Pinewood Derby

Last night our Elders' Quorum had a Pinewood Derby. I was pretty excited about the whole thing. I spent a little more than an hour one night this week plotting out what I would make with my block of wood and making very rough cuts with an enormous wood saw by hand on our living room floor, since it was too cold to do it outside. I don't recommend cutting a 2"x1.5" piece of wood this way. Then, I made the next cuts with a jigsaw borrowed from a friend, a utility knife, a drill, and again, a hand saw. I drilled holes in the bottom to put some lead weights in, and accidentally drilled straight through the car, covering the hole with one of the convenient number stickers that came with the car. Here's what I had:

So when I got to the Derby, I weighed my car, and it came in at about half the weight allowed. So, I borrowed a couple weights off of one of the Elders (yes, the Elders were there, with pretty sweet cars too), attached some more weights to the top, and here's the final, intimidating product:

Sadly, after probably 4 hours of working on my car, it came in sixth. It at least got into the final round, but took last out of those cars. And it did better than others that obviously took even more time to create. Of course, what made it disappointing was that a guy who took his unpainted wood block, whittled down the front corners, and taped quarters on the back came in fourth. I want my Saturday back. Here's a picture of the competition, with the winning three cars closest in the foreground:

The Batmobile is an Elder's car. I guess some Elders lift weights with bagfuls of the Book of Mormon, and some make Pinewood Derby cars. To each his own.

If you have any winning Pinewood Derby strategies, please post them for next time around. Happy derbying.

Well, I just got tagged for the first time ever so I guess I'll give it a go. Plus, I don't really have anything else too exciting to write about! Here it goes...

10 years ago I was...
In 8th grade and pretty much the most random dresser ever - bright orange bell bottoms, HUGE baggy pants, power ranger t-shirts, you name it. I was also voted "Most Likely to Make a Fashion Statement" by my peers. At the time I was pretty excited. Looking back, I think they were mocking me and my lack of fashion sense.

If I were suddenly a billionaire...
I would pay off our student loans! That would be awesome. And I would travel to every continent other than Antarctica. I would also give money to friends/family/others. I would also buy a bongo drum. I've been asking for a bongo drum for years but everyone other than me thinks that's a bad idea. I don't know why. I've got killer rhythm.

Things on my to do list today...
Not much. We don't do much on Sunday aside from church. I'd like to write in the baby's journal I'm keeping. And make sure I've read the Sunday School lesson for next week. And eat ice cream. That's always a top priority.

3 bad habits...
Like Betsy, who tagged me, I watch too much TV.
I used to totally gnaw off my finger nails. I stopped doing it my first year of college but then I started again! After being embarrassed to go get manicures over the summer w/ ladies from Dan's internship, I decided it was time to quit. Since then, I've been pretty good about not biting them. Today, they look fantastic if I do say so myself.
Surfing the internet when I should be doing more productive things.

Places I've lived...
Oak Park, California
Earlysville, Virginia
Provo, Utah

5 Jobs I've had...
Hostess at a local restaurant
Cashier/bagger at local grocery store
MTC CAFETERIA! BEST JOB EVER! (Thanks, Britt)
Night office manager of student apartment complex (Thanks again, Britt!)
Outreach Coordinator for nonprofit

5 Things about me...
I love Dan!
I got kissed by Franki Valli when I was 14 and it was the best day of my life until I got married.
Try not to be jealous.

I can't think of anything else right now and Dan wants to play Boggle so maybe I'll add some more later. If you're still reading this, you rock!

The Best of Both Worlds

In an effort to help us cease speculation about the future appearance of our little one, my brother Ryan put together this picture using bits and pieces from both me and Dan's absolute best attributes. Isn't he thoughtful? So, we'd like to introduce you to the munchkin in my belly:Look out, world!

Houston, we have a...

