Walk Like an Egyptian

Okay, I didn't actually walk like an Egyptian, but I did dress like one. The cool library where I work hosted Rick Riordan, and I got to help out with the event...which required being in costume. Normally I'm not a big fan of costumes (or even a small fan of costumes), but in this case, it was probably worth it. And since Adam helped me make my costume, that helped cut down on expenses and made it a little easier for the tightwad in me to just enjoy the costume. So, what did we do to make my costume?

Well, first Adam sewed me a dress. I'd watched a few videos online about making a simple dress my just sewing folding some material in half, sewing a seam, and then putting elastic in at the top...which might work if your bust is larger than your hips, but it doesn't work so well if you are pear-shaped. So, we had to cut out an a-line dress, sew the seams, and put the elastic in at the top. Not too bad...and since I used an old sheet and some thread I already had, the only thing I had to pay for was the elastic.

Next up, Adam had suggested adding a little color. Well, Egyptians apparently liked a blue-green stone, so we made a cape-type thing out of some blue material we already had lying around the house and fancied it up by adding some gold rickrack. We also made a "belt" by sewing some decorative ribbon onto another ribbon and tying that around the dress.

I'd contemplated buying shoes but then thought maybe we could make some instead; we took an old pair of flip flops and attached some shiny ribbon with hot glue, and then I wrapped the ribbon around my ankles. Maybe not the cutest shoes I saw all night but they were cute enough...and cheap :)

For a headpiece, I just used the same ribbon I used on my shoes and sewed a little rickrack on to make it a little fancier. Then I strung some beads, attached those to the ribbon, and called it good.

The jewelry part was probably the most fun. I bought some gold bangles and some earrings, but I also made some of my jewelry, too.











I found this snake and knew I had to make it part of my costume; I had originally thought maybe I would buy a belt and attach it to that, but when I decided to make my belt instead, that option was out. I tried making it into a pin, but it was too heavy to stay on the pin backing, so I ended up just attaching it to some chain.

I wanted a pretty eye-catching necklace, but I didn't find anything at the store that I liked...but I did find these HUGE, way-too-heavy-to-actually-wear-in-your-ears earrings and decided that they would become my necklace.

I disconnected the bottom half of each earring (I still have a now-wearable pair of earrings left, since I didn't dismantle everything) and attached the pieces to a chain. Voila! My necklace was born, and I even had enough left to make a little bracelet, too.

After that, I just added some makeup...and oh, yeah, I dyed my hair (and scared myself with how dark it turned out), and while I didn't have the best costume at the event or anything, I'm pretty satisfied with the costume...and the price.

Here's the finished product:

Rick Riordan Thinks I'm Cool!

At work, we’ve been really pushing social media and just developed a social media team. One of the things we do is use Pinterest to pin stuff. Well, I’ve been working on a board with costume ideas and tutorials on how to make your own costumes and do your makeup, etc. for New York Times Bestselling Author Rick Riordan’s visit to Provo on May 2, and today, he (or his publicist) put it on his twitter feed!


(In case you can't read that, it says, "Pinterest board of costume ideas for my Provo UT event. Very cool" and has a link to the board.)

So, he said my work is very cool! Granted, he doesn’t know it’s mine, since he doesn’t know who I am, but still, he thought it was cool—and tweeted about it to 52,000 people. That sure doesn’t happen to me every day! And it is very nice to feel appreciated. (Check out the board if you want.)

Ruby's Emergency

So, now that we seem to be safely removed from Ruby's health emergency, I thought I'd explain to those of you who are interested what happened.

On Sunday, Feb. 12, I poked my head in Ruby's room to see how she was doing and was alarmed to see that she was sitting in kind of an unnatural position. She has a few different positions that she likes, and this wasn't one of them. Adam and I took her into the living room and we tried petting her a little, but she wouldn't let us. She wouldn't lick us, and she didn't even try to play and jump off the couch and run around the room, which is normally one of her favorite things to do. She also was making a clicking noise with her teeth--and while a quiet clicking noise means she's happy, a loud one means that she's in pain. So, we took her to Pet Urgent care, where the vet took x-rays, which showed Ruby had a GIANT gas bubble in her abdomen, which you could actually SEE distending her poor little abdomen. She wouldn't eat, drink, or go to the bathroom, so she was diagnosed with gastrointestinal stasis...which is really bad for rabbits because if their GI tracts freeze up, it can quickly lead to death. The vet gave Ruby some pain medication and a couple of shots to keep her hydrated. The vet sent us home with her, with instructions to get some follow-up care the next day.

