My 7 things (I got rid of the husband and tagging part)

7 things I can do:

1. Text faster than Amanda even though she has a full keypad.

2. Wrap presents.

3. Find the slope of a line.

4. Legally drive. (Not well, but legally.)

5. Play Guitar Hero on hard.

6. Conjugate the word "run" in Spanish.

7. Give advice.

7 things I can't do:

1. Turn a car without almost killing everyone.

2. Aim.

3. Wrestle.

4. Come up with a good comeback.

5. Go a week without asking for fast food for dinner at least once. (I know, it's sad).

6. Babysit for kids I know are brats.

7. Come up with a 7th thing.

7 things I always say:

1. Holy crap!

2. Friggin', freakin', or frick.

3. "Dad?", "Mom?", "Amanda?" when answering the phone.

4. Shut up!

5. "He's a strange duckling" (I usually only say that to my friends)

6. "Well that just makes me want to shoot myself." (This got me in trouble with my teacher during the suicide unit in health)

7. "Stop it!", "Ow!", "Look, it's turning red!", or "Go away!" to dad.

7 things I love to eat:

1. Potstickers, although I haven't eaten them in a while ever since we suspected that I got food poisoning from not cooking them all the way.

2. Panda Express

3. McDonalds

4. Peas

5. Chicken Noodle Soup

6. Potato Bread

7. Goldfish

Christmas Decorating!

So I decided that I really wanted to decorate this week, so I convinced Mom and Dad to start it as soon as we got from Church on Sunday. We're not totally done, seeing as the tree
isn't even up yet, bu we're going to work on that tomorrow. These are some pictures of what we do have done so far.
The first is of a familiar nativity scene with a new, unfamiliar character. I found this army guy at the time I was putting this scene together so I added him. I was a little apprehensive, seeing as he is pointing a gun.
The second is probably my favorite part of the whole house. I really like the banister mom decorated, and all the Santas we have up there.
(I also love the adorable pictures of me and Hannah)















This is just a small portion of all the Santas we have put up these past two days. There are many in this collection, such as the really really old one Grandma Mattson made a long time ago, and the creepy one with the Coca-Cola belt. Good times.











This one of the piano is just all the snowmen we've put up. Dad really wants to put up a sign that says "Santa" under the "Welcome" sign. I think it'd be really cute, but I'm not sure if we're actually going to do it.



This last one is just of a bunch of the nativities we've put up. (Sorry about the weird layout of these, Blogger was being really difficult)
So I guess that's all that's really going on down here, so not much exciting. I'm really glad Mom and Dad let me start decorating so early this year. It takes us so long, why only have it up for a week and a half?
I'm also thankful for Mom and Dad's patience with me as I've listened to "The Forgotten Carols" about 20 times the past two days.

8

No one has posted in a while, so I (Caitlin) decided I would.

8 favorite places to eat
-Chili's
-McDonalds (Sadly)
-Long John Silvers (Sadly)
-PF Chang's
-Panda Express
-Red Lobster
-In-N-Out...I've decided that it's probably not a good thing that 1/2 of my favorite places to eat are fast food restaurants.
-Pei Wei

8 things on my wish list
-Sam to get home soon so I can see him!
-A new camera
-The garage to be fixed
-Go to Disneyland!
-To get 800 miles next season
-To learn Spanish
-To go to college
-To stop tripping down the stairs

8 things I did yesterday
-Went to school
-Made Snickerdoodles in Foods
-Went to the hospital and slept while everyone else saw Sam.
-Tripped over my own feet
-Fell asleep in health whilst watching "The Secret"
-Ate like 3 quesadillas
-Watched dad get mad about the garage door
-Went to eat at Macaroni grill

8 things I am looking forward to
-Sam coming home
-Decorating for Christmas
-Seeing Trevor, Jamie, Hannah, and Kendra soon.
-This stupid show that Mom is watching to be over.
-Thanksgiving
-Christmas
-Finishing my stupid health class
-Getting my permit (crazy, huh?!)

8 TV shows that I watch
-The Office
-30 Rock
-America's Next Top Model
-90210 (Completely retarded show...but I can't stop watching.)
-Scrubs
-Jon and Kate +8 (Another kind of stupid show....but I only watch it if there's nothing else)
-Spongebob. Yes, Spongebob.
-I can't think of any else

One More Thing...(For Caitlin)

I decided that I'd like one more thing for Christmas. I'd really like some of those vinyl letters to put my favorite quote up above my closet like the ones Trevor and Jamie had up above their TV in their old house. I know I'm not very good at explaining it but hopefully you get the idea. So here's my new favorite quote.

"Many of life's failures are experienced by people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."

Our New President

I know I'm not old enough to even vote, and I'm not the most into politics teenager ever, but I still have an opinion. As soon as we found out that Obama won last night, I got on my computer, and was getting very frustrated with some of the comments people were making about him. I told Dad about it, and he just basically told me to let it go, and let people think what they want. (Besides, I'm going to have to get used to being one of the few Democratic Mormons.)

But I read this thing my friend posted on her blog a few minutes ago, and just thought "Thank goodness someone finally came out and said it." So here's the gist of what she said. She said that she is a Republican, and she voted for John McCain, but the worst thing we can do as citizens is be bitter and hateful towards our new President. What we need to do is keep on living, we'll still be alive tomorrow. She said that we are lucky to live in this country and have to freedom to practice whatever religion we want and that Obama isn't going to change that. She said that we can say what we please, but our freedom isn't going to be taken from us at the snap of his fingers.

