Your Input

I was recently given the opportunity to become the Director of Internships for the organization I interned for during my Bulgaria service. I am really excited to be able to help out the organization and to start recruiting interns!

I am going to be holding an information meeting on the BYU campus sometime soon, and I need my blog reading friends' help! I want to give out some little thing to help people keep us in mind (kind of like a business card, but cooler)

If you were going to this internship meeting, what would you want to receive to help you keep One Heart Bulgaria in mind if you were ever interested in interning with them? So far I've only come up with pens but to be honest, I don't know if enough people will show up to the info meeting to make it worth the cost. But, if it would work, I'm willing to try to get it approved!

If you guys could help me out, that would be awesome! Also, anything else you'd want to know about/get/hear at this info meeting. We're (Tony and I) bringing homemade baklava which *pats self on back* tastes VERY authentic. So yeah, a free piece of baklava! I don't know how I can top that, but we'll see what you've got! :)

Creative Juices

Lately I've been trying to be creative. It started with a cake for Tony's birthday. I am quite notorious for my baking disasters in the kitchen. I never burn anything and it always TASTES good, but something falls apart or something else happens so that it just looks hideous. Well folks, this time I did my homework and took two days to make the cake you see below. It was the most gorgeous, most delicious yellow cake I've ever had. I'll refer you to the recipe if you wish. I think next time I won't use a ganache frosting (it was a bit too rich) but other than that it was perfection. Nothing I did mind you, I just found a good recipe with good tips and instructions.

I put it in a cake box to keep it safe on its journey to Sandy.

In other creative news, Tony bought me a Silhouette for an early birthday present. His company was having a huge warehouse sale and so it was only $100! Its regular retail price is $299. He also hooked me up with a free unlimited year subscription to the online store where I can download all of the images I want! Yay for husbands who work at scrapbooking companies!


I made this card with my Sil for my friend Amie, who graduated from college this past Saturday.

And last but not least, here is my "Halloween Blocks" project. I don't have many Halloween decorations so I made some. I bought the wooden blocks at Robert's, painted them, cut some cute halloween letters and shapes with my Sil, glued them down, and used some modgepodge to hold it all in place. I love them! Tony suggested that on the other side I make it say "Trick or Treat" so I can have two messages. I liked the idea and I plan on doing that sometime this week. I feel so crafty!

The Dentist

So, about a month ago I went to the dentist for my regular check-up. All went well (I did have a couple tiny cavities..boo..) but something during my visit really stuck out to me this time. I had noticed it before, but never as much as this particular time.

Do you notice that after the assistant is done cleaning your teeth, the dentist comes in, says hello to you, and then you somehow disappear from the dentist chair? He leans you back (like, past straight so your head has all the blood rushing to it) and checks your teeth. He then starts a charming conversation with his assistant: "So, Chrissy, did your boys like the pool party you went to the other day?" "Oh yes Dr. Nate" and they go on like this pausing only to call out numbers of rotten teeth you have. Then they raise you up in the chair. You still aren't sure what's going on or what is going to happen next. The dentist begins taking his gloves off, puts his hand on your shoulder, tells you how many cavities you have, then leaves. Did he even know I was here? I could have just left my teeth for him and done some shopping! That would probably look funny, though. Don't get me wrong, our dentist is great, it's just funny when he does this.

I thought it was really funny after that appointment, but this past Friday I had to go in for my fillings and things were a little different. Let's just start off by saying this: I have a new friend, and her name is Nitrus Oxide. Tony suggested I get it to calm my nerves and I loved it. It was so relaxing! Because I was on Nitrus, the dentist didn't get away with his "ingore Hollie chatter." While they were waiting for me to get numb they began talking and I (partially without realizing) said "hey! the left side of my mouth isn't numb yet, is that okay?" Looking shocked that I spoke up he said "well, I'll go slow and you raise your hand if it hurts." Satisfied with the answer, I closed my eyes and let him go to town.

During this process, however, the tubes feeding me my joyful juice were pinching my cheek. I kept reaching up, getting in the dentist's way each time, to adjust it. Finally after the fourth or fifth time, the doctor realized what was going on. "Oh no, I'm stepping on your tube!" he said. He took his foot off of it and adjusted it so it wouldn't pinch me anymore. When he did all that I suddenly felt a WHOLE lot better, too. He was cutting off my supply!

In the end I did well, it only took about 25 minutes and I was happy as a clam. The only not-so-fun thing was the incredibly numb mouth I had for 3 hours afterward. I'm just glad it's over now. I can't say I'm a fan of the dentist, though ours is terrific.

My Midnight Thoughts

I apologize for the lack of blogging. I just started the semester and figuring out my new schedule has been kind of difficult for me. So, here I find myself at midnight with a spare moment to blog about what's on my mind. Don't worry, no heavy politics here. I'm off the stuff. ;)

What's been on my mind recently has been the idea of the innocence of childhood. There are a couple reasons for this: 1) I am taking an amazingly interesting class on Race and Minority groups and we've been talking about the honesty of children, and 2) I feel that I am extremely naive because when I talk to other people about issues in the world today, I am just concerned that we are being nice to one another. I feel like a little kid when I think "well, that's just plain not nice!" Not that I posses the innocence of a child, but sometimes I feel like one.

