Calling all Sleuths

So I've got a puzzle that needs to be solved, and anybody's invited to take a stab at it, including amateurs and trained professionals like Encyclopedia Brown, Super Sleuth or Robert Langdon.

I recently had someone proofread my personal statement for my residency application. He wrote some comments on the paper, but there's one word that Linzi and I have been unable to decipher. It's standalone, so there's no cues that point to its meaning. Let me know what you think.

(and yes, I know it says CLEAR STORY on the left...it's the other word I'm looking for)

Mt. Rushmore

So, after about a month of living 1300 miles apart, Linzi was able to come out to Utah for the last week that I was working out there. It was definitely nice to be together again...we're both big fans of actually being able to live with your spouse. We decided that for the drive home we'd split up the trip, add a few hundred miles to the route and stop by Mt. Rushmore (Linzi for some reason didn't want to do an 18 hour drive like I'd done going out to Utah).

I'll have to admit, our initial glimpse of this monument was rather unimpressive. We were winding up the road to the parking lot and came around a corner and it popped into view. It seemed so small. We both kind of glanced at the other and thought "It better be better up close." And it was...it really was. For those of you who haven't been there, you park, they have a big visitor's center/museum, and an amphitheater in front of the monument where they do a little program each night when they light up the monument. There's also a little walking trail that goes up to the base of the monument that has information on each of the presidents and good spots for pictures. As you might guess, I didn't get to read as much as I would have liked on the path and at the museum, but I think Linzi and I reached a happy medium. Up close you could really appreciate the size of these sculptures (they're scaled at ~450 ft tall), and the difficulty with which they were carved. I'm still perplexed at how something like this could be done (and I wish that they would have been able to finish it according to the original design).

All in all, I'm really glad that we stopped and got to see the monument, something we've both wanted to do for many years. We'd like to go back someday on Linzi's birthday and see all the festivities that go on then.

The only thing that dampened the trip (besides 23 hours driving), was some chipped-tooth police officer in South Dakota with a "state of the art, precise Laser gun" with which he caught me speeding. It was just a few miles from the border too. I guess it was lucky that it was one of my slower moments on the road, so the fine was less than it could have been if I'd been caught elsewhere. I know I was speeding, and did so for the vast majority of the trip...I'm just upset that I got caught...he ruined all the time I'd made up by going so fast. And then after being pulled over, he explained about how his amazing gun had caught me speeding, then made me go back to his car with him while he wrote me my ticket. He didn't catch my hints about being poor students...maybe I should have cried. Linzi tried to take pictures of the event, but none of them turned out. Sorry.

Despite their police force, I would highly recommend driving through South Dakota if you have the chance...very beautiful rolling hills, sunflower fields, quaint farmland...a MUCH better option than Wyoming and Nebraska...SO much better.

Dear Journal.......

So as I stated previously, Chris is out of town. I had mentioned to him on the phone that I needed something to do and he said why don't you write in your journal or read your journal or read my journal......well, I am not exactly a good journal keeper. (understatement of the year, I am not a journal keeper, that is why I blog).

Well, when I emptied out the nightstands in order to paint them, I came across this:

So I opened it up (note the previous permission given by the author) and once I started reading I couldn't stop. It was so fun to get to know high school Chris. I didn't know him at the time so it was fun to see what was important to him then, the relationships he had, the person he was.

One of my favorite posts went something like this:

February 1, 2000

I was utterly expecting to get a 4.0 again, because I knew what I was getting in most of my hard classes (an A). But to my horror, when I got my report card I was shocked to see an A-!.....IN CHOIR! I was flabbergasted! Luckily it was only a mistake. She had looked at another kid named "Brown" and thought that it was me (he had some tardies).

Then there was this one:

March 5, 2000

On Thursday I called her- THE FIRST GIRL I'VE EVER CALLED IN MY ENTIRE LIFE- and we talked for about 50 minutes. It wasn't as bad or as scary as I thought it would be.

It really was fun to get to know some of the parts of him that I wasn't there for and to see how he has changed and how he is still who he was back then. All in all, he is still the smart, charming, big word using, tiny handwriting U of U fan he has always been. I am glad he kept a journal and even more glad he said I could read it (I guess I will have to see how he feels about me posting bits of it). I highly suggest this to others- it provides insight, entertainment, and at many points comic relief!

Turning ugly into sort of ugly......

So Chris has been gone for two weeks now (he is doing an away rotation at the U of U and at a urology clinic for 4 weeks) and so I have been trying to scrape up projects to keep me busy in order to get me off the couch and to turn the tv off. Here are a few things I came up with:

I got a few old window panes a few years ago (we were driving in Kirkwood and we saw them by a garbage can so I went and knocked to ask the people if they were going to throw them away that I would love to have them instead). I was thinking of using it as a frame so now I need family pics to hang behind it.

I also decided that it was time to do something with these ugly nightstands that we have had since we got married. Thanks to Wendy's hand-sander, some paint, many visits to Lowe's, some fabulous new handles from Anthropology and a few phone calls to my dad, here are the finished products.

As you can see, they are far from perfect, but they now seem a little less ugly then before which is really all I was going for.

We're High Class

Yes, we have joined the high society of people that own barbecues. After 2 hand-me-down barbecues (1 which never worked, while the other worked maybe half the time), we decided that we would like to have a grill that actually worked. So we got one in time for our 4th of July barbecue this year. You're probably thinking, "Hey weirdos...having a new grill doesn't make you high class!"

To that I respond, "You're absolutely correct." But I should note that the method of getting our new barbecue home is what has launched us into the upper echelon of high class society. Obviously our car is too small to have put the pre-assembled unit in the trunk. We tried to fit an unassembled unit in a box into the trunk, but once again, to no avail. So we decided to wheel the pre-assembled unit home, from the parking lot at Lowe's to our back porch...almost 1/2 mile in total. As you can see, we were beaming with pride as we brought our new little friend home.

The best holiday of the year...

So I happen to really love the 4th of July. I mean, you get a BBQ, fireworks, parades, summer, and friends all rolled into one (oh yeah, and it happens to be my birthday!)

Yes, I did get a delicious ice cream cake from DQ that

was decorated for a 5 year old little boy complete with

lime green and orange monsters

Allen's and Van B's didn't let us down with quite a firework

show (note plastic baseball bat being used as launcher)

No firework show is complete without starting a fire

in the sewer...or at least not when you live in Mecham Park!

(Thanks to the White's for providing their jug of

Kool-aid to extinguish it)

After much anticipation.......

Well, graduation finally came after what feels like years of never ending schooling. I found out that I passed my board exam the day before (I am still shocked that in a mere 75 questions they know that I am qualified and know enough to be an RN!)













Hatty and Terry came to share in the celebration. We feasted at Pappy's Smokehouse afterward and then went to Grant's farm and then to a Cardinals baseball game. It sure was hot, but we didn't let that stop us, we just consumed shave ice and ice cream to make it bearable!