Today we had our "big" ultrasound. Other than waiting in the waiting room for OVER THIRTY MINUTES past when the appointment was supposed to start, the appointment was really cool. The ultrasound technician was really thorough checking out baby bean and making sure that all of its parts are in working order. We got to see all kinds of its organs and things. We liked when she turned on this thing that lets you see the blood flow in and out of the umbilical cord. At one point, she was looking at the stomach and Dan and I both thought we caught a glimpse of something. Sure enough, later in the ultrasound we found out that we're having a baby boy! Dan had a feeling that it was going to be a boy. He was right. I guess it's a manly intuition. At first, the baby was being pretty modest and wouldn't let her get a good look, but later on the proof was undeniable. Yay! We're having a little Dan. Of course, we had all kinds of girls names that we liked. Guess we'll have to save those for later. Unless we want to name our son Naomi... We have only a few boys names that we can both tolerate. If you have any suggestions, send them our way!
Also, to get a glimpse of what 50% of our little one might look like, here's a picture of Dan at 8 months. He's a dollface.

That's right. Try not to be jealous! I have hereby been declared a VIT by Ben & Jerry's. "What does this mean?" you ask. Free ice cream? Free deals? Fame and fortune? Say as to what flavors should become a part of the Ben & Jerry's legacy? Oh, no, my friends. I'll tell you.

Being a VIT means that each Tuesday in February, from 5-7 p.m., I can go to B&J's and get a free sample of a new flavors. Sounds good, right? Well, come to find out this free sample is 1 ounce. 1 stinkin' ounce. But the good news is that I can bring friends if I do decide to go all the way to Ben and Jerry's for 1 tiny ounce of ice cream goodness. If you're interested, this week it's cake batter. Let me know if you want to go. Actually, Tuesday might be a good day since it's supposed to be 70 degrees!

And in other news, we should hopefully know if we're having a boy or girl TOMORROW!

Life in Copeley

Despite all of the drawbacks to living in family housing (no dishwasher or garbage disposal, 1 washer/dryer per building, past residents' hairs glued to the floor, etc.), I must admit that Dan and I have enjoyed our time here for the most part. Dan's walk to school is under 5 minutes. My drive to work is under 5 minutes. We've seen squirrels, groundhogs, woodpeckers, deer, skunks, raccoons and foxes all pretty close to our aparment.

Perhaps one of the best things about living here is the diversity of the residents. We're the only Americans in our building. We've got Chinese, Chilean, and Indian neighbors. In the building behind ours is a Russian family. Just the other night the dad decided to have a big old fire right underneath his make-shift sun porch (a tarp on sticks). The fire may not look big, but take my word for it - it looked like his tarp was going to catch on fire at any minute. Sorry the picture isn't bigger. When I zoomed in, it got blurry... The guy who lived there before him was from France and one day I looked out to see him and his buddies having a bongo party. They were all just slapping their bongos while other people danced. He was pretty crazy but very entertaining as well. I hate to say it, but we're going to miss this place when we move this summer!

In other news, thanks to everyone who has taken our gender poll! The final tally was 16 votes for girl and 10 votes for boy. We'll find out for sure next week (unless the little bean doesn't cooperate in which case I'll be really disappointed!). We're really excited. Here's the latest prego picture from me at 21 weeks. Yes, my cheek is really shiny. And I promise I'm not trying to stick out my belly!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Kristen waited me out. I figured it was about time we had another post, and Kristen hasn't done it yet, so now you're subjected to one of my posts. Here's what we've been up to...

We stayed in C'ville for Christmas and New Years. Here's me doing something like Blue Steel with my beautiful Christmas stocking, which is about twice as big as Kristen's stocking. Santa got me lots of Reese's bells, which I've determined are not as good as Reese's minis. So now Santa knows for next year.
Here's Kristen with all of her Christmas loot. Note the birdseed on her lap. She seems to love telling people that I got her birdseed for Christmas. Maybe she's hoping that I'll feel sorry for her and buy her some more birdseed.

Then we went to St. George, Utah, for Kristen's sister's wedding. The luncheon was catered by the restaurant in this Holiday Inn. Congradulations Candice and Craig! Take luck with being married.
They got married in the St. George temple, which was really pretty, especially when the weather cleared up, and the sky was blue. It was nice to go to St. George, have some warm weather, and come back to C'ville where it's been in the 60s.
This is just another classy portrait that Kristen took of me outside the St. George temple. She always knows how to accentuate my good side. Thanks, Kriwten!

