Good odd goings-on?

- Andy currently has his choice of three PhD programs. There may be more, as he's still on one wait list and one short list. One of those choices is UCLA. Aren't you just so proud of him?

- We've had a lot of food adventures lately. We've been trying Indian food for the first time (or at least the Indian food that they sell at Trader Joe's), we won a bunch of produce at the farmer's market last month (so we tried brussel sprouts for the first time, and we also got hooked on sweet potatoes and fresh lemons), and Andy recently had the opportunity to try yak. He said it was pretty good. I've also taught myself to like eggs. Or at least eggs the way I make them.

- I was all set to go on The Color Run with some local ladies, but then we found out that it's on a Sunday. I weighed 129.9 pounds last fast Sunday, but then I stopped fasting and now I'm hovering around 132.

- Corryn and I both had black eyes, mine from the back of Elliot's head and hers from Elliot's stray stethoscope. Then Corryn had a nasty fall that left her forehead swollen, bruised, and scabby. Then she pinched her ear pretty good, and then she fell and hit her head on the corner of a table. She's seen better days, the poor girl.

- My cousin, Lindsey, came to visit for a few days. We tried to pack in as many adventures as we could, which included the Santa Monica Pier, the Getty, the Griffith Observatory, and a sampling of Abbot's Pizza and Which Wich, our favorite local places. Unfortunately, adventuring with kids is a lot of work, but Lindsey handled it with aplomb, and we all miss her terribly. Also I get an adrenalin rush when I touch space rocks.

- I'm currently working on two Fine Doodles projects and one new illustration job that dropped into my lap. And most of it is due by the end of March. But I'm going out of town in a couple of weeks, and Andy will be gone the week after that. And I teach Joy School next week, which is a stressful. Plus Andy and Elliot are both having birthdays...which will probably be celebrated in April. It's a big month.

- On top of those current jobs, I just finished applying to be an apartment coordinator for our complex. This would reduce our living expenses considerably. It's been quite some time since I've filled out an Employment History, and I felt tingly looking at them all together. They all build on each other in very direct ways. Working at the Cougareat led to the former Cougareat manager hiring me (after Andy helped me assemble a half-baked digital portfolio) at Creative Marketing, which is where I learned how to use the Adobe programs, which is how I got the job at Prudential, which fostered the skills I currently use to illustrate. Andy showed Fine Doodles to his old boss from the BYU Chinese Department, and that landed me the illustration job I was working on this past summer, and that job led directly to the job I'm working on now. And the illustration I did in January was also for one of Andy's previous employers. The pay and the work keeps on getting better, down from my first, lowly job as a Shopko cashier for $7.25 an hour to my current gig as a freelancer for a much, much better wage. Andy, I literally couldn't have done it without you.

- Sometimes I have a hard time believing that things actually change, but oh how they do.