llamas

I finally got to go to Llama Fest yesterday! I have been wanting to go since I first heard about it, back in 2008. And, due to living at home for the summer, then getting married, then other vacations and family events, I wasn't able to go until this summer.

John and I walked through the Krishna temple, perused the gift shop, enjoyed some music, and got to pet some llamas. It was really crowded, so I didn't get to see many llamas, but I really enjoyed being there. I got a Llama Fest t-shirt and little stone llama figurine, and a shoulder bag made from llama wool that has a llama on the front. 

We were going to stay for dinner because there is a great Indian food buffet at the temple, but they didn't have it going during the festival. John and I decided to go back another time and get the buffet and see more llamas when I can have them all to myself. 

Also, I made these from periodic tables of elements today.

I've also been watching a few movies with Rifftrax that I borrowed from Amanda this weekend. I saw Breaking Dawn part I, The Last Airbender, and High School Musical. All terrible movies that were bearable and enjoyable because of Rifftrax. 

family

My brother Drew, his wife Christina, and their one year old son, Asher, came to visit Provo this week. We had four full days with them, and we had a great time!

Drew was able to go fishing with his friend, Jared, we went to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy, toured the City Creek Center mall in Salt Lake, and ate lots of delicious food. My favorite was Bombay House, but we also ate at Cheesecake Factory, it was great, too. We watched a lot of movies, got to eat Creamery ice cream, and I went shopping with Christina a few times. I loved having girl time with her! Asher loved the cats, Suki hid from him all week, and Momo gracefully took some slaps.

I only have a few pictures, most from the aquarium, but I know that Christina has more.

Watching TV with Uncle John

John petting a sting ray

Watching the jelly fish

Moray eel

John poking up in the otter habitat.

Asher loved the otters. They were exactly like giant, swimming ferrets.

He was most taken with the small fish at his height level. I told Drew that next time they just need to take him to PetSmart.

They left this morning and just arrived home. It was sad to see them go, but I get to see them again in a week and a half when I go visit family in Nevada.

As a side note, there is a new post on my other blog up now.

results

I wrote about my HSG test I had done this morning, and the results.

ttp://progressingincircles.blogspot.com/2012/07/results.html

new

I have decided to start a new blog to document and talk about my infertility journey, and keep this one for the rest of the goings-on in our lives. I would just rather keep the two separate, mostly because I don't think everyone who reads this blog wants to know all the details. So, when I write a new post on my other blog, I will post a link to it here if you wish to read it. I just feel like this is a better decision.

http://progressingincircles.blogspot.com/

I also put a tab up above so you can check it whenever you like.

the allies

Somewhere on Gmail, I remember reading that if someone addresses an email to you and messes up by leaving out a dot or underscore, or doesn't put the dot where it's supposed to be, that it will forward that email to addresses that are close to it so you are sure to get it anyway. Did I make sense?

An example:
Someone's email address is johndoe@gmail.com. However, someone tried to send an email to john.doe@gmail.com.
So Gmail, being the good delivery people they are, sent that email to johndoe@gmail.com so that person is sure to get the email.

About two years ago, I started receiving emails from someone, asking me to write news stories in the Salt Lake area. They usually asked me to go to big events in downtown for a story and report on it, or interview some random person. 


The first few emails I received really confused me. I was looking for a job at the time and remember applying as a freelance writer for someone. I didn't hear back from them, but then I started getting all these emails asking me to write news stories, so I thought that they had actually hired me and didn't tell me. I didn't respond to any of the emails because I hadn't met or talked to any of these people, so I thought it could have been a scam. After the third or fourth email, I started writing a response telling them how confused I was, but that I would happily write their stories if they would like to meet me first and find out if they are legitimate. When I was about to click send, I looked at the original email and saw that they had addressed their email to allie.jeppson@gmail.com. Just one dot away from mine.

Then a lightbulb went off in my head- There is another Allie Jeppson in the Salt Lake area who is a news writer, and I was getting her emails. Sometimes they call her Alexandra, but she must usually go by Allie.

Most recently, I got one from some guy named Rhett who asked me to go to the Kansas concert in Logan, and then do a phone interview with the band. I was really tempted to reply and get some tickets and their phone number. If they asked if I was Allie Jeppson, I could say that yes, I am. Now give me some freaking free Kansas tickets.

EDIT: My brother corrected me to say that the dot does not make a difference. He said, "You are the owner of all combinations of your email with periods. No one has the same email as you with different periods." So, I guess the sender of emails I get just plain have the wrong address. Luckily, I always see the emails addressed to both my email and another one, so the real Allie Jeppson must be getting the emails, too.

birthdays

I had two friends who had birthdays within a week of each other, Craig and Victoria. I was lucky to be able to make cakes for them and celebrate with both of them.

