Life Update 5/2/13

~1: Educational Update ~

• New vocabulary: Berceuse = a lullaby (comes from precise musical terms)

• New grammar fact: So why do we have those weird verbs? Like why do we have saw instead of "seed"? Or sang instead of "singed". Why do we have irregular verbs? They're relics from the past. If you think it's bad now, apparently it was worse in the past. There were many more rules when English got started and many of our irregular verbs are hold overs from 7 types of "strong" verbs. Many verbs were regularized when lots of foreigners learned it. The more often a word is used, the more likely it is to stay irregular. (have, do, am, go, say, will, see, take, get) The ten most common verbs held on to their irregular forms just because they're so common. (It's like biology! The genes that are used most frequently are least likely to get mutations because they have to be conserved! They have to stay working!) And surprise surprise! British people hold onto irregular verbs more than Americans have. And for some reason, occasionally we start reverting back to the irregular verb! (Snuck and lit). 

• New science fact: Onions have antibacterial properties - which makes sense since many compounds produced by plants are produced by the plant specifically to ward off bacteria and fungus. Onions don't want to get eaten by them any more than we do. 

• Language training: Hello = مرحبا (marh hahbin) Goodbye = وداعا (mah salaam)

• Geography training: 
  
  The marked is Brazil and the capital of Brazil is Brasília. Brazil is the fifth largest country with 193 million people. It was originally a colony of Portugal but obtained independence when they refused to be returned to status of colony after Napoleon's invasion of Portugal. Their economy is the world's seventh largest in the world and was a founding member of the UN. Brazil is also one of 17 megadiverse countries in wildlife and environment. 74% are Roman Catholics, Portuguese is their official language, and their current Dilma Rousseff, their first woman president.

• Memorization: "Hope on. Journey on. Honestly acknowledge your questions and concerns, but first and forever fan the flame of your faith, because all things are possible to them that believe." Elder Holland

• History: I'm studying the history of English right now. So starting off I learned that there are three times as many non-native speakers and native speakers of English. That's pretty crazy, but makes sense. English is the international language. I wanted to study the history to find out why we say boxes but oxen and why we have weird things like gnome. English has a massive vocabulary . . . because English has showed a crazy ability to adapt words from other languages into its language. The arrival of the Normans changed almost everything in England, especially linguistically because French became the official language of the English courts. It wasn't until the late 1300's that there was an English monarch that spoke English exclusively. Language isn't about numbers . . . it's about power. A small number of powerful people can force large numbers of people to learn their language. When the Normans took over, English almost became a dialect of French but instead just became a huge language with a huge vocabulary and that marked the transition from Old English to Middle English and now we speak Modern English. And guess what? Shakespeare spoke Modern English because you don't need a translator to read it. You may not understand all the literary parts, but you can get the gist without a translator. The King James Bible is another Modern English writing. The big difference between Middle English and Modern English is the way we pronounce vowels - and that was called the great vowel shift. The Canterbury Tales is an example of a Middle English text (although what we typically read in school is a Modern English translation). The three key components of English are pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. English is a Germanic language because English evolved from an ancient language called Proto-germanic. So it didn't come from German . . . it shared a common ancestor with English. So . . . the further back in time we go, the more it sounds like German since the more related it is to its common ancestor. Beowulf is an example of an Old English text (and once again in school we read a modern english translation). 

• Math progress: I never took Calculus . . . for anything. And I really wanted to. So today I started learning about limits. I'm trying to get a head start and then Naty is going to teach me what he knows (and since he's an engineer . . . . that's a lot). Today I just got the basic concept of limits on Kahn Academy . . . but I aced all the practice questions so hooray! 

~ 2: Moving Update ~

Well, a lot is moved in now. We've got all the furniture placed and most everything is put together. The kitchen isn't done yet (still some plumbing to be done and as I type there's some workers here to put in the counter and sink), so there is a huge pile of boxes in Andrew's office that need to be unpacked. But besides that I've got the bedroom, bathroom, living room, laundry room, and Andrew's office all arranged and unpacked. 