Sunday night was miserable; I got up every hour or so to check on Ruby, and every hour, she broke my heart. She was obviously in pain, and she kept pushing and pushing, trying to get that stupid gas bubble out but she couldn't, and then she would flop down on the ground, completely exhausted. By morning, I could tell she was completely worn out, and I was really, really worried that when we took her to the vet, we were going to be told that she'd have to be put down.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were up and down. We took Ruby to the Family Pet Hospital, and everyone there was very nice, but Ruby still wasn't eating or drinking or going to the bathroom. In addition to the GI stasis, the vet added anorexia and hypothermia to Ruby's diagnosis. Adam and I would go in to be with her periodically and hold her and try to get her to eat, Dr. Madsen actually decided that she might do better at home with us overnight, since she seemed to perk up a little when we were there. The vet gave her enough meds and tube feeding to get her through the night, and she actually did well at home Monday night, but she didn't seem so good on Tuesday, so we took her back in. Again, we got to take her home that evening, and she did well for awhile but then wasn't doing so well again, so I took her back to the vet Wednesday morning. Luckily, with some more treatment, she did somewhat better, and we got to take her home again. The vet actually told us to try taking her out into the yard, since she normally loves that. Adam took her out while I went to work, and he said she was definitely slower and more tired than she normally is but that she enjoyed being there, and she did seem better Wednesday night, although definitely not back to normal. Thursday morning, she was doing okay but still did some of her pain-indicating teeth-clicking. Calling the vet, he said she might still have some discomfort and they could give us an oral medication for her pain if she kept up the clicking. She actually didn't keep it up, and over the next few days, she gained strength--and a gigantic appetite! I couldn't believe how much she ate! We don't know if she was trying to make up for lost time or what, but she turned into a little piggy rabbit and ate voraciously. Since then, her appetite has slowed down slightly (back to normal), and she seems pretty energetic and happy--and she's even gotten a little extra affectionate with me. I guess maybe with all of the babying and holding and checking on her that I did while she was sick, she decided I deserved a little extra love in return :)
Since this ordeal, Ruby has become an indoor rabbit, and one fun side effect of that is that, since I apparently have a small bladder and wake up every night to use the bathroom, I get to see Ruby and take a few minutes to play with her. (Turns out that Ruby really likes midnight to one-ish.) I'm trying not to freak out every time she does something that seems slightly off to me, but I guess that it to be expected. We nearly lost her, and I am not ready for my baby to leave me.
I truly think that the prayers and support we received from family and friends made the difference here. Monday morning, I was certain she was in too much pain to make it, but she pulled through like a champ. So, thank you to all of you who prayed for us. Adam and I are very happy our little baby is doing well and will be able to celebrate her first birthday in a couple weeks.

It's a Car, Not a Boat

For the past couple weeks, we've been trying to sell our extra car. Adam got an email the other day asking if the car was still available, and he said yes. Then he got this response:

"I so much appreciate your response to my earlier mail.Am Ok with the price for the car i wish to let you know that I'm satisfied with the condition.Like I said there's no doubt I'm going to purchase it if you are ready to sale it for me.Therefore I want you to consider it sold by withdrawing the advert.Note that you will not be responsible for shipping and handling.My pick up agent will come to your location for pick up.Kindly provide me your name and full address,so i can forward it to pick up agent to calculate the cost of pick up for me.I would like you to know that the payment will be made via PayPal because is fast and secured to send and received money online, All you have to send me now is your full address where the car we be pick-up and your PayPal email address so that i can proceed with the payment immediately.Hope to hear from you soon."

Obviously, this was a scam, but rather than just ignoring it, Adam decided to have little fun with this guy and emailed him back:
"greetingsso sorry in the delay of respones to email. i will only be able to accept cash sales thanks you much appreciate"

Well, the guy apparently wasn't quick enough to catch on to the fact that Adam suddenly was using broken English and improper spelling, and he replied again:
"Thanks for the response,i am more than happy to see you write back...I would have love to called you to discuss this issue more better but my mobile phone is playing up The Handset is kinda waterlogged and therefore unpredictable to use the only way for me to contact you for now is via pc if not because of that i would have called you earlier,I'm at the sea at the moment.i am a sailor and i really want to make this purchase.I insisted on PayPal because i don't have access to my bank account online as i don't have internet banking, but i can pay from my PayPal account as i have my bank a/c attached to it.I will need you to give me your PayPal email address so i can make the payments asap...please if you don't have PayPal account yet, it is
very easy to set up, go to WWW.PayPal.com and get it set up...after you have set it up i will only need the e-mail address you use for registration with PayPal so as to put the money through."