I'm really glad she said this, because I think she has a good point. While watching McCain's speech after McCain won, at the mere mention of Obama's name, people booed him. Personally, I think what she said goes perfectly with that. We can't do anything about him being the new President but support him.

Caitlin's Halloween

So this Halloween, the Cross Country team went to region. Both teams did really well, and we're both going to state! The boys got 3rd behind Palo Verde and Centennial, and the girls got 2nd between Centennial and Arbor View. I'm really excited to go to State to see everyone run this weekend.

About two hours after I got home, Mallory gave me a call telling me that she had gotten sick from her mom and that she couldn't go. I got the same call from other friends, telling me they had also gotten sick from siblings. So I was kind of by myself, so I decided to stay at home with Amanda. This is my first Halloween ever staying home and handing out candy. Amanda rented a tv show called "Pushing Daisies" and we watched that, and I really liked it. In between handing out candy, I made Amanda a bowl of Pops, in which I found a Pedometer.

This Pedometer was obviously really cheap, sporting the 3 characters for Rice Krispies. I put it on, and counted the steps I took going back and forth between the door and the couch. According to this little piece of junk, I took 2,660 steps. I feel a little bit lied to, but whatever. I got kind of sick handing out candy to a bunch of 17 year olds from my school, and Amanda often gave the comment "Don't sound too excited" when I sat back down from handing out candy. But overall, it was a really fun night. I had a lot of fun hanging out with Amanda this weekend.

Christmas List - Sam

So, it looks like Sam will be here for Christmas, so it seems only fair that he gets to have a Christmas wish list, too. Here are some things that he really wants:

Obviously, this is a stim-mobile! He definitely wants one and he doesn't want his mommy to have to make him one from scratch. You can purchase one from http://www.liveandlearn.com/stimmobile.html . They also have some at other places, but this one is the original.

He also wants this Pack 'N' Play so he can sleep in his parents' room or downstairs. This is by Graco, and it is called the "Catalina" model. He really likes this one.

Sam would also like things that you think he or his parents might absolutely need for him during his first few weeks at home.

My New Haircut

So, here it is. I was really nervous about getting it done, but my hair was getting so gross and unhealthy, I decided I needed it done soon. So i went today, and got it done like Amanda had her hair a while ago. What do you think?

Mentored Research

I know that I'm supposed to be putting up a Christmas list, and I know I'm almost the last one to do it, but I've been wanting to make this blog for a while. So I am working on a Christmas list, and it'll be up soon. But everyone has asked me on several occasions just what I do for this research that I'm doing. It's really as simple and boring as I make it sound, but people have a hard time believing this. So I went and took pictures of every step, just so you can see what little I do.

This is the lab/converted storage closet I work in. It's actually fairly clean on this day; and the day before they fixed the light. It used to only have one working light, which made it pretty creepy and more closet-like.

Step 1: I go over to the "box o' crap" as I like to call it, and pick out whichever bag I feel like. If you see that garbage can in the corner of the first picture, that is filled with bags that have already been ground. I'm pleased to say I did a lot of those.

Step 2: I empty out the bag that I picked. Inside are lunch bags filled with different plants. (Side note: those plastic bags tied to the side are filled with unknown plants [i.e. the researches need to find out what the plant is named before it can be ground]. I don't touch those)

Step 3: I organize those bags according to plant species and whether the plots are random or regular. As you can see, I have 6 different sections (3 plant species, each with two plot types)

Step 4: Now I label the the vials that the ground sample will go into. I write down the location, date, plant name, and the plots.

Step 5: I take one of the vials and the samples that go with it. I pull out an equal amount of plant sample from each of the lunch bags and place it on our fancy shmancy stolen Cougareat tray.

Step 6: This is the best part of the whole process. The actual grinding!

Step 7: Our finished product gets put into a ziploc bag and I clean the machine using a shop vacuum. Then I pick up the next bags and repeat, and when I finish with that, I pull out another bag from the box o' crap and the process continues!

That really is all I do. It's definitely one of the most mundane things I've been doing at college. However, on Saturday I get to be involved in dissecting a turkey in order to collect tissue and muscle samples, which is both disgusting and exciting. Now that you understand what I do for four hours of the week, it might be easier to see why I'm excited about something different, no matter how gross it is.

I am easy like sunday morning!

Okay so Jamie finally got me to do this. I really don't know what to ask for. I have been thinking about it for awhile and this is all I could come up with
1. I guess I would like an I-tunes gift card.
2. I would also like a season of a show. Any season of the Office would be good, except the first, I have that one. Or the second season of 30 Rock, I also have the first of that one on my i-pod. Also any season of Seinfeld is good, except 5 and 7.
3. The movie Get Smart, I don't think it is out yet but it should be by christmas.
4. I could also use a zip up sweat shirt, my Element one is getting holes. Element, Quiksilver, or Hurley are good brands. Shirts by these brands are also always good.
5. A wii would also be nice if anyone wants to go crazy!
6. Anything that looks fun.
Other than that I really can't think of anything that I want or even need. You know me I am easy like sunday morning, don't look at me, don't look at me in the eyes!!!
If I think of anything else I will be sure to let you know.
Trevor-