One of our fish didn't make the move. He was fine till we put him in new water and we must have done something wrong 'cause he died pretty much instantly. What a shock to just watch him die. It was a split second and I was very distraught. 

I bought three plants to get my garden started. Mint, Rosemary, and Basil. All herbs I used a lot the last year and wished I had fresh versions of. I think I'm going to try and grow them indoors and plant other things in the outdoor garden. I'm hoping for strawberries and tomatoes although I don't have the rest of the garden planned out. 

Be Still and Know That I Am God

Well, I know this is a lesson many of you have already learned, but here I announce that I am just beginning to learn it. There's no lesson school can teach you better than how to deal with stress. This week is crazy. Every day has the same amount of work crammed into it that a normal week would have. I know I have no right to sympathy, as almost all of my friends are experiencing the same thing right now. At some point you just have to say, "Well. I know without a doubt that I CANNOT do all of this on my own. I'll put my best effort in, but if I'm to get everything done that I'm supposed to, I'll need inhuman strength." I haven't made it through this craziness yet . . . but if nothing else I have developed the ability to sit in the hall calmly working on everything, accepting that I can't even list everything I have to do, and that somehow I'll get it done. It's sad that this aspect of maturity has only begun to be developed in my second to last semester. All I can do is sit here . . . and the only word to describe my mind and heart is "still". Not the turmoil that normal clouds my over-stressed brain. Hopefully this sticks!

Love you all!

P.S. And here's a Bohemian Waxwing to brighten your day!

A Follow Up

I posted a few days ago about some important goals of mine and issued a challenge and asked some questions. . . . but nobody answered. I found out a little while later that for some reason nobody knew that I had posted. I'm posting this both to inform you of that post and ask you to read it. And then to let you know that I'm starting a new blog (hooked to this one in the top tab). I don't know how often I'll post, but I am really excited about it.

Valentine's Day

First of all, I know for a fact Stina and Grandma Pat, if nobody else, have been dying to see this post. So, I tried to talk about this on Facebook, but it was being dumb, so I'm doing this instead and have been working on this all day - in between classes. Valentine's Day was amazing. I knew that we wouldn't be able to do much since I had work/school from 9-5 and Andrew had work from 5-9. So I was trying not to think about it and we rescheduled Valentine's Day for Monday and called it Paris night. Andrew had in his own cute little way tried to hide his plans to make me a breakfast. He had asked me how one would hypothetically find out if we had all the ingredients for french toast, and I found some bacon hidden in the back of the fridge. So Andrew's brilliant romantic plan was to make me breakfast. Which was a good idea, I was just a little disappointed I found out about it all before that morning. You know how I love to be surprised. The night before Valentine's as we were going to bed, Andrew noticed I was a little down and horrified I tried to brush it off. I wasn't really upset about our postponed Valentine's right? I mean, I have a special someone to have it with - I must be super ungrateful. So Andrew picked up on that disappointment even while I was denying it.

The next morning, I trudged out of bed at 4 am, eyelids still heavy and vision foggy, and opened the door to start my load of homework. Only to be startled by the following decorations:

Startled and very very excited, I ran out to our spacious living room, grabbed my laptop, and finished my three hours of studying in bed. That way I could wait to look at the rest of the house when Andrew got up. I wanted him to see how excited I was. 'Cause I was very very very excited. I mean. I don't think I've ever been that surprised. 

Once Andrew got up, I followed a treasure hunt and discovered all of the following hidden around the house.

I know it's upside down, but there was a toast imprinter that says I  Love You.

Oh. And I painted my nails for Valentines! Hehe.

 Now, to continue with Paris Day (as it turned into 'cause we ended up taking a whole romantic day just to ourselves). We had french toast with bacon and fresh raspberries for breakfast and a romantic dinner with Angel Hair Pasta, Pesto, Rosemary Sourdough bread, fancy cheese, bubbly, and creme brule.

Oh, yes. Did I mention that Andrew cut and scattered rose petals in a trail to the kitchen and all over the table?

