The Easter Bunny came!

Easter Sunday finally came. I don't think I ever remember it being this late in April! Church was wonderful today, as it usually is on Easter. After church we came home and I got ready to go to my parents'. Brandon has his organic chemistry final tomorrow and felt like he should stay home and study his brains out all day today. Who schedules a huge final the morning after a holiday??! How rude. I really missed him. We had a delicious dinner and our traditional Easter egg hunt at home. I lost, as usual. I didn't even push anyone this time. But it was ok because when I came back to Provo the Easter Bunny had come again. He knew I felt bad for myself. He was waiting for me at home with a note to follow him and find the surprises he left. (If you look in the background you can see that the Bunny has taken out the Easter Duck and left him for dead.)

Here is his signature so I would know it was legit. Looks more like a bear paw to me. Brandon has informed me that the Easter Bunny does, in fact, have large claws.

Our spoils!


Brandon digging in.

I love the Easter Bunny!


So this week Brandon has finals and I will just start working full time in the lab. Yay mice. But we are looking forward to the weekend and Zions!

Rocks and Hard Places

So, my reading days and first half of finals week have been quite...productive. And by productive I mean I have spent at least an hour each day curled up in a corner of the BYU bookstore with a root beer and peach rings reading "Between a Rock and a Hard Place," the story of Aron Ralston, the Colorado man who amputated his own arm after he became pinned in Blue John Canyon. Today I finished it, and, as usually happens after I read a good book, I have been thinking about it all day. I read an article online called "Should we bestow sainthood on the reckless?" In it, the author calls Ralston little more than a fool for not telling people his plans and making the rescue almost impossible. I agreed with some of what the author was saying; perhaps others, such as search and rescue or medical researchers or firefighters deserve the term "hero" more than Ralston. But I don't know if I would go so far as to call him a fool. Sure, he should have told people his plans. But he was an experienced mountaineer, and this trip was supposed to be an easy little day trip; what happened was a freak accident.

It got me thinking about times I or others I know, (especially Brandon) have almost gotten into trouble while playing outdoors, although none of them come close to Aron Ralston's experience. One time Brandon and his friends had to outrun a flash flood in the Zion narrows, where waterfalls were pouring in on top of them from the canyon walls while muddy water rose all around them. (not what's happening in this picture-they're enjoying it way too much)



While canyoneering in Heaps, one of the longest and most technical canyons in Utah, we got very lucky on a number of occasions. One rappel was off of an old dead log; the webbing was tied around it like a noose, and it was there we tied our ropes. When it was my turn, I scooted out onto the log, and accidentally dislodged the noose without realizing it. Right before I was about to let go of the log, for some reason I happened to glance down at the webbing and saw that I was about to let go and fall about thirty feet to the canyon floor. I froze for a second, then hurried and climbed back to the top of the log to reattach the webbing. If I had fallen, I probably wouldn't have died, but I would have broken something for sure. We might have had to spend a night in the forty degree canyon in our soaking wetsuits waiting for help. As it turned out, we pretty much did spend the night at the end of the canyon; on a tiny little bird perch three hundred feet above the valley floor. Yeah, still haven't told my parents about that one.



Anyways, I really enjoyed reading the book; in it Ralston talked about all sorts of adventures he has had. It got me excited for the summer, and especially for our canyoneering trip next weekend to Zions. It also reminded me how careful we need to be!

Last adventure of the '10-11 ski season. Probably.

Today we used the Snowbird passes we have been saving since Christmas. It was an awesome powder day and Brandon's last free Saturday for at least a month or three. Deep!


Best pic of the day award goes to...Brandon's somersault. I didn't know he bent this way.


Now I'll post a picture so he can redeem himself:



So deep:





So fun.....and tasty. MMMmm El Chubasco and the rainbow of salsa.



Brandon's super stylin apres ski getup

Why I don't bake

Sometimes people make fun of me for not being a good homemaker; my husband, friends, even the professor I work for. Dr. Christensen commented on the cinnamon rolls I made for lab meeting a few years ago...I barely remembered making them, and certainly haven't made cinnamon rolls since. Pretty sure he remembered them because they turned out more like cinnamon bricks. When I told him that, he looked at me with a worried expression. I'm sure he was thinking....."her poor husband." But there is a reason for this, I swear. Two reasons actually.

#1: I'm lazy
#2: This is what always happens. I am alone at night waiting for Brandon to come home. I think, "I know, I'll surprise Brandon with some baked goodies!" I set off to work, feeling happy and home-makery....until........
I eat five of these and all of the leftover frosting...even if it's not good. (I made these for Annie's birthday tomorrow. She made such yummy cupcakes for my birthday, but these will have to do for her.)



No self control whatsoever. Now I feel sick. Brandon's friend Jonathan just came over to drop something off. He saw me and asked if I had just woken up. "No, thanks I have actually been awake since six forty five this morning. But thanks for asking."



Brandon came home and had one. I asked how it was and he said, "eh."

Also, I burned my finger...maybe I'll have just one more.
This is why I don't bake.

What made this weekend awesome!

This fellow:
Not washing my hair for three days:

Spoon It Up:

This delightful new beverage: Diet pomegranate 7up with antioxidants. What? It is made of natural flavors AND it has ten whole percent of my daily vitamin E? Sign me up! What does all natural even mean?
Also awesome: I got my official letter for receiving the Summer Fellowship grant and cousin's dinner

Miracle on Ice (ish)

So tonight was Brandon's championship hockey game. It was pretty intense.....full of guts and glory, and, sadly, the thrill of defeat. 3-0. Oh well, it was a good season guys! (and Brandon almost scored a point. Almost.)


In the thick of it



Hustle!

Sweaty boy!

I didn't miss a game!

Mouse Tales

Today I thought I would write about what is happening in my graduate work. I am studying nutritional science, but with an emphasis in nutrient regulation of gene expression, especially cancer genes. It's more molecular biology than nutrition, and that is really hard for me, but it is a great learning opportunity. I present my perspectus next month, and am a little nervous, but it should be exciting. We are breeding mice that are engineered to develop prostate cancer, and then supplementing them with selenium and soy isoflavones to observe the effects. We dissect their prostates and tumors and look for changes in the DNA, proteins, and blood hormones. We just started a preliminary toxicity study where we feed mice different concentrations of selenium to determine the maximum tolerated dosage to use for our study. It is kind of fun gavaging the mice, except for when they throw tantrums; which happens a lot. Fun stuff!












In other news, my birthday last week was awesome. Brandon made me breakfast in bed, and that night we went to Red Robin with a bunch of friends. Saturday we skied two feet of powder all day with Jake, Ellisha, and Aaron, then went to Salt Lake and celebrated with my family. Sunday we celebrated with the Nakkens. Birthday weekend!





For my birthday I got new running shoes, tights, and a jersey, and I am really excited. I recently doubled my running distances and it feels great. I am toying with the idea of running a marathon this summer. Eesh!



A couple of weekends ago, we went night cross country skiing with Jake, Ellisha, and Eliisha's little sister Sheila. It was quite the adventure when we went off of the trail and had to pretty much slide down the side of a steep cliff on our behinds. We were frozen by the time we got down, but it was way fun! And it was a full moon, so it was beautiful. Anywhoo.....nothing else new here. Just looking forward to spring!