Last weekend, for Craig's birthday, me and John, Craig, and Amanda and Victoria all went to Malawi's for dinner, then to the Provo Beach resort for the ropes course (John and I guarded their stuff and cheered while they did it) and arcade games, and then to my apartment for cake and games. It was so much fun! I hadn't laughed that hard in a long time. I won on Deal or No Deal, and we collectively guessed the puzzle on Wheel of Fortune. Plus, I got to play Skee-ball, so it was automatically a good night.

I didn't take a picture of Craig's cake because I forgot, but I made him a chocolate cake with raspberry filling and cream cheese frosting. It was delicious! I had not made raspberry filling before. It was surprisingly really easy and super yummy!

We celebrated Victoria's birthday tonight with Rock Band and watching Thor, and having more cake. Victoria requested white cake with white frosting, which was easy enough. I just filled the cake with the same buttercream I put on top, and decorated with a basket weave on the side. It was also a huge hit!

Now I want to brave making a tiered cake. I will have to do some research to know how to put one together.

pillow

For Suki's whole life, she has found a comfortable bed at night by sharing my pillow. As a tiny kitten, she snuggled up in my hair and would stay with me all night.

It's sweet, and I love having her so close to me at night, but she still tries to do it.

As you can see, the Suki to pillow ratio runs about 1:2.

And the Allie to pillow ratio is about 35:1.

To illustrate better, I have made a graph.

How do I sleep at night?

in honor of three years

I was scanning through some of my old blog posts from before I was married because mine and John's three year anniversary is coming up in a few days, and I came across this little jewel. I was talking about how excited I was to be moving in with John and not having roomates and having my own kitchen.

"No more mystery messes, no more dishes disappearing, no more stuffed refrigerators with food that isn't mine, no more cleaning up after multiple people, no more sharing cupboard space."

None of that is true. There are mystery messes all the time. Sometimes I will clean the kitchen and come back a half an hour later and find some mystery splotch on the counter that I have to clean again.

My dishes are still disappearing. John and I just did a quick inventory of our kitchen and made a list of the utensils and things that are missing. I used to have three 9x13 pans and now I have none. Measuring cups and spoons are gone to the abyss all the time, and I am missing a large metal mixing bowl. I used to be missing the base to the blender, but that randomly turned up in the cupboard one day.

It's amazing how many times I will open my fridge and find mystery food in there. If go out to dinner with friends, sometimes they will leave their leftovers in the fridge, and I can't count how many times Jacob has left food behind. I'm not complaining about this one, though. The food always gets eaten.

I clean up after multiple people all the time. Whenever we have people over, there is always clean up to do.

I also share the cupboard with John. I know that isn't a big deal, but sometimes I'll peek in the cupboards to find some weird looking food that he's bought.

I just think it's funny to look back and see how naive I was before getting married. It's quite funny.

this weekend

I have a few photos to describe my weekend.

My animals sure were funny. 

Momo took a nap next to me on the couch and made this funny face.

Suki brought me a present to the doorstep. She wouldn't leave me alone until I gave her sufficient praise. Sorry if the dead mouse makes you sad. I didn't care much until I saw it was a baby mouse. Then I was a little sad. But, I'd rather have it dead than eating my food storage.

I walked by Obi-Wan's cage and found him in this sexy pose. I think he must be listening to LMFAO while we are out of the house.

My favorite thing to order at Chinese food restaurants are Crab Rangoon, or cream cheese wontons. They aren't always that cheap, so we tried making some ourselves. We got wonton wrappers at the Korean market on University, and I made a cream cheese and green onion filling, and John fried them up. They were delicious! We'll never order them again when we can just make our own. The cost to make two dozen for ourselves was about $4. At the restaurants, they usually charge $6 for 8 wontons.

Today, I was watching Cake Boss, and got a huge hankering for some cake. So I just randomly decided to make a cake. The cake got overdone, which annoyed me because I know my oven well enough to know it shouldn't have burned. I guess the temperature was off just a little bit this time. But it was still fun to make. I haven't baked in a really long time. I didn't know how much I missed it. I didn't feel much like decorating it because I just wanted to eat it as soon as possible, so I just took a few seconds and topped it with a bunch of rosettes. So, if you want some slightly overdone cake smothered in frosting that just tastes like pure sugar  (I didn't have flavoring and couldn't go buy any because it was Sunday), please come eat some of this cake.

bullies

I have been watching a stupid Australian show on Netflix lately about a bunch of teenagers attending a dance school. I have no idea why I like it, so don't ask. The acting is all terrible. But they have explored the topic of bullies a few times, and it made me think about my bullies I had growing up.

Girl bullies are totally different than boy bullies. Boys duke it out and are mostly physical. Girls are much different. They are sneaky and get you through emotions and feelings. I have three bullies who I remember pretty well, and I remember the specific times that I got them to stop harassing me. I was smart- I watched, I studied, and I waited.

