the 4 wheeling incident

When Camm and I were engaged we took a trip to Guatemala and visited one of my best friends who lives there.We had a fabulous trip. But the other day we were remembering all of the crazy things that happened to us during the two weeks we were there. Here I share one story (and perhaps there will be more to come in the future).

One day the friend that we were visiting had to work so she told us what bus to catch to get to a beautiful beach. We got there and ate fresh shrimp as we overlooked the water. It was beautiful. Then we noticed that you could rent four-wheelers to go for a ride right on the beach. I told Camm we should do it and we were soon talking to Jose the rental guy. We agreed to rent it for a half hour but then I realized neither Camm nor I had a watch so I wondered how we would know when to get back. Jose told us we could take his cell phone so we could monitor time.
Soon we were off:

Here I was riding on the back of a four wheeler with the man I love on a beach in Guatemala. My life could not get any more perfect.

Then, the next thing I knew, Camm was headed STRAIGHT for the ocean. I was confused but before I could get out a scream of "CAMM WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU DOING?", it was too late. 

We hadn't even been on the four wheeler for two minutes and Camm had already managed to crash us right into the water. All I could think about was the cell phone that we borrowed that wasn't even ours. I quickly jumped up and tried to see if it could work Meanwhile, Camm was trapped.

To make a long story short, Camm eventually got my attention, I helped him out, Jose told us we owed him a ton of money and since we were the dumb gringos that have no idea how much Guatemalan cell phones cost, we just had to pay up.

And there we have our first adventure in Guatemala (hopefully there will be more to come such as: when we almost got arrested, riding a chicken bus that was going 50 miles an hour up a winding mountain on the wrong side of the road, and camm completely asleep at church and everyone laughing at him).

TTFN

Motorcycles, duct tape, dreams and more

My mom called me the other day to tell me about a dream she had. My cousin Allyson was on the front of the motorcycle, I was right behind her and her little boy Balo was on the back. We all had black leather jackets and black helmets. My mom said her first thought was that she couldn't believe Allyson let Balo hang out on the back of a motorcycle like that (he's just a little boy--I think he just turned four or is about to turn four--is that right Allyson?). Anyway, then she looked again and noticed that he was very secure because he was duct taped to me. I imagine the whole thing looked something like this:

You know you're too busy when...

You know you're too busy when:

It seems like a good idea to eat a sandwich in the shower.
I tried it, don't recommend it.
Here's to a short blog entry!

11

Blog game Anna tagged me in:

THE RULES:
1. Post these rules
2. Post 11 random things about yourself
3. Answer the questions provided by the one who tagged you
4. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag
5. Tag 11 people

11 random things about myself:

1. When I was 11 I ate high-tea at the empress hotel. When the waitress asked me if I wanted 1 lump of sugar or 2 I shrugged and said, "2 I guess". When the waitress left my mom asked what was wrong. "Well, its just that I prefer 5."

2. In high school on a standardized test I was asked to fill out what I wanted to go into. The first bubble listed alphabetically was Aeronautical Engineering, so naturally I marked it. (does any 15 year old have a clue what they want to do? Does any 25 year old who is about to finish her master's have a clue what she wants to do?). I was recruited by every engineering school in the nation. Apparently women engineers are in demand.

3. I can do a very exciting rendition of the poem "Little Orphan Annie" by James Whitcomb Riley. Call me if you want a performance.

4. I was Juliet in the 5th grade play. Robby Keener was Romeo. He also wrote me a love-letter when we weren't on stage.

5. Decided on sociology because it was one of the shortest majors. Ended up liking it, what a miracle!

6. I teach stats at the local college. If that's not random, I don't know what is.

7. My brother once made me a really cool Ninja Turtle costume for Halloween. I cried and refused to wear it. I'm sorry about that, Josh. 

8. Camm kissed me the day I got home from my mission.

9. One life goal is to set the Guinness World Record for most jumping jacks. Its set at 27000. Do you think I could do that?

10. Camm's on the other side of the country right now for a job interview and I REALLY miss him and I also hope that his interview goes REALLY well.

11. When people ask me what I'm going to do with my degree, I tell them I'll hang it on the wall. Beyond that I am uncertain.

