Thankful for Thanksgiving!

We've had quite the break from the blog.  It's not that nothing has been happening - everything has been happening!  We are right in the middle of crunch time with school...there's just enough time to throw in huge projects, papers, and exams right before finals week.  We'll be happy when this semester is over.  Only about 8 more semesters to go before we can get big kid jobs!

On to the update.  Thanksgiving has become a huge holiday for my family.  All of the siblings come back to Topeka and my grandpa even leaves sunny California to brave the cold.  This year we had the extra bonus of having Adam's sister Kristen and her family come to Kansas as well.  We wanted to spend as much time with our families as possible, so we came up with a great solution - have a combined Thanksgiving dinner!  That's right...the Buhlers and Christensens came together for an amazing feast on Thursday - two grandparents, four parents, four brothers/brothers-in-law, nine sisters/sisters-in-law (including two pregnant ones!), three nephews and one niece.  Though we couldn't have everyone in person, we were excited to have Amelia, Joel, and Finn there too (gotta love Google's new video chat!).  My niece finally warmed up to Adam's nephews and the four little kids had fun playing with all the aunts and uncles!  Here are some highlights:

Hide and go seek...the favorite hiding spot (and of course, they all hide together!).

My parents got a new tv, but it looks like my sisters had more fun with the box.

Adam and Rachel became besties after bonding over fixing a clogged sink....good times.

We're already quite the Apple family, but a lot of time was spent this weekend teaching my grandpa about all the joys of an iPhone.  He got pretty good at playing Connect Four!

Since announcing she is going on a mission, Susan has been bombarded with all kinds of information.  Here, I am showing her examples of cute sister missionary clothing and early 90s sister missionary clothing to avoid.  We also went over hairstyles.

And, before we all went our separate ways, we finally managed to take a family picture.  We still didn't get everyone in it (Jenn wasn't feeling well), but it's pretty darn close!  Thanks to my lovely photographer husband, we actually have some non-ghetto pictures!  

The finished product:

A little more realistic:

No, no announcement.  This just happened to be the hot topic for all of my little sisters.  They're even more baby hungry than I am!

You have to have a jumping picture (I love my niece in this one!):

This was a wonderful weekend to spend time with both of our families.  We are so grateful for them, our friends, the gospel, and each other!  Our favorite quote of the week: My 3 year-old nephew Julian saying what he is thankful for: "MONSTERS!  And baaaaabies..........and flying triceratops!"  Can you beat that?

Why does everything keep breaking?

So this past month, but especially this last week, the Destroying Angel has visited us on a regular basis.  

For starters, our car has had several problems lately.  The most urgent matter is the missing alternator belt.  So last night we were coming home from Topeka and as we were pulling away from the toll booth, we heard the belt squealing and making a really high pitched noise and then a *clump* sound.  I knew immediately that the belt had snapped and the battery charge light flashed red on the dashboard to confirm my fear.  It wasn't that big of a deal because we were already driving but it meant two things were true: 1. If we turned off the car it would not start it again without a jump.  2.  Our headlights were only going to be on as long as the charge remaining in the battery could keep them on.  The drive home was a little more stressful than usual with the speedometer and tachometer jumping around and several flashing lights on the dash.  We had to open the door to pay the toll and we couldn't use our turn signals for fear of a total battery drain.  Fortunately we made it home and now we can add this to our list of things to repair in our car.  I say a list because recently we have had the following problems:  

• A leaking sunroof
  
• Broken volume knob (when turning it down, it actually goes up and there's no rhyme or reason to fixing it)
• Broken radio tune "up" button
• A hole in the exhaust system
• The automatic seat controls for adjusting the height and position of the driver's seat

All of these problems have developed over the last month or week.  Needless to say, we're going to be giving our car the attention it deserves and we will fix all of the pressing matters as funds will allow.

The hot water knob for our shower decided to come loose to the point where turning it doesn't do anything.  Fortunately we have a screw driver that can turn the small screw in the middle to turn it on/off until maintenance comes to fix it.

