Bad Blood

Okay, I’ll admit it, I am weird. I love donating blood! I don’t know why, but I have always enjoyed it. It’s something that is generally really easy for me. I don’t faint, turn green, have problems with veins, nothing. I like to see how fast I can give (I usually clock in around 6 minutes) and after all the fun they give you food! I love feeling like I am doing something that helps people, even if I never know about it. I try and give blood as often as possible.

For a year and a half before I went on my mission I couldn’t give blood (first because I had been in China, and then because of all the shots I had to get to go to Brazil) so it has been a long time since I have donated. Yesterday the institute was having a blood drive, so I decided to donate for the first time in almost three years.

It all started out like normal. I filled out the paper, read the book, and waited in line for the little interview. It took forever to figure out if I had been in the part of Brazil that makes it so you can’t give blood for a year (which I hadn’t), then they did the worst part- the finger prick. OUCH! They had to test my iron twice, but in the end it was fine.

Then the last, and simplest, procedure: Checking blood pressure. The lady checked it once and got a funny look on her face and said she wanted to check it again. I told her that my blood pressure is usually pretty low, and the second time confirmed it. My blood pressure was a whopping 88/64 (though she wasn’t sure on the 64, she couldn’t really find it well). For me, this is pretty normal and does not cause problems, however she told me that to give blood you have to have the top number at least above 90. GRRRR. All that for nothing. Even the finger prick. So, so sad.

She was kind, however, and told me to make sure I took a snack before I left. Which I did.

My dad told me that next time I need to do jumping jacks before I go in. I think I will try it!

Green Eggs & Ham

Growing up, whenever anyone had a birthday in our family, we had a special birthday breakfast. It was always really yummy blueberry muffins with a streusel toppings, eggs, bacon and hash browns. Now that we are all older, we have started having our birthday “breakfast” for dinner, so that we can all still get together and eat.

Lacey (my sister), Liz (my SIL) and I decided to do a combined surprise birthday party for my Mom and for Steve (BIL), whose birthdays are both at the end of the month. We decided to do it on St. Patrick’s day, and dye everything green.

It was so much fun! We had green eggs, green hash browns, green muffins, green milk, and green juice. We didn’t try to dye the pineapple chunks or the ham (though in the book, Green eggs and ham, it never says that the HAM is green!). We also provided everyone with tortillas, so that if they didn’t like the looks of the green stuff they could wrap it up (with green sour cream!) to make a breakfast burrito.

It was actually pretty good. I definitely put WAY to much coloring in the hash browns, and the muffins turned out kind of a turquoise color, but it was fun and festive! I think my brother had the hardest time with the whole color thing. It does seem like that we ate a lot less than we normally do (if that is the case this could be a great dieting plan).

The best part is that Mom and Steve were surprised (sort of). We had them open presents, and then watched Dan in Real Life (it’s a pretty good show). It was a really fun St. Patrick’s day, and I think that we will make our green dinner into a family tradition!

I Heard That Song Before

This week is spring break, so what you think I am doing? Working. Yep, a full 40 hours! It has actually been good, as my job allows me to answer phones and study or read, or write at the same time (truly, an ideal job). Even though I didn’t go anywhere exciting for spring break, I did decide that I was not going to do ANY homework. Instead I have been using the time at work to get in some much needed fun reading (aka, non textbook reading!)

I love Mary Higgins Clark books and was super excited to find one a the library that came out when I was in Brazil, called I heard that Song Before. I checked it out, and started reading it Wednesday night. I worked 9 ½ hours yesterday, giving me lots of time to read all day and I finished it. I have to say, work has never gone so quickly!

I heard that Song Before is a story about a young woman, Kay, who has a whirlwind romance and marries the love of her life, Peter (a very handsome billionaire). Within the first month of their marriage Peter is charged with two murders (both of which happened 22 years ago, and one of which involves a person very close to Kay) and is a person of interest in another.

Kay is convinced of her husband’s innocence, and will do anything to free him from the charges and bring him safely home. But as Kay digs deeper and deeper into the case, she finds that it may be her own safety that is in jeopardy.

I give this book a full five stars. I LOVED it! Like I said, I am a huge Clark fan. Sometimes I find her books a little gruesome for me, but this one was not at all. I am always surprised at how Clark manages to keep you guessing who the murderer is until the very end. I always think I know, and I am always wrong.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good mystery!

Happy Reading!

Tan Lines

For those of you who know me, you know I DO NOT tan. My skin just does not do it! I am white all year long, even in the summertime. I do, however, tend to burn. During my year and a half in Brazil I was exposed to intense sun on a daily basis. Even with tons of sunscreen I burned a lot, but strange as it may be, as the weeks passed I began to tan. Now most other people in my situation become far darker than I ever was, but for someone who never tans I was SUPER excited with this! My tan lines were the greatest. I had a HUGE line on my ankle (from my socks), at mid-calf (from my skirts) and of course, on my arms and neck from my shirts. Life was good.

Then I returned to the cold, snow covered, Utah. And slowly, bit by bit, my tan began to disappear. Today I saw a picture that was taken my last weekend in Brazil, and realized that my tan is official gone. It made me kind of sad. It was short lived, but it was sure fun to be tan for a while!

(As missionaries, this is what we would do at the end of the day; relax on the cold tile floor! Notice the pretty lines on my legs and feet!)

Ummm . . .

This comic was in on the front page of our newspaper this morning. I was still super tired when I saw it. I have to tell you, I did not find it very amusing

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Cake, Anyone?

Last night we had our ward’s Relief Society birthday party. I was put in charge of bringing a cake. I fell in love with cakes in Brazil, where they fill cakes with tons of different yummy things, so I decided to do the same with this cake. I used a boxed yellow cake mix, and put in layers of caramel, chocolate, and cream cheese. I covered it all in glossy white frosting and used chocolate sprinkles and snickers to decorate. I couldn’t find our round cake pans, so I made a heart shaped cake instead.

I would love to tell you how good the cake was, but the truth is that I didn’t try any. I licked too many bowls and spoons while making the cake, so that by the time it was actually done I didn’t want to even look at it (seriously, I couldn’t handle the thought of anything sugar)! It did get good reviews, though.

The lesson itself was excellent. We talked about elect ladies and how we can become elect ladies. Our ward is really, really small, and only a handful of girls came, but it was fun! We had TONS of extra food (two lasagnas and over half the cake), so I may still get to try my cake. (If anyone wants any, you are more than welcome to it! Just come get some!)

The Miracle of Automatic Blinkers

I have had my car a grand total of two months and three days. For the last two months and one day, my blinkers have not been working. They just stopped. Generally, this is a problem that you can fix quickly on your own, but this time it required a trip to the mechanics office. Because of this, I procrastinated taking it for two months. During this time I had what I called a “Manual Blinker”. Whenever I wanted to use my blinkers, I would just pull the lever up/down/up/down/up/down, until I had successfully turned or switched lanes (turning left was always easier than turning right). The tempo of my blinker totally depended on the song that I was listening to at the time.

I kept telling myself that it really wasn’t that big of a deal not having automatic blinkers. However, yesterday my car got repaired and I am thrilled with how great my blinkers work! It is so much nicer to drive a car with an automatic blinker! Yay for whoever invented blinkers!