Guess what...

That's right! Little baby Durst is due June 4th-ish. I'm about 15 and a half weeks along and feeling pretty good. I've only thrown up a few times. We've gotten to see the baby 5 times so far. At first it looked like an egg, but now it looks like a cute alien. We're really excited! We'll find out if it's a boy or girl in Feb at about 21 weeks. Merry Christmas.

The Hap- Happiest Season of All

Tonight is my work party. Thankfully, one of the perks of being Mormon is that you don't have to worry about what you may accidentally DO at the Christmas party and not remember the next day:

However, you've still gotta love Elaine. This image used to dance before. I don't know why it's not working. Try this. P.S. Sorry for the swear word.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAN!

Today Dan turns the big 2-6! Have a great day, sweetie! I love you so much.

I WANNA BE A PART OF IT - NEW YORK, NEW YORK

We went to New Haven and New York a couple weekends ago, to visit Kristen's brother and sister-in-law and to see the city. Here are some of the highlights:

First, Kirk (Kristen's brother) took us to the local overlook. It must be a pretty popular make-out spot, as all good overlooks are.

Then Kirk and Gretchen (Kristen's sister-in-law) took us out for some famous New Haven "apizza" (that's New Havenese for "pizza"). It was as delicious as it looks.

Then we went on a tour of Yale's campus with Kirk, where Kristen took lots of really nice artistic pictures, and we learned that hamburgers, frisbees, education, diversity, and pants were invented at Yale. Where would we be without those guys?! Summer barbeques would sure be boring, I can tell you that much! Yale really did have a beautiful campus.

We went down to New York City and saw the Statue of Liberty. It was impressive. I didn't know that you could no longer go up to her head inside the statute. You can only go to the pedestal on which she stands. Oh well. It was still cool.

Then we went to Times Square, which also seemed like a pretty good make-out spot, judging by all the making out we saw there. We also went to Rockefeller Center and saw where they do the Today Show, which was exciting. They had the Christmas tree up too, though it was surrounded by scaffolding.

And perhaps most importantly, I got to chase some geese, which was a real blast.

California, Here I Come!

Well, not much new here... I'm just in San Diego on a business trip. But don't get too jealous. My trip involves standing on an uncomfortable carpet for 2 days and pawning off free stuff to social studies teachers from across the country. At least the convention center is pretty!

Today we went to the San Diego Zoo and tonight we're going to some pretty restaurant for din. Hopefully Dan will post some pics about our trip to New Haven a few weeks ago while I'm gone (hint, hint!).

Things I'm grateful for:

DAN
How could you not love this face? Dan's the best. He's fun, funny, happy, and a very loving a sweet husband. I'm so grateful for him everyday!


THE GOSPEL

The gospel has blessed my life in countless ways. I think what I appreciate most about it is the peace that it brings to my life. I'm grateful I was raised in a home where I was taught about the plan of salvation and my purpose here on earth.


FAMILY AND FRIENDSThese guys are the best! I love them all so much. My family is just fantastic and we have so much fun together! It will be exciting to be "complete" as far as in-laws go come January, 2008! (Although he was welcomed into the family picture prematurely... Good thing things worked out!)



THE EARTH

It's a beautiful place and I'm so glad that we've gotten to see so much of it. We're still quite a bit shy of seeing all 50 states, though. That's our next goal.

Those are just a few things that I thought of. I'm just grateful for this time of the year where everyone is so focused on what they've been GIVEN. We're really blessed.

My first attempt...

I'm not a seamstress. I don't think I will ever be a seamstress. But for four hours Thursday night, my mom and I worked to finish this baby blanket I made for my old college roommate's baby shower on Saturday. I did some more work on it Friday. I hope she liked it okay!

Congrats, Katrina! You're going to be a great mom and I'm so excited for you!

Let's Go Wahoos!

Dan and I got to go to the Virginia v. Wake Forest football game last week. It was our last UVA football game ever! (Unless we come back in the future.) It was an absolutely beautiful day and we had a great time. Thanks, Kimber, for the extra ticket!