My 320GB external hard drive that kept a back-up of thousands of my pictures decided to stop working as well.  Fortunately I have DVD backups of the most important things and a majority of the rest are still on my computer.

In other news:

Karen has been accepted to Graduate School for the department of Special Education.  Now she can officially follow through with her plans she has made for the next 2-3 years.  I'm supposed to mention how much of a big deal it is but the people who are in charge of admissions work with Karen and told her that all she had to do was apply and they would accept her immediately.  I'm no diminishing her accomplishment, but I'm just putting it into perspective.

I got a 32GB iPod Touch!  Instead of leaving our Sprint family and jumping ship to AT&T just for the iPhone and it's higher monthly rates, I decided I could benefit from the next best thing.  It's a very handy device with some excellent applications that make it very useful.  It's one of those things that I will look back and think of how I lived my life without it.  Surfing the net on a 3.5in screen is a little ridiculous but it behaves very well as a PDA with the contacts and calendar syncing to my laptop wirelessly, as well as my email accounts.  I live most of my life with wifi close by so it is really very convenient.  I also like the flashy way of deciding which song I should listen to next by flipping through the album art. This is by no means a review, but I really enjoy using it.    The folks at Apple certainly are clever...

As many of you may or may not know, I love Flickr!  It's a wonderful photo sharing website that has some very creative people from all over the world showing off their stuff.  I came across this photo and was inspired by how well it was executed:

So my mind went to work trying to think of how I could do the same thing with a little bit of a twist.   I wanted to use Adam Trunnell's VW GTI because I love that car and I knew he would be game for something cool like this.  We found a field just south of town, right off a gravel road.  It was colder than we would have liked but the results were worth it.  I borrowed some equipment from work and decided to use 6 flashes instead of 3 and also put one on each side of the car (for a total of 8 flashes) to light the sides.  It was a 30sec exposure and we triggered our flashes about every two seconds as I walked around the car.  After a little bit of photoshop work to tweak things, here's what we came up with:

 

As we were packing things up and leaving, a police car pulled up and blinded us with his spotlight.  He asked what we were doing and reminded us that we were on private land.  After checking our driver's licenses he let us go.  So, after a some inspiration, borrowed equipment, police intervention, and photoshop, we have our final product.

Adam and I both want to make a second attempt to straighten the lights and fix the intervals so they're even.  I'll keep you posted on how v2.0 turns out.

The next day we went to the KU vs Texas football game.  As an attempt to show priority for academics at the University of Kansas, they paraded their national merit scholars and scholarship recipients out on the field at half time and then rushed them off as fast as they came on.  We got 3 tickets, (Karen, her Husband, and Father), a brunch, and some very helpful funds to cover the cost of education.  Thank you KU.  Oh, and we left at half time.  It was cold and very unlikely that KU would upset one of the top ranked teams in the country.  They lost 35-7.

Then, this morning we had a surprise visit from our friends Tim and Sierra Blackbear from Oklahoma.  They were in town for the weekend and we invited them over for waffles this morning.  It was great to catch up on old times.  It was as if we'd seen each other just last week.  We picked up right where we left off.  No awkward pauses or anything.

So, despite several things breaking, we've had an excellent week full of good news and good times.

October in Pictures.

October was a pretty busy and fun month for the Buhlers.  You've already seen our trip to Utah, so this update will not include anything about said trip.  We have definitely not let school get in the way of our fun!  That being said, we're both cracking out the books and trying to get through this semester and have just enrolled for next semester.  The joys of school.

After three attempts and horrible weather, Nicole, Holly and I were finally able to go to the Renaissance Festival in Kansas City.  Nicole had interviewed a lot of the cast members previously for an article, so we got all the ins and outs from her.  Holly hooked us up with free tickets, so it was a pretty good day!  We bought turkey legs, searched for funnel cakes, watched wrestling, jousting, and lots of "magic tricks."  We actually had pretty good weather that day and enjoyed our time together.  Huzzah for friends!

