For Christmas, my family and I traveled to do some work in an orphanage in Mexico. We didn't know what to expect and it was even less of what we expected than we expected. It was fun though, and we only wish we had spent longer on our vacation, namely in warm southern California. We had to come home for my youngest brother to go to a New Year's Eve party. Boring. Here are some pictures: Rexburg right as we were leaving:
These are the dorms where we slept. There was a garage door on one side that didn't shut tight. It was very cold. But only $5 a night. My sleeping bag is awesome. The guy from Canada who was across the room from us and snored louder than anyone I've ever heard was not as awesome. They ran out of water while we were there and they told us not to shower unless it was necessary. Same with flushing the toilet. This is one of the girl's dorms. I'm happy to report they weren't as shady as our quarters. Here's a couple of pictures of the actual orphanage. There are nine dorms and a main cafeteria place, plus two camp sites for the volunteers. They run completely on donations. They have 110 kids. Each dorm has a single mom or a couple that live there to be in charge of the kids. It was actually probably the nicest orphanage in Mexico. They were very well taken care of and very used to American visitors. One day when I was walking through one of the kids saw my water bottle, walked up to me, drank the rest of it, than gave it back. Ok kid.
Me and my aunt Charlene loading and hauling trash into this pickup. The dump was WAYYYYY up the mountain. Actually a very beautiful ocean view location. They asked my dad and brother to take down a couple trees. Here is my dad risking his life. A bunch of people donated stuff for us to take down. Thanks to Broulims, a few dentists, the vet and my aunt. This is the orphanage. There were goats right by where we slept. And yes, that is a toilet seat for the goats to put their heads through and let us feed them leaves. We went to the most amazing restaurant called La Fonda. I had banana pancakes with coconut syrup. Char had delicious enchiladas. We shared and were very happy. The wall you can't see is facing the ocean and is just kind of covered, so they have blankets. And chickens. The best part was while we stayed at the orphanage we couldn't put toilet paper into the toilets. We had to put it in buckets. And if you accidentally did, you had to use a stick to get it out. But at this restaurant, flushable. So clean. We went to the coldest beach in the world. We think it might be Rosarita beach. Anyway. Cold. COLD! There was also a seal. Don't try to pet them though. My dad about lost a hand. After my dad and brother were so successful removing the tree other groups wouldn't dare touch, they asked them to take down this Oleander tree that was in the middle of the orphanage. If you didn't know, Oleander trees are poisonous. Why it was in the middle of an orphanage, I do not know. They put up a plastic fence around the cutting down area but as soon as they finished, the orphans jumped in to help clean up. They literally tore down the fence. One kid, I should say, tore it down. With his teeth. Then I looked over and saw the same kid holding one of the saws and attacking the fence. Not so safe. At least he didn't get poisoned. We didn't get to play very much with the orphans because we were working and we didn't have cool toys. They had tons of toys. It is hard to play with kids who are already playing and don't speak your language. They were attracted to the power tools though. My aunt suggested we take a big saw out into the middle and some would come play with us. We painted primer on the bottom side of this roof. (this is my mom by the way) The owner of the orphanage went by the motto, colored paint costs the same as beige. Buy color for happiness of orphans. Here are my dad and brothers putting tiles on the top of the roof. I also helped. I was amazing at it, in fact. The bad thing about this tiles was they were made of asbestos. Yep. Asbestos. In an orphanage. Apparently they don't have any regulations down there. On our way home we stopped in Ensenada. This is my hermano looking at a disgusting giant pescado in a wheel barrow. After it took us two hours to get through the border and hours of searching after San Diego my dad found this hotel for us. I would like to say I learned so much about conserving water, etc., but I did take two showers while I was there and intend to continue taking one every day. This was about the only time we were warm the entire trip. The one hour we sat by the pool on Sunday. Our trip really was amazing. I'm glad we went and equally thankful for my house and parents.
For anyone who didn't get my Christmas card in the mail, here is your digitized version (sorry I can't send them to everyone in the world). I hope everyone has a fun, safe, and Merry Christmas!
I saw Hairspray on Broadway when I was living in New York and loved it. I put off watching the new movie because a) how could it possibly compare to the musical and b) Zac Efron, the tweenie bopper love was in it. We tease my cousin too much about being in love with the Disney Channel and I thought if he was in it it would be equivalent to High School Musical. But I am humble enough to swallow my pride and say that I loved the movie, I've watched it like 4 times, and my favorite part is watching Zac Efron dance during the last song, "You can't stop the beat." He is one good dancer. And if Zac Efron ever bumped into me and said, "Hey there lil' darlin', hope I didn't dent your doo." I would fall instantly in love and wander around singing "I can hear the bells" as well.