Questions provided by the one who tagged me:

1) What's the most difficult conversation you've ever had to have? Tonight: trying to convince Ruby that even though she's teething she should still go to bed. Difficult because who knows what she understands.
2) What do you think about most these days? Wondering what life will bring after graduation.
3) What is something you wish people knew about you, but they never seem to get? I'm like, really cool. Just kidding.
4) If you could have any animal for a pet, what would it be and why? Fish. Low maintenance. My favorite quote from "We bought a Zoo" was "I like the animals, but I love the people." I think I would restate it more as "Animals are OK, people are great"
5) If you could change your name, what would it be? WonderWoman. I don't think that needs any explanation.
6) Have you ever felt like you belonged in some other country or state more than your own? Where? Even though I've never really lived in oregon (except a few summers), I always feel at home when I go there. i think its just because its the one place that I have been to every single summer of my life (except for when I was in Peru on the mission).
7) If you could only see the world in one color for the rest of your life, what would it be? turquoise. I really like water
8) If you could take one object to heaven with you, what would it be? (besides photos) I assume that if photos are off limits, so are people. I can't think of anything I need. I assume we'll have what we need. So I guess I'll bring my 9th grade journal. I'm sure that's good for hours and hours of quality entertainment.
9) How would you spend your day if you had no T.V., computer, phone, or whatever electronic device you normally log your time away on? Probably should clean the house. Probably wouldn't. Probably would read.
10) If you could travel back in time to any day, what would it be? July 24th, 2008. I think that's the day I really started falling in like with Camm. we went on an early morning 15-mile run, then ate our guts out, went home for naps, then had a slip and slide party, and ended the night watching fireworks. it was just a perfect day.
11) If you could have any talent, what would it be? I'd have some hand-eye coordination (at least a little).

11 New questions for the people I tag:

1. Name the first School House Rock song that you can think of:

2.  Who is your favorite family member? Why? (and don't act like you don't have a favorite)

3. What was the first CD you ever owned?

4. What is your first memory?

5. Would you rather travel to S. America on a house pulled by balloons or fly on a magic carpet with a boy who was in love with you?

6. Something you're afraid of that you know is silly (but that you're still afraid of):

7. Tell me about the first time you signed up for facebook. When? Why? How?

8. Nicest thing someone has ever said to you:

9. Tell about a time growing up where you cried at school:

10. Would you rather sleep on a hammock or a blow-up mattress for the rest of your life?

11. If you could have a robot do one household chore for you every day, what would it be?

New 11 people I'm tagging:

I'm going to let you guys tag yourselves. If you feel like participating in the game, copy it down and then leave a comment saying you did it with a link to your blog.

Caveman Camm on Laughing Gas

Do you remember the post I did about Camm's sleep talking? If that entertained you, listen to this one:

About a year ago Camm went to the dentist for a usual check-up. They told him that he needed to have a minor surgery to snip that little piece of skin that goes from your top lip to your gum. Apparently his was too long. They told him the procedure was very minimal and that he'd be able to drive home afterward. So he made an appointment and in a few weeks he was back at the dental chair.

The one thing you can always be sure of when you go to the dentist is that you won't be opening your mouth wide enough. "OPEN YOUR MOUTH!" yells the dentist and your cheeks are burning from being open so long

I had told him ahead of time that I would be in a work meeting when he got out, but that I would gladly come home after the meeting to take care of him.

"Oh no problem," he assured me, "I'll be just fine." 

During my meeting I felt my phone vibrate. I noticed Camm was calling me. I quickly silenced it as I wondered why he would call if he knew I was in a meeting.

A couple seconds later my phone vibrated again. Again, I silenced it.

That's a vibrating cell phone on the desk (not a bag of burning popcorn--in case you were wondering)

After the third time, I responded with a text, "Camm, stop calling me. I'm in a meeting." (I know, real kind, huh?)

I then received a text back, "He say me no drive. Come you now."

Huh? What does that even mean.

I responded something profound like, "Uh...What?"

"No drive. Come you."

I started getting the picture that he needed a ride. Unfortunately, he had our only car. I kept thinking, "Wait, I need a ride. I have no car. Camm doesn't." 

I got out of the meeting and gave him a call. I only heard a couple grunts then the hygienist took over. "Your husband needs a ride home. He is in no condition to drive." 

Obviously I was worried. I called Camm's mom and explained I had no car but needed to pick Camm up. She was worried as well and quickly drove me to the dentist's office. When I walked in the receptionist told me Camm was in the back. 

"Hey Camm! How are you?" I was excited to see him.

"Grr...mmm...bbb," he replied.

The dentist looked at him, "Camm, its ok to use your words now. You know how to talk."

Camm looked up at him, "Brr..llll....nnnn." He looked so serious yet was talking complete jibberish.

The dentist looked at me, "Apparently laughing gas really does a number on him. He just needs to sleep it off.

"Hey babe, let's go home," I said calmly. 

"Goo goo," he replied and I assumed that meant he was ready.

As we walked past the receptionist Camm looked at me almost panic stricken, "Momomomomo!"

"Uh, Camm, Let's go home," I tried to respond but before I knew it Camm had removed his wallet from his pocket and had chucked it right at the receptionist."

"Pay! Pay! Pay!" He now uttered his first word.

The receptionist handed back the wallet and said he would bill us later.

