Young Womens' Service Project

It's not often you hear the words scrapbooking and service project in the same sentence. Last week before the YW General Meeting our stake got together and made cards (2000+) which we donated to the Riley Children Hospital. Patients and their parents have people to thank and those to keep in contact with.

The project was set up in the cultural hall. Each table had the supplies to make 100 presdesigned cards. Here are some of the master pieces that our ward worked on.

Feed Me Money

This is Al the Allosaurus.

He lives at Utah's Natural History Museum. When you drop coins down his throat he talks. This is just as cool now as it was when I was in elementary school. "Ahh! That makes me feel good. My name is Al. What is your name?" Pause. "I am hungry. Feed me money!" Then he ends with a roar. Delightful!

Over Christmas I visited the museum with my family. Unfortunately we forgot our cameras. I made Richard promise to come back and take a picture with our good friend Al. Mom laughed and told the younger kids about how sometimes she would bring us just to visit Al. Sadly the talking dinosaur in the lobby held more appeal than the rest of the museum. He is the coolest part of the museum hands down.

Al may have a new body, which is lots smaller than we remember, but his voice, his roar and his hunger for coins is still the same!

Disclaimer: Richard was a lot more prompt in sending me the pictures than I have been in posting them. Thanks Richard!

Gangster Names

National Library Week is coming up in April. (12th-18th) We are going to have displays of the staffs' favorite books, movies and music. My director wants to hold a shameless popularity contest, where our patrons will vote for their favorite librarians. We are going to take pictures, like a Wanted Poster, and ham it up.

My problem is that I have to come up with a nickname. Something dangerous, and if possible library related. Any ideas? The best that I have right now is "Maria, the know it all" and "the dead seeker." Historic gangster nicknames include "Itchy Fingers," "Big Tuna," "Mike 'No Jokes' Hunt," and "the Executioner." HELP!

Gratitude

I have been feeling very grateful this past month. Not only was I blessed beyond measure with extra time with my family, a new job, finding a new apartment... but this month I wrote what I was grateful for each day. Some are small, and some are big. Each one reminds me of a reason to hope, and continue onward.

Driving Across the Country

This is my new fabulous car! So much fun to drive. Not to mention that you can fit a lot more into a car than you can take when you travel by plane. And you can play you music as loud as you like, the food is better, etc. There are a lot of reasons that I enjoyed my trip east.
I'm getting better at taking pictures of myself.

I love my sun roof!

Ice Storm

My first thought was, "Brilliant! Fresh snow and I have a snow day. My life is wonderful!

Later, when I went to run some errands I realized that there was about 2 inches of ice under the 4 inches of fresh snow. I had to break my way into the car, just to get the ice scrapper.

It's hard to see here, but the ice on the windshield was level with the body of the car. It was about 2 inches deep here. I was stumped at how to get it off, my ice scrapper skipped along the top, and I knew that my defroster wouldn't be able to help much. Luckily it broke off in chunks when I carefully pounded the edges.
Crazy! With this much ice, I can understand why the library was shut down for about 3 days. Power lines are such fragile things... not to mention Indiana snow plows don't work as well as Utah ones.

New Apartment

This is my fabulous new desk. I assembled it all by myself, thank you very much! I can't wait to scrapbook, I will have everything right at my fingertips.
Here are some pictures of my new apartment. Notice the wonderful built in bookcases. I'll post some other pictures soon of what it looks like unpacked.

I think that one of the weirdest things about living alone is that I don't have to share the bathroom... with anyone. I think that I will adjust quickly.