Sometimes my car can not pick up radio stations. I'm not sure why. In Rexburg it really is not much of a loss. There aren't many stations and no good ones unless you listen to a lot of Country. So on the occasion that I can't get a station, forget my ipod and am not in the mood for deep thinking and silence, I have only one choice. The one cd that is always in my car. I used to have two, but my brother lost Cole's band's cd and now I am left to listen to The Fury of The Aquabats. Yes, The Aquabats. I'm not sure how it became the only cd in my car, but it is. The good thing is, it happens so infrequently that it I love hearing about the Red Sweater with an Alligator and the Martian Girl from Planet V and have a strange urge to skateboard, although the one time I tried to learn how to ollie I ended up with a huge scar-leaving gash on my elbow. I miss the horns of Ska music. But I do get to hear them, every once in a while, when I have nothing else left to listen to.
This year I have been on a quest to find things we used to have on Christmas when I was a kid. Not decorations, we still have tons of those, but movies and music. First I searched my Grandma's house for her Alvin and the Chipmunk's Christmas record. No luck. But I bought the cd for my cousin for christmas. I'm not sure she appreciated it as much as I had hoped. Maybe it wasn't a part of her childhood.
Then we searched her house for a video of Donald Duck snow fighting his nephews. It is the most amazing thing. We could not find it at her house, but youtube did not fail us! Behold the best snow fight ever:
We laughed our heads off when we found it! I love that coat! Cartoons are just not what they used to be. (Sorry for the german subtitles. You kind of need english ones to know what Donald is saying, things like, "That's unconstitutional!" or "I'll exterminate you!").
This picture, since it is too poor quality to tell, is of my brother putting a water line together at night at the bottom of an 8 foot trench. I was holding the flash light. It was an important job. The water line for the automatic water trough for the cow pasture had been smashed under the church they are building so my Grandpa had a new one dug and we had to put the line in and bury it before the dirt all froze. That is why we were working outside in a trench in freezing temperatures in Rexburg Idaho. I think it is fun. But I was only holding the light and trying to be moral support for my brother who was using the shovel to bury the line and also using a torch to warm it up and put connectors in and did not think it was fun. Then the torch quit working (probably because he was so rough on it) then we were running out of pipe and clamps. My Grandpa magically found enough pipe and we were using a propane tank that was leaking like crazy but we finished it and no one blew up. And it worked the next day.
Here are some other pictures of things we do on my farm. I took most them two summers ago to send to my friends at Martha Stewart. That is why I managed to be in every one of them.
That is right. My grandparents have a player piano. (not the same grandparents I blogged about last time.) We had the greatest time tonight playing and singing along with it. (We only had my brother's phone which takes worse pictures even than mine.) It is an amazing machine. It is a regular piano until you open the doors to load the roll of paper and pull down the pedals at the bottom. The roll of paper has little holes cut into it and when they roll over the middle the piano plays that note. The person playing just pumps the two pedals back and forth with their feet. It is quite a workout. The keys just move on their own. Some songs we played were: Linus and Lucy (the best part was when my mom started dancing exactly like the Peanuts characters in "A Charlie Brown Christmas." It was amazing. I've never seen anyone dance like that in real life.) Christmas Melodies Sleigh Ride The Candy Man Can Pennsylvania Polka The Entertainer
The Christmas mix had this sweet sweet paper. You will have to rotate your head to look at it, I'm not sure why it comes in sideways. In every program I have it is rotated the right way, but I can't get it to upload vertical. Lame. But anyway, if you can't tell, those are shiny gold candles with paisley patterns on them. Christmas doesn't get any better than that.
These are the plants in my window in my bedroom at home: This is my Christmas Cactus. It blooms during the cold winter months. That is why it is called a Christmas Cactus. The picture next to it is of my grandma when she was a kid. She is amazing at growing plants. She gave me this plant. I need to post a picture how well she can grow a Christmas Cactus. It will blow your mind. Mine hasn't grown in years. It just blooms. I used to have an African Violet in this window, but my grandma thought she had damaged it so she took it home to rescue it and it now has grown into like 10 different plants. She is pretty amazing. These are two ivy plants. For some reason only one of the branches really grows and it climbs up the corner of my wall and the window. (My bedroom is in the basement. This picture makes it look like a cave. It really isn't.)
