I am officially done with school. December 12th was graduation, but I wasn't there. Instead, I was coaching at an AAU tournament in Tri-Cities. I really wasn't sure how we'd do seeing as we were down to 5 girls thanks to traveling families and illness. So we picked up two girls from a nearby town I hadn't met until the night before our first game. They were good, and they helped our girls perform well too. Our first game they won by 20+ points. The second we didn't play as well, but they won by 6 or 8. Sunday, they won a really close game by 2 while we were at church. Then we got there just after their last game started Sunday afternoon and they won by 40+. So the girls won out and were divisional champs. I was so proud!
Anyway, back to school. My last final was December 17th and I am so glad to be done! Steve and I were also surprised and grateful that my parents got us a computer for my graduation present so that I can begin working on posters when we get back.
I was also excited and grateful to the UI College of Natural Resources. Not only have they given me scholarships and worked with me so I could finish my degree, but they also shipped me my honors cords from graduation since I wasn't there to pick them up and thanked me for being a good student. I'm so grateful to the UI, especially CNR for the great experiences and financial and social support I received there.
But I won't have as much time to work on them when we get back as I had planned because I am also officially employed. I am the second coach for the Mabton Middle School girls' basketball teams. Hooray for finally contributing and having a job!
So, I am officially done with everything undergrad and employed, and Steve and I are officially excited.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Monday, December 7, 2009
Averting old age by playing dress up
So many of you know that in 2 short months I turn 30 and thus begin the irreversible decline into the pit of old age. Ugh. Time for drastic measures, time to unleash my inner and outer child and have some pretend play to try and save some of my youth.
Behold Sam Fisher, one of the most badass videogame characters ever drawn. The Splinter Cell Chaos Theory is one of my all time favorite games. No matter what guys say, we only play video games because we can't actually do the stuff in the game.....like sneaking up and taking out a terrorist.
Ok so I have a gun instead of a knife, I'm wearing mainly blue instead of all black, and these days I'm not sure I could sneak up on a marching band but I AM wearing the headlight so its still close right? Maybe I'm trying for the wrong character......
Jack Bauer!! YEAH!!! Saves the USA from nuclear attack, biological attack, chemical attack, Presidential assassinations, you name it. No tact needed here, maybe I'm more of a Jack Bauer type. I need to make a decision I AM RUNNING OUT OF TIME TO COMPLETE THIS BLOG!
Gun? Check. Badass look of "I just wanna shoot bad guys"? Check. Jack Bauer magic bag that carries half an armored brigade? Well I put a belt over my shoulder to look like I am carrying Jack Bauer's magic bag containing half an armored brigade........Damn pwned again.
So what brought on all this silliness? Well making Nicolle laugh by doing random stupid stuff just never gets old. But beyond that, that headlight has a story to it. So lets play a game, its called "Where's the car starter."
So...could you find the starter in this picture? Yeah nether could I. Couple of days ago we were in Tri-Cities when the solenoid stuck on our car. To fix it, I needed to find the starter and hit it to try and unjam the solenoid. Problem was, it was night, pitch black, and we were in a parking lot. Our good fortune was that we happened to have car troubles in the parking lot of a Lowes, so all the tools I needed were just a debit card swipe away. Part of the purchases was the headlight so I could see WHAT THE BLOODY HELL I WAS DOING.
Yeah, thats where some GENIUS engineer decided to hide the starter, it would be less cruel to give a "Where's Waldo" book to Stevie Wonder. All it all it cost me $15 in new tools, and three layers of skin off of my fingers. But we got the car going and got back to Prosser. After this experience, well maybe I wasn't thinking of shooting a bad guy in this pose but shooting the engineer who designed our freaking car.
Behold Sam Fisher, one of the most badass videogame characters ever drawn. The Splinter Cell Chaos Theory is one of my all time favorite games. No matter what guys say, we only play video games because we can't actually do the stuff in the game.....like sneaking up and taking out a terrorist.
Ok so I have a gun instead of a knife, I'm wearing mainly blue instead of all black, and these days I'm not sure I could sneak up on a marching band but I AM wearing the headlight so its still close right? Maybe I'm trying for the wrong character......
Jack Bauer!! YEAH!!! Saves the USA from nuclear attack, biological attack, chemical attack, Presidential assassinations, you name it. No tact needed here, maybe I'm more of a Jack Bauer type. I need to make a decision I AM RUNNING OUT OF TIME TO COMPLETE THIS BLOG!
Gun? Check. Badass look of "I just wanna shoot bad guys"? Check. Jack Bauer magic bag that carries half an armored brigade? Well I put a belt over my shoulder to look like I am carrying Jack Bauer's magic bag containing half an armored brigade........Damn pwned again.
So what brought on all this silliness? Well making Nicolle laugh by doing random stupid stuff just never gets old. But beyond that, that headlight has a story to it. So lets play a game, its called "Where's the car starter."
So...could you find the starter in this picture? Yeah nether could I. Couple of days ago we were in Tri-Cities when the solenoid stuck on our car. To fix it, I needed to find the starter and hit it to try and unjam the solenoid. Problem was, it was night, pitch black, and we were in a parking lot. Our good fortune was that we happened to have car troubles in the parking lot of a Lowes, so all the tools I needed were just a debit card swipe away. Part of the purchases was the headlight so I could see WHAT THE BLOODY HELL I WAS DOING.
