mme curie says it best

“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and, above all, confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.” 


-Marie Curie 
(my favorite female scientist, and yes, I've seen the xkcd cartoon, and she's still my favorite :P)


via

even Diet Coke can't keep me awake!

According to Aaron, I am a type 1 sleeper. This means I'm really bad at handling sleep depravation. Looking at my falling asleep three nights in a row at 7 PM (and waking up two hours later...ugh), falling asleep in a class of 8 students on Monday (awkward), and falling asleep in a seminar yesterday, I'm going to have to agree with his conclusion.

The sad thing is, I go to bed between midnight and 1 AM and wake up at 7:30 AM. Can someone explain to me how I used to run on two hours of sleep in undergrad but now can't function with less than seven?
It must be my old age.

He is risen!

Aaron posted this to his facebook today, and I thought I would steal it:

“We laugh, we cry, we work, we play, we love, we live. And then we die. …
And dead we would remain but for one Man and His mission, even Jesus of Nazareth. …
He it was who died on the cross to atone for our sins. He became the firstfruits of the Resurrection. Because He died, all shall live again.”

-President Thomas S. Monson


Where I would be without the knowledge of Christ's resurrection and life after death, I don't want to know. What a precious gift it is to know that truth!

in my place

here is a kind of blurry trendy photo worthy of a lifestyle blog!

Today was totally lifestyle blog worthy, missing only an adorable baby who followed me around and did everything with me. Also, I did not wear lipstick.

Instead, I: 

1. walked to Barnes and Noble on Rittenhouse Square and enjoyed listening to a mom read to her little girl while I fretted about what children's books to buy for a baby shower (have you ever read Tacky the Penguin? so great)

2. wore a chambray shirt and did my hair in a high bun

3. [graded gen chem assignments-not blog worthy]

4. bought two roasted pineapple macarons from Sugar Philly

5. jumped back into gardening by purchasing some basil plants! (Last summer I tried growing basil, but it got little black dots on it that I thought might be bugs so I sort of cut all the leaves off of it and then it died. Stems are not efficient at photosynthesis.)

I guess blog worthy actually just means shopping. Hmmm. 

Have a good weekend!

i think it's the backpack

via

I don't know why I think this is so funny, but I do.

(Stolen from Sara on Pinterest. Will I ever stop talking about that website? Who knows?)

angry girlfriend mistook our car for her cheating boyfriend's?

Well, today we got scared that the random guy who towed our car after it got the windows smashed and tire slashed and keyed yesterday was in fact stealing our car.

Living in Utah County sounds really nice right now. Or, at least anywhere we can afford to own a garage.

planning ahead

Today I decided that, like thousands of other people surely will be, me and Aaron should be Katniss and Peeta for Halloween. (or Effie and Cinna. Think I could get Aaron to wear gold eyeliner?) The question now is, which Katniss?!

Reaping Day Katniss?

In the Woods Katniss?

Soon to be on Fire Katniss?

Interview Katniss?

Arena Katniss?

I think I can safely rule out Interview and Soon to be on Fire Katniss since my Halloween costumes have been historically low maintenance. (Bones from "Bones" anyone? 5 years in a row being a witch followed by 3 years of pirate?) Reaping Katniss gives me an excuse to buy a new dress and Arena/In the Woods Katniss could both be thrown together with stuff I already have (minus a bow and arrow and a mockingjay pin). 

What a dilemma. Good thing I have until October to figure it out. 

Did you watch the movie? Aaron and I forked over $8 for a matinee (Can you believe that?! That's the price of a regular nighttime movie in Utah), and I definitely thought it was worth it. I tend to dislike books made into movies (Harry Potter), but I thought they did a great job following the book. 

Things that disappointed me:

Girl on Fire moment- I wanted more wow!

Jason Bourne style filming- headache

I didn't feel the horror of the idea of children being forced to kill children, but maybe I was just too used to the idea from reading the books a bunch of times?

Things that were spot on:

Rue, and what I'm assuming was her father freaking out and throwing things after her death-that was the part that had me near sobbing

Cinna's eyeliner

Caesar Flickerman

Seneca Crane's beard

Everything about Effie

Not CGI'ing tributes' eyes onto beasts at the end-I think it would've looked laughable instead of rightly horrifying

I want to go see it again! I feel like I missed a bunch of things the first time around or I was so annoyed with the jerky camera that I couldn't fully enjoy the movie. Next time I'll be mentally prepared and maybe take an ibuprofen before and then I can truly savor my Hunger Games cinematic experience.
What did you think? 

doppelganger

So my little brother is on a mission in France for our church, and here's a recent experience he emailed home:

"I had a pretty funny experience with some muslim kids this week. I was sitting at a tram stop and a huge group of them came up to us and started messing with us like normal and then one of them stopped and said "oh my gosh you're the guy from narnia! Edmond!" I was an instant celebrity. hahaha I told them that i was indeed edmond from chronicles of narnia and they believed me whole heartedly. I was signing autographs and they wanted pictures with me and everything. They now think that edmond from narnia is from Los angeles* and is a mormon missionary. hahaha. I think i found the secret to making muslim kids stop messing with us. Gotta love it."


But seriously.

Edmund.

Brother.

My youngest sister also looks a lot like Lucy from Narnia. What can I say? These Andrus faces are made for Hollywood.

*My brother is not from Los Angeles. Not sure how that came up?