That didn't satisfy Camm. He kept trying to give the wallet back to the receptionist as I drug him out of the office.

Finally we arrived at home and I tucked Camm right into bed. I was in the kitchen when all of the sudden I saw Camm crawling in. (Yes, I typed that right. He was crawling in. Literally crawling.)

This is not a dog, not a cat, not a baby. This is Caveman Camm himself.

I watched him carefully as he snuck in, reached up to the kitchen table where a DVD was laying, grabbed it, and quickly crawled out.

I followed into the bedroom and said, "Uh, Camm. Any particular reason why you crawled in to get that DVD?"

"You no me let watch DVD," he replied almost emphatically.

"You don't think I'll let you watch a movie?"

"You no let me," he was almost mad.

"Camm, have I ever not let you do something before?" I asked.

He was dumbfounded, "You no let me watch movie today."

"Camm, I can turn it on for you if you want."

"You let Camm do watch?"

I turned it on and we sat together watching the movie: Regular ol' Mir with Caveman Camm at his best.

PS--If you like my blog, please click this link here. It will take you to the "Top Mommy Blogs" website and a vote will automatically be counted for me. This is all in my attempt to become rich (as mentioned in the first blog I ever wrote--hee hee hee). You can also vote by clicking the brown banner on the right side of the page that says "Top Mommy Blogs". You can only vote once a day--so don't go over board (as I'm sure you all were planning to)

My super-servicey mom

Hey everyone! Check out this super cool article about my mom here. She's basically famous.

Thesis DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!

I finally finished my thesis! WOOHOO!! Thanks to so many people. Thanks to all of the millions who have babysat. Thanks to my family for setting examples and encouraging me. Thanks to my committee members (Drs. Bahr, Gibbs, and Hoffmann) for all the hours you helped me. Thanks to my cohort for being so cool (especially Karen for knowing the answer to every question I have ever asked her). Thanks to my baby for being such a great sleeper. Thanks to my amazing hub for always helping me out with everything I do.

In celebration, I want to walk you through the process of writing my thesis:

Here was me sitting on my bed typing on my laptop when I first started working on my thesis. 

Here I was by the end of it trying to get that thing done. Brain fried...literally

And here I am now...WOOHOO!

Background check

For Camm’s current internship he was required to have a background check. While filling out the paperwork, he was asked whether he had been outside of the U.S.A. for more than six weeks. Since he’d spent four months teaching English in Mexico[i], he needed to get a background check from Mexico. How to go about doing that was beyond him, but he contacted a friend of a friend of a friend and ended up finding a list of things that he needed to scan in and send. Aside from the copy of his passport and the copy of his birth certificate, he also needed to send in a couple mug shots and a scanned image of his hands (I guess to see his finger prints?)

Criminal Face?

Scary?

Hands sprawled out on the scanner: do they look like they're just aching to steal something?

Eight months have passed and he still hasn't heard anything back. Should I brace myself to find out he was arrested in Mexico?

Apparently his job didn't care too much since he's been working at it.

---

[i] I wasn’t sure whether to put that he was working or doing volunteer work. He was supposed to be working, but his boss never ended up paying him. So it was unplanned volunteerism.

The 9th Habit

I think they say that everyone has 15 minutes of fame during their lifetime. Today I'm writing about my 15 seconds of fame (close enough, right?)

Camm got asked to speak at this really hoity-toity schmoozy-woozy dinner thing where all of the donors of our college were invited to attend. He was the only student who had to speak so I was pretty proud of my stellar hub (and he did a great job).
Anyway, we got all ready for the night and were looking pretty sharp.

Though we knew it was a big deal, we didn't realize it was such a big deal until we started looking around at the name-cards on each table. Holy cow! A lot of rich people would be there.
We found our name-cards at table 2:

In case they're too small to read, it says: Camm, Me, Mrs. Covey, Stephen R. Covey, some associate dean guy from our college, and his wife. That meant I was sitting RIGHT by Stephen R. Covey's wife)

We began to eat and I looked across at Stephen R. Covey. There he was eating his asparagus with his fingers. I found it slightly odd, but I figured if you're that rich, you can do whatever you want, right?

Then I looked at his wife. Apparently she didn't think he could do whatever he wants. If looks could kill, I would have witnessed the death of Stephen R. Covey right then and there. She glared at him with a look of death as if to say, "HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU THAT YOU HAVE TO USE A FORK IN PUBLIC?!"

He seemed to ignore the look, but glanced me a smirk as if to say "Well, apparently at least one more time":

And that was it. My 15 second of fame: characterized by an inside joke with a famous guy. Do you think it counts?

(Pictures of Stephen R. Covey come from here and here.)

Like Father. Like Daughter.

This is how my two babes wake up in the morning...

All hair sticking straight up

Thinner hair, but still sticking straight up.