Yeah, thats where some GENIUS engineer decided to hide the starter, it would be less cruel to give a "Where's Waldo" book to Stevie Wonder. All it all it cost me $15 in new tools, and three layers of skin off of my fingers. But we got the car going and got back to Prosser. After this experience, well maybe I wasn't thinking of shooting a bad guy in this pose but shooting the engineer who designed our freaking car.
Holidays past and upcoming
Well, we're not very exciting now that the weather has gotten colder, and as such we haven't had as many adventures to tell you about as of late. However, we did spend a fun (and oh so tasty) Thanksgiving with Steve's family. I was lame, and totally forgot to take pictures. But here were some of the highlights:
We were able to go to our nephew Tyler's Eagle Scout Court of Honor. We are so proud of him and you could feel the family beaming all around. It was a great night.
We got to have a couple of family dinners and movie nights with family members who don't usually get to see which was really exciting!The Bennett women (3 generations - not including myself) made an amazing Thanksgiving dinner that we thoroughly enjoyed!
This was this year's annual desecration of Reva's Thanksgiving pilgrim figurines. That dastardly turkey is always up to something, and this year was no different. Poor pilgrim girl is only moments away from being launched. Steve and Ray spent much of the night before and Thanksgiving morning working on a tinker-toys trebuchet. And then we put it to good use. Brilliant Kathy, brilliant. I wish I'd thought to get a picture or video of Reva's response. So much fun!
We also spent some time letting Amanda play with pets. She is never sure if she likes the gliders on her or not, but we did get one good picture of her with a glider. Kathy also brought Sunshine and Confetti, Amanda's two parakeets which are some of our birds' chicks.
We had a great time visiting family and felt better leaving knowing that we'll be back in a month rather than 6+ months.
When we got back, it was officially time to decorate for Christmas! Steve is a firm believer that decorations don't come out until after Thanksgiving and was especially firm in this belief as our local stores began selling Christmas decorations in EARLY OCTOBER!
It's the little things in life isn't it?
We were able to go to our nephew Tyler's Eagle Scout Court of Honor. We are so proud of him and you could feel the family beaming all around. It was a great night.
We got to have a couple of family dinners and movie nights with family members who don't usually get to see which was really exciting!The Bennett women (3 generations - not including myself) made an amazing Thanksgiving dinner that we thoroughly enjoyed!
This was this year's annual desecration of Reva's Thanksgiving pilgrim figurines. That dastardly turkey is always up to something, and this year was no different. Poor pilgrim girl is only moments away from being launched. Steve and Ray spent much of the night before and Thanksgiving morning working on a tinker-toys trebuchet. And then we put it to good use. Brilliant Kathy, brilliant. I wish I'd thought to get a picture or video of Reva's response. So much fun!
We also spent some time letting Amanda play with pets. She is never sure if she likes the gliders on her or not, but we did get one good picture of her with a glider. Kathy also brought Sunshine and Confetti, Amanda's two parakeets which are some of our birds' chicks.
We had a great time visiting family and felt better leaving knowing that we'll be back in a month rather than 6+ months.
When we got back, it was officially time to decorate for Christmas! Steve is a firm believer that decorations don't come out until after Thanksgiving and was especially firm in this belief as our local stores began selling Christmas decorations in EARLY OCTOBER!
We haven't had time to put up outside lights yet as that will take both of us, a little warmer weather, and some daylight. But here's what we have so far. I did put a few lights up in our only street-facing window, which happens to be the animal room. It looks much cooler here with the reflection of the lights and the lights themselves. From outside it looks pretty sad...
This is a Christmas present from Ray and Reva that I love.
Another decoration I love which Steve and I gave ourselves. I love the gentle and loving feeling of Willow Tree nativities, and how human and personal they make the birth of Christ.
Our Christmas tree! Our tree with all of our fun family-provided ornaments on our tiny tree from my parents. Maybe next year if we have more room we'll have a larger tree, but for now this one is fun and still provides a healthy dose of the Christmas spirit to our living room.
And our nativity my parents got us. I love having a reminder in our home of the real meaning and purpose of the Christmas season.
Our last bit of news is that both of our cars are becoming quite temperamental. As a result, we will be needing the garage for some auto maintenance soon which finally prompted me to clean it. Really, it doesn't seem so impressive as it's still a major storage area for our extra stuff and still contains some packed boxes, but you should have seen what it looked like before. On second thought, you really shouldn't have. It was completely trashed after building two animal cages, searching through boxes for random packed items, and throwing all of our recycling out loose in the garage. But, no more! And now each time I go out into our storage facility called the garage it makes me smile, so I figured I'd share. 
This is a Christmas present from Ray and Reva that I love.
Another decoration I love which Steve and I gave ourselves. I love the gentle and loving feeling of Willow Tree nativities, and how human and personal they make the birth of Christ.
Our Christmas tree! Our tree with all of our fun family-provided ornaments on our tiny tree from my parents. Maybe next year if we have more room we'll have a larger tree, but for now this one is fun and still provides a healthy dose of the Christmas spirit to our living room.
And our nativity my parents got us. I love having a reminder in our home of the real meaning and purpose of the Christmas season.
It's the little things in life isn't it?
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