Art on a peanut butter jar

As I was scraping the last morsels of peanut butter from the jar last week, I had a sudden urge to decorate the empty bottle. I used my red Sharpie from home to draw a quartet with a violin, piano, accordion and cello. Sara helped me draw the accordion.

The Fuzzball Quartet
top: violinist, pianist, accordionist
bottom: pianist, accordionist, cellist

P.S. Mom, I got more peanut butter from the store Monday, so don't worry about my daily lunch of PBJ.

Mission calls part 2: Romania

Elder Joseph Melville
Romania Mission
January 12, 2011- January 2013

Mission calls part 1: Mexico

Elder Ryan Bevan (in the orange)
Mexico Merida Mission
November 17, 2010- November 2012

Elder Dallin Steele
Mexico Mexico City (northwest) Mission
February 16, 2011- February 2013

Halloween decor (courtesy of Tennessee)

Last week when Jill and I went to check the mailbox, wonder of wonders, there was a package for Jill from some of her teacher friends in Tennessee- "Mama Amy" and Mrs. Sullivan. Inside were a couple letters for Jill and a wonderful variety of Halloween decorations as well as a bag of candy corn and candy pumpkins. We put them up right away!

Haunted house and tombstone

Spider with big eyes, Mara's least favorite decoration ("It's always looking at me!")

Crashed witch (this is right by our front door)

Jill and I got creative with the extra stars

Has milk always been named?

Several weeks ago while I was eating a bowl of yummy cereal, I happened to take a closer look at the milk jug and this is what I saw:

My milk jug

Note "MANNY." I've also had a "JULIO" and a "TYLER." Have milk jugs always had names?

Mara's milk jug

Skeletons

Monday's FHE project: cheap Halloween decorations!

Can you guess who created each skeleton?

Thoroughly dead skeleton
[ ] Mara
[ ] Jill
[ ] Jess

Cute dog skeleton
[ ] Mara
[ ] Jill
[ ] Jess

Happy dancing skeleton named Jamal
[ ] Mara
[ ] Jill
[ ] Jess

Skeleton family photo

Sugar

It's been a beautiful morning. I beat all my previous records of getting to school (I made it in 10 minutes, 10 minutes faster than it usually takes me to get to school) and the BYU devotional was amazing (I listened to it on the radio from home today so I could study a little more for my World Religions test.) For those of you who weren't able to listen, Classical 89 (89.1 FM) will rebroadcast it Sunday night at 8. Or you can watch it online at byub.org.

This is Sugar, the beautiful (and sweet) white Golden Retriever we puppy-sat over the weekend. She's the third guide-dog-in-training Jill has brought home and by far our favorite. Don't mind my knees; they weren't supposed to be in the picture.

Work Buddy

Last week at work I saw this June bug:

I was so entertained by it I watched as it crawled slowly over my keyboard, water bottle and desk. Then I trapped it in a water bottle cap and let it go outside after work.

"Jess, how bored are you at work?" Jill asked when I showed her the picture. The answer to that is, Sometimes, very bored.

Cold rain, hot chocolate

Yesterday afternoon, I left work to find myself in the middle of one of Utah's sporadic downpours- approximately 20 minutes long, cold, and heavy. I ran into Jill while making a beeline for my bike (apparently she gets out of school at 4:00 on Thursdays too!) and she suggested we wait until the rain stopped to go home. It would only have been about a 15-minute wait, but that's about how far away Wyview is from the Y, and I was determined just to get home as fast as possible.

Jill agreed to come with me, and together we braved the freezing wind and rain, riding our bikes with a hurried fervor (me more than her) until we could unlock the door to our wonderfully dry apartment, peel off our wet clothes, and mix up some hot chocolate.

To Jill's joy, there was a package waiting for her on the table when we got in from some of her beloved high school teachers in Tennessee. Inside were several tins of "BYU Blue Hot Chocolate- It's blue!" We both got the same idea: "Do you want to try some of this, Jess?" "You bet I do!" and we mixed in a few spoonfuls each of the chocolate powder into steaming mugs of hot water.

My first sip was nasty, to put it bluntly. There was not nearly enough chocolate in the water for my taste. (Jill commented it tasted great, but she also admitted she doesn't like a lot of chocolate powder in her hot chocolate.) I put in another spoonful of the stuff (it turns a deep navy blue in your cup) and tasted it again. Nothing much had changed, so I dragged a chair over to the fridge (yes, I have to use a chair to reach my cupboard above the freezer), fetched one of my hot chocolate packets and emptied its entire contents into my already-blue hot chocolate.

The color immediately changed from a pretty (though odd-looking) navy to, as Jill put it, "clogged-drain gray." When I stirred it, it looked like I was drinking sludge from off the street. Jill was so disgusted/amazed at what I'd done she took a picture with her phone and sent it to her teachers and her mom. I took a picture too. Then I drank it.

So... Much... BETTER!

When life gets you down, play your guitar

Last night was great. After we got back from celebrating Aaron's birthday (it was a lot of fun and the cake was delicious), Jill went into her room and worked on homework while I sat on the couch and finished reading Marley & Me. (I was close to the end.) Mara was noticeably absent (she went over to talk tennis with Joseph, Zach and J.D.).

I had just finished my book and was just going to get a start on my creative writing homework when Jill came in, bleary-eyed and needing a break from her obviously evil French homework. I talked to her for awhile; mostly listened while she expressed many of the same feelings about French I felt while taking Trig. It all came back to me- the feeling of working my tail off for little visible gain, the stress and worry about upcoming tests, the choking frustration and the dampened self-esteem as I struggled to keep my head above water. Sometimes I think the add/drop deadline comes and goes too early in the semester to be of much use.

After the much-needed (I think) rant, Jill got out her guitar. I watched the stress leave her face as she strummed the much-loved instrument. Soon she had us both singing as she figured out guitar parts that sounded good. I love listening to her play. One of these days, I need to get a picture of her with her guitar. She has a great voice, too. Sometime I'd also like to hear her and Mikayla jam together with their guitars; maybe we can plan something for this weekend.

We spent the better part of an hour with the guitar. It was amazing, but I hope she didn't have to stay up too much past midnight to finish her American Heritage homework. Thank you, Jill!

Dear Life

Dear Life,

I finally got a picture of Mara:

It's Aaron's 19th birthday today (see photos of FHE group). Mara's been hard at work drawing him a picture of a "floating cake island" with crayons as a present. And I just got a call from his roommate inviting me, Mara, and Jill over for cake. Mm.

Mara finally did her dishes. There were a lot of them. (She usually waits until there's a small mountain in the sink.) I should've taken "before" and "after" pictures.

Neither Mara or I have done laundry yet.

Jill and I had a spontaneous party (aka "rave"- see Mara, I'm learning) last night which basically consisted of turning on her music really loud, closing all the blinds, turning off the lights and dancing like there was no tomorrow (she did most of the dancing).

I got a 93 on my Music 101 test yesterday. I was very happy; that's 17 percent up from my last test score.

Sent off a total of 4 letters since I got here. None of them addressed to home. (Sorry, Mom.) I feel accomplished. :)

Still sawing steadily away at the stack of home-cooked frozen dinners I received at the beginning of the semester from my lovely mother. I'm starting to worry if I don't eat them faster, frozen solid or not, they're going to go bad. Eating a (real) hamburger tonight. Yummy!

Sort of at a lull at work- today I interviewed a professor about Y Chem for a story I'm writing about them and then worked for a while on the story- it probably won't be finished for a week or so, but I made lots of progress. Looking forward to covering the alumni dinner Friday (though I'm still bummed I have to miss the hockey game)!