Our next big adventure was the following Friday.  Adam and I went with a group to the American Royal Rodeo.  I had been a few times while at college and actually loved it!  I had made Adam where his "most cowboyish outfit" and he and Justin turned out to be twins!  I took the opportunity to wear my giant Texas belt buckle.  Despite getting lost in the train yards of Kansas City, we had a good time and enjoyed Perkins afterwards.

The next morning, I was feeling crafty and went with Danielle to the Super Saturday activity.  I actually hadn't signed up for any of the crafts, so Danielle let me tag along with her as she made a snowman family out of tube socks.  Four hours and too much discussion later, we had a finished project!  We wanted to make sure that the entire family matched together, but each individual snowman was unique.  Yeah...it was a bit much, but they turned out pretty cute, eh?

To end the month, we of course had Halloween festivities.  We only had two trick or treaters this year (which is two more than last year!) - my niece and nephew.  Bubba's TMNT outfit made us think of Adam's when he was younger...pretty cute!  Lili made a perfect Cinderella!

After our visitors, we made our way to a costume party.  Adam came as "Three Hole Punch Jim" from The Office (he even let me gel his hair to get that messy Jim look!).  I was representing England as a Royal Mail postman, complete with authentic shirt, jacket, and postbag.  We enjoyed the other costumes, brain cupcakes, bobbing for apples, Wii Sports, and,  of course, the company!  It was a good way to end our busy and fun month!

The Fall Break Report

This is two weeks late but we still need to keep our dedicated readers updated.

Two weeks ago involved a lot of traveling.  I started out the week flying to Tampa, Florida to train a new freelance photographer for my job at University Photography.  I felt rather grown up on my first business trip.  I stayed in a hotel, rented a car, and had everything expensed to University Photography.  It was great.  The only drawback was that I was in Tampa for a total of 24 hours.  That's it.  Oh well.  I still got to eat some great Haitian food while I was there!

Our next destination was Salt Lake City, Utah.  I was the wedding photographer for a couple in our ward that wanted to be married in the Salt Lake City temple.  This gave us a great excuse to catch up with old mission friends and family members in Utah.  So, after staying up late doing laundry and packing for the trip, Karen and I were scheduled to leave KCI at 6:45am.  With 3 hours of sleep we left Lawrence at 4:45, thinking we would have plenty of time to park our car, take the shuttle, check our bags, and board the plane with relatively little stress.  Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.  For starters, the shuttle to the terminal was late.  When we walked into the terminal we were surprised to see it packed with hundreds of people bustling about and standing in lines that snaked around whatever open space could be filled in the terminal.  It was the busiest either of us have ever seen KCI!  And it was 6:15am on a Thursday morning!  Fall break apparently was a big deal to a lot of other people that day too.  So we waited in line and before checking our bags we noticed that our flight had begun boarding.  We hurried up to the counter and scanned our tickets and a loud sound came from the scanner indicating that we were late arrivals.  The lady at the counter put tags on our bags and explained that she could not guarantee our bags would arrive on the same flight to Salt Lake.  We dropped our checked luggage off to be x-rayed and crossed our fingers, hoping that they would arrive in SLC when we did, and ran to our terminal for the security check in.  We started going through and heard our names being called over the intercom at the gate saying that our flight was in its final boarding call.  We stripped down all of our metal items, emptied all pockets, and I divided up my camera equipment/electronics I was taking as carry-on.  I got through first and Karen was pulled aside for a more thorough inspection because she set off the detector.  I ran, barefoot, to our gate and told them that we were almost there, but that Karen was being held up at security.  I ran back, got dressed again, and fortunately Karen got through the security after a very observant worker spotted her huge metal earrings as the cause for the delay.  We ran down to the plane and took our seats as we were being pushed back from the gate.  We were the last ones ones on the plane.  