So a wonderful Valentine's and I'm thoroughly impressed with Andrew's apparently hidden talent for surprising me. He has perfected the ability of creating a separate "secret" to set me on the wrong trail. Giving me just enough information and hiding things well enough that I really think I've found out about the big secret. While I thought I'd figured out his whole plot, there were flowers hidden in the bathtub, and candles, chocolates, a balloon (how he hid that in our apartment I have no idea!) and all the other treats hidden places I still haven't been able to figure out. So hurrah to Andrew. He topped my surprises for his birthday.

Oh. And as a side note. I now have fish. And they're living in floral vases. For now.

P.S. Happy early Birthday to Stina! I haven't forgotten no matter what you think tomorrow. Also, tomorrow marks the anniversary of when Andrew proposed. We will have been "engaged" for a full year tomorrow. On our way to an anniversary! (Another excellent surprise from Andrew there, since he drove me around and let me plan for Stina's birthday all while he had plans to surprise me with a proposal. He sure knows how to plan things!)

Darn Socks

So about a third of my socks are holy. Teehee. Probably another third are holy . . . but have been darned. I never actually learned how, so it's not real darning, but I just sew the holes closed. That's my idea of fixing the problem. Funny enough, I don't darn my socks because I lack the money to throw them out and get a new pair of socks. Instead, it's a random combination of love for the brands of socks I already have and the fact that it actually takes less time for me to sew them closed than to go to the store and buy some more. By the time I've treked to Walmart to get groceries, I've forgotten that I need socks.

Once There Was A Snowman!

Last night Andrew and I made our first snowman together! It was actually the first snowman I've made in a long time and it sure was harder than I remember it being. Nevertheless, our snowman turned out great and I wanted to post the video and took of it. It's going to be so fun to show our kids these videos one day. ;)

Yardsales and Nutrition

So during my podcast spree today here are the tips I learned about how to really do garage sales. They're good tips and make sense, but I don't usually see them when I go garage sale shopping.

1) Deliver notices at least 2 weeks before the sale to notify your neighbors about the date and categories of what you'll sell

2) Have a pre-sale.

3) Collaborate with neighbors

4) Make good signs - big, bold, sturdy and graphically designed - rope off areas where you don't want people to park

5) Advertise off and online - date, time, address, and categories

6) Use long tables - try not to put stuff on the ground - price items beforehand and group things by categories

7) Play music

8) Use a belt pack to make change quickly

9) Talk to people - be a salesperson

And nutrition:

1) Cheat day false. It's all about how you eat on most of your days. If having one day a week helps you stick to healthy food the rest of the week, go for it. But purposefully binging on junk food one day a week is not going to help you loose weight no matter what celebrities do.

2) Water-that-does-more: don't improve upon water. It's not going to do what they claim. Use them as hydration! Learn to be okay with unflavored and unsweetened drinks

3) Grains need balance. They aren't essential to a healthy diet, but it is better to eat whole grains.

4) Eat homemade and home grown. Move away from food processors, but don't take up all of your time trying to make homemade stuff excessively (homemade powdered sugar etc.)

I've decided that nutrition is a lot simpler than they make it out to be. Drink lots of water, make stuff from home, eat your fruits and veggies, and do something active everyday. I don't think you really need a strict workout diet or a food diet. All you need to do is do the simple logical stuff. *oohm oohm as I eat a brownie ;) *

Fit Tips

Haven't tried any of them yet, but honestly I'm going to try them. I just subscribed to another podcast (that's what I do when my brain craves the stimulation school gives without the homework stress) called  Get-Fit Guy. I looked at it because the newest podcast was called "What If I'm Too Stressed To Exercise?". Which is basically my whole excuse for not exercising. So I wanted to know what he'd say.  He had some pretty good tips, and I've linked to the podcast at the end. Basically here's what I learned.





1) Exercise does help with stress (but the same feel-good chemicals that are boosted in exercise can increase stress in high amounts). So score 1 for Kenzie and score 1 for all of my exercise conscious friends. We both win.

2) Do a 10 minute stretch in the morning. Doesn't take long, helps start the day out right, and will make you want to exercise later.