SHAKE OF THE SUMMER UPDATE

After all of our travels this summer, I forgot to publish my winner for the best shake of the summer. As of Houston, it was a dutch chocolate shake at a place called Amy's. After our trips to Utah and California, I would say it's a tie between the chocolate shake at In-n-Out Burger (man, would it be nice to live near one of those...), or a hole-in-the-wall introduced to me by my brother called Crazy Otto's Diner in Lancaster, California. The shake was massive and fabulous. If anyone still cares to say they know of a better chocolate shake, I would be more than happy to test it out with you!

P.S. I don't know why the font and the picture are so massive. Sorry.

Back during freshman year at Brigham Young University, I had a roommate who, when she showered, would put any hair that fell out on the shower wall. At first, I thought that was pretty disgusting (No offense! You know I love you!) but after a while, I realized that the idea had merit. She was doing her part, as one of six girls, not to clog the shower drain. I'm sure the drain still got clogged multiple times due to the rest of us, but we could never point fingers at her!

Later on, I recall having a discussion about people putting hair on the walls in the shower. I think the other people I talked to about it also found it gross. But by that time, I was hooked. I just put my hair on the side of the shower wall while I'm showering and then afterwards throw it away. I'm telling you - it's great! You definitely have fewer problems with drainage... or so I thought.

So Dan and I have been living in the same apartment in on-campus family housing for the past two years. During that time, we have never clogged the shower drain. NEVER. I would like to think that it's all thanks to a handy tip I learned from my roommate back in the day. But just this past week or two, our tub has been getting clogged. Slowly, but surely, clogged. It would always eventually drain, but it took forever. This Sunday is was so bad that we decided something must be done, but we weren't about to do it ourselves, so we reported the problem to maintenance first thing on Monday (one of very few perks associated w/ renting). Apparently they came yesterday. Dan came home from school and called me at work "Uh, Kristen... maintenance came and unplugged our drain. They left the remains in the toilet. Do you want me to save it for you to see?" My response, "Heck, yes!" I couldn't wait to see. At 5 o'clock, I flew out of work and ran to the bathroom of our apartment to see this:

****[PICTURE REMOVED DUE TO EMBARASSMENT FROM THE AUTHORS. Just picture a toilet with a huge HUGE nasty hairball that is disgusting. If you would like to see the actual image, please email one of the authors. We will send it to you upon request.]***

So much for doing my part to keep our drain from clogging! This thing was massively disgusting! I couldn't believe that maintenance decided to put it in our toilet, no less! But there it was in all of its glory. We were afraid to flush the toilet for fear that it would clog that, too, but it went down pretty smoothly. (Dan's note: Since this is family housing, and we already have no lack of our predecessors' hairs clear-coated to our floor, I wouldn't be surprised if some of this hairball was made before we moved in.)

Just wanted to share. And here are a few pictures of our pumpkins.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

We've got a gross post coming, so be on the lookout.

Yesterday was the ward Trunk or Treat. Earlier this week, Dan gave me a $20 spending limit for costumes and told me that he would wear whatever I brought home. SWEET! Here's what I picked out:

Angels. This was probably the only time I'll ever get Dan to wear furry, glittery wings and a headband. But the bonus was it only cost $12! And I'm sure our future children will get some good use out of them. But unlike daddy, only the girls. There were some other really great costumes and the chili and cornbread were fabulous. I made my mom's Agoura First Ward Chili Cook-off winning recipe, but it brought me no such luck.

After the dinner, the kids had a trunk or treat in the parking lot. Dan and I created a cardbaord wall to cover the trunk once it was open so that Dan could lay inside our car and hand out candy from holes cut in the cardboard.

Most of the kids liked it. We only made one child cry. (This picture doesn't do it justice. I used the flash.) So kids walked up to the holes and said, "Trick or treat" and this bloody hand would reach out with a piece of candy. Many kids were too afraid to take it. We made the older kids stick their hands in there and once they did, Dan would grab it and growl. Good times. Dan even scared the bishop's wife pretty bad... We're saving the cardboard for next year. The people of Houston don't know what's comin'.

And an aside - I just finished reading Ender's Game. Aside from the fact that it's science fiction and for children ages 10 and up, I REALLY liked it. Ender is now in contention with Bear for future boy's names.