We had a lay over in Denver for an hour and a half.  Denver, by the way, is a great airport to be laid over in if you have a laptop.  They are very technologically conscience.  They had these great chairs with power outlets and USB ports to charge/power your many electronic devices that just about everyone has these days.  The cherry on top was the free wifi access.  I think every airport in the world should have free wifi.  With the price we're paying for plane tickets these days, the least you can do is provide stranded travelers with some free internet surfing.  Stepping off the soapbox.  We also thought ahead and brought a movie with us to watch in the airport/on the plane.  I have a paper to write in my sociology class where I have to compare/contrast a pair of movies from a list of selections by my professor.  I chose the James Bond movies and will compare Dr. No, the first of the 007 series, to Casino Royale, the most recent.  We found Casino Royale much easier to come by and brought it along with us.  It was a great "escape" movie for traveling.  Good suspense and a relatively well thought out plot.  Of course we had to start boarding the plane when it got to a good part in the movie.  We watched most of the rest of the movie before we landed in Salt Lake.

When we arrived in Salt Lake, we decided to just go to the baggage claim office and find out what we had to do to get our bags that were most certainly not on the same flight we were.  We were told that we would need to come back to the airport 3 hours later to pick up our bags.  A little bummed, we took a quick bathroom break and were about to find the car rentals when I decided to just go look at our baggage claim for our flight, just to see if we got lucky.  As I was walking up, I spotted Karen's bag and mine was a few bags later.  We felt like we had won the lottery!  There were maybe 15 minutes between when we dropped our luggage off and when our plane pushed off from the gate.  Those late tags saved us a major inconvenience.  Southwest Airlines gets a major thumbs up for that one.  They have a lot more leg room than most airlines and they didn't lose our luggage or even make us wait for the next flight to bring it.  Kudos to Southwest!

The rest of the trip went by very fast.  We started out heading down to Provo.  We took Karen's ring in for repair as one of her small diamonds fell out.  Fortunately it was under warranty and all we had to pay for was the shipping back to Kansas.

Next, we met Kiersten Halladay at Cafe Rio.  Keirsten was Karen's last companion on her mission in London.  Cafe Rio is one of the best places to eat when you go to Utah.  It's like Chipotle but better.

After lunch and a nap in the car, we went to see Karen's sister Susan.  We bought the food and she prepared everything and we had a great time.

We then went to visit my old mission president and his wife, Noel and Sydney Reynolds.

We stayed over night in Salt Lake at one of Karen's Aunt and Uncle's house and the next morning we woke up early to go to the temple for the sealing and then pictures for the rest of the day.  It was beautiful weather and Kevin and Amy were a very fun couple to photograph.  Karen was also a great help too.

After a short luncheon, we went to visit one of my old mission buddies, Trent Guzy.

That evening we went to the reception which was held at a beautiful greenhouse.

After the reception we headed up to Centerville to stay the night at another Aunt and Uncle's house and to meet up with Abigail Cannon, another of Karen's mission companions.  We met in a Wal-Mart parking lot and then she came with us for a sister missionary slumber party.  

The next morning we met up with Kimberly Panchuk, another missionary companion, at IHOP and then headed back to the airport.

We had a great time seeing old friends from our missions and seeing family too.  I took some beautiful pictures and got some more experience with some new photography equipment I bought recently.  What a great fall break.

My weak.

Yes..I misspelled that on purpose.  Weak has been the story of my life since last Wednesday.  As Adam mentioned previously, I have been sick, which is altogether quite new to me.  Last Wednesday I started feeling horrible at work and had a temperature of 101.3 when I got home.  So, maybe that's not a big deal to most people, but my last fever was when I was 3.  I almost cried.  I felt like I was melting, I felt so hot and uncomfortable.  To top that off, I had a pulsing headache and my lower back had been hurting again.  Adam gave me a blessing and I tried to go to sleep.  I no longer felt hot, but I woke up every single hour.  Not a fun way to spend a night, I don't recommend it.  When Adam woke up, we discovered my temperature had passed 102, so I missed school, took Nyquil, and finally got some sleep.  I had a previously scheduled doctor's appointment, so it worked out perfectly....that is until my stomach decided to remove the small amount of food I had been able to eat that day 10 minutes before my appointment.  I didn't make it to the doctor's.  Thursday night was the same - no sleep, until I remembered Nyquil at 1 AM (remember, I'm a novice at this whole sick thing).  Friday I still had a temperature, but I was so bored of being home!  Adam's mom gave me Tylenol, my fever broke and I was a happy 98.3!