3) Just breath right. Take a few seconds to get your breathing regular when you're stressed. I'm going to call this mini-meditation. Since I just love the concept of meditation. ; p

4) Tell yourself you'll only do the exercise for a super short very specific amount of time. I'll take a 5 minute walk or do 20 sit-ups. Maybe you'll end up going longer, but either way you've done something.

He's got a lot of other podcasts that look helpful too. Well here's to planning New Year goals!

Here's the podcast.

A Message of Peace

So I subscribe to TED talks (in truth because I've found some good ones to use in class) and today I watched this one. I think you'll like it. I'm calling it "A Message of Peace" but its real title is "Israel and Iran: A Love Story?". Take a minute, if you have one, and listen to this guy. He's just a graphic designer who posted a picture on Facebook that started a movement. I love what he has to say. Sometimes war is inevitable, but why not try and avoid it with words first?

Here's the link.

Merry Christmas!

Just a short post to say Merry Christmas! I know I haven't posted in a while and maybe I'll get better with that in this new year. Check out my collection of fun stuff to do in the winter: Kenzie's Winter Board

My Life

Here are some beautiful sunflowers we saw on our walk. I bet Alysa knows right where they are. You can tell how early we go on our walks by the picture. Well . . . sometimes. ;)

Yes, there were random mattresses leaning against trees. This is one of them.

Another beautiful rose:

 Our lunch yesterday:
(Andrew takes such good pictures doesn't he!)

Breakfast this morning: yogurt, hot chocolate, oranges, apples, bananas, raspberries, and grapes

Dinner today: Creamy Chicken (ramen, chicken, and cream of chicken soup), steamed broccoli, and grapes.

Yesterday, I made french onion soup in the crockpot, but it wasn't good enough to recommend. Does anyone have recipes for either French Onion Soup or Lasagna? (I tried lasagna recently and . . .  it didn't turn out terrible, but next time I should probably follow a recipe.) I have grandma Pat's recipe for French Onion soup and I'll try that next time. I just want to figure out how to turn it into a crockpot recipe.

Love ya all,

Kenzie

Miserable?

Yesterday: "So today has been pretty miserable. And since it really makes me feel better to talk about how miserable I am, I'm doing a whole post on miserability. My family and friends know that I'm not joking. Retelling your stories is good for the soul I've decided. The reason? Everything sounds funnier when you tell it to someone else.

So yesterday, I was talking to Andrew when all of a sudden I started getting a sore throat. Now it was weird because it wasn't like a normal sore throat. No, it felt more sandpapery than anything else. I assumed it was due to a violent coughing fit I had had the day before . . . boy was I wrong. The sore throat rapidly got worse and by the end of the night I was in full blown allergy mode. Alright, not quite full-blown. Full-blown is what happened last year when my eyes blew up and I couldn't do anything but lay still and moan with a cold rag on my face for weeks. Anywho, basically my airways were so closed up I couldn't breathe anymore and had to get up and eat some soothing foods. So at 3 am in the morning, my cupboards got organized as I desperately searched for Mint Tea. I have none. But it's ok because my cupboards look magnificent! I did however find some jello left over from my recent throw-up days and made that this morning.

As if I wasn't suffering enough, I realized that I had a dentist appointment this afternoon. Now, even though it was just to fix a few small chips, I didn't really feel like laying on my back with my mouth open when I couldn't breathe. So I tried to change the appointment. . . . except that they had nothing open for months so that option was out. So I trudged off to the appointment. Now I had just resigned myself to enduring the dentist when the nurse turns to me and asks, "Do you normally use gas?" I just stared at her open mouthed in confusion. Gas? To fix a chip? She repeated herself three times before just asking me if I had never used gas before. I finally found my brain and said, "So I'm a little confused. I was told we just needed to fix a few chips." And she says, "Well actually you have two pretty large fillings that need to be done." Excuse me? (It turns out they were old fillings that completely fell out and that's the "chips" that he had to fix.) We opted not to use the gas. Next thing I know I've got three very large needles numbing my mouth up and tubes in my mouth so I can keep breathing during my operation.