B-
The situation: She tormented me the longest of the three bullies. I met her when I was in fourth grade. She continually made fun of my clothes, my braids, my rolling backpack (I had Scoliosis! I needed it), and my rabbit teeth. And should I mention that I was further behind in maturing physically than the rest of my classmates? She made sure I knew that fact. Every day.

The history: I watched her for years in order to learn more about her. She came from a poor family and didn't live in the nicest part of town. She always tried her best to look "high class." Well, as high class as you can look when you are copying Britney Spears.

The sting: When I was in eighth grade, my mom had just bought me a brand new coat. It was black suede with some sort of sheepskin lining on the collar and cuffs. The first day I wore it to school, I felt like a million bucks. B saw me from across the hall, and she and her posse came up to me. She said, "That is a cool coat. Where did you get it?" I was instantly wary of her, since she had never paid me a compliment in my life. I knew she was waiting to learn about some part of my coat that she could tease me about. I replied, "I got it at Costco this weekend." She scoffed at me and rolled her eyes, looked back at me and said "You shop at Costco??" like it was no better than a thrift store. I knew this was my moment, so I said to her, "Yeah, you don't? I guess your family is too poor to shop there." And then I walked away, and she never teased me again.

M-
The situation: She made fun of my hair. A lot. I had very thick, very long hair, and it was very difficult to tame. So, it was often down and poofy and all over the place, or it was in braids to keep it out of my face. I guess she thought braids were stupid.

The history: This girl had a huge nose. And I mean, HUGE nose. Enough said.

The sting: One day in class, she was teasing me, saying that I had frizzy, ratty hair. Again. I was so done with her rudeness that I said to her, "At least I don't need a nose job." Then I turned around, and she never teased me again.

C-
The situation: I wasn't the most physical 13-year-old girl, and absolutely hated P.E. I don't like having balls thrown at my face, and I don't like running. So that counts out every single sport ever. She was in my P.E. class, and made fun of my performance in class every day.

The history: She was very athletic, very tall, and had a large build. She wasn't fat, she was just had a large frame. I have never known a tall girl who was not self conscious about her height while growing up. Although, they can laugh at us shorties now, because they can all be models and stuff and we can't.

The sting: When we were playing volleyball, and she yelled at me one too many times about how much I sucked and couldn't get the ball over the net, I said back to her, "I can't get the ball over the net, but at least I'm not a huge giant stomping around." She didn't tease me in P.E. after that.

The bully that got away, B2, is one that hurt me the most. I was in ninth grade, and went to a meeting to learn about cheerleading tryouts. I thought cheerleading was really neat, and it was a sport that didn't involve any balls. Yay! So I got all the information, went and had my physical at the doctor, and went to the next meeting to turn in my paperwork. B2 stopped me while I was leaving the meeting and said, "Why are you trying out?" in a way I knew meant, "You do NOT belong here, loser." I said, "Cheerleading looks like a lot of fun, and I want to be a flyer." She said, "You? A flyer? Please, you'll never be a flyer because you are way too fat." Seriously, I was 5'3" and weighed like 100 lbs. Thinking back, I should have said, "If I'm too fat, then you definitely shouldn't even waste your time trying out." But instead, I let her scare me away, and I didn't end up trying out at all. Although, she made it on the team, and I would have had to put up with her if I had made it, too, so I'm not that sad when I think back on it. But I was a 14 year old girl, so of course a comment like that would hurt a lot.

Did dealing with my bullies that way work? Yes, it definitely did. Was it the best way to handle them? I don't know. I tried everything- talking to teachers who told me to just brush off their comments, to talking to school counselors who told me that teenagers just act this way, and find friends who will make me feel good. I tried telling the bullies outright that they were being mean and hurting my feelings, and that just made it infinitely worse, because now I was sensitive and weak, too. So, how is one supposed to deal with bullies? Does it really take becoming a bully yourself to stop the harassment? Was I wrong to act this way? I put up with years of bullying from these girls, and just one taste of their own medicine stopped them forever. But when I think about it, I must have hurt them in a very sensitive spot if it actually made them leave me alone. Do I regret what I did? A little bit, yeah. I realize now that they made fun of me because they were jealous- I always had nice-looking, new clothes, I have a cute nose, and I have a petite frame. At the time, that thought never crossed my mind. In my frame of mind, getting them back was my last option, and I was desperate. So I can't say I regret what I did completely. No one should put up with daily emotional abuse at school.

I'm glad that schools, overall, are being more serious about bullying now. My experiences were 13-18 years ago, and it just wasn't taken seriously back then. I hope things are much different now when it comes to handling bullies.

One of the bullies, C, actually found me on Facebook a few years ago. She added me, and we exchanged a few words, and she commented on how beautiful I was in my wedding pictures. So, I feel at peace with her. I'm not even sure if she remembers our P.E. days together.

Now, adults bullying kids, they are a totally different story. That's when I sent in the Mama Bear to take care of it for me. Seriously, old teachers just need to retire and stop bullying their students.

I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.