A Trip to Body World

Last week over fall break I took the kids to see this exhibit. If you haven't heard of it. It is all human cadavers that have been "plasticized". Meaning: this scientist came up with a way to inject cells with plastic that preserves bodies in a way that they can be set up into all kinds of positions. It was SO COOL. You aren't allowed to take photos inside of there - so I got these off the internet. If you aren't squeamish - I highly recommend going to this if it comes to your area.

D is a typical teenager and thought it was cool until his next text message came in. Lelu was much less squeamish than I expected. She liked the babies the best. They have embryos on up to 30 week fetuses. Mr. T thought it was the world's coolest thing to see. Ari was quite bothered by how dark it was in there, the sound of a beating heart, the peeled dead animals, and thought it was more like a haunted house than anything and couldn't wait to get out of there. Until she found a plastic model (no human tissue) of the our insides that was a puzzle and then she liked that. They were all very interested in seeing a skeleton that I could show them all of the bones Aub had broken. I said I wanted to go back by myself to spend more time looking and reading everything about it and Mr. T said "Please mom, get me out of school to go with you, I want to go again too." And no one has had any nighmares either!

TAGGED?? I know I just sent a dumb forward - but I'll play along

1. Where is your cell phone? Right next to me - My home phone sucks (long story)
.2. Your significant other? B-the entrepreneur who's unhappy about the economy. Don't vote for Obama - PLEASE!
Your hair? Needs to be colored every six weeks or policemen ask if I'm the twins grandma! It's also VERY THICK
4. Your mother? St. Clarissa
5. Your father? Musical Denis
6. Your favorite thing? My Ipod.
7. Your dream last night? Bizarre It had a lot of water in it.
8. Your favorite drink? Gin & tonic (I just put that in to see if you are reading;)
9. Your dream/goal? Dream: all 5 of my kids graduate college Goal: write & catch up on scrapbooking - digitally
10. The room you’re in? My office loft
11. Your hobby? I don't think I have any - I like to read - is that one?
12. Your fear? Plunging to my death from 30,000 feet. That one is my irrational one
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Right here, but much smaller & writing a sequel to my best selling novel.
14. What you’re not? Tall, skinny, bald OR A PET LOVER
15. Muffins? No thanks
16. Two of your wish list items? Back stage passes to Coldplay or a Mac.
17. Where you grew up? 404 E. Greenway Drive - mostly.
18. The last thing you did? Dropped D & Lelu off for their Narnia performance tonight
19. What are you wearing? Jeans & a short sleeved tealish shirt.
20. Favorite gadget? THE PED EGG! bye bye gross cracked heals!
21. Your pets? Are making me have anger dreams!
22. Your computer? Works most of the time.
23. Your mood? A little excited about entering a funny contest with D. (more later)
24. Missing someone? Aub, Michele & Dave, Taylor, Christian, Christina - my old ward
25. Your car? Is black, has four wheel drive & a very cool bumper sticker
26. Something you’re not wearing? shoes
27. Favorite stores? Target & Nordstrom depending on my mood.
28. Like someone? B, my kids, my family, my friends, Chris Martin.
29. Your favorite color? Periwinkle
30. When is the last time you laughed? An hour ago talking on the phone
31. Last time you cried? This morning after almost dying in a Boot Camp class at the gym. I'm competitive to a fault & when I'm carrying 20 more lbs then everyone else - it sucks!

I tag Becca, Jeni & Peggy on their facebooks - except I don't have one - so send it to me in an e-mail. K? Cause I am not getting a facebook - sorry Dave.

Morning Full Moon

.Our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. I had to make a rule that "if you can't lift it, you can't get it" or Mr. T would have been hauling a pumpkin big enough for Cinderella's carriage. This photo doesn't do it justice! But I had to drive D to school the other morning at 6:45 am and the moon looked so incredible sitting so big & low over the valley. I guess I'm never out at that time of the morning - but I had to take a photo.

First Taste of Winter

Summer is officially over. This is what we woke up to last Sunday morning. Brrrr.

Today it's pretty nice though - we're having a warming trend.

My Belated Birthday/Our Anniversary Trip

B & I went to Cancun last week - we were supposed to go back in July but when we decided to move, we postponed the trip. I'm really glad we did because July is their hot season and Holy H@*# is it HOT now. I'll just give you the highlights.......

This is called a cenote'. It's basically a sink hole in the earth that's filled with water and there are quite a few of them around Cancun. If you zoom in you can see B jumping in. I didn't venture in because (I realize this sounds dumb) I didn't want to ride back to our hotel in an airconditioned bus for 2 hours with wet hair - plus it is so humid it took about 12 hours for my hair to air dry.

Did I say it was HOT? When it wasn't raining. We had a crazy dog lady on our flight-she packed two rat dogs into a purse and decided to let them out on the plane, ignoring the flight attendants to put them away. Then when she put them away - the dogs fought so viciously it sounded more like wolverines than dogs. They were on our flight home too - but this guy we met warned the crew about her and she was pulled aside and given a talking to. But then she took them out in the bathroom after we landed & they commenced to fight again.

I realized I am a true claustrophobic - I went a little nuts on a submarine tour and started banging on the door to let me out on top! I guess I don't have a future in the Navy.

The ChiChi nitza (sp?) Mayan ruins were amazing and very cool to see just how brilliant their knowledge of Astronomy and nature was - but horrifying to hear about all of their beheadings and ripping their own hearts out to appease the gods. Most of the locals we met had never even heard of Salt Lake City or Utah.

Our hotel was very empty but we met another couple from St. Louis also there for her 40th birthday and her name was Kristen too. Funny huh? The husband looked just like Rick Moranis but bald with bad teeth. I mentioned that to B and then I could tell he was going to tell the guy. So (I thought) I stopped him. I mean, you can tell someone they look like David Beckham but not Rick Moranis. Who wants to hear that? But last night as I was telling Aub, B confessed that as soon as I was out of earshot - he asked the guy if "he shrunk the kids"? I can't take B anywhere - I'm glad I didn't know that there, I would have been so embarrassed.

I've never been called Mrs. Taylor so much in my life - everyone there is so polite and friendly. There were a lot of Europeans there too. They import their guacamole because it's too humid to grow avocados. I was looking forward to good guac.:(

I felt like it was a great relaxing reconnecting trip for us.:)

I like Cabo better. It has more of a west coast influence I guess.

Jeez - even just the highlights are a bit too long, huh? oh well.

Gratefully, the kids were well taken care of and entertained by Aunt Michelle T. and our neighbor from our old ward (her name is Sandy Taylor - no relation) . They played baseball, went on a hike and picnic, to the movies and made cupcakes in between meeting their nutty schedule. They didn't miss us a bit! Well, maybe a little...............