Then came Saturday morning....General Conference Saturday....my favorite Saturday.  I wake up with a fever!  And headache.  And back pain.  I waited to go to the doctor because my fever was only 99.5 and I didn't want them to laugh at me.  After a horrible morning, I "Asked A Nurse" who told me to go to the ER.  I cried.  And texted Adam (who I didn't want to know I was crying...then he gets really worried.).  He left work early to pick me up.  I told him I googled how much the emergency room was and told him I wasn't going for a measly fever.  We compromised on Watkins Health Center (I really just wanted to take a Tylenol and call it good).  We got there, they told us there was an after-hours fee and Adam forced me to do it anyway (he told me it isn't always healthy to be a cheapskate...literally).  Well, we're glad we went.  Initally, they just thought I got something from the little two-year olds I work with.  Nope!  Turns out I have a full blown kidney infection!  And all that lower back pain?  That's my kidney!  Who knew?  My doctor gave me some heavy duty antibiotics and some anti-nausea medicine.  I didn't understand why the anti-nausea pills were described until my doctor told me my antibiotics were $20/pill and she didn't want me to throw (up) my money away.  Smart doctor!

So now....I haven't been to school or work since Wednesday and won't be until maybe this Thursday.  I'm quite sick of being sick.  I did arrange to work from home this week (I feel so professional and un-student hourly!), so that gave me something to do this morning.  I still have a paper to write for tomorrow (my teacher hasn't told me if I can email it to her or not, so I might be making one trek on campus tomorrow after all).  I should find ways to stay busy tomorrow - the house is a mess after a week of no cooking or cleaning and we are running out of dishes!  Maybe I'll get a burst of energy and tackle the 350 sq. feet we call home.

Temples!

First, Dallas...

Then St. Louis...

Nauvoo...

Winter Quarters (Omaha)...

and now......Kansas City!  How exciting!  I can't wait to find out more about where exactly it will be built and when.  This will make it possible to go to the temple even more (especially with the cost of gas nowadays!).

Self Portrait

So, this may be a little strange for many of you out there.  I'm posting out of turn!  Karen has been really sick for the last two days and that's big news.  I don't think she's ever been this sick for this long.  She doesn't know how to be a good sick person.  The good thing is that she reads up all she can on what to do to make herself feel better.  

During her sickness, however, I have had a chance so experiment with some of my new photography equipment.  I have been reading a lot in a professional photographer's blog about off-camera flash techniques.  I've been itching for a chance to start using the stuff I've learned and I finally got enough money to invest in some amazing gear.  I bought, among many things, radio remote triggers for my flash so I can make my flash fire from up to 1600 feet.  Excessive?  Perhaps.  But I'm going for reliability and compatibility for the future.  The brand, Pocket Wizard, is the industry standard, and that's what I plan on using.  I love being able to learn by trial and error.  That's pretty much how I've learned everything in photography and it's addicting for me.  That's a benefit of doing something you love to do.  Anyways, check out some of my self portraits I've done between the hours of 10pm and midnight.

I have all of the behind the scenes information on the description of each picture if you are curious how each shot was made. I have also discovered Flickr, which is a really cool photo sharing community. I'm getting so many more ideas for pictures after seeing some of the stuff on there. Professionals and amateurs alike share some great techniques and ideas on there. Check it out.

Karen's Birthday

So, as many of you likely know, it was Karen's birthday on September 19th.  Here are a few pictures that document the festivities and gifts she received.

This picture shows the phone that we got about a month ago because her phone decided not to hold a battery charge any more.  Even after we put a brand new battery in, it didn't work, but this one is a champ.  Karen is a text queen now that she has a full keyboard.  You can even see her thanking me for the phone with a text she sent me seconds after the picture was taken.