The rest of the day I was pretty miserable. I couldn't breathe, had to blow my nose every few seconds, couldn't eat anything, and my mouth hurt terribly."

Today didn't start out much better. Again, I got no sleep because every time I fell asleep my throat constricted and I couldn't breathe. I had to keep water running down my throat or it closed completely and I started choking. My teeth are so sensitive breathing through my mouth sets off terrible pains in one of my upper teeth. Anyway, I was convinced that I was totally miserable.

Today I went to talk at Education Week that had nothing to do with being happy (well ok it was about learning to have fun again and that's similar). But I left feeling like I could be happy even though I hurt. I'm not sure  what thoughts should be running through my head to make myself feel happy being sick, but I'll make it work. I still don't want to do anything but sit on my bed and try to breathe but at least I can fight happy.

Funny Things We See On Our Walks

Just wanted to share some funny pictures Andrew and I have taken on our walks recently. First, this Wednesday was Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor's Porch Day and lo and behold somebody had left this on someone else's door. It's huge!

A random backpack stuck in a tree . . .

Rappelling gear in a small tree  . . . there was an identical tree across from it rigged up the same way. I can't help but wonder what people are using it for. . .

Oh and this is funny. Andrew and I wanted to show our future house. ;)

23 and 1/2 Hours

So I found this great whiteboard animated TED talk while looking for videos for my plant class I TA. What a great way of putting the concept. Andrew and I are motivated! We've started taking a walk every morning and now we're going to make a point of trying to get in at least a half hour everyday! Worth watching!

A Sunday Picnic

For our Sunday break the fast, Andrew and I walked up onto the nature trail and had dinner there. It was super fun and relaxing to eat by waterfalls and flowers. 

We had antipasta salad (using ramen noodles), ham sandwiches, chocolate chip cookies, and lemonade.  I would put up the recipes for those, but honestly my guess is you all know them already. If you don't know the recipe for antipasta salad (first you obviously haven't lived with me) then let me know and I'll post it in the comments. 

See if you can find who I was photographing. We saw at least 5 but maybe more. They were playing around our picnic table pretty much the whole time.

Afterward we walked down by the duck pond and watched little kids feed the ducks and looked at the turtles. What a great day.

Blogger . . . Dumb

So why haven't I posted in a while? It's a valid question. Especially since all of you started posting comments. (Which is amazing by the way. Really validates a person. Thank you.) Is there nothing to talk about? Of course not. I tell you about what I eat for heaven's sakes. Did I get busy? Oh . . . maybe but not enough to stop blogging. Still sick? Nah, besides I love to blog when I sick. The miserable love company right? Then why have I stopped blogging! The answer, my friends, is that blogger is dumb - sometimes. Sometimes, once in a blue moon, it decides that the normal text that you have taken forever to write is a bit . . . dull the way you wrote it. It thus decides to change up the fonts and the spacing in order to add variation. As kind as this gesture is, it makes the text completely unreadable. Have no fear! Since I took web design and am married to a tech, obviously I can fix this problem right? WRONG. After fiddling for hours (ok maybe a half hour) with the HTML code and seeing more errors than one would have thought possible, I deleted my posts and gave up. So far, this road of action has worked and I have not had to deal with Bloggers dumbness. It also means that there have been no posts. I am now attempting to take this on again, because I love being able to stay in contact with you all! P.S. If any of you have blogs let me know so I can follow them too! I love you all! Thank you for reading.

An Amazing, Long-Overdue, All-encompassing Update

So some might think I forgot how to blog or suddenly lost my passion for it since it has almost been a month since I last wrote. (The majority of you are probably just thinking, "Is that why all those annoying emails stopped coming . . .") The truth is neither of these, of course. I have simply not had enough time - what with trying to get married and all. (Who does that these days anyway? *just kidding*) Now, back by popular demand . . . *drum roll* . . . I give you: "An Amazing, Long-overdue, All-Encompassing Update"!!!!

Really, I am sorry it took so long. The only reason I have time today to blog is because Andrew's break unexpectedly got moved back an hour . . . after I'd already started dinner. Bummer? Nah. It gives me time to blog.