In my class we are reading a book by a man named Wendell Berry called The Hidden Wound (amazing story, I recommend it). Berry is describing his feelings about having grown up on a farm in the south where his grandfather owned slaves. It's a very complex book about this "hidden wound" but the part I read the other day has just stuck with me and I cannot get it out of my mind.

Berry is very good friends with the black slaves on his grandfather's farm (named Nick and Aunt Georgie) and decides to invite Nick to his birthday party. Nick, knowing full well he could not enter the house for the party, sat outside on a bench and observed the party. Berry saw him, and decided he would rather be with Nick than be with the party because he loved him. After relaying this story, Berry says the following: (These are just a few exerpts)

To both the racist and the puritan, childhood is not a time of life that we grow out of, as the life of the child grows out of the life of the parent or as a plant grows out of the soil, but a time and a state of consciousness to be left behind, to cut oneself off from: "when I became a man, I put away childish things."

I am not necessarily objecting to the manly virtues, but I am objecting that they
should be so exlusively assigned to grownups, and that grownups should be so exlusively restritced to them. A man may have all the prescribed adult virtues and, if he lacks the childhood virtues, still be a dunce and a bore and a liar.

Under the dispensations of childhood, a child may cross the boundaries of class and race and property with a good deal of freedom, and his reason for crossing these boundaries is his honesty in the face of experience.

You see this all the time in children. They see no color, no political party, no rich or poor. They simply love everyone around them. I saw this a lot as I served in the orphanages in Bulgaria. The young children did not care that I was different, they just loved me because I was a person...just like them.

It's sad that we lose this "childhood honesty" as Berry talks about. Wouldn't the world be so perfectly splendid if we all acted as children do? I don't think we should be childISH, but childLIKE. I don't know if honesty is a good word to use, because I don't think that we all suddenly become horrible people when we are adults, but I do believe that as we enter adulthood social pressures and expectations somehow force us into being grown up, and not so loving and innocent and simple anymore.

As people rant and rave about politics and Obama's healthcare reform plan, I can't help but wonder what Obama feels like as people yell at him as he is trying to clarify his plans. I would hate to be President. I would cry myself to sleep every night. On my facebook status once I said that I wish I could tell Obama that I think he's a good man. Man, oh mighty did that get people going. I wish we all (including me) could look at Obama--and everyone for that matter!--and see the good in them, as a little child would do. I know I said no politics, but this is about people, not issues at hand.

Thanks for listening (er..reading) my thoughts. I just feel like this world needs to start being a kinder place or we are in some serious trouble. I am going to try harder to follow some true examples. Children.

Naska and Mimi, from the Bratsigovo, Bulgaria orphanage

Contacts and Bats

Well, it seems as if I chose a race that was a little too soon to train for. It's quite alright, though. There are plenty of 5Ks around to do. That one did sound pretty fun, but I want to run it well and make sure I can get the goal. I won't be Beating Beethoven this year.

In other news, I have been trying to get used to contacts this week. I started wearing them 4 hours the first day and I am supposed to increase my time by 2 hours each day until I get to "all day" wear. They're not too bad, really. I love being able to see 100% without hauling my glasses around. My eyesight wasn't horrible, but have contacts all the time is making my life so easy, and my headaches haven't been happening as much.

Putting them in was a little scary at first, but now I'm a pro at it. It's just the taking them out that I can't get a hang of. It takes me like 15 minutes to get them out. Is this normal?? I have to be doing some sort of damage to my eye by poking it that many times. Maybe I need to reconsider my form.

I'm really excited to have contacts for school. Wearing my glasses during lectures was so annoying, and it made my nose really sore and oily by the end of the day. Now I'll be able to see those powerpoints easy-cheesy! School starts a week from today and I'm getting quite anxious. I'm excited to start learning again. I'm also excited to graudate at the end of this year.

Nothing too exciting going on right now. We DO have a bat living in our hallway. We've named him Battier, after Shane Battier from the Houston Rockets.

Beat Beethoven!

I've found a new race! Next month Pleasant Grove is hosting a 5K race for Pleasant Grove Heritage Days called "Can You Beat Beethoven?" It's awesome--they play Beethoven's 5th over loud speakers for the duration of the race, and people who finish before the last note of the symphony (approx. 32 minutes) get a pin that says "I beat Beethoven!" I began training today so that I can totally beat Beethoven. I know for some finishing a 5K in 32 minutes is no biggie, but I've never focused on speedwork so this is a new challenge for me.

I am so stoked to beat Beethoven. I have 5 weeks to conquer this composer, and I'm going to do it.

Poof-less

Well, come to find out they don't do the old puff of air test anymore. What a relief! :) I did find out that I am forever doomed. My astigmatism has worsened and now I'm a full-time prescription wearer. I have to call on Thursday to set up an appointment get fitted for contacts. Ugh, I'm not excited about that. The doctor says it will be a lengthy process because of my astigmatism situation. Hopefully it will help with my reoccuring headaches, though.

We have the dentist on Thursday and they'll probably talk to me again about Invisalign braces--which are also supposed to help with my jaw/headache problems.

One day all of my problems will be solved!