It's a check!  I woke Karen up from a nap to open presents after I got home from work that day.  Her first gift was a card and generous check from good ole Grandpa Wit.  Thanks a bunch!

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.  We officially have it now and Karen had never seen it.  My parents decided that she needed to have it.  She has that look on her face because she's trying to find the best way to open the DVD, her favorite thing to do.

These are the bath salts that came along with the movie.  Karen had a cold and was trying to smell them, but the package was sealed and there was no scent.  Bummer.

Karen's friend Nicole bought Karen a High School Musical refrigerator magnet and a book for bread recipes.  That's a gift that keeps on giving.  Thanks Nicole!

This was a jawbreaker that Holly gave Karen.  The story goes that back in 7th grade they were sitting in the rear-facing back seat of a station wagon and Holly decided to experiment with her kissing skills on the jawbreaker.  Little did they realize, Holly's older brother was in the seat just behind her hearing the entire thing.  How embarrassing!

Next came my bag.  Flight of the Conchords season 1 on DVD.  She was a little excited about this one if you can't tell...  Here's my new favorite part:

This was in the bag too.  It's a chocolate bar from England that says, "It's not for girls!"  I thought she would like that.  I will let her eat it, don't worry.

These are gifts from Bath and Body Works.  It's a foot cream and super soft socks.  I asked her how the candy bar and foot stuff were related and she gave me this look.  She didn't get it.

This gift was something I came across at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.  It's a laptop holder thingy.  It's perfect for working on the computer while on the couch or in bed or on the floor.  I figured it would be a gift for both of us because we watch LOST episodes laying in bed a lot.

Next we had cake and finished out the night with a dinner at Ingredient where we had two very tasty gourmet pizzas and then we were the last people in the world to go see "The Dark Knight" in theaters.  We both really liked it, the pizza and the movie.

In other news, I finally have my website up and running again so you can go check it out.  I have some cool sunflower pictures on there that I took recently.  You can find it under the Nature/Landscape tab of the website.

Other than that, everything is going well.  We both had a busy week at school with tests and papers due in almost every class.  Work has gotten a little more busy for me now that the Operations Manager has switched to a new person.  I'm taking a little more of the responsibility now because I have more working knowledge with the equipment than the current Manager.  It's a great opportunity.  I love telling people that I'm a photographer now.  So hurry up already and check out my website and email me if you need pictures taken.

Hoy, hoy, mighty Troy! Go, fight, win!

So, I am never really a "tag" person.  But, after experiencing Joel's and Amelia's "yearbook pictures" and reading Mary's high school tag...I just couldn't resist.  High school was a very dorky time for me, which can make for a rather amusing post.  Plus, Adam is still uploading pictures from my birthday (it's technically his turn to post, so he'll do that next).  So, here we go!

HIGH SCHOOL TAG!

1. Did you date someone from high school? Ryan Q. for a week.  Five days of which were spent trying to break up (I asked one of my friends to do it, but she forgot, so I thought we had broken up and he had no idea....so another friend took care of it....you gotta love 14 year olds dating!). I also ended up dating Kory F. for a long time without even realizing it.  Chris L. and I dated my junior year, but I thought Adam Buhler and I were going to date, so I broke up with him.  And, no...Adam and I did not date...he started dating another girl right after Chris and I broke up.  Tragic. Then, Kevin M. and I dated my junior and senior year.  Good times were had by all.

(The summer o' love...)

2. What kind of car did you drive? Blue '94 Corsica.  And my junior year I drove our 12 seater van.  That wasn't awkward to park at all...

3. What was the most embarrassing moment of HS? My friend Secily and I were freshmen at the time, staying late after school to audition as dancers for our school's talent show.  We were practicing the dance and random turns in a hallway, using the glass window on the door as a mirror.  As I was attempting to do a double turn, I totally fell into the glass, realized that though the lights were off, there was an entire classroom full of adults....all starting at me.  Not cool.