First, an update on the garden! Remember those tiny plants? Yeah, well they've grown! In fact,  I've incorporated them in tonight's dinner. Bwahahah! Well, I guess that is why I planted them right?

My beautiful tomato. Now that I look at the picture, I realize I took it at the wrong angle to show you my one tomato that's growing, but rest assured - there is a tomato and he's growing big. Question for readers: This is my first time gardening on my own (remember) and I'm not sure, but this tomato looks a little wilty and I seem to remember tomato plants producing more than one tomato. Am I doing something wrong? Or does this tomato plant look alright to you guys. I wonder if I'm over watering him. Mom did tell me every 10 days and I've been doing every week if not more than that. Could that be making a difference?

Here's the rosemary, onions, spinach, strawberries, cantaloupe, and in the corner the flowers there. As you can see, everything's doing really well. Um, except the cantaloupe. Honestly, Andrew and I aren't too upset about that (someday I'll tell you about my run-in with roller-skates, concussions, and cantaloupe. They are related I promise.), but it does make me wonder why he's the only one not growing. Any ideas?

The spinach is so big - I'm not sure if it's time to harvest it. I tried anyway (since I figure you can buy baby spinach at the grocery store so it can't hurt if it's not time) and it'll be in the salad tonight. It started to flower so I'm figuring it's past overdue for harvest, but honestly I have no idea. The strawberries seem to have taken the best to my little garden box. We've already eaten quite a few bright red strawberries (although I seem to have a nasty neighbor who may be picking them and eating them too . . . . grrrr) and they were good! Feels good to eat something you've grown!

During the wait to get married (9 days!!!) I've been having fun with Andrew - as in smearing my nutella all over his face. Another story to tell (with pictures) sometime - our whip cream fight. Way fun!

Oh, my dinner for tonight! Let me show some pictures so far: 

Tonight, I'm making "Lemon Garlic Chicken". If you ask my immediate family, you'll learn it's one of the few really good main meals I know how to make. But it is really good, and I haven't messed it up yet. (Don't jinx myself right . . .) I used mushrooms and potatoes from our basket and onions from our garden. (The recipe calls for red onions, but I forgot to buy some for the dinner so I'm just trying it with some green onions and we'll see how it goes.)

 I bought, grated, and juiced three lemons to use as seasoning - smelled great and I put them down the disposal and it smelled up the kitchen. AND for the first time today I minced garlic. (That's the stuff in the middle there.) I've cooked plenty of times with garlic before, but I've always had the expensive pre-minced stuff. Since I couldn't find it at Walmart I just bought a cheap head of garlic and taught myself how to mince it off Youtube. Worked great - although I admit I got tired of doing it the chef's way on Youtube and got out the hand chopper thing. Way faster.

 Here's the meal - before being cooked in the oven since Andrew's break got moved back. It looks good. I hope I can get it out of the oven in the right amount of time. Since the oven's so small, I have to adjust times and temperatures for everything. Kinda freaks me out sometimes.

And that up there my friends is spinach from my garden ready to go in the salad. Which I haven't made yet . . . .

An update on work: I'm still working in the herbarium and as of today I'm going to bring the TA notes from the class I teach up-to-date. It's getting closer to the semester and I don't want to get caught again scrambling every week to put together a lesson plan. Course, no matter how much planning I do, the professor will change the course (since it's still updating) and I'll have to make changes anyway. But at least this way I'll have a head start.

I finally got my classes worked out for fall. I'm taking Bioethics, Genetics, Technical Communication (300 level english class), Teaching Students with Disabilities, Multicultural Education, and my personal favorite: Floral Design! I'm super excited for that one.

I'm dying to show some bridal photos but I don't want to spoil it for the wedding. Since it's only nine days away, I think I can justify showing just one. 

Ok. So it's not a real bridal photo, but like I said, I didn't want to spoil it. Check out that long veil! I couldn't resist. It matches the train so well! 

Um, well that's all I can think of to update with right now. Thanks for reading! (If you did indeed stick with me to the end of this long post . . . .)