Here is a close up of how it sticks to the wall: Those little legs are the perfect mix of cool and disgusting. It is amazing how they stick onto the wall, but kind of gross how they look like little spider legs. Sometimes I think that long plant arm could crawl over to my bed and wrap around my neck. I wouldn't put it past those sick little legs.
I almost had a freelance job this week. I have a friend with a freelance group I am a new member of and he called me with my first job, for a non-profit group about children's home safety, but apparently some guy told them he would do it for like 1/4 of the price, so once again, good design goes out the door for money. If only she knew what a cool logo I was going to do for her!
Another uplifting topic came to me while I was using my time reading blogs since I had no freelance job in "the junior's" blog. They are actually the class that are seniors right now in the graphic design program at BYU, but I think I and everyone in my class will always refer to them as "the juniors." Anyway, Libby had an exceptional post called "Girls, we are doomed." Stating, using examples and photos, that women who are accepted into the program at BYU are not married, and those who are not accepted get married. I do know many of the girls in the class before me were married, but it brought an interesting question to my mind. Usually when old women who are not married live together they become "Cat Ladies." What would a bunch of unmarried graphic designer women living together collect or become? Even though I have posted about how cute I think baby cats are, I don't think we would become "Cat Ladies". Type ladies? Poster ladies? I just don't know. What do you think? Thanks to Linda Kennedy for letting me use this picture on my blog.
In high school one year I was in the pit orchestra for the musical, The Music Man. I love that musical so much. I love most musicals. Anyway, there is a part from the musical I finally understand. Harold Hill is trying to get the DL about Marian the Librarian and the other ladies in the town are gossiping about her: Maud: Professor, her kind of woman doesn't belong on any committee. Of course, I shouldn't tell you this but she advocates dirty books. Harold: Dirty books?! Alma: Chaucer Ethel: Rabelais Eulalie: Balzac!
Also: Mrs. Paroo: If you don't mind my sayin' so, It wouldn't have hurt you To find out what the gentleman wanted. Marian: I know what the gentleman wanted. Mrs. Paroo: What, dear? Marian: You'll find it in Balzac. Mrs. Paroo: Excuse me fer livin' but I never read it.
Also: Mrs. Paroo: But, darlin'--when a woman has a husband And you've got none, Why should she take advice from you? Even if you can quote Balzac and Shakespeare And all them other highfalutin' Greeks. I never knew who or what Balzac was. This is Honoré de Balzac. He was a nineteenth-century Frenchnovelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of almost 100 novels and plays collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the fall of Napoléon Bonaparte in 1815. (from Wikipedia). He also shares a birthday with me.
I just listened to one of his books, Letters of Two Brides. It was a romance. A little bizarre, but pretty good. All these years I thought be must be a greek philosopher. I am happy to finally have some closure and understanding about Balzac, after hearing his name yelled so disrespectfully over my head many, many times from the stage of my high school.
Now I understand why those gossiping ladies were so easily convinced of the caliber of disaster indicated by the presence of a pool table in their community.
Last Saturday my brother and I went skiing at Targhee. The snow was amazing. Actually, it snowed the entire time we were there. So at the top there was almost no visibility and my eyelashes kept freezing but it was a great great day, subtracting the fact that I am really out of shape. I'm not as good as I used to be, but I've only gone like once per year since I graduated from high school. Now that I'm done with college, I plan to ski more. You know, like twice a year. Just kidding. Drew did get a huge bite out of his snowboard from a big rock. There are still some big rocks, but Targhee really is the only place with snow right now. I rode up the lift with some people from Park City who said they didn't have any snow.
I like to see the different kinds of ski gear out on the mountain. My skis, etc. are pretty old since I never use them I haven't got new gear in a long time. I love the people who still wear full on ski suits. You know, the one-piecers? I took so long to post about this because I really wanted to post a picture of my ski suit from when I was like 9. It was so rad. Maroon with a neon green and pink pattern at the top. Sadly, there are no pictures of me in it.
I have a love/hate relationship with the little kids that are still so small and fearless and good. I think they are amazing, but I am incredibly jealous. I used to be small and unable to fall or get hurt. Now I'm in no hurry to get down the hill. I'm just happy to be there.