4. Were you a party animal? Yeah...no, not all.

5. Were you considered a flirt? I think I considered myself a flirt, but I doubt anyone else saw me in that way.  Keep in mind I had the same idea of flirting as third graders.

6. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? Band for two years, choir for four.  Good ol' Mr. Ubicaritas.

7. Were you a nerd? I didn't think I was, but yes, yes I was.

8. Were you on any varsity teams? I was on the dance team.....if that counts.

(from our "Thriller" dance for Homecoming...it was pretty sweet.  I think I watched MJ's music video 100 times to choreograph it just right!)

9. Did you get suspended/expelled? Once for fighting (jjjjjjust kidding!).

10. Can you still sing the fight song? "Give three cheers for Old Topeka High, one, two, three - rah! rah! rah! Show that foe that we cannot deny victory! Team! Team! Let every Trojan son know we're behind the gun, til the battle is won.  So if we all pitch in another victory we'll win for Topeka High!" I can do that dance to it too if you ever want to see it.  Just let me know...

11. Who were your favorite teachers? Mrs. V. for teaching me the school fight song. Mr. H. for letting me get out of band and play office in his office.  Mr. E. for being so ridiculous and providing a many opportunities for us to mock him.

12. Where did you sit during lunch? Either by our lockers or in "the cave."  It was right by the side stairs and we had a perfect view of people falling down the stairs.  Beautiful.

13. School mascot? Trojan!

14. Did you go to homecoming, and with who? We didn't have a formal homecoming dance.  My freshman year I "went" to the casual homecoming dance with Ryan Q. and that began the five days of trying to break up.

15. If you could go back and do it again, would you? I enjoyed high school a lot, but I am glad to be done with it all.

16. What do you remember most about graduation? Meeting with my girls at Nico's house before....driving to the Expo and feeling like we were just watching a movie.  It was surreal.

17. Where did you go on your senior trip? The choir was supposed to go to D.C., but Mr. E. cancelled the trip due to terrorist activities (which didn't happen, btw).

18. Were you in any clubs? Technically, not really.  I was on Heritage Panel because I was LDS, but I had never been discriminated, so I didn't have any stories to share when we went to other schools.  But on Yearbook Club Photo Day, I was totally involved!  Spirit Club, Math Club (we had the coolest picture), treasurer of Frisbee Club, etc.

19. Have you gained some weight since then? Of course!

20. Who was your prom date? Kevin M. both years.  Our first after-prom picture looks like I'm pregnant (the year of the peasant shirts) and the next year we learned to spend the majority of the time at the blackjack tables, then spending our earnings at the prize table.  I got a hair dryer, computer speakers, and gift certificates for college. Not too shabby!

21. Good grades? Until I slept through AP Calculus, yes.

22. Did you ever ditch? Two times.  Two stories to go with them. 1. Sophomore year - After a band concert, we do nothing in band the next day.  Mr. H. gave us permission to leave and go to Anna's house for breakfast.  We left, ate breakfast, then drove back to school.  On our way back, we stopped at a four-way stop....and who was also stopped there?  Nicole's mom (Nicole was driving us in her car, by the way)!  Nicole tried to get away, but her mom followed us and caught us.  Her parents laughed about it and would say "busted!" any time she came into the room.  I told my parents who probably sat me down to explain the importance of honesty and attendance at school.  2. Senior year - Kevin was at KU, but came to Topeka to take me out to lunch one day (we had 25 minutes).  He called the front office, pretended to be my dad to excuse me from choir.  The office is used to my mom calling in, called my dad at work, told him someone had pretended to be him, and then called my mom.  The entire time, we were at Schlotzsky's having a grand old time.  When I got home, they let me know that they knew!  The best part?  Kevin apologizing to my dad that weekend and my dad reminding him that when he takes the bar, he would have to describe any times he had been dishonest and this would have to be on there (Funny thing - Kevin is now at Washburn, sees my dad all the time, and will be taking the bar later this year....).

23. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion? Now that I have stalking through Facebook, what's the point?