Totally Stressed Out (Holiday Edition)

With the holidays coming and wanting to have a home-made Christmas this year I was STRESSED! I seemed to always be working, doing homework, or working on Christmas. I felt like I just ran and ran and ran but wasn't every getting anywhere. I think that doing a homemade Christmas is an awesome idea but this next year I am going to have to start in like April! Seriously, I think Marc was as stressed about the holidays as I was simply because I had enough stress that it was contagious! I would wake up early for work and go to bed late after I had worked hard on whatever project needed to be finished. Marc helped with whatever he could be his crafting skills are limited. Thankfully Christmas will come and go regardless of how much I get done and the statement will be true once again, “And it came to pass....”

Crazy Ideas about Sign Language Discovered at the Library

Being an ASL nut I get so excited when there are other people who share my passion. One day I was working and a man came in asking about some books on signing. I tried to explain that in some regards DVDs work better since it is a visual language but he insisted that he would learn best from a book. Off we went to find some books. (Which will be in the 419 section of your local library... did I mention that I am a totally nut?) So while we were there I found out that he is a priest... pastor... preacher... something that goes into prisons to teach. He wanted to learn ASL so that he could converse with deaf inmates. I thought this was a really admirable trait! That was until I discovered he thought he could look at one ASL book and know ASL fluently. In fact he would be so good at ASL that he would be an interpreter. I tried to explain that there is testing that has to happen for one to become a certified interpreter and that ASL is like any other language and takes time to master. I told him that if he tried to pass himself off as an interpreter and wasn't certified that he could get in a lot of trouble. By the end of our conversation this man was afraid to ever talk to a Deaf person! I tried to explain that one can sign to whoever they want but they can't do it in a professional manner without being certified. He still was terrified but was convinced still that one book would do the trick.... whatever!

The next guy I met about a week later. I was helping him on his laptop and he kept signing thank you to me in ASL. I finally asked him if he had studied the language? He said he had and we swapped stories as to why we started studying the language. I said that I studied because my husband was born deaf and there is a chance our children could be as well. If I can talk to them in English I should be able to talk to them in ASL. He said that he started studying ASL so that he could talk to other planets. Apparently there are other people or creatures that use ASL to converse on other planets. If we ever get invaded then he wanted to be able to converse with these creatures. The part that worried me is that he was dead serious about the whole matter! Hmmm.... I guess that is one reason to learn ASL.