Well, appreciative of the man's instructions on how to use Paypal (haha), Adam responded once more:

"Greetings greafull for reply, it is cause of difficulties to use paypal account as to password is diffrent and this causes upredictable uses for using paypal via pc login. it is much of easy to signup with online bank account. you need visit bank website at WWW.(nameofbank).com their you login with information it is not hard too do. it is pleasurable to me that you are sailor but this car is vary far away from sea, it does not go well in deep water, maybe we need to find you a boat to buy.
Cheers."

Haven't heard anything back from our potential buyer, but I've gotten quite a few chuckles out of this. Adam's so funny...and so few people know it! (I'm still laughing out loud and I've read this message several times...)

Vocal Point

Adam and I got to go to a Vocal Point concert in Salt Lake City at the Conference Center, and it was so much fun! I've been to see Vocal Point before, but this time, we were actually in the third row--and it was actually weird to be sitting close enough to the stage to know that the performers could actually make out your features if they took the time to look at you. I'm used to being in the back. It was interesting to note that VP has 4 new members, and this was their first performance with the new guys. I was a little wary, because I liked the guys who left (including a guy who used to go to church with us before we moved), but I think they did a good job.

Anyway, the concert was great--lots of good music but also so many funny moments.

The show, in case you were wondering, went as follows:
Celebration
Footloose
Ain't Too Proud to Beg
Dare You to Move
The Way You Look Tonight
Trivia (This is not a song; this when two of the guys went out in the audience and picked people to answer VP trivia questions. And the first person who was chosen to answer a trivia question was a girl sitting in our row, so McKay Crockett had to climb over me and Adam to get over to her.)
Never Say Never
Elmo (Also not a song. This is when one of the guys starts to talk about girls and how they're confusing and then Elmo--or, rather Robert Seely imitating Elmo--steps up to give him some advice--like maybe he'll feel better if he sings a song. The funniest thing about this is that Robert Seely is a bass. That doesn't quite do it justice--is there a word for so, so, super low that you would never think he could get high-pitched enough to imitate Elmo? Well, anyway, he did a great Elmo imitation, and "Elmo" even volunteered to help sing the song to cheer up his buddy, adding that "When Elmo sings with the boys, Elmo likes to sing bass." He said that entire sentence in Elmo's voice, until he got to "bass" and then he got about as low as a human voice could get. I'm not doing this experience justice here, but it was SOOOOOOOOO funny.)
No, Not Much (I'd never heard of the musical this is from, Forever Plaid, but I loved the song!)
We All Need Saving
Life Is a Highway
Elvis Medley (Ah, loved it--although my favorite of the songs in the medley is "Fools Rush In" and I would have been content listening to that entire song instead of just a snippet from it).
Intermission
Game Day--this was mostly "instrumental"...except they're an a cappella group, so their instruments are their voices. But they really did instrumental songs, like "Charge." Very cool.
Higher and Higher
You Really Got Me (This is actually probably my least favorite, maybe because I don't necessarily like the song in the first place.)
12 Days--this is a funny Christmas medley, which starts, as you might guess, with the 12 Days of Christmas and branches into other songs but stays with the music/tune of the 12 Days. It's funny.
Savior, Redeemer of My Soul--Ah. Huge sigh of satisfaction. I love this particular version of this song, with the music by Rob Gardner, and I admit I was a little nervous when I saw they were letting one of the new guys sing it, but he did a phenomenal job. Beautiful.
Tanner's medley of noise--okay, that's not actually the title, but Tanner Nilsson, who is the main vocal percussionist (I think--I admit, I don't really know anything about music) did this incredible solo and you would NEVER think that all of those noises could come out of one person at the same time. It's amazing. No wonder he was chosen at the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella as the best vocal percussionist in the world!
Jump, Jive an' Wail
At this point, VP left the stage, but luckily, they came back for an encore and performed:
Every Little Step
God Bless the USA

Ah. So much fun. I told Adam afterwards that I might have to turn into a Vocal Point groupie and start following them around to concert venues...as long as they're within about an hour's drive.

What a Year

It's hard to believe another Christmas is here already! I know I think every year goes by pretty quickly, but this year has been especially fast! It's amazing to look back at everything that's happened--Adam's completed his first full-time year with that company that I don't always like very much, we bought our first home and planted our first garden; we got our first pet baby, little Ruby Rabbit Everitt, and we continued falling in love. Not bad, 2011, not bad.

My first "mom" gift :)

Ruby is keeping me warm so I can play with her (by getting me slipper socks).

My little baby

Ruby's gift (a salt block)

Our little family

Fish...or, someone thinks we're cool!

When I got home from work tonight, I caught a glimpse of this little treasure on our table. Adam told me that it had been taped to our door and that the girls who left it for us were watching and giggling behind their curtain (which conveniently for them, faces our door), waiting for one of us to get home and see it. Cute! I'm only slightly jealous that Adam was the one who got to find it!